Fantasy and Sci-Fi (Once Upon a Time, last week's Fringe, and the return of Being Human)

Fringe - Back to Where You’ve Never Been

After Walter refuses Peter’s request for help returning home, Peter must go to the alternate universe to ask the next best thing…Walternate. We think Peter should have used the argument “if you help me get home, I will be out of your hair and not threatening your fragile sanity” on Walter, but apparently geniuses sometimes fail at basic persuasion skills? We find out that Walternate is not behind the shapeshifters being sent to “our world.” September the Observer appears to Olivia after having been shot and tells Olivia that he has been to every possible future, and in all of them, Olivia must die. Eerie. This episodes pacing was better than some Fringe episodes, but we’re not sure about this Peter arc. It still needs to pay off for us, and we wonder if this alternate timeline will be relevant if Peter makes it home. We like this show, but it has serious problems. For one thing, the first half of season one was almost completely unwatchable. For another, we are starting to wonder what the point is and where it's all going. We still want to know though. 
Episode grade: B-

Once Upon a Time - True North

Storybrooke: Nicholas and Ava are living on their own, stealing food from local stores, because their mother passed away and they don’t want to be separated in foster care. Emma will not stop until she finds their biological father and gets him to take custody. She succeeds! Emma was the least annoying she has ever been in this episode, and we think it has to do with the fact that she got a new outfit. It looks so good and so much less tacky. In the fairy world, Nicholas and Ava were Hansel and Gretel. The Evil Queen separated the twins from their father in order to get them to steal the poisoned apple from another witch…the one living in the candy house. Hansel is an idiot and never speaks, but he almost ruins the plan and gets himself eaten. Gretel saves everything and is both honest and capable.

Hansel and Gretel are not reunited with their father at the end of the episode and must search for him, with the help of a compass he gave them. At the end of the episode, Emma and Henry see a stranger ride his motorcycle into town. He is the first newcomer, other than Emma, to come into the enchanted area. Things are changing since Emma arrived…. We wonder who he is (Henry's dad? Sheriff Graham reincarnated?) and if he has any connection to the fairytale world. We usually aren’t fans of anything with multiple child actors, but this episode worked, in a family-friendly way. We felt for the twins and started to like Emma more, which is good, since she’s the main character.
Episode grade: B

Being Human - Turn this Mother Out

Aidan is taking care of Bishop’s followers by feeding them blood packets, much to Josh’s annoyance. Aidan is waiting for Mother, the vampire queen, to arrive in town and give orders. Nora, Josh’s girlfriend, moves into the house and secretly fears that she is going to turn into a werewolf soon, since she was scratched about a month ago. Nora questions Josh about what it’s like to turn furry while trying to keep her secret fears from him. Sally attends her high school reunion and gets stronger/more able to move things around the house. Sally also finds out that she is able to dream, even though she is dead. She has a freaky dream. We wonder if that will turn into anything.

When Mother arrives, she decides that Bishop’s “orphans” are to be killed. She names her own daughter, who sounds crazypants, as head of Boston, and she orders Aidan to be her second-in-command. Aidan now has to assist “Daughter” in return for freedom from the council, as promised by Mother. What are the chances she intends to keep her word? Aidan is forced to kill some of Bishop’s turn-ees in order to prove his loyalty to Mother. Mother orders Josh shot and killed by council members so that Aidan is not distracted from his duties. The night of the full moon, both Josh and Nora turn into werewolves. Josh is shot by the vampire Heggeman. Everything ends on that cliffhanger.

We are enthused to have this show back. Mother is a great new villain! We can't wait to meet her possibly unstable daughter. Our hearts lie with Josh, but our interests lie in Aidan’s doings. If they could make Sally’s ghost life scarier, as it has been a little creepy in the past and it was eerie in the dream, the show would be perfect on all three fronts. This show is by far more interesting than its premise would have you believe. The season two opener was action-packed and decently emotional. We love all three main characters. There wasn't a moment that was not entertaining. What more could you want? Maybe a love interest for Aidan that pulls the heartstrings? Can this show do romance? We'd like to see it try. 
Episode grade: A

The Rest of the Dramas! Sorry for all the lateness.

Ringer - “Oh Gawd, There’s Two of Them?”
Bridget has to tell Andrew and Henry that Siobhan had a twin. It turns out the Bridget’s new sponsor is working for Siobhan and he’s the one who killed Gemma. Gasp! Also, Malcolm escapes. After Juliet boozes, parties, and crashes a car in order to help her friend, Andrew cuts her off of her trust fun. Let’s all have a sarcastic slow clap for Andrew for doing the thing he should have done years ago. Good luck buying drugs when you don’t have access to $10 million. The fact that he didn’t do this in the first place means that Juliet should be taken away from him. Also, Juliet was scandalized and hurt that Andrew didn’t trust her motives. No sympathy. You do hard drugs in high school, you lose all expectation of trust. Overall, this show has really gone uphill.

Episode grade: B

American Horror Story - “Halloween 2”
Ok, Hayden was actually genuinely creepy. When she was rotting from the inside out, that was a nice touch. We are SO GLAD the dog wasn’t in the microwave. That would have been too far. Tate’s backstory is amazingly interesting and we look forward to the flashback and more details. Ben has been thrown out of the house by Vivien, but we hope that he has to come back soon. Out of everyone in that family, he is the one who most deserves to live in the haunted house, and it isn’t because he’s a cheater (although that doesn’t help). We feel bad for the way he has to deal with all that shame. He’s the worst because he has a pattern of covering things up. Everyone messes up in life. It’s how you deal with the aftermath, grit your teeth, and own up to things that decides whether you’re scum or not. No one likes a cover-up.

Episode grade: B

Revenge - “Charade”
Man, this was a good one. We had Nolan’s first takedown, and it was successful. The “Tyler is gay and in love with Daniel” theorists were correct. We liked the whole swapped identity thing, but man, Frank got way too close for comfort there. We, like many others, still aren’t buying the Declan/Charlotte romance, and we wish Declan had been cast by a different actor.

Episode grade: A-
The Secret Circle - “Beneath”
The Circle goes to Henry’s house to look for Jane, because Cassie hasn’t heard from her in days. The crew finds the house empty, but Cassie gets a text from Jane, saying that she is on her way home. The Circle decides to stay the night in Henry’s house. Diana experiences jealousy over Adam not being able to bear watching Cassie kiss Jake on a dare. Faye is jealous of Cassie and Jake’s budding romance. Jake rejects Cassie later, though. It seems that he is more into his witch-hunting team than her right now, but that might change. Henry reaches out to Faye from beyond the grave and Cassie finds his body. Meanwhile, Charles erases Jane’s memory and has Henry’s crystal. Most of these episodes have been heavy on the action and light on the character development. We got more quiet time with the characters during this episode, and we loved that. We also like when Diana starts to show her imperfect side, like when she made Cassie and Jake kiss. Most of all, we thought the music in this episode was really beautiful.

Episode grade: A

Fringe - “Novation”
We pretty much know how the Observers erased Peter now, if we hadn’t guessed already. The case of the week was boring, but the Peter/Olivia/Walter stuff was pretty good. Walter has rejected Peter as his son and a family member that he is allowed to keep. That’s sad, but we’re pretty sure he will come around, eventually, and help Peter figure things out. We’re glad to have Peter back.

Episode grade: B

Sons of Anarchy - “Kiss”
The way things are going, it looks like SAMCRO is going to have no choice but to kick Clay out of the club, which is something we are surprised hasn’t happened a long time ago. Clay gets one step closer to taking out Tara for good.

Episode grade: A-

Parenthood - “Forced Family Fun”
The main drama going on right now is the whole Seth thing. We hope he gets better, and he seems sincere, but this had better not affect Sarah’s new relationship, which is getting cuter all the time. Coffee girl needs to not sweat the small stuff and give Julia a break every once in a while. It’s like she gets paid for every awkward moment that she makes even more awkward.

Episode grade: B

Person of Interest - “Witness”
Reese has to protect a school teacher who saw a Russian mob shooting. Of course, Carter has to get all up in everyone’s business. The whole Carter thing had better turn out to be just as good as the rest of the show. It had just better pan out.

Episode grade: B-

Nikita - “Clawback”
Michael is mad at Nikita for not telling him about his son, even though she told him and pretty much did it right away. Ugh. We are kind of hating the whole Michael’s son thing. The son needs to die. We liked Alex’s plot this week, and we loved that Ryan came back.

Episode grade: B-

Prime Suspect - “Shame”
This episode featured a prostitute who killed, but we were less interested in her than the cop shenanigans that went on in this episode (like when two of them pretended that they were going to hit one of their informants). The team is getting along better, and we like that. The shooter from Grey’s Anatomy guest starred, and he was creepy in this, too.

Episode grade: B-

Grey’s Anatomy - “Heart-Shaped Box”
George’s mom returns and isn’t scandalized by Callie’s lesbianism. She just wants to see pictures of the baby. Aww. We enjoyed all the discussion and memories of George. We like when this show acknowledges its outlandishly crazy past. Jackson dumped Lexie because she doesn’t love him. She should, but she loves Mark instead. Finally, Henry is puking up blood, and that’s not good. We’re not saying we’d be devastated or anything, but it would be sad. Filler, but lighthearted, mature filler.

Episode grade: B-

Bones - “Memories in the Shallow Grave”
This was an average, “meh” episode, but it’s adorable to see Bones and Booth as a couple.

Episode grade: C+

A Gifted Man - “In Case of Memory Loss”
Michael comes across a former football player that he operated on a long time ago. The football player has since lost a lot of his memory and become homeless. Also, Michael has to treat a teenage girl who is having trouble coping with her best friend’s murder. Michael helps people. His wife haunts him. This was all par-for-the-course for this show.

Episode grade: B-

Peter Is Back!

Friday Shows

Nikita - “Partners”
Nikita’s old Division partner, Kelly, escaped from a Turkish prison. Nikita thought Kelly was dead and blamed herself, because Kelly was arrested during the same mission that Nikita used to escape Division. Nikita convinces Michael to go to Turkey and help Kelly. Meanwhile, Amanda sends Alex and the guy who melts people in chemicals to kill Kelly. Kelly turns out to be working for Gogol and seeks to capture Alex for them. Nikita has to shoot Kelly, and Alex sees Nikita protecting her. Kelly was played by Katheryn Winnick (Hannah in Bones), and we still hate her because of Bones. We are glad she died quickly on Nikita. This was an average episode of Nikita. Nothing too gripping here, but Gogol did find out Alex’s identity.

Episode grade: C+

Fringe - “Subject 9”
Some blue force stalks and burns Olivia, and Walter surmises that it has to do with his experiments on kids in the past. Olivia and Walter go looking for “Subject 9,” one of the kids. It turns out that he isn’t doing it, but this escapade does get Walt out of the lab. He needed to convince Olivia not to recommend that he be hospitalized. It was really sweet when we saw that Olivia advised against Walter’s commitment, even as the heartless, Peterless version of herself that we are seeing this season. Olivia uses her powers to bring Peter fully back into this world. However, Olivia and Walter have no memory of him, and Peter seems to remember everything. Do we get to see Olivia fall in love with him all over again? Actually, we smell a triangle with Lee. The Walter stuff in this episode was great, and so was the ending. The case of the week and the rest of the stuff was weak.

Episode grade: B-

A Gifted Man - “In Case of Separation Anxiety”
Michael treats a patient who is hearing voices and gets Shaman Anton’s help. Dr. Kate starts at the clinic on the day when a car accidentally crashes into it. Michael’s sister is back. We guess she didn’t quit the show. This episode emphasized the ghostiness/spiritual more than the medical, and we liked that. We’d like to see this get a full season pickup, because we think more time and an ability to make a large story arc is what this show needs.

Episode grade: B

Sunday Shows

Dexter - “Smokey and the Bandit”
When a prostitute is murdered and left with half a tooth, Dexter recognizes signs of an old serial killer from the ‘80s that Dexter revered in his teen years. Dexter tracks the man down, and it turns out that he lives in a retirement home, has a grown son, hates life, and is extremely crotchety. He’s also smart, because he checks Dexter out and realizes that Dexter is with the cops. Fortunately, Dexter is able to kill the man. Debra hires a new detective against LaGuerta’s advice, and Debra also struggles with insecurity in her new job and Quinn being a dipwad. Quinn is boning everything in sight in an effort to get over Deb, and he thinks that she dumped him because of her new job. The two “religious murderers” try to get the guy they kidnapped to repent of his sins. Once he does it sincerely enough, they kill him and do something very interesting with his body. These guys are crazypants. Mos Def invites Dexter to a baptism and picnic, and we think he will go. This episode briefly ponders the places where people seek meaning in their lives. We were entertained by this one, but it’s not one for the ages or anything. We kind of hate Masuka’s intern. What a weirdo.

Episode grade: B

Pan Am - “Eastern Exposure”
We are rooting for this show, and we really like it, but this episode was kind of a huge mess. It focused on the lamest characters (rather than Maggie and Colette), and Kate is pretty much the worst spy of all time. The first half was fairly slow. One of us teared up in this episode, however, so it does get points for emotion (in case you were wondering, it was when Ted was talking about his desire to be an astronaut. She's originally from central Florida, so the space program has a special place in her heart). The flight crew spent time in Indonesia. Maggie tried to show Laura a good time, but it ended up sparking a huge fight between Laura and Kate. When the girls return, Laura moves in with Maggie. We find out that Ted’s father had a chance to save Ted’s past job and reputation, but his father chose to protect himself. Dean and Ted fight and Ted punches Dean, but they make up at the end of the episode.

Episode grade: C+

The Good Wife - “Feeding the Rat”
Diane takes Legal Aid and makes it a part of her firm after it loses its funding. Eli Gold tries to poach Kalinda and Alicia for his exclusive, full-time use. Alicia defends a pro bono case. The defendant is innocent of robbing a convenience store, and Kalinda’s snooping proves it. Will turns down a job offer from Celeste and accidentally says, “I love you” to Alicia. They both agree to forget it happened and not discuss it. This episode was enjoyable. We like having Eli in the firm, but we think the show needs to give him better things to do. Also, confession: We’ve never been Kalinda fans, nor are we really that interested in finding out about her character. She could leave the show and we wouldn’t care.

Episode grade: A

Homeland - “Clean Skin”
Carrie’s asset was killed (everyone saw that coming). Brody and his family spent most of the episode preparing for an interview. The daughter knows that the mom slept with Brody’s best friend, but she didn’t tell her dad in this episode. Brody and his daughter bonded a little bit. We got no clues as to what Brody is up to, but we know someone is up to something, because an expensive necklace was smuggled into the country and used to get terrorists cash. Then a couple purchased a home near the airport … and the husband’s skin is very brown. There was a pretty sad scene where Brody had his wife take off her shirt and then he just jacked off. We were depressed for her, but it’s understandable. There’s a theme to these sex scenes: Brody is not in the right place to have sex with another person and be aware that the other person is there and involved. This episode was mostly filler, but it was good filler. It continued what is, so far, a pretty great first season for this thriller.

Episode grade: A-

The Walking Dead - “What Lies Ahead”
The little girl, Sophia, goes missing after the gang is attacked by a herd of zombies. Rick’s son Carl is shot during the search. Shane contemplates leaving the group, and Andrea wants to go with him. She’s also really ticked at Dale for forcing her to live in the season finale last year. This was a solid premiere, but we certainly weren’t blown away. The monologue at the beginning tried our patience. Who wrote that?

Episode grade: B-

Everybody Misses Peter

Sons of Anarchy - “Brick”
This one was a little snoozy for us. Maybe it was that there was too much Lyla? Or any Lyla?

Episode grade: C+

Revenge - “Betrayal”
One of us is actually growing bored with this show. It’s too “procedural of the week,” and there is no emotional connection. The other blogger is still fully on board and is obsessed with both Victoria and Amandily. We both think that Daniel is an alright guy, and it’s a shame we know he dies so that we can’t get attached to the character. The actor who plays Declan doesn’t work for one of us, because he comes across as a little boy, not a complicated teen crush.

Episode Grade: B-
Parenthood - “Clear Skies from Here on Out”
Poor Crosby. We rarely say that, but there was no winning in that scenario. We also feel bad for Haddie who got dumped by her guy because he doesn’t feel good enough for her and is ashamed to be around her family. We hope they don’t end like that.

Episode grade: B+

Prime Suspect - “Bitch”
We liked the pilot of this show, and it keeps improving on the pilot greatly. The last two cases have been interesting and satisfying. Of course, it’s easy to root for a main character when she’s up against child nappers and woman beaters. But we just think that’s a smart move to get Jane Timoney a following before she gets axed without cause.

Episode grade: B+

Fringe - “Alone in the World”
Yes, Walter and Olivia totally should start trying to find Peter. This episode had a lot of emotion, which is sometimes missing from this show. The little boy was adorable, as was Walter trying so hard to save him. Furthermore, the case was creepy and Walter’s little breakdown was also unsettling. We like when this show disturbs us.

Episode grade: A-

We Wish We Could Meet Our Parallel Universe Selves...Or Do We?

A Gifted Man - "In Case of All Hell Breaking Loose"

What kind of medical show really only has one doctor? How can we have multiple hookups and other drama? All we have here are cases. The weird thing is, this show makes you care anyway. We’re still liking it this week. The quality has stayed the same. It has a good tone and a strong central performance. It still needs to find itself in a lot of ways, but we hope it gets a chance to do it. Side note: We love his secretary. His sister and nephew were missing though. Episode grade: B

Fringe - "One Night in October"

Why wasn’t this the premiere? What an interesting case! The show pulled a Grey’s Anatomy when it related the case to Peter’s disappearance/the main characters’ own lives. Yup, Peter’s indelible. And he needs help? Hoo boy. We liked this one a lot.

Episode Grade: A-

Fringe - Neither Here Nor There

Welcome to what is probably the last season of Fringe. The premiere of season four brought a lot of the sweet humor we enjoy, especially with Walter.

Without Peter, Olivia is a lot colder and less trusting. Walter is a lot more skittish and agoraphobic. But Peter isn’t completely gone. He blips in and out, showing himself to Walter in the mirror and the TV screen, and to the viewer like Tyler Durden blips in the beginning of Fight Club.

Lincoln Lee’s partner dies and he joins the Fringe Division. With Peter erased, Lee never worked with Fringe/doesn’t remember Olivia. He has never been more likeable to us. Here, he was tenacious, sympathetic, and served as an emotional center in a show with characters that seem pretty dead without Peter.

This episode wasn’t boring, but it didn’t have the bang we’ve come to expect from a season premiere. It just felt like a regular episode, and the case of the week wasn’t creepy or interesting, compared to most other Fringe cases.

Episode Grade: B-

Fringe Finale: The Day We Died recap, thoughts on the show as a whole, and ways it could be improved

Fringe ended its third and best season this week with a finale that will completely change everything. This season has been great, because it finally picked up the pacing. We love the high-concept elements of this show, but the creators could make it a little easier for most people to follow. Next season, we want some interesting side characters other than the main three, quicker pacing, some heart, a sense of urgency (the writers need to watch some 24 for the perfect example of how to do that with cold characters the viewers care little about), and more creepiness. This show has the convoluted plots just right. It needs to get us viscerally and emotionally more. It comes off as cold and a little slow.

It's rare for a show in this genre to completely swear off supernatural or spiritual elements. These things add an eeriness. Possibilities such as uncontrollable events, higher powers, prophecies, bone-chilling evil, and incredible displays of love open up when you add these elements. Unlike LOST, The X-Files, and Alias (successful shows of this type that achieved cult followings and levels of addictiveness to which Fringe aspires), Fringe is purely scientific in its world view. All of the weirdness can be explained by science. While it's cool and unique to see that, and it allows some original concepts to play out, it's less interesting to the viewer. LOST and Alias MIXED mind-bending science with unsettling philosophy and spirituality. Fringe needs to inject some of that into its formula to become less mechanical.

You may think that it's too late to deepen and warm Fringe with spiritual concepts, because the world of science has been so firmly established. But we disagree. Take a look at The Matrix trilogy, a flawed but special series of films that fumbled the ball with its ending. Plot-wise, The Matrix was completely technologically and scientifically driven. But much of it was a spiritual allegory and it propounded religious and philosophical teachings within its scientific world. Fringe could introduce something like that into its narrative, deepening a layer of existential investigation, asking questions, commenting, and paralleling spiritual matters. Fringe needs to pretend to be about science but really be about spiritual matters. It would have to be less heavy-handed than it was in final two Matrix films, and it would have to be more emotional as well. But, done right, this could make the show relevant to actual people. This should get rid of the emotional coldness, because spirituality contains a huge emotional component. The other way to do this is to really make us love the characters and create connections between them and depth that is undeniable. But this is more difficult.

Onto what happened in the finale....

The episode started with Peter in 2026. Was Peter REALLY supposed to pass for his late 40s in this episode? It’s hard to hide that fat baby face on Peter, even with ridiculous spiked up hair. But we went with it. Olivia simply need a matronly haircut. Bleck. Peter had been taken to the hospital after suffering an injury. He’s also an agent of Fringe Division, like Olivia, Astrid, and Olivia’s grown niece, Ella. Dang, this show sure knows how to give its leads popular but still unique names. Peter is married to Olivia, and Olivia has Broyles’ old job: head of Fringe Division. Olivia also has full use of her telekinesis. Sweet. Peter wants a child, but Olivia doesn’t think it’s a good idea to bring one into the futureless world. We were Team Peter on this.

In the future, our universe is tearing quickly because of the successful destruction of the other universe that was closely linked with ours, and there is a terrorist named Moreau causing mayhem. We need to keep our eye on the French, it seems … Moreau blew up an opera house in the beginning of the episode. Some people have no respect for classical music. He is in the Walternate-led terrorist group “End of Days,” an organization that is helping our universe’s inevitable destruction along. The plan this episode? To put a wormhole in Central Park.

Walter is in prison, facing the consequences for starting this whole mess anyway. Using his connection to Senator Broyles (nice promotion), Peter gets him out and back to his lab for the purpose of stopping the mayhem. Peter gets close enough to Walternate to confront him and ask for the mercy that Walternate’s own world was denied. Walternate shoots Olivia in the forehead. So we guess that’s a no? They totally ripped that Olivia funeral off of First Knight and LOST. We consider it a bad thing that we weren’t sad when Olivia died. Maybe we knew it wasn’t permanent or even real, but when a major character gets shot in the head, we should feel something, right?

We found out that Walter was the one who sent the machine back through time (via some people who took it back for him), a choice he could not change. We found out that Walter pulled Peter from 2011 into his future body, so that when Peter’s 2011 consciousness returns to the moment he hops in the machine, he will make a different choice. Peter disappeared at the end of Walter’s explanation. Peter went back and used the machine to create a bridge between the two worlds, bringing the doubles face-to-face with each other.

There is a hole in both universes in the rooms that hold the machines where the people from the two universes can come together to fix things. Peter explained this to his fathers and disappeared mid-speech. No one noticed his disappearance. Cut to the observers, who say, “They don’t remember Peter. How could they? He never existed. He served his purpose.” Head spinning? If you are missing how this happened, don’t worry. The show has yet to spell it out for us. But theories abound. One theory says that Peter is the one who took the machine back in time, and he will come back or be found later.

Good ending. Episode Grade: B+. Season Grade: B+

Short reviews for this week (for the shows we didn't much talk about in big posts)

One of the bloggers went home this weekend for Easter and has limited internet access, so this week’s short reviews will be few, because the other blogger’s TV viewing won’t be added. We watch many of the same shows, of course. In case you were wondering, she didn't like this weeks' Bones, pronouncing it "weird."

How I Met Your Mother
Barney and his dad lie to each other in order to bond. One of us thinks this show is getting really old and boring. It is at its best when it reaches into the past, references older episodes, or has flashbacks. The current action isn’t humorous. That said, we mildly enjoyed this episode. John Lithgow always does a good job. B+

The United States of Tara
Char finally had her baby. Meh. B-

Modern Family
This week was one of the funniest in a while. We love Phil and Luke. A

Cougar Town (both episodes from this week)
We’re glad this show is back, but these weren’t outstanding episodes. B

Breaking In
Not as good as the pilot and subsequent episode, but still amusing. B

Community
Jeff’s speeches always say it all. And we enjoyed the Pierce/Abed love montage. A funny episode with a little heart that reminded us of some of the year’s high points. A-

Parks and Recreation
YES, Ron, burgers are better. This episode was a great example of just how funny this show can be. We couldn’t be any more in love with it than after this week? A

The Office
“I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up.” No, that statement isn’t about the show (it’s about Phyllis). The show proved that it can still "get up" and be funny this week, with its biting Dundies and sweet pre-farewell to Michael. Much better than last week. And Will Ferrell was tolerable. B+

The Vampire Diaries
It’s The Vampire Diaries, a show that flat-out refuses to churn out stupid plotlines, boring side-stories, or episodes that are a waste of time, so you know it’s going to get some kind of A. How high of an A? We loved meeting Klaus. And Damon’s concern for Elena and desperation for her to respect him upped the central triangle up a notch. A+

Fringe
It’s the beginning of the end. It’s about time. This show keeps messing with our emotions, making Faux-Livia so admirable. But we like it. B+

A Few Comments on This Week's TV

How I Met Your Mother - The Exploding Meatball Sub
Both of us thought this episode was a little “meh” and not funny, although ern really liked that Marshall finally quit his job at GNB. She also liked the meatball sub stuff.

Episode Grade: C+

The United States of Tara - The Full F You Finger
It was ok. The Adventures of Kate are boring us. Get back to Tara.

Episode Grade: C+

Body of Proof - Talking Heads
We are starting to bemoan the lack of chemistry in the cast and the predictability in the episodes, but we are still watching. Leeard thinks it’s like Bones, only stupider and without Booth. Liked the corny ending though. We’re suckers for mother/daughter stuff.

Episode Grade: C

Modern Family - The Musical Man
Very funny, even though the plot where it looked like Phil was pimping out his family was a little too dumb, even for Phil. Then she show actually pulled off a touching moment with Jay’s brother! We missed this show.

Episode Grade: B+

America’s Next Top Model - Lana Marks
We were a little shocked that Jaclyn went home so early. She takes great pictures. True, she looks the least like a model and she runs the least amount of drama in the house. We think it should have been Hannah or Molly. Molly has had a horrible attitude from day one. We are still rooting for enemies Brittani and Alexandria.

Episode Grade: A-

American Idol
As it stands, Leeard is rooting for Casey. Ern has favored Haley for a while. Even before "Bennie and the Jets". But feel free to hop on this bandwagon. Haley has a fantastic voice. Leeard was sad to lose Paul. Ern was ecstatic. He was the worst. Now, we just have to get rid of Jacob Lusk, a singer neither of us like. When we agree on American Idol, it’s rare. That’s how bad Jacob is. Week grade: A

The Office - Training Day
A show that mostly isn't funny anymore + a comedian who mostly isn’t funny anymore? You know how this turned out. We have only liked Will F in Anchorman. Elf had a funny script, but Will didn’t add much to it and came across as a creeper. Neither of us cared for him in The Office. Someone breathe new life in this show, fast. Funniest part of the episode? The turtle part. Episode Grade: C

The Vampire Diaries - The Last Dance
This show can do no wrong. It is so much better than any teen show has any right to be. The pacing, the twists, the characters, the hot guys, the lack of stupidity, the health of the relationships, and the moxie of the main girl? Pitch perfect, and this week is no exception. Episode grade: A

Bones - The Truth in the Myth
Too predictable, pretty forgettable. And stupid, because the chupacabra is obviously real.
Episode grade: C

Mike and Molly - Opening Day
We liked the bonding between Molly and Carl, but she shouldn't have gone to the baseball game with them.

Episode Grade: B-

The Chicago Code - Wild Onions
It’s awesome. One day the blogger who loves this show will explain why it’s awesome, but until then, accept it.

Episode Grade: A-

Better with You - Better Without a Job
The stupid plot with the book/Maddie is dumb for the whole pretending-to-not-be-fired thing.

Episode Grade: C

30 Rock - I Heart Connecticut
Truly, truly unspecial episode. No laughs, lame plots. At least we’ve got crazy Tracy back for next time though, right?

Episode Grade: D+

Community - Competitive Wine Tasting
We didn’t love Trey’s subplot, but we loved someone calling Jeff out for being a douche. And did Pierce really find the right one? Fiddla please.

Episode grade: B

Parks and Recreation - Andy and April’s Fancy Party
We want Ben to get Leslie. At least for a little while. They set it up so subtly that it felt like the audience’s idea. Until this episode, where it was obvious. Brilliant. Plus, April and Andy got married!

Episode Grade: A-

Fringe - Lysergic Acid Diethylamide
That reminded us of Inception. Only with more character development. The cartoon thing was cute, but Olivia’s looked nothing like her. Very strange, but we liked this one. Oh, this show. Episode grade: A-

Chaos - Love and Rockets
Par for the course for this show, which equals an episode grade of B-

Fringe - 6B review

Fringe is still owning its new Friday slot. The ratings went up this week. We will be surprised if it doesn’t get a fourth season, which is great news for nerds. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Fringe is the best nerd show on right now. It’s not as good as LOST or The X Files, but we are in a nerd TV draught. Don’t even mention V or The Event to us. Or Flashforward. Buncha failures. They forgot one thing: Nerds are SMART. We need mythology, philosophy, spirituality, and three-dimensional characters we will care about.

On Fringe, Walter gets more loveable all the time. He’s a far cry from the weirdo wetting his britches in season one. Making pancakes for Olivia and Peter to try to get them back together was so adorable. And after Peter made that perfect little speech to Olivia about what it was like when he thought they were together, we were surprised she didn’t immediately give in. But finally, she and Peter decided to give it a go and went upstairs…presumably to play board games and drink chocolate milk. Ya think?

The case of the week, with the fake ghost, was eerie and felt supernatural, even though this show sticks to science rather than spirits. Does the vortex freak anyone else out, a lot? The one that looked like a whirlpool?

Alright episode of a good show. It’s nice to have Peter and Olivia get together again. It balances the scales for the universes, after last week’s episode.

Episode Grade: B-

Fringe - Immortality comments

There was a twist on Fringe last night, and the way it was hyped, you would have thought it was going to be a really big deal. But it’s actually pretty soapy and not a surprise, because everyone has speculated about this possibility. Fauxlivia is pregnant with Peter’s baby. Like Peter needed another reason to choose Fauxlivia and the other universe? He still loves Fauxlivia, she’s more fun than damaged Olivia, she’s better looking with that darker hair, Peter is from that universe anyway, and now his baby is over there. They are rightly calling this a game changer, even if they overhyped the twist. If Peter picks real Olivia, and the other universe is destroyed, he destroys his kid too. Olivia had better crawl over there, perform a C-section in a couple of months, and drag that baby back to our place.

We feel so bad for Olivia right now. Oddly, we feel bad for Fauxlivia’s now ex-boyfriend too. We kind of like the twist and hope the baby is carried to term. Did they have to devote an entire episode to this though? We were a little more interested in the bad guy, Dr. Anton Silva. He had an obsession he was willing to kill for, and that was to have his name remembered along with great scientists, even if he would not be there to enjoy the fame. His last words were perfect. Also, Walternate has an Asian mistress. How funny would it be if she turned out to be the key to it all or something? Ha. We missed Peter this episode, but it was about as entertaining as an episode about characters we are not rooting for can be. In fact, we think it made us like Fauxlivia even more. She was really honest with Frank in the hospital. That should count for something, right?

Episode Grade: B+

Fringe and Glee recap/reviews

So, Friday's Fringe and Sunday's Glee are getting a little shortchanged, recap-wise, but it was Super Bowl weekend, so we were busy. We'll make sure everything you need to know is in there though.

Glee: The McKinley High football team has actually gotten better and is going to the championships. But when the football players slushied Artie nasty, Coach Beiste and Will decided to finally get involved in the war that took out Kurt. Will and the Coach decided to force the football guys to join Glee club for one week, the penalty for noncooperation being an ousting from the team and the big game. The Glee Club and the team were slated to perform a mash-up of Thriller and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Heads Will Roll” during halftime. This is because the Cheerios had a championship of their own to get to.

The Cheerios championship forced Brittany, Santana, and Quinn to choose between cheerleading and Glee. After some warbling, they chose Glee. Sue’s plan to shoot Brittany out of a canon to win the competition helped them make the decision. She could have died. So Sue lost her National Title and got called a loser by Katie Couric in a post-competition interview. Oh the shame…

The football players got a taste of their own medicine when they were mocked for being in Glee and slushied by the school’s hockey team. The football players dropped out, but the Glee guys were still able to play, because Tina, Rachel, a hilarious Lauren, and Mercedes stepped up so that the football team could have the minimum number of players required. Tina even made a touchdown. Puck rallied the football players before halftime, and Finn got the cheerleaders back, and even Karofsky joined in on the halftime number. They even won the football game. Then Karofsky decided to start being a jerk again and did not stay in the glee club.

We got a glimpse of a Dalton Warblers rehearsal (“Bills Bills Bills” by Destiny’s Child), and Rachel sang “Need You Now” with Puck to demonstrate what Glee does to the football players. “She’s Not There” was the number everyone used to warm-up for the halftime show. The best use of that song is still in Kill Bill. Tarantino makes a mean soundtrack. Also, Quinn kissed Finn. That Quinn is SUCH a cheater!!!!

We weren't digging most of the songs ("She's Not There" was decent), but we're just glad that this show is finally back. Next episode looks great. Leeard swoons every time she sees the clip of Darren Criss singing "When I Get You Alone." And she's watched it about 100 times (no exaggeration). Either Youtube (or Hulu!) that or wait until Tuesday!

Glee Grade: B-

Fringe: Ok, Here’s all you need to know about this episode. We found out that whoever Peter chooses, our Olivia or Fauxlivia, will determine which universe survives and which one dies. And we aren’t so sure it will be our universe, because a mind-reading guy let Olivia know that Peter still has feelings for Fauxlivia. We really feel for real Olivia. Her theory is that of course Peter fell for the other Olivia, because Fauxlivia is just like Olivia, only not damaged. If someone came along who was an unhurt, undamaged version of you (who never went through all the crud that messed your head up) and the man you loved got with her, how heartbroken would you be? UGH.

Fringe Grade: B

Fringe - Reciprocity recap/review

Olivia, Peter, and Walter went to Massive Dynamic to check out the machine that could destroy both universes. The machine and the technology around it acted up when Peter walked into the room. Tests were done on Peter, but they came up empty. Shapeshifters started popping up, murdered, and the gang investigated that. They figured out that there had to be a mole in Massive Dynamic, and everyone with access to Fauxlivia’s journal that contained the identities of shapeshifters (hidden by a code, of course) was questioned.

Walter is still trying to grow back his brains. Astrid and Olivia went through Fauxlivia’s diary and notes to get a lead on the dead shapeshifters. In the end, it turned out that Peter was killing the shapeshifters, because they were threats and assassins, obviously. Walter figured it out and caught him just after he killed the last one. Also, as Walter hypothesized, the machine/weapon “weaponized” Peter. Because Peter came in contact with it, it altered him and made him into a killer. Peter argued that he just wanted to be proactive and get information. Walter, saddened, told Peter that this “wasn’t him” and that he had been changed. Turned to the dark side, dun dun dunnnn. Walter did not tell Olivia, but we have a feeling that the truth will come out. It is Fringe, after all.

We’re not sure how we feel about this episode or this new development in Peter’s psyche. We like Peter the way he is, but we are intrigued at the idea of a changed, more deadly Peter. Mixed emotions. But we can appreciate a curveball.

As great as this season has been, we can imagine that we would have enjoyed it more if we had waited for the DVD box and marathoned it. That might be the option we take if there is a season four, and we actually think that there will be.

Episode grade: B

Fringe - The Firefly recap/review

Despite this being a pretty decent episode, the recap is going to be short, because the gist of what happened is simple. The Observer set up an elaborate experiment to see if Walter would sacrifice Peter to right the balance and/or save other lives. Turns out, Walter would, which is highly interesting and will set up lots of good fun for later in the show.

We also got to see Christopher Lloyd who played an ex-rock musician who played in one of Walter’s favorite old bands. He had a son who died in 1985, but the son mysteriously turned up at his nursing home to ask him to help Walter, so the gang showed up to check out the mysterious occurrence. The Observer had snatched the son from 1985 and moved him forward in time to talk to his future dad. Get the reference? A time travelling kid from 1985 starring alongside Christopher Lloyd? If you don’t get it, you aren’t nerdy or cool enough to be watching Fringe, so you should just stop now.

The Observer met Walter and told him that after he stole alternate Peter, alternate Peter (now the only Peter) had caught a firefly. This meant another little girl didn’t, so she stayed out late trying to catch a firefly. So her dad went out to look for her and hit a pedestrian. While Christopher Lloyd was telling him about his son getting hit by a car while he was crossing the road (that’s why the band broke up), it dawned on Walter that he had killed his hero’s son. Walter felt guilty.

The Observer saved a woman’s life, stopped a robbery, shot Peter with a weird electronic gun that just threw him into the ground and gave him a headache, almost killed Peter, and led Olivia through a chase scene. All of this culminated in The Observer a) saving Walter’s life and b) testing Walter. Walter was afraid The Observer was setting all this up to kill Peter and right the balance. Rather than stop Peter from chasing The Observer into a dangerous situation, Walter obeyed Peter and stayed with an asthmatic woman who needed medical attention to save her life.

Meanwhile, Olivia was still dealing with her life getting intercepted when she receives a package containing Peter’s favorite book. The package came out of a conversation Peter had with the other Olivia. Olivia was sad and didn’t want to read the book, but Peter told her that he meant it for the real Olivia, so that she could get to know him better. There was a sweet moment before danger hit. No kissy stuff though. This was a fast-moving, easy-to-watch episode of Fringe, but there was nothing really gross or mind blowing. Still, Friday night is looking a whole lot sweeter for us lately. As far as the ratings go, so far, so good. And as this blog pointed out (http://catstvmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/good-news-for-fringe.html), Friday nights were good to The X-Files, so why wouldn't they work for this show? Yay!

Episode Grade: B

Shows That Grew On Us Months/Years After We Shunned Them

Sometimes you watch a show and you just don’t get it. It’s not for you. But then, months later, you are obsessed with it. We all know the shows that have jumped the shark (the ones most of us have stopped watching). We have listed them, voted on them, and ranted about them. But it’s time for a list of the ones to give more time to, even if they suck at first. This is a list of shows that we have started watching and then shunned, only to try them again and love them.

Arrested Development and The Office - We had trouble getting into these at first simply because we needed time to get used to the humor. One of our friends, let’s call her Cassi, had trouble getting into Arrested Development, scoffing at a girl who called it, “The funniest show ever.” Cassi muttered, “It’s so not.” However, a few episodes after the pilot, we noticed that Cassi had caught onto the amazingness, and by the third season, she was gasping for breath laughing.

Sex and the City - WOW that first season was slow. The girls were unlikeable and slutty, Carrie kept talking to the camera (and interviewing people), Carrie’s hair was horrible, her column was lame, the sex questions and issues were common, and the guys were not hot yet. We’re glad we stuck with it though, because it ended up having lots of heart and humor.

24 - Ern LOVES 24 (even though she doesn’t believe in using torture). She used to marathon it for full days, no kidding. So it might surprise you that the first time she tried to watch it, it was a complete fail. Ern rented the first two DVDs from season one and promptly returned them, thinking, “Good riddance.” There were no characters worth caring about yet, Jack Bauer’s daughter was an idiot who deserved to get kidnapped, his wife was annoying, Jack Bauer looked like a muskrat, and the big crime mystery moved at a glacial pace. However, Ern’s friend, Rachel, lent her season one in a box, and Ern will watch anything a friend lends her in a box. About halfway through the first season, when Jack Bauer rescues his daughter, things picked up. And then things never let up. After that, 24 was never boring. Controversial, but never boring. Leeard caught random episodes of this show and didn't like it. Silly Leeard. You have to watch this one from the beginning of a season or you won't know what's going on.

Rome - This show covers 20 years of Roman history, and the characters never age a day. But our real beef is that half of the first season was SO BORING. It was like this show just existed to show people in cool costumes take them off and then have sex. Then we got into it and enjoyed it. Before you pick this one up, it helps to know some Roman history and be into the Roman politics.

Boston Legal - This show is a funny classic now, but when we started the first season, we were extremely turned off by the liberal PSAs every week. Even if we happened to agree, this show was so preachy, it made us literally gag one time. There were monologues by the judges at the end of the episodes. Top that off with nearly every young woman in the law firm looking like models and every one of them thinking humpty-dumpty-looking Alan Shore was a great catch, and we were changing the channel on this one at first.

Dexter - This started off gross, exploitative, confusing, and creepy. We put it on a level with gory crap like those moronic Saw movies. But then Dexter’s inhumanity was contrasted with real humanity. We got to know his history. Deb stopped working vice and got to put some clothes on. And by the end of the first season, we were happy someone had convinced us to give it a second try.

Breaking Bad - The pilot tried our patience. Then it got awesome.

Community - While Leeard loved the pilot of this show, Ern was not impressed. It took Ern half a season to think this was funny. The Halloween episode of the first season is what did it.

Cougar Town - In the beginning, the show was about cougars, it wasn’t funny, and it wasn’t cute. We think just about everyone gave up on this one in the beginning, but word of mouth has brought a few back. Now, it’s a Scrubs-like, zany show about a group of friends. Jules is a much better character than Monica Gellar. We’ve said it before, and we will say it again: If you like fun, light humor, try this show, because it’s good now.

Dollhouse - It’s tough to have a show with few good guys and a main character with no identity of her own. It’s tough to watch a show drag and feel like it doesn’t know where it is going or how fast it needs to spill answers (LOST, anyone?). But it would be tougher for you to miss out on a sci-fi show this unique.

Fringe - Just start on the second season, seriously. 2/3rds of the first season is horribly slow. But now it’s good.

The Vampire Diaries - The pilot was the only lame episode of this fantastic series. Ern shunned it for nearly a full year, because a) she HATES Twilight (shitelight), b) thinks vampires should never go to high school, c) rarely likes teen shows, and d) the title “The Vampire Diaries” just makes it sound hella lame, right? Leeard kept sending Ern links to watch it, offended that Ern did not trust her taste. For the sake of the friendship, Ern watched the links. And now, we can both love it together.

Then there are shows that we have shunned, but keep thinking we should go back to. Currently they are Mad Men and Nikita. People rave over Mad Men, but we didn’t see it. Is it time for a return visit to the ‘60s? And now that Nikita’s advertising campaign has died down, it might be less annoying, and we might get into the story better if we can see many episodes at a time.

In fact, that’s a good trick. Get a full season on DVD, and if it doesn’t hook you after a few hours, it might not be for you. It’s harder to get into a difficult show week-to-week.

What are some shows that you hated at first that grew on you?

Checking in on The Event- Episodes 3-5

Last episode, this show finally got somewhere by having Sophia released and Leila rescued by Sean. With the exception of the pilot, this show has centered around the characters either getting these things to happen or trying to prevent them from happening, so now we can see where the show is going next. We aren’t really sure what the issues are in the story yet. What’s the problem? Sophia is NICE and in charge (for now). Thomas, the only candidate for Big Bad, isn’t scary. He’s like the henchman in 24 that runs half the season until his big, scary boss is revealed. And speaking of 24, we thought The Event was a LOST rip-off, but these last three episodes have played out like a way less intense version of 24, only with aliens. There is very little mythology so far in this show, and we don’t like that.

Also, one of the reasons LOST was LOST was its focus on the characters through flashbacks, arcs, and relationships. The Event promised to be character-focused, but it hasn’t yet delivered. We only really feel for the pilot, who was forced to fly that plane and has a dead wife. The plane crash survivors have had some weird things happen to them (nosebleeds, resurrection, panic), and they are the most interesting thing right now. We are slightly intrigued by the defecting assassin with the stolen child. She kind of looks like Ashley Judd with less skin stretched out over her skull, but she’s pretty…for the next eight years. She’s gonna look old, quick. She seems to be the only non-stock character around. Blair Underwood’s president is no David Palmer, his wife is bland and looks like one of those Real Housewives women rather than the first lady, Sean and Leila seem too normal, we’ve got a cop helping Sean (NOT original), and some bland baddies. Someone like Lisbeth Salander or John Locke needs to crop up.

The Event could stand to get a little creepier, weirder, and more character driven. It also needs a plot to open up now that the girls are free. We love that Leila’s first escape was planned by the baddies. Also, burning-ish question: Why do the baddies want to kill Sean? Episode three was pretty dull and should have been merged with the slightly better episode five. This show hasn’t knocked our socks off since the pilot and it hasn’t moved things forward since episode two.

A few questions for The Event: Are you so cheap and desperate for ratings that you lure the young men in by have Leila get kidnapped while she was wearing a tank top and underwear? Can they show a decent, sweet flashback of Sean and Leila so that we care? You can do that in a small amount of time, like LOST did (quite successfully) with Desmond and Penny in brief flashbacks. Can Sophia please be creepier? Other than being the Lipless Wonder, there isn’t anything weird about her. Can she at least be more magnetic or charismatic? The aliens need a new leader, but we aren’t liking Thomas. Does he look a little like a white version of Obama to anyone else?

But there is hope. Lots of our favorite shows had meandering starts (Hello, Fringe and 24). If this show is going the 24 route, we can take heart. After Jack Bauer rescued his family, the series really started to pick up. The Event is still watchable, but it needs to come up with its own mythology and plotline instead of ripping off of older hits. So far, we feel like we've seen this show, only they watered it down a little.

If you haven't seen this show and are interested, you can catch all five episodes on hulu for the next five days. On Tuesday, the pilot will go away.

Episode grades: 3=C, 4= C+, 5= B-

Other Thursday grades

Community: A-. This show is always funny these days, but this one was poignant too. Love that show.

Fringe: C+. The end was really good. The only significant things in the episode were that we found out that Walternate needs Olivia to cross over into the other world easily. Also, Olivia is starting to have visions of people she knew from our world, and these are telling her that she doesn't belong in the alternative universe. The whole episode focused on Olivia catching a criminal in the alternatice universe while she dealt with feeling weird.

Bones: B. While one of is obsessed with Jersey Shore, it was kind of a weird episode. And seeing those jumping maggots didn't help at all. The case of the week was pretty interesting though, and not as predictable as they usually are. We do NOT like Booth's girlfriend moving in with him. He is ours and we will share him with Bones and that's IT.

Sorry for the flagrant laziness. It's a busy weekend :)

Fringe- The Box review/recap

The mysterious happening of the week was that three robbers were looking for a box in the basement of the house they were robbing. They had been hired by Thomas Jerome Newton to find the box and were curious as to what was in it. When they opened it, it killed two of the robbers, plus the captive family. The third robber escaped unharmed, because it was the sound waves from inside the box that killed. The box was a piece of the doomsday machine that will supposedly destroy our world. You know, the one that Peter is the human interface for. The gang found the device and Peter managed to disarm it before it killed more people. This plot wasn’t the main action in the episode.

Olivia is still trapped in the alternate universe while Faux-Livia is living Olivia’s life and macking on Olivia’s man. This is not smart of you, Pretend Olivia. When real Olivia gets back, she is going to wipe you off this dimension. There was a great scene in this episode where fake Olivia hid a dead body from Peter and distracted him with some tender lovin’ as blood drained out her bathroom door. Walter attempted to make the lab cow produce chocolate milk. His coworkers were less excited by this attempt than they should have been. That would change the world, that would. You know that would be awesome if someone did that! Walter and Peter also went to the reading of William Bell’s will. William Bell left Walter a key and a piece of paper with the sentence, “Don’t be afraid to cross the line.” Walter tried to talk to Peter about kidnapping him and apologize, but Peter wasn’t ready to hear it and walked out. Poor Walter. Fake Olivia informed her bosses that she had gotten Peter to start working on the machine. Their response was that she should "start working on Walter." We also found out that the key William Bell left him was to a safe deposit box which left Walter all the shares to Massive Dynamic. WOW. We can’t wait for Walter to take over. This show has gotten so much better since the first season.

Episode grade- B+

Watch it here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/180751/fringe-the-box

Fringe season premiere review

This blogger got into Fringe this summer. The first attempt was a bust. We thought Fringe was a grosser rip off of The X-Files. (As the show goes on, you will find that the plot and what the team is investigating is very different from the goings-on of the X-Files, with investigating "strange incidents" and romance between the characters being the only similiarities.) But people said it got better, so we jumped back in, renting the DVDs. About halfway through season one, this show started to pick up steam, and now it is excellent. If you have trouble getting into shows that start out painfully slow, just read some recaps of the first 14 episodes, then start watching. But this is not a show that you have to see every episode of to follow, believe it or not, so you can just jump right in. We wonder how anyone got into this show from the beginning without forcing themselves to watch it, like we did. But now that it’s good, it’s very good.

In season three, the main female character, Olivia, is trapped in an alternate universe. Her friends and co-workers, Peter and Walter Bishop, went back to this current universe with the wrong Olivia (Olive). This episode dealt with alternate Walter (Walternate), the alternate universe’s Secretary of Defense, attempting to brainwash Olivia into taking on Olive’s memories through some scientific juice…or whatever. You kind of have to just go with things in this show. Olivia escaped Walternate’s clutches and ran around trying to get back to this world.

This episode was exciting and dark. It felt like 1984. You know, creepy and hopeless. In a good way. We even got a glimpse of the real Walter and his “son” Peter in the real universe, living with the mole, Olive.

If you like sci-fi, gore, humor, endearing characters, good acting, crazy scientific theories, suspense, mystery, nerdtasticness, and romance, read some recaps on Wikipedia jump right into this show’s current season. Or Fringepedia. That would probably be more detailed. If you area already a fan, get even more excited. This season is off to a good start.

Episode Grade- B+

Watch the premiere, "Olivia," here, as well as last season's finale hours:

http://www.hulu.com/fringe