Honorable Mentions of the 2016/2017 Television Season!

Hello everybody, and welcome back to The CW Torch! Last week, I posted a blog talking about my top ten favorite televisions shows of the 2016/2017 season. Today, I wanted to talk about a few other notable television shows, that I thought were just as entertaining. But, unfortunately weren't able to make the cut of my top ten. So, without further ado, in no particular order, here are my Honorable Mentions of the 2016/2017 season!

Girlboss- Season One (Netflix Original)

*Release Date: April 21st, 2017

Girlboss was a Netflix Original inspired by Sophia Amoruso's best-selling autobiography of the same name. It follows the rise of Sophia's multi-million dollar fashion empire, Nasty Gal, which she started up on the EBay community. I hadn't read the autobiography, so I'm not sure how much the show relates to Sophia's autobiography. Because at the beginning of each episode, it would say that this is a loose retelling of Sophia's claim to fame in the fashion world. But, whether or not if these accounts were actually true to her life, I really enjoyed the storyline and eccentric characters the show had to offer. I also liked that we were able to get another show based in San Francisco, and the pop culture references of the early 2000s.

We obviously follow Sophia Amoruso (played by Britt Robertson), who has a give no F**** attitude. She doesn't really like working underneath people, but is forced to do so when she falls into a money pit. She starts working at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, to gain some sort of an income. But, she hates working there, and comes up with an idea to start her own company. She realizes that she is great at turning old clothes into cool and trendy items, and decides to sell them via EBay. She starts to do really well and is making a steady income, but a few other people on EBay who do the same thing, get jealous of her quick success. They try to crack her to the point of pulling her website off of EBay, which then inspires her to start-up her own website. I thought Sophia was a very fun character to watch grow, and it was interesting to see how she picked herself up from her failures. Because the process how she got back up from her failures, were definitely out there and to an extent extremely inspirational. She was also incredibly sassy and funny, which made the show thoroughly entertaining. I thought Britt Robertson did an amazing job with this character, and thought this was some of her best acting that I've seen from her. I would like to read the autobiography to see how true the show was to the book, because I know that it was a loose retelling of Sophia's life. But, I have no idea if that's how the book was too.

A part from Sophia Amoruso, we met a lot of interesting and eccentric characters, as she accounted her start-up. I really enjoyed RuPaul's character, Lionel, who was Sophia's neighbor. He was definitely a supporting role, but we always found him at pinnacle times of Sophia's story. He always had me cracking up, whenever he'd just barge into Sophia's apartment, and smoke weed/drink with her. I also really liked Nathan (played by Cole Escola), who became friends with Sophia when she was working at the Academy of Art. I thought the relationship he had with his mom was extremely weird, but funny at the same time. I also think it really helped Sophia become a nicer person, because they accepted her for who she was, and treated her as one of their own family members.

I thought this show was absolutely hilarious, had a wide variety of engaging characters, and had a very interesting premise. But, I was so sad to hear that it didn't get renewed for a second season, by Netflix. Because I think it definitely deserved a another season.

Dear White People- Season One (Netflix Original)

*Original Release Date: April 28th, 2017

I think it's safe to say, that Netflix Originals have been stepping up their game recently. Especially with this next series, that debuted shortly after Girlboss, and that is Dear White People. Dear White People is a satirical comedy-drama television series, based on the 2014 film of the same name (which I had no idea that is was based on a film). It follows a group of students of color at a predominantly white school who face social injustice. I enjoyed this show for a number of reasons, one of them being that it focused on a lot of socially and racially injustice instances, that don't get talked about enough in the media. I thought this show came at the perfect time for our country, when people are disregarding those social injustices that people of color face every single day. If there was one issue I did have with this show, I thought it kind of sugar-coated the social injustice aspects they were trying to showcase. But, I do know that it is a satirical television show. So, I know that they were trying to talk about these issues in more of a light-hearted manner.

In Dear White People, we follow Samantha White (played by Logan Browning), who is a radio talk-show host at her college. She discusses socially injustice instances that the students and faculty at her University are completely ignorant of. One of those being a black-faced party that was held by one of the major fraternities of the campus. This black-faced party strikes up a number of issues and disagreements between the small percentage of black students, and the predominantly white university. Each episode follows a certain student and shows their part of the major storyline here, which is the black-faced party.

Many of the issues that were discussed were obviously race, police brutality against black people, sexual identity, and mixed race relationships. One of my favorite storylines of this show, was when we found out that Samantha White has been involved in a relationship with a white male. There were many aspects of their relationship that I really enjoyed, being a child of a mixed race couple. Although, there were certain aspects of this relationship that really bothered me. Mostly of the fact that they completely hid their relationship and kept it under wraps, because of the issues Samantha talks about on her show. And because if they came out as a couple, her friend group would think that she is basically contradicting everything she has fought for and discussed on her show. I honestly didn't think they needed to keep their relationship a secret, because it really seemed like her boyfriend Gabe (played by John Patrick Amedori) really didn't care that she was black or that her friends were black. And was very aware of the issues they faced at their school. There were a lot of other things that I did not particularly like of the portrayal of this type of relationship. But I don't want to go into too much depth with it, because I don't want to spoil a lot. Let's just say I really enjoyed the dynamic of this relationship, and really wished it ended differently. One of my other favorite storylines of this show was that of Lionel Higgins (played by DeRon Horton). He was a character that we don't often see a lot in other television shows or movies, and that is a Gay African American. The only other time I've seen that type of character portrayal was in Moonlight. Lionel was easily one of my favorite characters, even as awkward as he was. I thought he was a breath of fresh air in this "heavy" show, and it was kind of hilarious to see how he dealt with his situation and being completely in love with his straight roommate.

While there were a few issues I had with this show, I thought it was extremely entertaining and an important story to tell. I have no idea if they are filming a second season, but the ending of the first season led me to believe that we might be getting more. I'm also really interested to see what the movie is all about, and if it kind of follows the same outline as the television show. Or if they discuss other issues, different from the show. But, on a side note my half-brother Dominic Williams was in the show for a split second, so that was really cool to see!

Fuller House - Season's One and Two (Netflix Original)

*Original Release: February 26th, 2016

Here we are with another Netflix Original, but honestly are we that surprised? When I first found out that we would be getting a reboot of Full House on Netflix, I was extremely excited. Full House was one of my favorite childhood shows, but don't get me wrong, I was a little nervous when Fuller House first debuted. Mostly because, Full House was a very heart-warming family sitcom. So, I wasn't sure how well Netflix was going to reprise this show, because I've noticed that past reboots of other childhood sitcoms up'd the cheese factor even more. For instance, Girl Meets World, I honestly couldn't watch that show because it looked way too cheesy for my taste. And I like a lot of cheese. But, a part from that it was really great to here that classic opening credits theme song, once again!

Fuller House essentially follows the oldest Tanner daughter, D.J. Tanner (Candace Cameron Bure), as she raises her children on her own. We find out that her husband and father to her children, had been in some sort of a fire accident. D.J. realizes that as hard as she tries, she can't raise her three children on her own. And so she gets help from her sister Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin) and best friend Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber). She also gets a lot of help from her dad and uncles; who we all know as Danny Tanner (Bob Saget), Jesse Katsopolis (John Stamos), and Joey Gladstone (Dave Couiler. Also, how has Uncle Jesse aka John Stamos, not aged a day in those last 20 years?

I was really happy to see this family from San Francisco come back together, after all those years of being a part. It definitely made my little childhood heart happy, seeing all these characters again. It definitely wasn't as good as the original Full House, but was still very entertaining. Some of my favorite things of this show, were the many special guest stars who appeared on a few episodes. Such as Hunter Pence from the San Francisco Giants, who played Stephanie's boyfriend for a hot second. And the Chmerkovski brothers of Dancing With The Stars, I wasn't surprised to see them, since both Candace and Jodie were contestants on that show. Also, how about those awkward moments when they would totally call out the Olsen twins, for not wanting to be a part of the Fuller House reunion.

The Mist- Season One (SpikeTV)

*Original Release: June 22nd, 2017

And finally here is my last Honorable Mention of the 2016/2017 television season, which is surprisingly not a Netflix Original! The Mist is a science-fiction horror-thriller Spike Television series, based on the Stephen King novel and made for television movie. It follows the accounts of the people of small-town Bridgeville, Maine, when an unexplained Mist slowly envelopes this town.

So, when this show first aired in June, I wasn't sure how to feel about it. I wanted to watch it because usually Stephen King television or movie adaption's do extremely well, and this one seemed like a very interesting premise. But, the first half of the season was very slow moving, and I honestly didn't like a lot of the characters. While the main stories that we followed were very uninteresting characters, the major story line was somewhat intriguing for me to continue watching. I really wanted to know what The Mist was, and why it had specifically affected this town. As the characters developed and grew over the ten episode season, I found myself enjoying the show a bit more, than I had in the beginning. Also, a lot more pulse-racing stuff happened as time in The Mist went on. Although, I'm not so sure if I can tell you what The Mist really is, and why it had affected this specific town. All I can tell you, was that it had something to with Nature not being happy with Humanity. While we did figure out some answers to questions I had with a few of the characters. I was still left many questions by the end of the finale. For instance, who the hell is Jonah (Okezie Morro) and what is Arrowhead? And why didn't The Mist affect Alex Cunningham (Gus Birney)? What were those things in The Mist that killed the Priest and not Ms. Raven (Frances Conroy)? I'm not going to go into too much detail of this show, because the finale just happened last week, and I don't want to spoil it for some people. I just wanted to let you all know my thoughts on this show. Because I did enjoy it, I just had some pending problems throughout the season.

Even though I still have a number of questions waiting to be answered, and didn't really like the characters in the beginning. I am still curious of what happens next, and hopefully we'll get those answers next season. Maybe reading the book or watching the made for tv movie, will help with those questions. And I might watch the movie sometime in the future, as well as read the book. But Stephen King novels take me a long time to get through, so who knows what I'll do? While there were a number of things I didn't like about this show, I did very much enjoy the character development, and the cinematography was absolutely gorgeous. Making it a bit more enjoyable to watch.

So, there they are folks, my Honorary Mentions of the 2016/2017 television season. Thank you so much for reading! I hope that I gave you some insight of my favorite shows of this past year, because there were a lot of good ones! I would love to know and hear about some of your favorite television shows, because I am always down for some new material to binge! I am always updating my blogs on my social media apps, so feel free to tell me your thoughts of these shows, or of one's that you all like to watch! I will see you all soon with my July and August reading wrap-up, as well as my Most Anticipated Television shows of the 2017/2018 season!

TTFN,

The CW Torch

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