Supernatural

Today's show is my first reviewed show which is still currently running. Supernatural is a wonderful science fiction tale of 2 brothers fighting the evils of the world. These evils of course are of a supernatural nature. The show first aired in 2005. It is currently on its 8th season and currently has 156 episodes. The most recent episode came out on November 14th, 2012 and was titled "A Little Slice of Kevin." This show has moderate language, some sexual content, some sexual humor, and a shit ton of violence and gore. While the show may not show a persons throat being ripped out, they love showing blood splatter. A lot of blood splatter. Sometimes they show blood splatter even when what occurred would not have actually yielded blood splattering. But I'll get into that in a bit.

Supernatural is a drama. The creators consider the show to be a modern western. The good guys ride into town, defeat the bad guys, kiss the damsel, and ride off into the sunset rarely ever seen again. Which is actually how most episodes are formatted. 2 brothers Sam and Dean Winchester are what are known as Hunters. Hunters fight and kill/vanquish anything that is attacking innocents(and sometimes not so innocent). The things they kill range to a large variety of things from Werewolves and Vampires(not sparkly ones, but blood thirsty murderous evil ones), to Demons and Ghosts, and even to Angels and gods. Not God God. No one knows where he is. But gods ranging from Pagan to Egyptian gods. The show incorporates many different cultural beliefs and creatures. They use Native American lore, Pagan Lore, Roman and Greek Lore, and in later seasons a whole lot of Christian Lore. The various evil entities even form different types of sects, covens, and political groups. The Demons have hierarchy, the Werewolves sometimes have packs, and the Vampires have families.

Sam and Dean have an interesting relationship. Their father raised them both to be Hunters. But Sam didn't want that life, and he never really did. The series starts with Sam off at college, and Dean searching for his father who has disappeared. Dean convinces Sam to help him on a hunt, but when its all over and Sam goes back to school his girlfriend is brutally murdered before his eyes in the exact way their mother died. With the feeling of nothing to return to, Sam decides to join Dean and travel the country hunting. The two of them travel back and forth in their trusty stead; the 67 Chevrolet Impala. Unfortunately the Impala has to be completely rebuilt a few times throughout the series. But the true emotional value isn't fully revealed until Season 5. In the trunk are a large variety of weapons, fake IDs and materials which are used for protection, summonings, and concealment.

The show twists and turns throughout the years. Each season generally having a theme or ending goal. For example, Season 2 deals mostly with demons, Season 4 is all about Lucifer and preventing him from being able to escape from Hell. Season 5 is mostly about conflict between brothers. Season 7 is all about Leviathan and their worldwide plans for mass destruction. Even though the season as a whole has these themes or ending goal, not every episode in the season actually has something to do with the end. You could consider these other episodes to be kind of like filler episodes. Or episodes in between all of the seasons main plot points. Essentially showing how the brothers spend their time when they are searching for new leads into how to prevent the catastrophic evil.

Comically the series introduces a Prophet of God whose job as Prophet is to write a new testament of sorts. This new testament that Chuck writes is the story of Sam and Dean Winchester. In other words Chuck writes a book which completely and accurately records the events and actions of Sam and Dean as they fight the forces of evil. Chuck writes these tales and then publishes them under the book series title of Supernatural. Essentially publishing a book for each episode of the series. Supernatural has a small number of fans, of which are all classically nerd obsessed people. Some of these fans even write fan fictions about the characters. Sam and Dean come across these books eventually and the fan fictions as well. Quite a few jokes are mentioned about these fan fictions and how most of them show Sam and Dean as gay lovers. All of this is in reference to real life fan fictions and real life fans of the show. Additionally through the fans a funny little note comes up that Sam and Dean should apparently should keep their weapons on a bungee, because in almost every episode in the show one or both of them get thrown into a tree, or a wall or something, and evidently drop or lose their weapon.

Spoiler Alert For The Whole Next Paragraph. Highlight to Read.

Everybody Dies. Seriously. Everyone in the show dies. Literally. I have told people this before who are just starting to watch the series and they of course laugh and think i am joking. But I am not. Everybody dies eventually(except Garth...at least not yet) Sam, Dean, their Dad all die and go to Hell. Luckily for Sam and Dean they both are brought back out of Hell. But they did die. They experienced Hell. You meet other Hunters. And all of them(except Garth) die. Some people are brought back, some remain on Earth as Ghosts, but most of them die horrible and often painful deaths. And sadly the fate for almost all Hunters is a trip to Hell after death. Why? Because every Hunter is a Murderer. Most of the creatures they kill were humans at some point. And Hunters eventually all become ruthless and "heartless." They protect innocents, but they kill to do it. While i do love this show, it does start to be a little bit ridiculous when a season ends with Dean going to Hell or Purgatory and a year later gets out. Though Purgatory is explained better than the Hell escape. But it always comes down to Sam and Dean being more important than everyone else.

Another aspect of the show that comes up quite a bit is Psychic powers which Sam gets, but then loses, but gets back. And all kinds of crazy stuff, but luckily that ends eventually. And just so you know the episodes that tend to be the most violent, the most bloody gory are the ones with Witches or Pagan Gods. The Witches curse people so that they die horrible, bloody deaths. In one episode a guy eats a whole bunch of candy. After ingesting it he feels a pain. So he puts his hand in his mouth and pulls out a razor blade. Unfortunately that's not all. The blade is attached to a line, he pulls and pulls eventually pulling out like 3-4 more blades which of course were being pulled out from his stomach and through his throat. Needless to say, he died. The Pagan God episodes are bloody because they all long for sacrifice and worship, need i say more.

I almost forgot to talk about the blood splatter. If you watch the entire series you should note that almost every episode, if not every episode(i currently can't think of a single one that didn't have a blood splatter at some point, but there still might be one) has blood splatter. Someone gets bludgeoned, blood splatter on the wall or floor nearby. A Vampire attacks a victim, blood splatter on the wall behind them. A car drops off a block and traps the mechanic underneath, blood splatter on the floor and wall. And the blood splatter that i will note as the most ridiculous and doesn't make sense for the scenario goes to Episode 16 in Season 7, "Out With The Old." A girl accidentally buys a pare of cursed ballet slippers which make you dance to death. She put them on and dances and dances. Finally at the music crescendo blood splatter all over the walls. Which you find out later that she danced till her feet broke off and she died. I cannot fathom a reason why blood would splatter in that manner on the wall unless she was flicking her stumps repeatedly in the direction of the wall. But i digress.

This show is fantastic. I love the suspense and character development. The fact that they essentially break the 4th wall with fan fiction and random time travel. And a creature known as a trickster doing whatever the fuck he wants to and being mostly invincible while he does it is fascinating. At one point the brothers break through a window only to land on the set the actors are filming on. This throws the brothers characters into our world, and that they are just actors. While it is a "Drama" it has a lot of comical episodes which range from Groundhog's Day Scenarios to being on the Hollywood sets and mentioning the TV Series Gilmore Girls of which has a shared actor. Sam plays the boyfriend on Gilmore Girls whose name funnily enough is Dean.

As I said, I love Supernatural, it is well written. Many episodes are like watching a horror movie, but it 45 minutes. But the show does bring up some ridiculous leaps and bounds, often times leaving gaping hole which you can't help but ask, Really? I give Supernatural a 9.5 out of 11. But as it is still ongoing, and has been planned to officially end after Season 10, we shall see how it fairs in its final moments.

Scrubs

Scrubs is the television show that i quote the most. I have seen every episode at least 4 times(except season 9). Some of the episodes i watched over 20 times like the 100th episode with a Wizard of Oz theme. The series had a total 9 seasons with 182 episodes, each being around 22 minutes long.

What a run of a show. It should be stated that Season 9 was its own series. Most of the characters left and those who stayed their role was changed. But I will get to Season 9 later. First this is a comedic medical show. You start the show as an Intern with John Dorian(J.D.) and his first day working at Sacred Heart Hospital. J.D. is our main character and most of the episodes we not only get to see his social interactions but also hear his various thoughts and witness some of the constantly ridiculous fantasies. These fantasies allow for random images of events that would never happen, like hundreds of Asian Ninja Surgeons fighting for a briefcase, testicle disco balls while pimps dance with some hoes, and the unforgettable ping-pong match between a Ninja and Sasquatch. The show additionally follows the lives of JD's best friend Christopher Turk(chocolate bear)(a lovable and extremely skilled black surgeon), JD's constantly on and off love affair Elliot Reed(white, very white. Oh and super neurotic), and Turk's eventual Dominican wife Nurse Carla Espinosa(a sassy latino who takes shit from no one). Oh and JD's unwilling mentor Dr. Perry Cox(an angry, fear inducing, syllable extending, and alcoholic man with all kinds of family problems and issues), Dr.
Bob Kelso(dean of medicine, old, and a bastard coated bastard with bastard filling). These characters are the ones we see the most of their home and social lives. However there are plenty other side characters with scenes and lovable moments. A vindictive and ingenious Janitor, a dopey and depressed failed Lawyer, an in-your-endo and sex crazed Surgeon, an ex-wife who tortures everyone due to boredom, and of course the sassy Jesus loving Nurse. To mention a few of course.

The show is all about the antics and interesting scenarios of JD's the first 8 years of JD's professional medical practitioner. Weddings and divorces, births and deaths, love and hatred, with a dash of drama within the midst of comedy. Most episodes are comical and happy all the way through but usually once or twice a season is a dramatic episode. Comedy is still in the episode, but the episode ends on a sad note. Usually this entails a major mistake or death, sometimes both. As you watch the series you get a sense for the characters, you see their external and internal selves. Some may be mean and angry most of the time, but occasionally there is the creamy and delicious center which is nice and caring. All of the characters are extremes in some way or another, whether they are too childish or too proud. Which by the way all 7 deadly sins can be seen in most episodes if you pay close attention to it.

Season 8 has a fantastic finale. This was originally going to be the full series finale, but they created another season afterwards. But the season 8 finale was great, characters returned for one last visit whether they were dead or just around for a little while and one character finale gets a name...maybe. This finale left me with a feeling of completion. JD leaves Sacred Heart Hospital, moving on with his life to somewhat unknown futures. The producers however decided to make another season. They completely changed the setting and character roles. Sacred Heart becomes a part of a Medical School. Turk is a professor in surgery, and Dr. Cox teaches general medical classes. JD is gone as well as almost everyone else. New characters are introduced and new relational struggles sprout up. Season 9 was okay. But it didn't have the energy and cleverness of the rest of the series. I felt they were trying too much to get the laugh, whereas the other seasons got the laugh with seemingly no effort. In the end i really didn't enjoy season 9 very much. I still watched them because i have so much respect and love for the series. But once was enough for me.

Because season 9 is so vastly different from seasons 1-8 i will rate them separately. Season 1-8 of Scrubs were fantastic, i was constantly laughing, or feeling for the characters through their struggles. I give the first 8 seasons a wonderful 11 out of 11.
Season 9 however gets a 6 out of 11. It wasn't the worst thing i have ever seen, but it was a complete let down after the other seasons.

The Vision of Escaflowne

This is another of my favorite Animes. This series came out in 1996 with 26 episodes. And in 2000 a movie was also released. Each episode is about 22 minutes, with the movie being about 1.5 hours. This is one of many Animes that involve Mechs, or large machines used to fight in a multitude of situations. But almost a constant is that Mechs need a human pilot to ride within to fight. The animation is also well done, shadowing and intensification makes it look amazing.

Escaflowne follows teenager Hitomi Kanzaki. She is your average schoolgirl, runs track, and does Tarot card readings for friends. But all her life her Tarot predictions have been a bit more accurate than most people. It goes through her teen angst and wanting her first kiss from Amano, a sexy older classmate. She makes a bet with him if she can run really fast then she gets that kiss. When suddenly big blue light and she runs into Van of Fanelia. Then a huge, fat, fire-breathing Dragon appears. Hitomi has a vision and thus saves Van's life. Van kills the dragon and takes its heart(energist). When suddenly both him and Hitomi are transported back to Van's world known as Gaea. And all of that is just in the first episode. You learn about Van and his background. Hitomi is constantly in teen angst about liking Amano(eventually she pretty much completely forgets about him), liking Van, and liking the Valiant Knight Allen. Catpeople, dog/wolf people, all kinds of odd animals, and odd customs surround her and overwhelm her for awhile. But she eventually adjusts. You learn that Escaflowne is an Ispano Guymelef(guymelef being the term used for mechs in the show). A very powerful and well built Guymelef that can turn into a flying dragon. Oh and if you pilot it too much you create a physical connection to it, meaning that when the Guymelef gets cut, so do you. If your Guymelef gets stabbed in the arm, you also get stabbed in the arm.

The show continues with 3 main antagonists. One is sad and doesn't actually agree with the Zaibach Empire but does their bidding. One is insane, his insanity increases exponentially as the series goes on. This just makes him less and less predictable and more and more dangerous. And the last one is the mastermind old guy who wants all of his dreams to come true. Which involves complete chaos and destruction. Allies are introduced, by the end you see that all the girls in the show are pretty angsty with liking multiple guys at the same time. Figuring out who to be with and so on. The guys are slightly oblivious to this/ignore it completely and let the girls pretty much instigate the moves. Big Guymelef fights, murder, visions, dreams, Tarot card themes, burning cities, pervert mole-man, and a Badass guy who can wield a sword at least twice as long as he is tall. He was awesome, taking on Guymelefs with a sword that a Guymelef would use. And he beats those he gets to. Oh and did i mention Atlantis? There is a lot of stuff to deal with that and what it really was and so on. Its pretty cool.

So the fight scenes are great, the teen angst gets to be a bit much at times. But the music and the battles are really good. Especially the music, it pretty perfectly gets you into the scenes. Making you ready for the destruction and pain that is going to occur. The show has some fascinating ideas and philosophies.

Some side information for you. The show did not do as well in Japan as the producers hoped. But worldwide, especially in the US the show did fantastically. Out selling many other Gundam shows at the time. As well as many other animes that were released at about the same time.

Like I said, this is one of my favorite anime shows. With the intense battle scenes and the connection you eventually feel for the characters make this a wonderful anime to watch. I give it a 10 out of 11. The teen angst is the only real downside of the show. But its ignorable at times.

Additional side info for you. The movie is also very well done. The animation is more intense. It is pretty obvious that a lot more time and effort went into its production. The movie however is not an extension of the show. It is separate. The real interesting thing about the movie is that it features almost all of the characters from the series, but in different roles. The movie also incorporates psychic abilities instead of Hitomi's visional type things. The movie is far more violent, and shows far more blood. It is fast paced and several scenes are stunning. The movie also incorporates a deity-like prophesy character being The Wing Goddess. I really enjoyed the movie, and i especially enjoyed seeing familiar characters in new and sometimes awesome roles. Many of the characters in the movie are far more Badass than they were in the series. The movie can be seen on its own and still be good. But i would recommend watching the series first.

Forbidden Science

So those of you who are reading this review blog may be thinking that i seem to like shows too much and may not be rating them unbiased. Well up till now I have only reviewed shows that i enjoyed. Now for this horrendous show.

First off Forbidden Science is a Softcore Porno that was meant to continue with multiple seasons. Luckily it was not allowed more after the first 13 episodes. Each episode is about 30 minutes long, and at least half of that in each episode is Softcore Porn. Softcore for those of you who don't know what that means is erotic porn that shows no penetration and rarely if at all shows penises or vaginas. Obviously there is high sexual content, so high in fact it becomes rather comical after a little while. The show is constantly throwing sex at you even from ridiculous set ups. The show has violence and language as well. Now i would like to point out that i have no problem with violence, language, or sexual content. But this show was over the top with some of it.

The show is about 4ever Science. Which is a company that creates cloned body parts, organs and even full clones of people. They are able to take a dead person and implant their memories into a perfect clone of themselves. Which is exactly what happened to one of the main characters. Her husband killed her on accident, then brought her back with a clone because she was going to make millions of dollars on the next scientific creation she was developing. Sex, then death, and murder later she starts a new life as the clone and starts working at the company that created her. Through the 13 episodes there are at least 2 terrorist/extremist/attacks on the 4ever Science building. Which both times the person was highly successful in their attack to a point. The show has androids, clones, crazy mind-erasing robot bugs, and oh did i mention the ridiculous amount of sex?

The acting for the show was horrible. The dialog and script, even worse. The sex while erotic, was not real looking if you paid attention to it. The character development was okay. Literally the only redeeming part of the series, and the only reason i stuck through to the end was the plot. The plot was pretty interesting and brought up a lot of issues that are currently in high debate, even though its all set in the not-so-distant future.

You may have been able to figure out just by reading the above, THIS SHOW WAS TERRIBLE. I would not recommend this show to anyone. A 0 is the lowest score i could give it. But the plot and how interesting i found it to be does give it a bit more than that. So in the end, Forbidden Science gets a 1 out of 11. Yes, a 1.

I just want to tell you again, it was bad. And only comically bad if you find shows that don't try to be bad or funny to be comical. One more time, just to make sure I have gotten my point across. I feel as though by watching this show all the way through that i was placed on "The Machine" in the Pit of Despair, and i just had around 13 years of my life sucked away. One year for each episode.

Seinfeld

This show has a lot of stuff. A lot. But to start off the series ran from 1989-1998. It had a total of 9 seasons with 180 episodes. Each episode is about 22 minutes long. This is a comedy show with mild language, low nudity, and lots of sexual humor. No violence either, just comical injustices and unfortunate situations.

The show revolves around comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his 3 closest friends. Elaine Benes, his old girlfriend, but they still remained friends even after the breakup. His good friend George Costanza, a shorter balding man who acts and talks as the Forever Alone Meme. And of course his next door neighbor and almost always ridiculously funny Cosmo Kramer. This group of 4 travel through the series experiencing love, loss, misfortunes, destroyed Frogger Machines, fiance's death, cold-water shrunken body parts, bets and wagers, neon chickens, insane parents, restaurant visits, bad comedians, creation then failure then recreation of a nothing sitcom show, Fantastic Soup and its strict Nazi-like creator, Low IQ's, shower heads used only for elephants, hot tubs, odd magazine owners, oblivious and over-talkative baseball team owners, Art Vandelay and his immense accomplishments, horrid dancing, coffee table books that can be a coffee table itself, man bras, sponge shortages, puffy shirts, and of course Newman. This cast of kooky characters with the side cast of reoccurring characters, who are often even more kooky then the main cast, create an amusing environment about usually nothing.

Many episodes are completely about nothing, like waiting for a movie, waiting for a table at a Chinese restaurant, and many other random and seemingly mundane activities. Most episodes start with some sort of event that occurs to one of the 4. But usually by the end of the episode the event has affected all the others in one way or another. For the first 6 seasons or so each episode is separate. In one episode Jerry will have a girlfriend, and by the end of the episode he will still be with her, but the next episode he is single again without any mention of the previous girl. Various inside jokes occur through the entire run of the show, little mentions to previous events without reexplaining what had happened before. This adds an air of connection with the characters for those who watch from beginning to end. The separate episodes pretty much end by season 7. There still are a few, but for the most part each episode is connected a bit to the previous one. This creates the necessity of watching each episode in order. While you still could skip around a bit, the plots and jokes in the next episode will make a lot more sense.

Another rather funny thing about the show is George Castanza's constant talk of never having a date or a girlfriend. But during the entire run of the show George ends up having a total 62 girlfriends. Which the national average for men is to have around 4-7 girlfriends, in their entire lifetime. This contradiction is quite humorous throughout the series if you notice it. However it still can be said that George never has a successful relationship with any of those women. He almost got married, but then he accidentally killed her because he is so cheap.

It should also be said that the show received many awards over the years. Including on multiple different occasions episodes that were rated within the top 100 television episodes of all time. Even receiving #1 for "The Contest." An episode completely about all 4 characters and their struggle to last the longest without masturbating. Which is one of my 2 favorite episodes within he entire run. The other being "The Frogger" which came out in the final season. This episode involves George Castanza and his attempt to keep his arcade game score on Frogger*, which if unplugged will erase the scores. In the end it actually has him and a few other people moving the machine itself across the street, which as shot from above is them playing a real life Frogger game.

*Interesting side note, the score claimed by the show was a fictionally high number of 860,630 which was thought to be unattainable. Until December 2009, George's fictional score was finally beaten in real life by Pat Laffaya with a score of 896,980. This was over 10 years after the episodes claim.

Finally we come to the series finale. What the Fuck. The series finale is the most ridiculous two episodes from the entire series. Completely comes from out of nowhere. But it is pretty entertaining because all kinds of characters from all 9 seasons return to tell their sides of the 4's wrongdoings and idiocy. Recognizing each of these random characters, some of which were only in one episode, and remembering what occurred back then is quite funny. In the end it was a very clever way of wrapping up the whole series, even if its plot was completely random. I would give the Finale an 8 out of 11 because it completely takes you by surprise, but is still clever.

I found the show to be enjoyable, while at times the humor was dry. In the end though i have to say the show was cleverly done and quite humorous throughout its entire run. I give Seinfeld an 8.5 out of 11.

Monk

This show had a pretty long run with 8 Seasons and 125 Episodes.With each episode being about 44 minutes long. And it was a ride. If you watch the entire series then the finale episodes mean a lot more. It can even make it a little painful to watch.The show has mild language, some violence, little sexual content.

Alright, basic rundown of the show. Adrian Monk is a highly observant extremely intelligent man. Unfortunately Monk is also a person who has 312 phobias including milk, driving, harmonicas and just about everything else. He suffers from a rather intense case of Obsessive Compulsion Disorder. And his compulsions are just as ridiculous at times as his phobias. Even with these problems Monk still manages to be a consultant for the San Francisco Police Department. Few people can understand and deal with Monk, but everyone is Awed by his amazing detective work. Generally each episode is based on a homicide in which Monk joins the investigation to solve and find the murderer. However the entire series is Monk attempting to solve the one and only case he failed to solve; the murder of his wife Trudy. Monk is constantly in need of an assistant/caretaker. For the first 3 seasons this role is filled by Sharona Fleming who is a strict and often fierce person. She leaves the show at the end of season 3 and in season 4 a new woman gets somewhat thrust into the job, Natalie Teeger.

All the mysteries are solved, including who killed Trudy. That is the finale though and i highly recommend you watch the whole series before the end. The entire show is watching Monk cope and live without Trudy. We learn of many things such as Monk sealed Trudy's pillow in plastic so that it would keep her scent on it. Which by the way we also learn of Adrian's childhood, of which we see that he has always had these compulsions and phobias. But when he was with Trudy he was normal. Trudy was killed by a car bomb close to Christmas time. Because of this Monk kept one of the presents under the tree from Trudy and never opened it. Finally however for the series finale we learn what that last loving present contained.

This show was a very enjoyable one, but unfortunately the show became fairly predictable after awhile. If you observed the show enough you could figure out who the killer was within the first 15 minutes. But the interesting part is usually how they did it. Or why, or and this is usually my favorite way, how the killer faked the alibi. Each episode is its own adventure into a violent society with a lovable Detective. Most of the time you can't help but feel sorry for him.

I was extremely satisfied with the series finale. The finale itself i give a 10.5 out of 11.
For the show as a whole i would give it a 9.5 out of 11. I do this because at times the predictability of the show made some episodes boring. But it was still a great show to watch.

Trinity Blood

Normally I will be trying to mix up the genre and type of show with each review. However I feel as though I need to talk about this other wonderfully done anime, because to me it seemed extremely similar to Trigun. While there are some similarities in the two series, I would still like to point out that they are different stories and are both quite a ride. That being said lets review it.

Trinity Blood came out in 2005. There is significant backstory and further history on the world involved. All of which is quite interesting, but unnecessary to enjoy and understand the show. With a total of 24 episodes each being about 22 minutes long this show is captivating. There is a lot of violence and blood. Language is moderate.

Trinity blood takes place on Earth, but it is 900 years after an apocalyptic war. This war was fought by the humans and the Vampires. The war destroyed much of the planet. Our story revolves around a bumbling, seemingly idiotic, accident prone Abel Nightroad. Which as we learn very early on is what is known as a Crusnik, or a Vampire who feeds off other Vampires. Later we learn that the Crusniks are partly nanotech involved. Abel works for the Vatican, which is one of 3 main power states. The Vatican generally wants peace, but to achieve that they are willing to lay down the iron fist so to speak. The Methuselahs are the proper term for the Vampires, who are the second power state. The final power being Albion which is a human state with unknown to its people supported by underground enslaved Vampires. The Vaticans main goal is protecting the human race. In current times however there is a Cold War like situation occurring. Various terrorist attacks are subdued on both sides without their governments taking responsibility lest the war break out completely. The first half of the series is about getting to know Abel, who by the way did I mention took a vow of poverty and thus is constantly hungry. But at around the halfway point we really start learning about his past and why he is working with the Vatican.

While I loved this series, and found it extremely enjoyable I feel that it didn't fully live up to the standard set by Trigun. The bumbling hunger-craved hero is always entertaining, but with Vash in Trigun it came off more sincere for many moments. Whereas Abel is just constantly a coin being flipped, serious more than you would expect. But in the end I still found the show wonderful and am willing to rate it at a solid 9 out of 11.

Trigun

This is by far one of my favorite Anime's that I have seen thus far. It came out in 1998 and the entire series only had 26 episodes. All of which are about 24 minutes long.

Trigun is about "Vash The Stampede". A yellow-haired red coat wearing infamous outlaw. Who as you find out during the first episode and every one after that, that Vash is just a lovable accident prone idiot who seems to be always hungry. Or so he likes people to believe. He is rarely serious, but when he is you can see why he is called the Stampede. When the lives of innocent people are threatened or at risk is when Vash acts. He tries not to kill, anyone, ever. And by refusing to kill people often the main result is a shit-ton of property damage. Joining Vash in the show is Meryl Stryfe, who is obviously in loving denial for Vash, and Milly Thompson. Milly is a large and strong woman who at heart is a child. She hates to see people suffer and in pain. Meryl and Milly are insurance representatives who are appointed to follow Vash, because any damage to property committed by Vash will not be paid for by the insurance company as he is known for the complete destruction of multiple towns. This show contains a lot of violence and blood. But you cant help but fall in love with the various characters. Especially when you see just how much Vash struggles to help everyone he can, usually at the suffering and pain of himself.

The show is western-style with outlaws and gunfights for the first half. Then everything turns Science Fiction. Aliens, special powered people, Vash's true identity and origin, a spaceship, and a whole lot of robots and other murderous characters who were only hired for the purpose of hurting Vash emotionally. It gets weird for a bit of it but eventually it all makes sense and you grow to love Vash that much more.

All in all I thought this was a phenomenal show that went rather unappreciated by many viewers. This show has to get nothing less than a 10.5 out of 11. A true must watch. Especially because it is not a long series.

The West Wing

The West Wing. This is a clever political centered show that was first introduced in 1999. The show had a total of 7 Seasons with a total of 156 episodes. Each episode is about 42 minutes long. The show centers around the Democratic Presidency of Josiah Bartlet who is played by the amazing Martin Sheen. Who unfortunately is the father of well known drug-crazed and most likely schizophrenic Charlie Sheen. Most of the screen time is of the Oval Office and the West Wing of the White House. This area is used for political meetings, speech writing, press conferences and a whole lot of yelling. The real main character I would say is the Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman played by Bradley Whitford. Most episodes involve a problem in which generally only he can "fix". Which almost always ends up with him yelling "Donna!" and sending her off to do the actual work. The show was originally created by Aaron Sorkin. Who is currently working on another politically based show call Newsroom. Which by the way is also very clever and extremely funny at times.

The show has mild language, very little violence, no gore that i can remember, a fantastic group of actors and dialog, all kinds of political views which may not be understood by a younger individual. Very little to no nudity.

The show has a pretty standard format for the first 4 seasons. Problem, failed attempt to fix it, moral/ethical dilemma, and often ends in some sort of solution and then a speech or a press conference to tell the media how awesome they did. The show has the occasional 2-part episodes and often leaves the end of seasons with cliffhangers. The show often deals with intense and often emotional moments which tend to center around yelling and stress. It also discusses various viewpoints on some major world-wide concerns such as nuclear powers, oil distribution and control, weaponized diseases, genocide, and even at one point what would happen if the entire US Government stopped. 

The show started to change in Season 5 and on through Season 7. Characters left the White House and new characters joined, a multitude of actors came and went as time rolled on. The show started showing less of President Bartlet, as well as less of some of our favorite characters. There were full episodes where we never saw some of them. By the time Season 6 came around the show changed completely. Josh Lyman left the White House and started into the Presidential Campaign trail again. He found the next president as he would say. This created a lot of strain between characters, many of whom felt betrayed and forgotten. Pretty much all of Season 6 is about trying to get Santos to head the democratic party in the upcoming election. Meanwhile Bartlet is trying to find and create his "legacy". Then we come to season 7. The least viewed season of the entire series. Now that Santos won the Democratic Ballet, he now had the road to beating the Republican Candidate Vinick who is played by the extremely talented Alan Alda. Who as i am sure you know is best known for his bravery and skill in his surgical work in the Korean War. This season to tell the truth was pretty bad. All except one absolutely amazing episode The Debate. This episode was of a true and realistic debate between Santos and Vinick. Except the debate is how debates in the real world should be. No time limits, and more specifically no fillabustering to get out of answering a question. With both sides being able to actually talk and truly debate the issues. This episode was not only spectacular in the acting and the believably of the actors, but also in the fact that the episode WAS FILMED LIVE. These two actors Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits were performing this legendary hour long episode on live television in 2005. Its one thing for an actor to be passionate and believable in a show, but to carry that character flawlessly live is stunning. This singular episode became my instant favorite. If i was to rate just this episode, my scale would break. Additionally during the production of season 7 one of the actors John Spencer unfortunately died. And as a tribute to him and his amazing work they created a special episode which still worked with the story line of most of his final filmed moments and scenes. Many of which were going to be spread over quite a few other episodes.

All in all this was an enjoyable show with many hmmm moments. Definitely a show that makes you think and is still quite applicable to today's government. While the show did start to go downhill in the later seasons it still stayed pretty true to its standards and commitment. All in all i would have to rate the entire series of The West Wing as an 8 out of 11.

LOST

I figured I would start with a review of a show that touched a lot of hearts, and fucked a lot of brains. This show lasted 6 seasons with a total of 121 episodes. In case you are unfamiliar with the show...

The show is about the survivors of Ocean Flight 815. Mystery as to how the plane crashed and what to do to survive is a constant. 48 survivors. The island they are trapped on is at first thought to be uninhabited but as time passes they discover all kinds of crazy shit. For instance the "Hatch" in which lives a man known as Desmond who has to push a button every 108 minutes or a catastrophic event will occur. (World will end?) Or the multitude of "deserted" research stations upon the island. And of course "The Numbers!" 4 8 15 16 23 42. And "the others" or other people on the island. The show reveals bits of the main characters pasts piece by piece with the use of Flashbacks. But then in season 4 we see all kinds of Flashforwards to the main characters having gotten off the island. The show had mild nudity, mild language, drug use, and mostly medium gore. The acting is pretty good for the entire series. There were a few times that i was less than impressed but also times when i was incredibly impressed by the acting. Special effects i would rate as mostly good. Sound effects and music i cant help but say were fantastic. They kept you engaged, and i never found them to be distracting. Each episode is about 42 minutes.

First off I absolutely loved the entire series(except the fucking spider episode. Season 3, episode 14 Expose) Every episode left you with more questions than answers. It kept the millions of viewers guessing, and almost every time being incorrect. And yet even as my question list increased so did my love of the show. The multitude of mysteries like coincidence and fate, or the constant battle there seemed to be of faith vs. science. Friendships are formed, love triangles and squares and a whole bunch of other shapes with multiple sides occur. Enemies become allies, and allies become enemies. Hallucinations, visions, and hearing voices all happen just to add another WTF aspect to the show. Some characters die heroically while some die comically but in extremely gruesome ways. For me and quite a few others the worst death was of Charlie Pace. A beloved drug-addicted musically sensational hobbit. But the best part of the show for me was the numbers that i previously mentioned. 4 8 15 16 23 42. Seemingly random numbers but seeing as they end with the answer to life the universe and everything they could mean more. These numbers come up pretty constantly. Seen on the hatch, a crazy persons obsession, lottery number, and the list goes on. But the part that is personally the most fascinating is the value these numbers take with certain people. Most of the characters kind of just ignore them. But for lovable and curiously always fat Hugo "Hurley" Reyes. These numbers follow him, they are a curse in disguise as a gift.

The series finale was to say the least, interesting. It was the kind of thing where viewers either loved it or hated it. There was not much in between. I personally enjoyed it quite a bit. It had the feeling being the end without the what was the point of that. The creators knew how they were going to start and end the show from the very beginning. Everything in the middle was moment by moment. Of course my personal belief is all they knew was that they wanted to start with An eye opening and end with an eye closing. But that is just my correctly humble opinion. But the end is extremely different from how the rest of the show operated. But it worked, they had action, mind-fucks, and endless possibilities. Of course now that i write that sentence i realize that was exactly what pretty much every episode was...Anyways everybody dies. Kinda. A bit. maybe. Well its one of those points in the show that is up to interpretation. As i watched the show i had one huge fear that the entire show would end with one of the characters waking up and the entire show having just been a dream. Luckily that is not what happened.

In the end i find that J.J. Abrams satisfied my television addiction quite well. I would have to give this show a 10 out of 11. (i just like the number 11, and seeing as this is all my opinion i can set the high point to whatever i want).

Overview

To put it simply, I am a Television Addict. I watch a lot of TV. When it comes to me watching a new show I have a few criteria.
1) I must watch at least the first 2 episodes. If it hasn't caught my attention by then, well then its history. Often times with a bad show i will get slightly interested and continue a few more after the 2. Just to see if it gets any better.
2) During those 2 episodes I am not allowed to do anything but watch. This comes from me being fidgety at times. So I will either play a game along side watching, or something that occupies my hands like clothing maintenance or eating.
3) Along side with the show I have to do at least preliminary research into the actors involved. Usually this just means that I look up their IMDB file. This is usually to see if i know them from something else, or to find more shows to watch if I have been captivated by the actor.
After that I am pretty open to the show. I am a fan of every genre that I have seen. Ranging anywhere from Anime to Soap-Operas to Sci-Fi to Criminal Investigation. Just to name a few.

So in the end if I am going to review a show on here then I will have watched the entire show. Every episode. If the show is still ongoing then I will mention the most recent episode that has aired before the post. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this.