Don't ask me to talk about Fringe. I might not stop.

One of my favorite TV shows is the one I'm catching up on right now: FRINGE. I love this show with hearts and flowers and lots of nerdy glee. There are two shows I do NOT want spoilers for, and FRINGE is one of them. (The other is SUPERNATURAL.)

Every now and then, when I can shake myself out of the sheer joy of this show existing, I try to analyze what, exactly, is working so well for me. On my personal blog, I've written a couple posts about TV shows before -- Six Things Stargate: SG1 Taught Me About Writing and Six Things Supernatural Taught Me About Writing -- but FRINGE is one I haven't gotten to yet. I'm definitely going to try some time.

Anyway. FRINGE?

I love the mystery of not knowing what's going to happen, because they've shown the viewer that anything can happen. One of the characters constantly reminds the others (and therefore the viewers) that the only limit to science (and the show) is imagination. Rules can be broken. Mysteries can lead to deeper mysteries. Everything can turn upside down in minutes.

The plot is complex, and again, anything can happen, but whatever happens always feels right. The writers clearly have a plan, and they're choosing the best ways to reveal information to the viewer. They do a great job of anticipating viewer assumptions, explaining things most people probably don't know, and being convincing even when the show is based on "fringe science." "Pseudo-science," they call it in the show.

I love the mix of serious and humor. Bad things happen, and things get worse, but someone is always there to make an inappropriate comment when the viewer really needs the tension to ease a little.

And oh, the characters. I love how Peter and Olivia both have tough outsides, and they're both so darn competent -- but the viewer gets to see those moments of vulnerability and insecurity. The viewer gets to see where they are human. And Walter! Hilarious, kind of scary, but extremely sympathetic because he knows that he's lost so much of his mind. And Astrid! She doesn't make it onto the covers of the DVDs, but dang, there's nothing that girl can't do. Plus she's kind and gentle, and often plays the role of the group's conscience.

I love how you can see how all the characters interact differently with one another. I love how their relationships evolve, how close they become, how much it hurts you when they hurt. . . .

Apparently I really can go on and on about FRINGE. There's nothing I don't like about this show. (Even if I do sometimes have to look away from gross things. And even if Walter is trying to ruin every yummy food there is by comparing it to disgusting things.) I'm pretty sure the writers begin their meetings with, "So, what can we do this week to make Jodi happy?"

--

Jodi Meadows is the author of INCARNATE. (January 31, 2012 - HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books.)

She lives and writes in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, a Kippy*, and an alarming number of ferrets. She is a confessed book addict, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she decided against becoming an astronaut. You can find her on her website and blog.

*A Kippy is a cat.

Cue the intense opening music...

This week's theme on Brave New Words is Favorite TV Shows! Which is completely awesome, even though I actually no longer have a television subscription (thank you, internet). So I tried to narrow down some of the great shows that have had a profound impact on me personally, and as a writer:

UNSOLVED MYSTERIES

This creepy, freaky show first aired in 1987 and is still on the air to this day! I haven't watched it since at least the late 90s, but part of that is because I used to get so freaked out by it, I would have nightmares from watching. The show covers everything from UFO sightings/abductions to unsolved murders, ghost stories, miracles, psychic experiences/ESP, strange legends, and just about anything else weird and unexplained you can think of. The show was originally hosted by Robert Stack, who I thought was William Shatner for the longest time (sorry, Shat), and it was set up a little like America's Most Wanted where you could call in if you had any information about the unsolved experience featured that night. There were often dramatic reenactments of the strange occurrences, but I think the alien encounter episodes were the scariest of all. Just hearing the original intro music still gives me chills!

THE X-FILES

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE. Everyone, start whistling! Okay, you're noticing a theme here, right? Emily likes the strange phenomena shows. But that's also why we're all here on this blog, right? Go science fiction! All right so, I think The X-Files might be the one show that left the most lasting impression on me. I started watching it as a teenager and recently re-watched the entire series episode-by-episode up until David Duchovny left the show because...sigh. Every show has to jump the shark eventually. But for at least 5 to 7 seasons, The X-Files had everything. A kick-ass duo of FBI agents investigating strange paranormal events all over the country. Freaky monsters just about every week. Consistent and compelling (though sometimes slightly beaten to death *cough*Samantha*cough*) subplots. And did I mention the crazy-ass stories that often involved teenagers doing bizarre things? How much cooler can you get?

TWIN PEAKS 

Who killed Laura Palmer? It's the question that plagued America for two years in the early 1990s. The theme song from this show still makes me reach for tissues. Except if you've watched (and own) the entire series, as I have, you kind of find yourself wondering why you're getting all sniffly...because this show was screwed UP! But this is David Lynch, people. Season 1 was relatively tame. Prom Queen Laura Palmer's body is found wrapped in plastic, floating in a river. It's a terrible, haunting tragedy. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (played by a swoony young Kyle MacLachlan) comes to town to investigate Laura's murder...but you quickly find out EVERYONE in Twin Peaks (including Laura) are not what they seem. Things go from strange, to bizarre, to twisted, to just...WTF by the end of Season 2. The characters in the show, however, are so three-dimensional and unforgettable they start to feel like people you actually know. People you're kind of glad aren't really real. You do eventually find out who Laura's killer was, but the discovery is so completely wrong and bizarre, I kind of wanted to forget it afterward. Twin Peaks is a twisted, insane show with a compelling mystery...wrapped in good old home-town packaging.

DOCTOR WHO

The music for Doctor Who makes my blood PUMP. If you hear it, you know you're about to be taken on an unforgettable adventure. The British television program is the longest running science fiction show in the world. It began in 1963 and has had a major makeover/surge in popularity in the last six years. The Doctor himself has been played by various actors over the years (pictured is David Tennant with Billie Piper as Rose), since The Doctor must periodically "regenerate" if he is seriously wounded. Along with rotating Doctors are a changing cast of "companions" who join him on his journeys through time and space. The writing for this show is especially complex and layered. Each season has a theme (or several themes) that all tie together at the end, though it's almost impossible to figure it out until the end. The stakes are high in almost every episode--life and limb are almost always at risk. The show also manages to send compelling messages about what is is to be human and the value of human (or non-human) life. The Doctor almost always promises adventure, a little history, a little speculative fiction, and a lot of emotional investment. In my highly-biased opinion, it might be one of the most perfect series ever written. :)

Emily Hainsworth is the author of THROUGH TO YOU, (Fall 2012 Balzer+Bray / HarperCollins), a sci-fi novel about a seventeen-year-old boy grieving for his dead girlfriend until he discovers she's still alive in a parallel reality--one where he's the one who died. For more information, visit her website.

TV Shows That Hook and Don't Let Go

So, something weird about me? I like TV shows better than movies. I cannot seem to sit through a movie lately AT ALL, but I can totes have a giant 5-episode marathon of my favorite tv show. In fact, I save episodes up for this very purpose (it's so annoying, after all, to have to agonize waiting each week to find out what happens next! I want to know right away!).

You see, I think TV shows have more to teach a writer, at least about perfecting longer story-arcs, that movies can't. Movies can teach a writer how to keep things fast paced, to think in terms of scenes, and to focus only on the things that move a story forward without meandering. But it's TV shows where you really get some deep characterization, the kind where a character burrows into your head so that you can't stop thinking about them. And because there are hopefully at least a few seasons of a show, you get to inhabit the life of the character for longer, and more intimately than movies. It's what I love best about storytelling of any kind--stories that move me.

So, without further ado, my top five favorite shows.

1. Doctor Who. I was only introduced to the fabulous Doctor about a year ago, when I started watching Season 5 with the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, and fell head over heels with the show. I promptly went back and watched all the previous seasons. But unlike many, for whom David Tennant will be their favorite Doctor-par-excellence, I really like Matt Smith. And again, I've heard all over the internet that people were bummed about this past season, but I LOVED IT! I like Amelia Pond. I love Rory (well, everyone loves Rory), and I am a huge fan of the River Song story line and seeing how that all played out this year. If you have no idea what I'm talking about: stop what you are doing this instant and go watch this show!!!!

2. Fringe. I only sorta liked this show the first couple seasons, it wasn't until last season when it was less episodic and they went full throttle with the mythology of the two parallel universes that I fell hard for this show. The ideas and epic world-bending-and-potentially-ending scope combined with the interpersonal relationships make this show a Must Watch.

3. Once Upon A Time. Okay, so there's only been three episodes of this show so far, but it's my favorite debut this fall. I can talk a good post-modern game sometimes, but really I'm a giant sap at heart. I always loved fairy-tale retellings where there's a happily ever after. I think this show is smart in playing with the tropes and familiar story-lines, I love that portions of the show are set in the fairy-tale realm where it's knights and thieves and royalty, and I really like seeing the familiar characters turned on their head in the cursed realm of our world--the place 'where there are no happy endings.' The pilot wasn't as stunning as I'd hoped, but last week's episode and the one tonight completely wrapped me up.

4. Revenge. This is my other favorite new start-up show this year. The premise of a girl slowly destroying the group of people who destroyed her father, so perfectly summed up in this tag-line: "This is not a story about forgiveness." The first episode literally gave me goosebumps. It's wandered a little since, but it's still the show I always watch first on my dvr each week. This show is all about character--viewers are given intimate looks at Emily's thought processes, what drove her here, how the revenge consumes her so completely. But the wrenching part of this show is you want to just be like: no, stop Emily! You could just stop now and find a way to be happy if you'd just let all this go! But like the tag-line says: it's not a story about forgiveness. And I can't wait to see how deep and dark this all goes, and if Emily can still manage to find a modicum of her own happiness.

5. The Vampire Diaries. When I first started watching this show, I thought: hmm, it's good, but I wonder if it can stay interesting past the first season? Yeah, it's on it's third season, and it has amped up with every episode. The thing that hooks me with this show (and a lot of people, I think) is the two Salvatore brothers--one dark, one light, always in love with the same girl and locked into this pattern of eternal competition, but also, this bond between one another. So it's got that nice Cain and Abel thing going, but the show never lets it be simple. The two brothers, especially this season, morph in and out of roles of clear-cut 'good' and 'bad', and who are we kidding, we all probably love them best when they're being bad boys, right on the verge of being good. The show makes all of the characters and relationships so perfectly tangled, you're not sure what to hope for to happen next. But no matter what, you can't stop watching.