January 31st, 2010 (05:48 pm)
current song: vampire weekend-horchata
I only have so much self control thus I am forced to passive-aggressively complain about the weather in the subject of this entry. DEAL WITH IT.
I am beginning to freak out about deadlines for school and fear not finishing on time. I'm considering making an emergency, "Oh crap you need an extra semester because you're a fucking slacker" fund. However, the URI website is mysterious on the tuition policies and fees for that sort of thing. No doubt they'll just ask me for a vital organ or perhaps a year of indentured servitude. Perhaps forced labor on a turf farm? That sounds about right. Sigh.
What we're not going to do right now is think about the amount of work I have to do/should be doing as I write this. Why not? Because it is startling and overwhelming and denying reality is one of my finest skill-sets. They say you should do what you're good at....right?
In tv watching news, I have also fallen terribly behind on re-capping/reviewing the stuff I've watched. I'm probably not going to catch up. Oops. Also, here's a fun story about how I'm an idiot. YAY! STORY TIME!
I watch Fringe. I have detailed my love of the show rather extensively (Special Agent Pacey, Nina Sharp and her freaky robot hand, Leonard Nimoy, a bovine sidekick- it's got it all!) Now, the show took a mini-hiatus (only a few weeks during the holidays I believe). Somehow during that hiatus I forgot how many seasons there were (too much holiday coffee I suspect). I thought the newly airing season was 3, not 2. (It is most definitely 2, I belatedly found out). So when Hulu updated my queue with a season 2 episode I thought, "How odd, why are they doing reruns now?" I watched it, and it didn't seem familiar but Charlie was in it so I was CONVINCED it was not the right season. Thus I was waiting for season 3. THREE MORE WEEKS WENT BY with my queue filling up with unwatched season 2 episodes. Finally, going through Special Agent Pacey Withdrawal, I decided to investigate this mystery and looked on IMDB. What did I discover? That the Charlie episode was an unaired ep. from season 1 that they re-numbered and dumped into the midst of season 2 (apparently for the sole purpose of confusing me) but that the current season was indeed TWO not THREE as my addled brain convinced itself. And so on Friday evening after having solved the mystery I had myself a little Fringe-athon. Oh, it was GLORIOUS!
Since the episodes are fresh in my mind I'm going to ramble about them a bit.
Everyone is all a-flail about how they are dropping the ball with the balance of monster of the week/mythology in this part of the season. I don't understand the concern. Season 1 was a trainwreck for the first half- I'm sure they'll figure it out. Besides everyone knows JJ Abrams likes to unravel a mystery at the slowest pace imaginable ie: Lost, Alias, etc. I suspect he has a death wish involving being stabbed to death by angry fans with sporks. So I don't understand the concern. I mean....it's not like the mythology episodes make any sense either. Perhaps I just have low expectations here, but I'll be happy if there is any sort of conclusion. I certainly don't anticipate it relating in any way to the beginning of the series. I mean, look what he did with Alias. How did we go from Rambaldi to zombies? And as another point, the show is about freaky science and alternate universes. What part of that screams "traditional linear storytelling and pacing?" Get a clue, Fringe critics.
Everyone seems to have hated the episode with the virus. I don't really know why, I found it enjoyable. Meanwhile, people are all thrilled about Reviving Bishop (or whatever it was called) which frankly I thought was pretty lame. I mean, evil scientist is trying to forward the Nazi agenda? How is this fresh thinking? That being said, I did enjoy several aspects of the episode.
1-Walter being hilarous and apparently is an Olivia/Peter shipper. OH THE LULZ
2-Walter being back to his evil self, freaking out about the books, and obviously keeping major secrets (probably involving immortality, or time travel?) from the rest of the Fringe Division.
3-A teeny bit more info about the crazy Bishop family- and I do mean crazy. It apparently is coded into the DNA with that crew. Yikes.
4-The artist who made a swastika out of kitten pictures and couldn't understand why it wasn't selling. OH SIR. You are hysterical.
Once again, the science made no sense at all. I don't know why they bother providing an early explanation if only to throw logic out the window so Walter can save the day again. That's what gets tedious for me- the magical success of the FD every time. If the show is going to rip off XF completely they should at least consider that Mulder and Scully got their asses kicked/were nearly fired/fucked up the case ALL THE TIME.
This ends my extensively nerdy tv rant.