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Tonight’s pattern is… Man I should have paid closer attention.

I missed out on Lost and wanted to be on the ground floor of the latest Abrams production. The X-Files  ruled. I’ve been waiting for something to take its place. Who doesn’t dig the strange/paranormal? 

However, not far into the series I found they were repeating themselves. Each episode seemed to follow the same “pattern.” As Liz would say, “Maybe there’s something to that.”

Also, I live up near Boston where the show “takes place.” Actors are always mispronouncing town names or putting huge bridges in places where there are none. They do a decent job of making it look like Massachusetts but it tests my suspension of disbelief.

Fringe is plenty creepy. This week’s episode is no exception. The whole opening with the father and son and the woman by the side of the road got to me.

Although I am looking forward to the new Star Trek, I’m not an Abrams fan. I don’t care for his storytelling style. It’s one thing to build suspense or craft a long story arch, but really he’s just making this up as he goes along. He always sticks to three rules: Keep the fans guessing. Always raise a handful of questions. Let’s throw a bald guy in every episode.

The performances in “The Equation” are wonderful. The story centers around a series of abductions and a child who wakes up from a coma to become a musical genius. He was in a severe accident and the trauma somehow sparked something deep in his brain. Now some bad people are interested in him.  A few minutes in and I was hooked, rooting for the team to track the kid down. The story takes a few heart-wrenching turns and rounds out some of the rough edges of the series. The Walter character gets some added depth this week. We see the world from his eyes and get a taste of how painful his time in the asylum was. Yikes.

Maybe I’ll give Fringe another shot. I’m a sucker for crazy scientists and “The Equation”  includes a shout out to Umass. Of course it features a homicidal professor but alumni can’t be choosey.  If the series does last this might go down as a classic/important episode.

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