Posted May 23rd 2009 6:15PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Programming, OpEd, 24, Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy, Spoilers Anonymous, Casting, Chuck, Fringe
This is
Spoilers Anonymous, a weekly column here at
TV Squad where we supply you with the dirt on some of the more popular shows on the air. We'll never put spoilers up here on the main page in order to help the reformed stay unspoiled. If you have anything to add to the group, feel free to step up and let yourself be heard, either with our
tips form or by emailing us at
tvsquad at gmail dot com, or call and leave a message at
(775) 640-8479. Your anonymity is guaranteed, if you wish to remain as such.
This week we have:
Glee, 24, Melrose Place, Grey's Anatomy, Chuck, Scrubs and Fringe (SPOILERS FOLLOW!)Continue reading Spoilers Anonymous
Posted May 18th 2009 12:59PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Programming, 24, House, The Simpsons, Pickups and Renewals, Upfronts, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fringe, Dollhouse
Fox showed some surprising stability in its schedule (our network is growing up) for the 2009-2010 season. But they are bringing in four new comedies, two dramas and a late night Saturday show.
Returning Summer: Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, Don't Forget the Lyrics!, So You Think You Can Dance Returning Fall/Winter: 24, American Dad, American Idol, Bones, Dollhouse,, Family Guy, Fringe, House, Kitchen Nightmares, Lie to Me, The Simpsons, 'Til Death (for some reason),
So You Think You Can Dance (yeah, two separate seasons summer and fall)
Gone: Do Not Disturb, King of the Hill (though there's still episodes in the can which will air sometime next year),
Prison Break (a 2-hour film is being produced that may air next year),
Sit Down Shut Up, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles New: Brothers, The Cleveland Show, Glee (sneak peek tomorrow),
Human Target, Past Life, Sons of Tucson, The Wanda Sykes Show (late night Saturdays)
The schedule and some details on the new shows after the jump.
Continue reading The Upfronts: Fox
Posted May 13th 2009 7:04PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Programming, OpEd, The Amazing Race, The Apprentice, CSI, House, Lost, Smallville, Grey's Anatomy, The Office, 30 Rock, Reality-Free, Fringe, The Big Bang Theory, Parks and Recreation
Do the American people really like watching their favorite shows this way? Assuming you have more than one or two shows you enjoy following, this week is daunting to say the least and beyond exhausting. Just last night I had a three-hour finale of
The Biggest Loser and that awesome
Fringe finale. In the past few days we've said goodbye to
The Amazing Race,
The Apprentice,
Cold Case,
The Unit,
Brothers & Sisters,
The Big Bang Theory,
House and
Castle. And that's just on the major networks.
Over the next two days we have
America's Next Top Model,
Lie to Me,
Lost,
Bones,
My Name Is Earl,
Smallville,
Parks & Recreation,
CSI,
Grey's Anatomy,
Hell's Kitchen,
The Office,
Supernatural and even
CSI: NY on a special night. And it goes on through the weekend. In an era where ratings are slipping, how can it make good business sense to put all of these finales on against one another all within a few days of each other. I know they've always done that, but I just don't think it makes sense anymore.
Continue reading We're barely halfway through and I've already got finale fatigue!
Posted May 13th 2009 2:27PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, 24, Lost, Doctor Who, Heroes, TV Squad Lists, Reaper, Reality-Free, Fringe, TV Squad Ten
Everybody loves a good mystery. Well maybe not everybody if the ratings for
Harper's Island are any indication. But mysteries and suspense have been a part of television since it's inception. It's one thing for the plot to be full of mysteries. Things like "Who shot J.R.?" can become a part of popular culture. But J.R. himself wasn't a mystery, we knew him pretty well.
But there are those characters we don't know much about. Think about Benjamin Linus from
Lost when he first appeared as Henry Gale among the Flight 815 survivors. There were so many secrets and mysteries surrounding him that we couldn't take our eyes off of him when he was on-screen. Well Ben's story may be more or less told, though something tells me there's still more to be gleaned, but there are plenty of familiar faces on television with not so familiar back-stories. And while Ben didn't make the list, that doesn't mean
Lost went unrepresented.
If you just want the list, click here.Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Most mysterious characters on television
Posted May 13th 2009 2:27PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, 24, Lost, Doctor Who, Heroes, TV Squad Lists, Reaper, Reality-Free, Fringe, TV Squad Ten
10 - Dr. Helen Magnus (
Sanctuary, SyFy)
9 - Captain Jack Harkness (
Torchwood, BBC America)
8 - Castiel (
Supernatural, The CW)
7 - Tony Almeida, (
24, Fox)
6 - Angela Petrelli, (
Heroes, NBC)
5 - The Devil (
Reaper, The CW)
4 - Christina Scofield (
Prison Break, Fox)
3 - The Doctor (
Doctor Who, SyFy)
2 - Richard Alpert (
Lost, ABC)
1 - Walter Bishop (
Fringe, Fox)
Want to see the pictures or leave a comment? Click here.Posted May 13th 2009 8:27AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Fringe
(S01E20) Oh my. I wondered how they would wrap things up (or not wrap things up) in the season finale, and they definitely delivered the goods. It's no big shocker that we're dealing with an alternate reality; most of us probably saw that coming. But there was that one moment that made me gasp.
We knew Walter had done experiments on Peter when he was a kid, but it never occurred to me that Peter might have died -- or maybe it was just buried in the deep recesses of my brain. When Walter visited the graveyard, I fully expected to see his wife's name on that gravestone. Instead, we saw Peter's.
Continue reading Fringe: There's More Than One of Everything (season finale)
Posted May 7th 2009 4:29PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Lost, Reality-Free, Fringe
That last episode of
Fringe just will not let go of me. Tapping into parallel worlds, and then hearing from Walter that they're real... The impending conflict that he and Bell were preparing Olivia and the other children test subjects for in Florida... The Observer coming to collect Walter because it's time... You can feel it. Things are coming to a head and it reminds me of that feeling I had toward the end of the first season of
Lost.
Back then it was just a show about bizarrely connected people on a weird island who somehow survived a plane crash. We certainly didn't know 90 percent of what we do now, but we could feel all that story percolating. Mid-2008
Fringe was just a little show about weird happenings and I kept waiting to get more into the big conspiracy, the "what's this show really all about?." Now Nina Sharp of Massive Dynamics is scared, and The Observer is telling Walter that it's time. Oh the pot is stirring my friends.
Fringe is one of the best hours on television right now, and it could well be poised to be one of the all-time greats!
Posted May 6th 2009 8:31AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Fringe
(S01E19) It's an interesting premise. That we can have several different alternative realities, and if the brainwaves are hitting just right, we have the option to see more than one reality. Or in this case, more than one charred body.
I must say, Olivia handled it way better than I would have. I would have been FREAKING OUT and curled into a fetal position if the whole time-shift thing was happening before my eyes. But she took it all in stride, using it to help solve the case and find the twin sister in the lab. But oy ... what a shocker ...
Continue reading Fringe: The Road Not Taken
Posted May 4th 2009 7:13PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free, Fringe
We all knew this was a lock.
Fans of Fox's
Fringe can now
officially look forward to season two.
The show was a hit right out of the gate, garnering huge numbers for its series premiere. It's currently the "number one show for adults 18-49," according to Fox. If that doesn't guarantee you a renewal, then I don't know what will.
Aside from the show's great cast, its quirky sense of humor, and its compelling mysteries, there are two reasons I'll stick with
Fringe through season two: Producer J.J. Abrams and Leonard Nimoy.
Star Trek's Nimoy is slated to be around for an episode or two (hopefully more) next season as Massive Dynamic founder William Bell. Nimoy's return to television is reason enough to tune in.
Continue reading Fox renews Fringe for season two
Posted Apr 29th 2009 8:00AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Fringe
(S01E18) We're definitely getting closer to some sort of revelation on Fringe. Last week, we heard Leonard Nimoy's voice on a videotape as William Bell, talking with Walter about a young Olivia in the room with them. This week, we learned that William Bell, founder of Massive Dynamic and the richest guy in the world, is the person funding ZFT. But it's not all that shocking. We've pretty much known all along that he's involved, unless ... there's some big, new twist about his involvement yet to come.
Continue reading Fringe: Midnight
Posted Apr 23rd 2009 2:21PM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free, Fringe
When Fringe premiered last September, critics around the country distilled the new sci-fi drama down to one simple sentence: it's like a cross between Alias and The X-Files. At the time, that's what pretty much guaranteed I'd tune in. I still found that assessment a little odd since I always thought Alias had a healthy dose of influence from Mulder and Scully to begin with.
Regardless, Fringe clearly took a few cues from both shows in many ways. However, after this past Tuesday's episode ("Bad Dreams", S01E17), I stared to get a little annoyed. I've seen this before.
Continue reading I'm starting to think I've seen Fringe before...
Posted Apr 22nd 2009 8:04AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Fringe
(S01E17) I really love it when Olivia works someone over, like she did in the above photo. But wow, this episode of
Fringe was one psychological creep-fest from start to finish. As with
last week's episode, they really had us feeling like something eerie was about to happen, and sure enough, a bunch of eerie stuff DID happen.
Just the idea that someone could possess mind-control abilities is creepy, and now it looks like at least one of our main characters -- Olivia, a.k.a. "Olive" -- might be in that situation. The scene on the street with Nick gathering followers and taking them to the rooftop gave me goosebumps. Olivia was really in a tough spot. Either shoot the guy with the mind-control powers, or let everyone die.
Continue reading Fringe: Bad Dreams
Posted Apr 21st 2009 5:02PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on the Bigscreen, Lost, Reality-Free, Fringe
J.J. Abrams is the guest editor of
the latest issue of Wired, and it's not only filled with info about the new
Star Trek film and
Lost and
Fringe, it has a bunch of puzzles scattered throughout that might actually give some clues to
Lost. Inside there are many oddities and games: missing text on page 46, and Hurley's lottery ticket numbers (and other numbers) on pages 104 and 105. As for
Star Trek, there's a six page comic included.
Here's Abrams talking about the issue.
Continue reading New issue of Wired might include some Lost, Star Trek clues
Posted Apr 16th 2009 5:09PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Reality-Free, Fringe
I'm not talking about a newspaper, I'm talking about the mysterious bald guy on FOX's
Fringe.
Alert viewers have probably noticed the character on the show. You can often see him lurking in the background, as part of a crowd, or just walking by (as well as other, more obvious scenes). Now the character has made his way off of the show and is lurking about on other FOX shows, including
American Idol, NASCAR coverage, even during NFL games.
Continue reading Have you seen The Observer?
Posted Apr 15th 2009 8:02AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Fringe
(S01E16) "Psychedelics? No, not since Thursday." - Walter, responding to Peter's question as to whether he's on something. Fringe just gets better and better! This week's episode was one big, long freak-show-horror-movie-mystery. Although they once again didn't have anything about the pattern or the missing Nina Sharp or Massive Dynamic, we know it's coming. We know this because
Leonard Nimoy is on tap to play the mysterious William Bell, Walter's long-lost lab partner. Wheeeeee!!!!
Continue reading Fringe: Unleashed
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