I’ve got a show. Well, as much as going on one date allows you to say you’ve got a girlfriend. If things don’t work out like I hope they will, we’ll agree to see and be seen by other people…I’m talking again about TV, I’m not currently dating anyone for obvious reasons.
For several years I’ve not been much of a TV person. Studying through two degrees and tending to two children had me more focused on other things. We still do pay attention to the kids, but the absence of textbooks and the introduction of DVR into our lives allows me to watch shows when I’m ready for them. Now instead of disregarding everything on TV from 7:00 to 9:00 I can alter the known television universe with my fantastic TV time machine.
I did watch a few shows regularly this summer. I watched “The Mole” as my grandfather was quite into it when it ran originally. I didn’t get all psycho about it but discovered that it’s not enough to simply watch a TV program anymore. If you really want to get into the mix with other hardcore watchers you’ve got to log on, follow the online clues and discuss everything in exhaustive detail with the show’s online community. I decided simply to let "The Mole" unfold and mindlessly give it 45 minutes every week (why watch live when you can watch after the fact and kill the commercials?).
So a week ago I took a quick glance at the upcoming Fall lineup. I thought it would be cool to find a new show to dig into and join the movement from the beginning. I needed something I could take a little more seriously without spending the six days between shows discussing where things are going with the citizens of cyberspace…although I did peek for a while. Of course there were some logging in already to laud the brilliance of the program and others trying to determine what would happen on each episode from now until the end of time. And there were detractors negatively scrutinizing every detail and rolling their avatar eyes at lines of dialogue that were the slightest bit odd. I will choose to suspend disbelief enough to enjoy what I’m watching (it is TV people) and try to find a happy medium that allows me to take an ongoing interest without letting the show affect my emotional state from week to week.
The show is “Fringe”. It’s got suspicious activity, the use of science to answer questions and weekly mysteries wrapped inside the big mystery. Sounds like most of the TV dramas since science became cool again, but I was intrigued enough by the concept and the pilot to tune in again next week and hopefully throughout the season. Perhaps by November I’ll have bought into it so much that I’ll cast my presidential vote with consideration of which candidate is least likely to be wrapped up in a worldwide conspiracy of pseudoscientific proportions.
The show is produced by the same guy who cranks out the widely popular “Lost”. At the end of the last TV viewing season we watched the finale of “Lost” with friends. None of us were regular viewers. I had watched the first few shows way back when but left it alone when the busyness came. It was hard to jump in without the deep back stories. The fact that the episode leading up to the finale was rebroadcast with constant pop up text explaining the complicated interwoven clues and details had our minds spinning and supported the idea that it may not be an easy show to join already in progress.
This one has me there at the beginning and will hopefully have me keeping up with the stories. The producer and reviews have said it will not be as intensely complicated as some of his other work. Of course I can check in with my virtual friends who have dissected every second of each episode after multiple weekly viewings if I have any questions. Or perhaps the show will swallow me and I'll be the home based agent briefing my cyber colleagues.
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