Category: TV (Page 3 of 3)

I’m a big fan of J.J. Abrams.

I’m not gonna lie, he’s let me down a few times in the past. For example, the first half of the third season of Lost was pretty dreadful and without focus. But Lost has done well for itself since then.

I’m telling you this because I’ve been watching Fringe. At first glance, it’s got all the J.J. trademarks: a secretive corporation working on the outskirts of rational science, a massive conspiracy traced throughout the lives of one or more of the characters, and a strong female lead.

However, up until now it hasn’t really grabbed me the way Lost and Alias did. I just haven’t had that same feeling of being “sucked in” to the show. One reason has been that J.J. has been much more reserved with the doling out of the mysteries. While Lost went over the top with presenting mystery after mystery and not solving any until there were too many to count, all the strange happenings of Fringe point to the same large conspiracy. We receive small pieces of the same puzzle every episode.

The last two episodes in particular gave us some big hints that perhaps “The Pattern” (the overarching conspiracy for the series) may be tied to the backgrounds of all of the characters, not just those readily apparent.

I will continue watching the show, and recommend anyone with a strong enough stomach give it a shot, as well.

Just don’t expect Lost.

A new TV show premiered on the SciFi Channel this year called Sanctuary. Originally a Canadian web series starring several SciFi channel regulars (particularly those from Stargate Atlantis ), the show was given a full season this year using the webisodes to create the first two episodes of the new show.

The writing on the show is excellent in terms of witty banter. The tech guy, Henry, is hilarious. At least once an episode I’ve found myself laughing out loud at something he’s said. The plots are rarely original, but they serve for good Monster-of-the-Week entertainment. There are definite similarities to Torchwood  and The X-Files , but they’ve borrowed from whatever source material will give them an advantage.

The latest episode bore a strong resemblance to a classic Star Trek epsiode, The Trouble with Tribbles, but with a bit more gore and violence (in other words, more awesome). Another episode was very similar to the movie The Thing , when a monster impersonates the characters while trapped in an antarctic blizzard. However, even the episodes that seem inspired by other sources impart their own excellence to the story that prevent them from being just more of the same.

If you’re in the mood for a good sci-fi pick with a fair amount of fun, I recommend checking it out.

I just watched last night’s episode of Chuck . For a show that I just got done praising as “the best show on television”, it has certainly fallen far from the tree with one glaringly ridiculous episode. ATARI FOUNDED BY A JAPANESE MAN?! Are you kidding me?!!

What self-respecting American nerd makes that mistake? Did this show suddenly get taken over by morons? The Big Bang Theory  is now my only hope for a show about nerds, for nerds, by nerds.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love Chuck. I just wish they’d stop falling into the same damned Hollywood trap that so many shows have in the past: if your core demographic is going to be people that like nerds, make sure you have a nerd on staff to fact-check everything. Believe me, they can even fix your ridiculous plot hole wherein you hide a code in the “kill screen” of an arcade game that is timed to a song by Rush. Seriously? Who thinks of this?

I gotta give ’em credit for one thing. Best. Trash talk. Against Zune. EVER.