Fringe - By J.J. Abrams (1 Viewer)

[Inspector Hammer!]

Ah, okay lol. Even so, one anamorphic film among hundreds of Super 35 films is better than nothing.

 

[RickER]

Well, really he has made 2. M:I III and the new Trek movie. It was supposed to come out Christmas, but its being held until summer.

 

[Zack Gibbs]

It's not done yet. And we've no idea if it will be anamorphic, though I almost expect it to be considering his preference and almost all of the Trek films have been scope.

 

[TravisR]

Obviously, you live or have lived in Massachusetts (or just have an incredible knowledge of geography) but just keep repeating to yourself, "it's only a TV show, it's only a TV show..."

Last week, I knew that keeping an autologous blood donation on file would be nearly worthless and not something that would be done but I repeated that phrase and I was alright.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Gypsy would be so proud. It brings a tear to my eye. :frowning:

 

[Patrick Sun]

Anna Torv doesn't quite have the 'it' factor to lead a show like this...yet. Don't know if she'll ever have "it" because it's just one of those intangibles that rarely pops later in one's career. Now, the whole "Rain Man" pairing of father and son has this air of difficulty that won't necessarily immediately endear you to the pair initially, but in time, their family dynamic could be one that is rarely seen on a weekly basis on TV.

 

[DaveF]

I wasn't clear: it took Alias halfway through the first episode to grab me. And then it took off like a rocket.

Fringe failled the first-episode threshold: it ended without grabbing me. It simply had nothing of particular interest -- given the shows I've watched the past ten years. Were there no X-Files, no Alias, no Lost, no Buffy, no BattleStar Galactica, I might find Fringe more engaging.

But here's my stake: Fringe won't survive. I watch these sorts of shows, the Buffy's and Stargates and Journeymen and think I'm an "everyman" for this genre. If I don't find it engaging, I don't think it will be widely loved by similar fans, and especially won't be loved by the broader TV-viewing audience. (Moreover, my wife didn't like Fringe, and she watched all of Bionic Woman, even after I gave up on it.)

Fringe could pick up. It might be amazing by season's end. And I'll hear about it here and watch it on DVD.

 

[Josh Dial]

Fair enough

 

[MichaelD]

Having been raised in New Orleans, almost every movie or show that involves New Orleans does the same thing. Episode of Las Vegas, they have a "bayou" party two minutes away from New Orleans. K-ville had gumbo parties and the locations were all spliced together. Pelican Brief screwed up locations also.

And of course every single person I know speaks exactly like they do in True Blood.

You just learn to live with it, or get incensed by it

 

[MichaelD]

I feel the same way, she definitely is the weak link. I can't quite put my finger on it, but 2 episodes in I think I would have some feeling for her one way or another, but she is just there, going through the motions. Hopefully as the show progresses she'll become more comfortable with her role and grow, but I have my doubts.

 

[ChristopherG]

I think you have nailed it, I believe that, in general, we are more critical now...

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I never judge a new show based on its pilot, because I know pilots often differ in significant ways from the series they spawn. The very process of making a pilot, getting the thing from idea, to script to screen, often teaches the creators things about the show that they would never have known otherwise - and leads them to tweak things between the time the pilot is locked and the day shooting starts on the series.

Go back sometime and watch the pilots for The Cosby Show (shot on videotape with a different set, visual design and pace), CSI or M*A*S*H. Then compare episodes even five or six episodes into their first seasons. The difference is night and day. That's what experience does, and no matter how many other shows a production team has made, there is no substitute for actually making a particular show when it comes to learning how to make that show. This is why many shows air the third or fourth episode shot as the first episode (especially in their first seasons.) The first couple of weekly episodes on a series, or even in a season in later years, are a little bit of a shakedown cruise for cast and crew. (Some of whom may just be joining a show already in production.) Even shows with heavy continuity will often hold the script written to air first so that it is shot third or fourth, thus ensuring that the bugs have been worked out of the production system and the kick-off episode will be as good as it can be.

(Some shows take years to hit their stride. Star Trek: TNG - which had a dreadful pilot - barely rose above mediocrity in its first two seasons and didn't really find its feet until part-way through season 3.)

So far I find Fringe intriguing. I'll have a better idea what I really think of it when it has had time to develop a bit more.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Jason Seaver]

To be fair, we can afford to be - there's more options and things have a much longer after-life than they did back in the day. It's more important for a show with serial elements like Fringe to do better because something that doesn't work this week can't be quite so easily be swept under the table and ignored as it could a generation or two ago.

 

[Greg_S_H]

And on K-Ville, they were at the voodoo shop in either the first or second episodes. I was also kind of annoyed by the main guy saying, "We don't use Tobasco sauce" with a sneer. I'm not from there, but my mother is and she loves the stuff. It's a Louisiana industry, so it's not like it's some interloper trying to cash in on the New Orleans style.

Do you roll your eyes when people call it "Nawlins," like my mother does, or is it just her? She pronounces it "New Orleans," but says the colloquial form is basically "New Wallins" (my spelling, the way it sounds).

 

[MichaelD]

Yeah pretty much every restaurant in the New Orleans area has Tobasco, Louisiana Hot Sauce, or Crystal. (I am a Crystal person). Yeah you can tell people who are and aren't from New Orleans. Almost no one says Nawlins, a few say New Orleans (as in New-or Leeens) and most say New Orleans (New (W)or lins.)

I've lived in NY, DC, Atlanta, Austin for extended periods of time and every time New Orleans is presented as this party, bastard city, when in reality it mirrors many of the cities mentioned above. Excellent food, excellent music, great parks, great festivals, awesome architecture, and a ton of other things. We'll gloss over the political corruption, bad schools, terrible streets, high crime etc

.

Anyway, back to the show, I am surprised Fringe hasn't pulled out hokey, fake Boston accents yet.

 

[TravisR]

I agree completely. If some people want to have a 'one strike and you're out' policy, that's their business but I find it hard to judge a series based on its pilot.

 

[Greg_S_H]

It's a good policy, but I think most people think of the pilot like a presentation demo. If they can't bring out the big guns and sell me right off the bat, I'm going to have to go elsewhere. The unfortunate casualties are shows like Journeyman. It's pretty much a consensus that that show got better and better as it went on, but it was too late as far as the general audience was concerned. To a lesser extent, the same was true for Invasion.

I actually liked the Fringe pilot quite a bit, and I like the characters. I was less thrilled with the second ep, but I'm sticking with it a while.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

Didn't you see the commercial for the show? It's from the writers of Transformers!

 

[Chip_HT]

re: Anna Torv

I don't know if it's just me, some strange recording technicality, or if it's really happening, but I'm hearing her voice change during the course of the show, like she hasn't quite gotten an American accent down to where she can keep it up for an entire episode.

 

[Citizen87645]

She was on Letterman (re-ran last night) and I noticed the variation even in her native accent. It's like she's spent alot of time traveling to and living in different places, but it sounds like she's been living in Australia up until six weeks ago.