My thoughts on the first half of Fringe, NCIS and Smallville's current seasons
Now that the first half of the season has finished for most of the series, I have mixed feelings. With some shows Im terribly dissapointed, with others Im happy.
Fringe
My God, the first half was so freakin good. Everything, the story, the pace and how the characters were developed. The plot about two alternate universes, exploring each one in alternate episodes was a great idea. While I think one of the points of showing the two sides was understand the reasons behind the acts of the alt characters, I couldn’t help but hate Walternate and Bitchlivia. Which talks great about Anna Torv and John Noble's performances
I think this half was pretty Olivia centric, which I dont mind, because her story has been so powerful. Being isolated in another world, without any support (though eventually she got), being used in experiments, with people messing with her mind, with her memories and even the notion of who she really is. Anna did an amazing job. Really, Emmy people.. how could you miss her??
Now to the shippery stuff (which is my favorite part :P )
I must admit I was really pissed at Peter for the exact same reasons that Olivia said in the last episode (she spoke my thoughts about the situation). Being rational, one can understand why Peter didn’t notice that the Olivia he got back it wasn’t his Olivia. But emotionally, I totally understand why Olivia resented that he didn’t noticed.
The last episode broke my heart for Olivia. And I felt a little for Peter, it was visible that he felt bad about everything. My question now is, he still has feelings for the real Olivia, or he will feel that the differences he noticed in AltOlivia, were what made him to fall for her??
For the next half, I hope the show won’t drop this issue between Olivia and Peter. I can’t see any chance of them getting back together to the place they were any time soon . I think the relationship will become very cold and distant, specially from Olivia’s side, which is understandable, and it’s something I expected to happen.. I don’t pretend that everything gets resolved, and all becomes puppies and rainbows, because that’s not real. But I hope the relationship heals eventually. I want to see Peter’s feelings about what happened, and I want to see him showing that the person he cares about is this Olivia, not the other, and I want to see him fighting to get her trust back.
NCIS
I felt very... meh, about this season. Cases not interesting enough for me, and a terrible lack of Tony/Ziva relationship. The only episodes were there was something about them was "Dead air" and "False witness", and even at this last I'm a little dissapointed. I expected much of that scene, from what I read before of what Michel said about that scene. I didn’t felt Michael’s acting . IDK how to explain it, but it just wasn’t like other deep talks they have had before, like the one after Jenny’s death, the talk at Jeanne’s apt in “Bury you dead”or the talk they had in “Reunion”, all scenes that I love for their intensity and emotion.
I hope next half brings more exciting cases, where I can really get hooked the entire episode. I want to see more about the personal relationships between the chacters, mainly Gibbs, Abby, McGee and of course Tony an Ziva. I want more Tony/Ziva, and not only bones, I want to see a real progress, even if its small, in their relationship. And please not jelous Tony again, when Ziva’s friend comes to DC.
Smallville
*sighs* Smallville, what am I going to do with you??
The best this far, for me, has been Tess arc. Cassidy has been great, and I think Tess story will get even more interesting in the second half, and Im very excited about it. Im glad she’s part of the good guys and the team, Im glad she got Clark’s and Oliver’s trust again, and I really hope her destiny is not to become one of the bad guys again.
Clark’s journey to become Superman: bleh... This is the part that less I care about in the show.. which is funny, considering that’s suppose to be the main part. I’ve seen a little, if not nothing about Clark’s progression to Supermanly. All I see is people talking about how heroic Clark is, how much better and different than the rest he is, and how he’s supposed to be a beacon of hope and blah blah blah... seriously, I think I’ve said this before, how many times can “symbol of hope” and “beacon of hope” be used in this show?? There’s no limit about it?? Because I think I hear those words like every 5 minutes of every episode. The point is, I just hear about how great Clark is, and Im not seeing it. TPTB keeps using the old tactic of make the rest of the heros look bad, so Clark can look better and bigger.
I would say at list 90% of Clark’s story this far has been Clois, and I really dont mind much since I dont care about Clark, and I enjoy Lois, but I have issues with Clois this season. I feel like everything has been too rushed with them. I certainly didn’t expect too see them saying ILY in the 3rd episode, or Clark telling the truth to Lois so soon. I feel like TPTB is making the big moments happen just because they suppose to happen. For me it feels like TPTB is doing like: "ILY: check, Clark telling the truth: check, Clois sex: check, proposal : check". It just feel too mechanical. I really don’t know what is left for them in the second half of the season, except the marriage, but I don’t think that will happen before the finale, so IDK what TPTB will do with their relationship in the rest 10 episodes. Now, with that said, I think all the scenes have been beautifully developed, have been sweet and romantic. This, except the proposal, which I think has to be one of the most boring proposal scenes I've ever seen. Both Tom and Erica seemed off in that scene, which in Erica’s case is really weird, because she always delivers great.
Ok, about the main part: Oliver/Chlollie........ mmm... where do I start... I hope the chlolliers who may read this don’t hate me for what Im gonna say, but I really need to make catharsis about this. I have not liked how TPTB has been handling Chlollie and less of all what they have done to Oliver. I liked Chlollie in the 1st and 2nd episode, but after that, I’ve been only getting more and more deattached to the relationship. And it has nothing to do with Chloe not being there. Honestly, I feel many things has been too forced, specially about keeping “Chloe’s memory” alive. Of course I want Oliver to be sad and remember her, but it just has been too much mentions for my taste. And the moments were really was important that Chloe was mentioned (the end of Patriot), it didn’t happen. I understand this is subjective, for me has been too much, and for others may have been too little, it all depends of what each person wants to see most.
And Im certainly don’t happy about what this season has done to Oliver. I dont want to see mopey Oliver anymore!! And I dont want to see him getting kidnapped, tortured or beaten anymore. Has been too much already. Oliver is my favorite character, so of course Im going to focus my expectations on his story. I want to see my kick ass snarky hero back. At list I’ve got a few scenes like that, to keep me hanging. I want the Oliver of season 6, I want the Green Arrow of season 6. The guy who was fun and funny, heroic, a leader. I think many of the damaged that has been made to his character has to do with TPTB reducing his hero role to make Clark look better. Im never gonna buy that Clark Kent is the leader of the JLA. Period. Never.
In the second half I want to see more about all the sides of Oliver. I don’t want Chlollie to take all his screentime. Of course I want to see Chlollie, their reunion, and Chloe reassuring that she still loves Oliver. And to see them happy together. Im afraid of how TPTB will develop Chlollie, but I guess I just have to wait and see. So, to keep the faith for now, Im trying to stay in my Chlollie s9 bubble. But Oliver is more than Chlollie, so I want balance.. is that too much to ask, TPTB??
I don’t want to see Oliver needing to be saved for everyone, every episode. I dont want Oliver needing to be saved at all for anyone, really. I want to see HIM being the hero, I want to see HIM doing the saves, and I’d like that his last scene on Smallville be Green Arrow kicking asses and saving the day (with Clark... no chance to get rid of that..), but considering TPTB’s priorities, I guess that’s too much to ask.