Friday, November 20, 2009

Friday Morning Quarterback...

Every Friday morning I do a brief writeup and review of shows I watched the night before, including FlashForward, Fringe, the Office, 30 Rock, Survivor, and Parks and Recreation.  There will be spoilers about what happened, so consider yourself forewarned.

FLASHFORWARD: Another limp offering that made the mistake of rehashing someone's vision for the umpteenth time.  In this case, it was Bryce, who's one of my least favorite characters so far.  I did, however, like the twist involving Keiko's vision, which revealed their meeting will take place in LA, not Tokyo.  I know all signs point to Demitri as the mole, but I still wonder...what if it was Gough?  Finally, memo to Sonya Walger: you look stunning without makeup.  Go with the natural look more often!

FRINGE: A satisfying installment that advanced the mythology substantially.  I saw the whole "love" thing coming a mile away, but I still liked how they handled it, particularly the surrogate parent angle.  Apparently, the Observers are not supposed to intervene, which surprises me.  I had them pegged as a more activist influence on historical events.  On that note, how hilarious were those photoshopped images of the Observers throughout history? 

THE OFFICE:  I think this may be my favorite episode of the season thus far.  Jim disciplining Ryan by putting him in the closet without internet or social interaction was hilarious.  And Oscar chickening out when Michael called him up to the executive suite was the show at its best.  We get this big windup that primes us for some trite speech by Oscar about how to rescue the company.  And then the show completely subverts that expectation by denying us the cliche in a way that was also completely in character with Oscar.  Brilliant!

30 ROCK: Review forthcoming...

SURVIVOR:
  And the best season of Survivor in quite some time keeps getting better.  Russell's discovery of a third immunity idol blew my mind.  He's a brilliant player for sure but his attempts to sabotage camp are just stupid. That's a high-risk low-reward strategy if I ever saw one.  Speaking of strategy, I can't decide if John's decision to change his vote made sense.  On the one hand, his former tribe mates clearly signaled their willingness to sacrifice him.  On the other, he'll likely do no better than sixth with Russell's crew.

PARKS AND RECREATION: Review forthcoming...

As always, you're welcome to post anonymously, but please identify yourself somehow, so I can distinguish between anonymous posters. Thanks!

13 comments:

Thunderstorm said...

Just wanted to say, I really enjoyed Fringe last night. I am still confused by what happened to Peter, Walter and the Observer, when the accident happened (and perhaps I should be).

Has Peter's mother ever been mentioned? And would it floor anyone if it were Nina? Maybe this is a common theory on Fringe forums, I don't know.

But overall, this reminded me of the best X-Files episodes. Mythology, solid and intriguing story.

Flash Forward, eh...I dunno.
It was decent, I guess. I almost predicted last week that John Dmitri Cho was the mole, and I am even more suspicious after this week. Also, Benford is not getting any more digestible. I'll just call it like I see it, HUGE casting mistake. Although Penny is still great, maybe I'm biased.

I only saw about half of both The Office and 30 Rock, so I'll skip it for now.

Bigmouth said...

Updated with reviews of Fringe, FlashForward, The Office, and Survivor.

Thunder: I think the Observer may have saved Walter and Peter's lives because the latter is an "irregularity" from the mirror universe, and the former is the only one who knows how to repair the rift. But I have to admit, I also like your theory about Nina being Peter's mother!

dj said...

I think FlashForward blew its chance. It could have been pretty awesome after Al's suicide because that really threw me for a loop. Then it slid right back into crapsville and it's like watching a trainwreck now.

Fringe was great! I mean, I think the whole "this must be what they call feeling" thing was a bit contrived because I've seen it done SO MANY TIMES, but it was still really well-done and highly enjoyable! And yes, the photoshopped Observer sightings were pretty hilarious. The first one was actually quite decent, but the other two... yikes.

Greg Tramel said...

yes, i've thought for awhile Nina has had intimate relationships with Bell & Walter in addition to Broyles which we have seen evidence for recently

but would the dead Peter be the son of Walter and Nina or both the dead and Alt(but now primary Peter)?

i mean i'm guessing there is an alt Walter and alt Nina but maybe not

Capcom said...

Wow, I too was disapointed with FF. Saaaaad.

I really enjoyed Fringe this week also. The Three Stooges Observers were great.

I'm thinking now that Peter is one of those clone things, rather than stolen from the other dimension now. Or perhaps some of the Peter clones were placed in the other dimension, and when the real Peter died, Walter snagged one back. Or just took one of the replacements. There has to be a very creepy reason why he can't remember anything, and it's got to be something that will completely shock him and make him hate Walter again, after they've gotten so close now. I predict. :-) And I wonder if the ray-gun would work again if Pete used it?

If Nina is that much of a tramp as you guys wonder, I've lost all respect for her! :o)

Greg Tramel said...

yep, i could be completley wrong about pulling Peter from where Bell is now since we do have lost of evidence for cloning

maybe the parallel worlds are a completely different set of people so there is not a Peter, Walter, Nina in World2

however i think i remember some evidence that there is a Broyle in both worlds because of Olivia's flashes

Capcom i didn't mean Nina had relationships with them all at the same time, there is something in Walter's face that indicates he's had some kind of relationship with Nina in addition to the tinge of jealousy/regrets he has about Bell's success

she 1st was with Walter then Bell then Broyles

Greg Tramel said...

that should have been lots of evidence instead of lost (TOO MUCH LOST on the brain)

i think what Walter has discussed more than once what i would label tangential universes but maybe that's not at all what we are seeing in Fringe

the universes might not have duplicates

Greg Tramel said...

oh and i thought the last V was the best episode so far (guess that is not saying much) so i will watch it this week but not sure if i'll come back in March

i'll continue to watch FF for now, i didn't hate the last ep as much as y'all

Capcom said...

LOL about Nina. :o) Could be that Walter fell in love with Nina too at some point, but Bell or Broyles won her over. I can't remember anything that they told us about Mrs. Walter last season. Nina could also be someone's sister, like in a Luke and Leia kind of way, where they lead us to believe it was love but was eventually family. Blech.

Nothing says that Pete can't be from both cloning and the altiverse.

I'm burnt at myself, I fell asleep during the last V ep, I only saw the beginning and end. At least I have one more ep, right?

Greg Tramel said...

yes Capcom it could be something like Nina fell for Bell instead of Walter, maybe this happened around the time Walter went to St Clair's

V was by no means great, i just though it was better than what we have seen so far, yes this week's V looks interesting, last 1 until March

FRINGE IS NOT ON THIS WEEK :-(

Greg Tramel said...

my friend says "Alpha" (the V FBI guy) was killed, i just thought the 5th column V put him under but maybe i'm just hoping since he is a fun character

Greg Tramel said...

"Sources confirm that ABC has temporarily shut down production on the rookie drama. The move comes a month after the departure of co-showrunner, Marc Guggenheim, and less than a week after FlashForward hit a new ratings low."

"FlashForward’s lull won’t be nearly as long as the month-long creative hiatus ABC imposed over at V. The Alphabet rep says FF — which airs its mid-season finale on Dec. 3 — will resume production on Monday after just a six-day break."

Capcom said...

I decided to quite taping FF last night, and it turns out that it's the episode that I like the best so far, dammitt. I'll have to go find it on the net now.