If You Meet The Buddha on The Road

So Fringe returns from the void of winter. Honestly, it had been so long I had started to wonder if it was ever coming back. And then I almost forgot (okay, I did forget) that it was changing days to the Friday death slot and nearly missed it altogether. 


But it was worth the wait. A story line involving Christopher Lloyd and a time travelling man from 1985 (sound familiar, folks?), Walter at his adorable best at the start of the episode and some mean tension and progress from Peter and Olivia. Really, when it comes to building the UST, Bones needs to take a lesson from Fringe. A quote from Peter's favourite book:

"You can't make anyone love you. You just have to reveal who your are and take your chances."

Which is appropriate, given the circumstances. The pain between the two of them is palpable, and Anna Torv has gone from being stiff and wooden at the start of season one, to being subtle and nuanced and completely impressive. She creates a believable and layered Olivia. And Peter, well....he's Peter. My Pacey love is endless of course, despite his stupidity at telling Olivia how much more miserable she is than her parallel counterpart. Good one, boy. 

So, questions. Will Peter and Olivia open up to each other enough in order to find their way back to some sort of level ground? What will happen to Peter now that he has ingested the Milk of Death? Will this is some way influence his story with the Machine from the other side? Can we do away with the MOTW format and just stick to the slow reveal of the main arc? When will John Noble win an Emmy for his astounding portrayal of two complex men? 


And, most importantly, how depressing is it that we simultaneously discuss the Emmy-worthiness of the actors and ponder whether or not the show will get cancelled? An episode called "The Firefly" on a show moved to the place that Firefly went to die? Lets hope not. Get it together Fox!

Outrage

So I hear, through the grapevine, that despite the editing out of some of the stronger language, sex AND violence, the Skins US adaptation is still too much for advertisers.


Wrigley and Taco Bell, amongst others have pulled sponsorship from the show. Apparently the show is not for them. <ponders> Hmmmm, if only there was a way for them to have known what on earth the show might be like before they put their money where their mouths are. How on earth was the show described? Is there any way that Skins could ever have been suitable for them? I mean, this image was the E4 promo print for series two. 


4.6 seconds of Googling could have saved them all this trouble. Of course, I don't imagine that MTV is complaining at all about all the controversy. Nothing garners an audience like talk of obscenity.

Misery Loves Company

I've been trying to write this assessment of the first episode of the new season for the best part of two days. Usually, if I can't pull the whole thing together, I just mull it over for a day or so and the right way comes to me. It's probably something to do with Jesus.


But I am having trouble. I wanted the show to redeem itself. I loved it, initially. And I thought at first that it could come back, that they could make things better here, this year. But I'm not sure if that's possible. Putting everything else aside - the ridiculous story lines, the bad acting on some parts...okay, one - I think things have gone too far for the Henricksons.


We open with the Henricksons hiding out in the desert, in the best lit tents in the western world. Yes, hiding. Because that is the point of coming clean with the world and claiming to be proud of what you are. I mean, lets not start pretending that you care about what a shitty time the children are having of it....

Bill is walking around in some sort of haze. He seems to spend most of his time labouring under the delusion that no-one thinks that badly of the family, and that they should hold an open house so that everyone can come and throw pineapples at them, or something. All the workers at HomePlus, the business he can't be arsed to think off half the time, think he's either a paedophile or worse, a bad boss. He seems unaware that his neighbours hate him as some reporters hung around for a while and left some cups on the floor, ruining the good name of the neighbourhood forever. He makes an apology to everyone at some point (I may have fallen asleep) for risking everything, but Paxton's acting is so flat that I can't even bring myself to try and believe him. 

Margene looks like she's about to have a nervous breakdown. There's a woman ripe for a cult/pyramid scheme if ever I saw one. 
She is freaking out (and is the loudest crier EVER) as she realises the true cost of coming clean is everything that she loved about her life, and that her chances of financial independence are dwindling now that she seems to unemployable. She drops the F bomb at a school meeting that contains more drama than a Walker family dinner, but no worries - it appears as if the next story for gullible Margie is lining up.

Barb doesn't know what to do with herself. She seems torn between the family that she loves and the life that she hasn't had, all the things that she hasn't experienced, wondering about what sort of life she could have had. Bill of course, seems utterly shocked to discover that she has bought a bottle of wine. Not a surprise though, as the man seems to wander around in a self-involved dream, completely unaware that the people he shares his life with are utterly sad. Because of course, what else do you do when your lives are falling apart and two out of your three wives are ready to cry at any moment? Why, you hold an open house for your constituents! Isn't it obvious? 


Nikki is...well she's Nikki. Conflicted as always, vacillating between smug contempt for the rest of the world and shy insecurity in the face of her new position as a public wife of Bill Henrickson. Chloe is marvellous, as she always is.


The thing is....everyone is just so miserable. I don't think I've ever felt so depressed after watching a show. How can they come back from this? Can Bill not see that his wives are just so completely unhappy? A happy ending at the end of this season would be completely unbelievable. I almost wish we had cut our losses and just not had the show back again. I could then sit and ruminate on how things could have been good again, instead of feeling sympathetic suicide pains for fictional women. And Alby. Who appears to be spending the final season going even more batshit crazy. Hooray for love, eh?

A Quickie

Just a quickie before I leave the house. I watched The Good Wife last night and am concerned at the level of cheese. It appears to be swiftly rising and infusing all story lines. 

Srsly. I enjoy this show. I like it. I managed to persuade someone else to watch it. I do not wish to be embarrassed by it taking a mass market cheese twist. I feel that my reputation rests on this show not turning shit. I have never recommended something that turned out to be rubbish. I've worked myself up into a lather about shows that I have subsequently been disappointed by, but that's just me. And we'll keep that between you and me. But there is face to be saved here. 

So....I'm just putting it out there in the world, hoping it makes its way through the ether to those bigwigs in the big chairs over at TGWHQ. Here goes. I do not wish to watch dun-dun dun! moments. K? I don't want to watch Alicia and the team be surprised by someone walking into a room and saying "they have been charged with......MURDER!!!!" as we watch Alicia freeze for a moment and then we have the DUN-DUN-DUN music. I do not want to see Will (though generally, I do want to see Will, and a lot more of him, if you get my drift) threaten Diane with guards outside her door and a menacing look with a DUN-DUN-DUN!!!!! 

It is not on. So, if you are planning on taking the show this way, don't. This is not the cheese-fest I signed up for. 

Now, on with the rest of my day. Glad I got that off my chest. 

A New Frontier

I'm annoyed already. It's crap. Crap theme tune, crap title sequence. Crap "comedy" music with the zanily annoying door voice and car escape scene. Crap acting from Mangan who keeps making me think he is that guy in the Barclaycard adverts. Tamsin Greig appears to be doing some sort of awkward/bad comedy actress thing. Which is odd, as she is not a bad comedy actress. I've seen Black Books. 


The whole show is like a caricature of a scenario that tv fans imagine in their head when they think about shows crossing the pond. NOT something made by people who know what happens in such situations. And I'm only about 8 minutes in. 


The new frontier is that I thought I would blog about the episode of Episodes (hur) while I watch it. I've never done this before, I like to be controversial and pay full attention to one thing at a time. But this has had a benefit. I haven't been able to get as annoyed as I would like to be by the shitness of this show. 


The dialogue is cheesy and badly written. And the acting. Urgh. When Beverly says "We need better friends," it's just all so wooden. Unbelieveable. I think Greig is actually worse than Mangan, it's like they just put down their Acting for Dummies books and strolled straight over to Job Number One. 


And I haven't seen more than twenty seconds of Matt LeBlanc yet. 


The only reason I'm so pissed off is because I was convinced that it was going to be good. I'm not sure if I'm more annoyed at myself or the show. Is it the writing? (yes) Or just the acting? (maybe) Is it just my expectations? (very likely)


The idea that experienced British show makers would have no idea how things work elsewhere is actually ridiculous. Everything seems so contrived, and I hate it when people are made out to be stupid in order to try and make things funny. The almost slapstick meeting where we go through the "is it set in stone/is/isn't HA HA HA" is embarrassing. And I just knew that as soon as they pulled up to the gate what the guard was going to say. I hate being able to predict dialogue. 


So I'm out. I feel like I've used up all my hate for one day. Actually, that's not true but it's only 10:25pm and I like to spread it out evenly throughout the day. Even Vernon Dudley can't save this steaming pile of horse dung.

Is that a little ambiguous?

Resolutions

As one might expect, at this time of year, there are resolutions to be made. I've not been much of a one for resolutions throughout my life, the important ones at least. You know, exercise more, eat less cheese, help a charity. Last year I experimented in resolution making and decided that in 2010 I would watch more films. My aim was to watch one hundred films. Now, given my commitments not involving a screen, this is quite a large total for me. Two films a week is almost unheard of for me. 

What actually happened is that I managed thirty films over the first three months (impressive) and then my interest waned (not surprising) and I watched about ten in the rest of the year. It was just much easier to soak up Mark Kermode's reviews and then pretend I had watched the films. Less time consuming. More conducive to sleep. 

And now we are here, that time again. January. A chance for me to predict how much of a failure I will be in the upcoming year. So I'm not setting my sights high this year. I've taken my resolution from my 2010 activities. I made my way through all four seasons of Felicity (how I had never seen this is beyond me). 2009 saw me watching (well, re-watching, I had seen all the episodes when they aired) all fifteen - yes, fifteen - seasons of ER AND watching and loving (obviously) all of The Wire. If I can do that, I can do this.

So this year I endeavour to watch The West Wing. I have this:

bought for the bargain price of some pounds so there is no going back. I have tried to watch it before but I've always been distracted by shiny things. I hope to finish it as soon as possible so that I can look back and heartily mock my doubt. 

Yeah.