The return of…..

Fringe, Californication, Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Bones last week as well as the return of Heroes tonight. Alright, so as you can probably guess, I don’t get out much; but hey! I’m in a new city without anyone to hang out with so I’ve been spending a lot of quality time with Walter and Peter Bishop, Hank Moody, Charlie and the gang from Paddy’s Pub and Booth and Brennan (I just realized how sad that really is…)

Anyways, I’ve been putting off my review of the season premier of Fringe for a little while because I needed some things to soak in. Not only has my favorite show returned, they are now shooting the entire series in my hometown of Vancouver. Its just too bad that they premiered the second season during my first week in Toronto which has brought forth some serious homesickness. Enough about me and onto the show. JJ Abrams, well done so far. I know not a lot of people will understand the point of the premier, but I found your clues and love the entire episode being an homage to the original Vancouver shot sci-fi hit X-Files. I loved how it was playing on TV in one of the opening scenes, I love how Peter and Olivia care about each other far beyond how regular co-workers care for each other and I really loved how Fringe division was almost shut down X-Files style only to be saved by Broyles and Peter. Even though you didn’t really touch on Belly and the other dimension, I thought this was a great episode to start the season off with. I also love the little messages left throughout the summer about Charlie being “fired,” Brilliant. So Fringe premier gets an A.

Californication was also a strong episode, but I’ll go into my gripes first. The recap at the beginning of the episode was way too long. I understand Showtime wants to gain viewers by showing newbies what they’ve missed, but more than half of the scenes shown in the recap had nothing to do with the episode. The good parts of the premier were obviously Hank’s dialogue and the ridiculous choices made by Runkle. The strength of the show is always going to be rooted in the fact that Hank is impulsive and spends most of his time complaining and basically fucking anything with legs, but I like how this season they have clearly defined a path for Hank to go down from the beginning. Unlike seasons past where he’s just an angry old writer, this season gives him a goal (get some work) and an enemy (the new Dean of the University played by Peter Gallagher). I also love how Peter Gallagher can’t seem to get away from playing dudes with chick names: Sandy Cohen from the OC and now Stacey Koons. I’ll give the premier of Californication a solid B cause I’m excited to see how Hank is as a teacher, but not too pleased that he probably won’t be writing much for himself this season… We’ll have to see.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is wearing on me. After a hilarious first and second season, I really think the gang at Paddy’s pub is running out of stupid shit to do. In the past it was funny when the gang tries not to be racist or they turn themselves into crackheads, but the premier had them trying to invade the real estate market and basically ran its course of ridiculous comments from Charlie and terrible ideas from everyone else. I hate to say it, but I think this show needs to drop Danny Devito. Yes he’s a TV icon and I agree with the choice to bring him into the second season to gain some veiwership, but now I feel as though he’s dragging the show down. It’s actually not so much Danny Devito himself as it is for the character of Frank. I feel as though the writers are trying too hard to include him in a lot of the story lines. I’m giving the premier of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia a C because it’s getting predictable and it’s lost most of the shock value it came in with a few seasons ago.

The last premier I watched last week was Bones. Bones is one of those shows that you can just watch one day and not worry about missing any episodes because nothing really big ever seems to happen. I think TV needs a few of these shows every once in a while because a lot of us just don’t have time. The premier was very Bones-esque. Brennan questions anything non-scientific while Booth presents some human elements. They solve an old murder, bicker back and forth, use some fictional technology to assemble the story and end with a slow fade out to some modern music. Like I said, nothing special – but sometimes you need that. I’m giving the Bones premier a B as well, but I don’t think a show like this can ever achieve top status because of the nature of each formulaic episode.

So that’s my roundup for last week. I’ll be watching the 2-hour season premier of Heroes tonight with low expectations. The last two seasons have had their moments, but for the most part, nothing compares to the inaugural season. I blame NBC‘s inability to sign Bryan Fuller, and the fact that they refuse to kill off / recast Claire Bennet. Anyways, I’ll still watch Heroes tonight, but I don’t know how long I can stay loyal…