Premiere Night

Big time premiere night for network television. Fringe, The Office, the new show Community, Survivor (though, to be fair, I did stop watching this show right around Survivor: Iowa) CSI and Bones all made their return tonight. Of the ones that I watched, Fringe was my favorite of the night. I'm a fan of Lost, and one of the main elements of that show that I love so much is the bevy of mind-twisting scenes. I'm talking about the guy pushing a button every 108 minutes to save the world, the monster comprised entirely of smoke that reads minds, the giant four-toed statue, the first flash forward... those are the types of scenes that make Lost my favorite show right now. And with this coming season being the final one for Lost, as much as people are anticipating the new show Flash Forward, right now, with scenes in the second season opener like "Olivia Introduces Herself to the Windshield", "The Man With the Crunchy Silly Putty Face" and "Bizarro Typewriter" it looks like Fringe will be my primary source for those types of scenes.

I would say that The Office's premiere wasn't it's best, but even a mediocre episode is pretty funny. The "hardcore" opening was fantastic. And who knew that Stanley had a libido?

Now Community... I liked Community, but didn't love it. I really enjoyed how it dodged making stereotypical characters and Joel McHale is always hilarious... but to me, it felt like the creators tried just a little bit too hard to avoid all of the normal trappings of a sitcom (the new guy teaching everyone a valuable lesson, the professor getting one over on the main character to show him the value of hard work) and in avoiding All those things, it made motives unclear. Why would that study group stay together? Why wouldn't the professor help the lawyer who helped him some years back? Overall though, it was still hilarious at times and I laughed more at it than The Office so that says a lot to me.

The Vampire Diaries tonight wasn't a premiere, it was it's second episode, but despite what I said in my blog last week... I'm in. It's girly and very "everybody-talk-about-your-feelings-y" (which usually bores me) but the writers are using their mythology of vampires ( and apparently witches) and the history of Stefan and his family as mysteries to keep people like me interested. Well played Mr. Williamson. Well played dot dot dot (insert maniacal sneer here). Speaking of which, Ian Somerhalder (aka Boone from Lost) has seriously impressed me. He's much better playing this evil Damon than he was playing nice old Boone.

All in all, I am so very glad that Fall is back.