By Stacey Harrison

© 2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Credit: Liane Hentscher/FOX

You can always tell when you’re in for a mythology episode or a standalone episode by the “previously on Fringe” segments. If you see a scene from the pilot, setting up the premise of the show, then Pattern junkies are probably OK to skip the next hour. If you’re seeing Leonard Nimoy, and severed heads being reattached to bodies, then you might want to pay close attention.

The guy whose head they stole from a cryogenic factory and reattached to his body — the supposed leader of some other-dimensional group — is up and running. He’s heading up a break-in at a mental hospital where he’s either retrieving something vital to his sinister purposes from the brain of a wide-awake patient or reenacting a scene from Hannibal. You know the one. Olivia and the Bishop boys come in to investigate (an orderly was also shot and killed during the escape), and they learn that Slater has been cooped up for 14 years and been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. Which always begs the question: Are there any other kind of schizophrenics? [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009, Sci-Fi & Fantasy by sharrison76
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Tags: Anna Torv, Blight, FOX, Fringe, Grey Matters, Jeannot Szwarc, John Noble, Joshua Jackson, Leonard Nimoy, Massive Dynamic, Recap, Stacey Harrison

By Stacey Harrison

©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Credit: Michael Courtney/FOX

First off, coolest episode name ever. Just had to say that.

We start off in Boston (which looks nothing like Vancouver, no sir, not one bit) where a man is frantically wandering the streets of Chinatown. He makes it to see a man and they start to discuss strange, oblique subjects like “the others” and taking something and “they’re all dead.” Then the frantic man lays down and proceeds to have a parasite bulge through his body, working its way out his mouth with its gaggle of tentacles showing. Ewwww. The man he came to see is not scared or surprised. He was expecting it. And more.

There are others with this affliction, but they didn’t make it as far. A cargo ship from China runs aground elsewhere in Boston and several corpses are on the shore in various stages of parasitic expulsion. Walter says it is similar to a creature found in livestock, but of course they’re not that big, or usually in humans. There is one survivor, however, a woman who it turns out is carrying no parasite. Like all of them, she came to find work and a better life. She says that everyone on board who was given a medicine for seasickness ended up with the squid. She was experienced at sea, so she didn’t take it. Olivia and Peter also learn that there’s another boat on the way, most likely packing the big uglies. [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009, Sci-Fi & Fantasy by sharrison76
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Tags: Anna Torv, FOX, Fringe, John Noble, Joshua Jackson, Leonard Nimoy, Recap, Stacey Harrison, William Bell

By Stacey Harrison

Credit: Prashant Gupta/FX

The title of the season finale is an Irish term for “the troubles,” referring to the longstanding ethno-political conflicts that plagued the two Irelands and England through much of the latter half of the 20th century. In other words, brace yourself.

This Chinese box of a wrap-up may have one too many coincidences and contrivances, but I’ll be damned if you’re not too busy picking your jaw up off the floor to get too upset. There is no cheating here — blood is frequently, shockingly, spilled — and it all ends with one of the more shocking cliffhangers I can remember.

The surprises come fast and furious, starting off with the truth about Zobelle. He and his daughter, Polly, are cut loose from prison quicker than a celebutante. When Unser confronts Stahl about it, and lets her know about Gemma’s rape, Stahl calculates her options and tells Unser that Zobelle is an FBI informant, giving them leads to catch corrupt politicians and well-connected Aryans. So he’s untouchable … at least till the Mayans and Aryans find out. In the meantime, Alvarez and his crew are guarding their investment and protecting Zobelle from SAMCRO. Unser lets Clay know immediately about Zobelle being a rat, and the word is quickly put out to Otto in prison, where it eventually will reach the Aryans’ ears. [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009 by sharrison76
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Tags: Adam Arkin, Charlie Hunnam, FX, Henry Rollins, Katey Sagal, Maggie Siff, Na Triobloidi, Recap, Ron Perlman, SAMCRO, Sons of Anarchy, Stacey Harrison

Credit: Prashant Gupta / FX

By Stacey Harrison

The penultimate episode this season is one long call to battle, with the opening musical montage consisting of the West Coast chapters of SAMCRO coming together to assemble a task force to fight Zobelle and The League, while the old ladies — yes, Tara included — stand by their men to the plaintive swoon of “Someday Never Comes.”

It’s all headed toward an epic throwdown between the Sons and Weston’s faction of The League, all orchestrated by a united Jax and Clay fully in control of their dispute with the neo-Nazis for the first time. They tell Weston about Zobelle’s buddying up with the Mayans to run the heroin trade, in order to get the right-hand man to turn on his leader. They then turn Family Services onto Weston’s kids, resulting in having them hauled away in front of him. That’s when they confront Weston, let him know that they’re aware of his role in Gemma’s rape, and Jax challenges him to a fight, his best 10 against their best 10. No weapons. They also get the better of Stahl yet again, thwarting her latest attempt to catch them with a bunch of guns, instead making Cameron’s decision to cooperate and go against Jimmy O look like a fatal mistake. They’re also able to get the Chinese and the Niners to enter into an agreement that restores order and brings SAMCRO a lot more protection. All in all, some pretty fancy maneuvering. [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009 by sharrison76
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Tags: Adam Arkin, Charlie Hunnam, FX, Henry Rollins, Katey Sagal, Maggie Siff, Recap, Ron Perlman, SAMCRO, Sarah Jones, Sons of Anarchy, Stacey Harrison, The Culling

© 2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Credit: Michael Courtney/FOX

By Stacey Harrison

If you’re any fan at all of Fringe —and if you’re reading this, I’ll assume you are — you’ve heard that The Observers take center stage this week, and that we’ll find out a whole lot more about them. No one-off episode here. This one will take a permanent place in the show’s canon. So, is it any good?

It has its trouble spots, but overall a strong show, dropping plenty of tasty tidbits and making sure we’ll never view The Observers the same again.

The cold opening, which has been available for sneak preview all week, does a great job locking into the story, showing a heretofore unseen Observer kidnapping a young coed, and doing some really cool stuff in the process. You don’t notice it until later when they’re breaking down the surveillance video, but the new Observer can catch a bullet with his hand and fire a really cool — most assuredly otherworldly — handgun that can make pesky interlopers fly several feet in the air. [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009, Sci-Fi & Fantasy by sharrison76
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Tags: Anna Torv, August, FOX, Fringe, John Noble, Joshua Jackson, Lance Reddick, Leonard Nimoy, Massive Dynamic, Recap, Stacey Harrison, The Observer

By Stacey Harrison

© 2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. Credit: Michael Courtney/FOX

Are the Observers human? As far as I can tell, it’s never been definitively determined on the show, but in a conference call this week, a couple of Fringe producers may have let slip that the bald, Mad Men-styled characters who pop up during important events in several episodes are in fact of another species.

Tonight’s episode, “August,” delves deeper into the mysteries of these characters, who so far have not participated directly in any of the strange goings-on that seem to be building toward a war between our dimension and another. That all changes when one of these Observers, named August, kidnaps a girl. Does he mean her harm, or is he trying to save her?

Executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman shared some background about how they came up with the look of the Observers, and where the rest of the season is headed. [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009, Sci-Fi & Fantasy by sharrison76
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Tags: Anna Torv, August, Fringe, J.H. Wyman, Jeff Pinkner, John Noble, Joshua Jackson, Observer, Stacey Harrison

By Stacey Harrison

Credit: Prashant Gupta / FX

You always knew Opie would find out. But what would he do about it? Would he do what most of us believe we would do, and quit the group that sanctioned and carried out his wife’s murder? As each character in this show can attest, the ties to SAMCRO run deep, and not even Donna’s death can come between Opie and his gang.

Maybe it has something to do with how he found out. Having Tig break down out of guilt — which was compounded by a near-miss sexual encounter with Gemma that really came out of left field — and spill his guts probably put Opie in a better frame of mind to put the blame on Stahl. His decision to stalk her, put a gun to her head but not actually kill her sums up his character nicely — along with his stopping short of killing the judge’s son a few episodes back. Opie looks mean, and is willing to get his hands dirty, but he just ain’t a killer. As he puts it, “The outlaw had mercy.” [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009 by sharrison76
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Tags: Adam Arkin, Charlie Hunnam, Ethan Zobelle, FX, Henry Rollins, Katey Sagal, Kim Coates, Recap, Ron Perlman, Ryan Hurst, SAMCRO, Service, Sons of Anarchy, Stacey Harrison

Credit: Liane Hentscher/FOX

By Stacey Harrison

Fringe is known for its twists and turns, but one I didn’t see coming was the premiere of a new episode last Thursday. Perhaps I was fooled by all those FOX ads claiming that the show would be back with new episodes Nov. 12. But thanks to the Yankees taking care of business in the World Series a game early (yawn), the network decided to get back in the Pattern (see what I did there?) a week early.

Long story short, I missed a week, and haven’t bothered to Hulu it yet. From what I hear, it was pretty much a stand-alone episode that didn’t add much to the mythology. And the opening “previously on Fringe” bump didn’t seem to reference it, so what the hey. [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009, Sci-Fi & Fantasy by sharrison76
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Tags: Anna Torv, FOX, Fringe, John Noble, Joshua Jackson, Of Human Action, Recap, Stacey Harrison

By Stacey Harrison

Credit: Prashant Gupta / FX

A few recaps ago, I lamented that Sons of Anarchy seemed to be resorting too often to that tired cliché of action movies, wherein a character gets shot or maimed but never killed. This allows the story to mine some cheap dramatic tension without really delivering on any sense of danger. So when Chibs narrowly escaped a van explosion, only to slowly recover in the hospital, I wondered why they didn’t just off him. Really, Chibs hasn’t been much of a factor to this point, so couldn’t we have done away with him and raised the stakes a bit?

Consider me chastened. The writers had big plans for our former IRA friend, and his arc this episode (and the next), instantly rank up there with the most suspenseful and heartfelt of the series. Watching him sit down with the infamous Jimmy O, the IRA kingpin who banished him from the Emerald Isle and, for good measure, took his wife and kid, was bone-chilling and infuriating. Jimmy wants a sit-down with Clay to repair the relationship between their organizations, but doesn’t deign to set it up himself. Instead, he strong-arms Chibs into doing it, saying that Fiona is starting to lose her looks, and that the daughter, Carrie Anne, is starting to look appetizing. That’s enough to send Chibs to Agent Stahl, taking her up on her offer of flipping evidence on Jimmy O in exchange for protection for his family. [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009 by sharrison76
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Tags: Charlie Hunnam, Chibs, FX, Hallucinogenic mushrooms, IRA, Katey Sagal, Recap, Ron Perlman, Sons of Anarchy, Stacey Harrison

Dex and Harry, his real dark passenger

By Elaine Bergstrom

I’m blogging from Cleveland this week where the front news coverage is all about Anthony Sowell, dubbed “The Cleveland Strangler.” Seeing his victims smiling in old photos on the front page of the Plain Dealer and watching the local news cams hovering over the police and the search dogs hunting for more bodies or the prayer vigils being held almost nightly in the community in which Sowell found his victims, my thoughts move to the Ice Truck Killer, to Trinity and to the Bay Harbor Butcher, Dex himself. [Read more →]

Categories: Drama, Fall Preview 2009, Horror by Elaine
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Tags: Dexter, Elaine Bergstrom, Showtime, Trinity