What You Should Be Watching Now

These holidays I'm trying really hard to start (and hopefully finish) as many television shows that I have been meaning to watch as possible. So far I've started Mad Men and the second season of The Wire which I have been meaning to do for a long time. As hard as I am trying to get through these, I'm also struggling to keep up with what's on television at the moment.
But here's what I think you should be keeping up with that's currently airing on television:

• ARROW (Season 2): Billionaire Oliver Queen spent five years shipwrecked on an island and has come home to be a masked vigilante by night. It's based on DC comics, and in the latest episode there is a new character named Barry Allen who I hope gets plenty more screen time because he is gorgeous. The show is a little bit cheesy and over dramatic but it's well worth it just for the Oliver/Felicity scenes this season that have been making me swoon and laugh at the same time.
• SLEEPY HOLLOW: Based on the short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"written in 1820 by Washington Irving but it's based in the modern day. Basically it's about Lieutenant Abby Mills who solve supernatural cases with the newly resurrected Ichabod Crane from the 1700s. I'm not entirely fussed on the crimes that they solve and how they go about it. The reason I love it is because of the relationship between Mills and Crane, which is really cute and hilarious at the same time. My favourite parts of the show are watching Crane learn about modern day life and his reactions to it. 
• MASTERS OF SEX: A obstetrician and an ex-nightclub singer work together in the 1950s to learn more about human sexuality. Okay, so with this one there are only two episodes left now, but if you haven't bothered with it yet, start now. It's got a great cast, including Michael Sheen (from Diana, Midnight in Paris, Twilight etc) and Lizzy Caplan (Mean Girls, New Girl) who are the main two and I could basically just tell you to watch it because these two are amazing, but there is also the fact that it's fresh, interesting and very clever. 
• ELEMENTARY (Season 2): Modern day Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson, set in New York. This show just keeps getting better and better. I love everything that they do and I cannot say enough good things about this show. Everyone needs to watch Elementary, it's just so perfect. Ten extra points for Johnny Lee Millers (Holmes) facial expressions. 

• REIGN: Queen Mary Stuart of Scotland is sent to France because she has been promised to Francis, the Dauphin of France since they were little. I don't think it can even be called historical fiction because they've basically just used the same names and then made the stories completely their own (and the costumes are all stunning but couldn't ever be called accurate). I was recommended to watch it by a friend and I'm so glad they told me too, it's quickly become one of my favourite shows at the moment (probably a second to Elementary). I look forward to it every week now, and Toby Regbo who plays Francis is a very large reason for this. 
• THE CARRIE DIARIES (Season 2): Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City when she was a teenage girl. I'm loving this show more now it's in its second season. I have to admit the last few episodes of the first season really started grating on me because it got so repetitive with Carrie and Sebastian's relationship. I am a massive lover of Sebastian and his character but the whole "Is he good enough for her? Are they from two different worlds?" thing got a little boring after a while. Just decide and move on already, Carrie! Now the young Samantha has been introduced and I am loving her, but I'm a little bias because she was my favourite in SATC too. 

Also, I've also decided to make a page for shows that I'm currently watching and how up to date with them that I am, and shows that I want to watch. I feel like there should be so many more recommendations on this list but I don't watch them so I'm not able to. I want you to know that I don't leave shows like Sons of Anarchy or The Walking Dead (which I know are currently on TV at the moment) off the list because I don't like them, it's just because I haven't got to watching them yet. 

Let me know what shows you're loving at the moment in the comments!  

Arrow

Warning: This post contains small spoilers.

You might remember not so long ago I went through an enormous phase of just talking about Teen Wolf. I'm still not really over it, I've just had to move onto other things, but lately I've been trying to see what other projects the cast have been doing and watching those.
I watched Dylan O'Brien (who plays Stiles Stilinski) in New Girl and I'm going to watch The Internship, which he is also in, later this weekend. The other show I wanted to watch was Arrow. One of my all time favourite characters from Teen Wolf was Jackson, played by Colton Haynes. Now, I say 'was' because he left the show last year to join the cast of Arrow. So although I'm devastated that he's left, I decided the only way to make me feel better was to watch him on his new show.

The problem was, he came into Season One at episode 15 - so I had quite a task ahead of me before I was rewarded with Colton. I had watched the first episode a few months back, and I had liked it but for some reason I had never got around to watching the next episode, just another case of too many shows and too little time. So I started it up again and found what I expected to be a chore actually not quite so terrible. Basically the premise is that billionaire Oliver Queen (played by the gorgeous Stephen Amell) was on a boat with his father when it hit stormy seas and the boat sunk. He and his father survived but his father soon died too. Oliver makes it onto a deserted island and the show starts after he is rescued from the island five years later with a mission that his dying father gave him to save the city.
It's actually based on a comic book, so it's not really expected to be believable or anything like that. He turns into a Batman-esque vigilante who, like Batman, doesn't use a gun to bring down the bad guys.
Although the writing could really do with being a little less over the top, the characters are very likeable and the plot is quite interesting. Each episode has flashbacks to the time he spent on the island, and over the course of the season you see a glimpses of why Oliver is so determined to be a better person.
When Colton Haynes did arrive in episode fifteen as Roy Harper, I was shocked. I had totally forgot he was even meant to be in that episode. However, I did find that the episodes that he is in, I enjoy better.

Arrow Season Two started last week, and there is another new episode out tomorrow. The first episode of the new season was really good and made me really excited to see how the rest of the season goes. I also spotted the stunning Dylan Bruce who plays Paul in Orphan Black.

What do you guys think? Have you given Arrow a go? Is there a show you only started because an actor you loved was in it? Let me know in the comments!