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Big TV Week for SciFi Fans

This is shaping up to be a big week of television for fans of science fiction. Monday we started with the two hour premiere of Heroes, which returns for its fourth season. Last year’s storyline was far superior to the lame second season, so it will be interesting how the show develops, especially given its ratings plummet since the first season.  I know a lot of people have jumped off the Heroes train, but it’s still be enjoyable for me. 

Tuesday saw the season finale of the pretty good–if not quite great–original SyFy series, Warehouse 13. They’ve done a decent job of mixing the world-in-peril stuff with the comic relief stuff, and the cast is uniformly appealing.  Not unlike Fringe and Dollhouse, the show struggled to define itself in the early going but really hit a good stride in the second half of it’s run.  Given that it’s the highest rated SyFy show ever, we will see a second season and that’s pretty exciting.  Especially how the season wrapped up on a good cliffhanger.

Tonight at 8 on ABC is the series premiere of Flash Forward, about what happens after the entire world blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds.  ABC has high hopes for the show and so far the previews have looked intriguing/promising. 

Following, on Fox, is actually the second episode of the second season of Fringe, a J.J. Abrams created series which is consistently intriguing and suspenseful and has one of the best characters on television. John Noble plays the goofably loveable (possibly insane) mad scientist, Walter Bishop. Again, an excellent cast throughout, in particular Anna Torv as a strong, yet vulnerable, FBI agent.  Now that the show is weaving a strong mythology into it’s weekly story arc, this one has become must watch tv for any lover of creepy sci fi.

For me, Friday is the cherry on the sundae. That is when we get the return of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. Admittedly, the first season was a little uneven. The appearance of Alan Tudyk toward the end definitely “kicked it up a notch.” BSG’s Tahmoh Penikett manages to play FBI agent Ballard as earnest and stoic without making him boring; and, in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit I would probably watch Eliza Dushku reading the phone book.

Another Whedon Alumnus Finds a New Home

It looks as if Nathan Fillion has finally found a quality home after the ignominious loss (to us) of the brilliant Firefly. Since then–with the exception of Joss Whedon’s clever web vid. Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog, where Fillion did a great parody of the macho/heroic persona of Captain Mal–he hasn’t really had much to work with as an actor. Until this spring.

Castle was given a shortened (10 episode) first season, where it garnered decent ratings.

More importantly, it turned out to be good. Nathan plays Richard Castle, a wealthy and famous divorced novelist of murder mysteries, who manages to wangle his way into a squad of homicide detectives so he can observe the real cops in action. Stana Katic almost manages to out-Mariska Mariska Hargitay when it comes to playing the hard-assed and competent detective Beckett, who — just coincidentally, and often to her own frustration — happens to be heart-stoppingly beautiful. Of course, she finds the flirtatious Castle’s presence in the middle of her investigations to be a huge irritant; but, he’s a personal friend of the mayor’s, so what can she do?

Excellent cast of characters in support here, as well. Susan Sullivan is a kick as Castle’s mother, a one-time Broadway star. Molly Quinn is appealing as his pretty teenage daughter, who manages to be a good girl most of the time, while eschewing cuteness. Jon Huertas, Seamus Dever and Ruben Santiago Hudson are the other cops, who, to Beckett’s chagrin, all seem to enjoy having Castle around. I’m pretty confident that you’ll enjoy it, too.

Season premiere was last Monday, where it airs at 10 pm on ABC. You can also catch up with episodes on abc.com or Hulu.

Io9 runs down the 2009 fall television listings for new and returning sci fi shows.  They’ve even provided launch dates and clips. 

Of the new shows, V and Fast Forward look the most promising; returning shows to look forward to include Dollhouse and Fringe. 

Fox has renewed Fringe for a full 22-episode second-season.  Hopefully, next year they won’t tinker with it — you know not airing episodes for weeks at a time, etc. 

“Fringe proved to be a notable addition to our schedule all season and it really has fans buzzing as it builds to a fantastic season finale,” said Fox’s president of entertainment, Kevin Reilly. “J.J. and the whole Bad Robot team have been phenomenal partners, and we look forward to years of making great television with them.”

It’s a solid show, certainly worthy of coming back.  It’s nothing special, doesn’t quite feel like appointment television like it should be.  Certainly John Noble as Walter Bishop has become one of television’s most fascinating characters. 

What I’d like to see happen is they pair this show with Dollhouse and see if Dollhouse gains viewers at all. 

Regardless, I’m curious at the direction the show will take.  If they would open the plotlines and let it breath some.  I know everyone wants to compare this to The X-Files, but the differences between the two shows is startling.  It doesn’t help using Boston as a background and having every case take place there, especially if you are going to cut to “Roxbury” or some such city and have it resemble nothing like the actual place. 

So, second season.  Get a consultant from Boston and give our characters cases across the globe/country.  Leave some plot lines dangling.  Say what you want about Joss Whedon, but the man knows how to build/payoff a story arc better than anyone working in television right now.  Fringe should follow his lead a bit.

Fox has compiled a videoclip detailing every appearance of “The Observer,” the show’s mysterious bald man indirectly related to the pattern.  He appears discretely in every episode and may be extraterrestrial or well, we don’t really now.

Since new episodes of the show don’t return until January I get the sense that this clip, along with the most recent episode that ended on a cliffhanger (and more importantly who’s plot didn’t tidely wrap up by show’s end) signals the show could be changing gears slightly. The Observer will play an important part in that.

For those that have stuck around, the below clip will tickle your jones.  For those that never watched the show or bailed early on, you might not be as interested.  I enjoy it for what it is, even though the main girl Olivia constantly looks constipated (what some might call acting).  It’s not the X-Files, but few shows are.

Call me provincial, call me a relative realist, but is it so much to ask of television shows that take place in certain cities to have actually done some research into their respective cities?  It’s as if J.J. Abrams and company have never once visited Boston for his new show Fringe.

Only two episodes into the spooky paranormal show and I can look past the crazy science of the show and suspend my disbelief over things like an excellerated birth wherein a conception occurs and the baby grows to 80-years-old within four hours. Or pulling retina images off a dead girl, et cetera.

But one thing I can not over look is playing fast and loose with the physical locations.  I get that television shows are rarely, if never, filmed on location in the cities they take place in.  But, it is no unreasonable to assume the producers do some homework first.  Take for example episode number two of the Fox show Fringe. MORE »

I got a chance to watch the new J.J. Abrams pilot Fringe last night. It’s pretty good in the vein of Alias, albeit without all the kick ass action. But it’s sort of similar with shadowy agents and organizations with big conspiracies and what not.

The plot centers around an FBI agent, a mad scientist and his vagabond genius child (Joshua Jackson) trying to piece together a mysterious infection or incident aboard a flight from Hamburg, Germany to Boston’s Logan Airport.

Yes, it’s cool it takes place in Boston, but it’s not cool that it’s so obviously not taking place in Boston or that the show’s writers didn’t do their homework about Boston. There is absolutely no way there is a giant storage facility in Boston’s Back Bay. Sorry. If you take the time to visit the Back Bay you would know this.

Gripes aside, this is an intriguing procedural with enough paranormal mystery and interesting characters to keep me coming back in the fall. It’s a J.J. Abrams show via The X-Files. Need I say more.

Fringe is scheduled to air in September. The leak is here. DC Comics will publish a comic-book prequel to Fringe Aug. 27 and the show already has a few fan sites, including this one.

I’ll be offering more thoughts on the show and doing a full review, but I just wanted to quickly let you know the show is out there to watch. Now anyone know if Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse has leaked yet?

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We’ve been concentrating a lot on the new Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku project at FOX, Dollhouse. But FOX also has a new show in the works from god J.J. Abrams. It’s called Fringe and is sort of an FBI investigation show, revolving around mystery and science.

Hercules at AICN put it best: “What if somebody at ABC said, “Y’know, David Lynch is a fucking genius. Maybe we should give his show a year in a decent timeslot and see what happens.”

What if someone at Fox said, “Y’know, what would happen if Scully started remembering all the crazy shit she saw in the previous episode every week?”

What if somebody at ABC said, “Y’know, J.J., instead of exploring Sydney’s relationship with her boring fucking half-sister for two seasons, how about digging a little deeper into this Milo Rambaldi business?”

Press Release: From J.J. Abrams (”Lost”), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the team behind “Star Trek,” “Mission: Impossible III” and “Alias,” comes a new drama that will thrill, terrify and explore the blurring line between science fiction and reality.

When an international flight lands at Boston’s Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (newcomer Anna Torv) is called in to investigate. After her partner, Special Agent John Scott (Mark Valley, “Boston Legal”), is nearly killed during the investigation, a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to DR. Walter Bishop (John Noble, “Lord of the Rings”), our generation’s Einstein. There’s only one catch: he’s been institutionalized for the last 20 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son Peter (Joshua Jackson, “Dawson’s Creek”) in to help.

When Olivia’s investigation leads her to manipulative corporate executive Nina Sharp (Blair Brown, “Altered States”), our unlikely trio along with fellow FBI Agents Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick, “The Wire”), Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo, “Oz”) and Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”) will discover that what happened on Flight 627 is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth.

Zap2It has script reviews for two highly anticipated television projects. The first is for Fringe by JJ Abrams, starring Joshua Jackson (Pacey) and the second is Dollhouse by Joss Whedon, starring Eliza Dushku (whom I attended high school with when she was there and not filming some movie or whatnot).

Both series will air on FOX in the fall season.

Fringe is “going to be sold as FOX’s attempt to reclaim the X-Files demo that the network has jeopardized with the swift cancellation of too many shows from folks like Whedon and Tim Minear. The script lends itself to a large-scale pilot and it should leave viewers knowing exactly what to expect in the episodes to come, which is more than can be said for.” Also, getting into the JJ Abrams business is a good thing. His track record is fairly spotless and his following is very loyal.

The same thing can be said about Joss Whedon. His following is not so much loyal as it is messianic. But his track record with FOX is horrible. They’ve canceled every good show he’s done and not just his shows, but shows from Whedon’s acolytes like Tim Minear.

“While recognizably Whedonesque, Dollhouse finds Joss going in different direction, one that may be less quippy and less plot-driven than some might expect. The fans will still love it, I suspect, but will Dollhouse be able to find an audience beyond the Whedonverse? I’m not sure. So this could be one of those “Enjoy it while you’ve got it” gems.” That doesn’t sound good. Well it does, it just sounds like it will get canceled too soon.

In case you’re wondering how these could potentially play out as pilots, the article goes on to expound on what makes a compelling pilot.

A good pilot should do one of two things: It should either lay out the blueprint for the rest of the series or it should intrigue you so much that you can’t wait for the second episode. Fringe falls into the first category. It leaves almost nothing to the imagination in terms of what’s coming next. Dollhouse falls into the second category.

Collider has gotten their hands on the pilot script for JJ Abrams next television show Fringe. The show has lined up Pacey Whitter, er actor Joshua Jackson and Mark Valley (Keen Eddie) to star.

So what’s the show about? Apparantly it’s a 25/25/50 mix of House/Bones/X-Files. Full caveat, the reviewer got his hands on an early draft.

The fringe the title refers to is fringe science. The weird stuff. The stuff that will make X-Files-philes blush with anticipation. This pilot goes into how three people – a Federal Agent, an institutionalized scientist and his genius son – come together to address the problems this field’s work births into the world.

Ultimately, the script reads like a 25/25/50 mix of House, Bones and X-Files and I say that as a person who enjoys/enjoyed all three of those shows. The conspiracy seems to stem from a company called Prometheus founded by none other than William Bell – Walter Bishop’s old lab partner. Yes, I know those familiar with mythology may think the company name a bit heavy-handed but I dig it.

So, we’ve got JJ Abrams with a mysterious group , conspiracy and an acerbic, socially inept main character? Sounds good to us. No word on when this is going into production or when you can expect the show on your cathode ray tube.