Fringe 3/18/11: Discussion and Commentary
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Did the bomber run out of toilet paper and was using his old invoices? It seemed to be a really weird place to leave an invoice.
I thought it was a pretty good episode despite cringing nearly every time Bellivia did her Nimoy impression. Maybe I'm off-base but wouldn't it make more sense for her to sound like Bell as a young man? You could keep everything Olivia is doing to channel Nimoy and just get rid of the rasp and it would be like %50 less ridiculous. In my opinion.
I quite enjoyed the case this week, was a very X-Files storyline.
I quite enjoyed the case this week, was a very X-Files storyline.
I wouldn't worry about the ratings for Friday. There were three basketball games to choose from.
Well... I can name one person on the board who can. 
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUsZajhnyfc[/yt]
Okay, I'm not feeling all "jump the sharky." I'm having fun with this stuff. Maybe it's all the X-Files episodes and "Coast to Coast" listening, but I'm rolling with it. Bell's katra inside Olivia? It's the same kind of fearless plot turn I love about this show.
Loved watching Walter and Bellivia "doing that thing where they don't finish sentences." Walter is so happy to be back with Bell. I was also half-expecting Belly to end up in the girl's body...I wonder who it will be? And does this mean Bell will be a regular? Hilarious that Belly was hitting on Astrid. And that Peter is so weirded out that Belly has replaced his girlfriend.
Also enjoyed the geeky Lincoln Lee of this universe, the antithesis of the cool Fringe Division head Over There, but still someone who would fit right in with our gang. Nice setup for him to join up... maybe if the show goes to Season 4.
I also liked the plot, the "compassionate soul vampire" musings, the tragedy of the woman who longs to die but can't. Very thought-provoking for me.
I hope TPTB at Fox understand about the stiff competition presented by the playoffs. I don't see how all these plotlines can possibly be resolved in any satisfactory way in 5 more episodes. I really need a Season 4.
Loved watching Walter and Bellivia "doing that thing where they don't finish sentences." Walter is so happy to be back with Bell. I was also half-expecting Belly to end up in the girl's body...I wonder who it will be? And does this mean Bell will be a regular? Hilarious that Belly was hitting on Astrid. And that Peter is so weirded out that Belly has replaced his girlfriend.
Also enjoyed the geeky Lincoln Lee of this universe, the antithesis of the cool Fringe Division head Over There, but still someone who would fit right in with our gang. Nice setup for him to join up... maybe if the show goes to Season 4.
I also liked the plot, the "compassionate soul vampire" musings, the tragedy of the woman who longs to die but can't. Very thought-provoking for me.
I hope TPTB at Fox understand about the stiff competition presented by the playoffs. I don't see how all these plotlines can possibly be resolved in any satisfactory way in 5 more episodes. I really need a Season 4.
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Linking straight to the world's busiest tv torrent download site probably isn't going to go down too well
Yes, please don't do that.
I've changed the link to the source story.
I'm not sure people's issue with it is necessarily the fact that Bell is in Olivia, it's the way it's happened. I mean Soul Magnets? Seriously?
How is it a fearless plot twist when Star Trek has done it before? How is it fearless when there was a movie called All of Me that did it? How is it fearless when body possession is old and nothing new?
Fringe I would argue plays it too safe and doesn't shake things up enough--we have a lot of standbys--pregnancies complicating relationships, love triangles, body possession, parallel universes etc.
^^ By "fearless," I mean, "Wow! I can't believe they went out on a limb and took the story in that direction!" For me, they're doing it in a believable way, because the characters believe it. I think the showrunners believe in their vision, in the "damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead" sense. And I admire that.
As for seeing story elements that have been used before... folks have been recycling Shakespeare for 500 years. It's all in how you do it. And I like the way these folks do it.
I'm curious, startrekwatcher... you clearly don't enjoy this show. Why do you continue to watch it?
As for seeing story elements that have been used before... folks have been recycling Shakespeare for 500 years. It's all in how you do it. And I like the way these folks do it.
I'm curious, startrekwatcher... you clearly don't enjoy this show. Why do you continue to watch it?
I watch Fringe because in S1 and S2 I saw flashes of greatness in its mythology and was genuinely interested in where it was going so I stuck with it knowing that some shows take a little patience before they hit their stride. I had hoped that the writers would realize that was where a great series could come from however with a large portion of this season my patience with this series has worn thin for a few reasons--
The show has backed away from telling mythology stories and being heavily serialized opting instead for pretty pointlessly dull plots of the week that don't offer up anything new and are instead pretty obvious and predictable.
Fringe shouldn't try to do these weird one-offs--they have shown time and again that they can't pull them off and we have plenty of other shows like The X-Files that can so Fringe should focus on what works. Sure the episodes thematically or peripherally might tie into the mythology but only as footnotes or lipservice. It has been several episodes now and no revelations or advancement on Sam Weiss, Observers, First People etc. It seems like the other episodes are there just to fill out the 22 episode season so they can stall to get back to the mythology in the final three episodes. This has led to an unevenness, a lack of narrative urgency and it ruins the momentum the mythology stories gain as we set it aside for long stretches at a time.
The characters were never that strong with Walter being the standout. So rather than trying to make Olivia and Peter more interesting on their own they rushed into a forced romance and the track record on sff romances aren't that great to begin with.
I could have dealt with the Peter/Olivia romance in small doses even though I don't buy it but the writers had to go and make it a central focus of not only the season and who Peter, Olivia, Fauxlivia are--much in the same way ENT defined Trip and T'Pol not as interesting individuals on their own but by their relationship-- but now they turned it into a love triangle with a tired soap opera relationship twist with a baby to complicate things and the worst decision they could have made by making it a critical component of the mythology by reducing which universe survives by who Peter loves more.
I was never a fan of the mumbo jumbo science but could tolerate it--this season they have gone too far and it is just unbelievable and doesn't make any sense even for sci fi.
To me this is the weakest season of the three and that is why I'm so vocal because instead of this season pulling it altogether and becoming a great series it has demonstrated how the writers have squandered the show and apparently ruined to some degree the mythology. I usually bail on a show pretty quickly if it isn't clicking with me--Caprica, The Event, V, The Gates, Persons Unknown, Doctor Who, Stargate etc but Fringe had the potential to really be something but as I see more and more of where the writers seem to be taking things I realize this might be LOST all over again.
The show has backed away from telling mythology stories and being heavily serialized opting instead for pretty pointlessly dull plots of the week that don't offer up anything new and are instead pretty obvious and predictable.
Fringe shouldn't try to do these weird one-offs--they have shown time and again that they can't pull them off and we have plenty of other shows like The X-Files that can so Fringe should focus on what works. Sure the episodes thematically or peripherally might tie into the mythology but only as footnotes or lipservice. It has been several episodes now and no revelations or advancement on Sam Weiss, Observers, First People etc. It seems like the other episodes are there just to fill out the 22 episode season so they can stall to get back to the mythology in the final three episodes. This has led to an unevenness, a lack of narrative urgency and it ruins the momentum the mythology stories gain as we set it aside for long stretches at a time.
The characters were never that strong with Walter being the standout. So rather than trying to make Olivia and Peter more interesting on their own they rushed into a forced romance and the track record on sff romances aren't that great to begin with.
I could have dealt with the Peter/Olivia romance in small doses even though I don't buy it but the writers had to go and make it a central focus of not only the season and who Peter, Olivia, Fauxlivia are--much in the same way ENT defined Trip and T'Pol not as interesting individuals on their own but by their relationship-- but now they turned it into a love triangle with a tired soap opera relationship twist with a baby to complicate things and the worst decision they could have made by making it a critical component of the mythology by reducing which universe survives by who Peter loves more.
I was never a fan of the mumbo jumbo science but could tolerate it--this season they have gone too far and it is just unbelievable and doesn't make any sense even for sci fi.
To me this is the weakest season of the three and that is why I'm so vocal because instead of this season pulling it altogether and becoming a great series it has demonstrated how the writers have squandered the show and apparently ruined to some degree the mythology. I usually bail on a show pretty quickly if it isn't clicking with me--Caprica, The Event, V, The Gates, Persons Unknown, Doctor Who, Stargate etc but Fringe had the potential to really be something but as I see more and more of where the writers seem to be taking things I realize this might be LOST all over again.
I think a lot of the stand-alones have been pretty strong. Probably the best episode this year was the one with the guy who could predict in minute detail things that were about to happen. Yes it had a mythology tie-in but the stand-alone story was what made it interesting. The second season episode with the kid who was an observer is another good example. Do these count as stand alones?
I'm not crazy about the focus they've put on the Peter / Olivia relationship either, basically making it the crux of the entire series now as to which universe lives or dies. I thought it was kind of sweet and naturally developed as presented in season 2 but now it's like the hand of destiny which to me takes a lot of the fun out of it.
I'm not crazy about the focus they've put on the Peter / Olivia relationship either, basically making it the crux of the entire series now as to which universe lives or dies. I thought it was kind of sweet and naturally developed as presented in season 2 but now it's like the hand of destiny which to me takes a lot of the fun out of it.
We'll have to agree to disagree because I think pretty much all of the standalones have either been just average or awful. When I think of the show's best outings they are alwats myth heavy--"Grey Matters", "August", "Peter", the S1 finale, "The Man from the Other Side", "What do Shapeshifters dream of", "In Which We Meet Mr Jones", "The Safe", "Ability", "The Box", "6999 Hz" and when I think of the weakest I think of the second episode of S2 "Night of Desirable Objects" with the son as a burrowing farm worm, "Concentrate and Ask Again", a lot of early S1 standalones, "Brown Betty", "Snakehead", "Northwest Passage", "Stowaway", "Earthling".
"Inner Child" was another good myth heavy episode and I consider it such. I consider the standalone stories like the alien possession one, the marionette one from this season, the dream episode from last season.
I just don't see the point when people are more invested in Observers, First People etc to be doing standalones that the writers can't make work. If the standalones were as entertaining as the ones that TNG made as their bread-and-butter or the X-Files episodes did I wouldn't mind them but they aren't--they are predictable with no surprise climax and they are usually saddled with a predictable final act where the guys are in danger but there is no tension since we know they aren't about to be killed. And the show has a bad habit of not keeping us in the dark and letting us discover the mystery of the week alongside the agents--instead they show us what is going on from the start usually in the teaser or first act robbing what little interest I might have since I know what is going on before the agents so I'm just waiting for them to figure it out.
The show hasn't done a very good job with the exception of Walter and Walter's love for Peter in making the characters or their relationships interesting. I could care less about Olivia, Olivia's stepfather, her vanishing sister and niece, the Agent from S2 who disappeared who seemed to be a religious individual, Nina, Nina/Bell, Bell, Fauxlivia, Fauxlivia and her boyfriend, Broyles, Olivia and Mark Valley's character.
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Most likely in May when Fox announces it's fall schedule. If it's not on the schedule, it's gone.
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