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"Sad that J.J. Abrams (Star Wars) and Alex Kurtzman (Star Trek) used to make really good original stuff and then moved into franchises that they ruined… "

How right you are. Fringe was great fun, marvelous core characters... and Nimoy.

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This article reminded me of the better review channels I used to watch on Youtube, if they wrote TVTropes articles. Not sure what it says about me that I read TVTropes regularly :P

The formula can be found in quite a few shows! House MD, Monk, iZombie--I'll have to check out the shows in the article...

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I started rewatching Grimm last week, and Person of Interest as well. Same formula, and different genres. My wife introduced Evil to me - no her name is not EveđŸ¤ª. Anyway Evil follows this formula to a certain extent, the characters are very good. Michael Emerson (Ben) from Lost and Person of Interest is in Evil as a maniacal version Gazoo, turning up in interesting moments to move subplots and background plots along. I have to say this is best role as he’s been allowed to stretch from his usual dead pan delivery.

We just finished Season 2 of Fargo, and I have to say I was really surprised how good it was. My wife got me hooked on that, S2 had moments that were near Breaking Bad quality. From what I can tell the Formula is a mix of True Detective, jumping decade each season and a weird form of Minnesota Northern Exposure quirks. That’s hard to maintain across a series, that’s why Vince Gilligan was so masterful.

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