CSD and It's Victims

I've spoken before about my severe case of CSD or Character Separation Disorder. It's a terrible disorder that effects pop culture junkies everywhere. It is the inability to separate actors from the popular characters that they've played over the years, usually this happens with actors who work in franchise films, or who have been on television.

Here are some of the actors who I have the most severe cases of CSD with:

Joshua Jackson: The Mighty Ducks, D2: The Mighty Ducks, D3: The Mighty Ducks, Dawson's Creek, Fringe

For most people suffering from CSD Josh will always be Pacey Whitter, the lovable screw up. But anyone who's worth their pop culture weight, knows that Pacey was just a teenaged sexually active version of Charlie Conway, captain of The Quack Attack. And his current character, Peter, is just Pacey in a lab, and since Pacey was really just Charlie, without the skates and with a hotter girlfriend, it stands to reason that Peter is Charlie, all grown up and in a lab.

The Entire Cast of Entourage

This applies most strongly to Adrian Grenier, Jeremy Piven and Kevin Connolly, but mostly because Jerry Ferrara and Kevin Dillon haven't done much since taking on Turtle and Drama. I can't be the only person who watched The Devil Wears Prada and thought, "Why is Vinnie following Aquaman with this? It doesn't make any sense for his projected career path." Or when I watched He's Just Not That Into You and I felt so bad for poor E when Scarlett Johansson was treating him like crap (the same way his ex Kristen did!) or well, Piven's a totally different story. Watch Keeping Up With The Steins, where he plays Ari but without the potty mouth. Or PCU where he plays Ari running a frat house. Or...well, I think you get the point.

Nathan Fillion: Firefly, Serenity, Castle, Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog

Let's be honest, Nathan Fillion is one of those actors who has fully embraced CSD. Castle is just a riff of Captain Malcolm Reynolds, just like Captain Hammer is a perversion of him. Castle even took this to the next level.

Matt Czurchy: Gilmore Girls, The Good Wife

Logan Huntzberger was a slimy, scummy pathetic excuse for a man until Rory Gilmore whipped him into shape. Matt's character on The Good Wife, Cary, is a slimy, scummy excuse for a man, with no Rory in sight to whip him into shape. This is a clear case of the writers even embracing it, when in last week's episode Cary stalled a judge on the phone as Alicia finished preparing a last minute brief, in the exact same way that Logan did when Paris self destructed one night at The Yale Daily News and he and Rory had to save the day.

Aubrey Graham aka Drake. Degrassi: The Next Generation, Huge ass Rapper

OK, so the first time my friends had me listen to "Unstoppable" I was impressed. I'm not a huge rap fan, but I like some of it (Eminem, Jay-Z, Biggie and Outcast) Then someone told me that it was Jimmy from Degrassi. I laughed, and said "yeah right!" Except it is. Personally, I like this better.

Because let's face it. Ash is a bitch. She had a right to her anger, because I mean, hell, if my boyfriend got Manny Santos pregnant, I wouldn't be happy either. (Of course if my boyfriend was Craig, I might forgive him.) But still, I'm just saying long before "Unstoppable" he was rapping about far more important things. Like how Ash should make Craig lunch.

Tomorrow I'll write about actors who have miraculously overcome CSD. Check it out

They can have it, but they will not shut us down

Fringe premier tonight.

As you'll recall, Fringe ended last season with Olivia going "over there" and meeting William Bell, played by Leonard Nimoy. If you need a refresher check out this post from May.

This one opened with a man running from the scene of Olvia's accident in New York, chasing another man. He killed him and then changed his form, to look like the other man.

Next we had Walter and Peter in a supermarket, where we learn that Peter's birthday is coming up and Walter wants to make him a custard. Peter then gets a call reporting Olivia's accident. They rush to New York.

At the accident site they meet an agent from there who informs them that although there's been a crash, there's no one in the car. After Walter inspects the scene Olivia shoots through the windshield and is brought to the hospital, where she is declared brain dead. Peter and Walter are both devastated and deal in their way. Walter gets to work on how to fix this, and Peter drinks.

While at a bar, Agent Broyles tells Peter that the government has decided to shut down the Fringe division, because he can't show them results. This gets Peter thinking. He goes back to the hospital and talks to Olivia's sister. She tells him Olivia had a living will and didn't want to be kept alive. Going in to say good bye, he sits at her side, and she wakes up, her eyes black, says something in Greek and then wakes up. She's babbling, but tells Peter that she went there, and met with him. When he asks where and who, she can't answer. She becomes more coherent and asks Peter for her gun. He agrees to get it and goes to the FBI building to see what this means for him. He's kicked out, until the New York agent gets him in and starts asking questions. He agrees to show her Fringe.

The guy who shape shifted goes into a shop and asks the owner for a certain model of something, the owner says that such a model doesn't exist, the number was skipped. This is our first clue that he's from "over there." He ends up killing the owner, and then going after Olivia.

Basically it all ended in the New York agent joining up with the Fringe team, Olivia remembering the use of her gun, and the assassin killing Charlie and assuming his identity, making him the ultimate threat to Olivia.

Peter and Agent Boyle agree to share some things with the government to keep Fringe going...then it ended.

It's going to be a good season

My Top 10 Season Finale Moments Part 2

Told you part 2 was coming! Here we are.

5. Fringe: There's More Than One of Everything

I wrote a lot about it when it aired, but I'm still getting over the Fringe season finale, and Olivia ending up in the alternate universe, with Leonard Nimoy and in the Twin Towers. It was so chilling and well done.

4. Lost: The Incident

There were so many moments to pick from in this episode, but I have to say the winner came when Ben stabbed Jacob and we all realized that Jacob and that guy he was talking to on the beach before were actually playing a big fat game of Highlander, and that Evil Locke (or Locke 2, as my brother calls him) is the guy on the beach. It was pretty sweet.

3. Dollhouse: Epitaph One

When Echo beat the living shit out of Alpha was an up point, but the real moment of truth came when Ballard got to choose one doll to set free and instead of Echo, he chose Melly. Pretty nuts, right?

2. How I Met Your Mother: The Leap

Barney told Robin he loved her, and she admitted she had feelings for him, and they made out! I don't know what else is going to happen with that relationship, but I think it's going to be good! I was super excited.

1. Gossip Girl: The Goodbye Gossip Girl

Like any of you expected me to pick something else! When Blair walked up to her apartment building, and Chuck was standing there, holding all of her favorite things from Europe. He told her he loved her, over and over and over again. I nearly cried. It was perfect.

So there they are, my favorite moments from this years crop of season finales.

JJ I apologize: 2

Seriously, I have to give JJ Abrams so much respect after watching the season finale of Fringe this week I thought about how hard he's worked, and how much he's done to get to the point where he can really do what he wants to do, that is create a solid, tradition Science Fiction world, like the one he's doing with Fringe, if you look at the trajectory of his career, he's earned it.

His first series was Felicity. I love Felicity, I thought the show was fantastic. I was also an eleven year old girl. He bizarrely ended it with Felicity traveling back in time to warn his younger self of the troubles ahead. (In JJ's time travel rules you're allowed to do that)

Then came Alias...a show I dropped after its third season, but loved for those three seasons. More action than Sci-Fi, it still had the elements of good Sci-Fi, including conspiracies and all powerful infrastructures that couldn't be trusted but for the individuals in them.

Lost, oh Lost, its Sci-Fi that isn't really Sci-Fi, but it's accesible Sci-Fi, because the focus isn't as much on the bizarre, although its there always in the backfround, but instead the focus falls to the incredibly deep and well developed characters. With Lost's explosion, it gave him the chance to spread his wings and do some much more genre specific stuff.

Cloverfield and Star Trek are well formed fully flushed out sci-fi films. One an original creature destruction story, another a well tailored revamp of a classic space opera. Both are important to the genre and well executed by him.

Then came Fringe. I doubted the show's power many times. It was slow to get going, seemed burdened by its X-Files ripoff structure, and its strange runtime. After the return from the far too long hiatus I actually stopped watching for a while, and one slow Sunday watched four episodes in a row. I was stunned. The show had turned some kind of corner, and it took off and flew in this weeks' season finale.

[Spoiler Alert]

Walter and Peter resolved a great deal, when Peter made a speech about good memories and making pancakes (Lord, can Josh Jackson, give an agnst ridden speech. I personally feel like this traces back a while. To about here. Emilio taught him very well) which triggered something in Walter to remember the past, and what he and William Bell had always intended to do.

But it was the last five minutes that got me. Olivia heads to New York to meet with Nina Sharp and learn the location of William Bell. When Sharp stands her up she goes to return to her car. While in the car she receives a few flashes, indicating a switch to the paralell universe. The doors open and she is lead to an office my a woman in a black dress. She stands looking around trying to figure out what happened. Then out of the shadows comes...SPOCK...OK, no, its Leonard Nimoy, and they participate in this exchange.

Spock: Agent Dunham, I've been waiting for you.
Olivia: Where am I? Who are you?
Spock: The answer to your first question is (Shatneresque pause) complicated. As for your second question. I am William Bell.

Olivia stumbles back and turns looking out the window. There is a slow pull back and it is revealed that Olivia and Bell are in the World Trade Center. IN ALTERNATE REALITY THERE WAS NO SEPTEMBER 11!!!!! Or something.

Anyway, I said I apologized for my doubt last Friday, but Good God, if you orchestrate that kind of a twist, all is forgiven. And, is Nimoy the new Greg Grunberg? Just always in everything JJ does in some capacity? (BTW, he is in fact in Star Trek, he's the voice of Kirk's step father.) Anyway, JJ, I will burn the list of reasons why I hate JJ Abrams. I even forgive you for killing Charlie...and not telling us what the numbers mean yet.

Interdimmensional whats-its?

Got caught up on Fringe this morning.

Turns out Olivia is a recruit for a special army of humans with superior powers that is meant to fight a coming onslaught of interdimensional beings...

Or aliens.

We all knew it would come to aliens, but why oh WHY did they have to call them interdimensional beings?

Just call 'em what they are...

Either way...Fringe has gotten absurdly good.

Too bad JJ had to steal from George Lucas and Steven Spielberg so very early in the series. But I guess as long as Olivia and Peter don't go off in search of the Crystal Skulls, everything will be OK!

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, so as if the whole Vanderbeek on OTH thing wasn't enough for Creek addicts to get their fill of the good old days, Fringe just made my (and btw any other Creek Freak's) WEEK.

First and foremost, Josh got a haircut and trimmed the beard and he looks fine, and they're upping the stakes, now there's chemistry between him and Olivia's sister. I know its only season one and they can't hook up yet, but still, even Pacey wouldn't have screwed Bessie, and he did some pretty insensitive things.

That's not the exciting part, this is:


Yes friends, that is Mary Beth Piel. Better known as Grams. Better known as Jen's surprisingly awesome grandmother from DC. Oh yeah. Talk about your awesome reunions.

Shut up, this is exciting.

JJ Abrams is a liar!!

So I just watched this week's episode of Fringe...aside from Josh in his underwear again...mmmm...there's something that's annoying me. In an interview JJ Abrams said what he was excited about with Fringe was that there wasn't going to be a lot of "WTF is going on here?" moments. There wouldn't be any numbers, or polar bears, or "Who are the bad guys?" and "Who are the good guys?" happening. No, it was going to be more straightforward, with your questions getting answers. Well JJ, I've got some questions for you.

1. If Walter and Peter can read each other's minds, why isn't Peter aware of it?
2. Who's the bald guy? And to make this clear not the bald black guy who's Olivia's boss, but the weird bald white guy we just met in this episode?
3. How is Olivia's dead partner standing in her kitchen at the end of the episode?
4. What does that strange company want with Olivia?
5. Who is Peter hiding from?
6. What did Walter do to make Peter hate him so much?
7. Who's side is the bald black guy on? The evil corporation.
   

So yeah...that's all I'm saying those are questions...JJ Abrams, you're a liar!

It always comes back to the Duck

Today I will focus on one line from Fringe.

"I told you, it always comes back to the duck!"

I giggled. For quite a bit. Of course it comes back to the duck. Because it comes back to Peter, who you know, is Josh. Who's you know a Duck.

Oh right, there are people who don't understand this.

I love The Mighty Ducks...the movies not the hockey team. Joshua Jackson, Ducks, Fringe. I don't know, I thought it was funny.