Okay, we’ve finished watching the first two seasons of Fringe and now we are going to take a break for about a month. Use the time to catch up on your seasons *OR* to think about whether there’s a season of something you’d rather watch one or two episodes of every week. (Though, if it’s that latter one, I reserve the right to ask the most vocal proponents of watching, say, NCIS to take over the reigns of handling the weekly discussion posts.)
Do we want to watch Fringe Season 3? Do we want to watch something else? (Is this something we should shrug and consider a noble failure as experiments go?)
Lemme know!
I want Fringe season 3. It is still getting better!
I’d like to watch Fringe Season 3.
I’d also love to have Babylon 5 for a bookclub once we’re done Fringe, but that’s probably obscure enough to be unlikely. I don’t know if you can even find it online.
Confession: I’ve never seen Babylon 5.
I’ve walked through the room when it was on and I have an impression where I say “Vir? Vir is weak.” but don’t know who I am impersonating when I say it.
So it might be a good suggestion.
You’re impersonating Londo Mollari, and yes you should do Babylon 5.
Yeah, Londo always struck me as the only guy in the room who knew how the world worked.
I’m not surprised. I only actually saw the 5th season (which many fervent fans on the show prefer to ignore) when I was a teenager, during a brief period when we got extra cable channels for free to try to convince us to add them to our cable package.
I remembered the show with enough fondness to buy seasons 2-4 last year when I found them on sale.
The first season is not supposed to be as good as the others, but you kind of need it as an introduction. The show’s mostly notable for 1) having a MAJOR plot arc – basically every single episode connects into the larger story somehow and 2) having complex and interesting characters. And also for quite a lot of truly hilarious moments. Special effects are a bit dated, though.
The special effects were dated when the show was on the air, heh.
But the makeup effects were always top notch!
The CG is a little painful, to be honest. It’s one of the main reasons that I wasn’t sure if I would ever watch that show. One of the reasons I think a bookclub would be good is that I think it’s enough to tilt me into watching something I think I would, in the end, enjoy.
Katherine, I have had several people recommend B5, but I tried the first season and it was pretty painful acting- and writing-wise I thought. Does it get better? Should I try S2 onwards? I loved Firefly and the BSG reboot and OG Star Trek, if that gives you an idea of my tastes.
Yes, Babylon 5 gets better. You have to dedicate yourself to the politics to get into it, as that’s the best part of the series, really.
Uh, oh. No politics.
OK, OK, I trust you guys. I’ll see about getting S2 from Netflix.
Weirdly, the ‘aliens’ (Londo and G’Kar I think?) seemed much better actors than the ‘humans’ – whether that’s an actual comment on the actors’ respective abilities, or whether the makeup does some of the acting for them (or conversely, frees them up to really commit to the part and chew that scenery) I don’t know.
All of the humans get better.
Remember how clunky season one of Star Trek: The Next Generation seemed? The first season of B5 is like that. Sinclair is a bit too stilted.
The funny thing about those to is they are/were both Shakespearian actors.
I think a lot of it is to do with the talent and skill of Peter Jurasik (who played Londo) and Andreas Katsulas (who played G’Kar). Seriously, Jurasik has to act with a giant comb on his head and he still manages to convey dignity, pathos and righteous anger. And Katsulas manages to do the same thing while being made up like a pizza.
B5 is my favorite Sci-Fi series. The first season did not know what to do with itself, but each season gets better until the last one. They lost their focus with the last year, but it was still very good.
B5 would be a great one to do.
First season is the worst of the; seasons 2-4 are generally considered best, and I like all of them (although a few single-show guest actors are pretty bad). I recommend you keep watching.
I own B5. I like it very much.
Oh boy, other people like this too!
Can we can we can we?
It looks like that’s what we’re doing.
(I should note that there was also a vote for Chuck which has also had a RL vote from a co-worker. “Dude, you watch Fringe. You should comment!” “Eh. You know what? If you did Chuck, I’d comment.”)
Yay!
Ooh… Space 1999 might be a good candidate for bookclub, too. Old skuul.
I can go either way on Fringe, but I definitely want to do something.
I have not seen Babylon 5. I’ve heard great things, but the production values are a little painful.
I’ve never seen Firefly. I’d love to do that one. Short, though. BSG would probably lead to breakage of “no politics” (and, for that matter, “no religion”).
We mentioned Chuck. I am finally getting around to watching the end of that series. I wouldn’t mind starting over again.
Bbbbbrrrrrprprpppfppvppvppbh
You’ve never seen Firefly?
Mind-boggling aside, you would probably very much like Firefly. It’s got a lot of stuff going for it.
You wanna know the real shocker? I’ve never seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I’ve seen the first 20 minutes of it like 16 times whenever someone says “Hey everybody, let’s watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail!” and then about twenty minutes later someone says “Hey, let’s go to Sonic!” because everybody knows that everybody has seen that whole movie.
Except me.
You should see it. It’s very funny, of course, but it also has a genuinely medieval feeling to it, almost like The Seventh Seal with comedy routines added.
I had a professor in college spend a minute on his lecture explaining how good The Holy Grail is because it satirizes Excalibur so well. I had to raise my hand and let him know Excalibur was made like a decade later.
I think we can discuss politics (and religion, for that matter) in the service of arguing whether the Romulans had a point when they sabatoged the warp coils of the starship Velociraptor.
You know who ELSE sabotaged the warp coils of a starship?
Was it KAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHNNNNNN?
Awesome.
We’ll need a SF Godwin corollary, where the first person to compare anyone to a genetically engineered superman from the Eugenics Wars, loses the debate.
Good, because religion is also pretty major in Babylon 5 (despite – or maybe because of – its creator being a definite atheist).