Monday, June 3, 2013

Black Fringe

Okay so... I caught the season finale of Orphan Black and am currently 5 episodes into Fringe Season 3. I thought I'd do a little post reviewing the season finale of Orphan Black and Season 2 of Fringe. In addition, there will be an Altador Cup update from the Shenkuu perspective and a little Housekeeping section below the reviews.

Oh, and I'm writing this running on less sleep than I usually do, so please excuse any typos and rambling. Thanks. Also, swearing happened. Deal with it.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen the most recent episode of Orphan Black or Season 2 of Fringe, please leave the blog now and come back later... or skip down to the sections below the reviews. My reviews always contain spoilers because I'm horrible like that.

Orphan Black - "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" - Review

This episode was a mixed bag of tied up loose ends, not-quite reveals, and some emotional stuff. I'm not sure quite how to feel about it other than to say that I enjoyed the ride.

I thought the scenes between Sarah and Helena were fun to watch, as always. I thought that Helena did a semi-good job impersonating Sarah when their mother came to visit the apartment. The redness around Helena's eyes gave her away, to me at least, immediately. I thought it was interesting that Helena slipped Sarah's ropes earlier in the episode. It was fun watching her get out of that while Sarah was being arrested upstairs.

I, for one, don't trust Delphine despite her assurances to Cosima that she's changed sides. I did, however, find their scenes together quite realistic. I think that, if Delphine isn't lying through her teeth, she and Cosima make a cute couple and a good team. Speaking of good teams, I'm glad Paul ran away with Sarah at the end there. I've always liked Paul and I'm glad he's staying loyal to Sarah.

Alison's section of the episode was... weird. I did not actually expect her to just stand by and let Aynesley die. Also, why the heck was the switch for the garbage disposal all the way over on the wall? Surely they could have rigged something closer to the sink, ya know, for safety reasons. I thought it was interesting that, even though it was really obvious Aynesley wasn't the monitor, Alison still let her die. Mind you, Aynesley was a giant bitch so... there's that.

I'm not sure how I feel about the final reveals of the episode. It makes sense that the clones were patented, though why you'd imprint that where no one can actually see it and then have to decode it if they found it, I don't know. As for Mrs. S... I'm not sure I like what was implied about her, especially since she obviously cares for Felix, Sarah, Kira, and even Alison. If she was the one who took Kira and ran, I think she'd have taken her to a safe place. I think the trashed house is a misdirect to us and Sarah... or just Leekie's company making sure nothing was left behind.

Season 2 of Fringe

Even though I'm just now actually watching Fringe in a serious manner, I'd actually seen a good chunk of Season 2 before now. This may or may not make anything I'm about to say better for rewatch or worse because I can't half remember what went on...

Anyway... this season is where Fringe dives headlong into the Alternate Universe stuff, which I love. There's a big focus on the Cortexiphan "kids" and their developing powers as well as their history in Walter's lab. This includes some episodes in which I was legitimately covering my eyes because some of the stuff seriously grossed me out.

I thought the further development and then destruction of Walter and Peter's relationship was very well done. I thought the Olivia/Peter relationship got pulled really suddenly into a romance, even though it was more clear to me that they were just close friends... but apparently TV ratings depend on romance so... there's that to bring into consideration. I'd say things about Astrid and Broyles, but they're pretty much static characters so... we won't go into that.

What I really wanted to talk about was the really abrupt stuff at the end of the season. Most of the season was world/character building that could have led really organically into the jump to the other universe. However, what I would have liked to be an organic lead-in wasn't. Suddenly, in the last two episodes, we've got people jumping to the alternate universe and the switch of Olivias. Yes, two of the Cortexiphan "kids" were set up earlier, but we never really got what happened to them after they were sedated... and then there was the random fire chick. While I enjoyed the semi-X-men feel to their powers and short development, I wasn't really connected to them in any way. I was honestly more attached to Alter-Charlie than to any of the Cortexiphan "kids."

Other than the abrupt ending, I really enjoyed Season 2. I'd probably say more, but as I can't half remember everything... I'd better not.

Altador Cup Update

Round One, Day Three:

Shenkuu won against Moltara on May 31st. Like seriously wiped the board with them in every game. However, things have taken a serious downswing since then. We lost to both Altador and Roo Island pretty spectacularly.

The losses dropped us from third in the Vaeolus Bracket to Forth. Hopefully, we'll do better against Faerieland today.

Housekeeping

I'm totally planning to watch Warehouse 13 and Defiance this evening. However, as it's only 4:30 and I'm running on fumes, I might not do Initial Reactions for Warehouse 13. Rest assured, though, I will be continuing my reviews tomorrow.

Also, I found out that SyFy is going to be airing Primeval: New World starting this Saturday. As I haven't seen it and really loved Primeval, I'll definitely be watching that and most likely doing Initial Reactions for it. Hopefully, it'll be good. And yes, I read the Wiki article and know it's only got one season, but, as Firefly taught us, that means nothing. I might also check out Sinbad but I'm not sure yet.

Love ya, Jessie. love0052 Free Emoticons   Love

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