Fast Forward is still holding my interest, but not I’m not as captivated by it as I am by Lost. The characters aren’t quite as fascinating. The situation has its moments, but they’re not as frequent. I liked the ending of last week’s episode a lot, as they realized that the event had happened before, on a smaller, more limited scale.
Fringe, on the other hand, keeps getting better. We now know almost everything that happened when Olivia visited with William Bell (I wonder if there is any significance in the fact that Walter Bishop and William Bell have the same initials?) and that encounter seems to define the entire series. You always have to wonder how much of this mythos was planned from the beginning and how much they’re making up as they go along. I’m glad to see the shapeshifter is off the board, that they didn’t string the Charlie issue along for too long. It served its purpose, now move on to something else. The woman who was the subject of Walter’s experiments was a real hoot, and Walter’s response when Peter “gave him permission” to go visit was a delight.
For a series set in Las Vegas, CSI seldom focuses on the casino aspect of the city. There have been times when it comes up, especially with Warrick’s gambling addiction and Catherine’s father, but most of the crime has nothing to do with the one thing we associate most with the city. This week revealed one of the businesses underbellies, and who better to personify that than Newman from Seinfeld! They did another good job of misdirecting us, making it seem like the killer was interested in lashing out against his coworkers when it was something else altogether.
Though Yasmine was clearly annoying on Survivor, I think that strategically she wasn’t the best person to get rid of. It’s hard to put yourself in the position of having to deal with her 24/7, of course, and her strength in challenges might not have been deemed a sufficient counter to her laziness around camp. The woman who wasn’t evicted (Monica?) got a free pass, and my experience with this show is that memories are short and if she can do something to redeem herself, or if someone else paints a target on his or her back, she may be safe for longer than she realizes.
I don’t think Robin Tunney is ever going to win any awards for her acting, but at least she got to showcase her talents more on The Mentalist this week than usual. Most of the time, she is the sidekick, which is an odd inversion of the usual way things work on shows like that. I was pretty sure Lisbon was play-acting at the end, because it seemed like she was setting up props, with the gun and the pills, which in fact she was. But at least we have a little better sense of who the character is now, and what she’s capable of. The show is still struggling a bit to define itself, but it’s on the right path.
I liked Law & Order this week. The fact that the NYPD’s lack of foresight placed dangerous weapons in the hands of terrorists was an interesting development. And of course you know the ADA was going to “do the right thing” at the end and intercede on the Syrian immigrant’s behalf.
