From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

Just returned the Roku stick with Hulu to the library. Now I don't
recall if I watched any movie but I just didn't spot any that grabbed
me. Instead I watched tv from decades ago, the first two seasons of
House M.D., and the first season each of Fringe and The Mentalist.

On House, I'd forgotten how moralistic and preachy Cameron was, and that
Chase had been a seminary boy. This was referred to in several first
season episodes and provided a bit of backstory in one, but I don't
recall it being referenced again in the rest of the series. House had to
have tv's first transgender story, although that was the solution to the medical mystery. A model with hyper-feminine characteristics turned out
to have testicular cancer because of a weird combination of undescended testicles and a body that couldn't process testosterone. The latter was
left unexplained.

Fringe I remembered quite well, with the better cow. The pilot episode
still makes no sense whatsoever. How the hell did Olivia put the team
together? The entire backstory that she was one of William Bell's
enhanced children to create supersoldiers always felt like a retcon.
Now, I recall what happens in later seasons but knowing what to look for
made it easy to spot much of the setup. Walter would have fits of anger,
not always frustration, but hints of his original evil personality. The
setup for Peter being sick as a child, which THIS Peter cannot remember
as it wasn't his life, are there.

The scripts really suck. Yeah, it's fringe science, but they weren't
even trying to make any sense. All the more impressive, then, was John
Noble's incredible performance as Walter and the emotional range he
showed. I've come to better apppreciate the relationship with his son,
which rang true. Walter is not just aging and sick, he's psychotic and a sociopath with dementia that we learn later was induced. Peter does not
have the patience but forces himself to care for Walter.

The running gag of Walter forgetting Astrid's first name was used just a handful of times, instead of multiple times an episode in later seasons.

In one episode, after Leonard Nimoy's voice was heard, there were Mr.
Spock jokes a few weeks later.

Despite the all-Australian cast, Anna Torv's Melbourne accent never
slips in and John Noble's resonant voice is always the same.

On The Mentalist, the creator was supposedly creating yet another
Sherlock Holmes character, but the relationship with Lisbon is more like McCloud/Broadhurst. Jane is reckless and annoying and needed to get
punched in the face in more episodes. Robin Tunney gave a fine
performance despite her character being so utterly absurd for putting up
with Jane's crap.

Several things we took for granted later in the show were not there at
the beginning. There was no establishment shot of the historic building
used for CBI headquarters in Sacramento until middle of first season.
It's actually a hotel from Mexican territory days when Los Angeles had
just a few thousand residents. The gated back entrance was used as a
plot point in an episode. Cho's laconic personality was not there at the beginning. If anything, the character was kind of dumb and more
vulnerable to Jane's antics than Rigsby.

Jane's observational skills were unlimited. He's even a tracker in one
episode.

First season had 23 episodes!
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