Spoiler Alert: Fringe S04E03

While this episode was pretty interesting, a little mix of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (the child's psychic connection to the fungus), Star Trek (the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one), and Care Bears (the child doesn't feel like anyone cares for him), there wasn't a whole lot of development of the central season-long story arcs.

1. Walter and Olivia's Insane Outing

Not only is Walter bound to his laboratory and his living quarters, but he has to have continuing analysis by approved therapists to assure that he can remain out in the world. The appearance of Dr. Sindel casts a very troubling light on an upcoming problem. Walter needs to, at the very least, appear sane, or else he is going to be carted back to the looney bin. Of course, he's seeing his erased adult son Peter in reflective surfaces and hearing him everywhere, so we've got some sort of problem here.

The problem is only exacerbated by the fact that Olivia has been seeing the same person, Peter, in her dreams. She presents Walter with a picture that she drew of this "Man in the Mirror," a picture that she has been running through facial recognition programs.

The episode ends with Walter exclaiming, "We have to find him." And it sounds like the beginning of an adventure. But will this adventure end with Walter, and possibly Olivia also, in the mental asylum?

2. Aaron

This child, Aaron, who established the psychic link with the murderous fungus, has been alone for some time. Nothing is said about his parents. It is said that he has been staying with a neighbor for a while, but that the neighbor ignores him. He has absolutely nowhere to go and nobody to care for him. But Walter has a hole in his heart where once Peter lives, and Walter promises to care for Aaron.

At the end, Aaron is carted off to the hospital. We are left wondering whether Aaron will actually join the regular cast of the show, which seems to be what Walter promised, or whether he will be brushed off and only serve the purpose of making this particular episode work. I hope that he becomes a regular, and I think it is likely considering the mystery regarding his loneliness.

See you next time.

Spoiler Alert: Person of Interest S01E02

Person of Interest remains sensitive to the problems that we have faced in the ten years since September 11, this episode referencing the stock market crash and its repercussions. Furthermore, we find out that "the machine" and its logs of video and audio are a perfect method for integrating flashbacks into the show. Person of Interest remains smart and interesting, and here are some of my reflections on the show.

1. Good Cop, Bad Cop

Detective Carter, who I referred to in a somewhat sexist manner last week as the "lady cop," is clearly the good cop, at least on the surface. When Reese calls for a "meeting" between himself and Carter, only to give her Theresa Whitaker, the girl relates that Reese said she could trust Carter. In this sense, she is a good cop.

But perhaps Carter's being a good cop could be exactly the problem. As a cop she does her best to stand up for justice, but in fact she is much more connected to the laws. What's the difference? The laws are little steps here and there meant to lead us toward justice. But since they are imperfect, since they are not justice itself, they can sometimes lead us away from justice. Carter is trying to track down Reese, or as she says, "some guy in a suit." His fingerprints are at tons of crime scenes, he relates to eight case files (four of which have been redacted, making me wonder: who is redacting Reese's "crime spree"?) and to be fair, he's killing people. Regardless of how much the audience believes that these criminals deserve it, much of Reese's activity is straight up illegal. But it may just be just.

Carter is doing what a cop ought to do, and that is exactly what might make her and Reese enemies.

Lionel, on the other hand, is described as a dirty cop from the very beginning. In this episode he tells Reese that he cannot get a file for him because people may suspect that he is a dirty cop. Reese responds, "You are a dirty cop."

Lionel has underground connections, and we can suspect that he is useful to Reese both because of his underground connections and because of his police connections. But what happens if we find out Lionel is all bad, that he is setting Reese up, working with some people that Reese has already pissed off in order to make things hard for Reese. There are tons of ways that Lionel could be either a terrible foe or a horrible liability for Reese. If he works in with Carter, she's probably going to be the first one to know that he's not doing the right thing, and by investigating Lionel she may find her way to Reese.

But, then again, maybe Lionel is as loyal as Reese believes he is. Maybe Lionel believes in doing the right thing, believes that Reese is doing the right thing, and believes that he ought to do everything in his power to support Reese.

2. Crazy Theory of the Week

I mentioned at the beginning of the "Spoiler Alert" project that I used to be obsessed with LOST. Well, one of the things that comes out of watching a show like that for a very long time is that you're likely to have some crazy theories that don't fully make sense. The other thing that comes out of it is that your theories are sometimes right.

This week, I have this crazy idea that Mr. Finch is a cyborg.


When Mr. Reese is attempting to track Mr. Finch, Finch allows it for some time before disappearing and suggesting that they have their meeting on Finch's time, not Reese's. This suggests that, without the use of some supercomputer, Finch can track Mr. Reese. Is this because his back door into the machine is somewhere in his body?

Also, it has been brought to the forefront a couple of times that Finch has a limp. But it's more than that. Finch walks so squarely, hobbling like a 1950s robot in a sci fi movie. Maybe he doesn't walk correctly because he is a first generation robot / human hybrid, a cyborg.

Consider also the fact that Mr. Reese could be a reference to Kyle Reese, the man who traveled back in time to protect Sarah Connor in Terminator. With this in mind, "the machine" seems a whole lot like Sky Net. What if Finch has become "the machine's" creation rather than the other way around? What if Finch is the part of the computer that deals with the irrelevant?

3. Finch's Past

Through "the machine's" records we see a glimpse of Finch's past. In this glimpse, we see Finch (did anyone notice if he was limping in the past? my bet is that he wasn't) interacting with an unnamed colleague (an actor that LOST fans may recognize). We know very little about this character, but he has quite a bit to say about Finch and his machine. He calls "the machine" an "Orwellian nightmare," due to the fact that it can track people so carefully. (This is, of course, a reference to George Orwell's 1984.) He says that Finch has been leading a double-life, presumably balancing a normal family life and job with a secret federally contracted computer project. But what if Finch is something else?

In the second flashback, Finch keeps referring to the builders of "the machine" as we. There is the possibility that this mysterious colleague is responsible for some part of "the machine," and perhaps this is why he criticizes the thing's existence. When they discuss the relevant and the irrelevant, the colleague holds Finch personally responsible for "the irrelevant," the people slipping between the cracks who could be saved. Last episode, we thought that it was Finch's conscience that held him accountable. I think there's a decent chance that Finch's colleague is actually a close friend, and that he was one of the irrelevant people who got killed as a result of Finch's oversight. Guilt is one of the most important motivators for personal change. (Of course, it also connects you so thoroughly to the past that it's hard to change.) I think we can assume that, dead or alive, this character will play an important part in the upcoming story.

Finch also mentions that only eight people in the world know that "the machine" exists. If that number does not include Finch and his friend (and later Reese), we can assume that there are somewhere between eight and eleven people who know of it now. And if I know anything about television drama, this means that all of those people have a target on their heads.

Finally, we see a bust of The Founder in the office building that Mr. Finch (or "Harold," as his co-workers know him) leaves. The Founder lived from 1962 until 2010. Is the founder actually Mr. Finch? Did he fake his death in 2010 when everything went wrong and he decided to start doing some right? Or is this more of a tribute to a filmmaker who died in 2010 who was integral to getting Person of Interest off the ground? Of course, there's always a chance that this is an entirely different mystery altogether. Looking at the bust again, The Founder looks a whole lot like Finch's colleague. I guess there's only ten or less people in the world who know about "the machine." What do you think?

Fringe

I've been watching Fringe since the beginning, hoping and praying that it would be the next LOST. It was a J.J. Abrams show and I still believed that J.J. Abrams was the reason that LOST was great. (He isn't.) For the first two seasons, I always wanted Fringe to be great, but it was stuck in a strange episodic format even though it was clear that there was an important umbrella story to be told. And it was so darned bright. The fringes of science and society feel like a dark territory, unimaginable and frightening, but this show glowed. I think all of these things were problems because Fringe was always almost being canceled and they had to cater to the needs of the network.

The third season of Fringe spent a lot more time on the seasonal story arc, and it was a lot better than the previous seasons. This is the season that hooked my girlfriend Amy even though I was anxious that she would make fun of me for watching the show. The stories got a lot more interesting, but they still weren't there yet. I'm two episodes into the fourth season and I can say without a doubt, Fringe is finally there. "One Night in October" is probably the best Fringe episode that I have ever seen, and judging by the feel I've been getting for the fourth season there will be more of these episodes in the future. It's strange to think that at the end of last season Fringe was moved to Friday nights (A.K.A., where sci fi shows go to die), and that now it's telling the best stories it has ever told.

I just hope that doesn't mean that Fringe is getting canceled before they finish their tale. Yeesh. That would suck.

Spoiler Alert: Person of Interest S01E01

Person of Interest is, well, interesting. In many ways it is like Burn Notice only relevant (and well-written, and well-acted, and with an interesting story). But it has real heart, too. It deals with people whose lives were changed because of the events of September 11, 2001, and the ensuing war in the Middle East, accompanied by the massive breach of privacy that happened because of the Patriot Act. The show critically deals with the problems that the U.S. government created for its people while reverently dealing with the individual losses felt across the nation by the American people.

I wasn't expecting to add Person of Interest to the spoiler alert series, but it has proven itself. Executive J.J. Abrams has given me a couple of my favorite shows of all time and the best mysteries. Jonathan Nolan (brother of Christopher Nolan) has been involved in some of the better scripted films of the last couple decades (including Memento). And Michael Emerson is absolutely one of the best character actors I've ever seen. My friend Zac said the other night that he doesn't understand why they even make new television programs because they all get canceled anyways. And that's incredibly true. The only shows that seem to make it are the ones that were created five to ten years ago that keep getting renewed because they are part of peoples' habits even when they no longer have anything valuable to offer. Here's to hoping that CBS does not cancel Person of Interest, but also that Person of Interest continues to have something to offer rather than uninteresting episodic drama.

And now, the characters:

1. Person of Interest / Mr. Reese

Jim Caviezel's Mr. Reese is the "person of interest" to which the television's program refers. Of course, Mr. Finch reveals that this is simply one of several identities and we see a driver's license that reads "James J. Manzione," so it appears clear that one of the overarching concerns of this program is going to be to figure out who Mr. Reese really is.

What do we know about Mr. Reese? Instead of getting mugged in the subway by a gang of twenty-somethings, Reese beats up every single mugger and is brought to jail for the crime. The viewer is likely to think, "Where did he learn to fight like that?"

The police officer who interrogates Mr. Reese believes that it is clear that he spent some time in the service, but believes that his skills go beyond Army to Special Forces or Delta. We are lead to raise the question of whether he's a good guy who is poorly adjusted or a man who has done evil things? When his fingerprints are found at several other crime scenes, he is called "the angel of death." Is he good or evil? If this is anything like the other works of J.J. Abrams, the answer is that he is both or neither: he is human.

At first, Mr. Finch describes Mr. Reese as someone who has worked for the government, had doubts about the government, faked his death, tried to drink himself to death, and who has contemplated suicide. It is revealed that Reese was "with the agency," which we might be able to presume means the CIA. (If he was with the FBI, we would say he was "with the bureau," for example.) Of course, in the flashback with Jessica we hear about him going "back to base" and then subsequently quitting, which suggests that he had military connections as well.

2. Jessica

In the beginning we are shown a flashback where Mr. Reese is with a woman named Jessica, a woman he describes as his "one person." We later find out that they had known one another for six months and that they were spending a long weekend in Mexico. Jessica has not told her family about Mr. Reese, so this is a secret affair. During the series of flashbacks, we find out that this trip happened during the same week that the attacks on the Twin Towers happened.

But Jessica was taken from Mr. Reese. By whom? We cannot know. What we do know is that Jessica was killed while Mr. Reese was half-way around the world. Was she kidnapped (taken by someone) or killed (kidnapped from this mortal coil)? We haven't seen a body, and this is a J.J. Abrams show, so there's always that chance Jessica could be alive somewhere.

Another question to ask is whether or not Jessica was the only one killed. Mr. Reese says, "I don't have any friends. I don't have any family either." Were they all taken from him, or is that just something you say when you feel alienated, when you've faked your death and started an "untraceable" life. My guess: he's still got some old friends and family life, and we're going to meet them at some point.

3. A Concerned Third-Party / Mr. Finch

Mr. Finch is a wealthy man who made a lot of money prior to September 11 in the private sector. When the government began massive surveillance on its people due to the Patriot Act, Finch designed a kind of filter that is capable of dividing possible threats into relevant and irrelevant. The only relevant threats were those that could result in massive loss of life, and those were presumably forwarded to the NSA or the FBI. (This poses the question: Were they really forwarded to the NSA or the FBI? Or is there some other party involved?) But people were still being hurt as a result of the irrelevant threats, and the irrelevant threat list was deleted daily. Finch wishes to help the lives of the individual people that he can now save due to the back door he built into "the machine." He has chosen Mr. Reese as his hero, but why? Finch explains that he's followed Reese for some time and that he believes they have a great deal in common. Finch also explains that he has lost someone. Who has he lost? We're to presume that a member of his family was killed as well, but that seems too easy. I think it's possible that he's referring to the fact that he has lost "the machine" to the government.

A couple of other things ought to be noticed about Finch. First of all, he walks with a limp. Second, while he is climbing the stairs he almost immediately begins to have labored breathing. Something serious has happened to Finch that threatens his health. Perhaps he has chosen Mr. Reese to help him out as something of a deathbed wish. Third, Finch does not like fire arms, which could explain both the fact that he is injured in such a way and the fact that he lost someone close to him.

4. The Machine

Every transition in this program has some sort of surveillance feed in it. It makes one wonder who is watching this surveillance feed. Finch and Reese are often seen through the eyes of a camera or their voices heard through a wire tap. This suggests that someone is paying attention to what they're doing. Is this a particular government agency? Is this the machine? Or is this someone else altogether?

Furthermore, when Mr. Finch talks about "the machine," it seems like it is alive, intelligent, possibly even sentient. This calls upon ideas like those in Lawnmower Man or Eagle Eye. This is why I am considering the machine a character. While its drives are presumably located in a government facility (in the end we see a scene reminiscent of the end of the "Pilot" episode of X-Files where the computer takes up an enormous warehouse), "the machine" is everywhere, suggesting that it is nearly omniscient and its eyes and ears are omnipresent. In a way, this machine is a god in toddler-form. My guess: We're going to see it grow.

5. The Rest

The white kids from the gang who attempted to mug Mr. Reese on the subway appear once again while Mr. Reese is loading up on weaponry later on. This is often a sign that these characters are going to pop up more often. Maybe they're important. Maybe they're not.

Similarly, the lady cop who interrogates Mr. Reese after the mugging appears near the end of the episode. Will she be important?

And finally, the episodic events that happened may have existed solely for the sake of introducing Mr. Reese to a dirty cop named Lionel. Lionel explains that he became a bad guy because Wall Street was robbing everybody in America. But Mr. Reese thinks it has something to do with loyalty, suggesting that he's a good guy after all. Reese wants to keep the bad cop as a contact, and he wants the bad cop to continue what he's doing but not to hurt anyone. I think we can feel pretty sure that Lionel will be a main character, and I would guess that we might have a big Lionel episode coming up next week.

See you next week!

Super 8 (2011)

There were moments in the last year or so when I thought that Super 8 would be one of the best movies in film history. Then there were times when I got unsure and thought it might just bomb. I was kind of tense going to the midnight showing last night, afraid that the movie would just be forgettable in the long run. The final verdict: Super 8 is one of my favorite movies that I've ever seen.

I'm not saying that Super 8 is better than films like E.T. or Close Encounters of the Third Kind (of course, I'm not saying that it is worse either). What I am saying is that Super 8 reached me in a way that those movies simply couldn't right now. I brought up E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind specifically because Super 8 has to be understood, at least partially, as an homage to classic Steven Spielberg/Amblin Entertainment. The thing that is interesting about Super 8 is that the homage to Steven Spielberg is executive produced by Steven Spielberg. Writer/director J.J. Abrams' references to the past works of Steven Spielberg, specifically E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jurassic Park, are much more artful than the status quo J.J. Abrams references, which can be obvious and occasionally a little cheap. I think we can honestly say, having seen Super 8, that Abrams has essentially resurrected the classic vibe that made us love Spielberg in the first place. I think it is important that Spielberg has gone on to tackle important issues, especially the plight of the Jews in the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, but something has been lost in the world of film since Spielberg stopped doing films that filled audiences, old and young alike, with childish wonder. I used to think that Shyamalan would fill those shoes, but as films like The Last Airbender prove, he absolutely cannot fill those shoes. Abrams brings us the Spielberg we know and love, but he does so in a non-conservative, even radical, new way. He innovates while showing great respect for the past, and if you ask me, that's how you make a film.

There's also a great deal of fantastic Abrams themes like forgiving the unforgivable, the importance of family, unexpected heroism, hope, belief, and understanding differences. On the down side, there were enough lens flairs to offend even a die-hard Abrams fan like me. But I'll ignore the lens flair because this is a peak performance for J.J. Abrams, not to mention Spielberg and the entire cast of the movie.

See Super 8. It's the best movie of the year so far.

Two Upcoming Fox Television Programs with Potential

Alcatraz



Terra Nova

Gugu Mbatha-Raw

Actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw. You may recognize her as Mrs. Agent Bloom from J.J. Abrams' Undercovers. I may be jumping the gun, but I think that Mbutha-Raw and on-screen husband Boris Kodjoe may be the sexiest Abrams couple to date (sorry Jaters and Skaters). Mbatha-Raw is new enough to the scene that it's hard to find good pictures of her on Google search, but I imagine it won't stay that way for long.

Super 8 Trailer

Please be good!

The J.J. Abrams Women

The upcoming J.J. Abrams television program Undercovers offers a strong likelihood to thrust formerly under-the-radar actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw into the limelight.

Mbatha-Raw, however, is just one in a long line of unknown actresses who gained a significant career boost by becoming a lead actress in an Abrams television program. Surely, you remember Keri Russell, who became renowned as TV's Felicity.

There's also the star of the hit spy drama ALIAS Jennifer Garner. I prefer when she doesn't pull her hair back.

Let's not forget LOST's Evangeline Lilly, who is arguably the best actress among these ladies. I say arguably because Keri Russell has really been showing her A game in the last several years.

Finally, Fringe's Anna Torv.

Abramsed: Movies I Want J.J. Abrams to Overhaul

Who didn't love last summer's J.J. Abrams version of Star Trek (2009)? It was everything Gene Roddenberry would have asked for combined with some strong Abrams themes like the daddy issues of Kirk and Spock. Some might say that Abrams's greatest talent is overhauling old ideas. The upcoming television program Undercovers is being described as a re-working of the ideas behind the decent Pitt and Jolie film Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005). I'd argue that Fringe is a play on important themes from old science fiction films like They Live (1988) and Scanners (1988).

Sometimes a movie will come out with an incredible premise, but then the filmmakers make some sort of compromise for the sake of money. The film Mean Girls (2004) was surprisingly smart, but it still mattered to include stupid falling-into-trashcans comedy (which lead me to coin the term Lohanized, where a good movie is made stupid for stupid audiences). Sometimes someone comes up with a good idea but settles on a terrible script. Sometimes it's as simple as casting a terrible actress like Jennifer Aniston in the film. I wish many of these movies with great premises could be Abramsed. I wish they could be injected with that amazing quality of fun, wonder and human drama while holding on to the original creative intention of the movie.

Here are a few films that I wish would be Abramsed:

1. Dude, Where's My Car? (2000)

I love the idea of creating a suspenseful mystery out of not remembering what happened the night before. I think it's the most fruitful story possibility I've seen in the last several years and yet I don't think anyone has ever perfected it. Memento (2000) came the closest, but this film didn't reflect the loss of one night in memory. It reflected the loss of all long-term memory. The Hangover (2009) came awfully close as well, but the mystery was completely overshadowed by the comedy. If J.J. Abrams took on the Dude Where's My Car theme, you'd have a proper balance of comedy, character development, mystery and intrigue. You could argue that he's already made his first attempt at this storyline on LOST with the mystery of Christian Shephard's Australian death.

2. Legally Blonde (2001)

Doesn't anyone else see something dark and human about a woman who gets into law school for the sake of winning the heart of a boy? This movie had everything going for it. Witherspoon had already proven her dark comedy obsession chops in 1999's Election and 2000's American Psycho. Like Mean Girls there was a Heathers (1988) vibe: who couldn't popular girl Elle Woods manipulate in pursuit of the boy she wants? But instead of Bret Easton Ellis, we got Bend and Snap. Instead of brilliance, we got Lohanned. This "pretty girl" needs an Abrams makeover like crazy!

3. The Incredibles (2004)

This was probably the best delivered film on this list, but it was still missing something. Films like My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006) and Hancock (2008) attempted to show the underbelly of what would happen when flawed human beings get incredibly abilities. They'd still be jealous. They'd still become alcoholics. It'd just be more dangerous for everyone around them. The Incredibles borders on some serious issues for a superhero family, much like the Fantastic Four comics have for years. But in the end, nothing really seemed like it was on the line. The family would certainly get back together. These films never take any risks. They always aim for the happily ever after. And in the case of The Incredibles we're bombarded with childish humor. Yes, it was a children's film, but if we keep lowering our standards of comedy we lower our expectations for the intelligence of our children, and that is a serious problem. Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl should be separated. Hancock should, in some terrifying and unexpected moment, accidentally murder someone Alan Moore style. One thing I love about Abrams is that he doesn't lower his expectations for his audiences. He feeds mass audiences theoretical physics and they ask for more.

4. The Bounty Hunter (2010)

When I saw the trailer for this film, I was filled with two equal and opposite emotions. The first was ecstatic joy. This premise is even better than Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Instead of two married spies who know nothing about the spyhood of the other, you have a divorced couple that falls on either side of the law. The second feeling was a deep sadness. The comedy in the trailer was superficial and uninteresting. Aniston simply cannot act and Butler's been phoning everything in since he played King Leonidas. J.J. Abrams wouldn't let that fly. He'd have a good script and he'd inspire Butler to his best, and Aniston wouldn't be able to screw it up because the story tells itself.

5. Knight and Day (2010)

I understand that it's a little too early to call this film a failure. As a matter of fact, I was blown away by the trailer. There are just so many ways for this film to go wrong. I don't trust a single soul working on this project the way I trust J.J. Abrams. The director James Mangold has done some great films, premiere amongst these in my mind is 3:10 to Yuma (2007), but he's never directed this sort of dark comedy. The script comes from Patrick O'Neill, who has never written a script for a major film. Cameron Diaz is just plain terrible and Tom Cruise has so much of an ego that it's easy to forget that he can at times be an impressive actor. I'm hoping this film is good, but I know it'd be better with Abrams involved. He's worked with Cruise in Mission Impossible III (2006) and is currently working with him on Mission Impossible IV (2011). He does magnificent action with interesting stories, but is also capable of the ridiculous.

J.J. Abrams and NBC's Undercovers

In the wake of the end of LOST, fans of the J.J. Abrams will likely plunge into an abyss of nihilism. They will look around for little things that might fill the holes in their souls, plugging one leak only to find that two more have sprung up. Why not watch Fringe? Well, they might say, Fringe is a great show but it's very different from LOST. The crazy speculative fiction, fantasy and science fiction ideas are on the surface, whereas we've had to dig for it in LOST.

Enter J.J. Abrams, the creator of LOST, who has decided to direct the pilot of the upcoming NBC spy series Undercovers. Some hope! Something to hold on to! And he's already picked his leads. Actress Gugu Mbatha-Ra and actor Boris Kodjo. This is exciting! Undercovers is going to be similar to the Brad Pitt film Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005) where two spies live together and yet do not know that their spouse is a spy.

This television program already has the potential for greatness. But it's already clear why it might not make it. Abrams creates amazing serial television programming, but the major networks are terrified of serial television shows. Later seasons inevitably encounter a drop-off rate because watchers don't feel like they can join in at the middle of the story. They feel like they'd need to get caught up. Angela Bromstad, president of prime-time entertainment at NBC and Universal Media Studios, has already claimed that Undercovers "really is a closed-end procedural each week... They'll have a specific mission that they go out on." I feel fairly confident in saying that it's serial-phobia that destroyed a good show like Dollhouse, which was originally going to be much more serial at the beginning but which met network road blocks every step of the way.

If you're troubled about whether or not this show will make it, I suggest you trust in J.J. Abrams. Networks have been afraid of serial programming for years. ALIAS started out as a procedural spy program with serial elements, but once it gained a definite following it was a serial. Fringe is still a paranormal procedural medical program, but in the last several episodes it has developed a strong serial storyline. LOST started out as almost an homage to reality TV's Survivor, and after several seasons Abrams snuck some heavy theoretical physics in the back door to make things incredibly interesting. Furthermore, with the advent of on-line viewing of past episodes, television on-demand, TV on DVD and sites like Hulu, it's not too difficult to get caught up on serial television programs.

If you ask me, good television should be about really sticking to the story and nurturing interesting characters. This is why all the Law and Orders and CSIs and so on are just bad television. What I expect from Undercovers is that J.J. Abrams will show NBC his procedural face as a distraction while he sneaks in a serial story full of interesting science fiction ideas. My other prediction is that Undercovers will deal with alien communications and technologies from outer space.