Get Ready to Set Your DVRs

The new fall season is almost upon us. My most-anticipated return to the airwaves? Why Fox's "Fringe," of course.

In the 90's there was "The X-Files" (and a fine program it was - I had standing appointment with several friends each Sunday night). It was terrific episodic TV with plenty of stand-alone episodes to almost qualify as an anthology show with recurring characters. It was also probably the first regular TV series to exploit the Internet and create such an exceptionally elaborate and arcane mythology.

Now, wunderkind J.J. Abrams ("Lost;" Star Trek), has reinvented the formula with enough lunatic logic to take it to another level. As with "X-Files," a specialized FBI division is sent to investigate weird and extraordinary events, all tied to something referred to enigmatically as The Pattern. What makes "Fringe" so good is not just the writing, but the exceptionally talented ensemble cast led by the astonishing John Noble having the time of his life playing literally mad scientist Dr. Walter Bishop. Anna Torv; Joshua Jackson; Lance Reddick; Blair Brown and simply adorable Jasika Nicole round out the ensemble. No less than Leonard Nimoy has a recurring role as the mysterious Dr. William Bell.

The first season ended with the revelation that SPOILER ALERT there is not only a parallel Universe, but that Walter's son Peter (Jackson) is not the Peter from this Universe.

I cannot wait to see what Abrams and company have in store for Season 2. Here's the teaser:

On a side note - I don't understand why a network that has some of the most creative, talented and left-leaning people in the business working in their Entertainment Division, also has the most lop-sided, right-wing crackpot news in the history of television. Can anyone explain this?

OK - In other TV news...

Since I already awarded a Man of the Week (which henceforth shall be known as Person of the Week) to Brad, David Letterman comes in as a close-second. Via Towleroad comes this clip from a recent interview with Donald Trump:

Love ya, Dave!

More, anon

Prospero

DVD Review: "The X-Files: I Want to Believe"

I'll admit it - I was an "X-Phile." I never missed a Sunday night episode with my friends and fellow fans. As frustrating and enigmatic as the series was, we faithfully gathered on Sunday evenings for our weekly dose of Scully and Mulder and whatever madness they happened to be caught up in that week. The first "X-Files" movie, Fight the Future was highly anticipated, and while it did much to advance the show's complicated alien/government conspiracy plot, it served mostly as a primer for the non-initiated. It was also loaded with action and intrigue, as was the series.

Now, six years after the show went off the air, Mulder and Scully return in I Want to Believe (a phrase not unknown to fans) to help a new pair of FBI agents in their investigation into the apparent abduction of another agent in the middle of the night. Aided by a psychic (and pedophillic) ex-priest, they must race against time to find the missing agent before she is killed. Along the way, they discover a plethora of body parts, all sharing the same rare blood type and all bearing traces of animal tranquilizers.

Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is now working at a Catholic hospital, seemingly obsessed with helping a boy who has an "incurable" disease. When Special Agent Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) and her partner, Agent Mosley Drummy (rapper Xzbit) approach Scully in an effort to find former agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovney), Scully contacts him and encourages him to end his isolation and help find the missing agent (is it me, or does Chris Carter have a penchant for creating some of the most unlikely character names ever?). The priest, played by Billy Connolly (Fido) leads the FBI to a severed arm buried in the snow, and then to a whole collection of body parts in the West Virginia ice (with the plains of Vancouver standing in for a wintery WV). Despite recruiting Mulder to help with the investigation, Scully is hardly willing to once again "look into the darkness" and resists Mulder's attempts at teaming up for one more investigation. "This isn't my life, anymore," she repeatedly tells him.

The end result is more like one of the series' sillier episodes, involving Russian body part transplantation experiments, than the great alien conspiracy that series creator Chris Carter employed to great effect on TV. None of the shows' other great characters (Cigarette Smoking Man; Deep Throat; The Well-Manicured Man) makes an appearance and Mulder and Scully's boss Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) appears only briefly at the end. Ultimately a let-down for the series' fans, I Want to Believe isn't a bad movie; it just isn't a very good one. And certainly not worthy of what the fans have so long waited for. ** (Two Stars)

I Want to Believe?

I Want to Believe is the subtitle for the new X-Files movie. Somehow, I just can't get excited about it. I am a huge fan of the series. For a while, it was a Sunday night ritual to gather with friends on a Sunday night and watch The Simpsons, whatever happened to follow them that particular season, and The X-Files. We were alternately thrilled and frustrated by the show, which often had original and startling stories, but more often featured an intricate and unfathomable conspiracy plot (to this day, I still haven't figured the whole thing out).

Ten years ago, the first movie (X-Files; Fight the Future) came out amid much hoopla. My friends and I were slightly disappointed to find it little more than a primer for novices, though it did much to advance the conspiracy plot and further established the sexual tension between Agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson). And to be honest, the theater we saw it in (which no longer exists) had AC problems that night, so we were less than comfortable while watching.

Now, six years after the series finale, creator Chris Carter has finally made a new film. One that promises to be more like one of the series' stand-alone episodes which didn't rely on the alien conspiracy plot line. But I keep thinking, "So?"

My friends and I have moved on. Personally, I'm hoping for a Torchwood movie. For those unfamiliar, Torchwood is an exceptionally well-written BBC Sci-Fi series starring the adorably cute (and openly gay) John Barrowman, itself a spin-off of Russell Davies' reignited Dr. Who series. It features smart writing, terrific acting and some of the funniest one-liners in Sci-Fi history. (Ex: "Have you ever eaten alien meat?" "Yes." "How was it?" "He seemed to enjoy it.")

Nineteen years passed between Indiana Jones movies, and while the new one is fun, it doesn't have the same zing as the first three. And director Christopher Nolan had to completely re-invent Batman for his two blockbusters, eight years after Joel Schumaker ruined the franchise.

So, will "X-Philes" flock to see the new movie? Somehow, I doubt it. I'll probably go, but only because I got an AMC gift card from my sister for my birthday, and won't have to actually pay to see it. I'm not exactly chomping at the bit, and if I don't see it on a big-screen, I can certainly wait until it's on DVD. maybe I'll just save my gift card for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and Midnight Meat Train (the latest adaptation of a Clive Barker short story). Needless to say, if I do see it, I'll be reviewing it here. But don't hold your breath.