Episode 841: Settling Back Into Routines...

Had the entire afternoon free after my seminar, so I've been hard at work catching up with my TV shows. The premiere of Showtime's Episodes felt a bit flat to me, despite the stellar pedigree of its writers. The premise is novel enough, tracking the obstacles a couple faces in getting their show adapted in America, but the execution feels awkward. Speaking of adaptations, the American remake of Shameless has also premiered on Showtime, and I think that's actually pretty interesting. American remakes can be disastrous (see MTV's upcoming remake of Skins), but this one of Shameless is saved largely by Emmy Rossum. In the pilot, anyway. The show reunites her with Dragonball Evolution co-star Justin Chatwin, and hopefully, Shameless proves to be less of a disaster than that film was. Showtime has a history of success with character-driven shows (Californication, Dexter, United States Of Tara, Weeds), so I'm willing to give the Shameless remake the benefit of the doubt for a couple of weeks more. You'd think that my brain had turned to mulch by now, but I finally read the whole of A Chaste Maid In Cheapside too. This was after a moment of mild embarrassment earlier during the seminar when I had to plead jet lag for not knowing a plot point involving Touchwood Senior. Now reading Mindblast for Thursday, and quite enjoying it too.