"Fringe" on Fox HD - Page 9

Well, I'm not sure if Fringe will last as much as Lost so...

But yeah, silly show but I liked the first episode. I don't know when I will get tired of it though. I don't watch 24 or Prison Break anymore and I loved season 1 of both series.

The networks love to have shows that have a passionate fan base. Passionate fans are reliable fans to the advertisers that fund the current TV model; they're always there, every week. They also like shows that have a edgy appeal to young people with discretionary income. SciFi shows fit those two criteria. Unfortunately, it's not a mass audience. For that, you need to make the show continually accessible to new viewers, like procedurals or game/reality shows. The sad truth is that they're dealing with an American public with a steadily decreasing attention span and ever increasing entertainment options.

So, they're trying a new model. One with sci-fi elements and the overall serialized arc that appeal to a loyal, culturally influential audience, but within a procedural framework that is more accommodating of newcomers. 'Fringe' is a test case of this new formula, as will be 'Dollhouse'. 'New Amsterdam' and 'Journeyman' tried it last year and flamed out. What's unfortunate is that the networks don't seem to have the courage of their convictions. Even mentioning the "s-f" word is still seen as a potentially crippling pejorative.

It's more than this... ^^


Unfortunately, you are correct; Sci-Fi is a pejorative to many viewers.

However, that genre is not alone. I believe there are many who deprive themselves of great entertainment because of labels like Sci-Fi or Fantasy, Art, Silent, Romance—to name a few.

They will avoid something simply because of what genre its toe got tagged with.

Yes, but I thought the writing on 'Journeyman' was very good--even if they were ripping off Quantum Leap somewhat. I still miss Journeyman.

Entertaining episode but I can already see its turning into an episodic format...also, whats with the quick glimpse at the end? Seemed anti-climatic/overly-dramatic...I'll keep watching but the freaking Microsoft 3D Art Location names need to go...I don't really care what suburb of Boston they are in this week...

Ok second episode...but....

Pros

• The opening sequences (of both this and the pilot) almost demand the rest of the show be watched. Good job on sucking me in.
• I like that the episodes are standalone, but yet there is a couple underlying storylines. I don't feel like if I would miss an episode, that I would be completely lost (like Lost).

Cons

• This is the second week where I've hated the resolution...first the vulcan mind-meld in the premiere and now the reading the dead girl's eye in this one. It's quickly turning into the "crazy professor has whacky invention to solve the crime" formula.
• The only lead character I like is the son. I don't like the lead actress, the crazy professor, or the agent (the tall black guy from Lost). Doesn't bode well that I don't really like the characters. Maybe they will grow on me.
• I grow tired of the "all knowing, all seeing, all powerful" corporation. I can see this being annoying. Maybe they can have a Prison Break/Fringe crossover.

I'll keep watching it...for now....in the hopes that it will grow on me a bit. I can see potential.

Sadly, I'm not liking what I'm seeing with Fringe. I would describe the series as a modern Twilight Zone. It's so totally unbelievable with far too many conveniences and coincidences. By the name "Fringe" I thought it would be based more in reality than the supernatural, but I guess not.

As mentioned by others, I would MUCH prefer basic subtitles rather than the goofy 3D text that some graphic artist is playing with. Those actually detract from the credibility of the show.

The writing is bad. The Peter Bishop character had some especially bad lines and what's with the poor attempt at the Sawyer-like witty nicknames. Didn't like that one bit. But there were a lot of bad lines in this episode that I just shook my head at.

I also don't like the LOST music.

So far, I'm giving it a "C" grade -- which is down from a B- from the pilot. If it doesn't improve next week, I'm scratching this one off my list.

Bah! Quantum Leap was better because it was a quirky 80s show at heart. It rarely took itself too seriously. Journeyman was a snoozefest and far too serious.

- - -

And now, to the Fringe lab...

I'm still trying to figure out if this show is awesome or awesomely bad.

This week's opener was laugh-out-loud funny. Oh My Gaaawwwd! I haven't laughed that loud in years!! That scene was so frakkin over-the-top and awful that it was actually an entertaining form of self parody, especially with the docs all freaked out and screaming like their brains were being eaten by aliens.

On the other hand, Walter and his son still rock. Walter is a great character, well-acted, swimming in a sea of mediocrity and craptitude.

The female lead, ugh. Could easily be replaced by a yellow Labrador retriever and no one would miss here.

EvilCo and "The Pattern" are so frickin lame and dumb that it makes my ears ring thinking about it. Yay! An evil corporation run by a woman that looks like the sister of the Green family mom from Jericho is somehow menacingly close to the menace that menaces a menaced world... Whooooo... Bogeyman watch out -- EvilCo , er, Massive Dynamic, is coming to take your job.

Now, I think the story of Walter and his demons has real depth. And it would have more depth if it weren't for the obnoxious shadow of EvilCo, er, Massive Dynamic. Walter's story actually works better small, a father's sins, than it does as part of EvilCo, er, Massive Dynamic's plan to destroy the world with large 3-D sans-serif letters.

I can't help thinking that the main, non-Walter, story arc is what Ed Wood would be writing today.

Also, nothing against their Jules Verne reference, but the retina thing instantly made everyone in the room start screaming "Wild, Wild West"!! We were taking bets on whether a giant mechanical spider would appear and crush those damned 3-D letters once and for all.

Oh, and congrats to Fringe for officially being the one millionth TV show or movie to ripoff Harlan Ellison's Soldier episode of the original series Outer Limits. Be warned Fox: by the end of the week Harlan Ellison will probably have sued you -- he's a real jerk.

So, to conclude:

Walter == AWESOME, good story...
Ed Wood-ness == Double-plus awesomely bad!
Ripping off Outer Limits == acceptable. Even soap operas rip off Outer Limits.
Ripping off the Will Smith version of Wild, Wild West and pretending you meant Jules Verne == too hideous for words.
3-D letters == unmitigated hatred.

All that said, the show has a strange appeal.

If anyone with any influence on the show is reading this: for the love of God focus on your best material and lose the rest of this "mythology" crap. Enough. This show isn't Lost or the X-Files. It's the Walter Hour. Be happy with that.

This show really reminds me of Torchwood - a group of people including a lady cop, a brilliant advisor, and some assistant foot soldiers investigating weird happenings. It also is similar to Friday the 13th the TV Series.

Then there is the hand in the jar of liquid. Where have I seen that before...

This show rips off pretty much every show in the last 50 years. That's ok I guess. A Cate Blanchette look-a-like that will hopefully turn on the juice soon because she and everyone else is being upstaged by John Noble's acting chops. He's eating that role up and sucks your attention away from just about everyone and the plot as well. I'm sure, as written, Walter is an interesting character that provides some mystery, backstory and comic relief (plus Rube Goldberg devices). As acted, he's the most interesting part of the show. The showrunner's had better adjust the scripts because he's the only thing that's working.

If this goes on a mid-season break I would be surprised if it comes back. The main characters outside of Walter are still dull, the background mystery lacking in mystery or sense of wonder. I've got about one episode left in me based on the amount of time I lost interest during this episode.

Walter is still the only highlight of the show, he gets the best lines (and there are not many).

"What was the good news?"

"I remembered where I parked my car!"

That gave me a big laugh.

Everything else is treading old ground. One other thing that made me laugh was seeing Darin Morgan as an exec-producer in the opening titles. That's not going to help separate itself from the X-Files clone tag. Maybe he should do some writing as well. That might actually help.

Episode two and we've already hit the serial killer. You just don't see serial killers on TV do you?

Not only that but we have a serial kiler that needs to feed on a particular part of the body to keep alive. Tooms anyone? Night Strangler anyone?

Seeing the killer from the last image on the retina. Not science based at all but total fantasy based on a very old story that I've also seen in something else recently and was also done in an old Dario Argento movie "Four Flies on Grey Velvet." Interesting note, Carlo Rambaldi did the effects on that Argento movie. I wonder what JJ was watching the week this got written.

A program to create soldiers in the lab. About a thousand B-movies and TV shows.

I wish they spent their CGI title budget and time in coming up with better writing. Those titles are ridiculous. Especially when you look exactly how much detail they put into rendering them.

This is Threshold again. Same level of writing but without Carla Gugino or the more interesting supporting cast. Every week an elite team of scientists and government agents travel around to weird crime scenes that involve medical and technological experiments gone wrong (and with usually bloody results) and they are all linked to a greater plan to change the world by strange forces. In that case it was aliens from parallel dimensions, in the case of Fringe it's probably some crazy corporation.

I'll be interested to see how much House can keep this show above water and more importantly above 8 million viewers. Based on this episode I'm not sure it can.

I don't know guys, some great momments and some not so great momments. I just love the older scientist. My god he cracks me up, some great one liners in there.

Not sure why the nurse was screaming. Didn't we find out it was a normal baby and then they discovered later that it was growing. Not sure what terrified her so much.

Also, they went over the edge again. You can suspend belief because there is a disease that ages you rapidly, etc. so okay, but then they go and attach a camear to your eye and see images. To much in my opinion.

Overall, still enjoying it, just some minor things that bother me.

I guess I'm one of the few people who doesn't like the older scientists/Walter. I find him annoying, but in a weird/interesting way. So maybe he is the best character. I actually kindof like the son's lines better.

I also differ in that I like the 3D location letters I'm a sucker for that kindof stuff....I especially liked that they cast shadows and in the one scene they were reflected in the waterpuddle.

The show could definitely used reworked. The lead actress has got to go...she's kindof pretty, but just so damn uncharismatic.

My biggest complaint is the plot devices....the EvilCo (as someone called it) along with the crazy scientist who has all these super inventions from 20 years ago like being able to read minds of dead people (up to 6 hours of course), do vulcan mind melds, capture images from dead people's eyes, etc. I hated in the last one where it was like "you only have 24 hours? Well, we can just do a vulcan mind-meld!" and this one where it's like "You only have a couple hours? Well, we can just grab the images from her retina's!" How convenient.

If you take away those elements and the crazy scientist, then you're basically left with CSI:Feds with 3D lettering.

I think this show will be a worthwhile pastime for my Tue nights. It certainly may not feature original storylines, but ironically, it is like a breath of fresh air for Fox primetime in that it doesn't try to take itself too seriously. (...and let's be honest, coming up with an original sci-fi story these days is like trying to come up with an utterly original song melody or beat...it's all well pretty much been done at this point, so consider it a blessing if one ever pops into your head to be committed to paper) It is overly melodramatic, but in a slapstick way (almost like it is making fun of all of these well-worn scenarios). It's like a modernized-vision of campy 1950's sci-fi, mixed with witty but dark humor and X-files-like mystique. Alternately, its like that flavor of X-files episodes that were written to be a little ridiculous and funny. In that respect, it is fine by me and welcome to my tv screen.

I know the location titles have caught a lot of flack, but in view of the context I've described above, I think the cheesy nature of it is entirely appropriate. It's supposed to be humorously over-the-top, I'm thinking. After all, how do you argue that we really need another show with regular location titles?

The musical touches were right in line with the intentionally overly melodramatic formula of the show. It all makes sense, once you watch the show in that context, imo.

Taking a break from Fringe bashing can someone give their take on the very last scene of the show? I was having some Dish troubles so my attention was diverted. They show son and dad counting or reciting inane songs and then there is a pic of 3 bodies lying next to each other in 3 beds?

Ah, interesting! I was unsure what to make of that scene, as well.

Just want to pipe in that I love this show so far! It's becoming my new favorite show. I do enjoy sci-fi, but I'm not a crazy sci-fi fan. I'm already burned out of the Sarah Connor Chronicles :--( Though, I was a fan of the X-Files back in the day.

Okay, I missed True Blood's next ep, so I decided to make certain to watch Fringe as my atonement.

It was a little better than the pilot, but that's to be expected with pilots generally, so no big deal. Walter was the absolute saving grace just as he was in last week's ep, so no surprise there either.

The son: somewhere along the way, j.j. Abrams or someone else finally got around to noticing how bland the son is, and they decided to add a little of the 'Sawyer wise-ass' persona to bump him up a little and give him at least some potential thread of of a personality. Still, a relatively thin thread at that.

I think that what I now find most unnerving about this show is a lack of complete confidence in it by the creative team. They're so scared about not getting a large enough viewing base, that they are desperately resorting to rather obvious foreshadsowing in order to entice further interest, but they're blowing bigger oppurtunities by doing this, and not allowing the show to settle in a natural course. X-files, which has been referred to often enough in this thread didn't feel the necessity to preview some 'tidbit' to make us come back the next week. There was so much more they could have accomplished with the clone 'sons' that can't be given back any longer, by tossing it on the table
like they were serving dessert before presenting the appetizer, let alone a full meal.

I mean you can't make a show like this and telegraph your concerns as to whether it will provide sufficient entertainment, so transparent. To use an analogy, you don't have a woman do the dance of the 7 veils by having her remove them all at the same time. Its not just the nakeitude of the event, but the mystique it evokes as well.

At least I'm pleased to see that the iniotial castigation I initially waded through for criticizing the dull, barely attractive blonde, has subsided and more are coming to a similar conclusion. Oh, and now that they are desperately in the process of putting together a back story, does anyone doubt that the blonde cannot possibly be a normal human, instead of an altered one, either by the scientists, Evilco or the return from a 4400 future, and in case you weren't sure, they made certain to let you know that she was picked for a REASON!.

I don't know how much JJ had to do with constructing this show, but I think hes trying a little to hard to live up to LOST-like expectations, and ended up losing those things which could be novel about Fringe in the process.

____________________________________________________
Palladin

Chance favors the prepared mind

At first I thought the 3 bodies lying in the beds were twins, but I paused it and looked closer and they do not appear to be twins. Since they showed a piece of the umbilical cord still attached to them, I figured it was three more people that they grew fast and were going to expirement on.

Not to assault an equine corpse, but the final shot is basically a repeat of episode one's final shot in terms of what it actually means. The facilities are much cleaner. By implication, it means the facilities belong to EvilCo, er, Massive Dynamic.

Clearly this the show's big device to end each week: a shot of EvilCo, er, Massive Dynamic once again gaining the benefit of all the horrid stuff from ... The Pattern!!!

Honestly? I stayed with the episode because it was so gawdoful it was entertaining. Like when you watch the movie Anaconda and all you're waiting to see is if the snake chokes to death on Jennifer Lopez's large ass.

It's mostly watchable for the same reason the movie Total Recall was watchable. Yes, it's bad. But, it doesn't take itself too seriously and the pace keeps moving. That counts for a lot, keeping the pace going, especially when a story is mind-dumbingly numb.

Let's all be square about this show: the primary reason to keep this show on the air is to see if the writers ever do resort to having Boston destroyed by a mechanical spider operated by a man in a steam-powered wheelchair.

LOL That's funny. Triplets?



I like the locations and the overall look but I can't get past the pathetic acting and horrendous lazy writing. There's a fine line between an homage and plagiarism. This show disrespects and insults its audiencea willing audience that is extremely forgiving. I'm out.

funny stuff

+1

Second show did very well in the ratings. Fox has to be pleased. 13.5 million viewers and it gained from its premier which is always a good sign.

That was definitely the House boost they were hoping for.

Now the House audience has seen an episode, will they be back next week?

Oh well, you can't be right all the time.

Ahh.. and so once again THE BLACK OIL IS BACK!!!


Hey, I loved Totall Recall for exactly those reasons. 'The Hidden' and much of SciFi fall into the similar category. After 2001, everything was basically a good excuse to blow things up.

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Palladin

Chance favors the prepared mind

I'm right there with you, except I might give it two more if it doesn't get worse starting next week. Walter is enough right now to keep me watching a bit longer, but not enough for the long term.

I'm not sure what it means that I like that all his "solutions" start off with "Do you have any (insert illegal drug here)?"