So, there are two new things that have tickled my fancy in the last couple days. Number 1, the new TV show Fringe, on Fox, co-created by J. J. Abrams. Number two is the book Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk.

J. J. Abrams let me down his year with his over-hype for the movie Cloverfield. Now, the blame does not lie entirely on him. He works his magic and people read way too far into it. I knew this and was not sucked into all of the buzz surrounding the movie (though I did visit the 1-18-08 website on a semi-weekly basis to see what cool new flash tricks they had added). The movie sucked. At least, that’s how I felt, and I have talked to quite a few other people that agree with me. Though, there were some redeeming cinematic features. Felicity, Alias and Lost were where I got to know your skills the best. So, maybe it is TV where I should take my preference of him. But I am so looking forward to his adaptation of Star Trek. Ok, enough with the sidebars and speculation. Tonight I caught the first episode of Fringe. It was good. It was witty. It was entertaining. When I was done watching it, I wanted to contact all my Lost friends and ask them what they thought. Then I realized that it isn’t my Lost friends I should contact but my X-Files friends. Don’t get me wrong, I never really watched X-Files, I could never really get into it. But this very much reminded me of it, except I enjoyed it. A government agent seeking the unknown – check, a supervisor and/or agency who knows more than you but won’t tell you – check, it just all lines up to me. Luckily they added a loony scientist and his genius, conniving son. That is where the real beef of the show is to me. I really don’t care about the whiny mislead main character (no matter how cute she is) – They are where the story is to me. They are going to drive the intrigue, draw the questions, lead to the conclusions. She is just the medium they are going to utilize to get the information and find a conclusion that she will ultimately use in her conquest to solve the puzzle (which they will, or should, undoubtedly do before her). I’m not sure what else I have to say about that, it seems like it has great potential.

Next, I want to talk about Chuck. I get it, you are anti-establishment, you live in Portland, and you are a hippie. You are a FANTASTIC author. That is all.