I Live, AKA Catching Up

Crashing pretty hard to earth after the last season of SYTYCD -- I must be getting old -- but the good news on that front is that we are indeed getting a tenth season. Anything beyond that and I'm afraid to push my luck.

Other TV developments include several of my favorite shows concluding -- Fringe and 30 Rock -- which should've occasioned a retrospective post or two, but instead became excuses to not do anything because hey, there won't be any more of these episodes! Except, there won't be any more episodes. And I lied, I did write something for the 30 Rock finale over at Slant Magazine. I had (and have) more ambitions ideas concerning the only sitcom I watch(ed) and how I'd hoped it would give up verisimilitude and fully embrace its off-the-wall cartoonishness, only to be disappointed when it paid obeisance to continuity by fulfilling Jack's prophecy concerning Kenneth: "In five years we'll all either be working for him... or be dead by his hand." And if the writers were going to follow through with this, I'd have preferred the second option. 

Moving on!



I performed a Lindy Hop to one of the best song of the '90s, and I have to say, this time my performance doesn't make me wince too much! I guess I'm getting better.

That's about it for now (as far as the stuff that's not mind-deadeningly boring). Anything worth filling the Fringe- and 30 Rock-sized holes in my TV schedule now?

Fringe - 2x01 "A New Day in the Old Town"

Now that was the best episode since the finale. Or, I mean, see, the hook that ended the cold open was so otherworldly heh heh that I can barely think straight. It starts as close to mundane as scifi can get, where a mysterious figure is methodically revealed to be a dangerous Other -- a familiar scifi trope and narrative technique -- and a shapeshifter, no less, an even more familiar scifi trope. Then, the whammy: through the creeping silence of the scene of accident and the mute expectation of "Where's blondie?" until finally through the windshield of a stopped car Olivia suddenly crashes. Color my brain scrambled like eggs.

The rest of the episode doesn't match the exquisite pacing of the cold open, not that that's a failing. For every scene that approached cliche (the neophyte gradually wading into the environment of the show, the congressional committee bearing down on the group unless they produced something tangible), we got another that meshed the fantastic with the mundane, like the interdimensional typewriter. And what happened to dependable Charlie, good old Charlie Francis, how I hate him now, I mean what the show's done to him, but such feelings indicate emotional investment so they did something right before now.

Miscellany:

• For his sake, I hope that Lance Reddick has a thing for redheads.
• On a related tip, was the threat to close Fringe Division more reminiscent of Major Crimes getting shut down than X-Files getting shuttered?
• Walter continues to be convinced that Peter loved something in childhood but has since "forgotten." It's probably obvious to other people, but given the revelation that the Peter we see was kidnapped by Walter from the other dimension, we seem to have parallel universes where fundamental differences in personality traits have arisen, too, which begs the question of identity and nature/nurture... but that's not the sort of theory that I'm into.
• AV Club's Noel Murray thinks that Astrid may have a big development in store, but given how flimsy an actress she is, he probably shouldn't hold his breath.
• I do not like Astrid's new haircut, unfortunately.
• Peter's surprise party, while kind of sad attendance-wise, had a cow wearing a party hat, so: best birthday party ever.
• Walter's adamancy that Olivia absolutely must try his pudding is heartwarming, sort of a twist on a child that insists his parent taste one of his creations.

Indie rating: Fleet Foxes - "He Doesn't Know Why"

Fringe Season 2

I'm mildly psyched about Fringe starting up again. The pilot really failed to impress me -- I mean, I was so put off by it that I was blind to the world-beating cuteness of Astrid/Jasika Nicole, who otherwise isn't much of an actress. I caught up on it during the summer break, though, and it definitely improved, although there are probably a couple-few other scifi shows that I'm more anxious to see. (Doctor Who, why must you make me wait till November?)

The first season finale deserves tremendous props, though -- its plot is the kind of SF that tickles my brain, it had an excellent balance of action and exposition, it didn't overplay the apocalyptic tone, and the cascade of twists that led up to the final reveal killed (if you spent your childhood (or, in my case, early adulthood) earning your nerd bonafides, you'll know what I'm talking about).

Miscellaneous notes:

• I really hope that what'shername and Pacey don't get shipped together. I liked that Olivia's sister got introduced in the middle of the season if only because she offered a buffer against Lead Romance, especially if JJ Abrams has any major influence in the matter. (Both of the leads are also against getting shipped. Whatever opinion I have of either of them, they've shown discriminating taste.)


• In my mind, Australians always speak in high voices, so the fact that both John Noble and what'shername Anna Torv are both Aussies kind of twisted my mind. I've listened to interviews of both of them, and still can't imagine them talking like Crocodile Dundee (sorry, Aussies).


• Fringe got the cover treatment from EW's Fall TV preview, and Anna Torv done up in '50s glam is an utter peach.


• The EW cover story says that Fringe was the "No. 1 new show among the valuable 18–49 demo," which begs the question: is there any demographic that isn't valuable?

Indie rating: Janelle Monáe – "Cybertronic Purgatory"

Fringe - 1x01 "Pilot"

So, Fringe. It was all right, definitely bears the JJ Abrams touch, which, depending on the level of his continued involvement with the show, unfortunately doesn't bode well for its long-term prospects. And by long-term, I mean expect the show to jump the shark no later than the second season.

First episode spoilers abound after the jump.

Fringe opens like Lost (remember, he's one of the creators?), with an airplane catastrophe, but it most resembles Alias, the show that probably defines JJ and his aesthetic most thoroughly. We have a headstrong action chick who is not too de-feminized to have a good cry when her love interest is bumped off. She works for a quasi-governmental agency (or thinks she does) and is surrounded by people who are damn good at what they do, equally headstrong (one of whom is a quirky/bizarre science-genius, and who is at least temporarily the brightest ), which results in a lot of heated cross-talk when they inevitably disagree with each other. JJ has even dusted off a trick that I once called the live past, where we cut to a scene in medias res but then hear a voiceover that refers in the future tense to what we see, then cut to another scene that matches the time of that voiceover, so what that first scene was is like a flash-forward (to what purpose, I don't think I ever decided -- maybe the permeability of narrative time?).

And finally, dead people totally not being dead.

Given all of these Alias echoes, I really hope that JJ doesn't resort to some pseudo-apocalyptic prophecy every time he can't figure out what to do next to develop the show's grand narrative.

Indie rating: Love - "Andmoreagain"