Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new).

[osprey_archer]

Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new).

I am actually waffling between two at the moment. Help me LJ-wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope!

The first is Puella Magi Madoka Magica, about which I have heard rave reviews for years, years I tell you, although there seems to have been a backlash against it recently which will hopefully have the salutary effect of lowering my expectations. Has anyone seen it? What did you think?

The other is White Collar, which has many things in its favor - Neal Caffrey’s face (and his suits) and a juggernaut OT3 not least among them - but I’ve heard discouraging things about the plots of its later seasons. I’m only going to be able to take Peter forgiving Neal for criminal shenanigans (again) so many times before I want to throw something at the TV, and this apparently becomes a recurring motif in later seasons.

But Emma says that I could just watch the first two seasons and quit and I’d be golden. Do you think that’s accurate? Or will that result in quitting at a point when the show’s incomplete threads will gnaw at me like a sore tooth?

Comments

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed Puella Magi Madoka Magica a lot - I only watched it this year, like you I'd been all "One day!" after listening to all the fuss about it and finally got to it. I don't think it's the BEST BEST ANIME EVER but I loved trying to unravel the mystery (I didn't know the spoilers) and it answered all the questions that I had which pleased me a lot. And the animation style was really cool. So I would say watch that but that's because I haven't seen White Collar (well, I saw the first episode, I think. I have ... forgotten it!)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I've mostly avoided spoilers (well, I know there's a lot of death? But that's not a specific spoiler, and really when there's a lot of death I prefer to go in braced for it), so hopefully I'll have the same reaciton. And I didn't know it had a mystery plot! I love mysteries.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I liked PMMM a lot. It has good characters, a clever and surprising story, and some genuinely amazing animation sequences. It's got lots of id-tastic hurt-comfort, battles, epic girl/girl friendship, and self-sacrifice. It's dark but not nihilistic. If you like Utena, you would probably like it. Also, it's short.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually seen Utena! Which is clearly a flaw in my anime-watching. I do love id-tastic hurt-comfort, epic girl-girl friendship, and self-sacrifice, though, so probably PMMM will be my jam.

And I really like short shows.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

But Emma says that I could just watch the first two seasons and quit and I’d be golden. Do you think that’s accurate?

I think this is what I did, actually.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Did it end at a more or less satisfying place?

Then again, I'm pretty sure I accidentally stopped watching Burn Notice right after Michael got, like, kidnapped or something, so maybe it doesn't matter if the ending is terribly satisfying. I'll probably be able to deal.

[boxofdelights]

That would have worked for me. Season two ended with an important emotional moment in the Neal & Peter relationship, which pleased me enough that I would have hung on for another few seasons of hoping that they might someday actually say it out loud. But it also ended with a prize of Nazi loot.

I watched at least a couple episodes of season three, but then I heard that the show hadn't really thought about the moral implications of Nazi loot, and when audience reaction pointed out the problem, they pastede on an explanation that the loot had come from museums, not people who were sent to concentration camps, so it was okay to keep.

It wasn't hard to walk away.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Oh, the emotional moment sounds like a good ending note - plus not having to deal with the fact that the show doesn't deal with the ethics of Nazi loot. Perhaps I'll give the first two seasons a go, after all.

[nagasasu.livejournal.com]

I actually did not like Madoka. A lot of what they said it did, I found Utena or Princess Tutu doing more to my taste.

I actually like White Collar and its later seasons. I like the way it handles Neal not magically-becoming-reformed -- something about the way the characters don't remain static and that things progress... Neal isn't happy with the status quo of his deal and Peter's career does advance and Elizabeth does get upset at the way Peter's career always comes first.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I will take that under advisement.

[entwashian.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't bother with White Collar at all, TBH. It's nothing you haven't seen before.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

This is my fear with White Collar. :/ I've heard good things about it, but it doesn't look all that different than anything else.

Perhaps I will save it in case I have a TV drought. In the cloud cuckoo land where I might one day catch up on all the shows I mean to see.