Magic Old Man Baby: (Not the) Same Old Story on "Fringe"

I was extremely excited to see the second episode of Fringe ("Same Old Story"), which aired last night on FOX.

After all, I was thrilled by the potential of the pilot episode and relished watching something that clearly set out to blend together the serialized mystery of the week element of The X-Files with the overarching mythology of Lost. (Plus, how kick-ass is the Remote Free TV aspect of Fringe? 53 minutes of story with limited commercial interruption? I am so there.)

This week's episode featured just the right amount of exposition at the start, reintroducing our three main characters for a room of shadowy Fringe Division council members, including one Nina Sharp (Blair Brown)... an interesting reveal that clarifies her position in the pilot episode, when she is surprised to discover that her security clearance (at the time anyway) exceeded that of Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv). We now know that she is working with Broyles (Lance Reddick) vis-a-vis this shadowy council though Broyles clearly doesn't trust her and doesn't want Olivia sharing any information with her.

Broyles briefs his council on his three operatives as Olivia pores over old case files that she shared with her dead partner/lover Agent John Scott (Mark Valley), who is seen is a series of quick flashbacks to the pilot as he dies in her arms. (We also learn that the last time Olivia and John were intimate, they weren't safe, which causes Olivia to distubingly fantasize about what he might have done to her.) It's just the right amount of exposition to get the newbies up to date without boring the die-hard viewers by recycling last week's storylines.

No, Fringe moves full-steam ahead this week with a bizarro murder plot in which a serial killer named Christopher (Push, Nevada's Derek Cecil, whom I remember best from Pasadena) paralyzes his female victims and then removes their pituity gland, all in an attempt to stave off his rapid aging as he is the result of an experiment worked on by Walter Bishop and Claus Penrose, a colleague of his from 30 years ago. Add to this the fact that Christopher accidentally impregnates a stripper... and she quickly conceives and births a child in the span of an hour. And that child quickly ages to an elderly man and dies within minutes. Freaky? You betcha.

This week's installment also makes better use of Joshua Jackson's Peter Bishop; while we're told in the pilot episode that one of his many skills is his ability to "read" people, we get to see it in action here as he accompanies Olivia into the field to question a scientist about the serial killer and he quickly knows that the man is lying. (He, of course, turns out to be right about that theory.) We also later learn that the genius Peter also has the ability to fix anything electrical and see him adust to being his father's nursemaid and babysitter, discovering Walter (John Noble) in the closet of their hotel room and later talking in his sleep. Unlike his behavior in the pilot (when he might have been more likely to smother Walter with a pillow), he sings his father to sleep with "Row Your Boat."

So just what is the mystery of Peter Bishop? What secret about Peter's medical history did Walter not want Olivia to tell Peter about? What was that flash at the end of the episode, in which the viewer is treated to a look inside Walter's head, a view that includes some sort of lab hook up with two men inside incubation chambers and one man lying between them. Just what did Walter do to Peter during his childhood... or prior to his conception? Like Christopher, is Peter the result of one of Walter's experiments? And just what exactly does that make him?

It's a lot of questions for the second episode but I am already hooked and trying to figure out the answers to unraveling Peter's history. I'm glad that the episode's writers--J.J. Abrams, Jeff Pinkner, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci--have kept the suspense and drama of the pilot episode, cranked up the creepy factor to 11, and yet also wisely kept the focus on the shifting relationship between Olivia, Peter, and Walter as they adjust to their new roles within Fringe Division.

I absolutely loved the scenes between Olivia and Nina Sharp as Nina tries to lure Olivia from "public service" to the private sector, offering her a job at Massive Dynamics, a multi-national behemoth that sounds like it has rights and priviledges usually accorded to independent countries. Nina's willingness to help Olivia and Broyles--even after secretly reanimating Olivia's lover John to question him about The Pattern--makes her seem like an ally but Broyles (even dream Broyles though he may be) is right when he says that these things are typically always quid pro quo, so Olivia should ready herself to be asked to perform a major favor for Massive Dynamics. (Though keeping their name out of the press after the airplane incident may have smoothed matters as well.)

Is Massive Dynamics inherently evil? I hope not but when Nina last week said that technology is growing at such a rapid pace that the government can no longer control or govern it, I couldn't help but think that multi-nationals are the same beast. It's clear that there's shared history between Nina and Broyles (and possibly Olivia and Nina, given the, er, maternal way she looks at her) and I cannot wait to see how this relationship continues to twist and grow. Much like magic old man baby, in fact.

Best line of the night: "Even condoms are not 100 percent effective... You two should be aware of this.. " - Walter to Olivia and Peter.

All in all, a fantastic episode that better set up what Fringe will be week to week and one that hooked me with a winning combination of creepy science-based mystery, dramatic stakes, and character development.

Next week on Fringe ("The Ghost Network"), the team investigates the death of bus commuters, whose bodies are frozen like insects in amber, and encounters a man who may have a psychic connection to The Pattern. Plus, Walter requests a piano for the lab. Yes, a piano.

Second Helpings: FOX's "Vanished"

One of my favorite annual pastimes is going through the following season's pilots and trying to figure out which ones I'll watch and which ones I'll skip. There's certainly no science to it and much of it is really just my gut reaction to the material and that little voice in the back of my head asking me whether or not I'd watch the series.

But the true test of a series isn't necessarily the pilot. In fact, more often than not, it's the second episode that's the real indication of whether or not I plan on investing my time with a particular series. On that note, I sat down Monday evening to watch the second episode of FOX's missing woman conspiracy drama Vanished. Longtime readers of this blog will remember that I ended up liking the pilot, which--like its second episode--was directed by Mimi Leder.

Here's what I had to say about the original pilot I watched back in June: "Created by Josh Berman (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) and directed by Mimi Leder (John Doe, Deep Impact), the pilot is beautifully shot and gripping. While I had initially thought that Sara's disappearance would turn into a 24-style political/espionage thriller, the Da Vinci Code-esque religious clues scattered throughout take this series into an entirely surprising and unexpected direction. Something bigger is going on here than mere political vendettas and I wonder if Vanished will wrap it up in one season (a la the aforementioned 24) or if the Berman and Co. have plotted the series beyond Year One."

Hmm. I appear to have liked it. But then I tuned in Monday night...

As I said earlier, a second episode is always the true test of a series and here Vanished failed miserably. Instead of a smart, slick conspiracy caper, I found a sodden mess of histrionics and cheesy dialogue. Obviously, none of these serialized dramas are based in any way in reality and one must take these series with a huge ball of salt, but still, I want some resemblance to the logic of the universe to take shape. Or, at the least, I'd like to make it through a supposedly "serious" drama without laughing my butt off.

In Vanished, CSIs find valuable forensic information--a bloody handprint here, a torn scrap of dress there--in the record time of five whole seconds within arriving at the scene. One little shine of an ultraviolet light and--BOOM!--we're in business and up and running. A look at the blueprints of a labyrinthine tunnel network reveals there's a passageway right where they're standing and before you know it Graham (Gale Harold) takes off without a so much as a by-your-leave from his superior officer to play last action hero. (The less said about the fact that, following an explosion, he doesn't even bother to check on his colleagues the better.)

While Graham struck me as a bit of a cipher in the pilot, producers haven't done anything here to make him a more fully developed character and Harold sort of sleepwalks through his scenes in a short sleeve shirt and tie combo that held more amusement for me than the entire episode itself. Remember that missing mayor's wife who turned up at the end of the pilot seemingly frozen for the last few years? Her husband shows up to identify the body, Graham accuses him of killing her (he owns an orchard with refrigeration units!) and he promptly blows his brains out. But Graham doesn't seem all that perturbed by the suicide; in fact, his reaction is more akin to being rather frustrated at all the paperwork he's going to have to deal with...

Meanwhile, the Senator's bratty daughter Marcy (Margarita Levieva) suspects that her boyfriend Ben (Christopher Egan) may be involved in the disappearance of Sara Collins (Joanne Kelly) and therefore drives around Atlanta in a daze, refusing to go see her father, and even sleeping in her car (why exactly, we're not sure, when she has plenty of money to check into a hotel), before stopping off for a lemonade when she thinks that she's being followed by secret service... or FBI... or someone else. And--quelle surprise!--we're treated to that old familiar scene where someone gets into their car only to discover (shock, horror!) that there's someone else in there! Someone who takes that large bag of cash Marcy left sitting on the passenger seat (she's never heard of a trunk?), but not the bloody shirt that she so desperately hopes doesn't contain the blood of her missing step-mother. The goon issues an appropriately cryptic remark before departing, leaving Marcy shaken but not so scared that she, you know, locks the car doors or anything.

The willing suspension of disbelief is one thing but trying to suspend a belly-aching paroxysm of laughter? Not so easy. Vanished gives us a number of so cheesy it's fondue-like flashbacks that portray new cast member Josh Hopkins meeting Sara Collins for the first time back in 1994. They meet cute when she randomly steals his lunch on a dock and consumes half his sandwich in a flirtatious manner intended to make us forget why exactly this woman is wandering around the docks stealing hard-working fishermen's lunches. But Mr. Sensitive Fisherman doesn't seem to care about the innate criminality of her actions and instead wants to see her again. This being 1994, everyone is dressed in grunge and listening to the Spin Doctor's "Two Princes" (seriously!) as Mr. Sensitive Fisherman explains how when he owns his own boat someday, it will be a thing of beauty. But that's before the woman who will one day become Sara Collins vanishes the first time. While one hopes that these flashbacks are just intended to establish the connection between Sara and Josh Hopkin's character, they are so laughably bad that they instead became the televisionary equivalent of a pocketful of kryptonite.

Sorry, guys, but this is one show that just Vanished right off of my TiVo's Season Pass list.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Rock Star: Supernova (CBS); Most Outrageous Moments/Most Outrageous Moments (NBC); Blue Collar TV/Blue Collar TV (WB); George Lopez/George Lopez (ABC); Bones (FOX); Everybody Hates Chris/All of Us (UPN)

9 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); Scrubs/Scrubs (NBC); One Tree Hill (WB); 20/20 (ABC; 9-11 pm); Justice (FOX); Girlfriends/Half and Half (UPN)

10 pm: CSI: New York (CBS); Law & Order (NBC); Primetime (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

10 pm: Project Runway on Bravo.

I'm still shocked over Vincent's win last week, I am still excited about another new episode of my new reality fix, Project Runway. On tonight's episode, another "shocking" surprise for the designers as they are tasked to design something for a trendy jetsetter (Delta flight attendant uniforms?) while Jeffrey and Angela finally have that showdown that Runway's editors trick us into believing is going to happen each week.