Progress Report: More Thoughts on Fall 2009

Lie to Me

Every single time I watch this show, I have a happiness freak out. When I wake up on Monday morning and realize, “OMG! LIE TO ME IS ON TONIGHT!” I cry tears of joy. I love this fucking show. I love Dr. Cal Lightman. I love Dr. Gillian Foster. I love Torres and Loker and Emily and I really, really love that Mekhi Phifer’s character turned into a series regular. I love the stories and how each one explores the fact that everyone lies in a different way. I love the hilarious pictures of famous people they use to compare microexpressions. And because I could continue to list reasons why this show is amazing and how it lights up my life, I must say, Fox, leave it alone. Give it an order for a full 22 episodes (it’s only up to 16 right now) and renew it when the time comes in May. Tim Roth is a god. You know that, I know that. Let’s be real. Lie to Me should be here to stay (please note that I could bring up Dollhouse at this juncture, but I won’t because I trust you).

Flash Forward

Originally, I was pretty hard on Flash Forward, but with good reason: I wasn’t impressed. Immediately after giving the show a below stellar rating of C and using caps lock to exclaim that the series need to “pick up the pace,” things got good. At least for awhile. I was getting tired of them explaining the blackout and the main characters’ flash forwards and Project Mosaic over and over again—a safety net for picking up a larger viewing audience mid-season, but not so great for people that were kind enough to watch since the beginning. And honestly, when I was feeling at my lowest “I’ve got to drop this show now” point, Flash Forward pulled through. There were big breaks in the investigation, simultaneous shoot-outs, characters discovering things the audience already knew finally and, unfortunately, a drastic move that eliminated my favorite actor on the show (SPOILER ALERT: Lee Thompson Young’s Al threw himself off a building in an effort to stop his flash forward from coming true—FUCK!). I was laughing, crying, being thrown into adrenaline rushes. It was really great for a few weeks there. But last week, things started to slow down again and the plot is circling back to boring, played out storylines again (Dear Dr. Banford, How about just don’t sleep with that kid’s dad? Eh? STOP WHINING!). I’m not as eager to give the show up as I was at the start of the season, but I am still not pressed to watch the show. I will say that I’m more hopeful now, but if ABC ends up canceling anymore legitimately good shows (RIP, Eastwick) I will definitely start complaining.

Fringe

As far as this season in particular is concerned, I think things are going really well. Am I upset about Kirk Acevedo? Of course. But the show must go on. I’m a little nervous they are going to try and throw another female lead in there and that usually ends up going horribly (I have a long list of examples), so I hope they just give Astrid more screen time and leave the team as-is. I know other people are having problems though. I read an article that outlined the writer’s opinion of something like the “Top 5 Things Fringe Should Fix,” and one of them was to stop killing off antagonists so quickly and another was tie up loose ends from season one. I disagree with both of those. First, the overarching antagonist is still an unknown, so no matter what short term baddies come along and get wiped out there is still that Big Unknown Bad lurking out there. Second, I feel like people who say the show needs to give answers about things that came up in season one haven’t watched a J.J. Abrams series before. He is notorious for multi-season, super long story arcs. Finally, I have similar things to say about Fringe as what I wrote above for Lie to Me. I love this show to the core. Not just because it’s a J.J. Abrams project. Not just because I am a sci-fi nerd. Not just because this show has the chance to be everything The X-Files almost was. I love this show for so many reasons—the phenomenal cast, the amazing mythology, the combination of absurdist humor and suspenseful action. It’s glorious. It’s good TV! I couldn’t ask for more. I know it doesn’t get American Idol-size ratings, but if Fox cancels Fringe and I never get to find out the truth behind The Pattern and all of the other shit that J.J.’s got goin’ on here, I will be so outraged I might actually develop mutant powers and go on a rampage destroying things—things that might be precious to Fox (oh, say, Ryan Seacrest’s makeup trailer!). There is still so much more of the story to tell and all of these stories about Fringe being in danger and what not—they eat me alive. But Fox is launching a brand new marketing campaign for Fringe, so that tells me that they still believe in the show and are willing to throw more money at it. I just hope it pays off. It’s difficult because you really have to follow Fringe from the beginning for it to mean anything, but I hope viewers who are comfortable with watching shows at random start tuning in. That would be nice.

Law & Order

Basically, I just needed to talk about Law & Order to say one thing: this is the single greatest original Law & Order line-up since season 4 (Briscoe/Logan/Van Buren and Stone/Kincaid/Schiff). I’m almost tempted to say it’s better because of McCoy (if only Stone and McCoy had overlapped at some point) and because of how wonderful Anthony Anderson and Jeremy Sisto are together. And Linus Roache. Oh, hell, it’s equally great to the Briscoe/Logan days! The acting is on fire, the personal background stories mixing with the cases and the legal tactics they are showcasing—it’s all so perfect. No one annoys me (sorry every lady ever since Jill Hennessy—Alana de Garza all the way!). And the real determining factor: I get chills again. I know NBC wants to beat Gunsmoke, but I also hope that in addition to wanting a title that they renew Law & Order for 2010-2011 because it has found a new stride and a renewed interest in telling the stories behind the law. The original is the best!

Mad Men

I won’t lie. I highlighted, starred and smiley-faced the Mad Men finale on my calendar. I am safe until next summer! I don’t even know what to say. I’m just glad it’s over. I started thinking after I wrote that “Why I Hate Mad Men” piece, and I realized that if the show was less Don and more Pete and Trudy Campbell (I LOVE the Campbells! I could, of course, also deal with MORE JOAN!), it would probably be one of my favorite shows on television. I think I just really hate Don Draper. Sure, all of those other problems I wrote about the show itself—spread too thin, inconsistent storylines, etc.—still exist and still bother the fuck out of me. But I think the real problem is how gross Don is now. He’s disgusting. He isn’t just some adulterating womanizer with a dark past. He’s not just tortured; he’s fucked in the head. And since the show decided to become 99% Draper at the end of the second season, there was nothing left to love. Each one of the great characters (not great as people, but great to watch) became reduced to a one-liner here or an argument with Don there. It wasn’t worth my time, and yet I must watch anyway. So, I guess what I am trying to say is that I have revised my thesis from “I hate Mad Men” to “I hate Don Draper.” Lots of big changes took place in the season finale, setting up for a bright new future in season four. I just hope they pull it off.