Doctor Who Series 1, 2, and 3

I have been putting this off for a long time. It looks like now there's going to be a break between me watching the first three new seasons and the fourth, since I ordered the fourth from Amazon. I had seen one or two episodes of Doctor Who previously, and liked it. But what really got me to watch the whole new series was Jeff showing me "Blink," which is the Steven Moffat episode from Season 3, which focuses on Sally Sparrow and the weeping angels. It was terrifying and well-written, and so so good. After that I decided it was high time to watch Doctor Who. Luckily for me, seasons 1 through 3 were on instant play on Netflix. And so it began.

I was hooked after about, oh, one episode. I COULD NOT STOP watching season one. I loved loved loved Rose, and really liked the Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston (who was that invisible guy on Heroes!). I was upset that Eccleston was leaving because I did like him oh so much. But that lasted about five minutes (well, once during the Christmas special the Doctor actually starts doing stuff). And so began my full-blown obsession with David Tennant. And Doctor Who in general. I loved the first season but was completely and irrevocably obsessed by the second one. I cried, hard, at the end of the second season. I loved Rose Tyler. I miss her. The third season Christmas special was ok but I don't like Donna (so... err... hopefully she doesn't suck so bad for the 4th season). I liked Martha, though.

Ok, so a more specific season-by-season review.

Season 1: Best episodes were "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances," the Steven Moffat-penned two-part episode. I have a theory about the dancing metaphor but anyway, ask me about that later if you care. "Dalek," "Father's Day," and "The End of the World" were also good. In addition, I liked the finale, "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways." None of the episodes were particularly bad. I do like Captain Jack Harkness, too.

Season 2: Definitely my favorite season so far. David Tennant, as mentioned, is absolutely brilliant as the Doctor. The Christmas special was great, "The Girl in the Fireplace" was marvelous (Steven Moffat - see the trend?) as was the two-part "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit." I loved the introduction of K-9 in "School Reunion" and our glimpse of Sarah Jane Smith. The two-part Cybermen episodes were quite good as well. The finale was heartwrenching and great. So basically, no duds. However I must say in the first season and the beginning of the second I hated Mickey Smith. I wanted him to go away. He finally gets less annoying in the second season, though, and by the end of it he's alright by me.

Season 3: Rather hit or miss. I do like Martha, she's pretty much great. But there are definitely duds in this season (notably "The Lazarus Experiment," which was just bad, and the two-part Dalek episodes, which were amusing but not great). "Blink" is by far the best episode in the season. I also enjoyed "The Shakespeare Code," "Gridlock," and "42". The final trio of episodes is good too - especially the last one. I like that they brought back Jack Harkness, and that they hinted that he might be the Face of Boe...

I am looking forward to getting my season four in the mail! There's a Pompeii episode, which will be delightful since I'm a Classics major. hehe.

Doctor Who overall rating: A++++++

Season One: A

Season Two: A+

Season Three: B+

Heroes, 'Chapter Two'

The finale of "Chapter Two" of Heroes was last night at 9 on NBC. (I should warn you, there's some spoilers).
I will admit, when I first heard about Heroes I was pretty uninterested. But then Jeff watched it online and highly recommended it. So, this summer, thanks to the sadly no-longer-extant TV Links, I obsessively devoured the first season. I LOVED IT, and was seriously looking forward to the new season. However, it has been kind of a disappointment. At first, I was still really excited about it, despite the slow start. The plot really dragged along, and the end-of-the-world scheme wasn't introduced until halfway in. This resulted in a pretty unexciting season. A lot of the plot points seemed really improbable (for the show, I mean, it's kind of improbable altogether in general but I mean people doing really stupid things). So that bothered me a little, and the finale was kind of anticlimactic and a lot of issues failed to be resolved. Of course, this could have been due to the writers' strike, and may be resolved in the 3rd chapter, which I will probably watch even if it sucks. The second season had been publicized as focusing on entirely new characters - and I think this would have been better than drying to milk more out of the old ones. The new characters that were introduced were barely included in the plot. Also, I am not excited at all about the super-recurring villain thing (i.e., they should have left Sylar dead, that whole subplot was boring and not well integrated). Besides, why would Peter leave the Irish chick in a nonexisting future! They don't even mention her at the end!!! Agh. Anyway. So, yeah, disappointing.

Grade: B-