Pair of Fives

Intro/Overview

Hey there, it's been a while, hasn't it? I've been running around Houston like a chicken with its head cut off and then visiting family in Dallas. Meantime, I've finished both Fringe and Merlin. I'm going to go ahead and review the fifth Seasons of both shows today.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen all of Fringe or all of Merlin, be aware that I'm horrible at keeping spoilers out of my reviews.

Fringe, Season 5 - Review

I'm really pleased we got to see the dark future from that one episode in Season 4. I loved Season 5. I loved Henrietta. I loved September. I loved seeing older Broyles. I want to gush and gush about this season and how awesome it was. I'm extremely glad Fringe went out on a giant high rather than dragging out forever and ever like some other series I could mention.

All of that said, I do have some issues with how some stuff was handled. I did not at all like Peter almost turning into an Observer. I understand he was grieving and all, but you don't just stick unknown tech from the bad guys into your head! I think I yelled at him through my computer screen for the entirety of those episodes. Peter is generally smarter than that. Hell, he yells at Walter about that kind of thing! I was so annoyed with him.

I'm not sure exactly how I feel about Walter randomly reverting to his previous persona. That didn't seem realistic to me, even in the admittedly unrealistic landscape Fringe has built for itself. Largely, though, that's just a niggle I had.

My last issue is timelines. Honestly, I didn't think about it while watching Fringe, but the entire timeline the Observers are working with is messed up. Unless they're jumping time tracks, there's no way they could be getting things from the future or even going back there, especially after that radical of a timeline change. Like I said, I didn't really think about it while watching and I know that "time is more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-whimey...stuff" but it bugs me a little in hindsight.

Overall, I really enjoyed Fringe. The last season was like the last couple chapters of a good book. I did not want to stop watching for anything. I highly recommend that anyone who hasn't watched Fringe should go do so. It's brilliant.

Merlin, Season 5 - Review

So here's the thing, if you've ever been told the legend of King Arthur and Camelot you know what's going to ultimately happen at the end of the story. It's actually kind of annoying because, throughout the telling of the story, you're waiting for things to happen. When they don't or take an extremely long time getting there, you begin to get disappointed and you just want it to end already. That's what happened for me with Merlin.

Season 5 essentially takes us from post- Arthur and Guenevere's wedding to Arthur's eventual death. Because I knew going into Season 5 that it was the last season of Merlin, I spent much of the time wondering when exactly Arthur was going to die. That said, most of the suspense was taken away because a) I knew Arthur was going to die and b) I knew how he was going to die. Therefore I was quite annoyed it took as long as it did. Yeah, it was realistic for Morganna to make tons of attempts on Arthur's life, but the fact that a) it took so dang long to get to the actual death and b) no one was taking the constant threat to Arthur's life seriously bugged me to no end. I was ready for Arthur to just up and die by the middle of the season.

I wasn't at all pleased with the return and knighthood of Mordred. Yes, I knew he had to return in order to kill Arthur. Yes, I know that Mordred was a knight of the Round Table. Neither of these things mean I had to be happy about it. There's also the fact that you know he's a villain from the outset, even if the character himself didn't. Merlin's suspicion of him is, yes, founded mostly in prophecy. However, the viewer's suspicion of him is founded in the root legend. It makes all of his goodness, as it were, completely ridiculous.

I was also incredibly annoyed that Morganna was back. She annoyed me throughout the Season. I was even more annoyed when she showed up again in the last episode. I had honestly thought she'd died on the battlefield or at least that she wouldn't be showing up again. Morganna honestly went from being one of my favorite characters to one I wished would just go away in a matter of a season. Keeping her around as long as they did was annoying at best.

Speaking of the last episode, the entire last two-parter was too drawn out for my liking. This goes along with the whole "Arthur's going to die" thing. The fact that he stayed alive as long as he did was ridiculous. I also didn't like that Merlin was transformed into his older, more classic, self for the battle. That had me rolling my eyes. Yeah, it's classic but the Merlin of this timeline usually had to use an aging spell to look like that. 

My overall thoughts on Merlin as a whole are this: Merlin really would have been better served being a shorter, more adult, more realistic series than it was. It spent way too long getting where it was going. The villains were largely laughable and those that weren't were so annoying by the time they were disposed of. The only reason I stuck through the series was because I'm personally interested in Arthurian Legend. Seeing how things happened through another storyteller's eyes is kind of a thing in that regard.

Housekeeping

Now that the summer has really started up for my TV watching, I'm going to be slowing down a lot on blog posts. I know I said that before, but then there was the SyFy "spring" season so... yeah. I'm really slowing down the blog from here to September.

I am currently planning to hunt down Primeval: New World on my own to watch and I'll probably review that when I finish the series. Now, though, I'm off to finish watching SeaQuest DSV and Hemlock Grove.

Love ya, Jessie.

Fringe, Season 4 In Review

Intro/Overview

I have a sunburn. I'm kind of miserable because of it, but not as miserable as I usually am with these things. This one's tiny in comparison to full-back and arms, can't wear a bra or a shirt, need to slather myself in Lidocaine ones I've had in the past...

I've still not gotten around to reviewing this week's Warehouse 13 or Defiance. I have, however, finished Fringe, Season 4 and am well into Season 5 and I've written my review for that.

Spoiler Warning

The following review is for Season 4 of Fringe. I think it goes without saying that there will be spoilers if you haven't seen the previous seasons. I'm also horrible at keeping spoilers out of anything I do so... the following review is full of them

Fringe, Season 4 - Review

Oh My Gosh, So Much Stuff! The fourth season of Fringe was almost ridiculously full of twists and turns and stuff to talk about!

First, there's the disappearance of Peter. The entire timeline is rewritten and we get to see what happened because of Peter's absence. I found the episodes without Peter incredibly strange, watching it this time around. I think when Season 4 originally started I figured he was just being replaced with Lincoln... ya know, for the whole episode I watched before forgetting about it. Despite my initial lack of remembering Fringe was on, I've obviously dived back in with both feet. But I digress. I really enjoyed seeing how Olivia, Astrid, Walter, and Broyles interacted without Peter being there. The new dynamic was interesting to see while it lasted. I also really enjoyed how everyone reacted to Peter's reappearance, or rather appearance, in their case.

I found Olivia's journey through the season a bit odd, though the end of the season was spectacular. I'm not sure I really found the revised-timeline-Olivia that different from the one we had in the first three seasons. I did think giving Olivia a more personal relationship with Nina was nice. I thought the development of Olivia's powers through F-Nina's meddling was interesting, though it kind of killed some of the Olivia/Lincoln stuff that was going on. I would have liked to see that, even if it was only for a little bit before Peter came back on the scene.

Speaking of Peter: I think it might have been more interesting to see the rekindled romance between Olivia and Peter if Peter figured out on his own that he couldn't get back to his timeline, instead of the way it happened... Their whole thing had me yelling at the screen again, but at Peter this time, instead of Olivia. I think the best thing to come out of Peter and Olivia's relationship was Walter's reactions to it. I like that he went from really disapproving to extremely happy and proud about them being together.

I really enjoyed "Making Angels" where we got a better look/understanding of F-Astrid. The way she interacted with the team from the main universe was cool to see. I like that no one had trouble navigating her Asperger Syndrome. It was also really touching to see F-Astrid and Astrid interacting. Astrid is amazing. I don't think I was as attached to her before as I became after this episode. I was also really pleased to see F-Olivia getting along with everyone, especially Walter. That whole thing between them was really sweet.

I also really enjoyed "Letters of Transit." It was interesting to see a slice of the semi-apocalyptic future. Of course no future of Fringe is going to end up being perfect. However, I think the reveal of Etta's connection to Peter and Olivia was really obvious. I also thought that it was nice to get a tiny glimpse of a piece of the last episodes of the season was great. I had no idea what the significance of the bullet Etta was until that last episode.

My Closing Thoughts:

• I'm glad Lincoln found his Olivia.
• I'll miss the alternate universe and the "doppelgangers."
• Olivia's application of her powers was awesome.
• I'm surprised F-Broyles ended up being human. I was fully expecting him to be a shapeshifter.
• Not sure I liked William Bell being the Big Bad at the end.
• Naming your real kid after your nonexistant son was ridiculous.
• I thought the reintroduction of David Robert Jones as a villain was interesting and unexpected.

Love ya, Jessie.

Fringe, Season 3

Overview

Spoiler Warning followed by my Fringe, Season 3 review, followed by an Altador Cup Update, followed by the Housekeeping section.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen Season 1 - 3 of Fringe, the following review is not for you. I spoil stuff.

Fringe - Season 3 - Review

Early in the season, I seriously wanted Olivia to just deal with the fact that people can have feelings for multiple people, especially when those people look really similar/exactly like the person they have stronger feelings for. I completely understand this concept. I thought Oliva's bitching about F-Olivia went on entirely too long.

I thought the flashback episodes were great overall. I love the opening sequence for them and the child actors. I also quite like Elizabeth. She's a lot stronger character than I originally gave her credit for. Walternate was also quite a bit more interesting and less loathsome than I'd originally thought. Seeing him when he was vulnerable helped with that.

The last couple episodes of Season 3 were interesting, to say the least. I really enjoyed F-Olivia in her episodes. It was quite nice to see her as a mother/expectant mother. It was also really interesting to see her reaction to Walternate's betrayal/plan. I like that she'd rather try to ultimately fix the problem than have billions of innocent people killed.

The very last episode of Season 3, "The Day We Died," was very Days of Future Past. I liked how all the future incarnations were realized, though Astrid and Oliva's hair bugged me. Also, I'd probably have been more affected by Oliva's death if I hadn't been expecting it.

Overall, I thought the story-arc of Season 3 was well done. The alternate versions of characters were fun to watch and I really loved having Charlie back, even if I have no idea what's up with the spiders in his blood... that was weird. At the time of writing this, I'm well into Season 4, which explains and deals the aftermath of the end of "The Day We Died" so I'm just gonna call this review done now.

Altador Cup Update

The new brackets have been announced:

Alabriss Bracket: Meridell, Maraqua, Terror Mountain, Shenkuu, Virtupets Space Station, and Kiko Lake.

Menitheus Bracket: Altador, Roo Island, Darigan Citadel, Haunted Woods, Kreludor, and Brightvale.

Vaeolus Bracket: Tyrannia, Krawk Island, Lost Desert, Mystery Island, Faerieland, and Moltara.

Current Top Three Teams: Altador, Tyrannia, and Meridell

Shenkuu is currently 4th in the Alabriss Bracket and 10th overall. Today we play Meridell.

Housekeeping

Okay so, I've got a chapter left in my reread of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone so the review for that should be coming soon. Also, I wrote a little rant about Superman that I'll be posting probably tomorrow.

Love ya, Jessie.

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.

I Think This Line's Mostly Filler

Okay so... the end of the TV Spring Season has left me with little to write about. I don't have anything to review today and I spent yesterday watching random smattering of El Cazador de la Bruja, Dollhouse, and Buffy with my best friend. It's her birthday today, by the way. Happy Birthday, H-chan!

Anyway... I thought I'd do a little update-thing for what I've been doing besides watching and reviewing TV. Also, just a little SPOILER WARNING here, just in case. Not sure for what, but be aware that I'm horrible at keeping spoilers to myself.

TV SHOWS

Okay so... I've been watching Fringe on Netflix. I'm currently in the second season, watching some episodes I caught while they were actually airing. I love Fringe. The characters are amazing, the actors are brilliant, and I love the storylines. If you have a chance, I highly recommend checking out Fringe.

I've also been watching Hemlock Grove on Netflix. It's... interesting, to say the least. I'm not at all sure what exactly is going on, but the show's got me hooked on finding out. I will say that if you have problems with some gore, don't watch it. Like seriously, a couple episodes in, there's a werewolf transformation that's the goriest one I've ever seen.

Off of Netflix, I've been watching Orphan Black. I started watching out of curiosity On Demand and got hooked by the second episode. I'm completely caught up and I can definitely say that it's pretty darn awesome. The lead actress, Tatiana Maslany, is superb. She plays Sarah Manning, Alison Hendrix, Cosima Niehaus, Helena, and several other characters and pulls them all off brilliantly. At no point in the show does it seem like any of the characters are the same person. There are points where she kind of looks like Summer Glau, but I only really noticed that looking at screenshots so... yeah. If you're not watching Orphan Black, this is another one I highly recommend.

Yesterday I finished watching El Cazador de la Bruja. That was... not really the most satisfying ending, but I liked it. The entire show is essentially a series of "Monster of the Week" plot lines woven together toward the final couple of episodes where things come to a head. However, the last episode is essentially a time-skip forward a couple of months so... yeah... that was a little weird, but nice. I really liked El Cazador and I think if you're at all interested in a Western/Supernatural/Comedy with a bit of drama thrown in for good measure Anime, you'll like it, too.

MISCELLANEOUS

Outside of watching stuff, I've been keeping up with Hasbro's new Downloadable Paper Doll Ponies. I've got images of the finished products and what I've thought of them on my DeviantArt. Just click the "My Art" button up at the top there and you'll be able to find them pretty easily. They're cute, they're free, and they're more show-accurate than anything else Hasbro's really been putting out so... yeah.

I've also been playing/keeping up with several virtual pet games via Facebook. I've been playing Happy Pets and am currently trying to breed a bunch of giant pets. I've started doing OviPets again, which is being a giant time-suck, but there that is. I've been keeping up with PoneyVallee, a French-made game that's currently a little over a year old in it's new incarnation and not exactly the best thing on the planet, but I quite like it. Takes a lot of patience to do really, which I've noticed a lot of people don't seem to like so... yeah.

NEOPETS - ALTADOR CUP UPDATE

Now that the pre-tournament "press" stuff is over, sign-ups have begun. You might have noticed the radical change in appearance for the blog... yeah, that's basically me showing my support for Shenkuu. I'm signed up there so... yeah.

Oh, and another thing... Foltaggio has been replaced by Timu, the Lupe. She was on the team before, actually, but apparently we've re-signed her or whatever. It doesn't actually matter, just, ya know, updating you on that minor thing.

Go Sign Up! Go Practice! The Altador Cup starts next week!

Love ya, Jessie.

Kintaria: Fringe Division

Today, was much better than yesterday. I actually had a good night's sleep and I did something more or less productive.

First off, I watched the first episode of season four of Fringe (I'd already watched the second one when it aired). I have to say, those translucent people gave me the shivers. And grossed me out. Color me not happy. But the overall episode was cool. I dislike not having Peter around anymore. Oliva needs him. The team needs him. It just doesn't feel right with him gone.

The other productive thing I did has to do with that new link I added. I thought I'd added it earlier, to be honest, and I was surprised to not see it when I went to use it. If you're confused about what link I'm talking about, it's the new one I added to the "Links" page, to my Constructed Mythology Wiki. <-- Look, there it is again! Now, the thing I did, other than add that, was to write out the Mayonaka/Midnight Line's family tree as far back as four generations from now... ish. My story takes place in 2019, so "now" is relative. I probably won't have most of this information up on the actual Wiki, but some of it will show up. Not sure whether or not I feel like scanning the family trees...

Love ya, Jessie.