Thursday, September 18, 2008

TV Reviews for the Viewing Week of Sept. 14, 2008: Pt. 1


An absolutely average episode. We went through all that just to have 30 seconds worth of Shirleybot1000 plot furtherance? Seems kind of cheap. And I really didn’t understand what was going on with the writing on the garage wall. I assume it was written in blood, so whose was it? And it just looked weird with everybody standing in a line like that just staring at the wall. Right now what’s interesting to me is Cameron’s malfunction. She’s starting to think for herself. All she needs is an anthropomorphic (look it up) conscience and a fairy godmother, then she can be a real girl!


Okay, T-Bag and Linc seeing each other, then the rest of the table turning to see him...that was awesome. I think I’m really going to enjoy T-Bag trying to get through his double life. Sarah struggling with her alcoholism was a great callback to season 2, and Michael, Lincoln and Mahoney crashing the fallen cop reception was just plain ballsy. I think the best thing about the episode, though, was T-Bag’s new secretary. Just...wow.


Okay, with a wife who has had three kids by three C-sections, that opening was as disturbing as hell. Right now this show is very much in the lead over Sons of Anarchy as best new show of the season. But it’s very early, and the other networks haven’t even started their premieres yet. I’ll probably be making this comparison each week, but this show is like the good years of the X-Files. The shows can be seen as self-contained episodes, with an overall season storyline going on in the background. It’s one of the reasons I enjoyed Buffy the Vampire Slayer so much. The mad scientist is wonderful, as his relationship with his son. Right now I couldn’t care less about a conspiracy plotline, but the doc, his son and the fringe science are what keep me glued to the screen.



I sometimes feel cheated when I expect something to happen in a show and it doesn’t. Or when a commercial for a show deliberately misleads you into thinking something will happen, but it was just clever editing. Can’t they pump us up for the show without lying? I wanted Shane to fully betray Vic, and I wanted Vic to beat his ass for it. The reconciliation at the end was pretty good, but with Vic’s look afterward and Shane lying about there being no copies of the information, I doubt much of what was said was truthful. But Vic could sell it, couldn’t he? Dutch is a great character. I’m glad that he never went past the cat-killing stage in his possible career change. He’s a good good-guy.

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Listening to: Maroon 5 - Better That We Break
via FoxyTunes

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

yeah, this week's ep of T:tSCC didn't do much for me. i figured the blood on the wall was left by future guy that died in the house.

as for Cameron, i'm not really enjoying the humanizing of her. especially since Friedman has said he didn't really want to explore that since it has been relatively done to death and done well a la Battlestar Galactica. i think it would be interesting for once for a "good" robot to explore what that means and what they can contribute to society, but i'd rather not see another instance of human-robot.

i'm still on the fence about Fringe. i'll probably keep watching for a while because i adore Joshua Jackson, but i've been suckered punched one too many times by JJ Abrams inability to tell a good story continuously.

Rob Rosenblatt said...

Okay, I must have zoned out a bit about the house belonging to someone from the future. That would then make a little more sense.

I haven't watched Battlestar Galactica. I'll probably get to the DVDs eventually. So I'm okay with her humanization, just as long as we don't get a female version of Data.

I think if Fringe doesn't rely on having every little detail in the show deal with the bigger picture (like Lost or 24), but instead focus on entertaining episodes that might sometimes not have anything to do with the bigger pictures (Buffy, Angel, Supernatural, etc.), I think it'll work better.

Anonymous said...

no, the house didn't belong to future guy. i'm talking about the guy that showed up and as he was dying in Sarah's arms mentioned Greenway and "two days".

i never watched Star Trek. so i don't know the ins and outs of Data(though i do know who you're talking about). i just think it's a concept that's been done to death and why not try something different?

the problem with not having everything tie together is that JJ thinks he's a master at this when he's not. not even close.

Rob Rosenblatt said...

Oh, gotcha. Y'know, with the amount of time-traveling there is on the series, you'd think the future could send a few more reprogrammed Terminators back to help out a bit.

Anonymous said...

I was a little miffed about the Shane/Vic thing to this week. There is still time for Mackey go postal though. Did you catch Jay Karnes showing up at the end of SoA this week? It is getting pretty good. I think the plot is starting to take shape finally. At first it just seemed like a show about the "wacky" stuff those crazy bikers do, but it looks like the plot is starting to thicken. Oh yeah, I can break out the cliché if I have too.

Rob Rosenblatt said...

I've yet to watch this week's SoA. It'll be in Saturday's review posting. I'll keep an eye out for him, though.

And hey, I'm proud of you for the serious posts. And you still got your dig in with the "website" hyperlink in your name. Cute.

Anonymous said...

lol...caught the website did ya? I do what I can.

Rob Rosenblatt said...

It keeps me real, yo.

Johnny Space Commander said...

Beau read all the way down to here! Okay, mostly just scrolled, but there was some reading, you verbose little son of...

I didn't get the blood writing on the wall either. At all. Because dude from the future showed up nekkid in an alley like everybody else. Eh? And if it was him, he could've just left a note. What kind of ass writes in blood all over the wall? Blood is hard to get out! Does he not know what a sharpie is? Did the machines seize them all in the future?

Johnny Space Commander said...

Beau read all the way down to here! Okay, fine, there was some scrolling, mostly scrolling, you verbose son of a...

Johnny Space Commander said...

oh oh oh, you're screening me, and everybody else because of your joshinsultaphobias. So now I've written the same damn thing about eight times and you've seen it. Well, now I look like an ass. But only to you, which I can handle. Why don't you just pick your favorite post and spare me the pain of seeing my redundant comments because I couldn't figure our your interface and save my rep in regards to your other reader. This is exactly the kind of lack of user-friendliness and censorship that keeps people from reading your blog, Robert.

Rob Rosenblatt said...

Nah, this is fun.