Fringe 4x01 - "Neither Here Nor There" (Discussion, Spoilers)

You did.

 

Agreed. Fringe is better than this.

 

I think it was supposed to show us how awful everyone's personality is (well, Walter and Olivia's anyway) without Peter's involvement, and what a crucial impact his absence has on the world. Oh, and that jumping between universes now just requires a room with a burst of lights in the floor.

With the exception of the room bit, it pretty much failed to do those things, though. Walter's always been an on-and-off dick, Olivia's always had the personality of a piece of wet cardboard, and the changes that should have occurred with Peter's absence are what's actually absent.

 

^

Basically, an accurate assessment. I suppose this is Fringe's version of It's A Wonderful Life, minus having the Observer take the non-existent Peter around to actually show him the impact of his not being there on the other characters.

None of this though, explains how that damn machine can be there or how it connected the two universes without Peter, if this is now a re-written timeline. There's still serious flaws in this story and the writers are really going to have to work to give us a satisfactory explanation for all that we've seen.

 

One thing I've noticed about Abrams shows is that they start off clever and intriguing, but they don't always manage to hang on to it. Lost fell completely apart; Alias had a terribly stupid third season (but recovered), and, ya know Star Trek sucked (*ducks*). Fringe has managed to keep interesting for the most part, and I'm hopeful. But history is against it.

 

3.53 million & 1.5/5 - solid start.

 

I'm afraid you might be right.

 

I wouldn't go that far, it's one of the lowest numbers the show had ever pulled, and for a season première too...

 

the season 3 finale was a 1.2...Friday night 1.5 demo for FOX is nothing to be scoffed at + I said solid not amazing.

 

An interesting view. Looking back, the Peter character has always been diminished in the interests of focusing the show on Olivia. Peter is only there because he is in love with Olivia and won't even call Walter Dad. Peter is an idiot, because only Olivia is the only normal human character allowed to actually do anything successfully. All Joshua Jackson has been allowed to do is emote in reacton to John Noble and Anna Torv. That's worked well enough to anchor Walter's peculiarities in some sort of relatable human motivation (i.e., love for his son.) It doesn't work for Olivia, but the terminal Mary Suishness of the character wouldn't permit it too. Peter can't be enough of a character to constitute a partner in a romance, because Olivia has to suck up all the oxygen in the room.

 

I know. I wouldn't consider them 'solid' either. I doubt the show would survive were they to stay steady.

 

Thanks for the help guys, I thought thats what they were doing but overall I was bored and thought it was terrible. And I love Fringe.