Your TV Shows

Fringe is such a stupid show. There is nothing redeeming about it. It's not sci-fi, because science fiction would imply some sort of actual science. It's more like modern fantasy- wild conjectures with very loose, very badly strung together, science facts used to, I guess, try and explain things.

They take it right up to the edge, and let the viewer make the conclusions. The acting is good, sometimes, but mostly it's too "serious" to actually be serious. They're not trying to be as campy as they are. It's got all the great hallmarks of horror/thriller sci-fi, and I think that's why I watch it.

I wouldn't recommend anyone else attempt it. Fringe is truly crap-tastic. But years of less than B slasher flicks, zombie fests, and monster movies keep me viewing. Just like all those horrible examples of "entertainment" (read: train wrecks), the creators obvious intend one reaction, and miserably fail.

If they accepted that despite their big budgets, their great special effects, and their sleek look/marketing, they were just shitty camp horror, it would suck even more. But throwing the lady with the robotic arm in with the mad (read: crazy) scientist who was researching every single bit of the latest and greatest in cutting edge science, 30 years ago, doesn't make it sci-fi.

What irks me is, if someone tried to write this shit, they'd be laughed at. Not because it's stupid, which it is, not because it's childish and predictable, which it is; but because it glories in the dumbest, worst, most throw together hodge-podge of "plots" that ever got rejected- and it does it without the slightest bit of irony.

There's talent in the pool that creates each episode; but it still can't overcome being absolute shit.



Plot points that were about to happen, then completely dropped, ignored, and never mentioned again:

* The Psychic Olivia. Episode 14 revealed Olivia was a powerful psychic able to control electronic devices. Then there was a long break, and in two episodes it has never been mentioned again. Instead there's the romantic angle of who is Peter romantically interested in: Olivia or her sister? Hint: It will be Olivia, as was thoroughly demonstrated in episode 14. (That is, assuming consistency is in anyway important to the writers- a big assumption that has no evidence to support it in the 16 episodes so far.)

* The Cyborg Lady. Sure, she's been in other episodes, and has shown disturbing interest in Olivia- which we can assume has something to do with her Psychic abilities. But there's been no more about cybernetics, and we've gone two episodes without hide nor hair of her or her ominous megacorp.

* The Hairless Man. He's a gimmick ("See him in every episode!"), a shitty Where's Waldo where the camera tends to settle on the hidden person, to underline that he's "secret" or "important" or just because this is a prime example of stupidity and hodge-podge. More importantly, though he is in episode 14, and in a VERY unsurprising role, all the geniuses and investigators, who have all discussed/encountered him before never ONCE mention him when they meet a kid who is also hairless and "important". They've shot their wad with him, in a way, having had a full episode devoted to him; but that's bad planning, in my opinion, and so I consider him a dropped plot point.

* The Roguish Villian. Charming, star of City of Lost Children, and with an English accent, he was prominent in the episodes leading up to the break. Since then? Not even a mention of an off-camera hunt for him.

And that's the thing, innit:

1) No one is surprised, in the least bit, when they somehow try to tie a plot point back to something else- inventing a bunch of information that must be shoveled at the viewer like so much thought manure. Some of these plots are being PURPOSEFULLY ignored, at the moment, because hiding the obvious 4 episodes down the line makes it "smart", "savy", or in some other way, not obvious. (Uhm.... Hint: No it doesn't.)

2) All it would take, to force Olivia and Walter out of their Mary Sue status, and make the whole fucking show about a million times better, is to insert some throw-away lines about off-camera investigations. And guess what that would do? Allow the production staff to make web-based games, or text stories, or just blogs, for viewers (I hesitate to think anyone would actually be a "fan" of this drivel) to go exploring. In other words, it would allow them to move into the digital, interactive, internet age. (And you just KNOW the kind of people who like this shit are the weirdo internet conspiracy kooks who all think it's a fucking documentary- and all fo whom are avid members of ONLINE communities.)

Sense some hostility on my end? You might be a psychic- [insert irony here]- or it might be that I'm jealous people can write such sub-puerile bullshit and make a hella good living off it.

UPDATE: MEALWORMS ARE MEALWORMS, PUSHING THEM UP FROM A "CORPSE" AND CALLING THEM "MONSTER LARVAE" DOESN'T MAKE THEM NOT-MEALWORMS! (Technically, Mealworm Beetle Larvae.) Stupid, over-done, unsurprising, and shit-tastic. With as big a budget as they must have, you'd think they could use something other than standard horror staples as larvae for their "monster". Not to mention how stupid the whole concept is, scientifically speaking.
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All I have to say

Watch the first episode of Season 5 on Hulu.
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Your TV Shows

Dear Mr. Television Writer,

Waiting three episodes, or thirty, doesn't make the obvious any less so.

Jealously,
-Me
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The New Dick-shun-ary

Weekend - (n) (1) the time when real life always conspires to keep you from enjoying the only two-four days you're not supposed to be working. (2) when most accidental babies are made. (3) Usually the two days in the week when the most stuff, and the least productivity, happen.
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26 Seconds

Cool:


(And something we should all have known, understanding fluids and densities and buoyancy, but probably hadn't put together)

(Spotted over at BoingBoing)
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NoGodTube

In response to GodTube, and problems with YouTube (votebotting, flagbotting, etc) resulting in harassment and banning (with subsequent reinstatement), there is now NoGodTube.

[Personally, I would suggest atheists, agnostics, and others interested in using the site, also put their videos on YouTube, but encourage linking and embedding to NoGodTube. This way, we still have a voice in how the YouTube community continues to evolve, and we also have a place where our videos will be easy to find and available to anyone interested.]

So, in honor of the new site, I give you the following discussion between Blair Scott and Leonard Adams, recorded in February of 2008, about Black Atheists.

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Parts 2 and 3 (along with the URLs to all three) are below the fold...


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http://nogodtube.com/play.php?vid=128
http://nogodtube.com/play.php?vid=130
http://nogodtube.com/play.php?vid=131

Very interesting talk. Blair is a lot of things- Director, Founder, User of Shitty English Accents- leave him some comments, reviews, and feedback.
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YouTube and the JREF

If you haven't seen it elsewhere:



I don't agree, fully, with Randi; but I think the problems are with the DCMA, and YouTube's policies because of it.

UPDATE:
This, from /., seems to illustrate my point very well. It also suggests, to me, that everyone who wrote to YouTube saying they demanded an explanation and an apology was right to do so- it keeps them on their toes and, hopefully, squeamish about the policy so that they might change it if the legal situation ever changes.

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Great News!

From Bad Astronomy:

"Wow, I get wrapped up in my own personal world for a coupla days, and find out I almost missed this: the Iowa Supreme Court said that banning gay people from getting married is unconstitutional."


-or-

Displayed to EVERYONE...

Hidden, except for interested readers.
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Dollhouse

If you had the ability to erase a persona, then with the clean slate, add whatever persona you could design- and you'd shown you could design almost anything- who would you not design?

Topher? Designed. The Watchers? Designed.

If it was me, everyone working at the dollhouse would be designed. Everyone would be wiped, at some point. There'd be wheels within wheels within wheels, as Frank Herbert might say.


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Open Minded?

Blair posted this on the NAFA Forums
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