The Fringe of Good TV

As I promised when I wrote my hiatus post, I have to write about Life on Mars, Fringe, and 90210. I mean, I wrote that I would, and that’s pretty much a written contract, and I can’t break the law. I only fracture it on occasion.

Anyway, let’s talk about the new shows. Without a doubt, Fringe is the best new show on TV. Of course, that’s like saying that Sarah Palin is the hottest VP candidate in this election. She really doesn’t have any competition so she wins by default (anyone who challenges with Joe Biden gets slapped). That being said, I like the show, its fun. Example, throughout the whole first episode, every time Joshua Jackson made it on screen, I would exclaim either “Pacey” or “Captain Duck” (using my Gunner Stahl voice).

I was talking with Seamus about this show, and while he likes the concept he doesn’t like the solutions. Now, that’s all well and good, but if you’re willing to accept that some chick can get pregnant, give birth, and have her kid die of old age all in the same day, you sort of have to give a little leeway to how they come about the solution. My only reservation about the show so far is that Dr. Bishop seems to have worked on a lot of weird stuff back in the 70’s and I don’t want it to be the same refrain week after week. I don’t want some episode where some fresh water trout takes down a luxury liner and have him be like “oh, well the government had us experimenting on how to use marine life to take out Soviet subs, someone must be using our research.”

Let’s go from the good to the bad. 90210 is a steaming pile of crap. Now, it does have some redeeming qualities. I like it when Rob Estes does Rob Estes type things. I swear, you put him in a loud sports jacket and hand him a gun and he could be Detective Chris Lorenzo once again (man, I miss Silk Stalkings). Having some of the old gang back is good and I actually like some of the new kids. By some, I mean the kid who plays Navid and the chick who plays Silver. The others are merely passable and the chick who plays Naomi makes me want to gouge out my eyes. She looks like she had a botched sex change operation and her acting is utterly horrible (the whole scene where she confronts her mother about her father’s affair is laughable).

I’m scared to watch Life on Mars. I have it sitting there on my DVR and I see it every time I go searching for something to watch. There is not possible way it can live up to the British version, since it was probably one of the best TV shows in the past 10 years. Let’s just get it out of the way and say that Jason O’Mara is no John Simm. Simm has pretty much turned into the modern day Robson Green. Meaning he can pretty much play any role you need him to play and knock it out of the park. He went from playing Sam Tyler to playing a completely over the top Master in Doctor Who. If that doesn’t say something, I don’t know what does.

It seems like the producers (and thank God they got rid of David E. Kelly) went with big names for casting. The British version was perfectly cast, so much so that they spun-off the whole crew to another show. Who knows if Harvey Keitel can pull off Gene Hunt in such a way that you love him even though he’s a sexist douche (Colm Meaney, who was originally cast, would have been perfect). But basically, you need O’Mara to carry the show like Simm did and I don’t know if he has the cache to do it.

One more thing I’m scared of was something the Duchess pointed out. The British show was great because it lasted just long enough (16 episodes). If this thing takes off, we are talking seasons upon seasons of the same concept. It’ll start to drag after a while. I mean, one season in the US is 22 episodes. So, yeah, I’m scared.

I know this isn’t a new show, but I need to talk about this week’s episode of Chuck. The big hype was that fact that Nicole Ritchie was guest staring, but they missed the boat on promoting another guest star. Nicole Ritchie’s husband in the show was Ben Savage. My reaction: “Holy shit, it’s Cory Matthews!!!” Throughout the whole show, I was saying things like “gee, why did you divorce Topanga” and “you know, Rider Strong never would have let you get shoved in that locker” and “Mr. Feeney would be so disappointed right now”. It was fun for the whole family, considering the Duchess had the look that said “One more Boy Meets World comment and I’m calling a divorce attorney”.