A Matter of Life and Death

Okay, I'm going to put it out there. With the risk that I will be proved wrong, and this hardly ever happens. I make good television predictions. What was that? Something about pride and falling? Psht, never! 


I think FauxLivia is going to die. 


Maybe not this week, but soon. I can't sort through all my thoughts in my head to decide how it will all work - Peter is supposed to make a choice between the two women, and therefore the two worlds. Maybe Peter's choice will result in her death, or maybe she will die and he will make his choice unaware of events. It seems that Walternate wants the baby - does FauxLivia decide to have an abortion, or does he want it any way to prevent possible problems? 


I'm just trying to look forward, and think about next season. I don't think we will be maintaining the alternate universe at the rate that we are now. I don't think we will have another season with whole episodes over there. It has to be sewn up somehow. Is the universe really going to be destroyed, or is Peter actually going to find another way?


If she doesn't die, is she going to end up over here? Trying to save herself, one assumes with the help of Lincoln and Bubbles, does she make it over to our universe? I just think that long term, she isn't going to live. Which is a shame, because unlike most of you out there, I like her. 


Can someone make it be tomorrow? 

Once Removed

I am a little behind. I have two episodes of Big Love waiting for me. I can't really build up the enthusiasm to watch them. It's too much like hard work. So I started watching trash instead. I was thrown into a slump by the sub par episode of the last but one Fringe (you know, the one where we find out all of a sudden that Peter is some sort of fly-by-night-shape-shifter-assassin) and started watching The Vampire Diaries. 

I've been good lately. I stopped watching all the crap that I used to watch. All the soapy stuff with no real story line pay off. Private Practice gone. Smallville gone. ANTM gone. I have yet to get rid of Gossip Girl. It's like a UES limpet, hanging on for dear life as I try to appear erudite in my television choices, giving me away as the cheese-whore that I really am. I'm a sucker for the Dan/Blair frenemy thing that they have going on at the moment. So what I thought I was doing, adding some more cheese to the proceedings is anybody's guess. I've worked my way through season 1 in mere days, compelled to watch more and more until I have the whole story. I'm anticipating the sugar crash when I catch up to current time. The anti-climax of no more episodes to binge on. 

Maybe then I can start cultivating my high brow (ha!) persona again. After all, Fringe was back to its glorious self this week. And The Good Wife managed to restrain itself with the dun-dun-duns. Also, I have finished season 1 of Breaking Bad and hope to be up to speed enough to talk about it in the present tense at some point in the near future. Maybe soon I can start on that pesky new year's resolution to watch the tiny amount of a bazillion West Wing episodes. But who am I kidding? I love the low brow. I love all  kinds of brow.

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!

And When it Was Bad....Well, at Least There's Fringe

Right?

I was so worried before the start of season 3. Season 2 had that iffy start, and JJ shows don't have the best track record when it comes to the third season. I was half expecting Melissa George to show up and instigate Operation: Shittify as usual. 

Fortunately, everyone's least favourite Antipodean has been nowhere to be seen and the season is wonderful. The show has somehow morphed stealthily into something genuinely good, rather than the hit and miss guilty pleasure that it started as.

In fact, I can count the annoyances this season on one hand. Which is impressive, as to be frank....well, I'm easily annoyed. I can overlook a lot of annoyances though, as The Walking Dead proves (more on that next time)....but I still count them.

My only major gripe so far is the seemingly necessary stupidity pills that Peter has been taking. How can he not realise that Olivia is not Olivia? The answer? Because the story line needs him to be ignorant. Which is a major annoyance. Peter is not stupid. Peter is intelligent, has a lot of common sense and is a master of reading people. And yet he has wandered around, in a post-coital haze, seemingly unaware of the imposter in his bed. Are we supposed to believe that suddenly regular sex has dulled the man's brain? Or are they trying to make us believe that Peter has known all along and is playing the game? Well that can't be true. If Peter knew, he would confront her immediately. And the story line would be over. I hate that it is simply the only way that they can run the story - by altering and degrading his character.

I'll let this one slide though (and I'm sure the writers of the show will be breathing a huge sigh of relief there) as the rest of the season has been exemplary. But I'll be watching. But not for another two weeks. There's another annoyance for you.

Bubbles!

To mark the.....er....20 day (that's a celebration, yes?) countdown to season 3 of Fringe, we are treated to a sneaky peeky.

Andre will be appearing in the first episode. One could surmise that he will die a horrid and graphic death. But I wouldn't want to assume anything about Fringe. They might surprise me. <snort>

I am quite excited. Now, lets see what else is new in understatements.......