One of my guilty pleasures, is watching the old episodes of “Life”. “Life” had an unceremoniously short live run on the peacock network “NBC”. The series was canceled after two seasons. The show featured a cop that was wrongly sentenced to life in prison for murders he didn’t commit, only to have his sentence thrown out after spending twelve at Pelican Bay. Terms of release included a large financial settlement and the opportunity to be a detective on the same police force that turned on him. What made “Life” such a fascinating show was the quirkiness of the Charlie Crews. While in prison, he discovered Zen and had a lot of Charlism, while solving cases. The other cool thing is that while he is solving cases during each episode, he is slowly piecing the puzzle together to discover how and why he was framed for those murders. As a closet student on studying everything Zen, I found myself connecting to the philosophical ramblings of Detective Charlie Crews. It is my goal moving forward to plaster this website from time to time with Charlism and other Zenful ramblings that I enjoy.

My favorite quote from Charlie Crews is this one:

You don’t have to understand here, to be here.

ON OCTOBER 6, THE PLANET BLACKED OUT FOR TWO MINUTES AND SEVENTEEN SECONDS THE WHOLE WORLD SAW THEIR FUTURE
How cool is that for an opening. If you haven’t seen this show, I suggest you run to Hulu, Boxee, Apple TV and get caught up. The show airs on ABC, Thursday at 8 pm. This show is the perfect filler for me while I wait for the return of LOST and 24. The first seven episodes has been full of intense action, swerves, holy sh!t moments as well as tender moments. Each episode leaves you anxiously waiting for the next one which is something that is a good thing for ABC.

Flashforward the TV Series is based on the novel Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer: where the consciousness of the human population is flung 21 years into the future for two minutes. Although some who see the vision are resigned to their eventual fates or actively seek them out, there are those who quickly prove that the future isn’t set in stone — by killing themselves so their visions cannot come to pass.

Speaking of returning shows  for the fall, I am happy that Fox is starting the new episodes of Fringe on September 17th,  instead of the making us wait until October or November.  When  Fringe debuted last season, it was a pleasure to watch a show that got progressively better with each episode.  I think the one element that make show entertaining, is that the science fiction used is not that all far fetched.  The weird or fringe science technology is shown in a way that leave you thinking it is plausible.

For those of you that were hiding under a rock when the show debuted last year, I will list a brief synopsis from Wikipedia to help you get a better understanding of the show and hopefully you will consider watching Fringe this fall.

” Wikipedia’s synopsis ”

Fringe follows the exploits of FBI special agent Olivia Dunham, mad scientist Walter Bishop, and his son “jack of all trades” Peter Bishop as they investigate aspects of fringe science (rare diseases, chimeras, transhumans with psychic abilities, teleportation, and so forth). All over the world, a series of apparent experiments collectively referred to as “the Pattern” (e.g., a newborn baby who rapidly ages and dies within a few minutes, a bus full of passengers trapped in a strange resin like mosquitoes in amber) are occurring for reasons unknown. Olivia, Peter, and Walter are in charge of investigating these strange events to determine their source. Connected to the Pattern is Massive Dynamic, a leading global technology company that holds the patents for a number of new and important technologies. Their enemy is ZFT, a bioterrorist organization which is orchestrating all of the strange occurrences in order to prepare for a destructive technological singularity. Tying both sides together is a nootropic drug, called Cortexiphan, that was developed by Walter and his partner, William Bell (now chairman of Massive Dynamic), which Olivia and a number of others were treated with as children. The first season closes with Olivia meeting William in a parallel universe where, among other differences, the World Trade Center was not destroyed by the September 11 attacks.

Unlike his other series, Lost, J.J. Abrams promises the series’ story arc will be easier to follow and more accessible for those who skip the odd show. In an interview first published in September 2008, Abrams said: “Lost has garnered a certain reputation for being a very complicated show and one that you have to watch every episode. Fringe is in many ways an experiment for us, which is, we believe it is possible to do a show that does have an overall story and end game, which Fringe absolutely does… We can do a show that has that, so that there’s a direction the show is going and there’s an ultimate story that’s being told, but also a show that you don’t have to watch episodes one, two and three to tune into episode four.”