Television (Fringe, Flashforward, Heroes)
I spent almost all weekend catching up on season one of Fringe as well as the two episodes of season two that have already aired. Some basic thoughts under the cut. Includes spoilers for the whole series, including what's been aired in season two.
Okay, obviously I liked this show better the second time around. It did, actually, get better as the season went on and it crawled out of the "blatant X-Files rip-off" shadow more and more. Not that I'm against blatant X-Files rip-offs per se, because if you're going to steal then steal from the best, but it's just not the same without Mulder and Scully. I'm actually really glad that Fringe doesn't try to copy those character dynamics, at least. It would have been a much poorer show for it.
Anyway, it's pretty standard J.J. Abrams strengths and weaknesses: the show hurtles from one cool and/or shocking scene/plot twist to another with only some vague lead-up or connections. Which means you're kind of hooked by the "what happens next?" factor, but if you stop to think about it for any length of time you realize that very little of it makes sense or is even a logical progression of the narrative. Which I can live with as long as cool stuff keeps happening. Lose that, though, and it won't be pretty.
(also, how has Walter Bishop been involved with/invented everything having to do with fringe science? It's nothing but a convenient plot device and a lazy one at that)
And I've found both season two episodes pretty dull. That may be because I was suffering serious Fringe fatigue at that point since I watched 22 episodes in like 36 hours, but I'm pretty disappointed with the beginning of the season after the way the first season ended. I'm also kind of mad that I can't just mainline season two like I did for season one. I'm going to try and watch this show live this week, just to see what it would be like. This might end up being another one of those shows (like Lost) that I don't watch on TV at all and just wait for the whole season to come out so I can mainline it over the course of a weekend.
Characters: Olivia Dunham turned out not to be as dull or generic as she first seemed to me back when I yawned through the premiere. She's actually not bad. I don't know if I like where they seem to be going with her in season two, though, but I'll wait and see. I always thought the Bishops were the best part of the whole show and I still think that. I'm not entirely sure why Astrid is even there. As the first season went on she had a few good scenes playing off Walter, but a handful of humorous scenes doesn't justify making someone a main character. I just don't get it. I really wish they would give her some kind of personality, because the glimpses of pseudo-personality we've seen from her imply that she could actually be interesting. But that seems even less likely now that they've got random new girl whose name I don't remember. The one with the Bible who's snooping around Fringe division. Yeah, her.
Also: you know, I can get on board with the weird shit. Walter invented a device that can transport someone through time and space? Sure. Parallel universes that some people can travel back and forth between? Why not. A drug that gives people super mental powers? I'll buy it.
Gigantified cold viruses? NO. Just...no.
Oh! And I also saw the first episode of Flashforward, since I did say I was going to watch it.
Well, I wasn't on the edge of my seat or anything; in fact, the pilot seemed a little sloppy and stilted. Looks like there's a good cast (and I didn't even realize Joseph Fiennes was the main character or I would have been way more excited to see the show), but they seemed pretty stiff, particularly Jack Davenport. Some of the dialogue was awful, and seeing that Brannon Braga was the co-creator did absolutely nothing to convince the show wasn't going to be dull as dirt. But it was...okay. I'll give them a bit of a pass because it was a pilot and the actors were still probably trying to find their rhythm. But there are lots of other shows out there where the characters are trying to solve weird mysteries so Flashforward is going to have to do something interesting to convince me to keep watching it.
Also, PLEASE for the love of everything, don't turn Fiennes's character's "ONOES I WAS DRINKING IN THE FUTURE" angst into something as tedious as I can already see it becoming. I'm already gritting my teeth at the thought of the done-to-death, uninteresting emo we're going to have to endure if they decide to focus on that. I am so over drug/alcohol addiction storylines.
Finally, I kind of live-blogged Heroes tonight.
- Okay, I think I officially like new guy...carnival guy...Samuel?
- That Peter apparently just got served as a result of his heroics makes me happy in a
very petty place. I'm so sorry. My Peter hate is so great at this point that I just
can't be rational about him anymore.
- So Matt's strategy is to...ignore Sylar? Because that's worked SO WELL thus far.
- Sylar's strategy to get Matt to listen to him, though, is far more effective.
- Okay, from last week I so thought Gretchen had become Claire's new roommate. But
unless Claire locked her roommate out of her own room, I guess not.
- Claire, you haven't had time to miss anyone. You've been at school for like two days
and you've already been visited by your mom once and your dad twice! My first year of
college I didn't see my parents again until October!
- Gretchen is still kinda giving off creepy vibes.
- Man, I wish wearing earphones would keep people from trying to talk to me.
- Oh, haha, Samuel is the one Peter has to see. And he gets to melodramatic so fast:
"Are you the kind of man to allow my family to starve?"
- Gretchen fits right into the Bennet family tradition of double-speak and loaded
conversation at the dinner table.
- Oh, Matt, Sylar PLAYED you.
- See, Peter, nothing you do is right. NOTHING.
- Uh, wait, that bit back in the carnival was a commercial?
- The scene with the cello and the lights was very pretty.
- Claire's kind of bringing the creepy right now, too. "Here, new friend, cut open a
gaping wound in my hand!"
- Okay, missed almost the entire Claire/Gretchen scene because my brother and I were
making fun of other shows. Did anything important happen?
- Ooh, Matt. Naughty!
- Damn, Samuel. Why so bitchy? You didn't have to collapse the whole house. So his
power is controlling the earth?
- No Mohinder again. Also no Hiro or Nathan or Tracy. That's okay, though. I prefer it
when they only focus on a few characters per episode instead of trying to shove
everyone into 42 minutes.
As for what I think of the actual show...um, I'm just sort of going along for the ride at this point. I don't really have any strong feelings either way.
Okay, obviously I liked this show better the second time around. It did, actually, get better as the season went on and it crawled out of the "blatant X-Files rip-off" shadow more and more. Not that I'm against blatant X-Files rip-offs per se, because if you're going to steal then steal from the best, but it's just not the same without Mulder and Scully. I'm actually really glad that Fringe doesn't try to copy those character dynamics, at least. It would have been a much poorer show for it.
Anyway, it's pretty standard J.J. Abrams strengths and weaknesses: the show hurtles from one cool and/or shocking scene/plot twist to another with only some vague lead-up or connections. Which means you're kind of hooked by the "what happens next?" factor, but if you stop to think about it for any length of time you realize that very little of it makes sense or is even a logical progression of the narrative. Which I can live with as long as cool stuff keeps happening. Lose that, though, and it won't be pretty.
(also, how has Walter Bishop been involved with/invented everything having to do with fringe science? It's nothing but a convenient plot device and a lazy one at that)
And I've found both season two episodes pretty dull. That may be because I was suffering serious Fringe fatigue at that point since I watched 22 episodes in like 36 hours, but I'm pretty disappointed with the beginning of the season after the way the first season ended. I'm also kind of mad that I can't just mainline season two like I did for season one. I'm going to try and watch this show live this week, just to see what it would be like. This might end up being another one of those shows (like Lost) that I don't watch on TV at all and just wait for the whole season to come out so I can mainline it over the course of a weekend.
Characters: Olivia Dunham turned out not to be as dull or generic as she first seemed to me back when I yawned through the premiere. She's actually not bad. I don't know if I like where they seem to be going with her in season two, though, but I'll wait and see. I always thought the Bishops were the best part of the whole show and I still think that. I'm not entirely sure why Astrid is even there. As the first season went on she had a few good scenes playing off Walter, but a handful of humorous scenes doesn't justify making someone a main character. I just don't get it. I really wish they would give her some kind of personality, because the glimpses of pseudo-personality we've seen from her imply that she could actually be interesting. But that seems even less likely now that they've got random new girl whose name I don't remember. The one with the Bible who's snooping around Fringe division. Yeah, her.
Also: you know, I can get on board with the weird shit. Walter invented a device that can transport someone through time and space? Sure. Parallel universes that some people can travel back and forth between? Why not. A drug that gives people super mental powers? I'll buy it.
Gigantified cold viruses? NO. Just...no.
Oh! And I also saw the first episode of Flashforward, since I did say I was going to watch it.
Well, I wasn't on the edge of my seat or anything; in fact, the pilot seemed a little sloppy and stilted. Looks like there's a good cast (and I didn't even realize Joseph Fiennes was the main character or I would have been way more excited to see the show), but they seemed pretty stiff, particularly Jack Davenport. Some of the dialogue was awful, and seeing that Brannon Braga was the co-creator did absolutely nothing to convince the show wasn't going to be dull as dirt. But it was...okay. I'll give them a bit of a pass because it was a pilot and the actors were still probably trying to find their rhythm. But there are lots of other shows out there where the characters are trying to solve weird mysteries so Flashforward is going to have to do something interesting to convince me to keep watching it.
Also, PLEASE for the love of everything, don't turn Fiennes's character's "ONOES I WAS DRINKING IN THE FUTURE" angst into something as tedious as I can already see it becoming. I'm already gritting my teeth at the thought of the done-to-death, uninteresting emo we're going to have to endure if they decide to focus on that. I am so over drug/alcohol addiction storylines.
Finally, I kind of live-blogged Heroes tonight.
- Okay, I think I officially like new guy...carnival guy...Samuel?
- That Peter apparently just got served as a result of his heroics makes me happy in a
very petty place. I'm so sorry. My Peter hate is so great at this point that I just
can't be rational about him anymore.
- So Matt's strategy is to...ignore Sylar? Because that's worked SO WELL thus far.
- Sylar's strategy to get Matt to listen to him, though, is far more effective.
- Okay, from last week I so thought Gretchen had become Claire's new roommate. But
unless Claire locked her roommate out of her own room, I guess not.
- Claire, you haven't had time to miss anyone. You've been at school for like two days
and you've already been visited by your mom once and your dad twice! My first year of
college I didn't see my parents again until October!
- Gretchen is still kinda giving off creepy vibes.
- Man, I wish wearing earphones would keep people from trying to talk to me.
- Oh, haha, Samuel is the one Peter has to see. And he gets to melodramatic so fast:
"Are you the kind of man to allow my family to starve?"
- Gretchen fits right into the Bennet family tradition of double-speak and loaded
conversation at the dinner table.
- Oh, Matt, Sylar PLAYED you.
- See, Peter, nothing you do is right. NOTHING.
- Uh, wait, that bit back in the carnival was a commercial?
- The scene with the cello and the lights was very pretty.
- Claire's kind of bringing the creepy right now, too. "Here, new friend, cut open a
gaping wound in my hand!"
- Okay, missed almost the entire Claire/Gretchen scene because my brother and I were
making fun of other shows. Did anything important happen?
- Ooh, Matt. Naughty!
- Damn, Samuel. Why so bitchy? You didn't have to collapse the whole house. So his
power is controlling the earth?
- No Mohinder again. Also no Hiro or Nathan or Tracy. That's okay, though. I prefer it
when they only focus on a few characters per episode instead of trying to shove
everyone into 42 minutes.
As for what I think of the actual show...um, I'm just sort of going along for the ride at this point. I don't really have any strong feelings either way.