Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

West Wing, Season One:
This earlier show by the creator of Newsroom shares a lot of blatantly obvious DNA with the later show. It's a character drama featuring the many people of the president's communications office, and tends to focus on various real-life (at the time) political issues. The characters are likeable although the level of exposition can make it feel like I'm being preached at sometimes. It's pleasant enough for a treadmill show, or even one to have on in the background as I'm coding. On the negative side, it has a horrible soundtrack of composed music that only swells in at imminent points for extreme emotional manipulation -- it sounds like any sappy movie soundtrack from the mid 90's. Free on Netflix.

Final Grade: B-

Game of Thrones, Season Three:
The main problem of the second season still exists -- too many characters with too brief vignettes to get invested in their plights. While there is always progression, there is never momentum, and too much time is wasted on less interesting stories. I don't need to watch ten episodes of a character getting tortured, and I'm super bored with all of the animal dream stories.

Final Grade: C+

Aziz Ansari: Dangerously Delicious:
This is a fun, brief standup session that's about as good as his previous one. It's fairly vulgar, but in a harmless, not-very-mean-spirited way which can make all the difference when determining whether a joke about whale fellatio is worth listening to.

Final Grade: B