The Off Ski Season (aka My TV Watching Season)

This month has been our off month for cross-country skiing. Over the course of the past month I have done very little physical activity. I went on a few short "runs", if you could even call them that. They were more like walks with sprinkles of running thrown in there.

I have spent my off month doing basically two things. Studying and watching TV. I am currently taking AP geography and the AP test is rapidly approaching. Even though I am well aware that I should be studying for that, I have been spending most of my time watching TV. I know this blog is supposed to be about cross-country skiing, but oh well. This is how I've been wasting time lately in the absence of skiing.

Monday: SCORPION! Scorpion is a show about a group of geniuses who work for homeland security and solve crimes. The team consists of Walter, Toby, Happy, Sylvester, Paige and Cabe. Everyone has their own special talents (i.e. programming, math, behavior analysis, etc.) that they add to the team. This show is so intelligent and incredibly entertaining to watch.

Team Scorpion!! (credits)

Tuesday: Pretty Little Liars and Shadowhunters. Pretty Little Liars is a very complicated TV show about four girls who are being stalked by "A". Shadowhunters is based on the Mortal Instruments series. For those of you who don't know it is about a girl, Clary Fray, who realizes that she is a shadowhunter (part human, part angel). She gets sucked into the "shadow world", which is the hidden world where vampires, werewolves and demons exist.

Pretty Little Liars (credit)

Wednesday: Survivor. Survivor is a reality TV show where contestants compete for a million dollars and the group votes one person off each week. It is a mental, physical and social game where they compete in challenges for rewards (food) and immunity (they can't get voted off).

Thursday: Grey's Anatomy and How to Get Away with Murder. I already wrote a blog post about this two shows, so I won't go into too much detail describing them. However, they are both incredibly good and I highly recommend watching them (just make sure you don't have anything to do because it will take up all of your time).

Friday: The Amazing Race. The Amazing Race is a reality TV show where teams of two race around the world competing in challenges for a million dollars.

Saturday: Netflix shows: Psych and House M.D.  Psych is a comedy show about a fake physic detective who solves crimes for the SBPD. The show is remarkably funny and I laugh watching every episode. House M.D. is a show about a doctor who only takes on extreme cases and solves them by treating them, instead of running labs. House will make you really frustrated at first (like who just treats someone for a disease they might not have?), but you will grow to love his (extremely sarcastic) sense of humor.

The pose is actually pretty cool in the show (credit)

Sunday: Quantico. Quantico is a TV about a group of FBI agents attempting to figure out who the terrorist is. Plot twist: the terrorist is working from within the FBI. The main character, Alex, has to race to find out who the terrorist is before they kill her friends.

So, those are my recommendations. I have more, but this blog post would be way too long if I talked about all of them. Thanks for listening to me ramble on and on about my favorite TV shows.

- Claire

Shondaland

Some of you may know the name "Shonda Rhimes", while others may not. Anyone who watches Grey's Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder, Scandal or the Catch, knows who I'm talking about. Shonda Rhimes is the woman who continues to mess with my life every single Thursday (yes, I'm aware that I'm over exaggerating, but just go with it). Let me back up for a second. She is the writer of several hit shows on ABC.  Every single Thursday is Shonda's night and I watch her shows no matter how many times I say "I swear I'm never watching this again".

I only watch two of her shows, Grey's Anatomy (GA) and How to Get Away with Murder (HTGAWM). Grey's Anatomy is a show following a group of surgical interns, residents and attendings and is doing pretty well considering it's on its 12th season. HTGAWM is a show following a group of law students and their professor, which is only on the second season but has had more plot twists than I've ever seen in my entire life.

I first started watching GA with a few of my friends last summer and finished the first eleven seasons on netflix in a few weeks. This show will frustrate you in so many ways. First off, they will kill almost every character you like (spoiler alert: they all die) or have them leave the show in some other way. Secondly, they will ruin all of your favorite ships. You have probably been in love with Japril or Merder or Calzona for at least one period of time. Oh well, they will probably have some incredibly tragic breakup that will honestly make you scream and then hope and pray they get back together (which, sadly probably won't happen).

I feel you (photo credit: someecards.com)

Somehow they manage bring in new characters who you hate (like with a burning passion) and then a season later you love them. This will also happen with your least favorite (now favorite) ships. When the show first started I loved Cristina and Burke, then Cristina and Owen and now I'm team Owen and Amelia. Sometimes I just don't understand how I can hate a character so much and then love them a month later. So props to you Shonda. I feel like I should also mention that the show isn't just rage inducing. The show is also incredibly funny, has some great quotes and trust me you''ll get used to watching all the surgeries (check out my friend Claire's blog post about it).

Grey's Anatomy (photo courtesy of Yahoo TV)

The next show is How to Get Away with Murder (HTGAWM). This one is substantially more messed up than Grey's Anatomy. The show is about five law students who get chosen to do an internship with their teacher, Annalise Keating. Each season has one main case that they are trying to solve and each episode has another little case. As you could probably (actually probably not) guess, some of the interns are involved in these cases (like involved as in committed a crime). The show will keep you guessing who did for the entire season and you will be completely and utterly shocked when you find out who it was. However, everything will also come together and make perfect sense. I honestly don't know how she can keep track of these plot lines, they are so confusing sometimes.

How to get away with murder (credits)

I watched all of season 1 over the course of 24 hours. I had ski training the next morning and had to leave with 15 minutes left in the season finale. Let's just say I don't recommend doing that (talk about a cliff hanger).

I have yelled, screamed, cried, and laughed hysterically watching all Shonda Rhimes productions. If you don't feel like getting emotionally attached to every character, I would not recommend watching Grey's Anatomy or How to Get Away with Murder. However, you should watch them because they are really good and they will take you on a crazy emotional roller coaster.

Accurate representation of my life (photo credit: someecards.com)

- Claire