Ways to Make it Through the Wall

When the first few episodes of Fringe aired, I found the premise interesting and the hours fairly entertaining. As the season has progressed, I've grown to really like most of the characters and the shows mythology became more established and deeply compelling. Fringe gets justifiably compared to The X-Files, but Fringe is starting cut out its own identity while benefiting from the lessons learned from the nine seasons of the older show. (Note: There will be possible spoilers for the first seventeen episodes of Fringe.)

Where The X-Files mythology was made up and strung together on the fly, the creators of Fringe appear to have a solid grasp on their own long term story arc. At their core, both myths are fairly similar. The X-Files dealt with an impending alien invasion, whereas Fringe focuses on an impending war with forces from a parallel universe. Both shows had/have Monster of the Week episodes, but Fringe has managed to throw in splashes of mythology in these seemingly standalone hours ("Inner Child" is perfect example of this). "Bad Dream" seemed like a MotW, until the halfway mark and threw us some of the most compelling and frightening additions to the myth arc.

While having only two principal characters allowed for deep exploration and great acting on The X-Files, it didn't leave much room to wiggle outside the lives of Mulder and Scully, and some occasional Skinner. Fringe has its own Skinner in Broyles, but we've been given three leads and a few nice subordinates in Astrid and Charlie. This opens up the possibility of widening the character focus as what happened to Charlie Frances in "Unleashed". He's been around since the first episode as Olivia's guy Friday, but got to know the character a lot more once his life was put in jeopardy.

I'm like the three leads on Fringe, for the most part. While Anna Torv's Oliva is the show's primary hero, she's been the hardest character to enjoy. For most of the season, it didn't feel like I actually knew who this person was, outside of her job and affair with Agent Scott. Giving her a live-in sister and niece has helped humanize her while mythology hours like "Ability" and the awesome "Bad Dream" has given Torv a lot of fantastic material to work with. I'm slowly coming around on my opinion of Agent Dunham.

Walter Bishop is probably the most compelling character on the show. John Noble is in danger of being typecast as the go to lunatic (see Denethor the crazy steward of Gondor in Lord of the Rings). Still, Walter has been a wonderful balance of outlandish comedic asides and a man slowly uncovering the horrors his research has unleashed on the world. As he begins to unearth events that he has apparently blocked (or had blocked) from his memories, the more the greater myth expands.

The one character I've been surprised to find really interesting is Peter Bishop, played by Joshua Jackson (who is my vote to play Will Riker, if there's ever a call to reboot Star Trek: The Next Generation). As Walter's son, I'm sure we'll slowly learn about the experimentation that Peter was subjected to as a child. He may not have been in Jacksonville with Olivia and Nick, but something about him has drawn the attention of the Observer. Also, Jackson's character supplies some great humor and is a stand-in for the audience when it comes to questioning the absurdity of the cases faced by Dunham's team. He's the Scully to Olivia's Mulder.

I'm pretty sure that Fringe is set to be renewed for a second season. If the quality continues to improve and the mythology maintains it cohesion and depth, I'm definitely looking forward for another twenty or so episodes. I think that fans of The X-Files should check out Fringe especially if they would like to see how a similar concept can be improved upon.

Plans of a Future War Was All I Saw on Channel Four

Last week, I mentioned some of the genre show I was watching during this new fall season. This week's Sarah Conner was pretty good and went down some interesting roads, particularly in the development of Cameron. Last night's Heroes left me a little wanting for more. The thrill and spark of the first season has all but extinguished. As lackluster as the shortened second season was, it was able to ride on a little of the first season's momentum. I really think that the creators need to narrow the focus a little and concentrate on some major character development and emotion rather some of these convoluted plot threads. Complex is good if written well and is acted well (see Battlestar Galactica). Let's hope that tonight's Fringe keeps me engaged, but last night I was beginning to feel that the current/new "Golden Age of Television" was on the wane.

One new show I'm really enjoying it HBO's True Blood. It's Alan Ball's (Six Feet Under) show about vampires that are "out" and their impact on the world, specifically a small town in Louisiana. Anna Paquin plays a young human woman named Sookie that happens to be telepathic. She becomes intrigued by a vampire that moves into town named Bill, mainly because she can't read his thoughts. There's a great oddball cast of characters. Sookie's best friend Tara is unable to self-censor, but she cares about Sookie. Sookie's brother is a bit of a screw-up horndog who keeps ending up at the wrong place at the wrong time. Speaking of dog like behavior, Sookie's boss Sam has been displaying some strange canine-esque mannerisms. The show is funny, odd, full of mystery, and worth checking out.

Thursday saw the return of The Office. I actually think this show works just as well in a one hour format as it does in a half hour. I really didn't start watching this show that closely until the end of the third season. I've quickly fallen in love with it. It and 30 Rock (when it returns) are the best comedies on television at the moment.

Survivor also came back last Thursday. Sure, it's the poster child for all that went wrong with the reality television boom at the beginning of the decade, but it's a guilty pleasure. I like the strategies and the dealing and the backstabbing. It can be pretty unpredictable during the last half of the season when it becomes every person for themselves. Makes me wonder what I would do if tossed onto that show.

Signal To Noise

It appears that the Fall 2008 television season is in full swing as of this week. Some shows have premiered or kicked off their seasons over the last two weeks, but this week sees the return of some of the bigger series like The Office, My Name is Earl, Survivor, and Heroes. Though I am still mourning the loss of Journeyman, this season hasn't been short on sci-fi or high-concept offerings.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is big dumb fun. I really shouldn't use the word 'dumb', since it is engaging and has some good character moments. It's probably the most consistently action-packed series I've watched in a long time. The season opener was a non-stop chase scene which was probably a smart move to lure in new or casual viewers. This could run the risk of becoming repetitive, but the creators continue to find interesting ways to endanger the Connors and their cohorts. Also, there are a few neat little plot threads that poke out between explosions.

The acting is fairly decent overall. It pains me to admit it, but Brian Austin Green is pretty good as Derek Reece. Hopefully, he won't use the success of this show to make another go at a rap career. Summer Glau, who perfected the vacant stare on Firefly, does a decent job convincing me that she's a killing machine inside of the body of a thin, young woman. While Shirley Manson isn't the greatest actress in the world, she gets to play a pretty cool character that is poised to have long term consequences for our heroes. Last night's episode saw the very expected exit of a semi-recurring character which will hopefully convince John Connor that he cannot have a normal teenage life and that there are consequences if he even attempts it.

Heroes kicked off its third season with two back-to-back episodes last night. It appears that the show is off to a better start than the last season. From comments about season two by the creators, I'm hoping that they've learned from the mistakes made last year and the show will return to its first season glory. There is a dizzying amount of plot threads and mysteries established in these two hours. The real trick will be in keeping the series from collapsing from under the weight of them. For the most part, I'm genuinely interested in most of them, which isn't something I could say about the second season.

So far, I really like the more active role of Mama Petrelli. She's a pretty compelling character in how she has to balance the bigger picture which conflicts with her maternal feelings. Though, those feelings could all be a sham given the reveal at the end of the second episode. Still, she's less hand-wringing than Linderman or EVIL like Sylar. I thought the new speedster was fun and cute. I'm glad there wasn't any sign of Micah and that Molly, though sloppily handled, was written out of the show. I'm looking forward what the future may hold for Hiro's buddy, Ando, too. I also want to know what the deal is with Nikki/Jessica/...Tracy?

Fringe is the new X-Files. So far the show has been fun to watch and has had some crazy, gross-out moments. The three principle characters seem to be a hodge-podge of Mulder and Scully's personalities. Olivia is out to find the truth like Mulder, but more by-the-book like Scully. Peter is cynical like Scully (times 11), but is sarcastic and gifted, similar to Mulder. Walter fills Scully's medical/scientist shoes, though a bit madder. While Mulder could be a bit unstable, Walter is full-blown crazy. Hopefully, he won't pull a Denethor and try to set himself and Peter on fire.

At the moment, Fringe seems more concerned with high-concept more than character development. Not that there isn't any, but I'd like to see more once the show settles into a groove in about two or so episodes. Also, it could benefit by widening the focus of the character base. With only three main characters and only a few peripherals, plus a slowly revealing background mythology, Fringe could run into some the problems that The X-Files had. However, I remain cautiously optimistic.