THE FALL SEASON - TUESDAY

Tuesday has thrown up a mixed bag this fall. Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC) is like Marvel without superheroes. I mean, you expect super powers from a marvel story but none are on display. Agent Coulson, who died in one of the films is alive again and in charge of a squad made up of a super soldier, two nerdy boffins, a pilot with a history that she doesn't like to talk about ( but that provides us with flashbacks) and a hacker that they meet on their first outing. They deal with the uncanny and the superhuman, seeking them out and bringing them in for readjustment. It is the same kind of easy watching as Sleepy Hollow, no thinking required but good fun.

CBS are showing my favorite program of recent times - Person of interest. In its second series the big brother spying background seems appropriate what with Mr Snowdens recent revelations, and all. POI is about the surveillance state. A computer genius, Harold Finch played by Michael Emerson of Lost fame creates a machine that analyses data and comes up with names of potential terrorists. However, Harold created a back door into the system to deal with the victims and perpetrators of other crimes that were not related to incidents of terrorism and were being disregarded. All he gets is a social security number. He doesn't know if the person is to be stopped or saved. He recruits an ex special ops soldier called John Reece (Jim Caviezel, number six in The Prisoner remake). Reece deals out the necessary violence and has help from two police officers. Season two has introduced a new member to the team, Reece's old partner in special ops. That's right, the one that tried to kill him. I still love this show although I was sad to see Carter get killed. I rather liked her.

This is the kind of program that falls in to the category of "predictive programming". According to believers in predictive programming the elite are about to radically change society. They want a world govt and international laws that will replace national laws. PP is supposed to get people prepared for the coming changes by subtly releasing information in popular tv shows and movies. This is supposed to soften people up before the implementation of change and also persuade people to accept the changes. I'm not sure if there are statistics to show if it actually works or not but my instinct is that it wouldn't work. I think that people for the most part can tell the difference between fantasy and reality. It would be a lot more logical to push ideas through bogus news stories and documentaries. At least these are made with an assumed air of plausibility which can sway the viewer.

SARAH SHAHI Becomes a regular in the new series

Whatever else it may be POI is gripping and entertaining. In addition, it turns out, it may not be far from the truth either.

Moving on, the CW has gone all spooky, airing The Originals from 8.00 pm to 9.00 pm followed by Supernatural (9.00 to 10.00 pm). The Originals is a new show which is based around a family of a brother, sister and half brother who are the original vampires, now centuries old. At one time they were big in New Orleans but left. Now, 80 years later they return, because half brother Klaus (who is also half vampire and half werewolf) wants to reclaim their own kingdom.

 This is a fantasy world which includes as inhabitants vampires, werewolves and witches, as well as humans. The Vampires rule, have thrown out the werewolves and forbidden witches to practice magic. This kind of stuff is not normally my cup of tea but I have to confess I have found The Originals to be quite fascinating. There are plot twists all over the place that keep it moving forward and good interplay between the main characters. Daniel Gillies is quietly menacing as Elijah Mickaelson and his half brother Klaus, played by Joseph Morgan  is great as the volatile half breed who's usually uninterrupted blood-lust has been slightly tempered by the news that he has got a werewolf girl pregnant. It turns out that half breeds are super powerful so there are those from each community that want his baby killed.

We now go from new program to one that seems will never reach an end. I used to really love this show but it is now downgraded to "like" status because I keep asking myself, What next? I mean the Winchester boys have opened the gates of hell and the world is overrun by demons. To beat them Sam went to hell, coming back, now possessed by the Devil, he has to rid himself of Satan and close the gates of hell. Then in heaven (where the angels are every bit as bad as the demons of hell) there is a power struggle because god is missing, no-one knows where he is. Somewhere along the line Dean gets sent to purgatory along with Castiel, an angel, and takes an entire series to get out. Next they manage to get tricked into shutting down heaven which results in all the angels being expelled and becoming fallen angels who await the receipt of a human host. Oh, and prior to this they stopped the apocalypse so I'm now wondering where the show is going. I hope that is accurate, apologies to fans if not- its season nine and Im working from memory.

 They still do great random comedy episodes such as the recent Halloween special, but I thought that the writers had it nicely sewn up a few series back (possibly season five). The world was saved from an apocalypse, they were settling down with families: it seemed a good place to end it. Mind you, part of me still doesn't want it to end. Another part of me, however thinks that they are now flogging a dead horse.

The final journey in to fantasy for the night comes courtesy of the family channel and is called Ravenswood. It is a spin-off from the Pretty Little Liars series and is a lot less graphic than the previous two shows (well obviously, it's on the family channel, Duh!). Mind you, I'm getting sick of the gratuitous sex and violence on TV. I wish that we could go back to the days when things were just implied. At least it kept the viewers imagination alive. Ravenswood is about a town of that name which a young man and a girl he has befriended on the bus are on their way to. When they get there they see a cemetery which has their graves and the grave of three other teenagers, who they happen to bump in to. The girl has an uncle that they stay with. He is the town Mortician and is decidedly weird. Anyway to be brief the five kids end up in a car together, have a crash and the new girl is killed. Fear not! however, as she hangs around as a friendly ghost and a story begins where the kids want to know why they are targeted for death. They do some research and discover that there have been accidents in the past involving five teenagers. Against this backdrop they discover that there are malevolent spirits that are out to get them.

It's a pleasant show but I suspect it is way too tame for most adult tastes.

Well that's Tuesday done. I am trying not to get too in depth with the analysis. I just want to give a feel for what the shows are like and return to them when the seasonal festivities are over and the tv schedule returns to something like normal, because I'm not sure what is on a mid season break and what is back to its regular slot in the new year.