"Fringe" on Fox HD - Page 14

Do you think they scanned his retinas to view the image?

At any rate, while the chemistry seemed a bit better in this episode, the "viral agent of the week" thing is getting tired. Give me something different.

The big fonts are still annoying.

I'll give it one more episode, then I'll probably bail if it doesn't grab me. Normally, this would have been it, but this episode was a bit better than the last. However, I can't stick around for "a bit better" when there are other entertainment choices out there.

If it turns out I made a grave error in dumping it, I'll catch the DVD set later. Hopefully next week really steps it up. I really want to like this show.

I think the letters should stay. As much as people seem to rail against them, they sure seem to bring in a lot of eyes to notice them.

So what, if it isn't what everybody else is doing. I'd think that is a perfect reason to do it. The quirky formula of this show has been laid on the table, and either it intrigues you or not. It is not for us to coach it into being some other theoretically more desirable show. The show is what it is, and either you like the bill-of-goods or not.

Funny, because the big lettering for locations is one of the things I like about the show.

Exactly. Good post.

Yeah, me too!

Me, too. If they get around to a "jump the shark" funny episode, they should have a vehicle crash into the letters, or (as mentioned before) have them fall on pedestrians.

Doug

Maybe have a cat or some domestic animal curled up asleep on the bottom part of an E or C or something, maybe some pigeons.

If they are going to be there they should use them for some HD large screen fun like that. Have a guy cleaning one, a girl sunbathing on top of one of the letters, a construction crew just finishing one of them etc.

Heh, heh, now these are some clever ideas to leverage the theme! It shouldn't be overdone, though- just something every once in a while to catch you off guard that something is going on there. It's like an easter egg if you spot it.

They could do it deliberately and look right at the camera and say, "There! No more letters! Are you happy now?!"

Family Guy did that when they stopped doing the barbershop singers gimmick.

Just watched Monday's episode last night...
Enjoyed Zak Orth as the physic guy, surprised they were able to get him for the role.

I hope we not leading to a steady diet of Walter saying "Oh yes! we did experiment with (insert strange phenomenon of the week here) in 1978..." that will get tiring very quickly.

Agree w/the common opinion... Walter steals every scene he's in.

Well, as outlandish as some of these experiments are, wouldn't it be even more outlandish for someone to actually devise these methodologies completely from square 1, every time they encounter weird stuff? Seems only fair that we are given an elder character with a vast library of crucial prior knowledge to assist in hitting the ground running on these cases, eh?

Well most of what we have seen so far traces to Massive Dynamic projects and Walter did early development/research of a lot of this stuff with his partner who started Massive Dynamics, so Walter having knowledge does make sense.

As we all anticipated, John Scott is being "downloaded" as we speak! I wonder if he will fit on a 4 GB thumbdrive or 8 GB?

Nonsense!...we put this kind of stuff on a psycho-physio holostick at Massive Dynamic! Fat32 simply will not support this kind of meta-data.

Don't worry, its coming. Why do you think we haven't seem Peter's mom yet?

Having watched the few good new shows that have come out this summer already, I decided to give Fringe one more shot, on the 3 times is the charm theory of television, and it didn't disappoint. I was also able to discover what 'The Pattern' is. I was surprised that the premise of the second show was practically the same as the first show, in its overall approach, and was shocked that the 3rd ep was almost identical to the second show.

Then it hit me. JJ's a playful guy. What nobody seems to have realized as yet, is that this series is an 'IN' joke,. and the secret of "THE PATTERN' is nothing more than a sly tribute to the way this show will operate. Sort of a Mad-libs with empty blanks that are filled in by rote, to see if the target audience for this show would even notice. And sonuvabitch, most of them didn't.

I'd say the third ep was probably the most even so far, particularly because it was the least odd in the bunch. I'm crazy about Walter, and even Peter is improving, but watching each episode is like being forced to view the same 'Mechanized Death' film over and over in order to get your license, except MDs kind of better, albeit in a sick way.

If I was Fox, Here's what I'd do. First I'd get my team down for a pow-wow with the producers of Dollhouse and 24, the closest thing to Great White Hope's that the network currently has, and find out how much it would cost to fix either of them. Then I'd keep Fringe in play only as long as necessary, as a potential fallback for either. Then I'd get on the phone to the producers of 'Drive', and obtain all un-aired episodes to fill the timeslot when Fringe prematurely bottoms out.

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Palladin

Chance favors the prepared mind

pardon the fringe pun, but you read my mind.

Yep, I think the last ep was definitely better, and agree with your comments. I continue to hope that the Walter stuff from 25 years ago becomes less relevant to the overall plot, but I dunno. He's such a great scene stealer, you've just got to watch him no matter what's going on. But they're bringing along his son's relevance to the show VERY slowly.

They could get around this by having Walter build brand new stuff every other week. Turn him into Doc Brown. Whenever the Torv walks in to the lab with a new case he could be in the background casually tooling around with a super proton quantum invisibility cow shrinking atomic thought ray. He could have a new experiment every week and the lab gradually fills with weird crap.

There's plenty of jumping off points there to get away from Fringe of the week. His experiments could go wrong, they could get stolen by Harvard students, tested in the field with unpredictable results etc. etc.

I thought when Walter said the guy that was having the "visions" could get pickup free satellite TV was LOL funny!

Ah, two of our more perceptive members are onto something here. I think they missed a great opportunity. 'Fringe' should have been played for laughs! The whole thing could have been a tongue-in-cheek send-up of all the other similar shows with the big, bad, super-secret, evil organization manipulating the world around us for their own nefarious ends. Anna Torv probably doesn't have the necessary comedic chops (she's having enough trouble with drama; comedy's a lot tougher) so they'd have to re-cast her, but the rest of the cast is accomplished enough to handle the tone change in their sleep. In fact, Walter wouldn't have to change anything. They could have the big letters falling and causing havoc, as others have suggested, and good Heavens - they already have a cow. It could be comedy gold, and there's never been anything like it! Holy Cow!

So, anybody have JJ on speed dial?

I found it very interesting that the Massive Dynamic lady turned Dunham's little conspiracy theory back onto her by stating that the "pattern" could just as easily be her fault since she's always investigating the events that occur. That's particularly interesting because it sure appears that Walter's original experiments are behind the whole thing.

Walter was downright incredible in this episode. His scene at the diner was terrific and I liked that he showed he was a little more perceptive (and less kooky) when he asked his son about the confrontation too.

As for the show, it has me pretty well hooked for the moment. It's no Lost by a long shot, but it's more interesting than most of what's on TV right now.

That's it. You've uncovered the missing link that ties it all together. Fringe is actually JJ's homage to the Zucker Brothers comedies! It starts off the first week with some strange scenes in an 'Airplane', followed by the introduction of a confined brilliant scientist, a handsome young musician in the lead, a white cow with black spots or black cow with white spots, depending on your P.O.V., and a bunch of bad guys (i.e.Nazis) who are forcing the scientist to work on experiments of mass destruction (Notice how Massive Dynamics and Mass Destruction have the same initials.)

Even the ridiculous oversized letters smack of the Zucker's exaggerated comedy style.

It cannot be pure coincidence that they have incorporated almost every basic element of 'Top Secret' into this series.

This rather short-lived series will soon end with the revelation that Walter's former lab partner and the chairman of MD is played by Leslie Nielsen, to ensure that even the very slowest viewer gets the joke.

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Palladin

Chance favors the prepared mind

I get it. The operative term here is supposed to be 'interesting', or so the repetition seems intended to suggest. It might actually BE interesting. But unfortunately, that's not the case here.

What's so interesting about Blair Brown trying to turn things around to deflect Blondie's conspiracy statement, in order to make Torv wonder if she can actually trust the agency she works for? Isn't this a classic cliche in virtually every single agency/spy story under the sun? So umm, Torv doesn't read, watch films or ever talk with her contemporaries, huh? No wonder she never developed a personality

Oh, And how exactly would the 'pattern' be Torv's fault, since her awareness and investigation of these events doesn't take place until AFTER the occurrence? What, is Torv orchestrating these events in advance as part of some nefarious scheme to ensure her job stability?
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Palladin

Chance favors the prepared mind

I don't think that statement had any meaning at all. Mrs Roboto was just trying to be funny with a little mind game.

It's like saying is it the murderers fault that there's a dead body whenever Monk is in town, or is it Monk's fault because someone always bites it whenever he turns up?

Yes, and it's only interesting in the sense that (to the viewer), it is apparent that (her partner) Walter's previous experiments may be behind all the current events from a science/technology standpoint.

So the little amber disc - what everyone wanted - suspiciously reminiscent of the Rambaldi disc (Alias homage). I think it was supposed to be inserted into a Rambaldi sundial or clock thingy - I don't remember. And Sydney retrieved it from a church stained glass window.

The cow will befriend a chocolate mousse, most certainly.

To take it further, the latest episode made a wink in the direction of another similar film to airplane: The Big Bus. They even played the piano in the lab like the guy does in the lounge section of the bus in the movie.

Either a wink, or they're raiding the disaster-movie pantry for clever ideas, perhaps because they're so bereft of their own.