Don’t we have enough “investigations into the paranormal” shows already? Needs a more compelling schtick to hook me in. I’ll see how it goes, but so far it ain’t making me sing.
Did they ever make a second episode of Wipeout or are they showing the same one over and over? And who the hell greenlighted Hole in the Wall? I can enjoy slapstick comedy as much as the next guy, but how many times can you watch a boring interview with a nobody followed by that nobody getting pushed into a pool?
Note: All I know about Hole in the Wall is what I saw on commercials. The boring interview is assumed because they need to fill time and only America’s Funniest Videos understands the value of keeping the interviews to a minimum and concentrating on what’s important, bad things happening to complete strangers. Talking to them just builds rapport and empathy, which take the fun out of watching them get dumped in the pool. I prefer my sociopathy neat, thank you.
Is it just me, or is anybody else imainging the Joker as voiced by Mark Hamill delivering this line?
Yeah, but if I remember the technobabble correctly, there’s absolutely no reason that the antidote has to be given in the agent’s own blood as opposed to any compatible blood type (which is a problem dealt with every day in ERs across the country). (Realistically, there’s no reason they couldn’t have used a saline drip, but realism is pretty much taking a holiday here.)
There had better be a plot point coming up where having Girl Agent’s own blood around is really important (cloning, anyone?), otherwise it’s just technobabble for the sake of technobabble, which is obnoxious.
JRB
I found the pilot a little clumsy, but I’m willing to give it another episode or two to see what happens.
As far as dialogue goes, it’s roughly on par with Bionic Woman, but thankfully nowhere near as stilted and uncomfortable as Journeyman or that godawful Terminator show (both of those got filed away as unwatchable about 15 minutes into the pilot). Definitely not up to JJ Abrams’ usual standards, though.
Also, it was hard to get into the story when I was too busy playing spot-the-unmistakeable-Toronto-landmark. Aside from location scouts, I’m pretty sure no one ever buys U of T as insert-Ivy-League-school-here (I had the same issue with Goodwill Hunting, for the record). And using Lakeshore Blvd for the dramatic chase scene? Really? There are dozens of less recognizeable locations that could’ve been used for the same purpose.
Meh.
Those things distracted the Hell out of me. When they first flew into Baghdad, my reaction was basically -
“Wow, that’s obnoxious”
shot of the helicopter from below, where we actually see the giant CGI block-letter caption from below as well
“Wait, what? Do they actually have a giant sign like that over Baghdad? Is this the future? Are they in Space-Baghdad?”
I remember when I was the only person who liked “The Office” around here, too. You will all be proven wrong once again. MUWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!1!!!
I watched Fringe with a friend of mine, and I found it fairly predictable to the point where my friend and I actually exactly predicted the next line of dialogue in the show a couple of times.
That being said, I loved the crazy doctor. I think the show’s got potential and I personally like it, but if all of America’s opinions was the same as most of what I’ve seen on message boards so far, there’s not much hope for the show.
Good to see Anna Torv hitting the big time. We always thought she would, although she’s been a bit of a heart breaker in her time. Anyone else noticing she has the same voice as Cate Blanchett?
Similarities:
http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/08/17/1808_bus_murdoch_narrowweb__300x407,0.jpg
http://weblogs.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/blog/anna-torv-fringe2.jpg
A little late, but I watched it last night and loved it. It’s like torchwood but with science instead of ridiculous monsters. Joshua Jackson is surprisingly good in it, though I was a bit disappointed by Lance Reddick’s character. I liked it much more than any other new non-comedy show I’ve seen in a long time.
Yes. They said he didn’t even graduate from high school, but talked his way into a college teaching position before being busted. He didn’t go to college anywhere.
I wasn’t exactly wow’d by the first episode, but I’m willing to give Pacey and young Cate Blanchette another week or two to see if they can hook me.
Rough crowd in here.
I enjoyed it.
I don’t get too carried away with exaggerations of science when it’s explained that within that world, it’s conceivable to tap into the brains of dead people for purposes of information seeking. Clearly they are speaking science that will make little sense- and those seeking for it to make sense are just going to be disappointed. So, stop trying- enjoy the ride.
Here’s something I was unclear on: They say in all the write-ups that the Olivia character is an agent, but then she gets called a “liason” (several times, annoyingly, over and over). I still have no idea what she did? Anyone get that?
Somewhere in the beginning it’s mentioned that she’s an interagency liason for the FBI and whichever other MIB groups are involved in Scary Black Dude’s investigation. It’s not made clear what her duties in this capacity consist of.
JRB
You know, in general there’s a ‘rule’ with SF: you’re allowed to toss in your one (possibly two) big impossibilities to serve as your premise, but the rest of the stuff has to conform to reality as the reader knows it, or at least, as the reader might expect it to be, if you’re on another planet or off in the future.
So – virus that rots people to death in seconds? Fine. Intermediate chemical that caused people to go all ‘Visible Man’? Fine. Venal scientists backed by evil megacorps? Why not?
But then the actions of your ‘normal’ people need to correspond to reality.
So:
Formerly Evil Scientist in prison, judge orders only family members can visit? And the FBI rolls over for that?? Hell no. It wouldn’t take them less than an hour to find a judge to amend that order. Or they’d simply lean on the director of the facility to look the other way, even faster.
FES plants to stick some sort of brain probe into Blonde FBI Agent. So she’s standing there, unaware, and he comes up behind her, surprising her and shoving a spike into the base of her brain while she crumbled. Oh, yeah, that’s exactly how you get a probe into precisely the part of the brain you’re aiming for. Okay, maybe they didn’t have time to set it up with 3-D x-ray monitoring to get the probe seated right, but at the least they could have had her lying down, ready, her head strapped down to keep it from moving. Sheesh. From the way it looked, I was really expecting that she would turn out the way that frog I pithed back in Bio 101 did: able to breath and that’s about it. 
Blonde FBI Agent offers immunity for the <mumbles number> of people murdered on that airplane and other misdeeds. Verbally. With “tell me what you know, and trust I will follow through later.” :dubious:
And even if she wasn’t shining him on, the crime was committed aboard a GERMAN plane at some point over the Atlantic Ocean. :smack:
And then there’s that ‘24 hours to live’ part. Not just the amazing amount of plot doings they seemed to shoehorn into that day (as pointed out above) but the disease seems to be related to those radiation problems in Star Trek. You’ll be dead in 24 hours BUT if they do the cure in 23hrs 59 minutes you will be perfectly functional within a couple of hours. :dubious:
Overall, about all I liked was the ex-evil scientist, and a little bit his son. I’m not sure it that’s enough to get me to spend another hour on the show.
sniffle
I loved Journeyman. I was mad when it was canceled. I thought they were going somewhere interesting with the plot.
I wanted to like “Journeyman,” and I couldn’t figure out at first why I didn’t, but then it came to me - there wasn’t a single likable character in the show. I couldn’t stand any of them, and I didn’t care what happened to them.
Journeyman was a really enjoyable show, that only got better with each episode. The coolest part for me, was that it didn’t seem like there was going to be a lot of integration between where he was going and who he was helping (like Quantum Leap was), but in the last episodes, we learn it was all on its way to be far more connected that we ever thought. I was also intrigued by the mythology of the time-travelers. Such a loss.
For me, Fringe falls into the same category, but with far better production. I’ll wager it’ll only get better with each ep, as it develops, gets bigger and more engrossing, and eventually clicks. Of course this isn’t real science or the sleepy, bureaucratic government we all know is reality… no one would watch that (well, maybe I would, but it’d still be pretty dry).
My “way out there” theory is that this show will somehow tie in with Lost. The head FBI guy in Fringe is the “Oceanic lawyer” who visits Hurley in the mental hospital and also works with Naomi to assemble the team that lands on the island. Investigation of paranormal activity like reanimation, astral projection, etc? Sounds like Lost to me. It would have been awesome if the plane at the beginning of Fringe had been an Oceanic jet.
Then it’s not science, and pretending it is makes for some tiresome fiction. They should just say a wizard did it.
Guys – it’s “liaison”. Think of the a as a liaison between the two i’s.