Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I was simply referring to the fact that it's quite plain what the premise of the show is, and that Todd's comment of "all over the place," and "does not make sense," well, makes it clear he doesn't understand that basic premise.

They have even spelled it out NUMEROUS times for the audience. A bunch of weird stuff is going on, and somehow it all ties into what can only be referred to as "the pattern." I don't think it can be made any clearer. We'll be presented with a bunch of seemingly random, and competely illogical, imopssible, pseude-science (et cetera) events. THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ALL OVER THE PLACE - THAT"S THE POINT.

At least the short-term endgame is making sense of those events.

At the risk of sounding mean, I'm just wondering what some people are thinking when they tune in to a show like Fringe? Do they not understand that a sci-fi show about a mystery so large that it may very well touch every facet of humanity, that it may run the gamut of telepathy to mutation, and beyond, that a show such as that may, just may, not explain very much in the first 3 freaking episodes?

Problem with the acting? That's cool. Don't like the character interactions, or the dialogue, or the lighting, or the set design? Well that's cool too. But wanting answers in show like Fringe is, well, silly.

Here's a hint: we may not get ANY answers for seasons...

Not noticing the observer in the pilot episode: fine.

Wondering why The Pattern hasn't been explained yet: not fine.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I appreciated the lame story. What's lame is that every week the weird mystery somehow ties back to Walter. So I thought it was nice for a change that Walter only had a peripheral association with the unexplained event.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

All roads lead to Walter because Walter is the fountainhead from/through which much of this phenomena began, in association with Bell/MD. I think people are getting confused because they think the show is supposed to be like the X-Files, where many of the unexplained events don't have a common thread. It didn't occur to be to be bothered by the coincidences because it seems to me they aren't coincidences at all.

My biggest problem with the show is actually Anna Torv. "Olivia" is seriously under-written as a lead character. We know far too little about her... either that's a deliberate gamble on the part of the show-runners, who want to leave enough open for us to be surprised later in the show, or they want her to the a "blank slate" on which viewers project themselves. Either way, she's kind of a vacuum, and it hurts the show.

Nice to see it got picked up for a full run. I'm not completely sold yet but it's definitely more interesting than many of the new shows out there.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Walter finally gets his Tesla coils and random electrical discharges. All that was missing was organ music.

"Did you just bring that thing to life?"

"Not on this occasion."

Gotta love Walter

Regards,

Joe

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

The show will probably become a phenomenon now that
I am officially "out."

This week's episode just confirmed to me that this isn't my
type of show. It's not holding my interest.

I'm "outta here" but I do hope the show continues to fare well
for the rest of you.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Let's see - it is on the cover of TV Guide and did well in the ratings again this week. Thanks, Ron

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

On the other hand...

- We continue to have FBI agents going into dangerous situations without requesting backup

- Everything keeps tying back to Walter

Other than that, I'm OK with the show so far.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I thought that this week's episode didn't have a strong tie back to Walter.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

There are small procedural things that keeps bugging me with this show

- they don't seem to need any kind of a search warrant to enter buildings and look around - is this something that the FBI can do that the cops can't?

This has happened in several shows - like entering Mr. Electric's house to look around. Then following the birds to a warehouse, and then just strolling right in...

Oh well, it is kind of fun, seeing what crazy Walter will do next...

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I really like the acting of a few characters (most notably Lance Reddick and John Noble). But Anna Torv is not good. As the lead role, she is so bland that her screentime really hurts. If the show were almost all Walter or they'd dig up other assistants, or if she was not the prime feature character as she is, it'd be considerably better.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Well, I am not a cop or a lawyer, but I watch a lot of them on TV so I'll take a stab at this one.

They may very well have had a warrant for Electro's house. He was a suspect in a pair of possible crimes the agents could have fobbed off as "suspected sabotage" (the elevator and the arm incident) to a judge. No reason to break the flow of action to deal with the issue, especially since there was no one at the house to show the warrant when they got there.

IIRC the warehouse door was open, and no, you generally wouldn't need a warrant simply to walk through an open door. (Almost certainly not for a commercial building such as a warehouse, and not even for a private residence in some cases.) Warrants are generally only needed for searches.

If you invite a cop into your house (or he walks in through the open door of your warehouse just as any customer might, looking for the proprietor) and he sees dynamite and blasting caps or several pounds of what looks like marijuana sitting on your dining room table, that's "plain sight' - he didn't search, so he doesn't need a warrant. (Although he would certainly use the plain sight items as the basis for a warrant so that he can thoroughly search the property for additional evidence.)

If the cops arrive at a residence to question a suspect or witness, find the door open and receive no response when they call out, they may very well enter the property without explicit permission to check on the welfare of the occupants. At that point if they find evidence of a crime in plain sight (a pillowcase with diamonds spilling out of it, a dead body on the floor) they would secure the premises and call for a warrant.

The rules vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and with the circumstances.

Regards,

Joe

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

In the case of electro, since the site was supposedly an abandoned building or school, there would also be no expectation of privacy since the building was not their property at all.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I think this show needs to hint a little more at the big picture each episode to keep me interested. The Observer episode, that one did it perfectly, but this one was sort of dull to me. I mean, I know that there's a pattern of this happening, so that lends itself to a sort of incident of the week thing, but I need just a little more than that.

The fact that her deceased partner is still in her consciousness wasn't really enough, nor was finding out that he had been following the pattern as well, since they've already hinted at that

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

You mean something like The Observer getting off the elevator and putting his hat on just as Electro and his doomed stalkeree got on? Oh, wait a minute...

Regards,

Joe

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

No I noticed that, but that's nothing new, its been pointed to us already that he's there for all the incidents.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Quite a bloody opening for last night episode - exploding heads and headless cadavers - I'm glad my daughter didn't see that episode.

An interesting story, but I'm still hoping for some reasons to care about the characters. I'm still waiting.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Just joining this thread. I'll be back after I watch this weeks' episode.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Anyone have a meat themometer?

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Don't know that I'll ever like the girl. They're certainly TRYING to make her sympathetic...but, whatever.

But, Walter and Josh Jackson? Love 'em. Walter is my favorite new character in any show. He is hilarious and lovable and kooky. Jackson is cool, and his sacrifice for whats-her-name this week made him even cooler. I definitely watch this show for those two.

...and exploding heads.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Finally watched this week's episode. Love the gore.

I agree about the girl. She's not too likeable right now. Plus she always looks like she's smelling a fart, lol. But Walter and Peter, now that's a pair of characters! Love the interactions between them.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

And Walter always looks as if he's the one that did it.

The show is slowly growing on me, love this weeks Scanners-like episode.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I'm shallow, I guess, because Olivia had me at her in her underwear.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I think I'm done with the show. I gave it a fair shot. It's not terrible, but the weekly cases aren't all that interesting and seem kind of repetitive. I'm more interested in the grand scheme, but there isn't enough of that.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

That's exactly why I like Fringe. The mystery about the pattern and all that surrounds it is not the focus but is still evident in every episode. I have Lost to screw with my head weekly I find this a nice respite.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Ditto. I'm not sure what the problem is for me, but Fringe is just boring. I can't work up any enthusiasm over watching a new episode. Olivia doesn't grab me as a lead character and the Walter/Peter dynamic isn't enough to keep me interested. The BF watches and I'll keep tabs on it to see if the show gets better, but I'm done for the time being.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

i have not seen the commercials or anything for this yet, but it seems like something i'd like to watch.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

We're - what? Five episodes into the first season of a show with several large mysteries? And people are complaining that they aren't getting answers fast enough? Seems I've heard this song before. The whole point of a show like this is that you get bits and pieces, hints and suggestions about the grand scheme, and in the meantime you get the mystery of the week. If they just wanted to "solve" the great mystery they would have made a TV movie or a theatrical.

Serialized long-form dramas are based on the premise that the journey is just as important as the destination. That's simply the nature of the beast. I don't know why people tune into them expecting them to be something else, and then complain when the shows turn out to be what they clearly are and were always meant to be.

Personally, I'm having fun. Olivia is likeable enough. She just has the thankless Mary Tyler Moore role of playing straightman to the colorful lunatics - which is even tougher when you're doing a drama instead of a comedy. (In a good comedy the straightman always gets his share of laughs just from his reactions.)

And I love those black and white slides at each commercial break. The six-fingered hand is interesting, but for some reason the one that really creeps me out is the flower on which one petal is an insect wing. There's something hideously plausible about that image, and the idea of crossing something as lovely as a flower with an insect, when tend to make my skin crawl under the best of circumstances, just grabs my gag reflex. Anyone else have any favorites?

Regards,

Joe

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I swear you and I are brothers - we think so much a like!

It's like some people with Heroes:

"Oh neat, a show that's basically like a comic book, but in television form."
"Hmmm, the plot is hard to follow, and things are constantly changing. I don't like it."

Uh, have you ever read a comic book series?

With Fringe, it's exactly like Joe wrote, it is pretty clear how this show will work - heck, I could have told you it would be a slow-mover/grand scheme thing just from seeing Abram's name attached to it.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

First of all, for me, it's not about "getting answers". I just find the weekly cases very boring and repetitive. I'm not looking for answers to the "grand scheme" each week per se, just more attention given to it each week. It's just a personal preference for me - I much prefer long story arcs that continue through an entire season. This is why I can't even stomach the CSI's of the world. 'Fringe' to me is borderline "serialized".

Secondly, I didn't tune into this show "expecting" anything. I saw the previews for it, like some of Abrams' past work, thought it sounded interesting, so I checked it out. Gave it what, SIX episodes? Decided it wasn't for me. Time to move on. (Which apparently I haven't done since I'm still reading this thread. )

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Me too, that's what ruined Veronica Mars season 3 for me, they got rid of the very magic that I loved about the show.

No comparison is intended i'm just saying.

Fringe can take it's time, while I love season-long arcs I also love a slow rolling boil as well.