Closet Sci-Fi Geek

Misha Collins on Supernatural

The folks behind Supernatural have been very kind to us ladies (and gay men) by providing not one, but two hunky leading men to enjoy. Season 4 now brings us another male hottie, Misha Collins, who plays an angel with sweet puppy dog eyes and hair slightly askew. His name is Castiel, and if you look at his pure angel essence, your eyes will burn out. (Disgusting, but kind of a neat special effect.) Now the demons are on the run, afraid that it’s all over for them. We shall see…

Supernatural has been one of my favorite shows since it premiered, but it never did quite make sense to me why they’d have so many demons running around with only humans to stop them. Were the angels out to lunch? To bring angels into the equation after three full seasons is the smart move on the part of the writers. This show never stays static or falls into the “demon of the week” trap. Supernatural displays the right balance between shows that can be watched as standalones and shows that carry forward the story arc. You can miss a few episodes but get back up to speed easily.

It’s too bad Supernatural is relegated to lower ratings on The CW, but I’m happy we have gotten at least four seasons out of it. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens this year with our new angelic helper.

Fringe: A First Look

Fringe is the latest tv show from J.J. Abrams, who has brought us great thrillers such as Lost and Alias. A cross between the X-Files and Alias, Fringe attempts to bring more of that “mysterious” television that has made Lost so popular. Fringe promises to cover topics from the X-Files but with that type of fast-paced action we’re used to seeing in Alias. Telepathy, teleportation, reanimation, dream communication, and other types of “fringe” science are what will be explored in the show.

With a nod to Lost, we have some sort of secret plot involving bio-terrorism and a large technology corporation. Strange icons (a butterfly, leaf, apple and frog) appear before commercial breaks, with a strange yellow dot that is sure to get fans wondering across the Internet.

Sadly, the premiere falls short of being brilliant. It is, in fact, convoluted and a bit unbelievable plotwise. (My feeling is that if you are going to cover fringe topics, then you better make your real world stuff believable to anchor the show.) We have a female FBI agent who is trying to save her dying sweetie. Somehow this leads her to release a crazy scientist from a mental hospital and set up an old lab in the basement of Harvard.

Watching this, you can’t help but wonder where the other scientists are who might be working on a cure, and how on earth can a scientist in a mental institution for 17 years be so comfortable with modern technology?

Other plot holes abounded: As an FBI “liaison,” she is sent with her partner to a storage locker to investigate a guy who boarded a plane in Germany. Already, this is not making sense to me. By the time the crazy scientist plugs her into a storage tank to get memories from her sweetie-in-a-coma, I had given up on the plot making any sense.

(And never mind that she missed the most crucial info once she was in her sweetie’s brain!)

The saving grace of Fringe is that the casting is terrific and the action is fast-paced. I’m hoping that once it gets past the weak pilot, it will turn into a decent show (like Eureka did). Sometimes pilots are horribly contrived just to get the setup going - once we get past that, it’s smoother sailing.

My grade: B-

The Spiderwick Chronicles

I just saw this on DVD. This is another children’s fantasy trying to ride on Harry Potter’s coattails. In brief: A family moves into a creepy old house, where a boy finds a book that opens the doorway to the fairy world.

The Spiderwick Chronicles is a fun movie, filled with action and paced well. The kids were great in it and the special effects were also pretty good. Where this movie disappoints is that it is way too rushed and does not take any time to explore the fairy world. Instead of letting us see the magic and wonder of the fairies, we are constantly bombarded with goblins and big nasty things snarling and chasing the kids.

This was a lost opportunity, I feel, and keeps the film from becoming a classic. Still, what we do see is entertaining and exciting (if perhaps a bit scary for really small children). Overall, I give it a B.