Shows That I've Watched Completely (21-35)
Gonna increase this entry for a reason that will be obvious soon. But first, Homeland.
HomelandHomeland came onto my radar when it won the Emmy for Best Drama in its first season ending Mad Men's reign of winning that award for four years in a row. I hadn't even heard of the show until that point. When watching that first season, I get why it was immediately popular. It's got a great premise and immediately starts building suspense and a lot of forward momentum to keep you hooked for more. Unfortunately, it also never really was able to keep up with how well the first season went with a lot of diminishing returns. It started off as kind of trying to be a semi-realistic look at the current state of espionage and global politics at the time while still wanting to have larger than life plots and missions. It continued trying to do that while also basically becoming its own alternate reality as the show continued since the events that were unfolding on the show weren't always meshing up with actual things in life. This also created a contrast in which people lost their suspension of disbelief over the larger than life plots because of the show trying to have it both ways. For instance, the show was already going off the rails by the end of the second season when like the second most wanted terrorist in the world is somehow able to get into the US and meet an operative.
If you can accept the show would do dumb things and just roll with it, you could still be entertained. That push and pull of smart and stupid also meant as a viewer you'd feel conflicted of liking and disliking the show throughout its run. It also seems hard to discuss Homeland without looking at it by its seasons as the various plots each season varied in quality. Would I still recommend it? Yes, on the condition that you don't necessarily try to binge it all at once. I think it helped watching it slowly air over time season by season to stick with it. If you binge it, you'll probably get sick of it at some point faster. Maybe you return later but maybe not depending on how much it could burn you out.
And here we get to the reason why I went with 15 shows for this post.
![Cheesy :D](http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/Smileys/default/cheesy.gif)
I sort of broke up the alphabetical order of things with this as I wanted to just post these shows more in order from oldest to newest and sort categorized them all as under "Jamie" when first making my list. I wondered whether I should bother listing a whole bunch of cooking shows like this but this is TV I've ended up liking and rewatching a bunch of times. Stuff like 30 Minute Meals or 15 Minute Meals have around 40 episodes each so it's a significant chunk of time to watch it all. Moreover, most of the shows have their own sort of identity and moods which might seem odd to hear if you just think of a standard cooking show.
What might be surprising is that I really only got into all of Jamie's shows early 2019. Before that, I didn't really think much of the dude. I'm not going to try and sell you all on watching his stuff but I'll just say that I've appreciated the more positive vibes of his stuff. It's also quite instructive to be able to actually see a person cook the recipes in a cookbook. Most of his shows are based off his latest cookbook. While one can read a recipe and figure out what to do, it still helps to see things in action. Particularly with the 30-Minute and 15-Minute meal stuff he did since that relies on doing a few things at once which is something that takes more practice and skill.
While it might be surprising to think there'd be much to say about each of these shows, you know me, the wall of text creating machine. However, I'm just going to try and limit things to a couple sentences each and keep this train moving so here go.
Jamie's 30 Minute MealsThis is about as far back as I'd want to go with his cooking shows. Having seen some clips of footage of older stuff, they look pretty rough compared to the production quality of these episodes. This is also what I'd call the end of the "young upstart" Jamie era or the image that was part of why I wasn't that interested in his stuff. I do like this series as sort of giving me a goal of being better at multi-tasking in the kitchen and almost think it is necessary to see in order to fully understand the directions in the cookbook because of that multi-tasking.
Jamie's 15 Minute MealsThis series is kind of the transition from young adult Jamie to Dad Jamie which isn't exactly true since he's probably at 40 when making it. Unlike the previous series which tried to put together a bunch of different dishes, the meals here were basically one big dish like Chicken Cacciatore or maybe some prepared meat with a side or two. There's definitely a bit of a difference in the production from 30-minutes being a bit more refined and slicker.
Save With JamieThis is a bit of a weaker series because time has changed what the pricing is and what might be available in the UK isn't the same for the rest of the world. That said, the recipes will still stand up if you want to use them. This also seems to be Jamie trying to deconstruct the idea of a cooking show as he shows more behind the scenes of his cooking operation and showing the cast and crew doing the filming.
Jamie's Comfort FoodThis is kind of an odd show especially when considering Jamie's usually trying to talk more on healthy eating and putting forth balanced meals. Here he's putting forth his take on the ultimate lasagna or grilled cheese sandwich and desserts. At the same time, I think that's why he also seems to have made the recipes pretty elaborate to put people off from making a lot of this stuff. He's also bringing in his family and friends more on this and shooting stuff around his place making it almost like "Instagram Life Shots".
Jamie's Super Food Family ClassicsA show recently popped up on Netflix about Live to 100: Secrets of Blue Zone Places which I guess are places noted where people live the longest. Quickly glanced at the episodes to see it's pretty much the same places Jamie visits and showcases in this series. A mix of travel and recipes.
Jamie's Quick and Easy FoodI feel this series is when he set the bar for what a cooking show should be. Every recipe on this show and the cookbook is based around 5 ingredients (not including seasoning stuff like salt, pepper, oil or vinegar). Because of this, he can bang out 4 recipes in a 30 minute episode. So, it makes it extremely appealing to feel like you could cook most of what is being shown and the photography seems to have hit a high point here that he's yet to surpass.
Jamie Cooks ItalyMuch more of a travel show highlighting various spots in Italy and what locals are doing and then putting a bit of a spin on their recipes. However, it does feel like this is a lot more of a specialized cookbook and show and that duplicating these recipes would be a lot harder outside of Italy. At least he and Gennaro seem to be having a good time in making the show.
Jamie's Ultimate VegAnother mix of travel and cooking but Jamie the locations are in different spots instead of one place like Italy. Again, the travel portions are neat to see how other cultures eat and cook things. The cooking portions still feel like they have some of the Quick and Easy Meals momentum but they've got more than 5 ingredients here.
Jamie: Keep Cooking Family FavoritesThis was done during the Covid years and filming is done around his property indoors and outdoors. His family is making cameo appearances throughout. The cookbook was sort of his attempt to do another Quick and Easy Meals as that seems to have been the one to get the most positive reaction but here the recipes can go up to 8 ingredients. The show Fargo will sometimes contrast the cozy, maybe slightly dull but still loving home atmosphere of the good guys of the show compared to the anxiety and lacking in love home life of the bad guys. That former vibe kind of comes through on this show where you might think more about how nice it would be to live the life Jamie's got more than the cooking not that the recipes aren't lacking in appeal here. However, having his son Buddy do a few cooking segments felt a bit of overindulgent. It's fine to love your kids but that doesn't mean the viewer will have the same pride you might feel in seeing you child learning your craft.
Jamie Oliver: TogetherThis felt more cynical like trying to latch on to the desire people had of seeing Covid restrictions lift and being able to get more freedom to start resuming what life used to be like. It's about making large dinners for a big gathering that can be prepped (and probably need to be) both the day ahead and when people are coming over. Not sure how many people are looking for a cookbook to make big feasts like it has. Still the same vibes as the previous series in being shot around Oliver's home with family and friends around.
The Great Cookbook Challenge With Jamie OliverSo far, the only type of "food competition" show Oliver has ever done. Yet, he's more the host on this as the judging is done by others while he just helps the contestants around the building that houses his cooking operation. There is no real cooking instruction with this show and you aren't missing much if you skip it.
Jamie's One-Pan WondersIt's alright. More your average cooking type show. Jamie's returned to a studio for shooting this one. Just feels lesser than what has come before though. If ranking these shows, it would probably be right in the middle.
Joe Pera Talks With YouHooray! The cooking talk is over! But the good vibes are not. I'd heard positive things about this show at the time it was airing its second season back when The A.V. Club website had worthwhile content. It was only around late 2021 that I finally saw an episode on Adult Swim and I was immediately a fan of it. It was the second episode of its first season and I watched through all that first season. Later tracked down the second and third seasons and am really disappointed that the series was cancelled after its third season. Most of the episodes are around 13 minutes long with a couple that are about 30 minutes so it's a pretty easy show to watch through but as tempting as that might be I usually like watching 2 or 3 and savoring them.
But how to describe this show? In a way, it is like an examination of life and looking closely at all the ways one can find joy or satisfactions from it. The delights that can be found in breakfast foods, shopping at the grocery story, growing a bean arch, or in sitting. Those are just some of the topics that can come up. Yet, it's also got a sweet and soft side of following along this fictional Joe Pera's life as he navigates the ups and downs that happen in life like love, death and interacting with other people. It occurred to me as writing this that Joe Pera himself is almost like a more modern version of Mister Rogers with his manner of delivery and talking to the home viewer but am disappointed to see someone else has had that same thought which is mentioned on Wikipedia when I was looking up a couple things on the show. Just when I thought I had come up with a great way to describe the show. Perhaps it can seen also be seen as yet another variation of the Andy Griffith show in which a genial main character in an idealized laid back small town dealing with the situations that can arise from the people around him.
In any case, it's a series I keep wanting to show other people in my life and hope more people check out. Highly recommended.
John AdamsBig admission coming up. I was not born and raised in the USA.
![Shocked :o](http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/Smileys/default/shocked.gif)
As such, US History wasn't as thoroughly taught to me here in... Sao Tome and Principe (yeah! that's the ticket...) so watching this mini-series was very informative to me and helped give me a better picture on some of the events that were happening leading to the American Revolution and beginning of the country under its first presidents. It did so by still being entertaining. Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney gave some strong performances here and when thinking of them, this series usually pops up first in my mind for them. It's been over a decade since I saw this and I'd be up for watching it again now so clearly did something right.