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.