It’s a new era. High School is over and the characters are entering a new chapter in their lives. It’s time for the College Season. Buffy will gain a new boyfriend, Willow undergoes a complete change whilst other characters deal with lives changing. Giles is now unemployed whilst Xander is directionless. These all combine with a greater force finally taking an interest in the war against demons – but their interest grows larger than just fighting them…

The Freshman

I quite like The Freshman. It does have a nice similar feeling to it, like a pilot but it twists the setting and grows the characters up a bit. The dialogue still is good to listen to, but the masterstroke is switching Buffy and Willow around so that Willow’s the confident one. It’s a decent twist on things and it gives Buffy a good start to her season arc. The enemies in Sunday and the loser vampires are actually quite entertaining, but it’s a bit of a shame that Sunday is staked as it may have been good to have her in a recurring role for a bit. But the ending is also incredibly mysterious – who are the army guys?

Living Conditions

Ugggh. This is quite possibly one of, if not the, worst episode of the show ever. I try to not watch it when I can, but this takes the proverbial biscuit and cake. Just poorly done and shoddily unsubtle in a Season One stand-alone kind of way.

Harsh Light of Day

The first real cross-over with Angel, with Spike throwing in his own little final hurrah as a villain before real changes for his character. There’s some integral development here that features in some early character arcs – Xander/Anya start around three seasons of plot-lines whilst Buffy aims to be a bit impulsive and ends up sleeping with a guy she only met a few days ago. Unfortunately this dominates a lot of the future episodes and makes her extremely sour…but it’s great to see Spike again.

Fear Itself

Characters face fears that echo their problems at the moment in a house which falls on Halloween. The characters dress up in an excuse that gets them in that scenario. It’s also full of some good moments including the ending which is a great take on the show. As well as the brilliant closing line.

Beer Bad

Scratch what I said about Living Conditions. This is what you call an absolute mess of an episode which boarders on belief that it even survived the breaking process. Incredibly unsubtle, the bad message that it puts across in regards to guys that use young women for sex and how to deal as well as the clearly bad anti-alcohol stance that kicks off. Plus as an apparent Xander-led episode it’s just not funny bar a few one liners.

Beer bad? Episode bad, more-like.

Oz and Veruca are too much like Buffy and Faith in places – and it doesn’t fully settle right. Oz was bound to meet another wolf and it to cause friction between him and Willow – but it also just doesn’t feel quite right. It’s also the send-off for Oz in his last episode as a regular cast member. It’s a bit iffy an ending – but heart-breaking as well. Hanningan gives it her all and it is sad – though retrospectively it’s probably because I know what’s who’s coming and I don’t want them to be there…

Points for the great opening though with Spike’s siloquey being interrupted by the mysterious army guys.

The Initiative

A great episode that reveals a lot about the army people, including that Buffy’s ‘love interest’ Riley is one of them and her professor is in charge. I think it may have been because I was not spoilt by it but a lot of the episode shocked and misled me. It also is the start of Spike’s eventual new arc and direction as a character with the invention of the ‘chip’ in his head that stops him from killing humans. It leads to a fantastic scene between him and Willow that doubles as a metaphor for impotence. In a comical way.

But yes, a great episode. Quite a personal favourite.

Pangs

The appearance of Angel (allowing for a sweeps crossover event) is sweet, but mainly set-up for bigger events and character work in the sister show. The general conflict in the episode of the vengeance demon however is not so good or subtle and does leave a bit of sour taste in the mouth. The fight scene at the end is quite action-packed though, juggling suspense and the usual balancing of humour and drama. There’s also a great little smirk-worthy ending.

Something Blue

Another story of spells gone awry – but a comedic twist on the Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered spin on things. Willow has her ‘getting over Oz leaving ‘ episode and whilst the things that happen to some character’s aren’t funny – it is fun to see Buffy and Spike arrange their wedding. There’s a lovely moment where Buffy asks Giles to give her away and the sense of gratitude on Giles’ face before he starting moaning is priceless. Plus the moments with D’Hoffryn is a nice little spin on expectations and such.

Hush

So after all that witty dialogue that Joss Whedon has written in previous episodes – he goes and challenges himself by writing a silent episode. And by gawd it’s one of the strongest episodes of the entire series. It’s creepy, tense and contains some brilliantly dramatic and funny moments all through the actions of the character. It’s a testament to Whedon how he manages to craft a brilliant episode and some great characterisation from the actions of the characters. From Xander phoning Buffy and Willow, Spike’s ‘V’ sign, Giles’ presentation, Xander thinking Anya is dead (and the resulting ‘let’s have sex’ request) and the brilliant ending where Riley and Buffy try to talk…but can’t.

A masterpiece, one of the best episodes the show has ever done.

Doomed

A bit of a mixed bag and a mess. A lot of writers here and there trying to write another end of the world story which tries to be a hint back to the school years whilst bridging the relationship between Riley and Buffy. It shows they can work together and about the ‘workplace relationship’ problems that Buffy had. Spike steals the episode with his suicidal tendencies to the discovery that he can hurt demons.

The New Man

Finally. Giles gets something to do in an episode that highlights how superfluous he’s been all season. It’s a nice episode with some great characterisation and banter with Spike, with a great moment where he gets Spike to stop his car just to scare Walsh. Priceless.

It’s good to see Ethan again in his last appearance in the show.

The I In Team

It’s the mid-season plot-twist time. The real big-bads and allegiances are starting to show and things are revealed. Buffy gets access into The Initiative and then ends up trying to be killed by them as her relationship with Riley reaches an even deeper level. The theme of detachment in the season also begins to become more apparent as everyone else is left with a sub-plot involving a tracking chip in Spike whilst Buffy goes it alone. In the long term it’s a decent idea, it just feels like a bit of a waste.

Goodbye, Iowa

Now like Consequences last year, the second of the not-exactly-a-two-parter-but-is mid season is missing more than hitting. It’s wrapping up some stories whilst also introducing the character of Adam. The real Big Bad this year. A cool concept which in hindsight doesn’t exactly feel like it’s been thought out properly. But an experiment going amok still is a better idea on paper than it is…

This Year’s Girl

Faith returns! The episode is a good one, but is still set-up rather than anything. There’s also a huge running habit throughout the season in that it takes a while for the episode plots to really get going – only really kicking in around the halfway mark and this has that sort of plodding feel which is building up to the cliff-hanger. Some cool images are all really just laying down pavements towards…

Who Am I?

Whedon takes over again in an episode which plays further on the relationship between Buffy and Faith as Faith gets to experience things she really hasn’t experienced before as she tries to destroy Buffy’s life. The episode is all building towards a fight in a church which allows for development on the Adam plot as well. Gellar and Dushku also manage to play each other’s characters quite well – particularly when Buffy tries to convince Giles that she’s her. Buffy’s tendency to ramble innocently is caught spot on.

Superstar

A lovely little distraction of an episode which actually holds quite a few key arc developments in regards to the Adam story and the Riley/Buffy relationship. Buffy’s abilities as a leader allows for some exploration as her role as the Slayer is limited here. Moments where Buffy shows her initiative comes as a shock to other characters – but it shows how naturally it comes to her.

Also – title sequence edited to have shots of Jonathan? Masterstroke.

Where the Wild Things Are

An episode which tries to balance things out to give the Scoobies something to do by having Buffy and Riley stuck…um…doing stuff. There’s plenty of dodgy stuff happening with orgasming walls and bottles exploding in faces but it’s mainly to cement Anya and Xander’s relationship as they battle a frat house with a lot of demonic sexual energy.

Yeah – demonic sexual energy. I said it.

New Moon Rising

Oz is back! The drama in the season begins to get going as The Initiative capture Oz and Riley’s view of good and evil begin to get blurred. The Willow/Tara relationship kicks off but it’s the build up towards the finale that makes the episode. Again Angel starts to overshadow the series as he and the events surrounding upandcoming episodes of that series dictate some conflict coming up. But all-in-all, it’s finally time to say goodbye to Oz.

The Yoko Factor

Spike tries to break the gang up, playing on the metaphor of College and the disillusionment that’s been growing between the friends all season. Using Yoko Ono as a reference point it eventually comes to a head in a climax that’s actually quite difficult to watch as the friends all break away and Riley enters Adam’s grasp.

Primeval

So the gang gets together. Storms the Initiative. Beats Adam. They do it in an actually cool way of combining essences together into a ‘Super-Buffy’. Though the final action scenes and escape seems to be written and rushed in a final montage with a Creepy Government Guy doing exposition voice-over.

Adam’s the only Big Bad to be killed in an episode that’s not the season finale. But the episode does

Restless

The black sheep of the show’s finales; it’s a standalone dream episode which both hints and wraps up storylines in regards to the characters but also reveals a bit more on the Slayer mythology. Its primary focus is to kick-start Buffy’s fifth season arc, but there’s plenty of its own merit to go round as well. The dialogue is strong, as well as the characterisation. Plenty of call-backs to older episodes (and a cameo from Seth Green) and a running gag with a guy with cheese. Not to mention The Exposition Song is a fun little ditty.

There’s plenty here to enjoy, even if the atmosphere of the episode is weird to get around.

Overall

The episode Pangs pretty much sums up the slow gradual decline of the series for me. The dual scheduling with Angel leaves it with a slight taste of opening to a main event on the sister (or is it brother?) show. Pangs is mainly an excuse to eventually get Buffy to LA for a bigger character episode for Angel. The later end of the season is another sweeps event which is surrounded by references to events in LA.

It’s a shame, because the season in retrospect is a lot better than it was originally. The season does contain some tough to watch episodes and scenes with the characters breaking away, and Riley does verge on the case as being a bit bland in places. It’s tough when you have to be compared with Angel though. It doesn’t help that the Big Bad is an interesting concept gone poor with execution who’s killed by a removal of a core. You can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if they had the plot of Primeval as the season finale.

It’s a season of experimentation, of trying to go back to basics but the show’s been so complex in the past its metaphors just aren’t fully working right. Not as strong as seasons two or three, but not completely weak.

The Cast for the fnal season of Lost...

And thus last Friday, Lost returned to Sky1. Not only was it a mixture of plenty of what-the-deuce mixed with mind-fraks, but also the sense of a slowly brewing conclusion on the horizon. It also gave us a twist on the flash fowards/backs/parallels or whatever they’re called.

So if you haven’t watched LAX Parts 1 and 2 yet – LOOK AWAY NOW!

So for some reason flight 815 has landed in LAX whilst the main characters who were stuck in the seventies end up in the present. Not only that there’s the strange ‘Not-Locke’ who is revealed here to actually BE the smoke monster (an answer!). There’s a greater sense of mystery and supernatural building and there’s also the end of Elizabeth Mitchell’s contract coming to the end. Plus some good cameos of characters we haven’t seen for a while.

There’s a sense of…well, I’m not exactly sure what the sense is but I remember actually thinking in the season three finale that it may have been a parallel universe we were watching with a different Jack (the flash-forward was a complete surprise). But now we actually have that – and while it’s fun and interesting to see what actually happened, the whole point of them is just hard to comprehend. Though the interesting thing about it was the appearance of Desmond speaking to Jack on the flight. What does that mean? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

The strange people and the stewardess (who’s disappearance is now apparently explained) in the temple raises more questions, but hopefully it all begins to ravel and make sense. Though I’m wondering what scope it has as well as the whole Widmore thing in tandem with the Non-Locke wanting to go home. But what I think

Though there’s nothing on WAAAAAALT’s appearance. Nor was there any Michael on the plane. I guess that’s just one of the losses that we’ll have to cut.

It’s all beginning to end now. *sniff*

The hit E4 teenage drama series returns next week, and it’s quite possibly the last of the second generation of characters. So it’s eight episodes of Effy, Cook and Freddie before they end up shutting shop. Unless they are back for a fifth…

But anyways, Skins is going for a fourth series. Will this bring the series back to the heights of its first? Or will it stumble like the sophomore series of its predecessors?

The first series was a brilliant masterclass in plotting, layering and unravelling the depths of characters; leaving its main character as a complete unlikable cretin but as the series went on, it started to show what drove Tony (Nicholas Hoult) and the series rewarded re-watching to pick up all the hints and subtle foreshadowing of the characters. The character-focused structure of the episodes were a breath of fresh air, and the order they focused on the interesting characters was well selected. There was an intelligent approach to the show, and it was a nice hip breath of fresh air if very stylised.

The second series had a few brave approaches to its overall arc in having a mentally disabled Tony, and having a few strange creative choices (Sid/Michelle). The arcs weren’t fully figured out properly and episodes ended up going on weird tangents or being extremely too clever for the target audience. It ended on a sour note which left it far too open with threads left dangling and with a lack of audience satisfaction.

With the third series, there was a brand new cast (bar one) with plenty of strangeness. The mysterious strange kid arc was given to a supporting character and the main arc was the main character’s effect on the friendship of two lads and how it fractures it. It was a double-edged sword due to the comparisons to the first generation, but also because of some characters being very annoying. Cook an example. The hyper style and the weirdness is apparent, with some very strong episodes and characters but again it was littered with some bizarre ideas that didn’t fully work.

And Cook was very very annoying.

So what’s been revealed about series four? Well at the time of writing, only that JJ gets a girlfriend with a nine-month-old baby. Not really much, amongst rumours of Pauline Quirk and Will Young guest starring. But with eight episodes (shortest series yet) have the writers planned what they need? Or will they end up trying to explore secondary characters and leave the most popular relationship unresolved (this case it’s young lesbians Naomi and Emily).

And will Cook befall a nasty accident?

Honestly what I hope series four will bring is a definite conclusion to Effy’s character, basically meaning that she actually grows up, and stops Freddie and Cook from bickering. I’m actually hoping for Naomi and Emily do get a nice satisfactory ending and for JJ to prove himself as good as, better even, than Cook and Freddie.

Thinking about it, I think I’ve clocked on what the recurring problem Skins has: it finds it quite hard to conclude a story. The first series ended with a song, the second…yes, well. The third was more-or-less a two-part cliffhanger…the show really needs to go and learn how to give a proper conclusion. Hopefully they’ve learnt this by the time they reach episode eight in March.

So let’s hope.

This is going to be exciting. This is the first time I’m going to a show that there’s already been an article on. So here I am, with the previous article on FlashForward copied and pasted below this one in Word as I write. I re-read what I wrote about it three episodes in, and now we’re ten episodes in and we’ve reached the mid-season finale until we get new episodes in March. The question is now…has it lived up to what was said before:

Hopefully it knows what it’s doing. Hopefully I’m wrong and that the scope of the series means that everything is more laid out like setting up plot points in a novel. But a good prologue leading to some dragging opening chapters do not give a good impression.

So Flashforward can be recommended – but mainly due to faith that it’ll grow into the series worthy of the hype.

Has it? Well…no. SPOILERS FOR EPISODE TEN INCLUDED.

Miles from This Life as Steve from Coupling

Would it be fair to say that FlashForward is a lesson in how to make a patchy and rushed drama where it seems the creative team don’t know how to handle the complex story it has? Well you could claim that it’s still only ten episodes in, but 10 episodes out of 24 is around 42% of the season already and there should be some cohesive narrative to build upon. At the moment there’s been a whole mesh of different ideas that would work – but just are not executed in a way that’s either engaging, surprising or at the right time.

Case in point: there seems to be a very lopsided view in things that take priority. With the Olivia storyline overshadowing Lloyd’s involvement with Simon, a huge interesting point is pushed to the side, and we get an episode of dialogue-hell with Dominic Mogahananananananan and Steve from Coupling having a poker game with some of the most contrived drivel of pyschobabble ever written. It then leads to a huge moment in episode ten where Lloyd announces that he and his ‘team’ were responsible for the blackout! Wait, what? Did I just flashforward to ten episodes ahead? If this is stirring the melting pot, then there is a definite problem here as the melting point’s ingredients aren’t exactly right to be mixing up.

Harold Lee as a Jack Bauer Wannabe.

In fact episode ten just threw more and more things into hell. The Dimitri/Mark storyline about his death takes an interesting turn (and I must admit the reveal that it’s Dimitri’s funeral was well done). It may also explain why none of the FBI characters were actually PRESENT AT HIS FUNERAL. The revelation loses a bit of its zing because a few episodes later someone decided to prove that you change the future by committing suicide out of the blue. So instead of “oh swear-word” you have; “oh…but it won’t be.” Not to mention the reveals of ‘D. Gibbons’ as a villain when we also have other villains we don’t know anything about yet. It’s all too confusing and just completely incomprehensible.

The Attempt at Getting the Male teen Demographic as Someone Not Relevant

At least Lost managed to keep things low-key whilst remaining cryptic, focusing on building up it’s characters and making us care about them. Here we have a huge amount of characters that we expect to follow with a pace that’s all over the place; and anything that’s good just seems to be botched senseless. The majority of the acting seems lazy, especially with the Joseph Fiennes lookalike they’re trying to market as the real Joseph Fiennes – the guy suffers from the same syndrome that Ewan McGregor has: Crap American Accent syndrome. You get the sense there’s a definite miscasting error somewhere.

I will admit to thinking that the main love story between Bryce and the Japanese woman is actually involving (don’t tell anyone, I’m actually a sucker for a good love story) but again this ends up having a huge contrivance in the middle of it as Bryce actually finds the woman’s house but Evil Controlling Mother Cliché kicks in and I’ve lost all drive to finish this sentence. Let’s also mention the shear and pivotal character that is Peyton List’s Nicole who stands around dreaming of drowning. It’s great they can place my visualisations of the character into show – absolutely useless. At least with Aaron, the AA sponsor – his daughter’s situation is a definite thing that will crossover with the main plot. But still that’s nothing that has any links so far…which is a bad move.

Too many characters, too many stories that seem unnecessary. Too much mess.

I’d like to stick with the show until the date the Flashforwards occurred – just to see if the pay-off is any good. But at the current moment…no. Nope. The show is just a mess. A mess. My opinion; mess.

Did I say mess?

At the time of writing, four episodes of this have aired. The fifth is likely to be airing in about an hour of this posting. It’s likely to presume that it’s halfway through its run…so is the Skins-meets-No Heroes-meets-something else actually any good? Let’s have a butcher’s at the first four episodes which feature a group of young people during community service end up getting strange powers…

On the strength of the first four episodes…not really. It’s not that good. It’s not awful, and there’s some stuff that could work but generally it feels like half a show that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. E.g. it wants to be Skins in that it wants to have character-centric episodes yet be a mystery at the same time. It wants to be some adverse kind of British Heroes where there’s people with abilities that you probably won’t get in the world of Hiro Nakamura and Peter Petrelli. But there’s a weak ongoing story involving killing someone and hiding the bodies that really doesn’t go with the central idea of the show. Ish.

Kelly. The telepathic Chav.

There’s a mysterious storm that gives five (well four, the fifth doesn’t seem to have one) people mysterious powers. There’s a slut who has the power to make every man who touches her get into lust with her (groan). There’s a telepathic Chav (which sounds good on paper and still has potential but seems a bit iffy at the moment). A strange creepy stalkerish guy who can become video when no-one’s watching him and a hot prospect in athletics who got caught with cocaine once can jump a few seconds back in time at THE. CONVIENENT. MOMENT.  There’s also an annoying knob (Nathan) who doesn’t have a power but ends up being the funniest character who is trying to find his power.

The second episode goes into the Skins character-centric mode, but whilst Skins made this formula apparent and focused on its best character this doesn’t get it quite right. It’s funny and reveals a lot about the Knob Nathan but it doesn’t feel right. The third episode attempts to be an Alisha (slut) episode which ends up being overrun by the over-arching story of them killing their social worker. It’s uneven, it doesn’t like it knows how to pace itself and there’s one other thing…

The whole powers-concept seems quite lacking in other areas. They don’t seem to be that focused on the plot or used that much and when they are…they just seem secondary in places. The powers aren’t that useful anyway…it just feels like half an idea that hasn’t been figured out properly. The evidence of this is clearly shown in the fourth episode which has Curtis go back to when he was caught with the drugs and is a bit of a ‘flashback’ episode. Now it’s a normal functional character-accepting-powers episode, but it has the biggest plot-hole in that future Curtis should not have been able to go back in time. But hey, when the consequence is an ex-girlfriend is not an ex…you can see where the writers want to aim things.

The teaser for episode five looks like it’ll be interesting – but there does need to be an extra shot in the arm for this show. Seriously.

Quite possibly one of the best shows on TV at the moment, Chuck’s second season recently came out on DVD – and pretty much surpasses the first season in every way. The first season introduced us to Buy More Tech Support-guy Chuck Bartowski who ends up with a whole computer of government secrets in his head. In the background he has support from CIA agent Sarah Walker and NSA agent John Casey and the three of them end up doing random missions based off ‘flashes’ that Chuck has which trigger information from the computer (called ‘The Intersect’).

Chuck resumes his role as the head of the Buy More ‘Nerd Herd’ (spoof of the Best Buy ‘Geek Squad’) whilst Sarah takes on the role of his ‘girlfriend’ whilst Casey gets a job at the Buy More. Episodes deal with a main spy plot while a Buy More-related subplot occurs in the background. A lot of the time there is an overlay for the comic impact.

The Buy More Cast

The second season builds on the foundations of the first, with characters beginning to become fleshed out and the show becoming comfortable juggling its spy and Buy More-plots. The show begins to have an over-arching theme with a secret corrupt organisation trying to build their own intersect and the show delves into the history of the original – revealing some close connections to Chuck and his family. Episodes feel tighter, feel more focused and there’s a good running pace throughout. The dual-plotting of a Buy More sub-plot allows for any light stories in the main spy plot not to feel dragged, and later in the season the episodes and stories start to leak into other episodes, allowing for the burst and not-boring feeling throughout.

This year, Chuck ends up confronting his relationship with Sarah, dealing with his ex-girlfriend, finds his father, learns about the Intersect and begins to find his worth in matters other than having Government Secrets in his head. There’s plenty of highlights here both comedic and dramatically as Chuck confronts his father and his ex-girlfriend (who turns out to be a Fulcrum agent – the organisation trying to build The Intersect). Chuck even gets a ‘Dark Intersect’ in his head half-way through the season.

The main trio.

Further highlights include Chuck meeting rock star Tyler Morgan (played by Lost’s Dominic Monanananangahanananan) in the 3D episode, the formation of Jeffster and the final run of episodes in which Chuck has to deal with an evil Chevy Chase. Someone close to him learns his secret and it helps give that character something else to do – and the characters feel like they’re finally moving on. Even the Buy More had its own sub-plot and ‘big bad’ in the form of Assistant Manager Emmett who was lobbying after Big Mike’s job.

Any downsides? Well there really isn’t. If you’re expecting high intrigue and complexity then you’re not going to be finding it here. It can be lightweight entertainment but it is some of the best you’ll get. The big thing I perhaps could annoy is the very prominent and sometimes annoying Sarah/Chuck scenes in the will they/won’t they sector. It’s developed to a point and it’ll be hard to try and stop them from ‘being together’ but you can’t help but wonder if they’re going to be dragging it out for as long as they can.

But other than that, you have some excellent action, some funny and lovable characters, Adam Baldwin kicking major, major arse and some quite attractive ladies (and men for you women reading this) means you should be really kicking back and enjoying the fun ride that is Chuck.

David Tennant and Lindsey Duncan star in "The Waters of Mars"

David Tennant’s song is ending, and he will knock four times. Whether it’s The Doctor that knocks four times is not clear, but one thing’s for certain – the end is definitely near, and the Tenth Doctor’s character arc is being to reach a climatic end. This kicks in with The Waters of Mars, a one-off story which slowly seeds the final two-parter with excellent style. Make no bones about it, what you’re about to read is a glowing review with one of the best episodes of Who since season three…

SPOILER WARNING.

The gist is The Doctor has landed on Mars in 2059, finding the first Earth colony on there. However he finds that he’s part of a huge event in Earth’s history – so big that he possibly can’t change it. But when things get slightly dangerous, the Doctor ends up facing a huge ethical dilemma which could affect the whole of time…

The episode is paced perfectly. Ten minutes in we’ve already got a glimpse of the monsters, met the diverse crew and have an understanding of the situation that the Doctor is in, which leaves for a lot of action, a lot of running and a lot of time to explore the idea of changing history. In fact, The Doctor really doesn’t do much for the first forty minutes except watch and talk about what happens in the future. He also does a bit of running. Not as much as he usually does, but he does some.

But as the final third kicks in, the action increases and the story’s aims are clear: the monsters (as scary as they are) are secondary. The identity and the explanations of what they are never arrive, and the story is all the better for it. There’s some speculation but enough mystery to keep them scary, and for the story to focus on the idea of changing history. The Doctor makes a choice, and his re-appearance on the station is one of the most spine-tingling moments in the show’s history. There’s great dialogue and characterisation as he realises that he’s the only time lord and that he makes the rules, and we get this gem:

“The laws of time are mine, and they will obey me!”

All accumulating in a tense finale with Adelaide and The Doctor as he saves a few crew members’ lives and the idea that he can do what he wants kicks in. Until Adelaide does her own thing to try and keep things on the straight and narrow. In fact Lindsey Duncan manages to hold her own here, proving herself to be the legend that she apparently is. Someone who isn’t infatuated by the Doctor and even goes against him – a nice change that.

It builds to the ending, where The Doctor decides he no-longer wants to die and goes to do something about it. And the audience waits until Christmas Day…

It’s the next Lost! It’s Lost but different – so if you like it’ll you’ll love it. It’s got Charlie in it! It has Penny in it! Mystery! Sci-Fi! A big catastrophe at the start! Lost! Lost! Lost! Lost!

…Yes, I’m pretty sure that the general gist of Flashforward is that it’s touted out to be the Next Big Thing, and to be honest it has a lot going for it. Massive hype and promotion, it has a decent budget and a cast of some recognisable names. For those who haven’t the foggiest what I’m saying, it stars Joseph Fiennes as an FBI agent who investigates a strange occurrence when the entire world blacks out for over two minutes. During these two minutes everyone experiences life six months in the future – and Fiennes goes to find out why it occurred. Meanwhile secondary characters end up experiencing different sides to the event. From a guy who sees his dead daughter, to another who sees nothing at all – to the guy who was on the bog the whole time.

On paper, the idea sounds brilliant with the potential to explore the ideals of fate and destiny (a theme I extremely find interesting) and whether things can be changed. On screen…the execution leaves a little to be desired. There’s plenty to praise about here, but just like many major dramas there’s plenty to dissect and be concerned about.

Much of the performances are okay. It does beg question why two American characters are played by Brits (Sonja Wager plays Fiennes’ wife) as well as Jack Davenport and Dominic Mononononongahahahahan appearing later on. It’s good to see Davenport finally get a decent role in proceedings, even though he’s only really in episode two so far. Some aren’t so caught on from the start, with John Cho’s Bauer-With-A-Russian-Name not really coming across the scary bad-ass face that Kiefer sutherland uses to get free Twinkies at gas stations. It’s a shame as his story through the first three episodes is one of the more interesting (bar the ongoing story).

But in terms of the actual story…the first half of the pilot is immense, quite amazing in the impact-way. The world going to shiznit as people have blacked out…then people go a little sedate. A few shots of capitals in ruins later but there’s no really sense that the earth has had a huge crushing blow and everyone seems not too-panicky. I think perhaps the amount of characters it’s deciding to focus on cuts into it’s pacing, and thus it doesn’t allow for it to hook you. It feels confused, and thus makes some of it less engaging. Episode three, 127 Sekunden contained the world’s most boring A-plot in it’s attempt to string out a moral dilemma for information that predictably wouldn’t be much – yet loosely led to a revelation in which the impact was lessened due to the nature of which it was found out.

It needs that hook. It needs that moment in which it’s storylines begin to make sense. Or for the characters to suddenly grow into their own. Because there’s nothing to love about it. There’s plenty to like, but not enough to actually love. It’s yet to find it’s strengths, but surely the writers would’ve been able to get a better handle of what it wants to be from the get go.

Hopefully it knows what it’s doing. Hopefully I’m wrong and that the scope of the series means that everything is more laid out like setting up plot points in a novel. But a good prologue leading to some dragging opening chapters do not give a good impression.

So Flashforward can be recommended – but mainly due to faith that it’ll grow into the series worthy of the hype.

You see a TV show set in High School, and you’ll be forgiven to think that its core audience is people who are actually in high school. But what if the show is set in the early eighties, twenty years before the current generation? Could it actually be possible for a show to actually be aimed towards adults?

Well, with Freaks and Geeks, there might just be one. Its core focus is the struggles and life of the outcasts of social society in the early eighties with kids who actually feel like High School students. Now it might be a locality thing (since I’m from Ol’ Blighty) but there’s a certain limit of shows about teenagers with rich parents doing several things at once in which the latest new show ends up coming across as completely unoriginal. This is what happened with 90210 – where it feels like The OC and Gossip Girl has done it all before. Even the original Beverley Hills predated it. My So-Called Life apparently is slightly more realistic but I’ve yet to watch that yet. Freaks and Geeks seems to paint a more realistic picture of high school that I’ve only really seen briefly in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Veronica Mars before you deduct the genre quota of those shows. What’s interesting is that this was the 1999-2000 season before 90210 and its ilk, but running the same time as Dawson’s Creek and Popular. Though the former was a huge showcase of contrived bad acting and melodramatic unrealism the latter was a tongue-in-cheek jab at teen shows; watching this now after the modern wave just feels like a breath of fresh air.

There are no rich parents, no major dance or events the kids have to organise, no flights of fancy or anything of that ilk, it’s just kids and problems. There are no strong serialised stories that run through the series, mainly weak characters living through weekly A and B stories which focus on the brother/sister team of Lindsey and Sam Weir. Lindsey (Linda Cardellini, ER and Scooby Doo) is a 17-year old girl former Mathlete who decides to hang around with ‘freaks’ Daniel (James Franco, Spider-Man and Pineapple Express), Kim (Busy Phillips) and Nick (Jason Siegel, How I Met Your Mother). While 14-year old Sam (John Francis Daley, Waiting and Bones) has to deal with bullies and being picked last for sports with his friends Neil (Sam Levinne) and Bill Havershuck (Martin Starr). Other characters include the Weir parents and some teachers who do try and steal the screen time, and would succeed if it wasn’t for younger cast.

The two main characters end up central for the two plots that are linked thematically in each episode and sometimes converge, but never fully follow on to the next episode except for some occasions. The episodes don’t have any major messages or morals that run at the end, and there is a (thankful) lack of overblown melodrama and maturity in the story telling which further acts as evidence that it’s not fully aimed towards teenagers. But amongst all the realistic and down-to-earth characters that litter the show, it just feels easier to relate to what’s going on instead of ridiculous high-lifers.

In terms of episodes, there are no real stand-outs because they all stand out. There are no real clunkers of ideas (mainly because there are only eighteen episodes) and episodes all feel strong and relate to the characters. The geeks usually steal the episodes though, with some highlights being Sam and co’s struggles against showering after gym and being picked last for baseball. There’s usually always something brilliant in every episode.

No. The real stand out here which brings out the iconic status the show has is the characters. Sam has been noted in some American magazine as being the idea TV son, but the stand-out for the geeks is Bill. The lanky stereotypical geek is immediately lovable, gets sympathy instantly and as the series unfolds and you start to get to know him and it’s just easy to get involved with the characters. The episode where he finds his gym teacher is dating his mother is probably the highlight, managing to get a tragic yet funny character to life even more. Of the freaks Daniel’s rebel-without-a-path strikes out, mainly because you can tell that James Franco is just having fun with what he gets to do at times. Where it’s manipulating adults, attempting to be a rocker; his character is another iconic image you won’t get to shake.

By the time you get to the end of series – you realise that you’ve gotten to know these characters, and then it hits you that there’s nothing left. With many shows you get a tinge of sadness – but with characters as fleshed out and likable as this – you are suddenly losing several friends. Maybe the show is regarded the way it is over the pond because of its short run and the show never got a chance to get stale. But you can’t help but wonder to see how Lindsey and Sam and their friends would develop, and how they would finish high school. Then again, would the show have lost something if the freaks graduated and got jobs while Lindsey went to college? We would never know…

It’s fun to see some actors and actresses that have moved on to other things nearly nine/ten years ago though. Shia Labeouf appears as a mascot, Ben Stiller a secret service agent, Lizzy Caplan as a disco dancer, Samaire Armstrong as a Grateful Dead fan, Privileged’s Joanna Garcia as a cheerleader as well as the main cast. Daley is now in Bones; Cardellini in ER, Seth Rogan goes from being Seth Rogan to being Seth Rogan later on and Jason Siegel in How I Met Your Mother.

It hasn’t got a Region 2 release (yet) but it’s something that should be experienced. If you ever get the chance to watch this, do it. You’ll not be disappointed.

Also posted on: ArticlesBase.com – Why You Need To Watch “Freaks and Geeks”