Premiere Watch '09: FlashForward

FlashForward: "No More Good Days"

I liked this pilot. Sure, it was trying awfully hard to be Lost at times, and some parts worked better than others. For example, I wasn't particularly infatuated with any of the characters. I'm sure we'll get to know more about them and hopefully grow to like them more in future episodes. It would have been difficult for a show to both showcase its characters and establish this kind of high-concept premise all in the pilot episode. (Not that it's impossible--Lost was able to do it, and I think that Life on Mars did a pretty good job of it last year.)

But I did find the high-concept premise to be really interesting. Everyone time-hopping to the future all at once!? How strange and interesting. It actually seems a bit like a Fringe plot, but I like that it's this one strange occurrence that we're going to deal with in this series, where as Fringe has a never-ending parade of weird events.

One good/bad thing about the FlashForward pilot was that it made me feel very, very nervous. Like Lost, I think FF has the potential to be a very interesting show, but it's not exactly low-stress entertainment. I'm interested to see if FF begins to work in some occasional comedic relief (like Lost has done masterfully), because watching it might give me an anxiety attack if it doesn't.

Play-by-play:

• So apparently everyone blacking out at the same time can cause some major problems.
• Penny has no accent!
• Those balloons are awesome!
• The cinematography looks Lost-esque. Be on the look out for Jacob. I would not be at all surprised if he's behind all this.
• OMG, for a second, I thought the guy talking about his Marine daughter was Richard Hatch!
• Demetri: "I cannot dance to 'Islands in the Stream'! I will never live it down."
• I like the rapid-fire jumping around from person to person to this jazzy music.
• The pickup truck flying through the air wasn't a sign that they needed backup?
• Oh no! There go the balloons!
• Charlie dreamt that "there were no more good days." That's not good.
• Where'd the kangaroo come from? Is that like the polar bear on Lost? Six years from now, are we still going to be wondering where the kangaroo came from?
• Oh geez, airplanes!
• "People probably died walking up the stairs."
• Wow, Mark is perceptive for noticing a calendar and putting together that his consciousness jumped to the future. Well, maybe not--everyone else seems to have noticed a calendar too.
• They jumped to April 29, 2010, 10 p.m. So can there be a second season to this show or does it all become a mute point after April 29?
• Go Demetri! Even with all this going on, he still managed to haul the blonde into the station.
• The guy who saw himself in London during the flash looks familiar. (Holy cow, how mortifying is it to admit that I think I recognize this guy--Lee Thompson Young--from The Famous Jett Jackson? Oh wow.)
• That was not a very realistic looking view of London from the window. It kind of looked like a cartoon.
• OMG! Big Ben's on fire! Put it out!!!
• Convenient that people were undergoing brain scans at the time.
• Uh oh. Demetri saw nothing.
• Aww, this poor dude was in the bathroom. That's embarrassing.
• So who thinks Mark knocks this girl up? She did laugh at his "sweetheart" crack.
• They're going to need a really big web site if everyone's posting their visions on it. I bet someone's already started the web site anyway. Twitter probably crashed from all the traffic.
• You don't always dream when you're asleep, do you? So wouldn't it be possible that someone who saw nothing was asleep?
• So because he's alive in April, does that mean that Bryce wasn't going to kill himself anyway? Or him being alive in April proves that the visions were always supposed to happen? (Oh geez, it feels like we're plunging into the debates we've already had for Lost.)
• Aaron's daughter is Kris Furillo from Wildfire!!!!!!!!!!!
• Whoa, this guy's daughter was alive in the flash forward. That's strange.
• If Olivia (Penny) didn't want to talk about what she saw, she probably shouldn't have asked Mark what he saw. That kind of invited a follow up question.
• I know who the guy Olivia was with was! He was on Swingtown.
• And there's the friendship bracelet. Never has a friendship bracelet seemed so ominous.
• This FBI girl has no life. She's been watching hours and hours and hours of surveillance tapes all day long? Can't anyone else help her with this? And how did she spot that guy? Crazy good eyes!
• I'm very unnerved by all of this.

Premiere Rating: 7.5/10

Premiere Watch '08: Life on Mars

Life on Mars: "Out Here in the Fields"

I've never seen the original British version of Life on Mars, so I can't draw any comparisons between that and the new American remake (if they ever make an American Shameless, however, I will be all over that, trust me). But I can say that, as a stand-alone entity, I genuinely enjoyed the new American version.

The show's plot is intriguing (which, sadly, does not go without saying when talking about TV pilots), especially now that we know that Maya's safe in 2008, but Sam's still stuck in the past. Why's he still there, and how does he get home? Would getting shot in the past really wake him up in the future? Why's he even there in the first place? Is he really in a coma or did he time travel or is he crazy?

My understanding is that the British version left the show's whole concept as more of a mystery, where as in the American version seem to suggest that Sam is in a coma and the 1973 world is all in his mind. But, I guess it isn't all wrapped up in a box yet, because it seemed like his actions in the past did change the future, and how could that have happened if it was all in his mind? Unless Maya ending up save in 2008 and his exploits in 1973 were in no way connected. Plus, that is one extremely detailed world to have been conjured up in someone's brain. Yeah, now that I think about it, I guess there's plenty of mystery still left on the table here.

The show's cast is strong. Now that Men In Trees is defunct (whaaaaa!), it's nice to see Jason O'Mara (MIT's Stewart, the publisher) in a new vehicle. Hopefully, ABC will be kinder to this one and not jerk it around from time slot to time slot and force it into lengthy hiatuses. Also, as devotee of The Cosby Show and A Different World in my childhood, I find it just awesome to see Lisa Bonet back on television. And I remember Gretchen Mol being dubbed "the next 'it' girl" years back, but I've never seen her in anything, so it's nice to finally get that chance. (Plus I'll admit that I already like her just because she named her son Ptolemy.) Oh, and the bartender was Mike Starr, who played Kenny on Ed! I hope he gets in some more scenes in the future!

One thing I really liked about this show was that modern day detective Sam really cared about the 4th Amendment rights of criminal procedure and the standard rules of police conduct--and the lack of adherence to those things in 1973. I found his advocacy for getting people lawyers when they ask for them and procuring warrants to be downright refreshing, because a lot of the time on TV shows (even those set in the present), policeman don't give a crap about any of that stuff (Without a Trace used to drive me nuts with its rule-bending). Unfortunately, it looks like Sam is going to have to adjust to the standards of 1973, because he doesn't seem to be having any luck in getting 1973 to conform to his.

Also, the show has a really fun '70s soundtrack.

Other thoughts and highlights:

• Sam and Maya were having kind of a heavy conversation while in the midst of speeding to crime scene.
• Well, it would be convenient for alibi purposes to have an identical twin.
• If he'd been listening to another song when he was hit by the car, would he have gone back to another decade?
• Well, at least he already seems to have a life carved out for him here in the 1973.
• The police station looks kind of shady...and grimy.
• He is not making the best first impression here in 1973... He's coming off a little crazy and ornery.
• No wonder girl cops didn't get any serious cases; Annie looks pretty ridiculous in that outfit (esp. with the hat).
• Ha, I was going to say: they showed math on TV in the 70s? Boring.
• Sam: "Who dreams about being yelled at by a closet feminist in the 1973 Policewoman's Bureau?"
• Wow, in the 70s, when the cops were in a hurry, they jumped over desks!
• Really creepy scene where it looked like Sam might shoot the kid to keep him from abducting Maya in the future. Luckily, that entire bad situation seems to have been diverted since Sam could hear Maya tell him that she's okay. So, did Sam's talk with the kid keep him from growing up to become an abductor, and that's why Maya's safe now?

This pilot episode makes Life on Mars one of three new shows (with Fringe and Privileged) that I actually wanted to see more off after the first episode.

Premiere Rating: 8.0/10

(photo: ABC/Life on Mars)

Premiere Watch '08: Fringe

Fringe: Pilot


J.J. Abrams*, I'm ready for a new Alias. Lay it on me!

And, wow, Fringe presented the kind of pilot that only J.J. can deliver. Brilliant. A truly skillful combination of drama, action, mythology, humor, and evocative cinematography.

The foundation of the show is very Alias: a female agent in a powerful government agency unwittingly unlocks and gets sucked into a secret world a la Alice falling down the rabbit hole. What sets Fringe apart is the initial introduction of the "fringe science" concept, which opens a whole new and humongous can of worms: flesh melting chemicals, telepathic communications, earthquakes on cue, children who don't age, etc. A cornucopia of strange occurrences that are out of the reach of conventional scientific thought. Also known as a world that J.J. Abrams should have a lot of fun playing around in this season.

Alias and Lost certainly delved into the fringe (prophecies, moving islands, time jumping, etc.), but those shows introduced the stranger elements more gradually. Fringe unabashedly presented its sci fi elements right from the get go, which I appreciate. It's just that four years from now, if I'm going to be debating how islands move when you spin a wheel, how a constant works, if polars bears can travel through portals, how injecting the Passenger with green goo causes her to write secret info, why Irina's name is on the Rambaldi artifact, how Sydney fulfilled Rambaldi's prophecy, etc., etc., etc., then I'd like to know that now.

J.J. has promised that this show won't get bogged down in long-term mythologies, but with evil corporations and secret government groups and mind-bending realities, the traps have been set. We'll have to wait and see how it all goes down. Personally, I look forward to finding out.

Other thoughts:

• The opening scene was very reminiscent of Lost. I wonder if there were as many convicts and con artists on that flight as there were on Oceanic 815.
• Eew, at least no one barfed up goo on Oceanic 815. Eeeeeeeeew, or melted! Yuckkkkk.
• The opening credits montage is cool. The music is kind of A Beautiful Mind-esque.
• As soon as John told Olivia he loved her, I knew he was going to end up dead. This isn't the first J.J. Abrams pilot I've ever seen...
• Wow, the 3-D graphic that floats in the middle of the shot with the name of the location is super cool! An innovative update on Alias' black screen with flashing white letters.
• Whoa, the plane can land itself on autopilot. That's cool.
• Abaddon! He seems angrier on this show than on Lost. Less creepy though.
• The background music is very Lost--I kept expecting to see someone opening a hatch or something.
• After Olivia told John that she loved him, it was cemented that he was going to get killed, and two minutes later, he blows up. Yep. J.J., I know your tricks... Oh no, wait, he's just been exposed to some horrific chemicals and put into a drug-induced coma. Eeeesh. It's beginning to look like Sydney's Danny got off easy...
• Sorry, I'm not sure I'm going to buy Pacey as a guy with an IQ 50 points north of genius...
• Why do people keep calling this poor lady "honey" and "sweetheart"? It's offensive.
• Dr. Bishop: "I thought you'd be fatter."
  Peter/Pacey: "You thought I would be fatter? Excellent first words. Perfect."
• So the U.S. government and John's family don't mind that some institutionalized guy came in and took a slice out of him?
• In the face of this kind of horrific terrorism, why isn't everyone in the government running around like Olivia, panicked and following weird leads? Everyone else seemed awfully calm considering the 200 dead people on the plane.
• So why did Pacey go a bit crazy a couple of years ago?
• Peter/Pacey: "Right, because after 6 hours, that's when they're really dead."
• If I had a dollar for every time a female character on a J.J. Abrams show was put in a big tank of liquid with electrodes stuck on her head...
• Pacey: "Yeah, because bootlegging smack in the basement is just the picture of normalcy."
• How does she ask specific questions when her brain is hooked up to her boyfriend's brain if her consciousness is being ripped open by the drugs? I feel like she should have been given more instructions.
• I hope they don't need to get a conviction in a court of law for this chemical guy. "I saw him in a drug-induced state while my consciousness was connected to my solidified boyfriend's" is not going to hold up in court.
• Security's a little lax in the FBI apparently... Peter/Pacey can just wander into the room where the guy accused with killing 200 people is sitting? And beat him up?
• Ha ha, Peter/Pacey threatening the chemical guy was awesome. "No, you can't do this."
• Yea, a blood transfusion! Those are always fun! (See Sark in Alias' 1x21).
• Oh no!!! Olivia saved her boyfriend only to find out that he was a bad guy working with the chemical guy! I didn't see this one coming... Nicely played, J.J. I was seeing his character as a purely Danny Hecht figure, but he's actually kind of a mix between Danny and the Iceman. Very interesting.
• Nice chase scene.
• John's last words: "Ask yourself why Broyles sent you to the storage facility"? Dude, when you're dying, just spit out the important stuff--don't ask critical thinking questions; there's no time! (Honestly, I was a little confused as to why she was sent to the storage facility too, but I thought that was because I wasn't paying enough attention.)
• Well, I did end up being kind of right about John, because he's dead now...
• After John died, I totally expected as scene where Olivia storms into Broyles' office and demands to join his unit in the vein of red-haired Sydney barging into Sloane's office with the circumference, but it never happened. Instead she went to talk to Peter/Pacey to get him on board. Not that I blame her for going to see him; he is easy on the eyes, and she'd had a rough day.
• The show is certainly going to set up a will they/won't they situation with Olivia and Peter. I think it will be interesting to see how well that works. On Alias, it worked very well with Sydney and Vaughn (until the ill-advised post-Super Bowl episode ruined it) because they were agent and handler and thus unequivocally not allowed to get involved with each other. Olivia and Peter would seem to have fewer obstacles: he's not officially in the FBI, so there are no anti-fraternization rules.
• Oh no, another evil corporation, Massive Dynamic. How Darma Initiative/Hanso Foundation.
• "How long has he been dead?" "Five hours." "Question him." Awesome.

On a scale where Alias' flawless, world-rocking pilot episode scores a 10, I think Fringe falls only a little bit behind. In fact, it probably have scored higher if I'd never seen the Alias pilot and this was my first sojourn into the J.J. world, which seems so fresh and exciting the first time you jump in.

Premiere Rating: 9.0/10

*When I refer to J.J. Abrams, I mean him and the entire team of talented people who work with him.

(photos: fox.com/fringe)

90210: Bowling Up a Storm

Well, when I promised that I'd come back this week to watch 90210, I hadn't realized that Fringe and Shawn Johnson's cameo on The Secret Life of the American Teenager were going to be airing in the same time slot. Ahhhhhh! Cue panic attack. I did finally crack this Tuesday night puzzle, and the way it worked out, I ended up watching 90210 live. Go figure.

After this episode, however, I'm not going to promise that I'll be watching next week. I'm losing patience with this show; I'm completely not captivated by any of it. I'm vaguely interested in the Kelly/Mr. Matthews stuff, and that may get more interesting next week if Brenda gets thrown into the mix. Let's hope so, because these high school kids are sleep-inducing.

Comments:

• Naomi does look about 40.
• Real life ages of Mr. Matthews (Ryan Eggold) and Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth): 23 and 36. That's veering into Nate and Duchess Catherine's territory. Not to mention that to play a parent on a teen soap, I think you only have to be about 13 years older than the kid.
• Oh, man, Naomi's denim jump suit (with shorts) is hideous.
• Ryan's such a cutie volunteering at the juvenile detention center every day.
• Pretty sure that "family night" was uncool in Wichita too.
• Kelly: "Doesn't it freak you out that I have a child?"
  Ryan: "Doesn't it freak you out that I am a child?"
• So Kelly's kid's dad is a guy from high school with lots of history with her, they lost touch, got back together, had the baby, had issues. Sounds like Brandon to me, but Jennie Garth concurred with me in an interview that the father will will be whoever (Brandon or Dylan) agrees to guest star on the show first.
• I'm impressed that Silver can bowl at all considering how skinny she is.
• Wait, we're watching a bowling montage? Has it come to this? Weren't we watching blow jobs in the parking lot just last week? Is there no middle ground?
• So, on Thursdays Naomi goes to night clubs and on Fridays she goes bowling? I find that hard to believe.
• Evan: "So, anyway, I'm going to save most of that emotional goodness for my audition for The Hills."
• First The Virgins, now Vampire Weekend. At least the soundtrack is enjoyable.
• So, to help Naomi deal with seeing her dad cheating on her mom, the other girl runs and gets the guy who cheated on Naomi to talk to her? It doesn't seem like that should work.
• Hmm, Ryan seems to have some money-related demons.
• If Silver didn't want to get caught sleeping in her car, she might have driven it a little further away from Dixon's house.
• I think Naomi looks as old as her mom...
• Wow, tour de force acting here from Dixon in the scene he reveals that he too had a rough home life ("You think I don't know what it's like?"), and I'm only being marginally sarcastic about that.
• Ugh, I'd be okay with telling Dixon's parents about my rough home life, but I wouldn't want to that annoying Annie girl to know...
• Eew, another terrible pair of shorts on Naomi!
• Naomi has a sibling? I'd forgotten about that... where is he/she?
• Wow, Kelly's mom really is a piece of work...
• Marissa's lifeguard station!
• Can they write Annie off this show? No? It's worth a try.
• In next week's promo, Mr. Matthews is looking a little homeless.