Monthly Archives: March 2011

As ever, I’m way behind in my viewing. I just finished watching the Fringe from a few months back guest starring Christopher Lloyd as an aged rock star in a nursing home. Inexplicably though (and completely irrelevant to the plot) Lloyd actually looks younger now than he did in either Taxi in the 70′s or Back to the Future in the 80′s. He also plays quite against type in one of his better performances.

I bring this all up just to bring up the news that Fringe, despite low ratings in the Friday death slot, has surprisingly been renewed for next season. It’s a nice reprieve for a surprisingly good show that I think has pushed this genre well beyond what X-Files ever did. Certainly we’re getting much better performances than that show. Apparently while its actual ratings have been low it has been a big hit on DVR. (Which is where I watch it)

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OK this was by far the best episode of the season in my opinion. A lot of us felt a bit underwhelmed by last week. But this week we see why that setup had to happen the way it did. It turns out that Winona wasn’t just being petty and stupid in taking a single $100 bill from the evidence locker. She took all the money. The parallels with Ava just keep piling up.

I think that most of the “problems” with this season have really been writers setting things up for later episodes. It should be taken as a whole. That’s a bit different from last season where there really were many one off episodes. While there are elements of that this season it’s becoming clear that we should view each episode akin to a chapter in a book. A particularly good Elmore Leonard book.

There’s still a bit we’re missing. For instance why is Winona’s husband (is he ex yet?) going back in business with the very people who tried to kill him last year? I think there’s more to this race horse than meets the eye. And what exactly are Winona’s financial issues? It’s not clear beyond both Winona and Ava having big mortgage problems and getting mixed up in crime to solve them.

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An other great episode. Surprisingly other than dealing with the fallout of last week’s Boyd-centric episode this one went a whole other direction. The Bennets didn’t appear at all. I’m not sure why they created a whole new subplot here but I suspect some sort of divided loyalty for Raylan is coming. One thing I did like about tonight was that it seemed to capture that kookie thief who can’t leave it behind vibe that is so common in Elmore Leonard novels. While I loved it structurally, it wasn’t quite as strong as several other episodes this season.

First off we discover that Ava has in fact hitched her wagon with Boyd. Not romantically but by not turning Boyd in she’s definitely cemented their relationship in some way. Boyd explicitly sees his relationship with her as akin to Raylan’s. Surprisingly it appears that Boyd told the feds most of what went on except for the money he took – blaming it on the robbers threatening Ava. We were never shown such threats and we don’t know if this is a lie by Boyd or something true. Still while this is the only Boyd we got this week he had some great scenes. His calm speaking to the ATF was fantastic, as was Art’s backing Boyd up at the end.

The rest of the episode was a whole new story with no side detours.  Also nice was getting to see and get to know Art, Raylan’s boss, a bit more.  I like that we’re getting to know these side figures a bit more.

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OK, I’m still way, way behind in my TV viewing. Only Justified has managed to be “must see TV.” (Remember when that meant something?) Still we haven’t done a general catch up on all the other shows. Since I’m so far behind in what shows I have watched I’m counting on you guys to chime in.

Things of interest.

Steve Carell is leaving The Office, as I’m sure everyone has heard. I have to admit that I gave up on the show after the episode about giving birth. It was still somewhat funny but somehow had lost the charm it once had. Still the story is that Wil Ferrel is replacing (at least for a short time) Carell as the new boss. That might almost be enough to get me back for a little bit.

I’m pretty far behind but Fringe has been fantastic this season. It’s ratings have slipped a bit after doing surprisingly well for a Friday night. Rumor is though that if it can keep a 1.5 or higher that it’ll be renewed. Supposedly the twin earth story line will be wrapped up by the end of the season. (Since the writers weren’t sure they would get renewed) Hopefully this will do to Friday nights what X-Files did. That or Fox will accept DVR viewers as much as live viewers.

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