Nice thing about insomnia is that I get to catch up on my shows. Since Saturday night I’ve caught up on Sopranos Season 1 and the US version of the BBC’s Office.
The Sopranos season one is good but doesn’t really jump out at me as an incredible hour of television. Though my qualifier is that I had heard so much praise for this show that i came in with really high expectations. And especially since HBO has produced gems such as Deadwood and Rome to name a few. With all that riding on this show, I just wasn’t wowed with Tony, Carmela, Dr. Melfi, Christopher, Uncle Jun or even Livia. That being said, the whole Livia thing was pretty incredible and I do want to see what happens with the characters.
In short, it’s a good show so far and it’s certainly better than what we see on regular network television, but the characters didn’t really engage me, the storylines seemed repetitive at times, and sometimes just…the whole thing seemed rather “eh”. And even when the show did come together…something always felt missing. I wanted to know more about Livia and Junior, Tony and Carmela, Christopher and really hot girl, Paulie, and the other characters. I felt like these people are all maybe acquaintances and that bothers me. I understand we’re supposed to feel sympathy with Tony…but why? He’s cool and seems like a—relatively—good guy…but again, why do we care? More importantly, why should we?
As for the Office, I was totally blown away. The first season seemed like a cheap knock-off of the British version, but the second season was comedic gold. Steve Carell’s Michael is pitifully familiar, Scott is the everyman that every man dreams of being, Dwight is every crazy weird person you’ve ever met in the office environment rolled up into one and it works. Perfectly. I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard in a really long time.
I’m extremely impressed and I’m very much looking forward to season 3. This fall?
Another surprisingly good show is CBS’s How I Met Your Mother. The show, while bordering on too cheesy, is really funny and insightful. One quickly grows to like all of the characters…even the annoying Ted. Some of the characters I love the most are the Joss Whedon actors Willow, Fred and Wesely. The one character that, hands down, shines is Neil Patrick Harris. This guy, as Barney Stinson, is hilarious. He’s insensitive, blunt, and somehow hilarious and deeply insightful.
So there you go, readers…if you’re stuck with insomnia, have access to torrents a torrent client or the iTunes Music Store or some other method and start watching these shows until 5am.