Sci-Fi Bri's Television Picks

Sci-Fi Bri's Television Picks:

Note: With the onset of the fall television season, my DVR machine is working overtime so that I can watch as many shows as possible with a machine that can only record two shows at once. Some fortunate viewers have DVR machines that can record up to 5 shows at once. I am considering getting Netflix and HuluPlus, if I can find the time to make the extra expense worthwhile.

 Two excellent shows premiering together on different networks:

"Blacklist"(NBC) [Mondays 10 p.m. Eastern Time] Raymond Reddington (James Spader), one of the FBI's top 5 public enemies, turns himself in to the FEderal headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He is immediately arrested, but he has important information about a planned kidnapping of an army general's daughter and a potential terrorist attack by the would-be kidnapper. Reddington definitely has an agenda, and for some reason he states that he will only speak to a rookie FBI profiler named Elizabeth Keane, who just recently graduated from the FBI academy in Quanico, Virginia. Reddington somehow knows a lot about Liz Keane's past as a child with a criminal for a father. The relationship between FEd and criminal is reminiscent of that of Hannibal Lector and Clarice STarling from  "The Silence of the Lambs". A lot of the action of this show is very cinematic. Parents should be aware though that there are some very violent scenes which may be disturbing to young or sensitive viewers. I plan to watch or record this show every week.


"Hostages" (CBS)  [Mondays 10 p.m. Eastern Time] Starring Toni Colette, Dylan McDErmott, etc.

         FBI hostage negotiator Duncan Carlisle (Dylan "American Horror Story" McDErmott) singlehandedly ends a potentially violent hostage situation by shooting what appears to be a hostage who turns out to be a hostage-taker in disguise. THe police who preceded him are none too happy with his actions. Carlisle has a wife in a coma, and he is involved with a bunch of people who plan to have the President killed in a very unusual manner. Carlisle and crew surveilled the family of a female surgeon named  Ellen Sanders (Toni  "United States of Tara" Colette) who is about to operate on the President. THe crew of coconspirators storm the Sanders household, sedate the family dog with drugs, and take the family hostage while wearing skimasks. THe hostagetakers threaten to kill the husband and children if surgeon Ellen fails to secretly administer an untraceable substance to the President that will kill him. THis, like "Blacklist" is a cinematic series involving lots of suspense. THere is also a backstory about the Sanders, with a secretly pregnant teenage daughter, a philandering husband, and a son who deals marijuana and who owes a reputedly violent drug dealer thousands of dollars. I enjoy both "Blacklist" and "Hostages". If I had to choose between one show or the other I would have a difficult time. I don't envy people who don't have a DVR machine.