The Tinder Box (This Fantastic Week!)

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Tags : Fringe, Olivia Dunham, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, Vampires, Walter Bishop

The Tinder Box (This Fantastic Week!)

Posted on 17 September 2009 by Brent Hartinger, Editor

Back again for another highly opinionated — some might even say downright cranky — look at the week in fantasy. You’ve been warned!

LET THE VAMPIRE BACKLASH BEGIN!

No, seriously. Let it begin. Because if it doesn’t start soon, I’m going to kill myself.

Unfortunately, the evidence so far suggests that it’s not coming any time soon.

Earlier in the week, I touched upon how discouraging it is to see a show like The Vampire Diaries get massive ratings (setting a record on the network), while Supernatural, which followed it, lost most of that lead-in.

If you’re following my articles, you know I don’t think that Diaries is a terrible show — it’s pretty good for what it is.

But it’s basically a soap opera with vampires. It just doesn’t hold a candle to Supernatural it terms of quality or complexity (IMHO).

And yet audiences — or hoards of teenage girls, at last — seem to want nothing but more vampires.

A reader tells me (and Publishers Weekly confirms) that angels may be the next vampire-like craze, at least in publishing. But trust me, there are a zillion more vampire projects coming too.

It’s hard to tell Hollywood not to follow the vampire herd given the insane, phenomenal successes of, in quick succession, Twilight, True Blood, and now The Vampire Diaries.

But I still say it’s like the housing market. When vampire “securities” fall, they’re going to fall hard, and a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money.

Or so I keep saying! Maybe if I say it often enough, it’ll finally come true.

USE THE FORCE, OBI-BAMA!

So you gotta love the picture, above, of Obama with a light saber, taken during the announcement for Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympic games. (Hat tip, /film.com)

MORE ON OLIVIA DUNHAM’S CONVENIENTLY TIMED AMNESIA

So in my review of last night’s season premiere of Fringe, I mentioned in passing something that bugged me: the fact that Olivia Dunham, having returned from the “alternate dimension” of last season’s finale, is back in the “real” world … but she doesn’t remember what happened there, or what “really important” thing she has do to prevent some big catastrophe.

I’ve long had a low tolerance for “amnesia” storylines, mostly because they seem like a writers’ cheat — a way to reset a plot without having to use any actual thought or creativity — but I guess every show needs to be allowed one case of amnesia.

But when I was writing that review, it occurred to me that Fringe already has the biggest “amnesia cheat” in the history of television in the character of Walter Bishop.

Walter was involved in, apparently, every science project ever conceived … until he went insane 17 years ago and has to be institutionalized. Now, whenever the plot calls for it, he “remembers” a key pierce of information from his previous research — often in the final act, so the other characters can then “solve” the mystery of the episode.

Sure, whatever. This isn’t the first show to use nonsensical “science-babble” to set up a plot, or as a sort of deus-ex-machina to resolve that plot. But now for Fringe to do the exact same thing they did with Walter with Olivia?

The more I think about this, the more annoyed I become.

THE TINDER BOX TAKES ON THE IDIOT BOX

What can we look forward to on television this week, fantasy-wise?

Clive Barker’s Book of Blood, a miniseries based on some of Barker’s short stories, turns up on SyFy this Sunday (9 PM/8 C). It’ll be out on DVD the following week.

Trailer for Clive Barker’s Book of Blood

In other TV news, Heroes is back with its two-hour season premiere on Monday (NBC, 8 PM/ 7 C); Eastwick, a remake of The Witches of Eastwick, debuts on Wednesday (ABC, 10 PM/9 C); and Smallville is back for its ninth season on Friday (The CW, 8 PM/7 C).

I’ll have my review of the premiere of Flash Forward (ABC, Thursday, 8 PM/7C) up early next week, but nutshell? It’s a good show.

THE TINDER BOX AT THE BOX OFFICE

Two fantasy-esque movies open this weekend in theaters: Jennifer’s Body, a movie about a girl possessed by a demon that’s being panned, and the animated flick Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, an adaptation of a children’s book that is getting raves.

Just as with Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries, I have this sinking feeling that one is going to be a big hit and the other not-so-much. But again, I suspect the one that’s going to be a hit (*cough* Megan Fox *cough*) won’t be the one that deserves to be.

Well, this week’s flame has sputtered out, but join me again next week when I promise I won’t be nearly so cranky.

Oh, who am I kidding?!