Aliens, Confederates and Zombies...oh my.

So technically yesterday was my day off, but I ended up being busy with gaming. Got a new PS3 so I spent roughly half an hour playing Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Then I ended up playing State of Decay and Rome II: Total War.

I also have been watching the sitcom Fraiser. It's a sort of funny show. I've seen funnier, but I don't mind it all that much. Now, with that being said...the only reason I decided to watch it was because all my TV shows are currently in the summer break between seasons.

Here's my list of TV shows I'm watching. And looking forward to the next season.

Falling Skies

Pretty girls and weird alien stuff. Sounds like my love life.

Falling Skies is about a post-invasion Earth. Earth has been invaded and very quickly the military and major population centers were destroyed. As the alien invaders tighten their search patterns, killing the adults and stealing the children and subjugating them into a slave force, history professor Tom Mason and grisly Army veteran Colonel Daniel Weaver led a small band of resistance fighters and fugitives as they try to stay one step ahead of the enemy.

It's been a pretty intense show, with interesting human relationships. Such as, how far will you go for your family and friends. The plot has also had nice plot twists. Season 2's cliff-hanger was especially poignant and the third season was riddled with intriguing plotlines that would make other plot heavy stories green with envy.

I do have a few gripes with it. In the 1st Season, it is stated that the easiest way to defeat the enemy's personal armored drones is to use bullets made from their own armor. But after their first battle, they abandon the idea, never speaking of it again. There are other small plot devices that are lost, which make no sense. Also there is much to gripe about when it comes to the CGI. It didn't even start becoming really good until third season. Much of the time prior to that, it was almost B5 in appearance.

Also, I don't understand why it is taking them a year to get to the next season. It ended early last summer, and it's not being released until the 26th of this month. Aggravating to say the least.

The Walking Dead

BRAIIINS!

The Walking Dead is perhaps the ultimate show at the moment. Sheriff Rick Grimes is hit by fire during a roadblock, goes into a coma and awakes months later, to find the world is gone, replaced by zombie hordes as the dominant force on the planet. He joins up with a small group of survivors and must fight both the dead and the living as they struggle to survive.

Part of what drives the show is the unique human story. A character driven show, it is also perhaps the most realistic show when it comes to survivability. No one is safe, and main characters we expected to live for a long while end up being among the first to fall. By now, out of the original group of survivors, there is perhaps four. Four out of a dozen. At the rate they lose main characters, the show will probably end by default in season 6.

Never a horror fan, the show's true suspense comes from the expected. The zombies don't jump out to grab you. But you are scared that something will happen. Some of the greatest villains of literature were the ones that never appeared, because you ended up having such a dramatic image of them.

My main problem with the show is just how short the seasons are. Their height right now is sixteen. This leads to mid-season breaks, which while I can understand, I really hate. Another thing I dislike is how no one calls them "zombies". They are walkers, biters, skin eaters. But never zombies. Last time I checked, the word "zombie" wasn't copyrighted.

Hell on Wheels

Post-Civil War Rebel Syndrome

Hell on Wheels is a western set right after America's Civil War. Cullen Bohanon is a Confederate veteran who is on a path of revenge, killing the murderers and rapers of his dead wife and son. And to do that, he is forced to go west to work on the Union Pacific Railroad, where the last of the killers is hiding.

The main thing I like about the show is how involved we become with the characters. You really begin to feel for them, and unlike some of the sunnier Westerners, isn't afraid to show us the political correctness of the time. The disregard shown the recently freed negro race. The utter contempt between white and indian. It's a show meant to be watched with your Book of Political Correctness checked at the door. And it's because of that fact, that these are shown as real people and not as some sequin lapdogs that is compelling.

But that's where it ends. There is little research done on the subject of a post-Civil War west. Cullen Bohanon is shown as man with no moral scruples. As a Southerner and a gentlemen (which he is portrayed is being, even if not of the aristocracy) he evolves from a simply farmer for revenge to being a man with wealthy Railroad connections. He keeps on becoming something larger and larger, while everyone else seems to regress.

The show also seemed to have lost it's steam during Season 3, having jumped the tracks. The Mormon Antagonist story-line was made simply because they couldn't think of anything else. It really feels that way. The season 3 ending was more of a meh than the bell-ringer they tried to make.

If anything, I'm watching it for hopes season 4 gets back on track.

Arrow

Basically the Green Arrow without the name Green.

Last but not least Arrow. Oliver Queen, after being on an island for 5 years returns to his city. But this time, instead of just being a playboy, he's turned into a vigilante, out to save his city from the corrupt rich and the vile every day villain.

Perhaps what is best of this show is how most the cast have a natural chemistry with each other. Many shows it's obvious that everything is acted out and the cast don't mesh well. But that's not the case with Arrow. It also premiers my current favorite actress, the recently uncovered Emily Brett Rickard. She's a wonderful actress, and is a real delight to see as she has improved her acting, this being her first major role.

For the most part, the action is well paced and we won't lament for lost story opportunities, because they try to get as many possibilities and run with them.

My main beef with the show is how disorganized season 2 was. Between weird scheduling of episodes (even after the Olympics we might see two episodes per month) and a storyline that seemed all over the place, in many places it seemed to be a messy affair. But, I really hope that the conclusion of the Deathstroke storyline will return things to a normal pace and get the show back in the groove that made it such a force season 1.

There you have it. My watch list. The last two did really have rough times, but I am hoping the next seasons of them will change things around. There are very few shows I get interested in that are newer. Many of which are all about blood and mayhem, plot and storytelling wise (I'm looking at you Revolution). But when you can find a good show, it's a nice thing to kick back and watch.

Thank Goodness for the Days Off.