So recently I completed watching the first season of two interesting TV series - Graceland (IMDb-7.6) and Under the Dome(IMDb-7.3). And here I write a little bit about them -
Under the Dome is a Sci-Fi Drama created by Brian Vaughan (Writer and Producer of The Lost). There is a book by the same name written by Stephen King (personally, I have a mixed opinion of Stephen King's books- some good, some not so much). Under the Dome is about a small town called Chester's Mill that gets captured by a supernatural force field with no one or thing allowed to enter or exit the area under capture. It's so powerful that mega bombs are not able to destroy it. The show starts off well with interesting storyline and decent performance by its actors. Unfortunately after a few episodes, the story starts zigzagging between the problems being generated by the special extra-terrestrial forces, and the crooked people in the town. On top of that, there are moments when you feel let down due to overacting and the over-dramatization of the situations. Example, audacious teenagers who know it all and ordinary people of the town getting overzealous one moment to be suddenly doused the next moment by the Councilman (Big Jim). You would probably wonder, why are some mature people behaving this way? But hey, its a TV show.
Anyway, if the story gets dragged by another 3-4 episodes (or more), I might give up watching the show.
Graceland, (written by Jeff Eastin from White Collar) is another action/crime drama based on a group of agents from different divisons (FBI/DEA/Customs) living in the same house. The story revolved around their cases, their undercover assignments, and how their personal lives are intertwined. The pilot starts with one new agent in FBI right out of the academy sent under cover to investigate another FBI agent living in the house called "Graceland". The rest of the story hovers as this theme as the main background, and multiple smaller cases/situations coming and forming the episode wise story between the different divisions. The idea seemed a bit weird about the different divisions operating under the same roof. Why would the FBI, DEA and Customs be sharing logistics (technical resources, gadgets, house etc), considering the level of frequent inter departmental secrecy, conflict etc. I am no expert here (and obviously would welcome criticism), but having 3 different major departments in a small piece of real-estate doesn't really make much sense to me. Of course, questioning the logic in a TV show is stupid of me, so normally I don't consider that the occupants of the house as agents of different departments, and just for the sake of watching the show, continue watching it as if they all were part of the same division.
Fortunately the story went alright and hence watchable, despite the average initial expectations.
I believe its all in the expectations that get set at the start of the show - The trailer and the Pilot episode both. In the case of "Under the Dome", the expectations for a Sci-Fi were set pretty high and hence at later stages, it became a bit dull. In the case of "Graceland" the show set the the right expectations - not really high (either knowingly or unknowingly) and hence was watchable till the last episode of the first season. Interestingly, IMDb score places them close to each other, yet Graceland scores a little bit more.
Under the Dome is a Sci-Fi Drama created by Brian Vaughan (Writer and Producer of The Lost). There is a book by the same name written by Stephen King (personally, I have a mixed opinion of Stephen King's books- some good, some not so much). Under the Dome is about a small town called Chester's Mill that gets captured by a supernatural force field with no one or thing allowed to enter or exit the area under capture. It's so powerful that mega bombs are not able to destroy it. The show starts off well with interesting storyline and decent performance by its actors. Unfortunately after a few episodes, the story starts zigzagging between the problems being generated by the special extra-terrestrial forces, and the crooked people in the town. On top of that, there are moments when you feel let down due to overacting and the over-dramatization of the situations. Example, audacious teenagers who know it all and ordinary people of the town getting overzealous one moment to be suddenly doused the next moment by the Councilman (Big Jim). You would probably wonder, why are some mature people behaving this way? But hey, its a TV show.
Anyway, if the story gets dragged by another 3-4 episodes (or more), I might give up watching the show.
Graceland, (written by Jeff Eastin from White Collar) is another action/crime drama based on a group of agents from different divisons (FBI/DEA/Customs) living in the same house. The story revolved around their cases, their undercover assignments, and how their personal lives are intertwined. The pilot starts with one new agent in FBI right out of the academy sent under cover to investigate another FBI agent living in the house called "Graceland". The rest of the story hovers as this theme as the main background, and multiple smaller cases/situations coming and forming the episode wise story between the different divisions. The idea seemed a bit weird about the different divisions operating under the same roof. Why would the FBI, DEA and Customs be sharing logistics (technical resources, gadgets, house etc), considering the level of frequent inter departmental secrecy, conflict etc. I am no expert here (and obviously would welcome criticism), but having 3 different major departments in a small piece of real-estate doesn't really make much sense to me. Of course, questioning the logic in a TV show is stupid of me, so normally I don't consider that the occupants of the house as agents of different departments, and just for the sake of watching the show, continue watching it as if they all were part of the same division.
Fortunately the story went alright and hence watchable, despite the average initial expectations.
I believe its all in the expectations that get set at the start of the show - The trailer and the Pilot episode both. In the case of "Under the Dome", the expectations for a Sci-Fi were set pretty high and hence at later stages, it became a bit dull. In the case of "Graceland" the show set the the right expectations - not really high (either knowingly or unknowingly) and hence was watchable till the last episode of the first season. Interestingly, IMDb score places them close to each other, yet Graceland scores a little bit more.
