TV Series Renews

Yes, I haven't blogged here for quite some time. Been busy. :)

But, in the spirit of the TV season...I'm very very happy that my two most favorite shows have been picked up for another season! Fringe is getting a season 4 (though this has been known for a while), and now Chuck is getting a series-ending Season 5...awesome.

I'm not going to go into details here, but it's no secret at this point that Fringe's 3rd Season started with a bang, but ended with a whimper. The fact of the matter is that sometime about episode 16 the writers clearly started running out of ideas and the show consistantly returned to annoying concepts. The Soul Magnets / Bell return was cringe-inducing, and the final three episodes regarding the end of the Universe were surprisingly filler-filled and had what I could call a very unsatisfying conclusion. Still everything else about the show this season was top-solid...so I'm quite psyched that we're going to see a season 4 (even if the prospects of a s5 are low).

Now Chuck has consistantly had more problems this year. Most episodes haven't been bad, but they haven't been good either. And while there have been a few standout episodes, there haven't been as many. Chuck is now certainly a show in decline...but despite that it's great to see that it's going to get a series-ending 5th season to (hopefully) go out with a bang.

Chuck's problems are much deeper than Fringe's though. While Fringe suffered from too much padding near the end (and cringe-worthy plots), Chuck's problem is the change in dynamics. And this goes right back to Season 3 and Chuck becoming a 'Real Spy', which was made even worse when Morgan also became a spy.

Chuck was always cool because he wasn't a spy, but when it was necessary he proved that he could consistantly pull through when it was needed. Sure he was unorthodox, and goofy, but his heart was in the right place. But now, as a real spy, his goofiness no longer seems funny--it makes him seem stupid and out of place. And throwing Morgan, who is ten times worse, robs most of the menance from the show as the situations often get too unrealistic and goofy to take very seriously. The bonding of the team has improved, and that's a plus side, but the dynamics don't fit right anymore and the writers have never really adjusted to that. There have been some obvious course-correction attemps (Chuck is no longer quite so super-powered...he now can loose fights even when flashing, for example), but really none of those have helped.

Still, Chuck vs. the Push Mix was one of the best episodes of the show and that alone makes S4 worth it.