September 28, 2009
“FlashForward” has probably been the most anticipated new show of the season, and with very good reason. The premise is that for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, the entire world blacks out, but they all get a glimpse into their future and what they are doing on April 29, 2010. The big question is why and how this happened. After watching shows like “Lost,” I definitely went into this show expecting a lot of vagueness and question after question being raised, and while there was some of that, the writers wasted very little time in cluing the characters into the greater implications of their circumstances. The characters could have withheld what they saw from each other (characters on “Lost” rarely share information), drawing things out for dramatic effect, but the characters exchanged stories willingly, helping to move things forward.
Joseph Fiennes plays the lead of a generally ensemble cast, a sober FBI agent and family man named Mark Benford. His wife, Olivia (played by Sonya Walger, best known as Penny Widmore from “Lost”) is a doctor, and the remainder of the cast is generally fleshed out from them to include other FBI agents and Olivia’s co-workers at the hospital. John Cho is a familiar face in the cast as Mark’s partner Demetri, best known as Harold from “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle” and its sequel “Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay,” but recently he’s shown there’s more to him than just comedy, with a role in “Star Trek.” Here, he plays a tough agent who finds himself grappling with the fact that he didn’t see anything during the black out, thinking that could mean the worst and he isn’t alive to see April 29, 2010.
It’s great to see how quickly things move in this show, which is a major draw to continue watching. The characters didn’t bumble through the episode after the flash forward, and the pacing didn’t slow down once they realized they all experienced flash forwards. They began piecing it together. One agent sees himself with another agent in London, and calls her to confirm that they experienced the same flash forward, proving that these were more than just hallucinations. Once they confirm this, the agents discuss a way of compiling what everyone saw, suggesting that they open a website where people can post their flash forwards and the FBI could begin looking for a pattern. Mark, Demetri, and another agent, Janis, are tasked with heading up this project, and they get straight to work. By the end of the first episode, Janis has already pulled up a very interesting piece of surveillance footage from during the black out…and it’s definitely enough to draw me back in next week…Thursday night at 8.
September 27, 2009
It’s been a long wait for some answers regarding last spring’s season finale of “Fringe,” and it looks like it’ll be a bit longer before we get those answers. Yes, the major cliffhanger last season was that FBI Agent Olivia Dunham finally made it through to the other universe where she met William Bell…in the World Trade Center. Apparently, the White House was destroyed in the other universe instead of the World Trade Center. Unfortunately, this episode starts off with Olivia shooting through the windshield of an SUV that was apparently unoccupied only seconds before. She is basically on the brink of death until she suddenly awakens, stating (in Latin), “Be a better man than your father.” To make matters stranger, Olivia does not remember her encounter with William Bell, let alone what was said. Damn, ain’t that a bummer.
There’s a more immediate plot being investigated while Fringe division is threatened with being shut down. Peter finds himself forced to step up into the leadership role as new series regular, pushy junior Agent Amy Jessup, who begins poking her head into Fringe division’s history. Ultimately, Peter welcomes her into Fringe division and allows her to help with their investigation into a shape shifter who wants Olivia dead. The premiere episode also served as a transition, as it seems Jessup’s role is replacing that of Agent Charlie Francis, Olivia’s loyal partner. SPOILER ALERT: the shape shifter manages to kill Charlie in the climactic hunt, and then replace him, unbeknownst to the other characters. Plot hole though, is that to pull this off, the shape shifter would have had to transform Charlie’s dead body into the form they had last been in, but I guess the transformation goes both ways? I guess that’s the case. END SPOILER ALERT.
As for the second the episode, while the story was sort of a disappointment, it did give Olivia a chance to step back into the action, solving a case about mutated children…super babies…yeah, well, if you can’t do it on “Fringe,” where can you do it? The episode was significant in serving the ongoing storyline, as Olivia began to exhibit abilities from being experimented on as a child, such as enhanced hearing. She is also lead to a bowling alley at the end of the episode to meet Sam Weiss, someone else who was part of the experiments and has therefore developed abilities as well. He may serve as a guide for her as the season goes on and she continues to develop. Other than that, Charlie still has a presence on the show as the shape shifter, taking advantage of being close to Olivia. He is communicating with someone from the other dimension through a typewriter, who is encouraging him to make her remember what happened when she crossed into the other dimension. Is this Bell? Possibly, but it could be awhile before that is confirmed or denied.
It’s anybody’s guess how long it will be before we finally figure out what Bell has been up to, what his motives are, and what he discussed with Olivia. Hopefully answers will come sooner rather than later, but in the meantime there’s plenty to explore, such as Olivia’s developing abilities and perhaps coming in contact with other soldiers like Sam Weiss, as well as Peter being the Peter from the other dimension, as confirmed in the season one finale. Agent Jessup will no doubt stir up some trouble for the Fringe division, and it appears she’s not joining the show without her own mysterious demons that will likely tie into the plot. And then there’s Walter…what would this show be without Walter’s disturbingly funny one liners?
The fourth season of Heroes, also known as Volume Five entitled Redemption, debuted with a two hour premiere this past week, and suffice to say, the new season is already off to a good start with the characters attempting to move on after the shocking events of last season. To briefly recap those events, Sylar brutally murdered Nathan and as a means of covering up the death of a Nathan, a public government official at the hands of a powered person, and the only possible way of neutralizing Sylar as a threat, the heroes have Parkman use his psychic abilities to brainwash Sylar into believing he is Nathan, and use Sylar shapeshifting ability to transform him into Nathan. Yes, kind of complicated. Ultimately, this cover up causes the heroes to form a new version of the Company with essentially the same goal as the original Company, protecting the powered community while also using their abilities for the greater good.
This new season kicks off with a very alive Tracy Strauss tracking down and killing those involved in rounding and caging up people with abilities at the behest of last season’s villain, Danko. But a new villain has surfaced, and Robert Knepper gave a surprisingly impressive performance in the premiere as Samuel Sullivan, the owner of a traveling carnival and leader of a group of powered people, looking to recruit some of the powered people we already know into his “family,” such as Hiro. It’s refreshing to see Knepper tackle something different from the skeevy con man, T-Bag, his famous role on the series Prison Break.
Another newcomer to the cast is Ray Park as a speedster assassin who weilds knives who works for Samuel, and yes, there is a pretty great standoff between him and Peter, who fans know has the ability to attain the abilities of those around him. Ray Park has a pretty strong sci-fi background, best known for roles as Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I, Toad in X-Men, and most recently Snake Eyes in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Needless to say, it’s great to see him join the cast, and hopefully we’ll get to see some of his acting chops, as well as some great fight scenes.
As for the rest of the returning cast, Peter is once again a paramedic, using his abilities while on and off the job to come to the rescue. Hiro and Ando have set up a company, Dial a Hero, but are easily defeated by their first task, saving a cat from a roof, as neither of their abilities are applicable. Parkman is attempting to live his life without his powers, disgusted by what he was asked to do to Sylar, and now finds himself haunted by Sylar. As for Claire, she has finally made it off to college in an attempt to lead a normal life, which is already proving difficult. And lastly, Nathan, well Sylar seems to already be slowly surfacing, which could be bad. Very bad.
Clearly, there’s a lot going on in the Heroes universe, and while at times the pacing of the show has been a bit slow and convoluted, the show really hit it’s stride in season three, raising my expectations for this coming season. After the premiere, the Redemption arc looks to be a promising one, and it should be pretty interesting seeing how everything comes together.