Sinking fast

Glug . . . glug . . . glug . . .

That's the sound of Fringe rapidly sinking on my must-see list. I tolerated the ridiculousness and over-exposition in the pilot, thinking it'd pick up steam. Last night's episode didn't give me much hope for that. If anything, it was even more ridiculous than the pilot. FBI agent Olivia isn't particularly compelling now that she's not trying to save her partner/secret boyfriend. Josh Jackson's character just bugs me and looks chronically constipated. And is his father an evil genius behind all sorts of horrible experiments or comic relief?

In a nutshell, Fringe doesn't know what it is. It has the intriguing, all-encompassing conspiracy and good horror-of-the-week storylines, but then it switches gears and moves from dark and moody to a by-the-books procedural with attempts at goofiness. If I wanted Bones, I'd watch Bones. But I don't. I want Fringe to take itself seriously and not dumb itself down, which is exactly what's happening. X-Files delved into the ridiculous, but handled the situation so seriously that viewers really did believe. When Fringe tries to take that same leap of faith, it flops because it's delivered by a mad scientist in a pseudo-comic manner. You just don't believe.

I'll give Fringe one more chance and hope for the best, but with Heroes coming back next week, I might drop the new show in favor of an old favorite.
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The week in review

The TV season isn't in full swing yet, so there are still gaping holes in my viewing habits. That being said, here's a list of not so much my favorite shows from the past week, but the shows I watched. Ranked in order of awesomeness.

1. The Shield: This is the highlight of any week it's on. God, this show is good. The tension just keeps winding up, and you know it's going to explode before the season's over. Vic playing two organized crime syndicates off each other while double-crossing both of them? Vic and Shane working together to make things "right"? Vic trying to keep his career as Claudette has him in her sights? And while his own daughter almost blows everything up by trying to press charges against him? Tick tick tick tick.......this is not going to end well for anyone. Oh, and how scary were the Spook Street boys? And they're NOT one of the Top 10 gangs? Yikes.

2. Fringe: OK, the acting wasn't great, some plot points were absurd and there was a ton of awkward exposition. But the mystery was outstanding and I love conspiracy theories. The Cate Blanchett lookalike they got to star in the show is no Dana Scully, but that's probably a good thing -- there are already too many X-Files similarities. But I generally liked her character. Pacey -- err, I mean Joshua Jackson's character -- was a little young to be quite so patronizing, but once he dropped that act he was tolerable. And you've gotta love any show with Lance Reddick (Daniels from The Wire). He's just as ominous here as he was in his guest role on Lost last season. The giants locator subtitles were kinda cool (and were reminiscent of the Lost title, hmmm), but that's a trick that might get old. But overall, good production values, nice complex mystery that'll take forever to solve, and good bits of humor to break the tension. And I love how it was shot in Boston in winter. Like X-Files when it was shot in Vancouver, the location adds all kinds of moody undercurrents.

3. Entourage: The boys are back. Are they better than ever? That remains to be seen. But after a year-plus layoff, it's good to have them back. The opening scenes made me want to go to Mexico ("Wow, it's gorgeous, I never knew the coast of Baja was like that!"), until I realized they shot it in Hawaii ("Oh. Nevermind"). Vince is broke and a Hollywood pariah after his awful Medellin (reviewed in a hilarious guest appearance by Richard Roeper), which went straight to video (ouch). Hopefully he'll bounce back quickly because this show is at its best when Vince & Co. are living the high life. Broke Vince doesn't do much for me. But that bizarre bit with Drama and his new French girlfriend chirping at each other cracked me up.

4. Gossip Girl: Last week I said I wasn't hooked on it. OK, maybe I'm a little hooked. It's soapy and trashy, but not brainless. Which gives it one up on The Hills. This is quickly becoming my guilty pleasure show. The dialogue is snappy, the plot twists are delicious (Nate becoming a man-ho? Nice!), and it's self-aware enough that you know it's never going to have "a very special episode."

5. Sons of Anarchy: It seems to exist in the same universe as The Shield (One-Niners, corrupt cops everywhere), but not in the real world. It just throws me how it's set in San Joaquin County, but in a San Joaquin County with mountains, where Lodi is the major city, where heroin is bigger than meth, and where it's not oppressively hot. That bit of fantasy aside, I'm liking this show. I'm glad Charlie Hunnam (the Brit from Undeclared) finally has a good show, Katy Sagal is building an Emmy-worthy role as the resident Ophelia/Lady MacBeth, and I love how the gang is made up of a who's-who of character actors who look like serial killers (especially Kim Coates and Tommy Flanagan). I'm not completely hooked yet, and I hope it gets more compelling, because if not, it's in danger of dropping to my wait-for-DVD list once more shows start up.

6. Burn Notice: I haven't watched this week's episode yet, but it came back after a three-week, U.S. Open-induced break. This is one of my favorite shows and it has a secure spot on my weekly best list, even sight unseen.

7. The Hills. I don't know if I saw the most recent episode of last week's. Either way, it just annoyed me. I'm so over this show. The gang jetted to Vegas for Frankie's birthday. Drama ensued, yadda yadda yadda. It's sad watching this knowing that these are real people. They're all just so vapid and shallow. I can get all the same trashiness with Gossip Girl, plus not feel dirty for watching real people humiliate themselves.

What I didn't watch:

True Blood. Ehhh, it just doesn't sound up my alley. Maybe I'll check it out On Demand if I'm bored someday. Buffy gave me all the vampire storylines I'll ever need.

90210. Seriously? I didn't even make it through the pilot. It's baaaaad.

Mad Men. I know, I know, it's the best show I'm not watching. I've seen it, I've liked it, but it's just not compelling enough to get me to watch every week. It's in my DVD pile.
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Shows, exciting and new . . .

New shows I'm looking forward to:

1. Sons of Anarchy -- From the creators of The Shield comes this drama about a gang of outlaw bikers out to protect their California town from drug dealers and developers. Civic-minded gang guys? Um, OK. But the trailer looks intriguing, and Dutch from The Shield will have a recurring role as a DEA agent. And all those Shield ties give it instant cred.


2. Life on Mars -- ABC might screw this one up completely, but the original BBC series was, well, original, and compelling. In a nutshell, a present-day cop gets hit by a car and wakes up stuck in the '70s. Did he travel through time? Is he in a coma imagining it all? Is he just crazy? The big problem I think ABC might face is longevity -- you can only tease the audience so long with the reality vs. imaginary question. It lasted two seasons in the UK. That's about one full U.S. season. I'm skeptical they'll pull it off, but it'll be worth checking out. This is one show that I think will fall one of two ways -- either it'll be the best new show of the season, or it'll be a trainwreck of Bionic Woman-like proportions.


3. Fringe -- Rumor has it the pilot needs work, but the trailer for the JJ Abrams show that looks like a cross between X-Files and Altered States is dark and interesting. Maybe a little too out there to catch a big audience though, and with what's bound to be a tangled series mythology, this is a good candidate for quick cancellation if it doesn't draw viewers right off the bat.

4. Dollhouse -- Joss Whedon is back on network TV, and he's bringing along former slayer Eliza Dushku to star in it. I don't care what the show is about (though it sounds weird and creepy and dark, if disturbingly like a hybrid between Dark Angel and AI), he built up enough viewability equity from Buffy the Vampire Slayer that I'll check it out. This'll be a midseason replacement on Fox.

5. Kath & Kim -- Remake of an Australian sitcom about a dysfunctional mother and daughter, and supposedly it killed at the network upfronts last month. I might check it out, but it sounds a bit too sitcomey for my liking.

6. Worst Week of My Life -- Another remake, this time of a British sitcom. It too is getting a lot of buzz. The series follows the misadventures of a guy in the week leading up to his wedding. So what happens after that? Will it be like 24 and he'll keep having horrible weeks as the series progresses over the years? I'll check it out, but I'm already dubious about its staying power.

7. True Blood -- Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) is back on HBO, this time with a romantic drama based around Southern vampires and the women who love them. Or at least a woman who loves one of them. Anna Paquin (X-Men) plays the psychic waitress with questionable taste in men. The previews look slightly ridiculous, but it's got a cast (including Alexander Skarsgard of Generation Kill and William Sanderson of Deadwood) that could make it interesting.
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