True Detective, S.H.I.E.L.D., and Other Bits of TV Stuff.

I'm eating my own words right now as I'm about to mention a bunch of TV stuff on a Monday that is usually, as I tend to say, reserved for movies. Ah well, my enigmatic motives shall remain ever unclear! My sanity-testing ramblings aside, The Emporium would like to sing praise on a couple TV shows in particular for two rather different reasons. One is rightfully praised, while one I think could do for a bit of defence. Oh and uh, hey I might as well mention Cosmos again. Cuz, you know, it's still pretty rad.

I don't really watch that much TV, at least in regards to current and weekly episodic shows. I catch Community all the time because it's awesome, as well as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, which I'll get to shortly, but other than those two, not much else. Other TV I watch is restricted to Netflix, and in particular cases, past big shows (Breaking Bad) on channels like AMC, or in our next case, HBO. Game of Thrones kicks so much ass that it's yearly wait becomes an increasing test in one's patience, before one bites the bullet and looks up the plot if they don't already know it. Thankfully, HBO is home to other great shows as well, and probably chief among these now is the recent first season of True Detective. If any show could come close to the ratings that GoT brings in for HBO, True Detective would be the one right on it's heels.

Starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey as the two main detectives Martin "Marty" Hart and Rustin "Rust" Cohle, True Detective's first season follows the two as they investigate a murder in 1995 that spirals into a web of cover-ups and serial killings, over the course of 17 years. It's a hard-boiled detective drama for a modern age, and incredibly engrossing and satisfying in it's 8 episode run. The first season wraps up everything by the end, and the inevitable future seasons are planned as an anthology. Hart and Cohle are initially introduced as unlikable and unusual partners tasked with solving a strange murder, Hart being the procedural and by-the-books detective with monogamist problems, and Cohle as the quiet, brooding, and depressing, yet highly intelligent counter-part. Harrelson and McConaughey are fantastic as the development of their characters grows to the closest point of redemption by the end. It's a great arc that contains the main story almost wholly in 2012, with the two, now older, reciting their respective sides of the case to two other detectives over the course of the many episodes. It's also an arc that has a much more powerful effect that pays off when taking into account the somewhat slower first two episodes, of which both serve to establish the necessary bits of character and scope that, eventually, all comes together before the end.

True Detective also has some excellent camera shots and compositions, from sweeping pans of the Louisiana countryside, to close-ups of the decaying and sometimes unnerving secrets hidden away in the locales best forgotten. There is a particularly fan-freaking-tastic scene in the fourth episode that I won't spoil, but you'll know it when you see it. One of the best scenes in recent memory.
A running theme of the show is found in the use of religious and pagan symbolism and theology that serves to present, on the surface at least, a slight supernatural element that echoes throughout the various run-ins the detectives have with the increasing number of links to the murder. The shot composition presents some chilling thematic representations when it needs to, but never over-does or over-saturates the effect. And much like the shots, the actual narrative also skirts into the territory of the supernatural and super strange, and almost in a way that might throw a viewer off just enough to make them second-guess future events. It adds an unpredictability to the entire story, and each episode reveals something special that, while seemingly minor, amounts to Hart and Cohle's story in a significant way, and all of this results in an incredibly satisfying culmination and resolution by the end that not only feels proper, but well-deserved.

So yes, True Detective is awesome.

Now then, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., hereafter referred to as AoS, because I hate typing out the whole name. Part of the ongoing and developing Marvel Cinematic Universe, this show follows Agent Coulson from the movies, back from the dead as he leads a team of specialists to investigate mysteries in a post-Avengers world, and from within S.H.I.E.L.D itself. I've been watching this series since it debuted last September, and since then I've heard a range of opinions concerning the show, both negative and positive. While I think quite a few of the episodes so far are hit or miss, I think the show's actually pretty decent, and even really cool at times, and it's entirely watchable.

The thing with AoS is that, initially, the supporting cast (i.e. the Agents) aren't that memorable or exciting. Later episodes give the Agents much needed character building episodes, and thankfully there's one early on that kept me pretty involved. Plus, the mystery of Coulson's survival is actually a large part of the first season, and without spoiling it much, it's a great arc with some cool surprises, and a HUGE recent development that is sure to nullify any fears of lacking Marvel association. In fact, that's the one stipulation for watching the show: it does get better. At least, if you marginally liked the earlier episodes. If you did, than the show delivers. There's a lot less talking about things like "after New York" (referring to The Avengers), and "the Asgardians," and more actually showing, and it begins to improve the feel of the show truly being a part of the well-known Marvel canon. There's rumours that AoS will connect in an important way to the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier. If a good enough connection is made, it could be a big hit for AoS, and it's an exciting thought, considering recent events in AoS. Right now though, I'm enjoying AoS, and I'm excited, and cautiously hopeful, for it's future.

And before I saunter off, how about that recent of episode of Cosmos? Wasn't that something! The second episode looked at the most relevant topic to date: life itself, and how it evolved. Featured for a great deal of the part was the Tree of Life, a metaphorical representation of all life on Earth, with the many branches of the tree being all the species that have evolved from common ancestors, represented by the trunk. There was a great deal of in-depth info that this episode brought in regards to the molecular level of DNA. How evolution worked, and how it shaped all life on Earth, including humans, was told with another slick animation. Of particular interest was a really cool analysis of how the eye developed from an underwater environment, and the reaction to the eye when subjected to the surface above. Tyson points out, however, that on the Tree of Life there are a few broken branches, and takes us to the Hall of Extinction, which features five corridors that each showcase a cataclysmic event in Earth's history that wiped out most, but not all, life on Earth. It's a grim reminder of the frailty of life, and before Tyson departs he ominously points to an unmarked sixth corridor, which he says "is for another time." Journeying to Saturn's largest moon, Titan, Tyson points out how life as we know it could not live in such conditions, but also teases that the possibility of life outside of our own on Titan could have the potential to exist. The episode ends with a tribute to Carl Sagan's Cosmos with an animation showing the evolution of humans, and finally, the late Carl Sagan himself speaking over the image of the Tree of Life: "Those are some of the things that molecules do, given four billion years of evolution."