It's like speed-dating, but with TV

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So, I had all sorts of plans about reviewing TV shows as they premiered, but I'm getting rather behind, so here's the quick and dirty version. :) Going forward, I'm not going to make an effort to post about everything I watch - I'll comment if something strikes me, but as much as I'd love it if watching TV was my full-time job, I am not actually a TV critic, so I've got to keep it reasonable.

Fringe

Wow, I was sort of lukewarm going into this season - the finale was pretty awesome, but overall Fringe has always been uneven - but that season premiere totally sucked me right back in. The non-mythology weird-thing-of-the-week episodes were always the show's weakness, but I think the parallel stories in the two universes will definitely keep the mythology in the forefront, and having swapped Olivias means that even non-mythology episodes will have some element of it, with Fauxlivia undercover and our Olivia dealing with her memory implant. Which, by the way, I am rather excited about - wasn't I just talking about how much I love the exploration of memory as identity? Why yes, I was. So I am intrigued to see Fringe's take on things. I am certain that Olivia will overcome the false memories and reassert herself, but at this point it's unclear whether she's totally accepted them or is just pretending to avoid arousing suspicion. Either way, it will be fun to watch how it develops.

The Office

This one, unfortunately, is still leaving me pretty meh. There were some funny moments in this episode, but nothing I saw made me change my opinion from last season, the way Fringe did. I don't even have the enthusiasm to talk about it. I just can't help thinking that it should've been canceled already. Well, at least it's made the decision easy as to which of these shows I'll watch live.

Being Erica

OMG I MISSED THIS SHOW! Eeeee! Group therapy! Why didn't I think of that? LOL, I suspected that the final stage of therapy would be for Erica to become a therapist herself, but I also didn't think they'd go there this soon. Group therapy is a nice middle step, and I think it's a good way to break up the time travel to fix regrets (but I'm still glad there'll be some of that, too!). I liked how they addressed Erica's disappointment that she wasn't Dr. Tom's only patient. They clearly have a "special" relationship, but I admit, I also had the sense that the therapists worked one-on-one... not really sure why, except that we'd only ever seen them in pairs (Dr. Tom/Erica, Dr. Fred/Kai, and Dr. Naadiah/Dr. Tom). Thus far, I am not impressed with Irish!Kai, but we'll see. Oh, and Julianne is my favorite person ever. "You kinda complete me, chicken." :)

Mad Men

I'm only slightly embarrassed to admit that I screamed almost as loudly as Sally at the idea of her and Don going to the Beatles. :)

Aaaand... that was about the last happy moment in the entire episode, lol. It's interesting that, with all the drinking problems and his failures with women, I'd been expecting a total breakdown (but I also thought we got it in the episode with him and Peggy), so it's surprising - and at the same time obvious - that it's Don's secret identity coming back to haunt him that really sends him off the rails. Pete's hypocrisy amuses me - sure, he has every reason to be upset that this skewered his new account, but he's hardly innocent when it comes to keeping secrets. But mostly, I was concentrating too much on Alison Brie looking like a fluffy beach ball with legs to pay much attention to Pete in that scene. :)

Speaking of such things, the women of Mad Men sure are fertile, aren't they? Once is all it takes for Peggy, Betty, and now Joan to get pregnant. This show really is like an advertisement for safe sex, lol. And there seems to be some disagreement over whether Joan actually got the abortion, or if she changed her mind. I guess we'll find out soon enough, since that's not a secret she can keep for very long. Neither is Roger's Lucky Strike news, for that matter, and I'm very curious whether this will mean the dissolution of SCDP, starting another season off with characters changing agencies, or if they'll pull a rabbit out of a hat somehow.

Comments

[shipperx]

Poor Trudy had ao try for years. And I think Joan and her husband were trying at one point, so it seems that once is all it takes... as long as its someone else's husband (or Don) :)

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Heh, yeah, apparently, the key is not to be trying to have a baby, and boom! Pregnant. Even Trudy - hadn't they sort of accepted that they'd be the childless couple? So presumably by this point they'd given up on getting pregnant... and that's when it happens.

[pocochina.livejournal.com]

the women of Mad Men sure are fertile, aren't they

I know, what the hell is this? And they are only fertile at the WORST POSSIBLE TIMES. Wombs: completely unpredictable and always agents of catastrophe!

Not to mention, Joan does not even seem slightly careless, and this is her third contraceptive failure, assuming she has never had a miscarriage? Has someone been slipping her tic-tacs for fifteen years? I mean, it wouldn't lower my opinion of her if that was a series of accidents, her junk her business, it just seems ... out of character.

Also I am sorry you have a headache! But I kind of love your mood theme, I could watch Martin Sheen headdesk for hours.

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Women are clearly baby bombs just waiting to go off... :-P

As for Joan, I stand by the sugar pills theory. Although this most recent accident does make sense - she certainly didn't expect to be cheating on her husband, so I can see her not going back on the pill once she stopped. Still doesn't explain how she was so careless as to need two abortions before this, though. That's definitely not like her. (Maybe she didn't go on the pill until after the first accident? That would explain one, at least.)

[pocochina.livejournal.com]

I didn't even realize she had gone off it, I thought she was asking for when he got back. I guess it is less bad than I thought but STILL. Between the outlandish pregnancy drama and the mopey alpha male bullshit, I'm kind of having horrible A:tS flashbacks.

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I thought she had - wasn't that what the visit to the doctor was about, making sure everything was in working order? That was months before her husband left, so I figured they were trying in between.

[seapealsh]

I'm a Fringe fan and that premiere was awesome. It should be interesting seeing where they go with this. And I kind of wonder if alternate-Broyles will be a key to Olivia getting back. He looks ready to defy Walternate.

Did that memory implant also include the ability to be a marksman? Just wondering....

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Did that memory implant also include the ability to be a marksman?

Yeah, I think it did. They made a big deal out of that Olympic medal that Olivia never won, and when the cabbie remarked on her being a great shot, she said, "No, I'm not," like it was a surprise to her.

I'm assuming it's like Dollhouse, where mental ability alone can give you a skill, even without the muscle memory?

[seapealsh]

That makes sense - I'll go with it. I suppose she could have been a good shot if she'd pursued it like Fauxlivia did.

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Yeah, I figure she'd have to be pretty good, at least, to be an FBI agent. She may not be a world-class marksman, but she does have some skill, so it's not too much of a stretch that she could've been better with more practice.

[(Anonymous)]

But I liked the weird-thing-of-the-week episodes of Fringe. Mostly because they were so crazy, and I've only randomly watched the show. Which is why I didn't like the season premier, because I was lost, and didn't even really know who Olivia was.

And I agree with you on The Office. I own seasons 1-5 on dvd (bought most of them the day they came out), but I didn't even look up prices/giveaways with season 6, because I wasn't all that impressed with it. I feel like going back and just watching season 2 over and over.

Megan

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Heh, yeah, I figure the mythology stuff would be hard to follow if you only watch sporadically, which is probably why they included the standalone cases to begin with. But those episodes get pretty formulaic after a while - something weird happens, it somehow ties into Walter's old research, he does some crazy experiment that saves the day, the end. I ended up liking the mythology better because it was less predictable, but it does require that you watch every week to know what's going on.