Fringe (TV series)

[Muz]

Did anyone catch the premiere of this last night? It seems to have gotten a bunch of positive reviews, but I'm still on the fence and making up my mind about it. I'm a sucker for mysterious happenings and organizations, but the rest of the show (characters, general plotting, large letters floating in the middle of a road or hallway where, dangit, SOMEone is going to impale themselves on a T or something!) have so far failed to distinguish themselves. Then again, new shows do need time to gel.

So I'm not sure what to think.

(Somebody tell me what to think!) :smallwink:

[Zeta Kai]

Well, I can't tell you what to think, but... *awaken Cthulhu!*

Yeah, it was a weird show. Almost deliberately confusing & bizarre. It's a very ambitious premiere from a rather ambitious producer (J.J. Abrams, of Lost fame/infamy). I rather liked the show; I can see a lot of potential, it has a talented cast, it isn't afraid to throw viewers for a loop (IE it assumes the average viewer can read & doesn't drool). That said, it was graphically violent (sometimes needlessly so), & it had the female lead strip down to here underwear rather quickly (about as quickly as Gillian Anderson did in the premier of The X-Files), so if those are concerns, then there you go.

Bottom Line: It seems to be a smart, weird show with a big dumb budget, so there may be hope for a great series... but I've been wrong before.

[Muz]

Let's just hope they've got a plan and aren't making it up as they go along. :smallsmile:

[adanedhel9]

I've got mixed feelings, too. It wasn't fantastic. But it was good enough that I'll probably watch next week.

The floating letters really bothered me. Why couldn't they do something simpler? I'm pretty sure I saw at least one incidence of floating white letters over a snowy treescape, which I imagine could be quite difficult to read for some people.

By the end of the second scene (when we're introduced to the agents), I was sure that one of them would be dead by the end of the episode. I'm sure the TV writer's handbook says that the sappy romance has to come at the end, not at the beginning.

How old did they say the son was? I thought I caught 19, but then it looked like they're setting up for some sparks between him and Olivia, which could be pushing towards squick territory.

[TheresaW]

I think it's crazy.
Crazy good
Crazy CRAZY!
Crazy -WHO WOULD COME UP WITH THESE THINGS?!
Crazy- Make LSD??


That's how much I like it! :smallbiggrin:

[hobbes543]

I can't say I was impressed. I'm a fan of Lost, which I think was done right in many respects (Talented cast, developing relationships over time, making the viewer care about the characters, plot pacing) In fringe, it started off ok... Not great, but ok.

The female lead (can't remember the character's name) acting was sub par... Alot of her emotions and actions seemed forced, as did the plot. I think they failed with the love story aspect as well... I don't know the character well enough in the first episode to give a damn if her lover is dying.

The story in that episode also felt rushed... I think this is what will make it or break it for me... If the next episode feels as rushed, story wise, I don't think I will stick with it. I think it would help if they took a page from Lost and used flashbacks to break up the story and slow the pace down a bit. It will also help develop the background of the characters.

I will admit I didn't see the twist at the end, but in retrospect it wasn't that well disquised if the viewer were looking for one. Even then, it was the one redeeming part that is letting me give the show another shot.

[Muz]

The floating letters really bothered me. Why couldn't they do something simpler? I'm pretty sure I saw at least one incidence of floating white letters over a snowy treescape, which I imagine could be quite difficult to read for some people.

I guarantee that if the show gets popular, one of the first ever parodies of it will have someone/thing/animal running into those darned letters. :smallwink:

[Mewtarthio]

To be honest, the romantic chemistry between Olivia and the Mad Scientist's Beautiful Son seemed pretty... well, not there at all. The MSBS's snarky remarks fell a little flat, too Also, I'd already figured out that Olivia's boyfriend was going to get it, since everyone knows that sappy sex scenes at the beginning of a story mean death. The only real twist in the show was the revalation that, for once, the Big Bad Government isn't behind the conspiracy (instead, it's a Shadowy Faceless Corporation, but at least it looks like they aren't just in it for the Vile Capatalist Pig-Dog Money). Lastly, the show leaves a lot of questions, but none of the good, intriguing kind: They're all questions like "How did they manage to track down and arrest the guy so quickly?" and "How did M.D. manage to get a hold of that guy's corpse?"

I'm going to give it another shot, though. I liked the imagery during the more "out there" scenes (like the dream sequence and the M.D. interior), and the concept's interesting enough that I'm willing to overlook a poor first episode. I consider this show on entertainment probation as far as I'm concerned, though.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

LOST being my favorite show at the moment, I decided to tune in and see what this show was going to be all about. From what I heard before the show last night, I wasn't really sure if I'd like it or not. Turns out, that I do, very much so. Personally, I think it's a cross between The X-Files and House. I'm very curious to see where this show goes. Will it be more like LOST with one (more or less) on going storyline throughout, or will it be more like The X-Files with an overarching storyline interspersed with stand alone episodes. Seeing as it's Abrams that's doing it I think it will be more like the former rather than the latter, but think it would probably benefit more from being more like the latter. But anywho, I think this is exactly what us LOST addicts need to get us through until January.

[Rare Pink Leech]

My school year is going to be busy enough without adding more new shows to watch, but I decided to give this a try since I'm a huge Lost fan and I loved Alias for the first two or three seasons. I agree with the general sentiment - the pilot was okay. There's nothing about it that I can point to that was bad, but it didn't pique my interest either. I'll probably watch another episode or two, but unless something jumps out at me I don't think I'm going to watch it.

Now that I think about it, there is something about the show that bugs me. I think that it feels like we've watched stuff like this before ... The X-Files, any procedural drama, and maybe even a bit of Heroes thrown in due to the shadowy corporation that experiments with the supernatural. Nothing about Fringe jumps out to say "here's why you should watch me over other shows".

I will say that I liked the floating words, although I'm sure it'll get old quick. I especially liked when they introduced Baghdad and you saw the letters from below.

Oh, and I really like the car chase scene - not for the chase itself, but because I saw a couple of things that made me realize they filmed the pilot in Toronto :smallbiggrin:

[Mewtarthio]

Will it be more like LOST with one (more or less) on going storyline throughout, or will it be more like The X-Files with an overarching storyline interspersed with stand alone episodes. Seeing as it's Abrams that's doing it I think it will be more like the former rather than the latter, but think it would probably benefit more from being more like the latter.

From what I've heard, they're trying to preempt the "Miss an episode and you're screwed" problem that is the number one downside of LOST. I'm guessing this means it'll have standalone stories in each episode that build towards something big.

[TheEmerged]

I tried to watch it and was quickly underwhelmed. None of the characters grabbed me, and a couple down-right annoyed me (it struck me that neither the actors nor the writers properly understood what a liaison is). Frankly, I didn't make it into the second hour.

[Muz]

Personally, I think it's a cross between The X-Files and House.

The X-Files I can see (and it looked like they were directly referencing it in the opening credits especially), but why House? :smallsmile:

[Rare Pink Leech]

Opinions after the second episode? I think it was pretty good. There has yet to be anything to stand out enough to make me say "I must watch this every week", but I think I'll continue to watch it, at least until school gets too busy and I can only catch it every once in a while. At least doing it like that will be feasible, since it seems like we're getting a self-contained investigation per episode with a building mythos, like the producers promised.

Oh, and the floating words? They have officially overstayed their welcome.

Finally, I wonder if the icons shown at the end of each segment (frog, apple, leaf, flower, hand print) have any particular meaning. During the first episode I thought they just cycled through them, but last night they used the flower twice in a row. Did anyone else notice that the hand print they show has six fingers? I thought I noticed it the second time it was shown in the pilot, and I confirmed it last night during the opening title sequence.

[adanedhel9]

I thought last night's episode was a big step up from the pilot. I don't think I can point to anything in particular that made it this way; it just seemed to hang together better than the pilot. Fringe is solidly into my watch list now, it'll take quite a clunker to knock it out.

And I can't decide whether the floating letters sticking out of the side of the CIA skyscraper were cool or terrible.

Interesting theory, RPL; I hadn't particularly paid attention to them. I'll have to watch more closely next week. I don't know if you noticed, but the leaf showed up at the end of the pilot on the electronic lock at Massive Dynamic.

[Hectonkhyres]

I liked the cow.
...
That is all.

[Rare Pink Leech]

I thought last night's episode was a big step up from the pilot. I don't think I can point to anything in particular that made it this way; it just seemed to hang together better than the pilot. Fringe is solidly into my watch list now, it'll take quite a clunker to knock it out.

And I can't decide whether the floating letters sticking out of the side of the CIA skyscraper were cool or terrible.

Interesting theory, RPL; I hadn't particularly paid attention to them. I'll have to watch more closely next week. I don't know if you noticed, but the leaf showed up at the end of the pilot on the electronic lock at Massive Dynamic.

I did see that -- that's another reason I'm thinking the symbols might actually have meaning, and not be some randomly chosen vaguely-scientific archetypal symbols.

Also, I was thinking more about the show, and you're right -- the second episode was quite a bit better than the pilot, although I can't put my finger on why.

[DraPrime]

Just watched the second episode, and I gotta say I love the crazy professor guy. He never irritates me, and always provides incredible entertainment. Like his remark about the "fantastic ass warming device"

[Mewtarthio]

Bleh. The second episode seemed utterly devoid of subtlety. Olivia keeps launching into monologues describing her current emotional state, (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThatMakesMeFeelAngry) which is fine if used sparingly, but otherwise looks like the show can't trust the viewers to figure her out for themselves. It's not just Olivia, either: My favorite scene was the scene where the evil scientist embraces his serial killer Tykebomb as a son, but then they went and had the guy give a death speech about how much his "father" loved him and how ultimately love was his downfall. Honestly, not only is it condescending, it also cuts out any speculation as to the scientist's true motives.

On top of that, I felt the recapping was a touch overdone. Seriously, it's only the second episode: There's not much that the viewer could have missed. The sort of reintroductions they did would have been better served on a season premiere.

In short, they're really overcompensating for LOST's tendancy to lose people, and the show suffers quite a bit as a result. Which is a shame, since it had some potential.

[Rare Pink Leech]

I would just like to say that Walter Bishop, from self-medicating using homemade drugs, to playing "dun dun dun dun" on the piano after someone said something cryptic, to offering to give the patient free satellite TV directly into his brain, is most definitely the best character on the show, and one of the best characters on TV in the last while.

A bit more on the symbols: still not sure if they have any meaning, but each symbol isn't exactly what you think. They've all been subverted some way. I noticed the six-fingered hand on TV, but if you go to the show's website (http://www.fox.com/fringe) the symbols are on various pages where you can see them in more depth. The leaf has a triangle imprinted on it, the apple's seeds are a pair of fetuses, a couple of the flower's petals are gossamer wings, the frog has a Greek letter on it (theta?), etc.