"Fringe" on Fox HD - Page 10

I love this show. Of course, it's dreck but it's interesting, entertaining dreck. Like Lost, 24, and a few others, Fringe's stories are over the top nonsense, played with perfectly straight faces by a talented ensemble cast. I particularly like the girl agent, the mad doctor, and his long suffering, brilliant son. Blair Brown, as the Massive Dynamic executive is good, too.

Speaking of the son, I will be interested to learn what his medical history is. I am enjoying the developing relationship between him and the girl agent. Each of them clearly admires much about the other but is aware of the quirks, too, which makes them wary.

I don't think its the line so much, but rather the oh so casual delivery. Don't forget this guy is stepping out of the 1980's. Its the present that's odd.

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Palladin

Chance favors the prepared mind

I think the audience that liked House last season (the season when the show became all House, all smartass, all the time) will give Fringe a shot, and for much the same reason.


Mmmmm... Black Oil... Surprisingly low on the list for jump the shark moments for X-Files.


Thank you. If I can entertain one person, I have done my job... oh, wait... I have work to do. Maybe I haven't done my job.

I dunno. Is it OK to want a show to stay on the air because it is enjoyable for all the wrong reasons? I love movies that are awesomely bad. But somehow few TV shows are awesomely bad (the new Bionic Woman wanted to be, but it just wouldn't give in). I don't know how to feel.

Oh please. Fringe is Dostoyevsky next to 'My Mother the Car'.

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Palladin

Chance favors the prepared mind

Uhm, errr, just the two on the end were twins.

lol

Certainly not.

Who didn't watch the A-Team for the way they would always get locked in a garage or warehouse full of power tools, welding equipment and enough sheet metal and automative parts to build a tank in the time it takes to run through the main theme once?

How about how Macguyver would always get out of trouble with a pocket knife, a nickel, some paper clips and a whole lotta duct tape?

And seriously...why did the sherriff always try to chase the Duke Boys even after they jump the swamp or the grain silo? Did he momentarilly forget where they live?

Finally (to reference something a bit closer to the topic show), how many times would Mulder see something utterly amazing only to have Scully completely miss it?

The problem is not the campy moments, it's the attempt to be serious and having it come off as more silly than Walter randomly milking a cow in his lab.

Above, I said I'd give it a couple more if it didn't get worse. That's really only because I'm still waiting on a couple of Fall shows to still start up. Once everything is in full swing, I'll want to start paring down the dead limbs - and I fear "Fringe" will be the first cut.

Same here. How many Fall shows (new series) are even left at this point, besides My Own Worst Enemy?

At this juncture, Sons of Anarchy are still leading my pack.

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Palladin

Chance favors the prepared mind

You see I'm watching this and not seeing the part where they are trying to be tongue in cheek. With the exception of Walter and his Son (who appear to exist in a different show all of their own sometimes*) the rest all seem to be paying this earnestly as if it were a serious drama.



* A spin-off show I think I would rather watch.

Does it really matter if you suspect the other players are trying to act in full drama mode? It's a valid/plausible formula to have contrasting performances, if not to simply make each one stand out more, just by virtue of the contrast. It raises the dynamic intensity if you are going from hot to cold and funny to serious from one moment to the next. It doesn't have to be ALL serious (or it would just be CSI) or all funny (Naked Gun?). (I dunno, maybe I'm just in an unusually good mood over this, because I'm seriously not experiencing any of the objectionables that are being brought up here)

That said, I'm suspecting that most of these objections may be coming from those who are railing against the show for not "being" what they expect it should be (and achieving the best example of whatever that is), rather than simply evaluating what is being presented on its own terms.

Smallville: Season 4, Episode 20 "Ageless".
(Night scene opens with a speeding car swerving all over the road)

A young couple are in the hot-rod. The man is frantically dialing 911 as his girlfriend's pregnant (glowing) belly is growing before his very eyes.....

Guy yells into phone: "I need help!"

Girl screams: "Ahhh....I think it's coming....!

Guy's eyes widen as girl's lit-up belly looks as if it's about to burst. The glow from her gets so bright he brings the car to a screeching halt.

Girl screams: "Ahhh...Don't leave me!"

Guy decides to bolt for his life just before the delivery decimates everything in range. Of course, the infant has a lifespan of approx 48-72 hours after which he "naturally" passes away.
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Disgusting. That scene is near blow-for-blow identical how Fringe opened last night. Not only was it copied, it was done badly. My kid can write a better script than that. The Smallville writers suddenly look genius.


End rant

This debate reminds me of the one over John Woo and Tom Cruise being involved in the "Mission Impossible" movie.

Is Tom Cruise making a John Woo film or
John Woo making a Tom Cruise Film.

In this case:

Is FOX making a JJ Abrams Show or
JJ Abrams making a FOX Show.

So far, it's the latter.
If can get past that this show is a chop suey of Lost, Alias, X-Files, Millenium and maybe NCIS, it's been entertaining enough to keep watching.

You know, I'm young enough that I've never watched My Mother the Car. I've heard, um... things about it. I'll have to look on Hulu.com to see if they have it.

In that case the end result was a crap film. So what you are saying is that when you have two TV forces working against each other you end up with crap?

The lead female character in this show is awful. She is even really really bad during her super melodramatic parts, that occur every episode.

The only thing worse than her is the writing for her part.

It is so bad I'd rather watch reality TV.

They could have at least picked someone attractive enough to repeatedly come back for. (Kate). Oh well.

Actually, that would be a really cool show: son and crazy father team investigates odd phenomena with their sidekick cow...

...maybe geared for the "Adult Swim" crowd?

Amen to that, and well put.

Some of the negative responses seem so dramatic, which always amuses me when it comes to TV shows. Although it isn't exactly what I thought it would be, I happen to really like the show so far, and it seems to me there are many worse primetime shows around. Well, to each his own I suppose ..

I further suspect there is an element of "network warfare" behind some of these comments. If it can happen for video formats and flat panel technologies and videogame consoles, it should be unsurprising that people might be doing this for show on network A vs show on network B.

I mean, some of these comments seem a bit too "strong", beyond just the casual jabs for the sake of levity (of which I fully admit to doing a bit of, my own damn self).

So, for those of you who may actually enjoy this show and want to discuss it instead of complain about it...

Does anyone have any theories or speculation (non-spoiler related, obviously) on what the medical condition Peter has that Walter was referencing at the end of the episode? The first thing that I thought of was the Peter is a clone of Walter, and he didn't want Peter to know.

I've fallen asleep during both episodes so I think I'm done. I can't seem to care about any of the characters. I think someone mentioned this earlier, but I couldn't even name one of them right now. And I think Lost is awesome.

Seems like a distinct possibility, tighr!

When you think that far you really have been watching to much conspiracy TV.

I don't think I've heard anyone bring up the subject of "network warfare" beyond a boardroom or shareholder meeting. Those that have direct affiliation with networks and broadcasters (of which there are a lot at AVS) don't participate in that sort of talk and they are the only ones who should care.

Look around some other threads. All the networks are pretty much rife for criticism now thanks to the promo plague. Finding one that's better than another is getting harder and harder. Fox was one of the last holdouts.

Just accept the fact there are a multitude of problems with this show that are both obvious and badly executed. If you can look past them all, good for you. Don't expect everyone else to.

In my case, I've pretty much worked for them all at one point or another over the years. I have no favorites outside of the internal work environments. I don't pick the programming I watch because of the benefits package I get.

You will see the complainers watch every week and some who say they are not watching anymore still show up every week complaining about something they say they were not going to watch anymore.
It happens all the time on internet forums.

That was my initial theory as well.

And you'll see plenty of others that feel compelled to constantly point it out.

BTW: we haven't even reached episode 2. It's a bit early to call out for complaining this early - especially since only one person has actually said they are quitting watching so far. The rest, including myself, are hoping the show gets better and want to give it another episode or two to prove itself.

Jumping ship after the pilot episode of any show is the same mentallity that causes the networks to cancel shows so quick.

The way Walter spoke, it sounded like something bad would happen if the had sex - in particular, she got pregnant.

Or maybe he just needs a blue pill before he can do the deed...

Of course, based on Walter's frequent suggestion of using illegal drugs, perhaps there might have been something related to that when his mother was pregnant with him...

Wasn't that comment in reference to her boyfriend that ended up dying?

It was the earlier comment about the condoms failing coupled with the condition statement that makes me think that.