Alcatraz! & Touch

January 26th, 2012 | by | 24, alcatraz, fox, lost, new shows, season premiere, series premiere, touch, tv shows

Jan
26

My DVR most likely hates me. It does its duty, and does it well, but I just keep adding more and more shows to it. I wouldn’t be surprized if it slides itself off the television one night and strangles me in my sleep.

 

JJ Abrams can do just about anything and I will tune in with fangirly glee. I am that easy. I do, however, have the sense to expect a big pile of crap along with my glee. No point in having wild expectations, only to have them dashed against The Rock.

Three episodes of Alcatraz have aired so far, and I am finding it pretty entertaining. We have a secret lair (which is mighty inconvenient with all that water surrounding it, if you ask me), some kind of selective time traveling, Hurley being the smart one, Sam Neill just being awesome by being Sam Neill, and for all of you out there who miss Lost, some potential numbers shenanigans. Personally, I don’t think the numbers mean anything this go around, but I thought Fringe was just gonna be a X-Files rehash, so what do I know?

Looks as though each episode will be the appearance of one of the inmates , and our heroes tracking them down. The first two reappeared inmates seemed to have some sort of directive to get something done. Sylvane got a big-ass key from some poor guy, and Cobb shot whatsherface (what? I don’t know names yet!) totally on purpose. This last guy, while insanely CREE-PEE, didn’t seem to have a job to do, and he ended up dead, dead, dead. I wonder how many people thought, like I did, that when they brought that dead guy back to NewAlcatraz, and handed him over to the apparently perpetual Alcatraz doc, that there would be a shot to the neck or something, and the guy would be brought back to life. Anyone? Just me?

Much like Fringe in its early days, Alcatraz seems to be only okay with the MOW stories, but really interesting with the set up of its mythology. I love this kind of storytelling, and I hope that the audience has the patience for us to get to know these characters and find out what the hell is going on.

 

I love New York City. I lived in Brooklyn for 12 years and I miss the damn place on a regular basis.

I adore Kiefer. I own all eight seasons of 24 (including the TV movie, ‘Redemption’). I even sorta, kind of stalked the man not once, but twice on the streets of NYC.

So Fox, a network I keep wanting to hate, handed me me a shiny new show that not only takes place in my beloved city, but stars a lovely and awesome (as usual) Kiefer. Touch.

Now this show made me nervous. I want to laud anything Kiefer is in, but this sucker is from Tim Kring who gave us Heroes, which started out as a fantastic show, and devolved into one hot mess.  The man has great ideas, but seems to have trouble following through.

As far as I’m concerned, so far so good. Was the twisty, turny-ness a little convoluted? Yup. Do I care? Nope. Give me something fantastical to believe in and I will happily jump on board. I was worried that this was gonna be an hour of SadDadKiefer, but there were some nice, light moments, and Kiefer had plenty of edge to keep the character from falling over into self-indulgent woes-is-me’s. And the moment at the end, in the rain, on the cel tower? I teared right up. Well played, sirs!

I liked Touch, and am excited to see if they can pull this off week to week. Unfortunately, we’re gonna have to wait until March(!!) to get our next taste. But you know me, I will sit patiently for another dose of Kiefer-ness.

 

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Supernatural: Another Time Travel, Another God…

January 20th, 2012 | by | supernatural, the cw, tv shows

Jan
20

Dear Supernatural,

I hate episodes where those shiny Winchester brothers are separated almost the whole time. Please cease and desist with these storylines and let those boys hunt together as intended.

Love and Kisses,

Erika

Ahem. :)

I am gonna breeze through the first episode after the winter break, because it was just okay, and I want to start the drool-fest over ‘Time After Time After Time’. We start off ‘Adventures in Babysitting’ with a couple weeks of the SadWinchesters mourning the loss of their surrogate dad, Bobby. It is a nice little tribute, and I have to say I will miss him myself.

Anyhoo, this eppy we get Sammy off to help the daughter of a hunter, get himself snagged by a couple of wily Vetalas, and have Dean and Chrissy (daughter of opening scene hunter) come to the rescue. Meanwhile, Dean is obsessing about those pesky numbers Bobby left them with on his deathbed, meets and hangs with Mr. Frank Devereaux, and after finally getting some much needed Zzzz’s, heads off to get Sammy out of his latest mess. Chrissy is a cute thing with hunter spunkyness, and I do find Frank amusing (although I hope he will be is short supply, as he could become quite annoying), but this episode was just… good enough for me. Not only were the boys separate for most of the time, but they weren’t even working on the same thing until the end. The scenes with Dean and Chrissy were  fun, and I wish more of the female characters on this show were like her.

Oh well, at least they didn’t kill her, like they do to all the other kick-ass ladies on this show.

Regardless of my annoyance of two episodes in a row where the Winchesters are doing things separately, this latest episode is proof that the TV Gods love me. Not only did we finally(!!) get Krycek to guest on this show, but Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring will always be Logan to me), as the Big Bad was gravy. Thank you, ye gods of the airwaves, for giving me such riches. Read full story

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Fringe: A big freakin’ cup of awesome

May 12th, 2009 | by | fringe

May
12

Every Tuesday night, I sit with my laptop, futzing around on the Internet while watching Fringe.

I knew I’d like it – it is J.J. Abrams, after all – but the first couple of episodes promised to be as infuriatingly mysterious as Lost, but not nearly as interesting and character-driven. Whoa – was I wrong.

picture-3Fringe_frog

Even characters who seemed almost a throwaway at the start of the series – Agent Charlie Francis and Astrid Farnsworth – have developed into interesting people. Astrid’s interactions with Walter Bishop (who is absolutely my favorite character on television at the moment – if I were 20 years older and unmarried, as I remarked on Twitter this evening, I’d totally propose to him) are truly enjoyable. She takes Walter’s complete insanity so well and even manages to keep her lunch down.

Perhaps the most shocking thing about Fringe, however, is how much was answered in tonight’s finale, while still leaving the door open for plenty more that could be answered in another season. Plenty. Puh-lenty.

Seeing as the powers that be hadn’t decided whether it’d be picked up for a second season when it was filmed, I appreciate that.

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