J.J. Abram’s “Fringe” on Fox

(Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, Lance Reddick)

Fringe is a new series on Fox I’m sure you all have heard is “the new X Files.” Well, after watching the pilot episode there on Hulu, I’ve come to find out, that statement isn’t all that false. It bears a striking resemblance to The X Files. Maybe not on the outside, but the themes it uses. All throughout this episode you begin to see themes unravel that are in fact, themes used in most of The X Files.

Here are two of the three themes used in Fringe, that are also used in The X Files. You can view the post about The X Files where i analyze these themes, here.

• Government Cover-Ups and Conspiracies
• And the ‘Mad Scientist’ Style/Underground Operations (Not Cover-Ups)

These two solid themes unraveled in only one episode of Fringe. It took an entire series of The X Files for 3 main themes to come clear. Only one episode of Fringe. Oh the possibilities! Looking into it with that perspective opens a lot more potential for this show.

Here is a simple ‘all you need to know’ description.

Fringe is the fourth TV series co-created by J. J. Abrams (Felicity, Alias, Lost) and also his fourth collaboration with co-creators Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Alias, Mission Impossible III, Star Trek). It is produced by Bad Robot in association with Warner Bros. Television. The plot deals with a research scientist named Walter Bishop (who Orci describes as “Frankenstein mixed with Albert Einstein”), his son, and a female FBI agent who brings them back together. The show is described as a cross between The X-Files, Altered States, and The Twilight Zone.^[1][2] Like Abrams’ previous TV shows, it will have an overarching mythology. A two-hour, $10,000,000 pilot was produced,^[3] where Walter is in a mental hospital. Jeff Pinkner will serve as executive producer/showrunner.^[4] The Fringe series premiere aired September 9, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. ET on FOX, CTV and A, and is scheduled for airing on October 6, 2008 at 9:00 p.m. on Sky1 in the UK and September 17, 2008 at 8:30 p.m. on the Nine Network in Australia.^[5] However, as anticipated, a pre-air version of the pilot was screened in its entirety for fans at Comic-Con 2008. -Via Wikipedia.

The show has a lot of potential, and i suggest that everyone give it a chance. You can watch it for free on the Fox website, and you can watch it for free on Hulu as well. If you can’t stay awake until 2am to catch The X Files, be sure to catch this instead!

Alan Ball’s “True Blood” on HBO (Pilot)

(Anna Paquin, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley)

Every Sunday at 9pm EST, True Blood will be airing on HBO. I will be there every Sunday to watch it. It honestly blew me away. I’m going to give some details about the show you will not want to miss! For those of you that haven’t seen it, it will probably be on HBO on Demand tomorrow. (Monday is when they update)

The show True Blood, is about vampires living in modern day society as minorities. They are allowed to live among them because a scientist has developed a synthetic blood they can purchase in stores to survive. There are details about this synthetic blood which i couldn’t quite catch while only seeing one episode.

Vampires within the society the show goes by are within stereotypes as monsters by most people. They do have rights, but going back before Alan Ball’s unique viewing on vampires, they always had a mean streak and were only out to kill. In this show, they can kill. They are fast, and they still have fangs but it seems like most of them like to blend in with society.

“The series follows Sookie Stackhouse, a barmaid living in Louisiana who can read people’s minds, and how her life is turned upside down when the Vampire Bill, walks into her place of employment two years after vampires ‘came out of the coffin’ on national television.”

The creators did an amazing job on keeping me hooked on this show. They sure raised the bar with this new series. The creators aren’t scared to go too far with this. They really used their imagination when bringing vampires into this modern day world.

I knew right from the start of the show that i was going to love it. This series has a perfect mix of hilarious country humor, the mystery and suspense that you need, and the characters that you can relate to. After one episode i found myself relating to some of the characters. It’s going to be an amazing series.

As the show progresses i will have a lot more to say about it, I’m still very excited from enjoying the hell out of it to produce any real words about it just yet. There will be more! Check back soon!

Here is HBO’s full description of the show! How this all happened!

Thanks to a Japanese scientist’s invention of synthetic blood, vampires have progressed from legendary monsters to fellow citizens overnight. And while humans have been safely removed from the menu, many remain apprehensive about these creatures “coming out of the coffin.” Religious leaders and government officials around the world have chosen their sides, but in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps, the jury is still out.

Local waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), however, knows how it feels to be an outcast. “Cursed” with the ability to listen in on people’s thoughts, she’s also open-minded about the integration of vampires — particularly when it comes to Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), a handsome 173-year-old living up the road. But as Sookie is drawn into a series of mysteries surrounding Bill’s arrival in Bon Temps, that tolerance will be put to the test.

A sexy, scary new drama from ‘Six Feet Under’ creator Alan Ball, ‘True Blood’ delves into the meticulously-crafted world of novelist Charlaine Harris. Described by the Emmy®-winning Ball as “popcorn for smart people” and featuring a colorful cast of local misfits, ‘True Blood’ promises an intense ride.

Sundays at 9 on HBO!

“Fast And Furious” – How The Franchise Changed

(Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez)

I noticed that 2 posts in my top posts widget (here and here) are about this new Fast and Furious movie that is coming out. It has inspired me to give my 2 cents now that we know all of the details. The basis of this post is that the franchise is just going downhill, and i really hope they stop now.

The first movie’s title was “The Fast And The Furious.” This movie was purely what it should be. A simple story thrown in to a high octane street racing movie. We only wanted an inside look at the bad ass the tuner cars, and the underground racing scene in some of the most popular cities in the world. This movie introduced that all to us, clearly and simply.

The next movie, “2 Fast 2 Furious”, was the same but with a more in depth look into the characters previous lives. I never liked this as much as the first one because it was no longer a showcase of what was going on in the underground racing scene. It now seemed like an actual movie rather than a profile of fast cars, racing, and woman. To this day i still give this one a thumbs up because it was quite entertaining.

Installment number 3 in the franchise was a clear warning that this movie series is starting to get hammered into the ground. “Tokyo Drift” came out at a time where you could advertise on Myspace and have any handfull of people go see it. Sure it was awesome to get a look into the world of drifting and get a look at a new generation of tuner cars. The characters in this movie were just too different from the ones in the original which made this one stand down. They should have just taken out the “Fast and Furious” name from the title, and called it Tokyo Drift. This film just came out at the right time.

Last but not least, lets get into the unreleased “Fast And Furious.” Based on the direction the franchise is moving, this one is going to be the worst. Based on this plot summary below, it seems as if they have stripped away what dragged us in to see these films in the first place. A clear principal, with a simple storyline, and FAST TUNER CARS. It seems as if they are actually producing a purely action movie now.

Heading back to the streets where it all began, two men rejoin two women to blast muscle, tuner and exotic cars across Los Angeles and floor through the Mexican desert. When a crime brings them back to L.A., fugitive ex-con Dom Toretto reignites his feud with agent Brian O’Connor. But as they are forced to confront a shared enemy, Dom and Brian must give in to an uncertain new trust if they hope to outmaneuver him. And from convoy heists to precision tunnel crawls across international lines, two men will find the best way to get revenge: push the limits of what’s possible behind the wheel.

Sure we are all going to watch this movie because the original cast is coming back. That’s a big one. The more similar the original the movies get, the better they will seem since i have shown you how they have gotten away from the original, and gotten worse simultaneously. Of course I’m going to see this movie, and probably enjoy it, but it will never be like the original!

In a nutshell, the acting has gotten crappy over the years, the scripts are getting worse, now they just need a reason to make a new one. The reason? Vin Diesel.

Me and this movie will be having a love/hate relationship.

Steven Bochco’s ‘Raising The Bar’ on USA

(Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Jane Kaczmarek, J. August Richards)

The newest TNT drama series from award winning producer Steven Bochco is beginning it’s action, and I’ve lived through it to tell you about it, and boy am i happy with it. Raising The Bar will be airing on Mondays, at 10/9 central. So far, the Pilot episode is what I’m going by in this review.

Let me just start off here by saying that the last thing this show lacks, is drama. TNT says they know real drama, and this show is there to prove it. The drama is so strong, it’s suspenseful. The acting is so flawless, you can relate to the majority of the characters. You can really feel what they feel. When they get hit, they get hit hard. There’s no cry baby drama in this series.

It hits where it hurts. Matters of putting an innocent man is jail all because of a half-the-time crooked judge is backing a crooked legal system. The balance of using the standard processes of law to get to the truth, versus knowing what is actually true. In this show, there seems to be only one man that will stand up for what is the truth, and for what is really right.

Raising The Bar teaches you about the very horrors that could go on with such a crooked legal system. Ahead you will find some quotes from the show i hand picked, that i think, define the show entirely in a nutshell.

• “You don’t have to believe the words, you just have to say them.”
• “You would rather win, than find the truth.”

The term ‘Raising The Bar’ i think goes hand in hand with ‘Crossing The Line.’ But yet for the good, not the bad. That is what this show is all about.

The show so far follows a public defender going head to head with a judge who backs a crooked legal system. The system happens to be kept alive by what the system will and will not let leak into the media. The protagonist in this series, seems to be the only one strong enough to make the system bend for the truth, and to do what is right.

In a nutshell, i loved the Pilot episode. I couldn’t get enough of these characters. Very easy to connect with. It only took about half of the episode for me to realize which characters i could connect with and which ones i couldn’t. All of the actors just nail it all the way through the hour. I cannot wait for some more episodes of ‘Raising The Bar.’ It’s going to be a great show, and I’m sure many will love it like i did!

Update – The premiere episode of Raising The Bar broke a Cable TV record!

That beat the previous record set in 2004 by USA Network’s “The 4400” (7.4 million) and also bested the 2005 debut of TNT’s hit drama “The Closer” (7 million).

Lost Episodes – The X Files – ‘X Cops’

Well if you don’t know this already, you can still catch The X Files on the Sci-Fi channel at 4pm EST and again later that night. I walked by my TV today, heard the original X Files theme created by Mark Snow so i took a seat and watched an episode titled ‘X Cops.’ It was very interesting.

This post contains episode spoilers.

The episode followed Mulder and Scully around on an episode of Cops. At first i wasn’t really liking it too much, seeing The X Files without the cinematic directing. It was filmed on a 60i camera just like the show Cops, and they were allowed to look at the camera. They made it well as an episode of Cops. If you were watching Cops and didn’t know who Mulder and Scully were, you would be convinced. That is, until you hear the paranormal case they were on. After all, The X Files isn’t a reality TV show.

Apparently there is some type of force going around because there is a full moon. The first thing they assume, is that its a werewolf. The first couple victims of the force had claw marks on them, so it was obviously a werewolf. The next victim was a lady that claimed she was attacked by a man with knives on his fingers. The sketch artist then drew up a sketch of Freddy Krueger and she identified that as the man that attacked her. This is when the plot thickens in the episode.

When Scully is performing an autopsy on a woman that saw the sketch artist get attacked, she uses a figure of speech for exaggeration about a disease. The lady assisting Scully with the autopsy then thinks to herself that the said disease would be the worst way to die. And then about 2 minutes later, the disease that scared her out of her wits killed her. The thickened plot at this point is solved.

Mulder becomes aware of the pattern and then realizes that all these people are getting attacked by the thing in the world they fear the most.

That is where i will stop, but this was a great find and i figured i would share it with you. For more information about this episode, visit this page.

RIP Don LaFontaine – Now Bring In Pablo Francisco

Everyone has heard his voice. ‘The Movie Trailer Guy’ has died at the age of 68. Don LaFontaine was around 13 years old when in mid-sentence his voice dropped making him embarrassed to talk the next day in school. His voice never went back to normal again.

He then went into the movie industry as a film editor and then went on to be the guy you hear in every movie trailer you ever see. He has done over 5,000 movie trailer and TV voiceovers. Whether you know the name or not, you will always remember the voice attached to all of what he has done.

Here is a video tribute to the man behind the voice. Here is Pablo Francisco the hilarious comedian doing his voice better than I’ve seen anyone do it. I wonder if film-makers will go to Pablo now.

Update – I just realized he was set to be interviewed for an upcoming documentary titled ‘The Voice Gods Of Hollywood.’ Hopefully they got his interviews finished because he was the voice god! It’s filming right now, heading for a 2009 release. Keep your eye out!

Movie Watch – Creature Of Darkness

(Matthew Lawrence, Devon Sawa, Sanoe Lake)

While browsing the internet for a movie that just looks great to look forward to, i came across something that attracted me right to it. The title of the film is Creature Of Darkness. It is still in post-production but expects a 2008 release date. Wait until you hear the details on this one!

Here is the plot synopsis. (Taken straight from the IMDB page linked above)

Andrew is haunted by the nightmare of dying a horrible death in the claw of a rampaging creature. A friend convinces him the only way to conquer imagined fear is to confront it head on. When they invite an adventurous group of off-roaders for radical cycling in remote terrain, no one knows they are being led to the time and place the nightmare unfolds. As sunset plunges them into darkness, the dreadful dream turns real, and they are attacked by the Catcher, a skilled and brutal collector of human specimens for alien science.

They are no match for the deft hunter, and it picks its victims, dragging them into an underground catacomb. When Andrew’s girlfriend is seized, he confronts the ultimate terror of tracking her into the unknown danger below. In a courageous rescue, they attempt escape, but the vicious visitor has marked them with a scent, and it pursues in an unrelenting attack.

The plot sounds like it could be a good movie. But it is a matter of whether or not they execute the plot correctly to define how good the movie will be. The creator of this film is Mark Stouffer, who was the Producer of the 1997 hit movie ‘Wild America.’ I haven’t really seen any of his directing work in action, but i will soon with Creature Of Darkness. Visit his IMDB page (linked above) to see films he has made in the past, and detailed information about himself.

Besides the fantastic plot for a horror movie, the other thing that dragged me in was the still photos from the movie. The creature who they say is the taker of humans for alien testing and such, looks creepy as hell. It resembles “The Gremlin” from the 4th segment of Twilight Zone – The Movie. That creature is actually scary. This creature looks crazy as well. Here are some photos.

I’ve searched the web, and have yet to see a trailer released for the film, but i expect one in the near future when the film is finished. So keep a lookout and save the link so you know when to expect what i think will be a great horror movie depending on how Mark Stouffer desides to execute it!

X Files – ‘I Want To Believe’ Small Review

(David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet)

So most of you that used to visit my blog have noticed that i took a summer vacation from blogging. Now its close to the beginning of my last year of High School and I’m getting back into all of the trades that i left off on the previous school year. This will be my first post since George Carlin passed away.

So, the new X-Files movie. Written and directed by Chris Carter who is responsible for most of the series, and the first movie as well. There is one main thing i would like to focus on in this review which i think is quite interesting. The 3 styles of story Carter delves into in the series, the first movie, and the new movie.

• Paranormal/Extraterrestrial/Supernatural
• Government Cover-Ups and Conspiracies
• And the ‘Mad Scientist’ Style/Underground Operations (Not Cover-Ups)

When i say ‘Mad Scientist’ I’m referring to the episodes where instead of aliens and government conspiracies, its just some weird underground operation that people find out of the ordinary. Not far beyond reality, but just very peculiar. The new X-Files movie uses this style.

The ‘Mad Scientist’ style is defined by this. Chris Carter uses a less interesting plot with a ton of suspense to create a balance between the two, keeping you hooked until it is over. Its clear that the episodes about extraterrestrial life were much more interesting than these. The government cover-ups usually went hand in hand with the extraterrestrial life. This style is alone in the 3 categories.

This new movie had me hooked until the end because I’m just a huge fan of Mulder and Scully. The storyline didn’t pull you in, but like i said earlier, the mystery and suspense flooded the quality of the storyline so no matter what you would be excited to finish this movie.

One more thing about this movie i would like to mention has to do with ‘classic’ or ‘epic’ characters created by Carter since the beginning. Mulder and Scully are as you know, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. People were just so excited to see those two on the big screen again together that this movie would be a hit regardless of the quality of the writing and film making.

Its like Chris Carter whipped up a quick storyline that really isn’t too intriguing, added his classic characters and threw in some mystery, and bam you have yourself a movie that many people will watch. I will have to say that compared to the series and the first movie, this one barely compares at all. I still enjoyed the movie, but i think i just enjoyed seeing Mulder and Scully together again more than anything.

Update – I wrote a post about the new show Fringe on Fox, and how the themes they use are the same ones i described in this review of I Want To Believe. View Fringe post here.