Loaded Couch Potatoes

This was not exactly what I’d call a great episode of television, but it was good enough that I can now say I am officially onboard the Fringe season two bandwagon.  While not qualifying as great, this episode nonetheless has enough spark and vitality to it — elements that were, more often than not, missing during first-season episodes — that I’m starting to feel pretty good about saying that Fringe, in its sophomore season, has turned a corner.

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Okey doke, take a look at this:

Now, just you try and tell me you aren’t glad to see this show back for a second season.

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Master Black offers up his opinion on this week’s selection of new releases. (continue reading…)

What the fuck, America?

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According to Variety, the Oscars will, beginning in 2010, begin nominating ten movies for Best Picture.  This will be the first time since 1943 that the Academy has nominated that many films for its top prize; that year’s winner was Casablanca.

The move toward more nominess seems to be specifically engineered to include more popular films, and, I suspect, to boost ratings for the telecast of the show.

So, what box-office champs will benefit from the decision this year?  Could we be looking at the first-ever Best Picture-nominated Star Trek movie?  Or could Pixar finally get their due?  I’ll go ahead and put my bet on The Hangover, and I make to you this promise: if Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is nominated for Best Picture, I will never watch the Oscars again.

So … did the three dudes with headaches hang over to a third weekend at the top of the box office?

Hah-hah-heh-hah-hah!  Get it?  Hang over?  Ooh-eeh-hooh-hah-hah!  (EDITOR’S NOTE: Ting-tang, walla-walla bang-bang…?)

You know, like the movie The Hangover!  Is big hit!  You like!

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On the BBC.co.uk website, Herb Solow — one of the original producers of Star Trek in the 1960s — has written a review of the new film reboot of the franchise.

First impressions: “The production looked flawless”; “Most of the characters rang true”; “I was impressed and taken with the obvious concern to honour our original series.”

Solow’s review is largely positive, but he does have reservations about certain aspects.  To find out what they are, visit the full article.

Fox announced its fall schedule today, and one of the changes the network is making is a big one: it’s moving Fringe to the 8 p.m. CST slot, in direct competition with Grey’s Anatomy, CSI, and The Office.  This, of course, is one of the busiest, most important time slots in all of television.

Airing Fringe against those other heavyweights is likely a tremendous sign of faith in the J.J. Abrams-produced series.

In other Fox news, James Hibberd spoke with Joss Whedon about the renewal of Dollhouse.

TrekMovie.com has a report on President Barack Obama’s opinion of Star Trek.

Obama, according to the article, is the first U.S. President to screen a Star Trek film at the White House since President Ronald Reagan’s viewing of The Search For Spock in 1984.

To find out how Obama liked the film (as well as how Reagan liked Star Trek III), read the full article at TrekMovie.com.

Honk Mahfah tries to review the season five finale of Lost, “The Incident.”  If we don’t spoil together, we’re going to die alone.

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