Month: September 2010 Page 1 of 2

Fringe 3×01: Olivia

On September 30, 2010

spoilers within

Last season Fringe skyrocketed from being a show I put up with hoping it would get better into one of the best shows last year and one of the better sci-fi shows I’ve ever seen. Not too shabby for a show that I initially labeled as a trying-too-hard X-Files knockoff with a boring lead character and a plot that couldn’t decide between epic arc and monster-of-the-week weirdness.

Once the parallel universe idea started becoming the focus, though, I was hooked – not only because parallel / alternate universes happen to be a particular favorite plot point of mine, though that is also true. No, Olivia suddenly started being a more relatable character, and Walter and Peter’s relationship started to go in a much deeper and more heartbreaking direction. Plus, the show proved that it wasn’t afraid to tackle hard science fiction concepts and be smart about them. If there’s ever a show I’m glad I stuck with while it smoothed out its rough spots, it’s Fringe.

And this year looks to keep up the momentum – last season’s finale left us with a killer finale, as Peter chooses this world rather than the other one despite learning the truth about where he’s really from, and even more jaw-dropping, alternate-universe Olivia (nicknamed Bolivia to distinguish them) managed to successfully impersonate our Olivia and infiltrate our universe. It was one of the best season finales I’ve ever seen, and gave me high expectations for this year.

In the season opener, our Olivia is being brainwashed in the alternate universe to convince her that she’s actually Bolivia and belongs there – she’s pretty resistant though and escapes, but that’s kind of all part of the plan. Meanwhile, Walter and Peter are completely unsuspecting about the true identity of the Olivia with them. And that’s one of the great things about this whole set-up – in a way they are the same person, yet also not. The exploration of how different and how similar an alternate universe could be, based on minute choices here and there that add up to very large changes, is totally fascinating to me, and indicated here really well by things like Bolivia being a dead shot and Olivia…not.

At the end of this episode, Olivia seems to be fully integrated into the alternate universe, Bolivia’s memories implanted in her. I kind of want the taxi driver to keep being part of it; Olivia’s touchstone with reality and who she is. Judging from the previews, it looks like there will continue to be some amount of monster-of-the-week episodes, which will be great if they use those to explore the Bolivia-Olivia switch. It’s shaping up to be a great season; let’s hope they can get over the third season hump without losing their way.

Community 2×01: Anthropology 101

By Jandy

On September 30, 2010

In Television

Something weird happened near the end of last year’s TV season. NBC’s old guard of great sitcoms, The Office and 30 Rock, got utterly outclassed by upstart newcomers Community and Parks & Recreation, both of which were consistently smarter, funnier, and more inventive by the end of their seasons than either of their older siblings. Unfortunately, the ratings disagree with me on that, at least when it comes to Parks & Rec, which got pushed back to spring 2011. However, Community came back last week with a season opener that only confirms its spot as the show most worthy of inheriting Arrested Development‘s crown as the critical darling of the sitcom world.

This episode saw the Spanish 101 study group reunite (though not to study Spanish, since Señor Chang got stripped of everything and is now a student just like the rest of the group) and work through the events of last year’s finale – namely, Britta telling Jeff she loved him and him throwing her over, compounded by Jeff kissing Annie (which no one knows about and Jeff is now calling a mistake).

The jokes fly so fast and furious here that I could barely catch them all in time to laugh, and they’re so smart that I wanted to rewind every few minutes just to experience them again. Donald Glover as Spider-Man for half a second. Old White Man Says. Betty White as a rather intense Anthropology teacher. The most awkward kiss ever. Abed’s unrelenting and awesome meta commentary. So many more moments that I’d have to watch it again to see. And I probably will. Because it’s that brilliant. This show knows exactly where the funny is, and it goes for it every time, and trusts you to hang on to your hat and keep up with it.

If they can keep up this level of writing, I can almost guarantee you that Community will be my #1 show by the end of this year. And if it gets shut out at the Emmys again, so help me, I will…be very angry about it.

Castle 3×01-3×02

By Jandy

On September 30, 2010

In Television

relationship spoilers

Despite their ostensible dependence on independent case-of-the-week episodes, procedurals really live or die based on the continuity provided by the main characters and the bits of each episode that exists outside of the week’s mystery. That’s what keeps you coming back, and when it works it’s great.

So far on Castle, it continues to work. Nathan Fillion’s charm, met perfectly by Stana Katic’s mildly sarcastic wit, plus some sparkling dialogue fill those spaces between the mystery plot points in a way that continues to be winning going into the ever-critical third season, the point where formula starts to wear thin and shows often teeter on the edge of losing themselves and becoming boring or ridiculous.

It’s a critical point for Castle this year because last season saw the sexual tension between Castle and Beckett get ever stronger until the finale, when Beckett came *this close* to telling Castle she had feelings for him – until he left for three months summer retreat rekindling his relationship with his ex-wife. Returning this year and reinstating the existing partner relationship between Castle and Beckett begs the question of where that will go.

And judging from the subplots of the first two episodes, which have seen Alexis dealing with her first boyfriend and Caste’s mother receiving a marriage proposal from her significant other, it’s going to come to a head sometime this season. That’s even laying aside the numerous offhand lines of dialogue suggesting that Beckett ought to go for it. I’m a little worried by this, because when procedurals link work partners romantically, it almost always dilutes the show and forces the writers to figure out how to break them up again logically because alternating sexual tension and fulfillment seem to be the only device TV writers know how to build arcs around.

But with Castle, I’m kind of on the Beckett-Castle ship. They’ve built the partnership quite well, and the romance aspect doesn’t feel forced. Plus, the mysteries themselves are usually good enough that I pay attention to them (which I often find myself not doing in procedurals). And the unique construct of allowing Castle to have sudden insights because he thinks like a storyteller is pretty interesting most of the time.

I guess all this to say that watching the first couple of episodes of Castle felt really good, like coming home and discovering that home is just as entertaining and breezy as it was last year. This is the only procedural on my schedule this year, and I’m perfectly happy with it. As far as these first two episodes individually go, both had decent cases of the week, though both quite dependent (as usual) on abundant red herrings. I don’t mind that, as I’m more along for the ride with Castle, and as long as it remains light and enjoyable (and the cases don’t get stupid, or Beckett and Castle don’t get stupid), I’m there. A few less “ha, gotcha” moments might be welcome – the opening of the premiere had Castle and Beckett pulling guns on each other and Beckett ordering Castle to get down on the ground, a scenario you won’t (and shouldn’t) believe is the whole story for a second.

Night of the Hunter River Sequence

By Jandy

On September 24, 2010

In Film

I just posted a little article on Row Three with a triple feature of mesmerizingly weird films featuring children, with one of the films being the wonderful, uncategorizable The Night of the Hunter. I won’t crosspost it here because it’s closely tied to a rep cinema programming series of posts we have there, but I figured I’d go ahead and share what I think is the most memorable sequence from the film (out of a BUNCH of memorable sequences) – the meditative and nearly surreal river trip the kids take toward the end of the film. It’s not really a spoiler to watch this section if you haven’t seen it, and I think it’s beautiful even out of context. But I have a thing for moody cinematography and kids singing haunting songs.

This was the moment I fell in love with the film the first time I saw it; it’s sort of a turn, too, as the film moves from being a heightened melodrama/horror/film noir film into something more along the lines of a fable or morality play, though like I said, it’s really hard to categorize. Watching it a second time brings out more of this fable-like quality in the first half as well, once you know to look for it. The Night of the Hunter comes out in a Criterion edition (both DVD and blu-ray) in November. You can bet I’ll be picking it up.

Chuck 4×01: Chuck vs. the Honeymoon

By Jandy

On September 23, 2010

In Television

spoilers abound

The writers of Chuck have proven themselves to be quite good at reinventing the show, especially with the huge move from Chuck-the-geeky-spy-asset who needed to be saved all the time of the first couple of seasons to Chuck-the-suaver-but-still-geeky actual spy and kung fu master of Season Three. This year, Chuck starts out not being a spy, having promised his sister Ellie that he’d get out the dangerous business. However, he also found a spy lair underneath his apartment and evidence his mom was a spy and may not have simply left their family years ago as he and Ellie always thought. THE PLOT THICKENS.

So this season starts, and we’ve got a tantalizing new direction to consider – Chuck as rogue spy, following in his father’s footsteps to learn the truth behind his mother’s disappearance. What we actually get in the episode – Chuck and Morgan floundering around, ending up working the same case that Sarah and Casey are working from the CIA side, and Chuck eventually…tada…becoming an official spy again. Yes, already. no, I’m not really happy about that. I really dislike it when shows set up a big change in a season finale and then use the first couple of episodes of the new season to basically reverse it back to status quo. What was the point?

Anyway, we do get some cool things. Chuck’s mom is Linda Hamilton, which is awesome. And she seems to be awesome, potentially kidnapped by enemy spies, or potentially IN CHARGE OF the enemy spies. Who can say? It’s a bit of an Alias retread perhaps, but we’ll see how it goes. Looks like Chuck’s going to try keeping his being a spy again a secret from Ellie, but I hope that doesn’t last too long – he really ought to tell her. The show thinks it can’t survive without secrets, but I think it can. Look how much more awesome it got after Devon found out about Chuck.

Oh, and the BuyMore is a full-on CIA facility now. I kind of love that. I was wondering how they were going to continue the show with the original main location demolished, but this is definitely a cool direction to go with that. We’ll see how the CIA-ization of the show works, though, because a lot of the fun of the earlier seasons was balancing the CIA stuff with the real-life stuff. And Chuck seems less geeky/goofy this year. NEED MOAR GEEKY/GOOFY CHUCK.

So first episode, a little rocky for me, but I’m still on board. I think they’re just growing into the new situation, but they need to let it be that, a new situation, and not try to pull it back into situations we’ve already seen.