July 2015 - Favorite shows.

I stream a lot of shows online, typically via Hulu but sometimes through Viki or some other -- legal -- site. Here are my favorite shows right now:

• Bitter Blood (Partners by Blood). Just the show's intro is worth it, from its sequencing and the song they used. Love that song; it's totally badass. The show's name, Partner's by Blood, is sort of a bad translation; Bitter Blood is more appropriate because bitter ice coffee is used as a metaphor for blood relations. Hilarious show, but just 11 episodes and one season, sad to say.
• Doctor X, the second season. If you haven't watched the first season, the second season builds on the first. It's just as entertaining and hilarious as Dr. House, but no cynicism.
• Assassination Classroom. This anime proved so wildly popular, they've made it into a live action film that debuted earlier this year. Koro-sensei is an extraterrestrial squid, and one that is full of surprises.
• Empresses in the Palace. A historical piece that is just 6 episodes (each is about 1 1/2 hours), but is absolutely fabulous. The color, the spectacular authenticity and acting makes this show a lot of fun to watch.

This one is on the edge between okay and worth watching:

• Switch Girl! I love this show because it's absolutely laugh out loud funny and silly. But the problem is, it's a love-story comedy genre that has been well-tread, of late, especially if you watch K-Drama. You know the story line: Girl falls in love with boy, has difficulty getting boy but gets him anyway, and in return boy must fend off other boys from getting his girl. If that sounds familiar, it's because every other love-story comedy coming out of Japan or Korea uses it.

As for shows that I'm not streaming (aka discs in my Netflix queue) this is what I'm watching in July:

• Rick and Morty, season 1. If you saw their opening sequence during the Simpsons this past year, you might know why this show is worth watching. You can stream some of the episodes for free, but you can't watch the entire season 1 on Adult Swim unless you are able to log in with a cable provider.
• House of Cards, season 3. Discs start shipping next week...guess what's at the top of my queue?
• Penny Dreadful, season 1. It's a really disturbing show -- the first two episodes were included in disc 2 of Californication's final season -- nearly X-Files-ish, which of course means that I have to watch it!