Sons of Anarchy was an incredible show last season. As a start-up show with a somewhat finite audience, SoA was underrated and under-hyped by critics. With characters and story lines based on Shakespeare plays, the show has integrated powerful themes into a weekly smorgasbord of badassery. Katey Sagal and Ron Perlman lead a strong cast of newcomers, and season one ended with a conflict on the horizon between Perlman's character Clay, and his fictional stepson, Jax. It was an emotional season finale, and the second season seemed poised to deliver in full.
Then the first episode of season two aired, and it ended not only with a bizarre and unprecedented alliance between a staunch good guy and an avowed white supremacist, but Katey Sagal's character Gemma was gang raped - yes, gang raped - by members of a white supremacist gang that's moved into the town. Before I go any further, I should say that Katey Sagal deserves a lot more recognition than she's getting for the job she's doing with this role. She's one of the most powerful and compelling matriarchs on TV right now. In any case, while the event has been worked into the overall plot of the show fairly well, such a disturbing scene is a far cry from where the show was last season. It seems like the writers weren't expecting the funding for a second season. Things are improving, but I hope the writers pick up the pace.
On the other end of the Ludicrous Scale, there's Fringe. I think I'm missing something with this show. I think the lack of power in Anna Torv's acting is part of it, but I think the disconnect between all the stories is the biggest downer. A simple one-liner in each episode's recap saying, "We call these events The Pattern!" doesn't cut it. They've demonstrated no connection between any of the bad guys; the German guy from season one just happened to show up in multiple episodes, and the bald dude who eats lots of pepper (and apparently resurrected Peter?) is possibly a really bad guy who's shown up in multiple episodes.
But after two dozen episodes, there's still little or no connection. Apparently, the writers wanted to write a "procedural" and make each paranormal event the disease that has to be cured each week, much like a medical problem in an episode of House, but I think the lack of an overarching goal just makes it feel like a sorry excuse to have all these (admittedly neat) incidents occur to the same group of investigators. It's a crappy way to write.
To sum up my feelings about Fringe, here's every episode broken into 10 lines:
1. Peter: "Holy HELL! That chick just caught fire, blew up, and destroyed an airplane with her mind, all while flying in the air!"
2. Broyles: "We're calling these events the PATTERN."
3. Olivia: "...What the hell is wrong with me?"
4. Walter: "This is fan-TASTIC!"
5. Peter: "Walter, stop eating that sandwich while you've got those bloody surgical gloves on!"
6. Olivia: "I wonder if these cases are connected."
7. Nina Sharp: "You know, agent Dunham, you're quite gifted!"
8. Olivia: *draws gun on guy trying to help her* "What HAPPENED to me!???"
9. Evil Doer of the Episode: "You'll never understand what I'm trying to do."
*gunshots*
10. Olivia: "I just want to know what happened."
...You and me both, Olivia. You and me both.
