A few television reviews...

I spent quite some time thinking through the last third of A Violet March.  Each character's wants and desires were put on paper, analyzed, and accounted for.  I painstakingly wrote down each scene, then made changes and transferred to another page, then finally laid everything out onto index cards (multi-colored to identify types of events).

So why, after all of that, do my characters refuse to stay on track?  Annoying.

Anyway, that's not why I'm writing tonight.  I wanted to talk about NCIS and the most recent episode.  First - I love the show.  Second - I watch nearly every episode as fast as I can get to it.  It's the only show I will watch with commercials (besides the Super Bowl...and pretty much any other live sporting event, because who wants to watch that stuff after it happened?).  But, while I enjoyed learning more about Ziva, this last episode was frustrating.  I wanted to see the badass bombing Ziva and Tony pulled off to rescue the Navy chick.  But what did we get?  Ziva said "bomb" and then whoop the woman is rescued and they're on their way to an airstrip.  WHATEVER...

Next, let's discuss Hawaii 5-O.  First - I like the concept, the colors, the scenery and the main actors.  Second - It has an awesome theme song.  But, to be honest, I can't watch it.  I fast forward through most of the show.  The mystery and the cases aren't enough to keep me interested and their procedural intent is lacking.  In Monday's episode the missing shrimp truck was more engaging than the serial killer back story.  If asked, I would suggest that they focus on mysteries surrounding their main characters, introduce an obvious love interest (maybe a competing team of detectives?), and stop interrogating innocent men in leaky, badly lit, concrete bunkers.

And finally, General Hospital.  No interesting love stories, no compelling original mysteries and I am not invested.  I just watched three episodes in fifteen minutes, fast forwarding through them all and not stopping once.  I could recite what they were saying in my head.  "Oh, my, the baby.  It's not yours...it might not even be mine..."  "It wasn't me that left the gun in the obvious spot..."  "My life is ruined, but if I muss my hair and whip out some red lipstick, it will all be better..."  "She's a psychopath from a mental hospital and she's tormenting us..."  What they need is a good detective team of battling prospective lovers, each hiding something from the other, but bickering humorously.  Get rid of the maudlin and/or scheming women...please.

Better shows right now include Fringe - which is hard to look away from.  The guy that plays Lincoln is AWESOME.  The sets are beautifully colored, the dialogue is serious when it needs to be, but surprisingly humorous at times, and the characters are fighting against evil - within and without, which I find compelling.

Okay - back to March.  "Violet, you must listen to me.  Stay away from three day old broccoli."