Hwu's guide to His Favorite Shows

For this last blog post, I would like to give a guide to all the shows I watch including actors, basic plots, keywords, etc. Although I have favorites among these shows, I think they all build off of each other and make me appreciate each individual one more.


Arrested Development
Features: Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, etc.
Plot: Michael Bluth (Bateman) must take over the family company after his father is imprisoned. While trying to undo all his father's failures, he has a highly dysfunctional family to deal with.
Seasons: 4
This show is: Funny, amusing, rewarding
My Rating: 7.5/10

Breaking Bad
Features: Bryan Cranston
Plot: A high school Chemistry teacher realizes he has a terminal case of cancer. Before passing away, he decides to take up Meth cooking to pay for his treatment and earn some money for the family. Ultimately, he goes from shy teacher to kickass drug dealer.
Seasons: 5
This show is: Intense, violent, explicit drug references
My Rating: 7/10

Burn Notice
Features: Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campell, Sharon Gless, Coby Bell
Plot: A recently blacklisted spy, Michael Westen, finds himself in Miami. Accompanied by a dangerous female spy/ex-girlfriend, Fiona, and old SEALS soldier and friend, Sam, Michael tries to find out who's responsible for burning him. In the meantime, there are plenty of enemies and opportunities in Miami that require his attention.
Seasons: 6
This show is: Funny, clever, action-packed, explosive, complicated
My Rating: 8/10

Community
Features: Alison Brie, Chevy Chase, Dany Pudi, Donald Glover, Gillian Jacobs, Ken Jeong, Joel McHale, Yvette Nicole Brown
Plot: Jeff Winger (Joel McHale), a fraud lawyer is sent to Greendale Community College to receive a legitimate Law degree. In the meantime he forms a Spanish study group with the original intention of hitting on another student. The group ends up tight knit and helps each other as they try to survive community college and the plethora of school adventures that entails.
Seasons: 3
This show is: Hilarious, goofy, witty
My Rating: 8.5/10

Freaks and Geeks
Features: Seth Rogan, James Franco, Jason Segel, Linda Cardellini, John Daley
Plot: Lindsay (cardellini) and Sam (Daley) Weir are high schoolers at McKinley High School in the '80s. Lindsay transitions from her studious life to one around a rather questionable group while Sam and his "geeks" try to climb the social ladder of high school.
Seasons: 1
This show is: Funny, witty, understated, goofy
My Rating: 8.5/10

Game of Thrones
Features: Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, Maisie Williams, Michelle Fairley, Emilia Clarke, Alfie Allen, Iain Glen, Kit Harington, Sophie Turner, Jack Gleeson, Aidan Gillen, Isaac Wright, Jerome Flynn, COnleth Hill, Donald Sumpter, Rory McCann, Nicolaj Coster-Waldau, etc.
Plot: Based off of the best selling series, this show explores the Seven Kingdoms, ruled by seven major Houses. The land is filled with violence, suspicion, and quiet mobilization of armies. The lines between friend and foe and good and evil are blurred.  In the first two explosive seasons, five kings vie for the throne and only one will succeed. Overlapping schemes and complicated side plots lead to a rewarding and fast paced show. Beware though, there is considerable nudity and sex in many episodes.
Seasons: 2 (3rd coming out in Spring 2013)
This show is: Explicit (swearing and sex), violent, devious, complicated, rewarding
My Rating: 8/10

How I Met Your Mother
Features: Jason Segel (from The Muppets and 5 Year Engagement), Neil Patrick Harris (Muppets, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog), Josh Radner, Cobie Smulders (Avengers)
Plot: Five New Yorkers experience the adventures of bustling city life as Ted Mosby (Josh Radner) undergoes his epic search for his soulmate.
Seasons: 8
This show is: Raunchy, funny, well-rounded, sincere, rewarding (eventually)
My Rating: 9/10

Psych
Features: James Roday, Dule Hill
Plot: Shawn Spencer (Roday), a "psychic" detective and his partner Gus (Hill) work alongside the Santa Barbara Police in solving the area's toughest case. Psych mixes the standard cop show with Shawn's goofiness and light-hearted spirit.
Seasons: 7
This Show is: Goofy, funny, thought-provoking, light-hearted
My Rating: 8/10

Walking Dead
Features: Andrew Lincoln, Steven Yeun, Jon Bernthal, Chandler Riggs, Norman Reedus
Plot: Rick Grimes (Lincoln) leads a band of survivors through a zombie ridden world pitted against them. In the current season, new friendships are forged and villains appear. Even more, are Grimes and his companions willing to kill other humans to ensure their survival?
Seasons: 3
This Show is: Intense, addictive, dark, suspenseful

As a note, Psych and Community are the two easiest shows to simply find the most recent episodes and watch them and not have to worry about plot. I hope you might be inclined to explore one or more of these in the near future, especially winter break!

Thou Shall Not Execute?

What sets humans apart from the rest of the beasts that reside on Earth? Is it our sense of community and social behavior? Or the way we use tools and advance ourselves for the "greater good?" How about our sense of humanity towards each other? My answer is yes. Humans and ants both build grand cities that contain thousands of lifeforms. Packs of wolves and people obey a set of social rules to keep them safe and to thrive. Monkeys also use tools and try to act "humanly" to each other. But no other specie but us can boast all of these qualities. But would all of these traits falter at the start of the end of the world?

The Walking Dead explores just that. As countries fragment, cities fall, and people lose hope, there is a constant theme about whether there is still a place for humanity in a world almost without humans. I don't want to give too much away about season 2, but there is a time when the group becomes split about a life and death situation. They capture someone from a possibly dangerous group residing nearby and can't decide whether they need to eliminate the scout or let him go. Some argue that killing living humans in a zombie infested world is ridiculous, while others say that everything is on the table when it comes to the survival of the group. Both sides presented valid arguments, but as I watched this episode, I began to contemplate what I thought on the subject of capital punishment.

I was brought up in a Christian household and taught that humans were not intended to have the power to decide whether one lives or dies. I do believe that we, humankind, have not been given an omniscient perspective on the world, and that role of judgement is for a higher being to assume. Nonetheless, I also know that there will always be malevolent figures in the world, and locking all of them up in prison is both incredibly expensive and not the best solution. On average, it costs around $47,000 to incarcerate one prisoner. Now multiply that by the 2 million odd convicts in America. That's approximately 94 billion dollars out of the government budget that we could've spent on improving the nation's public schools or even bailing us out of the looming "fiscal cliff." But I digress. I hope that in the near future, our nation will find a cheaper middle ground between prison time and capital punishment. I don't support executing prisoners, but rather believe that no matter how terrible the crime, everyone deserves a second chance. Maybe we can establish an abandoned island and keep all the most lethal prisoners there. If they want to live, let them work at it.

Finally, as I write this post, I came upon a realization. This present world we live in is not too much better than the zombie world of the Walking Dead. In a zombie world, there are no international tensions, depressions or recessions, or budget cuts, heck even global warming will stop. It's a world where everyone gets to start a new life, put all their previous problems behind them, and band together against a common cause. But that's on a global level, until then, I'm perfectly fine enjoying my bed, internet, air conditioning, heating, and not having to worry about getting eaten.

Last Man Standing

I think it's about time for a change of setting. Let's shift from the bustling world of New York and How I Met Your Mother to the more ominous post-apocalyptic world of the Walking Dead. This is a world where decent people don't stand a chance while ruthless criminals thrive. Each episode brings about intense zombie-fighting and sudden deaths you never anticipated. But ultimately, you experience the true nature of individuals who band together to try to survive in a world pitted against them.

Here's a trailer for the First Season:

The main character is Rick Grimes, a Georgian sheriff who was seriously injured during a gunfight early on. He falls into a coma and is completely oblivious to the unknown plague that ravages the world and leaves it's countless victims vicious and zombie-like. When he awakes, he finds the town abandoned and his family missing. Rick decides to travel to Atlanta where it's supposedly safe and the Center for Disease Control is working on a cure. The rest of the first season involves him finding other survivors and naturally being elected to lead the group to find a safe haven.

My family watched the first season when it first aired and they raved on and on about it. I wasn't surprised with the show garnering nearly six million viewers by the season finale and it being rated one of the highest quality shows by National Public Radio. So when my cross country season and Carissa's soccer season came to a halt, my family decided to start season 2, which was conveniently all on Netflix.

A number of things immediately shocked me as we finished the entire season in a mere two days. First, the extensive set and cast was absolutely astounding with its abandoned metropolis setting, congested highways, and massive numbers of zombies on set. The budget for every season was immense and I felt like the producers did a meticulous job making sure the setting was entirely believable and realistic. Second, the quality of the characters was refreshing. Each one changed to better adapt to the new world, and every character was well rounded and thought out. Some characters began to fall apart as the apocalypse proved too much for them while others grew stronger and more able. The show also brought up topics that delved much deeper than basic survival. Some of them include religion, capital punishment, social dynamics, individualism, poor parenting, and the recurring question of whether humanity still plays a role in this now twisted world. Finally there's a capable Asian character, Glenn who is pivotal and breaks Asian stereotypes commonly used in Hollywood. Represent!

Music To Our Ears

For me, music choice plays an essential role in deciding the quality of a TV show. In that regard, How I Met Your Mother excels. Down through the seasons, the music supervisor, John Swihart, and his music department have become more successful in finding the perfect songs to infuse into the show's episodes. Even more, special music videos are designed for some characters like Robin Scherbatsky and others. They help change the pace of the show and also simply make the show more entertaining!
Clip #1: The gang finds out that Robin was originally a Canadian pop star and they simply couldn't get over it. Barney searches high and low for a music video and he's rewarded by this:

Clip #2: In Season 5, Barney begins to pursue a lovely lady who simply hates suits. That may pose a problem with Barney's life slogan, "Suit Up!" He then has a broadway moment to express his dilemma, and it's quite spectacular.

Nothing Suits Me Like A Suit

Clip #3: This is a great song that I personally like a lot from a random episode from Season 7.

Rivers and Roads by The Head and the Heart

Clip #4: My hands down, all-time favorite episode in How I Met Your Mother is "The Leap" season 4 finale. It encapsulates everything I adore about the show: deeper themes, Barney and Robin's relationship, and an excellent theme song for the episode. Given all of that though, DO NOT skip right to this episode, watching all of season 4 makes this episode all the more powerful and meaningful. Here's the theme song, enjoy!

Prophets by AC Newman

In this episode Ted and Barney go through life changing events that really gives the show another boost to speed towards the ultimate goal of finding out who the heck is Ted's wife. But it's episodes like these that also make me want the show to never end. Though judging by the current season's performance, it might just be about time for this amazing TV show to finish its legendary run.

A Change of Heart

This post is devoted to a certain Barney Stinson. By the second season of How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM), you really think you've got him figured out. He seems to be the classic, high ranking, ruthless corporate workers at a questionable company. When he's not out doing that, he's hitting on women everywhere he goes. I'm sure most people are greatly amused by him in the show, but in real life, they probably couldn't stand a day with him. That's Barney for you for the first several seasons.

But by season five, it appears the writers of the show want to do something more with this one dimensional sex-depraved creature. They begin to add two new side plots that make Barney a more genuine and lovable character. The first is his gradual realization that maybe he wants to find a special girl and stop his meaningless one night stands. The second is that maybe it's about time that he meets his father whom he never knew growing up.

Barney falls in love with another main character, Robin, towards the end of season four. She's not like the other bimbos that fall for Barney's ridiculous pickup ploys. She's Canadian and hardcore (with her secret shooting range hobby and scotch drinking), and Barney slowly develops feelings towards her. At first I thought, "oh no, Robin don't fall for that, he's a scoundrel." But then it dawned on me that Barney's actually willing to change his entire lifestyle for her, and then I started rooting for them as a couple. I won't disclose what becomes of them later in the show, but during their relationships, he becomes a changed man for the better.

HIMYM uses a few episodes each season to bring up rather heavy topics that teaches a lesson or delves deeper into themes. Early on, Barney is there to diffuse these tense moments, but by season six, he's the one that plays the major role in those deeper side plots.

As a child, Barney had no idea who his biological father was. It didn't help that he mysteriously had a black brother and that his mother told them that Bob Barker from "The Price is Right" was their dad. Barney convinced himself that Bob truly was his father out of self denial, but in season six, that changes. Barney connects with his legitimate dad and he turns out to be a complete letdown. I think that that scene is arguably one of the saddest moments in the show. Here's a clip:
(Clip pending, scene from "Legendaddy Season 6)
In the next season, Barney falls in love with a British woman, Nora. But after a mere few weeks into their relationship, he (once again) falls for Robin who unfortunately has a boyfriend too. Through a scandalous affair, Barney and Robin end up cheating on their partners. Right afterwards, Barney hopes that they can actually be together, and finally decide that they should break up with their significant other by the end of the night. They make a plan to meet up at a bar afterwards. Barney does it, but then waits for Robin to meet him up. Here's what happens when Robin enters the bar.
(Clip pending, scene from (Tick, Tick, Tick Season 7)

WARNING. Spoilers...

Many things change throughout How I Met Your Mother's seven seasons.  Ted goes through a string of relationships that all end. Both Ted and Marshall try to find jobs that won't be a disappointment. Lily undergoes a (early) mid-life crisis and moves away for a while, and Robin slowly decides that her job maybe shouldn't be the center of her life, but rather there's a little room for serious relationships. Finally, Barney learns about what he truly wants out of life and realizes that it may just be Robin.

As you can see, the show goes through loops and tunnels that lead the viewers on an ever-changing fantastic journey. This keeps the show refreshing and new. On the other hand, somethings, like the set, don't change such as the bar, MacLaren's Pub, and Ted's apartment. These create a comfortable and familiar setting where the viewers feel welcome in. Sometimes it seems so recognizable that one feels like they've even been in the Pub or the apartment. That's another mark of a TV show well done.

How I Met Your Mother also excels in its ability to create situations where viewers can easily relate to. There are a myriad of episodes where when I go back and watch them, I think to myself, "Wow that could really be me in his/her shoes." For example, in the sitcom's pivotal events like marriages and career paths, everyone wants it to go according to plan. Everything has to be perfect and there can't be any surprises. The characters slowly learn that the process will never be flawless, but there's always a lesson to be learned. They should focus on the important aspects like being able to marry "the one" should trump those miniscule marriage details, and how failures in life help guides people towards their intended path. For Ted, that road might just lead him to his wife.

Finally, since Monday was the next season's premier, I feel I should touch on that too. Right off the bat, this season has a new approach. With this final season wrapping up this momentous show, frankly they have a lot to cover. They wasted no time in the first episode. Instead of a casual, storytelling meander of most episodes, this one got the ball going with how Barney and Quinn won't work, and at the end of the episode, Ted's future wife stands a mere ten feet away from him, and we almost see her face.

For you How I Met Your Mother fans, what do you think? Will the mystery mother appear soon?

Pilot

Why are TV shows so entertaining? Why do we devote hours upon hours amusing ourselves by watching the scripted lives of others? The present world we live in is filled with reality TV, sitcoms, game shows, and endless entertainment. And let's face it, its awesome.

The first show I fell in love with was The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. With its raunchy humor, goofy characters, lovable cast, and endless episodes, it was my view of the perfect show. That was over 7 years ago, and my love of sitcoms has only increased. In this blog, I hope to delve deeper into some popular TV shows, like How I Met Your Mother, Community, Game of Thrones, and Burn Notice, describe deeper themes and discuss my favorite things about them.

How I Met Your Mother is a loose sitcom that revolves around a core group of five friends who live in New York City. The metaplot is about the main character, Ted, telling his children the entire story of him meeting their mother. But each episode tracks the myriad of adventures the group share. One of the great things about the show is that most are able to relate to at least one of the characters: the married couple (Marshall and Lily), the playboy (Barney), bachelor (Ted), and bachelorette (Robin). Each season covers a year, from 2005 to 2011 (so far), as well as special episodes dedicated to holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's.

One of my favorite things about the show, and a key to its success, is the shroud of mystery and humor surrounding Barney. He has an abundance of ridiculously unrealistic scenes of hitting on women at the bar. He has this knack for single pickup lines that get results. In real life, the actor, Neil Patrick Harris is gay, which makes his character in the show that much more amusing. On top of that, his true job at GNB (Goliath National Bank) is never revealed, but many episodes hint at his company being in conjunction with North Korea and trading with slightly shady organizations. He spends his work days waging a "food war" against bosses in other nearby skyscrapers that involve trying to outdo each other in contaminating their foods, drinks, and offices. Other (rather questionable) habits of Barney include laser-tag, strip clubs, gambling with the Chinese in high-stakes mahjong-like games. As a viewer, I got to know the full Barney throughout the seven seasons, and had mixed feelings of respect, scorn, amusement, disregard, and finally approval towards him.

Barney Stinson also serves as comic relief when the show brings up its many rather heavy life lessons. His antics lighten the mood and end many episodes on a positive note. But as he grows to be a better person, he actually becomes the voice for lessons in relationships and life. But more on that later.

Get ready for this blog, because it's gonna be legen.... wait for it...