Doctor Who: Series Seven, Part Two

Doctor Who: Series Seven Part Two, 2013. An alien travels through space and time with a human girl.

Created by Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber & Donald Wilson. Directed by Saul Metzstein (2 episodes), Colm McCarthy (1), Farren Blackburn (1), Douglas Mackinnon (1), Jamie Payne (1), Mat King (1) & Stephen Woolfenden (1). Written by Steven Moffat (2 episodes), Neil Cross (2), Mark Gatiss (2), Stephen Thompson (1) & Neil Gaiman (1). Starring Matt Smith & Jenna-Louise Coleman.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 1/4 (Bad). None of the individual episodes have particularly good stories, and any of their harmlessness is offset by a terrible overarching "mystery."
Characters: 2/4 (Indifferent). Clara barely gets a chance to be a character at all, and when she is it's usually as a collection of Doctor Who Companion tropes (What's that you say? The new companion is a plucky young woman from present-day London? How do they think of these things!). Meanwhile, after three seasons, I still have no idea what the 11th Doctor is like - except that he has a habit of running into River Song, which is almost as annoying as, say, the 6th Doctor's costume.
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). Aaaand all of the optimism I had from the first part of the season is gone entirely. It's still a pretty good show (it is Doctor Who, after all), but my excitement level for more is just about at zero. The reveal at the end of the finale does nothing, since Moffat is so damn predictable at this point that no one would believe for a second that he would actually do anything with the potential to cause real change in the show. Which would be fine, if the show behaved like Doctor Who should - if it were a series of adventures. Instead, he keeps trying to tease things, trying to imply that something really big is coming. And he never delivers. He barely ever manages to deliver comprehensible plot resolutions, much less Something Big. His idea of a major revelation is to have someone say, "this is a major revelation," then carry on as before. This show desperately needs a change - something majorly different, like a female Doctor, or an old Doctor, or an established actor, or a companion that isn't just another in the long line of Rose clones. But Moffat will never do it.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.4/4 (Okay)

Oblivion

Oblivion, 2013. A small team maintains power facilities on a ruined, emptied Earth.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski. Written by Karl Gajdusek & Michael Arndt, based on a book by Kosinski. Starring Tom Cruise.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 0/4 (Terrible)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great). Amazing enough to single-handedly make a boring movie entertaining to watch.
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent). Sometimes it's a retro pop score, which is novel and effective. Sometimes it's a typical 2010s Action/Adventure Movie score, which is mindless and awful.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). It's real science fiction, and that is a rare and precious thing. Despite everything that's wrong with it (and there is a LOT wrong with it), I have say it's good. It fails in most regards when it comes to being a movie. But when it comes to being science fiction, the most important thing is to be worth talking about - to raise questions and interesting ideas that are worth analyzing and discussing. And as far as that goes, it absolutely succeeds. Just don't make me watch it a second time.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.3/4 (Okay)

Breaking Bad: Season Five

Breaking Bad: Season Five [part 1? I'm not clear on how they're labeling this], 2012. A ruthless meth cook builds his empire.

Created by Vince Gilligan. Directed by Michelle MacLaren (2 episodes), Michael Slovis (1), Adam Bernstein (1), Rian Johnson (1), George Mastras (1), Colin Bucksey (1) & Thomas Schnauz (1). Written by Gilligan (2 episodes), Peter Gould (1), Sam Catlin (1), Mastras (1), Gennifer Hutchison (1), Schnauz (1) & Moira Walley-Beckett (1). Starring Bryan Cranston.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 4/4 (Great)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). It's not really as good as previous seasons (not that that's a particularly strong criticism). Skyler has turned into a helpless victim, and most of the other main characters are more or less waiting in the background for the story to get to a point where they're needed again. And now that Walt has real power and resources, a lot of what's happening is stuff that's been done already in movies. But still, I can't wait to see what happens next.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.3/4 (Very good)

Game of Thrones: Season Two

Game of Thrones: Season Two, 2012. Various factions plot to gain political control over a fantasy world.

Created by David Benioff & D. B. Weiss, based on books by George R. R. Martin. Directed by Alan Taylor (4 episodes), David Petrarca (2), David Nutter (2), Alik Sakharov (1) & Neil Marshall (1). Written by Benioff (6 episodes), Weiss (6), Vanessa Taylor (2), Bryan Cogman (1) & Martin (1). Starring Peter Dinklage & Lena Headey.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great). It took several episodes of being frustrated by the flatness of characters (especially Robb Stark) before it became clear that the people in the center of the action are not in fact the main characters.
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). I don't know if I'm the only person watching this show that hasn't read the books, but I find it to be impossible to always know what's going on with every sub-plot. Often when I ask my wife (who has read the books up to this point) why something is happening, or who someone is, the answer is something that wasn't even in the show. But apart from that, it's very engrossing, albeit in a sometimes (deliberately) uncomfortable way.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.8/4 (Good)

Doctor Who: The Snowmen

Doctor Who: "The Snowmen" (tv special), 2012. A girl and a misfit crime-solving gang convince the Doctor to save Christmas again.

Created by Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber & Donald Wilson. Directed by Saul Metzstein. Written by Steven Moffat. Starring Matt Smith & Jenna Coleman.

Concept: 2/4 (Indifferent). Um... your show did this already, Moffat. Remember the 10th Doctor? No?
Story: 1/4 (Bad)
Characters: 3/4 (Good). Victorian Governess Clara is a great companion, up until the end of the episode where they're all like "ooooh, mystery," and why can't they just go on adventures damn it.
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). The plot is complete gibberish, but that's okay because most of the focus is just on the characters, who are a lot of fun.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.7/4 (Good)