I started out watching several of the Fox shows when the network launched, like The Simpsons and The X-Files. Then Fox shifted to “unscripted,” sometimes called “reality” shows, and I quit watching. Partly because I have too much respect for writers to watch a network dedicated to denying their existence. Partly it’s because the initial reality shows turned me off so much that I never watched them. I mean, I’m a game designer, people. I know how games work. It’s completely obvious to me that the competitive aspects of reality shows are rigged.

Gradually, I started noticing ads for Fox shows that sounded really interesting. I started watching some Fox again.

And, in 2008, along came Fringe.

We Watched It

Initially, Fringe promised to be about fringe sciences and the government investigation thereof. So it promised to be a sort of cross between The X-Files, Strange World, and Eleventh Hour (I’m linking to the British version, but the American version with Rufus Sewell was very good, too).

BTW, if you don’t already have the key for the glyphs they use for the commercial title cards (of if you didn’t realize they were glyphs), here’s the key:

Sticking

We fell in love right off the bat with Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv). Killing off her partner, John Scott (her real-life husband at the time, Mark Valley – a fellow Desert Storm vet, and star of Human Target, which I must write about some day) in the first episode won her our sympathy. His constant reappearances heralded some high-strangeness.

Then there was Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble). Walter is bat-shit crazy. He had his best friend remove part of his brain because he didn’t like some of his ideas, and because he didn’t like the person the ideas were turning him into. He’s also a genius. He’s sweet, but completely socially clueless.

His son, Peter (Joshua Jackson), is a gambler and a world-traveling ne’er-do-well who can’t help that he loves his crazy father. Recruited against his will by the lovely Olivia, Peter begins as his father’s minder and becomes a full-fledged member of the Fringe team.

Let’s not forget the incredible gravitas of Lance Reddick as Phillip Broyles, the charm and warmth of Jasika Nicole as Astrid Farnsworth (whose name Walter always seems to forget), Seth Gabel as Lincoln Lee, Blair Brown as the deadly and secretive Nina Sharp, or Leonard Nimoy as the mysterious Dr. William Bell.

WTF

So, Fringe is rapidly reaching the end of my shipper goodwill.

It’s been a long time coming. They introduced the two-worlds idea early on, with Olivia’s disappearance at the end of the first season.

I’m finding the season-long story arcs less and less compelling. I would have been perfectly happy with weirdness-of-the-week episodes, stories that delved into the past of weird history (e.g., Nikolai Tesla, Roger Bacon’s Brazen Head, and so forth), and the occasional multi-episode arc.

Now we don’t know what’s happening, and Olivia is pregnant.

I am a little disappointed in myself that I am such a shipper that I’m planning to watch next season just to see what’s up with the child a telekinetic mother and a father from a parallel dimension.

Thoughts?

Have you ever watched something that you knew was bad, but you couldn’t stop?

I wouldn’t know. I’m not invited, but I can read coverage of the “up-fronts” and form my own opinions.

Here are some shows that caught my attention, for good or ill.

NBC

Revolution: JJ Abrams (Alias, Cloverfield, Lost, Star Trek, Super 8, etc.) brings us a show about life after a global EMP knocks out all known power sources. The cast, the creator, and the trailer, all suggest that my wife and I will enjoy this.

Community: Well, we’re getting part of a season, without Dan Harmon. We’ll see how that works out.

The Munsters: We won’t see this re-boot until mid-season. There’s no information on IMDB yet, so I can’t comment on creators or stars. I’ll check out the marketing, and hope for the best.

Silence of the Lambs: Another re-boot. I don’t see how they could bring Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling to the small screen, but I might give it a shot.

Fox

The Following: A serial killer uses technology to create a cult of serial killers. This show stars Kevin Bacon, Maggie Grace, James Purefoy, and Shawn Ashmore. The cast alone makes me willing to see if they can wring anything new out of the serial killer genre.

ABC

Zero Hour: I’ve been a fan of Anthony Edwards at least since Revenge of the Nerds. This show also stars Michael Nyqvist, and is about an editor of a skeptics magazine who gets pulled into a big, post-DaVinci Code, conspiracy with demonic infants and paranormal Nazis. Sounds like my last modern RPG game…

666 Park Avenue: I don’t care if Terry O’Quinn is in it, I won’t watch this show when it releases. Instead, I’ll hold out hope that it turns out gloriously trashy, like the original Dark Shadows. Then I’ll catch up with it through the various on-demand services.

CBS

Elementary:  I am a big, silly, Sherlock Holmes fan. I can enjoy the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce adaptations, revel in the wonderful Jeremy Brett versions, go along for the ride courtesy of Guy Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr., and Jude Law; and devour every episode of Steven Moffat’s modernization with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. So a version with a recovering addict (Johnny Lee Miller) and his sober partner (Lucy Liu) solving mysteries in New York City is a must-watch – even though I realize it may well suck.

Vegas: Dennis Quaid has been a favorite of mine since Breaking Away. In this show, he plays a sheriff in 1960s Nevada butting heads with a casino owner played by Michael Chiklis – another actor whose work I like. This one is kind of a mystery to me. I feel like it might be worth checking out, but somehow I doubt it will be popular enough to last.

The CW

Arrow: Okay, look, Troy Patterson is right when describing this network as “a network which exists to sell young women lip gloss and offer bloggers things to obsess over.” I get it. But the teaser video looks pretty good.

Now, that said, they are really, really, missing out on a marketing opportunity. If your star can really do that kind of work-out, why isn’t he competing on American Ninja Warrior?

Thoughts?

What did I miss? What are you looking forward to?

Back when I was a kid, there was a role-playing game supplement from Steve Jackson Games called Warehouse 23.  That was the warehouse where the government kept the Ark of the Covenant, the gold plates of Moroni, dissected corpses of Martian invaders, and more.

So when SyFy offered us a show about a warehouse where the government keeps artifacts associated with historical figures and events, we were going to watch.

We Watched It

Two Secret Service agents save the life of the US President, and promptly get new assignments in the middle of nowhere. There, Pete (Eddie McClintock) and Myka (Joanne Kelly) meet their new boss, Artie (the awesome Saul Rubinek). Artie introduces them to the technology they’ll use on the job, gives them a tour, and deals with Myka’s doubt and Pete’s childlike enthusiasm.

Leena (Genelle Williams) runs the B&B where they stay. Claudia Donovan (Allison Scagliotti) joined the cast in Season 2.

On the Bubble

I’ll say one thing for the writers, they know how to deal with season-long story arcs. The seasons never drag. Some of the episodes are better than others, granted, but they contribute to the story arcs constantly.

Of course there are things that we tire of. Pete insists on playing with artifacts that amuse him. Myka loves Artie like a father, but feels like her career is at a dead-end. Artie rejects technology from outside the warehouse. Allison doesn’t understand why she can’t upgrade everything that she wants to.

The artifacts are, generally, predictable. Once we know who or what they’re connected to, we can usually predict what they’ll do. For some reason, none of the characters in the show can. Nor do they always recognize when an artifact is affecting them. You’d think, after three years, that would be their first assumption…

While they do have a way to detect the use of artifacts, the staff of Warehouse 13 has never been able to catalogue or audit their holdings. Artifacts go missing routinely. You’d think that would cost some government agents their jobs, but not yet…

WTF

I tried to watch Sanctuary for a while, but I just couldn’t take it. I didn’t like the characters, or the relationships, and worst of all, I hated the green screen sets. No matter how detailed they were, they were obviously fake to my eyes.

So you’d think that I would have a similar reaction to Warehouse 13, which also makes some use of green screen. I don’t, though. I think Warehouse 13 does a better job of mixing green screen and real-world locations.

Thoughts?

Have you ever watched a show that you expected to hate, but found that you liked it after all?

• House: The show is ending, and we don’t care. Of course I hope the final season is their best work, and they all go on to great things, but they’re not reaching out to lapsed viewers so we’re not watching.
• Psych: Frikkin’ great season. Bravo, gang. We’re totally watching.
• Ringer: Oh, so dropped.
• Haven: Waiting for new episodes, which won’t happen until later this year.
• NCIS: Meh. This season felt like it was searching for something, and they didn’t find it until a new big villain popped up. Definitely on the bubble.
• Person of Interest: I take it all back. This show has found its footing and is running full speed. Not every episode is great, but it’s all worth watching.
• Covert Affairs: There will be a season 3 starting in July! Yay!
• Burn Notice: It felt like Burn Notice was struggling this past season, but the way the season ended…whoo! How can I not watch next season?
• White Collar: Also renewed. Super excited. Love those guys.
• Supernatural: With the arrival of the Leviathans, Supernatural suddenly took off. Episodes advance the overall story arc noticeably. No character is safe. We can’t look away.
• Leverage: We’re still on the bubble with Leverage.
• Destination Truth: Josh Gates is still a manipulative ass.
• Hawaii Five-O: The show took a sharp left toward jumping the shark this season. They started focusing on McGarrett’s back story and his father’s death. He started separating himself from the team to pursue his own interests. Now, that’s partly because Alex O’Loughlin put himself in the hospital for exhaustion and they had to work around that. On the other hand, the cross-over episode with NCIS: Los Angeles was pretty darn good. We’ll have to keep watching.
• Alcatraz: Alcatraz picked up steam toward the end of the season. Suddenly, the story advanced every episode and the stakes kept getting hiring. We’ll definitely watch a second season.
• Castle: Are you kidding? Did you see the zombie episode? We can’t look away.
• Lost Girl: I don’t want to like this show, but I want to see where it’s going.
• CSI Miami: Still don’t care.
• Glee: Rapidly losing interest.
• Breaking In: If there are any more episodes, it will still be on the bubble.
• Missing: Dropped
• Touch: I want to hate this show for manipulating me so much, but I’m fascinated by how the writers keep jerking my heartstrings.
• The River: Really? That’s how you’re going to end a season? Seriously, people, that’s how you end an episode of The Twilight Zone, not a whole season.
• Whitechapel: So, if DI Chandler likes a woman, she dies? Is this a recurring pattern throughout his life? What happened to his mom? This show is hit-or-miss with me.
• Being Human: We’ve moved on.
• Eureka: Awesome. So sad it’s the last season.
• Top Gear: Pretty damn entertaining again. Sticking.
• The Finder: Still fun.

I’m pretty sure there are more shows on our DVR series record list that I haven’t talked about yet, but I can’t believe we watch that much TV. Maybe if it was all on at once and we had to make more choices, we’d actually watch less.

Thoughts?

So, what jumped out at you from this most recent season?

We’ve been fans of the TV series Bones since 2005 when it first aired. Last year, Bones ran an episode called The Finder. We watched it, enjoyed it, and decided to watch the spin-off when it started.

We Watched It

Walter Sherman (Geoff Stults) was in Iraq, serving in uniform, until an IED injured his brain and gave him a remarkable ability to find anyone or anything.

Walter lives in Florida with his lawyer, Leo Knox (Michael Clarke Duncan), and a teenage gypsy on probation named Willa Monday (Maddie Hasson). Walter’s romantic interest is Deputy US Marshal Isabel Zambada (Mercedes Masöhn).

People come to The End of the Earth bar and ask Walter for help. If he’s interested, he takes the job. Once Walter is on the case, he has to find what he’s looking for. We’re not sure what happens if he doesn’t, but Leo seems very worried for Walter’s mental health if that ever happens.

Sticking

So, after watching the Bones episode, I went out and found the Richard Greener The Locator books. I can tell you that The Finder and The Locator might as well be two, entirely different, properties.

I’ve bitched plenty of times, here and elsewhere, about Hollywood buying properties and then slapping the name of the property on something very different (see especially here). If you’re surprised that I’m not bitching about it this time, so am I.

The thing is, The Finder is good all on its own. The characters are enjoyable. The Florida scenery warms my bones (If that’s really where it’s filmed, full disclosure – I’m a native Floridian, born in Tallahassee). John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival does the theme song. It’s just fun.

WTF

This show lacks a lot of the problems that many other fledgling series have. For example, there’s no Gilligan’s Island Syndrome here.

However, Walter has a brain injury.

The problem with injuries is that they can become meaningless (e.g., several seasons of Monk) or melodramatic (e.g., most of House).

I’m concerned that the writers are going to run out of off-kilter ways for Walter to visualize problems. When that happens, they may “cure” him (at least temporarily), or they may go off on a bizarre tangent. Right now, Walter is a character. He could become a caricature, though.

It’s something I’ll keep an eye on.

Thoughts?

What intellectual properties has Hollywood re-booted that pleased you, or rubbed you the wrong way?

My wife and I started watching BBC America because of shows like Prime Suspect, Wire in the Blood, and other terrific crime dramas. Plus they showed the digitally re-mastered run of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

While we watched those shows, we kept seeing commercials for a show that seemed to combine exotic cars and crazy stunts. I had to watch, and while I did, my wife got hooked.

We Watched It

Top Gear stars three car nuts – Jeremy Clarkson (center, in the photo above), Richard “Hamster” Hammond (left), and James “Captain Slow” May (right; the guy in the helmet and track suit is The Stig). They talk about cars in a studio, take exotic cars for test drives, and do elaborate comparison stunts between different kinds of cars – hot hatchbacks, muscle cars, touring cars, etc.

The stunts are often hilarious, and sometimes unbelievable. They race fighter jets, Olympic luge competitors, and Volkswagen Beetles falling from the sky. They turn trucks into amphibians. They tried to turn a car into a space shuttle.

The three stars are opinionated, outspoken, people, each with a unique point of view. Jeremy Clarkson loves power and Mercedes-Benz, and is completely useless with tools. Hammond likes a combination of power and precision, and far prefers Porsches. James May loves comfort and luxury. Both Hammond and May know how to turn a wrench.

On the Bubble

The problem is that Top Gear seasons are very short, roughly seven weeks. So we go long periods of time without seeing new episodes. For a while, reruns were good enough to get us through the dry stretches. Now, we’ve seen them multiple times and don’t care anymore.

We saw the season 17 Christmas special, in which the three hosts drove vehicles representing British manufacture across India. The interplay between hosts came across as mean-spirited. The special was about them being ridiculous to each other, not bothering to respect or participate in the local culture, and had little or nothing to do with cars.

I couldn’t remember why I watched the show at all. I was ready to quit, until we watched the first episode of the season – which was back to normal.

WTF

Yes, I know that there’s an American version of Top Gear on the History Channel. I watched the first season, and it was pretty darn good by the end of that season. It started becoming its own thing instead of just a direct copy of the British show.

Thoughts?

Have you ever turned off any reality show because the interplay between the cast changed for the worse?

I don’t remember why we started watching Eureka in 2006. If anything, it was the promise of watching Joe Morton play a genius in a town full of geniuses. Still, we have been watching since the pilot.

We Watched It

Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) is a United States Marshal with a divorce and a brilliant daughter who likes to run away from home. One day, after picking up Zoe (Jordan Hinson) again, they have a little accident and wind up in Eureka.

Founded after WWII, Eureka exists to give geniuses free range to experiment. Owned by the Department of Defense and run by General Dynamic Corporation, Eureka keeps America on the cutting edge of science and technology.

The sheriff is getting ready to retire during a weird crime wave. He asks Jack to work with his deputy, Jo Lupo (Erica Cerra), in resolving the crimes. When the dust settles, Jack is the sheriff of a town full of geniuses, his daughter is smart enough to enroll in Eureka High School, and wackiness ensues.

Long Good-bye

This is the final season of Eureka. From the first episode, it seems that the writers are throwing out the rulebook in the best way, and coming at things in new and original ways.

WTF

Here at Casa Redman, we sincerely hope for a return of Nathan Stark (Ed Quinn). We miss ya, big guy.

I’m sure the whole cast, including  Niall Matter, Neil Grayston, and Chris Gauthier will all find more work soon.

Thoughts?

What show have you lost, that you miss?

A vampire and a werewolf move into a haunted house. No, that’s not the set-up for a joke. It’s the context for a TV show from Touchpaper Television. It originally aired in the UK in 2008, and came to the US on BBCA.

Yes, I know that SyFy has a show with the same title and context. It’s an import of the BBC show. We’ve only watched the BBC one.

We Watched It

Annie (Lenora Crichlow) lives in a two-story house in Bristol…sort of. You see, that house is where Annie died when her fiancée shoved her down the stairs. Now, when anyone tries to buy or rent the place, she scares them off.

She’s lonely and miserable until George (Russell Tovey) and Mitchell (Aidan Turner) show up.

To Annie’s shock, they can see her.

Turns out that George is a werewolf who’s trying to control his curse, and Mitchell is a vampire who’s trying to give up his thirst for blood.

For three seasons, Annie, George, and Mitchell lived together. George had a daughter with his girlfriend, Nina (Sinead Keenan), after biting Nina and making her a werewolf, too. They discovered that Annie could make herself visible to humans, and could leave the house where she died. Mitchell went into the afterlife to rescue Annie, and fell off the wagon once or twice.

Then George accidentally staked Mitchell, and while trying to rescue his daughter from vampires, George died. That left Annie alone with the daughter, Eve.

Across the country, another trio – Hal (Damien Molony), Pearl (Tamla Kari), and Leo (Louis Mahoney), have been together since 1955. Leo is the werewolf, Pearl is the ghost, and Hal is the vampire. Leo has a vision about a savior baby, and demands that Pearl and Hal help him meet the child. Leo is elderly, and unlikely to survive another monthly change into a wolf.

In Annie’s house, Leo and Pearl declare their love for each other and pass over the other side, leaving Hal with Annie and Eve until Tom (Michael Socha) shows up.

We met Tom in an earlier season. We know he’s a werewolf. He and his father hunted vampires, until the vampires killed the father.

So, now, in the fourth season, Annie and two new men try to protect the savior who will wipe out the vampires (Eve) from vampires, social services, serial killer ghosts, and anyone else who cross their path.

Dropped

We don’t like the new cast and the new stories.

That’s not a comment on the actors at all. They’re all quite good, and their working out the chemistry between their characters. That’s all fine.

For several seasons, I noticed that I enjoyed Being Human when I watched it, but I never felt compelled to watch it. Now, with the fourth season, watching it requires an actual effort on my part. There are plenty of shows that we want to watch, so dropping this one just made sense.

WTF

One thing they’ve done well in re-tooling the show is that they haven’t tried to replace the characters with exact duplicates. Tom and Hal are very different from George and Mitchell. I appreciate that.

I also respect the risk the show creators took with that decision. Because new chemistry is a gamble. You gamble that you’ll keep enough viewers, and attract enough more, to compensate for those you lose.

Thoughts?

Has a show ever changed cast and put you off?

Like a lot of people, I’m fascinated by crimes of Jack the Ripper, which happened between August 31 and November 9, 1888. So when BBCA started advertising a TV show about modern London police officers chasing a Ripper copycat, I had to watch.

We Watched It

DI Joseph Chandler (Rupert Penry-Jones) is a young detective assigned to a squad investigating crimes in London’s East End. The rest of his squad are generally older cops who like their crimes simple and their methods old-fashioned.

Faced with a series of inexplicable murders, Chandler consults with an expert on the Ripper killings, Edward Buchan (Steve Pemberton). Together, the squad and the historian pursue the killer.

Sticking

The episodes were tightly scripted and fast-paced. The characters, including DS Ray Miles (Philip Davis) turned out to be complex and multi-dimensional. The actors really sold the emotional stakes of their investigation.

Season Two involved other legendary East End crime figures, the Kray twins.

Season Three, airing now, will follow a different format, covering two sets of crimes over six episodes.

The accents can be tough going, just so you’re aware. This is not a British CSI, so don’t expect a lot of lab work or forensic evidence.

WTF

DS Miles is a problematic character. All through Season One, he refused to admit the value of Buchan’s historical knowledge. In Season Two, his own family’s association with the original Krays overpowered any outside contributions. Now it’s Season Three, and he’s refusing Buchan’s insights again. Granted, Buchan can be irritating and he’s not always right, but I’m not sure how much longer we have to wait for him to have his Ghost Ship Moment.

It’s been my experience that people in life-or-death jobs who are constantly racing against a clock are usually quick to at least try everything that promises to make them more effective, or faster. Yet Miles is so reactionary that he doesn’t. Sigh.

Thoughts?

Do you have a morbid or macabre interest, like mine in a 19th-Century serial killer? What do you do to indulge it?

When I was a kid, I got a kind of frisson from some horror movie advertising, but I never went to see one. Even when I was old enough to see R-rated movies on my own, horror films creeped me out. These days, I’m selective about what I see, and I usually watch at home rather than in a theater. TV has had some good horror of its own recently. From Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Supernatural to American Horror Story, television keeps trying to find a runaway hit in the horror genre.

So, when The River came along from producers Michael R. Perry and Oren Peli, we decided to give it a try.

We Watched It

Dr. Emmet Cole (Bruce Greenwood) is an explorer and TV personality whose catchphrase is, “There’s magic out there.” He decides to go on an expedition deep into the Amazon River basin, against the advice of his ex-producer, Clark (Paul Blackthorne), and that of his wife Tess (Leslie Hope). He leaves behind his usual mechanic and engineer, Emilio Valenzuela (Daniel Zacapa), because he believes it will be too dangerous for Emilio and his daughter Jahel (Paulina Gaitán).

Turns out Emmet was right, because he, his crew, and his ship, the Magus, disappear.

Emmet’s estranged son, Lincoln (Joe Anderson), a scientist in his own right, gets a call from his mom informing him of his father’s disappearance. She tells him that she’s financed a search-and-rescue mission by giving Clark permission to film the entire expedition. Clark has hired Emilio, who brings Jahel along, and Captain Kurt Brynildson (Thomas Kretschmann) for protection. Clark brings A.J. Poulain (Shaun Parkes), an English cameraman. Lena Landry (Eloise Mumford), daughter of Emmet’s lead cameraman, rounds out the group.

Together they head down the River, looking for answers.

On the Bubble

The fundamental problem with this show should be obvious to everyone who reads this blog, or my blog over at Forces of Geek: It’s the Gilligan’s Island Syndrome. If they ever find Emmet, the show is over, right?

Yeah, except that’s not true. This show keeps confounding my expectations in the best possible way. For example, the expedition finds the Magus in the first episode. Video footage found there, and phone calls made by Brynildson, mention “the Source.” Apparently, there is literally magic in the world, and it all comes from this Source. So right off, they resolve one puzzle but raise more questions.

I keep watching because I want to see how the writers are going to keep the plot alive.

Lots of shows try to merge long story arcs with episodic formats. Most feel like they spend every season treading water, and then race through important events in a few episodes toward the end. The River floundered a little bit, wandering into monster-of-the-week territory, but found its way and pushed forward.

I really wonder how they’ll wrap the season, because it’s likely to be the only one broadcast. Although it’s generally gotten good reviews and has a 64/100 rating at Metacritic, the ratings have been sub-par. In fact, it’s so “On the Bubble” at ABC that Netflix is already bargaining to pick it up.

WTF

I am not a huge fan of found footage projects. I’m sure some people think that The Blair Witch Project was the first, but the technique in horror films goes back at least to 1980. Oren Peli is most well known for the Paranormal Activity movies, so he has some experience in the area.

The River uses the technique pretty well, but you can spot moments when no hand-carried or stationary video camera could have captured the footage.

I find myself contrasting The River with American Horror Story. Both capitalize on fear of the unknown, but then they split apart. In The River, the cast realize very, very quickly what kind of story they’re in. Their “Ghost Ship Moment” comes in episode one. In American Horror Story, each of the three family members has that realization at a different time. It adds to the psychological tension for the audience, because every episode we wonder who is going to figure out what.

American Horror Story kept showing us the senseless pain that we inflict on those closest to us, how vulnerable we are when we open ourselves to relationships, and the ugliness that lurks behind beautiful facades and neatly trimmed lawns. Whereas in The River, all the tension comes from wondering what is going to jump out and scare us next (we know when, because the music warns us).

Thoughts?

What appeals to you about the horror genre, or turns you off?

Oh, and to make up for those song lyrics in the excerpt…