Thursday, May 14, 2009

TV Season Finale Madness! FRINGE! SMALLVILLE! THE OFFICE! 30 ROCK! PRISON BREAK!

Well, after basically talking and thinking about LOST all day, you'd think I'd be TV'd out. But no, loyal readers, being the intrepid purveyor of pop-culture wisdom that I am, I'm back to deliver another round of reviews for your reading pleasure.

And like I said yesterday, there's a lot to talk about. Season finales out the wazoo. So, let's get to it.


FRINGE Season Finale Review:

- I've said this numerous times over the last several weeks, but I'll say it again: it really is amazing how good of a show Fringe has become in such a short time. For the first half of it's freshman season, Fringe seemed like a series with a lot of potential but a lot of question marks as well. What was it really about? What, if anything, was the overarching mytharc that was driving the story forward? Who were these characters, and why should we care about them? It took a while for the show to really find its legs in this regard. But, when it did, things really got cooking.

In my last review of Fringe, I said that where Lost's storytelling style is somewhat abstract, part of what I'm loving about Fringe is that it is telling a huge, high-concept sci-fi story in a remarkably straightforward manner. Don't get me wrong - like Lost, Fringe is packed with mysteries. But with Fringe, especially over these last several episodes, this is some TIGHT storytelling. It's dense, packed with brain-stretching concepts ... but the show has been great about adhering to its own continuity, about putting the pieces of the puzzle into place and building each week upon the previous week's foundation. Fringe makes you think, but it's never really *confusing*. It's been a pleasure to just watch it over these last several eps and just put your faith in the hands of the writers and producers. Again, it took a while for Fringe to hit that top-tier, A-level of quality. But once it finally did, the show has never looked back.

Tuesday's season-ender was a HUGE and JAW-DROPPING closer to what has been an overall awesome first season. The whole concept of alternate universes has been handled in a really cool and intriguing fashion by this show, and what's great is that not only is the concept itself dealt with skillfully, but it's used to further the character-arcs in dramatic and unexpected ways. We now know, for example, that Olivia was not assigned to the FBI's Fringe division by mere coincidence, but was essentially tasked with unravelling her own past. It turns out that, as a child, Olivia was part of a secret drug test conducted by Walter Bishop and William Bell, in which subjects were injected with a mind-altering substance that would in theory open their conciousness to the reality of alternate planes of existence. It turns out that not only was Walter a key player in these trials, but that he himself may have actually travelled to another reality. Because, as it turns out, Walter's son Peter is apparently dead and buried - meaning that the Peter Bishop we see each week on the show could very well be not of this particular universe. Again, this revelation isn't 100% out-of-nowhere, it's been - hold the phone! - foreshadowed. But still, pretty darn cool.

Oh yeah, there's also the fact that Massive Dynamics is this crazy conglomerate whose leaders include a creepy woman with a bionic hand and an otherdimensional enigma who happens to be LEONARD NIMOY.

There's also pale, bald, psychic dudes called Observers who seem to be multiversal guardians - and one of them pals around with Walter.

And how about this episode's visually-breathtaking cliffhanger? Olivia finally meets William Bell (Nimoy) face to face, except that it turns out his futuristic HQ is in an alternate reality ... at the top of one of the two still-standing towers of the World Trade Center. Sure, the "oh my god, in this reality 9/11 never happened!" thing has been done before (Brian K. Vaughan's EX MACHINA says "hi"), but still ... damn, what an image, and what a way to drive home the point that no Sir, we're not in Kansas anymore.

But forgetting all the cool imagery, all the interdimensional intrigue, and even the appearance of Spock Prime himself, the true star of Fringe is John Noble as Walter Bishop. Noble has been absolutely remarkable on this show, and he turned in yet another dynamite performance in the season finale. As the memories of past lives and past sins flooded back into Walter's addled mind, Noble's acting deftly portrayed a man teetering on the edge of madness. The anger, sadness, and confusion of Walter was tangible and palpable, and man, Noble just killed it throughout the episode. Ana Torv as Olivia has grown leaps and bounds. Lance Reddick is a great presence on the show. And now, finally, Joshua Jackson has that final layer of texture that his character needed to feel important and vital to the fabric of the show.

This may stand as the best finale of the season. Fringe is on fire, and I can't wait for Season 2.

My Grade: A



SMALLVILLE Season Finale Review:

- This season of Smallville has definitely been something of a different beast than the previous few. There's no doubt that Smallville has never quite reached the same heights of quality and creativity it enjoyed during it's first three seasons or so. But even when Smallville has been sub-par, you could always count on the show to really up the ante and deliver with its "big" episodes, particularly its season finales. Smallville has usually managed to deliver season-enders that felt fittingly epic, with great action, heroics, and a spirit of adventure that felt true to the legend of Superman.

This season, despite a number of mainstay characters conspicuous by their absences (Lex and Lionel Luthor, for instance ...), Smallville defied expectations and enjoyed a mostly solid year. The show kicked off with a new status quo (Clark as a Daily Planet reporter), a renewed focus on Lois Lane (Erica Durance, infinitely more fun than Lana), and msot importantly, a more tightly-plotted overarching storyline that set up a number of ongoing plot threads that would continue throughout the season. One of these threads was the introduction of Davis Bloome, aka Doomsday. Again, this plotline defied the low expectations and started out very solidly. Davis was built up as a tragic character and a worthy adversary. The inevitable showdown between Clark and Doomsday was actually looking like a true television event worthy of our anticipation. However, what seemed like a strength at first eventually backfired. The Davis storyline just kept going and going, and the writers seemed to be dragging their heels. After some strong midseason eps, like the Geoff Johns-penned Legion of Superheroes installment, Smallville began to lose steam. Every week teased that Clark was inching closer to becoming Superman - but we knew that this likely wouldn't happen, so the build-up seemed pointless. Making him into a mysterious hero called the Red-Blue Blur was a goofy and frustrating compromise. Without even the hope of any payoff to all this buildup, the show seemed stuck in an endless holding pattern. Same goes for the Doomsday storyline. It dragged and dragged, and whenever the show seemed to promise us an epic, comic book-worthy brawl between Clark and the monster, Smallville failed to deliver. So ... surely tonight's season finale would, FINALLY, give us some payoff to the endless build-up, right? Well, after all this time, tonight's ep was ultimately anti-climactic. It felt small in scale, rushed, and severely lacking in intensity. Clark and Doomsday's battle was short, sloppy-looking, and ended abruptly. In fact, the closing moments of the battle were glossed over so the show could cut to a melodramatic scene between Chloe, Jimmy, and Davis, who thanks to a piece of black kryptonite, had been seperated from the Doomsday monster and was now just a regular old Joe Sixpack. Playing out like a bad high school play of Shakespeare, we saw that even without Doomsday, Davis was still pretty evil. When he sees Jimmy and Chloe mend their differences and share a kiss, Davis guts Jimmy with a giant rod. But before he dies, Jimmy pushes Davis onto a metal spike. Holy gratuitous violence, Batman! WTF was that? And oh, for the Superman fanboys like myself who were all like "whaaat, Jimmy Olsen can't die!", it is revealed at Jimmy's funeral that he has a LITTLE BROTHER (presumably ALSO named Jimmy) who looks like the Jimmy Olsen from the comics (even wearing a bowtie!), and who, it is implied, will grow up to be THAT Jimmy Olsen. Like I said, WTF? As always, rather than give us an extra ten minutes of action, Smallville feels obligated to use its final ten minutes of the episode to feature CLARK KENT'S EMO MOMENT OF THE WEEK. Clark confesses to Chloe that he no longer wants a connection to humanity, and that he will no longer embrace his human side. Therefore ... (wait for it ...) ... CLARK KENT IS DEAD. In his place is ...? Um, yeah, clearly he didn't think that part through very well. So Clark walks off dressed in black, BUT WAIT, there's more! In Tess Mercer's office, there's a weird light, she opens a door that leads to a giant outer-space void, at which point we see a dude standing over a giant "Z". Yep, ZOD! Kinda cool, I guess? Well, not really, since Zod's appearance seemingly has nothing to do with anything! What about, you know, Doomsday?

And by the way ... how many times this season did people stand around and talk while Davis was RIGHT THERE ready to go medieval at any moment? I thought the whole point of Oliver and co's assault on Davis was to take him out quickly and efficiently. And yet, they stand around talking to Chloe for ten minutes? And yeah, nice idea to have Davis just lyin' around unguarded at episode's end. Very smart, Chloe.

The bottom line is ... this episode had a couple of decent moments (the Lois and Clark interaction in particular was well-done, and it was fun seeing Oliver's junior Justice League again), BUT, ultimately, the ep failed to make much of an impact. More importantly, it was an anticlimactic culmination of build-up that began all the way back in the season premiere. We NEVER got the giant battle royale between Clark and Doomsday that we all wanted. Why, I have no idea. Lois was transported into the Legion's future in a pretty out-of-nowhere plot point that was never really followed up on at episode's end. We got a somewhat pointless death for Jimmy, and yet the increasingly annoying Chloe lives on. And Clark's character development took one step forward and two steps back. There's really no reason for him not to be Superman at this point. I almost would hope that next season does something radical like have him adventure off in outer-space or travel around the globe or ANYTHING that gets us away from the show's now-tired formula. But personally, I am sick of Clark's internal struggles at this point. I want to see him on some good old-fashioned adventures, with huge villains and epic stakes and lots of action. But wow, looking back on this season, it's amazing how little payoff there was to the whole Davis Bloome thing. Maybe the movies will eventually do Doomsday right. Until then, the Smallville faithful will keep watching and hoping for some small sign that the minds behind the show actually get it.

My Grade: C+



THE OFFICE Season Finale Review:

- Man, it pains me to say this, because this season of The Office has been absolutely brilliant in my opinion ... but, last night's finale was, to me, a disappointment. Throughout this season, The Office has struck an amazing balance between laugh-out-loud hilarity and smaller and subtler character moments. Last week's dance party episode, for example, was flat-out brilliant - every character moment wa completely organic to the storyline, as was the humor. In last night's finale though, the writers apparently forgot that the show is supposed to be a comedy. This annoys me to no end - I know there are some people who would be perfectly happy if The Office dropped all the jokes and just became a weekly soap opera, but to me there's no excuse for a show like this to focus solely on melodrama at the expense of the laughs.

Last night's ep just plain fell flat. Yes, I got caught up in the Michael and Holly tension, and wondered if they'd rekindle their ill-fated romance. Yes, I rooted for the Dunder-Mifflin crew to stick it to Corporate in the company volleyball tournament. But The Office to me has never been about will-they-or-won't-they romance. It's about the little moments and quirks that make the workplace and the employees so endearingly odd.

There were a couple things I loved in this one -- Dwight's newly-revealed best friend was great. Any running around during the game and asking people if they were blind was pretty funny. The cold open in which the office crew tricks Michael into thinking its 5 o'clock when in fact it was much earlier was a lot of fun. But Michael and Holly's Slumdog Millionaire parody? Ummm ... not so much. Seriously, why would anyone give Michael the stage at an event like that anyways? And even Michael doesn't seem dumb enough to reveal that a branch might be closing in such a bone-headed fashion. Surely, Holly isn't that oblivious. I also thought it was jarring that Charles Miner suddenly morphed from being kind of uptight and prickly to being a complete dick. I mean, openly mocking Jim at a family picnic?

Finally ... Pam is pregnant? I don't know, I am not really a fan of this development. It seems like the show jumped the gun, it feels way too early to have this happen. I have enough faith in The Office to assume that the pregnancy will be handled well, but still, it just seemed unnecessary, and too "sitcom-y" to boot.

Again, I hate to bash on this episode so much because a.) for all its faults it was still entertaining and did have some genuinely great moments, and b.) this season of The Office has been, as a whole, amazing, But I've got to call a spade a spade, this season finale fell well short of expectations.

My Grade: B-



30 ROCK Season Finale Review:

- 30 Rock to me has lot a little momentum this season as compared to last - as I've talked about a lot, the show still delivers the funny each week, but the great jokes now seem more spread out amongst more standard sitcom-style plotting, as opposed to the show's old laugh-a-minute pacing. That said, if this is now 30 Rock 2.0, last night we at least got a very good episode of 30 Rock 2.0.

I mean, you can't argue that the show pulled out all the stops last night. Dr. Spaceman (!) returned to hilarious effect. Alan Alda reprised his role as Alec Baldwin's liberal, kidney-needing father. And a collection of about 20 all-star pop stars appeared and performed a hilarious, awareness-raising charity song as part of a benefit show for Jack's dad. A lot of the musical guests had great lines to boot - Cyndi Lauper giddily exclaiming that she was one of three singers drunk on stage was comedic gold. Mary J. Blige's insistence that her charity organization has done a lot to aid in the quest for the Loch Ness Monster was similarly hilarious.

But there's one element of 30 Rock that can not be bottled up or contained within the confines of standard sitcom trappings, and that is Tracy by-god Morgan. Let me just say: Thank you Tracy Morgan. You do your own thing, and basically everything you say on any given episode of 30 Rock is freaking hilarious. Last night was no exception - Tracy's ghetto-fabulous story of how he had to drop out of high school, and the subsequent revelation that he actually left after crying in class due to not wanting to dissect a frog - oh man, so funny! When Tracy then gave a speech at his old high school, telling the students that each and every one of them would grow up to be President, well, that was just the icing on the cake.

So yeah, good stuff from 30 Rock last night. While The Office has been better and funnier overall this season, last night was, no contest, 30 Rock's night.

My Grade: A-



MORE TV REVIEWS:



PRISON BREAK:

- Man, tonight is shaping up to be one hell of a series finale for PRISON BREAK. As has been well documented here on the blog, the show really struggled with its first couple of Friday episodes, but last week's ep, finally, kicked things into high gear. Now THAT was some old-school Prison Break - great villains, impossible situations, intense action, and the best and most over-the-top collection of pulpy characters on TV.

Last Friday's PB, for one thing, finally made Scofield's mother into the uber-dangerous villain she should have been all along. I never loved the idea of bringing in his long-lost Mom as a big bad, but, when she's as cunningly EVIL as she was last week, you can't help but appreciate her icy resolve and begin to eagerly look forward to the bitch goin' down. Similarly, Don Self, who I really liked earlier this season, has been pretty much useless over these last several episodes. But, last week's ep built the character back up again and made us remember why he was once cool. The General's cold-blooded murder of Self's wife gave Michael Rappaport something substantial to work with, and he rose to the occasion, giving the weaselly Self an added layer of tragedy and urgency. And then, finally, T-Bag was back to being the psycho-killer we know and love to hate, hopefully setting up one final confrontation with Scofield in tonight's finale.

And on top of all that intensity, the episode ended on one heck of a badass cliffhanger, upping the ante and having Lincoln kidnapped and in danger at the hands of his wicked stepmom, and Sarah in the hands of The General -- with Michael having to figure out who to save as the clock counts down. Yep, PB brought the GRAVITAS last week, and after slowly losing a lot of my enthusiasm for the show, I am back on board, baby. Tonight I hope that one of the best TV shows of the last few years goes out with a bang. Bring it on.

My Grade: A



GOSSIP GIRL:

- So what did I think of last week's totally-80's flashback episode, aka the backdoor pilot for a possible "Lilly" spin-off series? Well, it was a fun little experiment, and I did really like the 80's cast. Britanny Snow was excellent, for one, as a young Lilly Vanderwoodsen. But was it compelling enough that I'd watch it every week? Probably not. Nevermind the fact that I typically don't want to commit to more than one teen-soap guilty pleasure at a time, but I just think that there are a lot of inherent flaws with a Lilly spin-off. I mean, part of the problem is that Lilly is so unlikable on the show. She's supposed to be one of the more sympathetic characters, but she's played like a total upper-crust snob. I don't even want to see her end up with Rufus, let alone have her own series. In any case, part of GG's problem of late has been that every character is now an unlikable nutjob. I think it was a big mistake to give Dan all of these badboy issues like an illicit romance with his teacher. Dan used to be the entry-point character into this crazy world of upper east side debauchery. Now he's basically as messed-up as every other character. Plus, GG is starting to suffer from OC-syndrome, meaning that its world is becoming way too insular. Dan at this point has no real reason to ever run into Blair or Chuck or Nate, and yet every week he's mixed up in their shenanigans. Branch out some of the characters, introduce new ones, and have new people for Chuck and Blair and Jenny to play off of. As for the 80's ep, it was a fun diversion, but I'm curious if this week's finale can get me hooked on the show like I used to be.

My Grade: B



Next: STAR TREK Reviewed!

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