-Mike White's little-watched HBO comedy, Enlightened, concluded its second and possibly final season on Sunday night. Over the weekend I saw tweets or posts urging folk to watch the season finale to bolster the chances of Enlightened returning for a third season. I bear no ill will towards creator Mike White nor the cast and crew of Enlightened. I'm annoyed by the continued trend of taking on a show's renewal chances as a cause. I'm sure Enlightened delighted and thrilled the small audience that watched weekly. Enlightened didn't interest me when I wrote a preview for it in early 2012. The good things written about the show tap into an increasingly prominent device in television writing/criticism, though. I have a barely thought out theory that people watch shows they don't even like because of how much other people like that same show. For example, Ben Blacker, host of the Nerdist Writers Panel, asks his guests what their watching on TV every panel. I can name the shows that professional TV writers watch: Breaking Bad; Mad Men; Game of Thrones; Scandal, and etc. I don't doubt that TV writers watch quality programming. I understand their time is precious, so they watch the best of the best. I think I'm weary of critics that push a show like they discovered the greatest show ever created; that is, until the NEXT show comes along that's pushed to the moon.
I don't know why Enlightened is the new show that needs to be saved. Great shows get cancelled prematurely a lot and will continue to be cancelled. It sucks. Something else will come along. I saw a tweet the other day pushing for people to watch The Neighbors. The number of shows one can watch on a given day is overwhelming. I enjoyed The Neighbors, but I need to pick and choose what I watch. Heck, I already watch way too much TV for the blog. The stuff about Enlightened was inspired by a desire for HBO to renew it, but it was also meant to guilt people out or make them feel like an outcast for not watching it. Not many people watched The Wire during its original run; however, once it got billed as the greatest show of all-time, it got a whole new fanbase. If The Wire didn't get that billing, I don't think half the number of people who watched the show after the fact would've watched. The language used should change. Stop writing that people need to see a show; simply suggest one watch the show, or, even, recommend one watch a show.
-Game of Thrones premieres on Easter Sunday. Trailers are available to watch. The cast are doing press for the new season. I spent the summer of 2011 reading the novels and wrote winky wink reviews during season two. I'm not watching any trailers. I'm not going back to A Storm of Swords to re-read chapters. I don't want to scrutinize the show the way I did in season two. Also, no one will care but I'm going to tell you why I stopped writing about Once Upon A Time anyway: I stopped writing about OUAT for season three of Game of Thrones. Revenge will get pushed to late afternoon Mondays. I mean, I could've written three reviews in a day but it would require me to be on a computer for basically the entire day. No thanks, especially since I really dislike OUAT.
-Spring is near. I'm thinking about my ever-popular summer re-watch already. I settled on two shows last summer. I'm thinking about when to begin the re-watches. If you're on the edge of your seat (you're not) wondering which shows I'll write about, then I will tell you. I will write about the goody fourth season of LOST as well as the first season of Dollhouse. I'll probably add to another show to the re-watch. Both of those seasons have shorter episodes, so look for those around May.
-Okay, so I just found out Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing trailer is available to watch. I'm going to stop writing and watch that. Watch it too: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/much-ado-about-nothing-2013/trailers/much-ado-nothing-trailer-173033169.html
THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK
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