After a bumpy start of the first season, and first half that was far from the standards we used to get from J.J. Abrams, second half of the first season of Fringe was almost amazing. That earned the renewal for the series and second season was really great, one of the best TV series that is currently on the air. And the good news is that Fringe is renewed for the third season, and with rating expected to rise, Fringe is here to stay.

Production

Season 2 just like season 1 was is run by Jeff Pinkner while Orci and Kurtzman remained on the writing and creative team for the series. Visually, season 2 looks better, with better quality of special effects, considering the need to create a whole new parallel universe that is like ours, but not quite. Overall, great job with the production of the series for FOX. Michael Giacchino, who composed music for the pilot of the series is not longer involved, but music grew more diverse with this season, distinguishing it from Michael’s work.

Fringe Season 2 Cast

Story

Story is still largely connected to the pattern phenomena, but it’s more concentrated to events that deal with the parallel universe where we left special agent Olivia Dunham at the end of first season. Also, more and more is revealed of the work Walter Bishop did in the seventies and eighties and his deeper involvement with everything that was going on now. Mythology of the series is really great and very intriguing, and all the mysteries are almost comparable to mysteries of Lost.

Incorporation of the parallel universe, events causing the problems on the both side, and the cause for those events will all be explored this season. But, we will learn more about the Olivia’s childhood and experiments Walter and Bell run.

Characters

Anna Torv in the role of Olivia was good in the first season, but his character was not developed very well. That’s changed now, and she is easily my favorite character in the series even compared to Walter and amazing performance from John Noble. Walter is much more important to the story now, and Noble managed to add more to his already excellent acting in the first season. Finally, Lance Reddick got better material to work with for his character Phillip Broyles, and once again proved that he is a great actor. Joshua Jackson also got much better material to work with, his character is not fully formed, and even essential to the events. Last, while her character is smaller in the series, I really like Jasika Nicole in the role Astrid.

Conclusion

Fringe is now excellent series, and possibly the only one remaining that can challenge the Lost for throne. Hopefully, it will continue to perform well during next season, and with that ensure more seasons after. Mythology of the series is deep enough to explore for years. Season 2 DVD and BluRay are already available for preorder, so get it now with big discount, and wait for the september release.

Thankfully, last season of Buffy is not as bad as previous one. The apocalyptic ending of season 6 ended the storyline that was made a mess by adding geek villains, and the only good thing out of that was creating of Dark Willow. And the first bad thing in season 7, is that there is no more Dark Willow. Regular Willow was good character, but we all grew tired of her, and Dark counterpart was nice change, that didn’t lasted long.

Story

Again, decision to kill Buffy at the end of season 5, proved to be bad, because during season 6, writers didn’t manage to bring her truly back into the story, and not even the new story will not succeed at that. First part of the season has no clear direction and we have bunch of unrelated stories. Previously, series managed to make these type of storytelling interesting and best part of series, but this time, that fails for the most part. We are back in re opened high school with Dawn attending.

Second half of the season, brought back Gilles (not full time, but still), and the story (again) about opening of Hell Mouth. This will get us a lot more Slayers in training gathered by the Gilles and Buffy. We will also explore Spikes past and Anya’s back story.

(Surviving) Buffy Season 7 main cast

Characters

Spike is again used as comic relief, but also he had much wider story to play into and for the most part this character evolved a lot beyond initial setup. Good thing is that he will be back for one season in Angel spin-off. Anya is once again wasted this season. Instead of using her and expanding here role, writers decided to bring in bunch of Slayers to help Buffy fight the opening of Hell Mouth.

Overall, acting is bland and I can’t really single out anyone.  Bringing back Faith was also another bad move and totally unnecessary, but the writing has gone of the rail a long time ago and story didn’t make much sense at the times, so this is not big surprise.

Conclusion

Overall, I liked first 5 seasons of Buffy, but last two are just bad. Changing the production team and company after season 5 was not a good move, and series suffered because of that. This is another proof that most  TV series developers don’t know when to stop. Making seasons after seasons just to have something to air is proving very bad times and again.

So long to Buffy, and I recommend watching Angel, it’s better and more mature in all aspects.

For the most part, this season is pure mess, and overall very week, unfocused and very gloomy, spiritless if you like. Idea to resurrect Buffy was all handled vary badly. She is buried, but her robot version is around acting like her, and nobody suspects. Hello, she is dead, in a grave, does anyone reads the scripts? Also, some of the cast members leaving was not good sign either, and new beginning for Buffy was not as good as hoped.

The WB television decided to end the series after seaosn 5, because popularity has peaked and rating started to decline. Also, most contracts were ended, and new ones would require much more money to be invested, and The WB decided that falling ratings will not be enough. But, another network (UPN) decided to continue Buffy, and as it turns out, it wasn’t the best idea around. Rating continue to fall during sixth season and during seventh they were as low as when the series first started.

Story

Everything starts with Sunnydale turning into hunting ground for all sorts of demons, because the Slayer is dead. Giles left for England, and the remainder of Scooby gang got bored, and decided to resurrect Buffy. Two part premiere episode is total mess, way too long and boring and the rest of the season turned to be just like that and worse at times. Adding bad guys in form of 3 pathetic geeks was the worse idea yet and so many episodes got wasted on that. The only element of the story that managed to improve the overall rating of the season was the ending and creation of so called Dark Willow.

Characters

All main characters, staring with Buffy are just plain boring. All are gloomy, dark atmosphere all around, and very little fun. Anya is the only interesting character left, and despite bad writing, Emma Caulfield managed to give great performance. Alyson Hannigan also was above average this season mainly due to creation of Dark Willow character. Problem is that Dark Willow was too powerful, and she won’t be around for long.

Adding new adversaries in form of 3 geeks was just a big mistake. It killed the series and at times it reminded me of those awful Power Rangers series. Also, not even Spike character was any better, and his quest for soul that will be major plot element of last season didn’t helped. But, the biggest loss is the fact that Anthony Stewart Head left the series and appeared only in 2–3 episodes during sixth season.

To make things worse, Buffy character is so gloomy and whiny and boring all the time, that her depression almost crawls out of TV to consume the viewers. She is the weakest part of the series right now.

Conclusion

Well, all is said, and this is most likely the worst season of Buffy (at least for me it is). Next one will get a bit better, and since it’s the last, at least the producers managed to see that it’s better to end it before it get’s even worse.

Each season of Buffy had tougher and tougher enemies, greater evil beings and more challenge to Buffy and her scooby gang. But, this season seams to be toping all that, and even evil from last seasons is not as evil and hard to defeat. After countless classes of demons, we have finally getting a new bread in the form of gods. But more important than that is very interesting twist on the story and adding a new character…

Story

In form of the Buffy’s sister. Yes, this is a good one, since we all know that Buffy has no sister. But, writers managed to create a really interesting twist that allowed them to create a new story mechanism and new sect of priests that manipulated reality to create sister for Buffy. And, no one of them knows that things have changed, and they all think that Dawn (sister name) is real and has been among them her whole life.

Buffy, Season 5

This is very dark season, and that builds to the (shocking) finale that was initially planned as a series finale, until the series is picked up for another two seasons on another network.

But, no matter how dark it gets, there are plenty of fun episodes we grow accustomed to so far, starting with very season premiere and special appearance of famous vampire Dracula. Great episodes are also The Replacement, Triangle, I Was Made to Love You and Intervention.

Characters

Main addition to the cast is Michelle Trachtenberg in the role of Dawn, and for the most part she did a great job. I am glad that Amber Benson (plays Tara) and Emma Caulfield (Anya) finally got bigger roles to play. Spike is back and he is ambiguous as ever.

And in the role of evil god Glorificus we have Clare Kramer. Rest of the cast remained the same.

This may very well be the strongest season of Buffy, and in many ways it should be the last one. Continuing the story after this season was done badly and the series never was what was intended to be. For me, this is the last true season of Buffy. For all involved, it was better that some of the characters moved to L.A. to join Angel and his detective agency, because that series will grew stronger over time and better then Buffy was (again, maybe it’s only me).

Conclusion

If you liked the series so far, this is a season not to be missed. Season ended with episode number 100, and everything after that was not really needed, but reviews of last two seasons are coming soon.

High school is over (not to mention destroyed in the season 3 finale), and it’s time for Buffy to go to college. Much is changed over the summer after high school and not only that setting is changed, but once again mythology expanded to include secret military organization that hunts demons for experiments (OK, not a best direction, different at least). All in all, this is not my favorite Buffy season, but it’s close.

Buffy goes to college

Same formula as before, but this time a bit more serious, because we are in the college now. Story moves forward as Buffy tries to leave her house, tries to have a normal life, but finds out that it’s not that easy, even though Willow is having a great time. Major story line this season is existence of the secret military organization that hunts and captures demons and experiments on them. And I know, that’s more the story for a bad first person shooter video game than a TV series, on some level that works OK here (for the most part), because it will show what can happen when you add a crazy scientist to the mix, and explore the whole Dr. Frankenstein mythos.

Again, there are some amazing standalone episodes like  Something Blue, Hush, A New Man and Bear Bad that show the best side of this series: dark humor and pure fun.

Characters

Spike is back. And while he starts the season as bad as usual, plotting to kill the Slayer, thing will change for him, and we will get to see a different side of him. Willow is now a true witch, and Xander is working different job each episode, living in the basement. He is more comic relief now, than he was in any other season. Recurring character Anya (excellent performance by Emma Caulfield), a 1000 years old demon turned human who is afraid of bunnies is now regular cast member and a great addition to the story. A new cast member is Amber Benson, playing a witch Tara.

Buffy, Season 4

On the other hand, this is very important year for Buffy, because it’s a year of change, of growing up, finding new love after Angel, and I like the path Buffy traveled during this season.

Good thing is that Angel moved on (into own series, great and better in my opinion than Buffy), because both he and Buffy are too strong leads for one show. With two strong series running together, Joss Whedon managed to create something really special that will influence the whole generation of new TV series, comic books, novels and practically the new culture. Even if you don’t like Buffy or the whole vampires sub genre, you must admit the impact Buffy and Angel had.

Conclusion

All in all, this is very good season for Buffy, even with the military experiments story line. Get the full box set and start watching if you didn’t already.

Season 2 ended on the high note, with Buffy saving the world (again), and than she left Sunnydale. Angel is dead (or is he?) and the rest of the gang is fighting demons each night. There were some changes in the cast and introduction of new second Slayer. Most important thing about this season is expanding of the mythology and adding number of demons and even more evil forces all converging to town of Sunnydale.

Story

This is darker season than previous one, with several story lines that will lead to the ending and double episode and another Apocalypse. Return of Angel and his hidden relationship with Buffy, new and unpredictable Slayer turning to the dark side, city mayor trying to became a demon, all this will run for the whole season.

But, it’s important that writers decided to keep the formula from previous season and to create several great episodes that have nothing much to do with main storyline. Episodes like The Wish and Doppelgangland  deal with alternate time-line, Homecoming duel of Buffy and Cordy for the title are really great.

Characters

Willow role will finally get expanded and she is not going to be a geeky friend of Buffy. She will start to explore the witchcraft, and also will find love in form of a werewolf (previous season introduced Oz, played by Seth Green). Xanders relationship with Cordelia will evolve and eventually end with great episode The Wish.

Buffy, Season 3 Cast

Through the character Faith we will see that being the Slayer can be take a person to the dark path, and for the most part Faith will be the total opposite to Buffy. But, once again, I just can’t stand Eliza Dushku, and I don’t know why Joss Whedon casts her in most of his series. She is not bad actress, but she plays all her roles the same way and that gets really annoying. I wish they had someone else play Faith, because Eliza’s performance was plain bad in my book.

Angel transformation over this season was interesting and will open the door to spin off series after the end of this season.

Production

Visually, series has grown over first two seasons, and that was really needed since the new demons and creatures must look realistic. Still, CGI effects don’t look that good, and I expected them to be better.

Conclusion

Overall, this is good season, similar in many aspects to previous one, with more character development, more mythology and more substance.

And while season 1 was not so good, it managed to lay a solid foundation for the rest of the series (if you get past the martial arts stupid vampires and the great ease of killing them). Also, first season was too serious, and that’s something season 2 and later seasons will correct adding more fun into the mix. Main and recurring cast is expanded and several very interesting characters are added (and by that I mean Spike).

Story

While the first season was mostly single story line leading to killing the Master, primarily Buffy has episodic nature, but still having a main arc for each season, each one ending with some form of Apocalypse. Main focus of the arc of season 2 is the opening of one of the Hell dimensions and Angel loosing his soul in the middle of the season, and going back to being evil.

But, strongest side of the series are episodes that divert from main story line and deal with unusual and funny events or creatures. This started with episode Halloween, and costumes that transform the people that wear them. Similar type of episodes are Ted, Bad Eggs and my favorite Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.

During this season, we learn a bit more about Giles and his (dark) past, but that only scratches the surface, and it’s a real shame that only handful of episodes during the series deal with this character. At one point, there were plans to create a spin off series about him, but that never made it into production.

Characters

Many new characters were added in this season. David Boreanaz is now series regular, and his character Angel will be replaced by evil and soulless Angelus. To replace the Master, we get two new characters: Spike and Drusila. They both have a long history with Angelus and they will together plan the opening of Hell. Spike character will get huge fan base during this season, and it’s decided not to kill him off, but to expand his role in the later seasons. James Marsters is excellent in this role. Another great decision is to expand the role of Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) beyond the cliché character she was during the first season, and Cordy is definitively one of my favorite characters in these early seasons.

Buffy, Season 2 Cast

And while series is still plagued by inconsistent writing, too many clichés that will get annoying very quickly, improvement over first season is significant. Also, it’s very important to know that series intended audience is younger than I am, so maybe teenagers will find it much better than I did.

Conclusion

Much better season than first one, with at least 5–6 great episodes and very few really bad episodes. Adding Angel/Angelus twist and character of Spike will prove as excellent move and will ensure the success of the series. So, grab your Chosen Collection box set and start watching. Rest of seasons reviews are coming.

The Vampire Slayer is longest running vampire and supernatural series ever made, even though I think is far from the best. It’s a first major creation for Joss Whedon, and while I like some of his later work (Firefly), I never really watched Buffy and Angel series. So, I recently got my hands on the Chosen Collection box set, and decided to give Buffy a chance. And, overall, my opinion about the series is mixed at best.

First season is the shortest of one with only 12 episodes. And it started a whole new following that spanned not only to TV and long successful line of Buffy and Angel series, but expanded to other media. Joss created very complex mythology and there were not many similar franchises like Buffy was. In the years after Buffy, many vampire series were created, and only the latest one True Blood managed to remain on air for more than a season. Seven season of Buffy don’t mean that Buffy is the best, because I liked both Moonlight and Blade more, but Buffy was much different than any other similar series.

Story

Vampire Slayer is warrior born in every generation, always a girl, with super human strength, rapid healing and only one goal: to kill vampires and other demon folk. Series is set in small California town of Sunnydale. And this small town is a center of demon activities, with opening of Hellmouth in the middle of the local highschool. Vampire Slayer has a Watcher, someone who has a task on training the Slayer and watch over her.

First season will introduce main characters, Slayer’s small group that will later be known as Scooby Gang. They know all about Buffy and are helping her fight evil. And not all people that are helping her are human. During first season they are fighting the Master who is trying to open Hellmouth and start Apocalypse.

Characters

Sarah Michelle Gellar is in the role of Buffy, and for the most part I like her performance. She manages to play two sides of Buffy, a vampire slayer by night and a “normal” teenage girl by day. Her watcher, Rupert Giles, is working as a school librarian, and library will be a major gathering point and center of the series in the first couple of seasons. Watcher is played by the Anthony Stewart Head. Buffy’s best friends are Willow (played by Alyson Hannigan) and Xander (Nicholas Brendon). In the beginning they are mostly annoying, sort of comic relief sidekicks. Over the time, that will change and they will get much more developed and better roles.

Buffy, Season 1 Cast

Buffy has a helper on the other side in form of vampire with a soul Angel. He is featured in half of episodes in the first season, but his role will also grow.

And while I like the complex and deep mythology of the series, there are many things that I feel are bad. For the most part, vampires are presented as a joke, easy to kill, stupid, and all with knowledge of martial arts. Fights all look the same, and you will grow tired of them. And this first season is responsible for setting the bar too low when the vampires are concerned. Many elements of vampire mythology are under developed and (sorry) plain stupid (biting and blood drinking are very stupid). I feel that idea Joss had was very good but somehow it was watered down to unrealistic and mostly week villains. And while the story will get better as time goes on, this basic elements will remain week through out the series. I know that they wanted to make mix of teenage comedy and horror, but this has gone too far.

Conclusion

Fair start of the series, and maybe the weakest season of all. Anyway, if you get past the initial obvious mistakes and plot wholes, series is actually enjoyable and fun to watch. It will get better after first season.

Lone serial killer gathers bunch of people to the remote island, cuts the island from the world and than starts killing them one by one. This is the story plot used in the countless movies, but very rarely in the TV series (as far as I know, I haven’t seen such series before this one). Harper’s Island is more like a long movie with a lot of killings spread over the 13 episodes and with more than 20 people killed over the period of a week.

Story

It’s very hard to write original story that deals with serial killers and follow him killing people one by one, and on top having them restricted to a town or island in this case. So, don’t expect anything different with this series. Killer and over 20 victims  in a course of 13 episodes during one week. Story is set on a small island outside of Seattle during the wedding. All guests arrive together with a boat to a small town of Harper’s Island where bride’s (Trish) family has a big estate. Groom (Henry) used to work for his wife to be family. Henry’s best friend Abby lost her mother 7 years before to serial killer and the wedding was first time after her mother’s death that she returns to the island.

During first few episodes you will learn about events from previous serial killings. But, many things will remain hidden until the very end of the series keeping viewers in suspense. But, there is no time to waste and people will start dieing during the premiere episode. And until the end, at least one of the characters will be killed in each episode.

Abby and Henry

Don’t expect story to be too complicated, and it was not meant to be. It’s about pure entertainment, and finding new ways to kill someone. But the pacing and the structure will allow you to think about who’s next between the episodes and try to put all pieces together and find out who’s killing the wedding guests.

Characters

While the story is nothing new, and not very original, characters are developed nicely during the course of the series, and cast for those characters is excellent. Beautiful Elaine Cassidy is truly the star of the show in the role of Abby, and most believable and consistent performance in the series. Christopher Gorham as Henry is OK, but there was something off in his performance that bugged me from time to time, he doesn’t look the role he is portraying. Without going into the rest of the big cast, I think that cast is best part of the series. No big stars in it, but very good. I will surely keep my eye on more work also from Katie Cassidy, Gina Holden and Matt Barr.

Fans of Supernatural will be pleased to see Jim Beaver in the role of sheriff, and he is really good here also, maybe even better than in Supernatural.

Production

CBS did a great job with making the series and it surely looks expensive. Ratings were high at the start, but have fallen after few episodes. CBS moved the show to Sunday, and the ratings fall further. But, still they have aired the series. This is the only series planned, and I really don’t see any way to make more of Harper’s Island since the story is resolved. Maybe something similar would be nice to see sometime in the future.

Conclusion

Not the best of the shows, but very good in what was intended to be. You will surely enjoy the suspense and will be entertained during all 13 episodes. I have. Get the DVD Edition and check it out for yourself.

Vampires? Supernatural? Both movies and series of the genre are popular ever since TV first started. And while some believe in the the forces of the supernatural, most of the people are skeptic, but still like to see a horror series on the TV. And while there are many adaptations of the original vampire and Dracula stories, this one is different. While you still have many familiar vampire elements, parts of the basic myth are changed.

Story

True Blood is based on the book by Charlaine Harris called The Southern Vampire Mysteries. And there are some major changes of the vampire myth: vampires are immune to the cross and garlic or holy water, and they can be seen in the mirror. And also, they living freely among humans. All thanks to breakthrough Japanese scientist made in creating synthetic blood that allows to vampires to feed on it without need to harm humans. And with that they can live like a normal people. We see them trying to fit in and live normal life despite the fact that most of them are hundreds of years old and killed many people to feed themselves.

Sookie and Bill

Main story is set in the small fictional town Bon Temps in Louisiana, and vampires are not only strange beings there. Sookie Stackhouse is waitress in the local bar, but she also has telepathic abilities and she can her thoughts of everyone around. She is sort of a outcast and people in the town are afraid of her, as much as she is afraid of them. But, one day a vampire arrives to town, different, because she can’t hear his thoughts. His name is Bill Compton and he is 140 years old. She spends a lot of time in his company because here mind is at peace with no external influence.

Series starts slow, and first few episodes are long introduction that at times get boring, but once you get over the initial episodes, series gets much better.

Cast and characters

Stephen Moyer is in the role of vampire Bill and he looks very believable in the role. In the role of Sookie, we have oscar winner Anna Paquin. Rest of the cast is also good, and over the course of first season several new roles where added as the story evolved.

Production

Series is created by Alan Ball for HBO, and premiere season had 12 episodes. Due to high ratings as expected, series was renewed for second season. And soon after second season ended, HBO confirmed 2 more seasons. Visually, series looks really good, but on the other hand is very graphic with a lot of blood and violence. As usual, HBO managed to make breathtaking intro. Among many awards series won for the first season most important are Emmy and Golden Globe.

Conclusion

I really like this type of supernatural thrillers, and after I got over the initial slow start, True Blood developed into a great addition to the genre.

I’m not going again into the cancellation policies TV companies have, but canceling Invasion was a big, big mistake. But, at least they gave advanced warning to creators that managed to wrap some of the story lines by the end of the only season. Still, it ends with cliffhanger and was meant to continue on CW, but they decided not to pick it up. Series is created by Shaun Cassidy, and aired on ABC in 2005 and 2006.

Story

Invasion is set in small town in Florida after the devastating hurricane, that brought something strange and out of this world, creatures that live in the water. During first several episodes we don’t see much of them, but the story will uncover what’s happening with the creatures and will show that they have been around for a long time. But, the things will culminate fast, and will lead to great finale of the season that will for sure leave you wanting more.

Invasion Cast

With some episodes, story can be slow paced, but it’s complex, and has many characters, and we need as much back stories as we can get. From time to time, series uses flashbacks to fill the gaps and all that was done great and helped to build the mystery surrounding the yellow creatures.

Cast

Cast is great. Starting with little girl Rose (played by Ariel Gade), and older Kira and Jesse (Alexis Dziena and Evan Peters) to truly amazing actor William Fichtner in the main role of sheriff Tom Underlay, who is without a doubt main force driving the series. Eddie Cibrian is really good in the role of Russell. Kari Matchett plays Dr. Mariel Underlay, and she is Russell’s ex wife, and they have two kids together. Russell’s pregnant wife Larkin Groves (beautiful Lisa Sheridan) is journalist, and her brother Dave (Tyler Labine, best known for his role in the series Reaper) is full of conspiracy theories and he is the first that starts to uncover what’s going on in the town and the truth behind the yellow creatures.

A lot was done to develop main characters during the first half of the season, and they succeeded in creating believable and passionate characters that offer plenty for everyone, even if you don’t like science fiction.

Production

Invasion looks really good, and it was intended to be another high budget series in the vain of Lost. And it started really great with 17 million viewers following the second season of Lost. But, ABC changed it schedule several times, and the ratings were falling. In the time of cancellation, Invasion had between 6 and 10 million viewers, but ABC still decided to axe it.

Conclusion

Invasion is really great. It’s not just sci-fi, it’s a drama and thriller, mystery and even horror. At least, the only season can be seen as a complete work that unfortunately ended too soon. Grab the DVD box set and watch it, and see  for yourself.

Kingdom Hospital is mini series developed by Stephen King based on the original TV series Riget. Riget is created by Lars Von Trier, who is also credited as producer and consultant on Kingdom Hospital. Stephen King was impressed by original series, and wanted to do a remake for US audience, but basic story and many minor story elements and characters are part of the new version. In some regards this remake is even better.

Story

I really liked Riget (both parts), but it’s not series easy to watch. It’s shot using different sepia filters to produce strange visual effects, and some of the story elements are not so easy to follow. Kingdom Hospital is based on the same premise, but King added many new elements that are maybe even typical for US shows, and the goal was to appeal to broader audience. It’s longer than original Riget I, and has total of 13 episodes (two of them are feature lenght).

Some of the new story elements really work well, with adding of the anteater creature that serves as a guardian of the gates of death (done as a CG animated character). And he is paired with a dead girl that rings for the dead and that needs to be put to rest and stop the events that unfold in the underground of the hospital. King added few more elements to make more standalone episodes to satisfy the ABC, and he still managed to fit all this independent stories into the main one. Still, story is still morbid, and very funny, and that is done with great cast, excellent choice of music and excellent writing staff (including King himself and his wife Tabitha).

Main Cast

Characters

King added new character that is in the core of the story in form of Peter Rickman (played by Jack Coleman), and this character is based on the Stephen King himself, and starts with the car accident, pretty much the same as the accident King had. Jack Coleman did very good job with his character. All other characters are mostly from the original series, and they even have similar names as a homage to it.

I would like to single out two characters: Dr. Hook (played by Andrew McCarthy) and Dr. Stegman (played by Bruce Davison). They are in constant confrontation the whole series and both of them are amazing and real driving force of the series.

Conclusion

Kingdom Hospital is excellent mini series, with many essential King elements, but still a different type of work for him, simple for the fact that it’s not his original work. It’s scary and funny in the same time, has great characters and it’s really fun to watch. Totally recommended.

J.J. Abrams is a co-creator of this new science fiction series. But Fringe is not only Sci-Fi, it’s much more diverse and can’t be categorized by only one genre. In the same time this is a horror and police thriller that deals with paranormal events. After the huge success with Alias and more recent Lost, everyone anticipated what this new series is going to be. And at first Fringe was kind of a disappointment.

Story and characters

Anna Torv stars as an FBI agent Olivia Dunham that due to the strange circumstances ends up in a special division that deals with unexplained phenomena. She has a unique help from the mad scientist Walter Bishop (great work by John Noble) and his son Peter (Joshua Jackson). The concept is not unique, but writers managed to add some new elements into the mix and few really interesting cases. Also, main storyline that connects the events is also well written.

Major problems

The first half of the series is incoherent and at moments boring with very little traces of what the point of the series is. Bad character development is also a problem for the first half, and the only noteworthy thing was performances by Torv and Noble. Also, most of the ‘science’ looked just bad and very unbelievable and that also added to overall bad start for Fringe.

Fringe cast

But, series had decent ratings, and FOX decided to give it a chance ordering a full season. And after that things began to change. More of the characters back stories emerge, they connections to the events and main storyline finally began taking shape. Now, with new found focus episodes got better and much more interesting to watch. But still, overall I had to give it much lower rating because of the first half. Much better ending ensured that series is picked for another season and in a few weeks season 2 will start.

Production and visuals

As expected from Abrams, Fringe is done very well. Special effects are really excellent and so is the music. Only problem with the music is that sound too much as the music of Lost, most likely due to the fact that is composed by the same man, and I expected to hear something new and different.

Conclusion

All in all, Fringe is good. I am looking forward to the second season to see if the improvements we saw in the second half of the first season will continue. In the meantime, grab BluRay or DVD of the season 1 and give it a try.