Fringe & Life on Mars

I'm sorry it's been a quiet week from me- I have been enjoying another one of those intense marathons that consumes my time and thoughts, to the point that I can't really even think about any other show. I have to keep watching until I finish, even if it means missing a show or 2 and having to catch up later on my DVR. It's totally worth it, though, because I find that these connections I make with new shows are the reasons that my love for television continues to grow. I fully realize that shows are meant to be watched incrementally- one week at a time and with frustrating commercial breaks every 10-15 minutes- and I can see the value in that. Things have time to sink in, and you are forced to reflect and speculate as you wait the 7 days required to bring you to the next part of the story. I've met people who feel like it is too late for them to watch LOST because they weren't there in the beginning and trying to watch all 4 seasons would be a very difficult undertaking. But the benefit of a marathon is that you dedicate part of your life to this show and come out on the other side having experienced this whole other world of characters and their stories. So for the past 6 days, I have been in the world of Bones, only coming up for air to go to work. That meant that tonight, I got to watch my first episode on FOX with all the regular Bones-watchers. It was very exciting, and I have much to say about the show in my next post, but the purpose of this entry is to talk about new Fall shows.

Few will disagree with me, I think, when I say that the slate has not been very impressive. Not very many things were picked up, and of the ones that were, I only paid attention to a couple (I try to pretend like all the awful new comedies and reality shows don't exist because it makes me lose a little faith in humanity). I was interested in the much-hyped new show from J.J. Abrams, Fringe, and the remake of the British cop drama, Life on Mars. Much to my surprise, the results were the opposite of what I anticipated. I had doubts about how good Life on Mars would be because, in spite of the fact that I found the premise fascinating, the network saw the pilot and picked it up. However, they called for a makeover of the show several months ago- this meant new casting and new writing, which does not inspire a lot of hope. Just like when the release date of a movie keeps getting pushed back, you think it must be really bad if

they don't want people to see it yet. Well, I had always heard positive things about the British version, so I watched the pilot to get a feel for it. A modern-day cop named Sam Tyler gets hit by a car and wakes up in the 1970's in different clothes. He tries to wake himself up, but nothing works. He's still a cop. Everyone thinks he's crazy because he talks about the future. Occasionally he hears the sounds of a heart monitor. If he is in a coma, and everything around him is all happening in his sub-conscious, he doesn't know how to escape. He does the only thing he can- his job- hoping that something will show him why he is in 1973. I decided to go ahead and watch the American version, if only to compare it to the UK pilot and to see Harvey Keitel and Jason O'Mara and Michael Imperioli. I put it to my "5 episode test"- in my experience, I have been able to tell whether or not I am attached to a new show in 5 episodes or less. Sometimes I'll think a show is well-made or unique, but I have to get that feeling in my gut that lets me know that I care what happens to the characters. Life on Mars passed that test in episode 3, "My Maharishi Is Bigger than Your Maharishi," when Sam solves the murder of a Vietnam veteran who had realized that he was gay while he was overseas. He had a relationship with one of his fellow soldiers, and when they returned home, he wanted to stop living a lie and come clean to his wife and son. The other soldier killed him. Sam intended to tell the victim's wife the truth, but the son came into the room to hear why his father had been killed. Sam looked at the little boy and said that it was because of his bravery and honor that he had died. "Sometimes the most intolerant among us are also the most afraid." I also loved the next episode where Sam came into contact with his mother and had to protect her from a very powerful crook. Harvey Keitel, who plays Sam's boss, gave a great performance in that episode as a man whose life is being changed for the better by Sam's presence in 1973.

So Life on Mars caught me off guard in a good way. Fringe, on the other hand, turned out to be a surprising disappointment. As angry as I still am at J.J. about Alias, I will not deny that his visionary storytelling greatly appeals to me. I would not want to miss out on something just because I resent the way he dropped Sydney Bristow. After watching 5 episodes of Fringe, I am sad to see that he compromised his style because of network demands. What J.J. does well is serialized storytelling- characters evolve, events occur that have repercussions later.

Everything is connected, so that the viewer is required to stick with the show week after week, but the payoff is worth it. Well, I'm sure FOX said something along the lines of, "We want each episode to be self-contained so that the audience can watch anytime and understand what's going on." This is a valid wish, for just another procedural, but Fringe could have been more. Instead it's a boring and forgettable hour of television. The paranormal cases dealt with are not all that unusual and attention-grabbing. A man who controls machines and accidentally kills a bunch of people in an elevator crash. Brian K. Vaughan's Ex Machina comic book does it better. A silver cylinder appears at the site of an explosion and someone who can read minds kills anyone associated with it. A strange man with no eyebrows is introduced as "The Observer" of all these weird events. I was drawn in a bit by episode 2, "The Same Old Story," in which a woman gets pregnant, delivers her baby within minutes, and shortly after that, the newborn has aged 80 years and died. I will say this for it- the pilot was classic J.J. Granted, this meant that I totally called the ending (having Olivia's lover turn out to have a secret agenda that makes him the enemy of the FBI was so Alias Season 1 with Syd and Noah, a.k.a., "The Snowman"), but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It was also the only episode in which Anna Torv seemed to express any emotion whatsoever. I don't see how you can go from Keri Russell, to Jennifer Garner (and even to Evangeline Lilly, although I barely want to give any credit to J.J. for LOST because I feel like the props should go to Damon, who stays with his

projects), to Anna Torv. She gives a very uninvolved performance. She loses the man she loves and doesn't appear to grieve, so why should I? Joshua Jackson's character is charismatic, but I attribute that to his own personality, not to the material he is given. John Noble is funny at times as the insane, but brilliant, scientist who helps solve the cases. Mostly, though, he is just over-the-top and nonsensical. The writers clearly try to attract people's interest with "The Pattern," but that's just a ploy to make them believe that everything is connected in this show just as in all of J.J.'s other shows. I gave it a shot, but I was unimpressed.

Next time, Bones!