Laura’s Summer of 2011 Top TV Shows

I spend most of my TV watching doing something else at the same time, particularly folding laundry when the kids are in bed or nursing Penelope. Truthfully the shows I watch in the daytime most often happen to be Dinosaur Train, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, or other such children’s fare. I relish when I am actually able to watch a show that is for adults.


I haven’t talked about TV for a while on this blog so I thought I’d do a quick summary of what I was watching this summer and my thoughts.

Falling Skies – Ben and I both loved the new TNT show, Falling Skies. It takes place after an alien invasion has destroyed the earth as we know it. The invaders harness human children for some mysterious, nefarious purpose. A group of survivors has banded together as the second Massachusetts. They are trying to survive, while also to figure out how to save the harnassed children and destroy the enemy. I’m hooked and am eagerly awaiting the next chapter next summer. Noah Wylie as Tom Mason is great, but I am particularly engaged by Colin Cunningham as John Pope the bad/good guy. He is the leader of a gang, but seems to have a heart of gold (perhaps) beneath it all.

Doctor Who – Ben and I love Doctor Who, but I’ll admit that we are very behind. We just watch the 2010 Christmas episode and have yet to watch this year’s episodes. Matt Smith as the new Doctor and Karen Gillian as Amy are interesting, but I don’t like them as much as David Tennant as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose. I loved Russell T. Davies scripts, and haven’t been caught up as yet in the new writer Steven Moffat. I still hold out hope for this year’s episodes.

Outcasts – This show was sadly cancelled in Britain after one (short) season. Unfortunately we’ll never know how it ends. Ben and I both enjoyed the show, but felt it faltered near the end, which could be why it was not picked up again. It had an interesting concept where the Earth has been destroyed by some unexplained mishap and a group of survivors is trying to make it on another planet. Great actors and interesting plot lines started the show. It was worth watching.

Camelot – I am a great fan of Arthurian legend and love to watch movies, mini-series, and shows about Arthur and crew. I made it through the pilot and one episode of Camelot and was done with the show. I thought Jamie Campbell Bower as Arthur was insipid and weak, which is a problem when he is the lead actor. I loved Joseph Fiennes as Merlin and thought he held some promise. I was annoyed by the changing of the legend, particularly that Guinevere was married to Leontes, (a new member of the round table not included in the legend as a knight who saved Arthur’s life) and cheating on him with Arthur. There was already a great love triangle in the legend and it included LANCELOT. For a great way to show the heartache of this love triangle, read Persia Woolley’s brilliant Guinevere trilogy and skip this show.

The Tudors – I love period costume dramas. I don’t have Showtime, so I was happy when BBC America aired Seasons 1 and 2 of The Tudors this summer. While this show isn’t the most historically accurate, I loved it. The Tudors are an interesting family and I loved the actors, outfits, and drama. I enjoyed that the version I watched was censored to not include that many love scenes – but just enough. I really hope BBC America airs the next couple of seasons soon.

Pillars of the Earth – I enjoyed the novel more, but The Pillars of the Earth mini-series was pretty good. My only complaint was that the actors never seemed to age through the 20 odd years that the show takes place. I particularly loved Rufus Sewell as Tom the Builder. It was certainly an interesting period of history and I do love historical dramas!

Masterpiece Mystery – I enjoyed watching Hercule Poirot and Ms. Marple this summer. Zen was also a great series. I’ll admit that I didn’t watch Inspector Lewis. I love Masterpiece Theatre, and look forward to Sherlock returning to Masterpiece Mystery next season.

How the States Got Their Shapes – The History Channel has angered me in recent years by never actually showing any history. While Ben and the boys enjoy Ice Road Truckers and the like, I do not. I used to be able to just turn on the History Channel and leave it on enjoying the programs, but those days are long gone. I was more than a little excited by this new show. I like host Brian Unger’s quirky humor as well as interesting history lessons about how the states were formed. I really liked the Green Bay, Wisconsin segment!

Inspector America – Has this show been cancelled? There were about six episodes or so at the beginning of the summer and my sons loved them! As an engineer, I appreciated the call to arms to repair this country’s infrastructure. The boys and I enjoyed watching this show and hope it continues!

Now that summer is over, I’m happy checking out new shows and returning favorites. Hopefully I keep more up to date on my blog and will at least post an update every few months on favorite shows!

What were your favorite shows this summer? What are you excited to watch this fall?

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Argh. I wrote the review for this once, but it accidently got deleted. I'm sure it won't be quite as good the second time around, but here I go! I started writing this last week, so the dates are a bit off!

I just finished the nearly 1000 page opus The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett today after working at it for nearly two weeks. It was well worth the time and effort. I thought the book was excellent and another good selection by Oprah. It was rather a surprising selection though - this book is a true historical fiction novel, which is something I really like, but I haven't noticed Oprah picking very much historical fiction through the years. I had never heard of this book before and am glad Oprah picked it and put it in the spotlight so that I could learn about it and read it!

The Pillars of the Earth is a sweeping historical epic that is set in medival England and surrounds the building of a new cathedral in the fictional village of Kingsbridge. The novel also centers on the lives of the main people who have an influence on the cathedral such as Tom Builder, a master builder and architect, and his family as well as Prior Philip, the prior in charge of the monastery that commisions the building of the new cathedral after the old one burns. There are several very interesting colorful main characters that show up throughout the novel.

The novel is set during the era after King Henry I's death and the civil war that broke out between those that supported Henry's daughter Matilda and his nephew Stephen to be the next ruler of England. This civil war lasted for around two decades and is a fascinating era of history I've enjoyed reading about previously.

I was very interested in the politics in the novel that Prior Philip had to struggle with in order to get his cathedral built. With the changing tides of the civil war, the fortunes also changed at the building site. I know politics are involved with engineering and construction projects these days, but it was interesting to note that they were even more so 800 years ago!

I enjoyed the novel as it wove the stories of several peoples' lives through the uniting project of the cathedral construction. The stories were very intriguing and I especially liked how there were strong female characters. Even though this was a long novel, I found myself unable to put it down and wondering how the characters would be able to find their way through each trial!

I thought the "evil" characters were kind of cardboard characters. After awhile, I found myself wondering how evil these people could get!! There were slight additions to each evil character as you made your way through the novel that helped round them out. William Hamleigh's fear of hell for instance helped to round him out and explain some of his actions.

I also thought the last 1/3 or so of the book lost steam. It may be because I really liked the characters of Tom Builder and Prior Philip and they weren't central to the story at this point in the novel. Did anyone else feel this way?

If you are looking for a very interesting, well written book about the 12th century - I highly recommend this novel!