Supernatural: Time to Die?

“I kinda feel good Dean” Says Sam at the end of the last episode of Supernatural and thank god. It's felt like for the past two or three seasons every other episode involved Sam and Dean in some kind of emotional talk, tears in their eyes, Sam furrowing his brows because he's conflicted at whatever the hell was going on and Dean talking about his daddy issues again over a glass of scotch. Perhaps this means we can get another few episodes into the season before one of these pops up again but with 23 episodes a bloody season lets not hold our breath.

I don't know how I started watching this show again. After season five I remember thinking enough was enough. The story lines had become too grandiose. Gone were the interesting and unique monsters, in were demons disguised as humans. They also seemed to have replaced the light-hearted fun moments of Sam and Dean on the road to Sam and Dean are on their periods having a good cry about their crappy lives, again. Plus, I have lost count of the amount of times the two brothers have died or made some kind of sacrifice. It seems the two have a competition to see which one can be more self sacrificing and, to be blunt, it gets pretty disgusting. Because half of the situations they end up in can be solved without one of them dying, but they have to act all noble and crap to prove...I don't know, that they're willing to die again? They've both even been to Hell once and suffered countless tortures at the hands of demons, Sam himself being tortured by Lucifer and Michael in 'The Cage' (the badass way of saying Hell).

Somehow, season six pulled me back in. The storyline certainly was an improvement but sadly, it can't hold up to the more grounded stories of the first two seasons. Essentially, they are Hunters, people that drive around and dispatch of all kind of nasties like ghosts, werewolves, shapeshifters and anything else that goes bump in the night. So it can be a problem in the later seasons when they're dealing with things they can't possibly kill. It's a shame since in the earlier episodes they would turn to their Dad's trustful journal, read up on what they were hunting and go and kill it. It was suspenseful because we, the audience, knew that they were doing a dangerous job and they could easily die. It was kill or be killed. Now the big monsters are things Sam and Dean have no hope of even hurting, never mind hunting down and killing. So we spend a lot of the time watching the brothers dick around and cry because their life is so hard, while red-neck Bobby gives them more beer and says something red-neck.

Since each season is over 20 episodes, this means a lot of filler episodes that are boring and don't add to the over-arcing story. Plus, as mentioned, the creature design has dropped to an almost shameful level where even the most basic of demons seem to be disguised as humans. It would appear the staff have given up on creative creature design and thrown all the budget at getting 80's rock ballads put into the show. Yes we know, Sam and Dean are deep characters that are multi-layered. They're tortured, tragic, brave and so forth. Can I not just see a demon with some horns? Christ, even Buffy managed to keep the demons in there all through it's seven seasons.

Whether this will be Supernatural's last season, I don't know. In American the show is on a Friday slot, the place where TV shows go to die. Perhaps that would be best as one more season wouldn't do this show any favours.

Fringe Season One

Do you enjoy TV shows like The X Files or The Twilight Zone? If so, then you should probably watch Fringe. Fringe follows an FBI agent, a mad scientist and his son as they investigate strange phenomena that dwell on the fringe of science. Throughout the series, you’ll see the likes of telepathy, spontaneous human combustion, telekinesis and other assortments of the weird and wonderful. Even though everything is given a scientific explanation, it is still science fiction with the explanations being just as out of this world and ridiculous as any supernatural phenomenon.

When you first watch Fringe you would be forgiven for wanting to pick up that remote and turn it off immediately. You will see Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), the blonde and always pouting FBI agent. Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) a character quite poorly written early on in the series, with the writers not quite sure as to whether to make Peter a roughish badass or the sensitive hero of the piece, who is quick to disregard some of the more outlandish science one minute then willing to accept anything that’s thrown at his unshaven, punchable face the next. Plus he’s from the hateful, teenage angst fest of Dawson’s Creek, a show that is so bad even the thought of the theme tune makes me want to vomit. Finally, we have Walter Bishop (John Noble), a character I can’t really say anything bad about because he is simply a joy to watch on screen. If it wasn’t for this character, I would have stopped watching very early on. Am I glad I kept watching though? Absolutely because Fringe evolves into something incredibly enjoyable that is certainly worth your time.

If you have ever watched shows like Supernatural or The X Files, you will have a good idea of what to expect. Every week the team head somewhere to investigate some strange occurrence with some evil mutant or strange disappearance. They work, they solve, tea and medals for all. Some of the episodes can be great, being hosts to some truly weird stuff while some are just horribly boring. The real strength of Fringe are the over arcing stories that weaves threads in and out of the episodes, sometimes adding a little to tease you and sometimes dropping bombshells. This being from J.J. Abrams, you can expect a rather complex story but a very rewarding one as well. Mysterious events known at ‘The Pattern’, a huge conglomerate Massive Dynamics with its shadowy CEO William Bell who is also Walter’s old lab partner, a mysterious bald man in a suit that appears at every ‘pattern’ event know at ‘The Observer’, the mystery of Peter’s childhood and his illness that he has no memory of are just a part of what Fringe will offer. With so much happening, it is easy to think that Fringe would go down the same path as Lost, a show that asked too many questions and didn’t give enough answers which made it frustrating to watch. Thankfully, Fringe doesn’t work like this. Questions get answered and things get resolved making it even more watchable because you can’t wait to get the answers to some of the big questions. Yes, the little questions lead to big questions, the big questions lead to bigger questions and the biggest questions lead to the mind-blowing answer you’ve been waiting for.

If I have any gripes with season one it’s that it starts slow. It can take a few episodes to get into but the writing picks up and you begin to watch characters bond and they start to develop a rapport. This is particularly true to Peter and Walter’s relationship, which starts off rocky (due to Walter being in a mental institution for the last 17 years) but watching them start bonding as Father and Son is lovely to watch, especially since Walter is such a lovable character.

Also, with this being an American show, the series can be just too long, with some episodes being unnecessary. With 20 episodes, each lasting roughly 45 minutes, this is a lot of telly watching and sometimes you wish they would have cut a good 5 or 6 episodes from the series to at least shorten it and remove the duds.

Overall, Fringe grows into something truly spectacular. If you get the end of season one and witness the jaw dropping and incredibly powerful (and controversial) ending, you will be hooked on this TV show.