The season finale of The Riches was the other night, and I'm guessing it means something that I didn't write anything about it until now. The second season was much darker than the first, with little comic relief. It was also truncated by the strike. Like a lot of FX shows, The Riches is quality, and like a lot of FX shows, it falls short of greatness (only The Shield has managed that). I didn't obsess about catching every episode the second it was on, sometimes waiting a couple of days. Each episode was strong, and I like the overall arc, but I don't think about it when it isn't on. Which leaves me little to say. I can't recommend it fully because I know people only have so much time to devote to television, and The Riches isn't good enough for people like that. But neither would I knock it ... it's a pretty good show, and Minnie Driver was even better this time around.
Meanwhile, speaking of dark seasons ... a few days ago, Tim Goodman asked folks on his Chron blog to discuss the relative merits of Lost and Battlestar Galactica. Here is what I wrote:
After I watch Lost, I think to myself "whoa!" and I check online to see what the latest theories are amongst the fanbase. By the time BSG comes on the next evening, I've forgotten about Lost until the next week, when I will watch with pleasure and get jazzed for another 24 hours or so.
After I watch BSG, I think to myself "Whoa!" Then I want to talk about what I've just seen with anyone else in the room. Then I go online and see what the fans are saying. Then I think some more about what I've seen. And I think about it, and read about it, and talk about it, every day until the next episode is shown.
Lost is terrific at what it does, perhaps better than BSG, but it's only interested in getting us to turn the page. That's a skill most people can't pull off, but ultimately, Lost is like a great parlor trick. BSG is erratic, and at times its aspirations outreach its results. But there have been few shows as ambitious as BSG, few shows with so many key themes. There is simply more to it than there is to Lost.
And Katee Sackhoff's gonna be a big star.
This season of Battlestar Galactica is unrelenting in its misery. At one point tonight, I looked at Robin and said "I'm not sure there has been an entertaining moment all season long." The series is rounding the final turn, and all of the implications of the past are coming home. Everyone seems to be fighting with everyone. Loyalties change. Half of the characters are crazy. One important plot thread takes place on a sewage processing ship, which is bad enough and metaphoric enough all by itself, but the ship is also the darkest, dingiest mess we've seen yet on the show, and since there aren't any ships that are bright and shiny, it's saying something to call this one worse than the others. Beloved characters are showing tendencies that are, at the least, harder to love.
I wish I could watch the next episode right now.
Oh yeah ... grade for The Riches, season finale and Season Two: B+.
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