Television catch up
Before the great event that is the season premiere of Lost descends upon us, I should perhaps say a few words about other television shows, which I haven't given up on, despite light blogging about it. I just haven't had much to say about White Collar, which I am watching only the extremely shallow basis that Matt Bomer is pretty (and yes, while I know the actor is gay, he is bisexual In My Head, which is the only place I'm likely to meet him anyway), or Leverage, which I am still adoring, despite not exactly feeling the love for Jeri Ryan's guest character, although she looks great if impractical in those short black skirts, but to make up for this, shirtless Hardison! I think I speak for many of us when I suggest that shirtless Hardison should be a strong, strong part of the future of Leverage. In fact if by some twist the Leverage team can only succeed in their stunts if Hardison strips, this is a plot twist I could live with. I'm just saying, Rogers.
(And if you haven't been watching Leverage, do yourself a favor and so do - it's a fun show.)
But, as said, I don't have much to say about these sorts of caper shows, or the romantic-mystery-comedy show Castle, another love of the season. I do have a lot of negative things to say about the horrific unevenness that was Dollhouse's second season, otherwise known as, when good concepts go wrong, and why suddenly attempting to squeeze ten years of plot development into ten minutes is likely to make me blink and go, er, what, but that possibly deserves a separate post of ranting.
Which leaves us with television's ongoing attempt to make us lose our dinners, Fringe.
"Unearthed" - You know, Fox, this had the potential of being, you know, REALLY AWESOMELY COOL with a little editing to suggest that we were suddenly and inexplicably seeing an alternative universe or somebody's weird predictive dreams or that CHARLIE IS A ZOMBIE using his powers of the undead to solve crimes. As it was, Fox, I'm not thrilled that I had to turn to the internet to find out that no, it wasn't just that you weren't making sense, it was that you were seriously not making sense by airing a first season episode smack in the middle of the second season after someone is dead. And after I spent the whole episode hoping that Charlie would turn out to be a zombie. Or a vampire.
Quite frankly I have forgotten the rest of the episode. Some babbling about military codes. It was not a great episode even without the zombie disappointment.
"Johari Window" - I heard the cow. Once again, I must stress the impracticability of keeping a cow in a lab. Plus it's unfair to the cow. And who is milking this cow? Feeding this cow? Mucking out its stall? WHY IS THIS COW STILL IN THE LAB? All of these questions were more interesting than much of the episode.
"What Lies Below" - Moving past the slight problem of a) no major extinction event 75,000 years ago and b) the unlikelihood of a specific virus getting killed by sulfur and c) the ability to get enough sulfur from horseradish sauce, which is not the pure horseradish root (although I am all for using horseradish as a mild antibacterial agent, with the caveat so often forgotten by this show that bacteria and viruses are not the same thing) while remaining concerned that the show might encourage people to down entire bottles of horseradish sauce after watching this episode to ward off the flu, and with all due kudos to the acknowledgement that we still have a lot to learn about viruses, may I just say, NO. On the bright side, Peter gets hit. Again! Lots! I enjoy this. Perhaps a little too much.
"The Bishop Revival" - Naturally, what better thing to follow a great virus fail than a great organic chemistry fail. I really cannot stress enough just how. many. things. this episode got wrong about basic chemistry. It's like it isn't even trying with the fake science anymore.
Also, I'm seriously expected to believe that Peter was able to detect the one single cinnamon scented candle out of all of those jasmine ones? Peter? My belief, it is slender and easily broken. Like the science on this show.
But you know, severe scientific issues aside, as long as the show keeps hitting Peter, I'm in.
(And if you haven't been watching Leverage, do yourself a favor and so do - it's a fun show.)
But, as said, I don't have much to say about these sorts of caper shows, or the romantic-mystery-comedy show Castle, another love of the season. I do have a lot of negative things to say about the horrific unevenness that was Dollhouse's second season, otherwise known as, when good concepts go wrong, and why suddenly attempting to squeeze ten years of plot development into ten minutes is likely to make me blink and go, er, what, but that possibly deserves a separate post of ranting.
Which leaves us with television's ongoing attempt to make us lose our dinners, Fringe.
"Unearthed" - You know, Fox, this had the potential of being, you know, REALLY AWESOMELY COOL with a little editing to suggest that we were suddenly and inexplicably seeing an alternative universe or somebody's weird predictive dreams or that CHARLIE IS A ZOMBIE using his powers of the undead to solve crimes. As it was, Fox, I'm not thrilled that I had to turn to the internet to find out that no, it wasn't just that you weren't making sense, it was that you were seriously not making sense by airing a first season episode smack in the middle of the second season after someone is dead. And after I spent the whole episode hoping that Charlie would turn out to be a zombie. Or a vampire.
Quite frankly I have forgotten the rest of the episode. Some babbling about military codes. It was not a great episode even without the zombie disappointment.
"Johari Window" - I heard the cow. Once again, I must stress the impracticability of keeping a cow in a lab. Plus it's unfair to the cow. And who is milking this cow? Feeding this cow? Mucking out its stall? WHY IS THIS COW STILL IN THE LAB? All of these questions were more interesting than much of the episode.
"What Lies Below" - Moving past the slight problem of a) no major extinction event 75,000 years ago and b) the unlikelihood of a specific virus getting killed by sulfur and c) the ability to get enough sulfur from horseradish sauce, which is not the pure horseradish root (although I am all for using horseradish as a mild antibacterial agent, with the caveat so often forgotten by this show that bacteria and viruses are not the same thing) while remaining concerned that the show might encourage people to down entire bottles of horseradish sauce after watching this episode to ward off the flu, and with all due kudos to the acknowledgement that we still have a lot to learn about viruses, may I just say, NO. On the bright side, Peter gets hit. Again! Lots! I enjoy this. Perhaps a little too much.
"The Bishop Revival" - Naturally, what better thing to follow a great virus fail than a great organic chemistry fail. I really cannot stress enough just how. many. things. this episode got wrong about basic chemistry. It's like it isn't even trying with the fake science anymore.
Also, I'm seriously expected to believe that Peter was able to detect the one single cinnamon scented candle out of all of those jasmine ones? Peter? My belief, it is slender and easily broken. Like the science on this show.
But you know, severe scientific issues aside, as long as the show keeps hitting Peter, I'm in.