Day Three Hundred and Twenty-eight - Fringe: Season 4, Episode 15, "Squeeze-tube Love"

One of the main arcs of this season deals with the fact that Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) was erased from both universes, but through sheer force of will was able to break his way back in to a world where the love of his life, Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), doesn't remember him at all. That is, until her memories from the old timeline begin to overwrite the present ones... something that she is conflicted about to say the least.

Meanwhile, season arcs aside, the MotW (Monster of the Week) is a serial killer who is stealing the juices from men in loving relationships, dumping their bodies, and using their concentrated pheromones to seduce their wives before he murders them as well. As far as mysteries go, it's not all that compelling, but that's not the real meat of the episode.

No, the real meat is Olivia's gradual realization that, despite the fact that it means the loss of her old self, she actually does want to give into the memory rewrite and love Peter. Normally, that would be a bad thing... in fact, Walter (John Noble), goes so far as to laud Peter for his restraint in trying to stay away from Olivia in the hopes that absence will stop or at least slow the overwrite.

There's also the continuation of the Observer subplot where Peter goes on a search for the one seemingly good Observer who is trying, however obscurely, to help humanity. I like the Observer storyline, and know it's going to come to a head in season 5, but after a while it just becomes so much noise such that I never understand why the other Observers don't just kill the Fringe teams in both worlds. It really makes no sense to keep the one group of people who can stop you alive.

From a storytelling standpoint, the episode is one of the weaker ones when you consider the actual mystery. The arcing bits are great, but those are the only things to care about. The cinematography is your standard Abrams greatness, as he and his crew really know how to put a show together that is beautiful, moody, and compelling. I don't think I could ever be disappointed by Fringe, no matter how freaky or weird it gets. It has all of the strengths and none of the weaknesses of its more famous cousin, Lost.

Will I continue to recommend Fringe? Yes, of course... and that's probably why I should stop watching it for the blog. I'm pretty sure that all of my fawning is getting repetitive and puerile at this point. Maybe I'll come back to it for Couchbound for the finale, maybe there will be something that I just can't wait to tell you about in the interim which forces me to go back on my word, but if there's one thing I really want for the blog, it's authenticity, not pandering... so we'll see.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-four - Fringe: Season 4, Episode 12, "Timecop Physics, Minimal Effects Necessary"

The last episode of Fringe that I did for the blog was the pilot. Here, we skip a bit, settling in on the middle of the fourth season and a LOT of stuff has gone down between the two. Suffice it to say, you'd be doing yourself a great disservice not watching the series from beginning to end.

That said, the reason I'm doing it is because this episode is where I left off before completely shunning broadcast/satellite television in favor of internet streaming and DVDs. And boy is it a doozy of one, despite the fact that there's not a lot of progress concerning the major season and series arcs that Fringe has become known for.

That's not to say there aren't connections to said arcs, though, as the majority of the episode happens in a small town that has been cut off from the rest of the universe. Attempting to leave only results in a mobius strip-like occurrence where you wind up back at the other side of town, a la Pleasantville. Instead of quaint, 50's era Americana, though, this town is populated with residents gone insane and precious few survivors who are constantly in fear for their lives.

Enter Olivia, Peter, and Walter, who show up to town quite accidentally to investigate a suspicious fringe event just up the highway only to become trapped themselves. Of course, being who they are, they manage to survive the rampaging psychopaths and deduce the nature of the cross-dimensional event that is plaguing the town, finding a safe zone before the entire area is destroyed.

While not quite a bottle episode, I do like how close it comes, with the Fringe team caught and unable to escape, doing their best to help the trapped townsfolk while dealing with their own issues, particularly THIS universe's Olivia starting to manifest the memories of Peter's Olivia (say, Olivia-Prime?)... which causes a bit of confusion for Peter at the end of the episode when Newlivia fully slides into the persona and memories of Olivia-Prime.

It's all very sad and can be a little confusing (especially if you're skipping straight to this from the pilot some 90 episodes ago)... a lot of water under the bridge that the writers are trying to rectify, but they're doing a very interesting job of it, especially considering how brave and bold the concepts are that they're trying to explore as the series wears on. The Observers, multiple versions of the same person from different realities with startlingly different motivations, fantastic science fiction that is just too preposterous to believe outside of television, but also vaguely fun and convincing.

Definitely the spiritual successor of the X-Files, but much more liberal with the lengths it is willing to go to stretch the bounds of reality. People tend to give it a lot of crap because of how weird and obfuscating the previous JJ Abrams show, LOST, became downright silly, but I think Fringe is much more grounded... and yes, I realize that I'm typing this concerning a show about alternate universes and surviving huge cross-dimensional events.

I highly recommend Fringe, as mentioned above, from start to finish. It's compelling, dramatic, fantastic, romantic, and just plain fun. Check it. NOW!

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day Three Hundred and Eight - Fringe: Pilot, "X-Files with no limits other than the imagination."

After a month of Lynch's crazy prime-time soap opera, it was nice to get back to quality television that had weird for a reason instead of just being for weird's sake.

Definitely owing to the ground paved by The X-Files, Fringe started its journey through the realms of pseudo-science and alternate realities in 2008, combining the tremendously vulnerable (and occasionally menacing) acting of John Noble with relative newcomer Anna Torv and Joshua Jackson, who was probably previously best known for his work as Pacey on Dawson's Creek.

Set in the present (and occasional in the future and past), Fringe tells stories very reminiscent of Mulder and Scully's encounters with the strange and unexplainable, but throws off all pretense of mundane explanations and active government coverups. Instead, week to week, Fringe fights monsters, sociopaths, and doppelgangers all augmented with superscience that seems impossible (and probably is), but works in the context of, you guessed it, "Fringe Science" where just about anything can happen, provided Walter Bishop (John Noble) can handwave it away with some experiment he and William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) did in the 60's, 70's, and 80's.

This pilot episode jumps you right into the thick of things (minus Nimoy, who doesn't show until the first season finale) with a plane full of people literally melting in their seats thanks to some unknown biohazard. Among many other investigators is Agent Olivia Dunham, who trips onto a connection between the biohazard and similar experiments done by Bishop long ago, before he was locked up in an insane asylum. In order to get access to him, Agent Dunham has to enlist Bishop's genius, but rebellious, son... Peter (Jackson). Together they managed to glean enough clues from experimental dream work to track down the bioterrorist and save the day.

It is safe to say that I really love Fringe. I mean, really love it. It's smart, excellently produced by JJ Abrams and company, and the casting is divine, particular when it comes to John Noble's ability to ramble and the personal chemistry between Torv and Jackson. It also has just the right balance of the everyday and the fantastic, combining in such a way as to be utterly believable, no matter how ridiculous the solutions and cures can be. The writers and technical consultants take just enough care to make the technobabble honest and difficult to discount if you're not an expert in any of the fields required to call them on their bullshit (which I am definitely not).

Since the entire series is now available on Netflix, I can definitely recommend a binge watch to anyone who hasn't already seen the greatness that is Fringe... or, even if you have, now is a great time to revisit the series from start to finish... starting with this episode here! Enjoy it! If you don't I'll have lost faith in your humanity. :)

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~