Deadliest Catch

A few days ago another TV show that I have come to not only watch regularly but look forward to returned, that being "Deadliest Catch".  The show is a documentary on the king crab fishing in the Bering Sea and films four main boats as well as others at times and the Coast Guard as well.  It does this using film crews on the boats as well as a "chase boat" that will go from boat to boat for shots as well.  The show does an incredible job showing just why this profession is considered the "deadliest on earth" with stunning video and great work in bringing the captains and crews and the life they live to the viewers.

Destination Truth

The new season of Destination Truth started on SyFy not that long ago (just about 2 weeks ago in fact) and I've begun watching the first season on Netflix as well because I didn't know what I was missing until I caught a later season.  I have to say that of all the "truth finding" shows that are out there this one is my favorite by far.  Unlike many other shows (such as Ghost Hunters which is 2nd on my list and Ghost Adventures), this show began not hunting paranormal but hunting other legends such as Bigfoot.  It wasn't many episodes in before they did their first paranormal investigation but they still hunt more "legends" than ghosts.

Face Off - SyFy

Two nights ago the season finale of the SyFy series "Face Off" aired.  I missed the first episode of this series despite being very interested in seeing it from the first preview I saw.  The premise behind this reality competition show was one that hasn't been done before (to my knowledge) and actually looked interesting.  In this series "aspiring make-up artists" would go into each week with a challenge that would see them putting their skills as movie special effect make-up artists to the test, and each week they were judged by some pretty well known Hollywood names from the effects world and one person would be sent home until in the end only one remained and of course that person would get the awards.

"Lost" at an End

Ok, I'm a little late to the party on this one but we just finished watching "Lost" this past week.  I actually never saw a single episode while it aired on TV but when we got Netflix instant play on the PS3 not too long ago we found it there and began watching it.  Let me tell you all that this is the way to watch a television series.  You don't have to wait til the next week to find out what happened and you don't have to wait months between seasons.  You can watch at your own pace ... which we did seeing the first season in about a week.

Before I get into the actual series I might as well mention a couple of things.  We will probably be watching a bunch of shows on Netflix on demand and going forward I'll probably recap at the end of seasons.  This one I will recap as a whole since I wasn't blogging until into the 6th and final season.   I won't blog after individual shows as that is a bit much, but if something prompts me to make an exception I certainly will.  Now on to "Lost"...

From the first episode we were hooked.  There were a number of reasons for this.  The situation itself was intriguing ... a plane crashes on a remote island and the survivors have to find a way to live.  Also the characters were interesting and enjoyable and seeing their interactions was fun. 

I loved the way characters were developed and told about throughout the series, with each character getting their history focused on with flashbacks while the rest of the story went on also focusing much on that character.  The show also did a good job with bringing in more characters throughout the entire series.

As the years went on the show introduced the "others" as well as other factions, and later on went into a "time jumping" plot line which while not bad wasn't great either.  Playing with time is something that is touchy and the show did a pretty decent job of it but didn't always feel right.  The show was at its best before that, but it certainly was great throughout.  In the end there was a split between the people being on the island still and what would have happened if they hadn't crashed (actually if the island would have blown up 30 years prior).  It was interesting to see how their lives would have played out in that case and how they were all weaved together even then.

The final episode eventually revealed that the characters had never survived the crash to begin with and that all of those people were dead from the start.  Everything that happened through the 6 seasons were those characters helping each other come to terms and prepare for moving on.  Kind of an odd ending but in a way it worked.  Overall an excellent, excellent show that I'm glad I watched and recommend to others especially now that you can watch the entire thing without the month long cliff hangers between seasons.

A recap of some of the things that I loved about this show...

• The characters (nearly all of the main characters outside of a few) were great.  They were developed well and you began to know them and know if you liked or hated them.  I loved most of the main characters so I can't really name my top few, but needless to say strong characters were one of the top reasons for watching.
• The mystery built in with some of the plots was great.  What was in the jungle in the beginning?  Who were the others and what were they doing?  Etc, etc, etc...
• The show flowed well and had plenty of exciting moments and plot lines.  Very rarely was there an instance where it felted bogged down or forced, even during some of the "time travel" type moments.
• The characters ... and I know I've said it once already but for me strong well developed characters is important in stories and this one had it...

All in all ... watch it.  It's well worth your time...