For my final passion blog, I picked a show that has been one of the most commonly watched shows in my house for the past couple of years, even though I haven’t kept up with every single episode.  This show is called White Collar, and is yet another crime scene show with an interesting twist.  White Collar follows the FBI through the many cases they solve to keep the country safe.  Like many TV shows, this one has some really well developed characters that a lot of people can relate to, which I think makes the TV show more popular.  The main character, Agent Burke, is one of the senior FBI agents.  He has a whole team of associates who help him solve his crimes both in the field and back at the office.  And his very admirable wife plays a large role in the show and occasionally in the cases.

One of his most unexpected helpers is a man named Neal Caffrey, and ex-conartist.  Neal was chased for a long time by the FBI for stealing art and making counterfeit copies of famous art.  Eventually, they decided to take Neal on to give them a different perspective on their cases.  Neal has a specified amount of time that he needs to work for Agent Burke before he is let go, at which point they will remove his ankle bracelet tracking everywhere he goes.  Agent Burke also has to approve of Neal being set free, otherwise he must return to prison.

Throughout the majority of the show, Neal truly makes an effort to change into a better person, but a whole string of events leads him to start making some sketchy choices that Burke is not ok with.  It’s quite interesting to watch how sneaking and smart Neal is when he is both working to help the FBI but secretly working on one of his scandalous projects at the same time.  I definitely think this show goes way beyond what is possible in the real world.  But it’s entertaining nonetheless.  And on the bright side, this one isn’t scary or bloody, so it’s pretty much good for everyone! There are four seasons on Netflix, and like all of the other shows I reviewed, I would definitely suggest this one!

Now, since it’s the last blog of the semester, I must reveal what the chosen favorite is!  It was pretty close, and we had a lot of indecision.  The two favorites are Leverage and New Girl, and I have to say that the overall favorite is…. NEW GIRL!!!  I think we chose this show because it’s very light hearted and super funny.  It’s definitely a nice change of pace from all of the crime shows that we watch at my house!

Well, we’ve finally come to the end of our second semester of blogging! Great job everyone, and I hope you have a fantastic rest of the semester!

Another one of the shows my family always watched together is called Flashpoint.  This series is about a group of SWAT team agents who is the top SWAT team in their area.  They all work incredibly well together, and they are great at their job.  In each episode, the team is faced with an intense situation that they must try to calm down.  Often times their calls are for a hostage situation or something similar, so the leader of the team finds himself trying to talk down the criminal while the rest of the team works to find out information on the criminal that their leader can use while  he’s speaking. You would be surprised how many challenges the team has to overcome, and it makes me wonder if things like this really do occur in real life or if they’re just dramatized for television.  Many times, the situation turns out all right, and they can return to their head quarters and go home for the night.  However, sometimes the plan goes array and someone gets hurt.  More often than not it’s the criminal they’re trying to stop.

In addition to all of these life threatening missions the team has to go on, they also face some pretty hard situations in their lives throughout the series.  At one point, they’re threatened to be stripped of their status as the top SWAT team.  Other times, there are a lot of personal issues that each individual character has to deal with.  Each character has their own strengths that they can bring to the table and their own personalities which makes the show fun to watch.  They act like a big family because, after all, that’s how close you have to be when you’re putting your life in the hands of other people.  Unfortunately, the show was cancelled in 2012, but there are still six seasons awaiting to be watched on Netflix!

I’ve never really been a fan of anything scary.  I don’t like scary movies, scary books, scary TV shows, or anything like that.  Once, in fifth grade, I even stopped reading a book because I was freaking me out, and I always finish books, even if I don’t like them! That being said, the Netflix show for this week is a little creepy.  But if I can watch it, then it’s can’t be all that bad!

The show is called The Following, and, once again, it’s another crime fighting TV show ( I hope you guys like those!).  Anyway, this one is particularly gruesome.  The main character, Ryan Hardy (played by Kevin Bacon), is an ex-FBI agent whose career ended after a multi-year hunt of a former English professor gone serial killer.  When Hardy finally catches up to Joe Carroll after he just stabbed another helpless victim, Carroll proceeds to stab him too, causing sever damage to Hardy’s heart, so he is forced to retire from the FBI.  Hardy was also able to save the girl that Carroll had almost killed.

Years later, Carroll escapes from jail, which amazes the FBI.  They call Hardy back as a consultant to try to recapture Carroll.  Luckily, Carroll is back in custody by the end of the first episode, but that’s just about the only good event.  The FBI agents discover that while Carroll was allowed library privileges in prison, he had internet access and created a cult of followers working to help him kill.  He has these people wrapped so tightly around his finger that they will even kill themselves at his command.  While in prison, he also got one of the guards on his side, which aided in his escape.

I don’t want to give too much away, but one major characteristic of Carroll is that he is utterly obsessed with Edgar Allen Poe, particularly his unfinished short story “The LightHouse.” When Carroll escapes from prison, his one goal is to finish his own unfinished work, which he unfortunately completes before the FBI catches him again.

For me, this show is a little more scary and gross than some of the other ones, but it’s really not all that bad.  I just wanted to give anyone who can be squeamish a heads up.  So far, there is one season of The Following on Netflix, and season 2 resumed January 19th and will end in a few weeks on April 28th.

When I was growing up (and still today) I always loved reading fairy tales and fantasy books.  I’ve always loved reading in general, but the best books are always the ones that take you to a completely different world than your own.  Of course, I have some favorites, like Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and The Divergent Trilogy (the list could go on and on), but I really enjoy reading books that are interesting, yet teach you something new at the same time.  I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of the books called Percy Jackson and the Olympians, but they are the perfect example of a didactic fantasy series.  Despite the fact that these books are intended for 12 year olds, I love reading about Percy, his other demigod friends, and their Greek god/goddess parents.  But what you might not realize until later is that while you’re going on a journey all around the world, fighting off scary monsters, you’re also learning a lot about Greek mythology.  For me that’s a really interesting topic, so I absolutely love reading these books.

On Netflix, there is a series that’s somewhat similar to the Percy Jackson books because it is also didactic.  This show is called Supernatural and it involves just what you think it would: the Supernatural.  Throughout the series there are different mythological characters included that teach about the mythology of many different cultures.  For instance, the first episode involves a myth from right here in the US.  In a small town, a woman fell off a bridge and died, and the town inhabitants believe that this woman’s ghost haunts single men and keeps them from finding love.

A show like this, to me, is incredibly interesting and exciting.  Not only do you get a lot of adventure, but you also get to learn something without even trying.  There are currently 8 seasons on Netflix, so there’s plenty to watch, and the 9th season ends in May of this year.  For anyone who has ever watched Gilmore Girls, the actor who played Dean is now on Supernatural, and his brother on the show is named Dean, so it gets confusing sometimes!

Anyway, Supernatural is a fantastic fantasy show that I would suggest to anyone who enjoys fantasy books/movies.

Like I said in one of my previous posts, I have grown up watching crime scene investigation shows with my mom.  Another one that I briefly remember watching is called Numb3rs.  It began in 2005 and aired for 6 seasons, all of which are on Netflix.  I don’t remember much of this show since I watched it so long ago, so it’s fun to watch the episodes over again because it’s like watching them for the first time.

For the most part, Numb3rs is similar to the majority of crime shows: there’s one mystery per episode, and the FBI always ends up catching the bad guys in the end.  The difference with this show is that the brother of one of the FBI agents is an incredible mathematician. The actor who plays the mathematician, David Krumholtz, is actually Charlie, the head elf from the very first Santa Clause movie.  I was in middle school when this show was popular in my house hold, so Charlie the elf is really all that I remember from this show.   His name is even Charlie on Numb3rs too!

In the first episode, the FBI is searching for a killer, but they can’t seem to figure out a pattern with his killings.  Without this pattern, the agents can’t make any conclusions about when he’ll kill next or where he might be living.  Charlie then shows his FBI agent brother, Don, that he can use a mathematical equation to predict the area where the killer might live.  So Charlie works day and night to find a solution for this equation, and they end up catching the killer before he can strike again!  After Charlie proves how helpful math can be to the FBI, Don’s squad within the FBI takes him on as a consultant to help with future crimes.

The interesting part of this show is seeing how math can solve problems with humans.  Usually I only think of math as being useful in engineering and other math-heavy fields.   So the prospect that math can actually predict human behavior from a set of data is incredibly cool!  Charlie is also very quirky, almost savant like, which makes him fun to watch.  I’m only on the second episode, but it appears that an interesting story line is developing with the personal lives of the characters in addition to their crime fighting.

I’m not going to go into a whole lot of detail for this one because I think a lot of people have already seen it, but one of the other new shows my friend and I have started watching is Breaking Bad.  I know  everyone probably hasn’t seen it, after all, I’ve only seen four episodes or so, but I think most people at least know what it’s about! If you don’t know, here’s a quick summary:  The main character, Walter White, is a high school chemistry teacher with a wife and a son with special needs.  Walter works both at the school and at a car wash in order to try to make ends meet for his family, especially since his wife is due do have their second child in a few months.  He also starts to realize that he’s had a chronic cough that just won’t seem to go away, so he goes to the doctor to get it checked out and discovers that he actually has lung cancer.  He applies for a loan from the bank in order to pay for health insurance, but they deny him.  So Walter has the bright idea to call up one of his former students who he knew did drugs, and he offers to start helping him cook meth in order to make money.  Obviously, this probably wasn’t one of Walters finest decisions, and it ends up causing some serious issues for him.  Like I said, I’m only a few episodes in, so I don’t know much of what happens, but I figure it can only go down hill from here.

I’ve heard so many great reviews of this TV show, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what all of the hype is about.  Although, I have to say that one of the best parts of the show for me is that Walter White looks eerily similar to my 12th grade English teacher, Mr. Caruso.  Although Mr. C definitely looks a little happier and less menacing than Walter White… We used to tease him about it in class, and he would always yell at us saying that he would never cook meth!  That English class is definitely one of the things I miss most about high school, so seeing Walter White always reminds me of the fond memories I have.

See the resemblance???

Well, I hope everyone has a good break! And if your bored, you can always check out some new Netflix TV shows!

As a girl trombone player I’m surrounded by guys all the time.  Like ALL. THE. TIME.  You would think that a girl would enjoy spending time with so many boys, but in reality, it’s not always as much fun as it may seem.   Sometimes it’s great because the guys are really funny; they like to make amusing (and usually stupid) jokes that keep you entertained.  However, from the opposite perspective, too many boys can get to be really annoying.  For instance, when the guys cause more drama between each other than middle school girls.  All you need to do is say “So-and-so doesn’t like you,” and they’ll stop speaking to each other for a week.  Also, they constantly get into debates over who knows more about a particular subject, and they argue back and forth.  Typically, I just sit in silence and ignore whatever they’re doing, but that’s really hard to do when they start harassing me.  They definitely do all of it out of brotherly love, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t get irritating after a while.  I’ve suffered through countless symphonic band, trombone choir, and Blue Band rehearsals while being told that my new drill spot requires me to march into oncoming traffic and that everything that goes wrong is my fault.  I could name other things I get teased about, but you would be sitting here reading all day in order to finish the list.  No matter how much I get teased though, I know that these guys have got my back! They’re a pain to deal with sometimes, but they really are a great group of people who I am glad to call my home away from home.

In a Netflix show entitled New Girl, the main character, Jess, encounters a very similar situation to my own.  In the first episode, Jess is quickly forced to find new living arrangements because she comes home from a trip to find that her boyfriend is cheating on her.  She has a somewhat hard time finding a place to stay, so she ends up moving into an apartment with three guys.  In many ways, the guys are very similar to the boys in my trombone studio.  They try to be funny, and they’re always watching TV and playing video games.  They tend to tease her, and try to suppress her wacky personality, but at the end of the day, they really have her back.  They help Jess go to her ex-boyfriend’s house and finish moving her things out.  They even surprise her when they find out that she has been stood up on a date.

Among the sweet, heart-felt moments, there are also a lot of  funny moments.  I would definitely categorize this show as a comedy.  I think it could also be considered a chick-flick kind of show, but I don’t know a few guys who like it and think it’s really funny! Another reason I really like this show is that it has a very strong female lead.  Jess is play by Zoe Deschanel, who I believe is a fantastic actress, and I think her character Jess is someone that girls of all ages can look up to.  She is her own person, who some people think is strange, but she doesn’t care.  Jess is also one of the most compassionate characters I’ve seen on TV.  She cares greatly about the guys she lives with and her best friend Cece, and she’ll do anything to help them and support them.

Overall, this show is really funny and good for when you’re in the mood for something light hearted.  It may seem like a chick-flick, but I think a lot of guys would like it too, and the main character is a great role model for girls.  It’s also only half and hour long, so it’s a good option if you don’t have much time to spend procrastinating on homework! Last, if you would like to know what the title of my post has to do with the show, then you’ll just have to watch it!

As I was growing up I always loved to read, and I still do.  On a typical week day, I would finish my homework as fast as I could, and then I would delve into my current book of choice when I didn’t have to go to swim practice.  I fondly remember a time in middle school when I read multiple books about King Arthur around the same time.  The first, by Meg Cabot entitled Avalon High was a book about high school aged students who, in the end, become the modern forms of King Arthur and his fellow characters.  Then, I read a series of books, though I cannot seem to recall the titles, that depicted King Arthur when he was a young boy.  These few books sparked an interest in me about the Nights of the Round table and the myth that accompanies them, and I have found it a very interesting topic ever since.

One day, when searching the Netflix archives, my friend and I stumbled upon a show called Merlin, which is yet another interpretation of the story of King Arthur, but from the point of view of Merlin, the wizard.

In this story, Merlin’s mother sends him far away to live with the court physician, Gaius.  She discovered that her son has the capability to do magic, even when he doesn’t intend to, which puts him in great danger of being seized by those who believe magic to be a dark gift.  Merlin’s mother hopes that her son will be safe in the larger kingdom of Camelot where he will stand out more, and hopefully Gaius  can aid Merlin in learning how to use his powers.

Merlin has a rocky start when he first arrives in Camelot.  For one, he consistently wants to use magic to do everything, especially his chores.  But Gaius has to remind him that even though he’s in a larger kingdom now, he still can’t risk having his magical abilities discovered.  The real test occurs when Merlin runs into Prince Arthur tormenting a poor, helpless boy for the fun of it.  Merlin desperately wants to use magic to teach him a lesson, for he knows he cannot beat Prince Arthur in a duel. For the most part, no magic is used except for a few suddenly falling brooms that slow Prince Arthur as he chases Merlin through the streets.  But Prince Arthur doesn’t notice a thing!

Like most of the other shows I have watched, I’m only a few episodes in, but I suspect a close friendship will form between Merlin and Prince Arthur despite their rough start.  Netflix has five seasons, and myriad great reviews! So if that doesn’t make you want to watch it, then maybe this will: there’s a talking dragon and all of the actors have British accents.  It doesn’t get any better than that!

Ever since I was little, my mom has watched all kinds of crime scene investigation shows, in addition to her two soap opera, of course.  Thankfully, those two soap operas, which had been on for over 50 years and 70 years, were finally cancelled in 2010, so we’re left with watching crime shows any time my mom decides to watch TV.  Over the years, I have grown to really like them, and I would definitely have to say that my favorite part is guessing who did it.  Whether it’s a murder, theft, or some other kind of crime, my family will all make a guess of who the criminal is, and we impatiently wait to see who’s correct (usually it’s my mom).

Every so often a new one of these shows will turn up, presenting its own, unique characteristics that makes it different from every other crime show.  I think one of the most prominent differences between these types of TV shows is the characters.  Almost every single one that I watch has a different kind of character(s) that makes the show interesting and unique.  For instance, Patrick Jane on The Mentalist, works with the California Bureau of Investigation and can read people like book, to the point where people almost think he’s psychic.  On NCIS, Gibbs is know for being stiff and strict but also an awesome detective, and everyone knows he has a soft spot for Abby, the goth, forensic scientist who is like a daughter to him.  This list could go on and on, discussing the special characters and what makes them different from the rest, but the one show that I have found to be very unique from other crime scene shows is entitled Leverage.

 I guess one of the main reasons that this show is different is because it isn’t a show about crime scenes.  None of these people work for a law enforcement agency of any kind; in fact, they would probably be imprisoned if law enforcement ever found out what they do.  Nathan Ford (Center) is the leader of the small group of misfits.  He used to work as an insurance investigator, but was laid off by the company that had a hand in his son’s death (I still haven’t gotten to the details on how that happened yet).  The show is unclear about the specifics of another event too: at some point Nathan was involved in illegally helping someone in need.  So you could think of him like a modern day Robbin Hood.

I don’t want to give too much away, but in the first episode, the CEO of an airplane design company asks Nathan to steal his blue prints back from a company that stole them from him.  This man hired three known thieves (the man farthest left, and the man and woman farthest right) to execute this plan; however, all three of them are used to working alone, and the man wants Nathan to oversee that the operation goes smoothly.  In order to help, Nathan asks his long time friend, Sophie (the woman to his left) to participate.  The operation has a lot of hiccups, but eventually everything works out, and the team promises to never work together again.

Obviously, the show isn’t just one episode long (there are five seasons on Netflix), so they get back together and start doing more jobs to helps those in need when the law fails to help them itself.  I am only a few episodes in, so my main question is: will they ever get caught by law enforcement?  Hopefully they won’t, but we’ll see! Leverage is a very compelling show, especially since the cases that the team works on are not the typical crime scene investigation murders and thefts.  But in order for them to form a logical plan, the team still does a lot of investigating, and they rarely have all of the answers they need right from the start.  This lack of information can be problematic for the Leverage team, but for the viewers, it means we still have the opportunity to make guesses and see who is right at the end.

All the way up in Maine, there lies a small, unique town by the name of Storybrooke.  It is depicted as a typical, quaint, American town with attributes like that of the 1950’s but with a modern day twist.  In Storybrooke, everyone walks everywhere, and there is even a family-run diner on the corner of the main street in addition to the library, elementary school, and pawn shop.  Other than that, there aren’t many attractions to draw people to this little town.  No one leaves the town limits, and it is a rare occasion for outsiders to venture within them, so you would think things could get pretty boring, right?  Well, you thought wrong! There’s actually a tiny detail that consistently results in some pretty interesting events: all of the characters are actually fairytale creatures from the enchanted forest who have been transported from their magical world into ours.

This TV series about the fairytale characters we all know and love is entitled Once Upon a Time, and is definitely far from boring, despite the fact that no one can leave the town (they really can’t leave, otherwise they’ll lose their memory).  The story begins with Emma, a single, bounty hunter finishing up a job and returning to her apartment to find a boy at her door who claims to be her son.   At first, she doesn’t believe him, but she decides to drive him home instead of forcing a ten year old to take the bus by himself.  After spending a few weeks in Storybrooke, Emma discovers that Henry truly is her son, and that he lives in a world of fairytale characters, even though he is not one himself.  Oh, and none of the people are aware of their true identities; Henry and his adopted mother alone know the truth.

One of the main themes of the story is about the power of true love.  Almost all of the characters look for their true love, if they haven’t found him/her already; and the power of true love is demonstrated often, like when Prince Charming, with true love’s kiss, awakens Snow White from the Evil Queen’s curse.  I don’t want to give too much away for those who haven’t watched the show, so I’ll end my summary there, but I must include, it gets way better from there.  They are currently half way through the third season of Once Upon a Time, which resumes in March, and I would highly recommend it for people who enjoy fantasy books or movies, like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones, to name a few.  The show takes fairytale characters that we picture a certain way, and it twists them into something completely different than how they are portrayed normally (though some are kept the same).  Almost every episode introduces a new character, which I always look forward to because it is never clear whether or not the character will be good, a villain, or somewhere in-between. A lot of the time, the connections of who a character is in the enchanted forest and who they are in Storybrooke aren’t revealed until the end of the episode, so you’re always impatiently waiting to find out what will happen.

Once Upon a Time is probably my favorite TV show as of now (you might even call it true love?), and luckily the first two seasons are on Netflix!  So, if this sounds interesting to you, you better start watching  before it resumes in March! You won’t want to miss it!

P.S. If you find that you like Once Upon a Time, a new series entitled Once Upon a Time in Wonderland just started this past year.  I haven’t watched  it yet, but it also sounds like it would be really good! It’s just not on Netflix yet, but maybe someday…