Fringe Friday Returns Tonight!

I had hoped for some clarity after I re-watched the season 3 finale, “The Day We Died”, last night, and while I feel that I may understand the unfolding of events just a little better, I still have no freaking idea why what happened, happened. Or where the hell this story is going.

I do, however, know that I love love LOVE this show, and it felt so good to be watching it again last night. That despite all of the wormholes and doomsday machines and time travel and science-speak – all things that I am a fan of, don’t get me wrong – at its heart Fringe is a well-constructed, skillfully executed character piece. That no matter what whacky plot development they throw at us next I know that it will exist to serve the characters that we know and love so well. I cannot wait to see where this is heading.

Random observations/questions/quotes from TDWD:

~ Why was Peter’s consciousness sent to the future? Before sending the Machine in pieces to the past, FutureWalter somehow rigs it so that when PastPeter steps into it, his consciousness gets transported to the future where he will see the consequences of that act and therefore not use the Machine. Right?

~ Did that future suck, or what? Did FutureWalter suffer a stroke at some point? What happened on “the Detroit trip” with FuturePeter and FutureBroyles? Why does FB have a white eye? Do any of the answers matter now, if Peter has “served his purpose”?

~ The scene where FutureWalternate (they really make this show hard to recap!) shoots and kills FutureOlivia is no less of a gut-punch on a re-watch. It’s not only seeing Olivia die – it’s seeing Walter do it.

~ When FW explains to FP how he can travel through time and make a different choice that will save both worlds, he touches FP’s face and says, “There’s no telling what the cost might be.” Do you think FW suspected that Peter’s very existence was at stake?

Sometimes I feel like a crazy person when I go back and read what I wrote. Enjoy the show tonight and come back for the recap!

Happy 7th Anniversary, LOST

How it all began:

The Fall TV Post

So guess what? Much to my surprise, there are quite a few new series that I’m actually looking forward to seeing this year. The most recent fall seasons have been fairly uninspiring – and that showed, I think, when almost none of the new shows got picked up for a second season – so I’m feeling encouraged about the prospects of this year’s crop.

*Inhale*

Quick and Dirty:

Returning Shows

Fringe – My current favorite, returns this Friday, September 23 at 9:00 on FOX.
Sons of Anarchy – Season 4 of SOA premiered on September 6 and I’ve got 3 episodes waiting for me on my DVR. It airs on Tuesdays at 10:00 on fX.
Castle – Season 4 of Castle premiered this past Monday. It airs on Mondays at 10:00 on ABC.
CSI – Season 12 finds the show on a new night – Wednesdays at 10:00 on CBS. Tonight is the season premiere. Laurence Fishburne is out and Ted Danson is in.
Modern Family – Season 3 of the Emmy-hog premieres tonight on ABC at 9:00 with an hour-long episode.
The Walking Dead – AMC’s zombie apocalypse show returns on Sunday, October 6 at 9:00 with a full 13- episode second season.
Survivor – I don’t usually watch Survivor, but my mother asked me to watch it with her, so I will. Season 4,391 premiered last Wednesday.

New Shows

This is a long list, and I will probably drop half of them. If I don’t, well, I have no idea how I will fit all of this TV-watching in!

BBCA Dramaville – Drama anthology that includes The Hour, Luther and Whitechapel, each a 6-part mini-series. The first installment, The Hour, began on August 17 and concludes tonight (I have only watched 2 episodes so far). The two remaining series will air through November 30.
Person of Interest – Airs on Thursdays at 9:00 on CBS, and premieres tomorrow night. Attraction for me: Michael Emerson of LOST and JJ Abrams. High hopes.
Terra Nova – FOX’s new sci-fi/dinosaur utopia-planet-that’s-not-really-a-uptopia-planet adventure series premieres on Monday, September 26 at 8:00. I love this kind of stuff, but preliminary reviews are lukewarm. I’m hoping they give it a chance.
Hell on Wheels – AMC’s newest drama, a post-Civil-War recovery Western, premieres on Sunday, November 6 at 10:00. I do love a Western when it’s done right. *sniff*Deadwood*sniff*
Prime Suspect – As a HUGE fan of the BBC original, I had all these built-in prejudices against the NBC remake but you know what? It looks pretty good. Premieres tomorrow night, September 22, at 10:00.
American Horror Story – You can read a description here. From the makers of Nip/Tuck and Glee and airing on fX? Enticing, to say the least. Premieres on Wednesday, October 5 at 10:00.
Once Upon a Time – This is another show that’s difficult to briefly describe, so here’s a link for you. Premieres on Sunday, October 23 at 8:00 on ABC.
Homeland – This one sounds pretty interesting, a psychological thriller involving the CIA, al Qaeda plots and personal demons (of course). The cast includes Claire Danes, Damian Lewis, Morena Baccarin and Mandy Patinkin). Look for it on Showtime on Sunday, October 2 at 10:00.

*Exhale*

And I think that’s about it. Ha! I’ll be lucky if I get to half of these in a timely manner, and that’s only if my DVR can handle the load.

I am excited about a lot of the new series, though, and that hasn’t happened in a while. How about you? What returning and/or new shows are you looking forward to?

BSG Videos from Dragon*Con!

I just came across these videos of the Battlestar Galactica panels at this year’s Dragon*Con in Atlanta. They are long – almost an hour each – so I haven’t had a chance to watch them yet. Check them out and let me know what you think.

Today’s Tweets

Via @EW – ‘Castle’ EP Andrew Marlowe on the season 4 premiere: ‘I’d say they are in a relationship’. I thought the season premiere was good. A bit dark for them, but after that finale I’m not sure they could have gone in any other direction. I’m happy with the way the writers found to move the story forward and not have Beckett in danger of getting killed every time she walks out the door. And I’m very glad that she remember the “I love you”. Her therapy scenes are a great opportunity for some Beckett character development, something she desperately needs. (PS, Rob Bowman directed this episode, and did a great job. Of course!)

Via @televisionary – Ty Mattson’s brilliant re-imagining of Dexter’s opening titles, inspired by mid-century modern design:

Via @vulture – Four decades of ridiculous melodrama will come to an end when All My Children goes off the air this Friday. My God, look at how crazy the 80s were! And I bet Erica Kane was responsible for most of it!

Via @pajiba – The Return of the Weekly Power Rankings: The 10 Best Television Episodes of the Week. Beware of spoilers!!

Via @sutterink – From the “PILOT. photos Jax finds in the storage locker. young gemma. young john teller.” New episode tonight, at 10 PM on FOX.

Via @EW – ‘Simpsons’: See Kiefer Sutherland go all Jack Bauer on Sunday’s season premiere!

Tonight on TV

Just a two brief programming notes for tonight.

Season 4 of Castle premieres tonight on ABC at 10:00 PM. Will Beckett die? Hmmm, let me think about that one…

Eureka’s season 4 finale airs at 8:00 PM tonight on SyFy.

Add a new Warerhouse 13 episode into the mix and I’m a happy TV geek today.

Today’s Tweet – One is all you need!

Via @TVGMDamian and @jonxproductions – FOX has been putting together short videos that summarize the INSANE Fringe story so far, called Past + Present + Future, and releasing them one at a time on Facebook and Twitter. I know that I probably missed a few here and there, so I was happy to see that FOX has put them all in one handy-dandy playlist. Each video focuses on a different aspect of the story, and I believe all are narrated by series star John Noble.

Here is the first video released, an introduction to the series:

So make sure you set aside about an hour before Fringe returns next week (23rd!), and get caught up on all the freaky stuff that has gone down, is going down and you know WILL go down.

We have a Winner!

Congratulations to Rachel Reilly, the winner of Big Brother 13 and $500,000 simoleons. Rachel was probably my least favorite houseguest at the start. She was a vile, catty, arrogant *and* insecure drama queen with a fake, braying laugh that grated on my last nerve. Then her fiance Brendon got booted and Rachel had to actually develop a social game and cultivate relationships with people besides her fiance. I think she probably grew the most as a player than anyone else in the house, and if you combine that with her domination in the competitions, she deserves it.

My favorite, Porsche Briggs, took second place and $50,000 – yay, Porsche!! Happily for me, the weaselly, deluded attention whore Adam walked away with nothing. I’m sorry, Adam. I wanted to like you, but you were way too much of a butt-kisser for me.

Some stray observations, in case anyone reading this cares:

I’ll say it again: Adam is so deluded. He thinks he’s going to be a reality celebrity and that he was a fan favorite, and I think he’s going to be sorely disappointed once he starts reading things on the internet. I had a mixed reaction to his vote: on the one hand, I was SO happy that his vote didn’t matter in the end; but on the other hand, he sort of redeemed himself a little in my eyes by voting for Porsche.

I was bummed but not surprised that the bully Jeff was America’s Favorite. He’s certainly the cutest! And if you add all the cash prizes he won while in the house to the $25,000 AF prize, he probably walks away with almost as much money as Porsche. Oh, well.

I felt bad for Dominic, Keith and Lawon, that they didn’t get to say anything. I especially wanted to know WTF Lawon was thinking when he sacrificed himself, and who told him he was going to come back with special powers.

It’s no surprise that Danielle doesn’t talk to her father. He couldn’t muster up one nice thing to say about her. I’m surprised she’s as confident as she is, with a father like that. Danielle is still my favorite from the season.

I think Shelly really came off well in the end. I liked her at the start, then I didn’t know what to think of her in the middle, and I think I like her again after the finale. I’m not sure, but I think she may have been one of the better players in the house this year.

And that’s it. Until next summer!

Today’s Tweets

Via HitFixDaniel – I have absolutely do not intend to watch the CW’s new show H8r, but boy-oh-boy, did I love reading Dan’s searing review:

So when The CW encourages you to tweet or Facebook during its programming, I have some advice: BE CAREFUL. Feel free to praise Blake Lively’s fashion sense or celebrate the “Supernatural” stars and their cheekbones. But don’t think that it’s OK to suggest that a budding thespian on “One Tree Hill” is an inadequate actor or that one of the “90210” kids is much too old to be playing a high school student. Because if you do… Mario Lopez is coming for you, and when it comes to people who aren’t tolerant of his friends, Mario Lopez is not a very tolerant guy. And Mario Lopez doesn’t care how little money you make or what you do or even if anybody out there on the Internet cares about whatever mean thing you might say, because he’s got a point to make, one that he believes in strongly: Even the lowest-level celebrity — ESPECIALLY the lowest-level celebrity — should be exempt from criticism. But feel free to love them and write about that.

Via @TheAVClub – Downton Abbey earns Guinness World Record for being awesome, or as Guinness puts it, the “most critically well-received show in the world.” Well, it is good, certainly. Season 2 debuts in the UK this week, but we’ll have to wait until 2012 here in the U.S. Here’s a trailer:

I predict a lot of angst!

Via @nprmonkeysee – Watch Erik Estrada shake his thang on Univision’s version of Dancing with the Stars. I gotta say that even though he’s a really bad dancer (and that I liked John more than Ponch), Erik Estrada looks pretty damn good for 62.

Today’s Tweets

Via @sepinwall – Alan’s review of Sarah Michelle Geller’s new show Ringer.

Via @GeekTyrant – The Walking Dead Season 2 teaser trailer (barely a tease, imo):

Via @vulture – Christina Hendricks on Granting Wishes and All That Wonder Woman Talk.

Via @televisionary – The Daily Beast’s Fall TV Preview.