This Week in Television - Mar. 29-Apr. 2, 2010

Before I get to the shows, I just want to say one thing about the countdown timer for V that was in the corner for the entire duration of Lost. I know a lot of people were complaining that it was annoying and distracting, and while that is true, my biggest problem was the countdown itself. A countdown worked when they used it for the season 6 premiere of Lost, because Lost has become an epic show with a huge fanbase. V has neither of those things going for it, and so a countdown does not reflect viewer excitement and certainly isn't going to create any. All it did was piss off Lost fans.

Lost
I was actually kind of surprised when Widmore revealed his intentions were good. But I suppose it makes sense because, while he is often a dick, I do believe that he loves his daughter. It was interesting seeing Sun and Jin being much happier in a relationship that is a secret affair rather than a marriage. And it's been a while since we got an episode that has Keamy, Mikhail, and Desmond. So the man in black needs all 6 candidates before he can leave, because then there's no one left to replace Jacob. But he still doesn't realize Kate is a secret candidate, so all she has to do is sneak away from his group and he's boned. Last week's episode was a very tough act to follow, but this one was still cool.

V
The return episode this week was a little better than some of the previous ones, but I still haven't been able to drum up a ton of enthusiasm for this show. To be honest I'm actually more excited for the return of Glee than I was for V, and Glee is also somewhat near the bottom on the hierarchy of shows I enjoy. Elizabeth Mitchell's character is cool, but no one else is that interesting and her son is still a tool. Anyway, as for this week's episode, it was kind of painfully enjoyable to watch Erica trying to warn people about the V's but constantly having to backtrack and bite her tongue because of the V's keeping watch on her. And of course the disturbing ending where Anna devours her mate.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
I kind of thought the Rob vs. Russell battle would draw on longer than that. But like last week, the plan got screwed up by one person alone, and that one person was Coach, who felt he owed loyalty to both alliances so threw away his vote, thereby voting out Boston Rob without actually voting for him. And then Rob snubbed him on his way out. Nice. It's good for the rest of the tribe though, because whenever we're watching the Villains camp it's always the Rob, Russell, and Coach show and nobody else gets much screen time.

Flash Forward
The revelation here is not that Mark dies, because I don't entirely believe he will (all flash forwards take place at the same time, and Mark didn't die in his, although he may have been about to when the men with guns snuck in), but it looks like Demetri's new partner is responsible for those men, or is at least in on it. Maybe he's also the one to kill Demetri. And once again Flash Forward thinks it's Lost by throwing in something similar to a Dharma orientation video inside something similar to a hatch interior.

Fringe
This was one of the strongest episodes so far. While telling a story we sort of already knew, we got some cool revelations like how Nina Sharpe lost her arm, how Walter intended to bring Peter back but couldn't bear to, and we saw an Observer make a mistake. Also an amazing and touching performance from John Noble and an awesome inside joke about Back to the Future for the movie nerds. Yes, I think this has become my favourite episode so far.

Hero of the Week: Walter Bishop from Fringe. Because who else can jeopardize the fate of two universes and still be that awesome?

Douchebag of the Week: Coach from Survivor. I didn't really hate anyone this week, but Coach is always a douche and practically wrote it on his own forehead this week anyway. Also he gets the dishonour of being the first person to make Douchebag of the Week twice. Way to go, dick.