Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Yeah, LOST is all Lindeloff and Cuse.

I thought this show was OK. Obviously a revamp of X-Files. But, I think the keys to its success will be a) will we start to like/care about Anna Torv? and b) Walter Bishop.

Bishop is really the new element in the formula. A wacky scientist on the 'good' side. Fighting fire with fire. It's a great idea and he's a fun character. If they run with that it could be a fun show.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I care about her already. It's probably those big eyes and that ponytail. I'm not difficult to win over.

I didn't actually like the big, 3D location identifiers, myself. It seemed too Heroes. That show tends to spice it up by doing something different each time they use it--which, I think they only use it for the episode titles anyway. I was trying to determine if the one outside the guy's apartment had icicles hanging from it and snow built up on it. I don't think it did, but that was the impression I had when I first saw it.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I saw this pilot about three months ago.
I quit about an hour in.

I thought it was horrible.
To me, the pilot went all over the map
and Joshua Jackson seemed like he had no real reason to be there
but to give unfunny one-liners.

I was really wanting to like this
but was greatly disappointed

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I'm not too high on the pilot, but will give it a few episodes until Tuesdays get busier for my viewing schedule.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

All the business with his character did surprise me. There he is in the publicity shot for the show, but I read a review which revealed what happens to him early in the pilot, but I was thinking he would be saved, and then they pulled the rug out from under me.
That was a really cool effect.

Neil

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Not to get off-topic, but I agree with your comments about LOST. But then again, I've always thought there was, at the very least, some larger rough sketch of what the ultimate plot would be. I know a lot of people think they are "making it up as they go," but I don't agree.

Back to Fringe, I thought the pilot was well-paced for the most part, though the Iraq scene could have been tossed completely. I agree with some comments that Joshua Jackson seems a little misplaced here (perhaps simply for eye-candy?), but I didn't find his performance bad or anything.

I did enjoy Anna Torv, for some reason I just can't put my finger on (this intangible quality seems to also have some people hating her). Perhaps it is her thinly veiled Aussie accent.

It was also nice to see Lance Reddick back, as I felt he was a standout on The Wire, which is saying something considering that show was pretty much amazing from start to finish.

John Noble, who I really liked as Denethor from Jackson's take on Lord of the Rings, was also great.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I enjoyed this okay, although I do see Holadem's point about the show expecting us to care about this couple like we've been watching the show for 3 years.

We just met these people and so we can't get fully onboard with her plight to save this man she loves as deeply as we should/could if we got to know them a little more.

I didn't like those 3D location thingies, everytime the camera started to push in on one I started doing that thing they used to do on Mystery Science Theater 3000 where I started to put up my hands and go "wha, whoa, WHOA! Look out your gonna hit the..." lol.

That opening was sweet, though! Disgusting and horrifying but sweet.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I enjoyed the pilot and I'm in for watching it regularly. Although, this show has more X-Files elements than Lost elements. Oh, wait, what's this?
Welcome To Massive Dynamic




--John

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Nice link. But did we expect any less from Abrams?

My wife enjoyed it because it reminded her of Alias (young heroine loses boyfriend in first minutes, takes up crusade against govt. conspiracy group). It reminded me of X-Files, but not nearly as good. It also had the tone and feel of the canceled-too-soon show "Threshold".
The X-Files went to great lengths to scare the crap out of you, while having intriguing and deep storylines. I don't see Fringe ever being scary (or exciting for that matter).
I thought it was pretty good nonetheless, so I'll keep watching.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

On the bright side, the upsweeping violin cue gives you a slight jump on the commercial break.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Apparently Fringe did quite well in the ratings.

Ratings for 90210, Fringe, Privileged and more - Today's News: Our Take | TVGuide.com

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Mr. Abaddon wants to talk to you about your psychic abilities.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Most of the ratings analysis I've seen for Fringe has said that it did not do as well as previous JJ Abrams pilots. So, while it did good for the week, they thought it should have done much better.

Neil

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I didn't know Alias and Felicity did that well (though I know LOST smashed the ratings quite well).

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

These numbers come from Lisa De Moraes in (a snarky article in) the Washington Post - In the article she does qualify the numbers by discussing the lead-ins to them. Of course, what is "good ratings" changes over time. Still, 9.1 million is not a blockbuster beginning. I'm hoping a good chunk of new people will catch it on Sunday and give strong ratings to it next Tuesday after the House season premiere.

Neil

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Thanks for those number, Neil. While I don't really count Six Degrees and What About Brian as "JJ Abrams shows," since he was simply executive producer, I never knew Alias had that impressive a debut. Felicity seemed to do quite well too (though I never watched it, really).

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I watched the Fringe premiere tonight.

It was a dull 90 minutes.

We've canceled our Tivo Season Pass.

It copies the monster-of-the-week formula from X-Files, but lacked the necessary interesting characters. It confused gore for scary, and failed to learn that the unseen is usually more interested than the seen. It uses the twist approach of Alias, but the twist is now the norm: there are dark mysterious forces at work in industry and government. It uses a love interest twist too, but forgets the characters have to be interesting before we can care if they get hurt.

As Journeyman started sluggishly and (before an unfortunate cancelation) grew into a mature, character-driven show, so too Fringe might prove better than its start. But I'll have to trust others to let me know if it's worth watching in the long run.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Personally, I enjoyed the Pilot and I look forward to the next episode. I don't care that JJ Abrams is involved. It's a well-produced show about a subject matter that interests me starring actors I buy in the roles. There's a certain gravitas there. I'm not much drawn to jokey jokey TV, so I can appreciate this one. We'll see how it plays out.

One thing I'll say is it's probably an expensive series, so if the ratings aren't gangbusters, it may not last long. On the flip side, this is one series where if it gets canceled, I'll still be OK with investing in it. It wouldn't be like prematurely canceling Lost or Jericho.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Jumping in here a little late as usual mainly because I had two
weeks of TV to catch up prior to watching The Fringe.

Enjoyed reading many of the comments here as they fall in
line with my overall impression of the pilot which was...well...
that it was dull.

I'll give the show another week or two in hopes that it will get
better but I am just not impressed.

In fact, the only two things that did impress me about this show
was the nifty titling of scene settings, and another first, a break
card telling us how many seconds until the show returns from
commercial.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Sadly, I don't expect that feature to stick around. I assume it was there only because of the "limited interuption" nature of the premiere. I would love to be wrong, however.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Yeah, I'm sure that won't even be around on tonight's rerun of the pilot (since it's filling a two hour block instead of 95 minutes). No one wants to see "Fringe will be back in 240 seconds".

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Overall, I liked it. But it's got some major work to do. Hell, I may just stick around for the pedigree and since I'm not watching anything else.

Not sure what to make about Anna Torv. She's pretty in a way that draws me in, but her character doesn't really do much. She has yet to have any of the big, emotional moments that Jennifer Garner or Evangeline Lily had in their respective show's pilots. Torv's character is still a mystery even after spending 90 minutes with her. All we know is a brief mention about her past career and her boyfriend issue.

I don't know about John Noble's character. He's certainly interesting, but did we really need that moment where he says "Woo. I just peed myself...Just a squirt"?

Also not sure about the evil corporation. It just seems so banal these days. What about a mysterious bio-terrorist group or something?

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I watched this again today. I thought I'd give it a second chance because maybe the firs time I watched it I just wasn't focused or something.

Nope. In fact, on second viewing, this show is a lot worse then I thought it was the first time I watched. Admittedly, I'm an X-Files fan, and I love Lost. So, I wanted to give JJ every shot he had. But there are a few things I noticed that have really stuck with me:

1. If you've seen ReGenisis, there are a lot of ideas rehashed here, hell, more then that, several cast members of ReGenisis are in this show.

2. Where is the disbelief? You know, part of what made X-Files good was Scully. Part of what makes Lost good is that there is this kind of tension between those who believe in the power of the Island and those who are skeptics. Here, the protagonist seems to fold in such a hurry it makes your head spin. She goes from not believing to allowing someone she broke out of a mental institution inject her with a major dose of LSD and drop her in a dunk tank. (?) I can suspend disbelief, but even the character of his son, who was supposed to act as a skeptic, gave in so easy that he provided no real resistance "Do you really want to do this?" "OK, I'll figure out how to do it.." It made it harder to suspend disbelief that there isn't a single role that acts as that reality check.

3. Major plot holes. So, the kid and his whacko father get to sit in the FBI interrogation area while someone accused of mass-murder is cross examined. No one anywhere guards them, guards the door of the accused. Nothing. They just walk across and make their own justice. Hmm. So, you're accused of the most incredible crime of the century and you don't get an FBI guard at the door? And civilians can walk right over and talk to you unchecked, in person?

4. So, 17 years locked up, and he still has this incredible grasp on modern science?


I want to like this show, because I definitely like a lot of the cast. But outside of being dull, there is no real inner conflict, the kind of mystery element that pulls you in. It's just out there. Apparently the gang of scientists and agents vs. Massive Dynamic.

Really, what's missing is drastic, characters that you can care about. And characters who act in ways more understandably.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Actually, one of the things from Fox's upfront presentation that didn't get nearly the pub it deserved was that Fox was planning on cutting commercial time in half for Fringe and Dollhouse - so at least the early episodes are being shot as 52-minute stories. It looks like they're playing around with the idea that scarcity will increase the value of each individual ad spot for these highly-anticipated shows.

This doesn't so much bother me, because Fringe and The X-Files are very different beasts: The X-Files was about the paranormal, things that are unexplained and nearly unverifiable. Fringe is about the bleeding edge, science and technology that is arriving much faster than it has in the past. Disbelief is probably not appropriate here.

As to John Noble's character, he is by definition a once-in-a-generation genius who was having these ideas twenty years ago. Part of the show's hook is that the mad scientist is working for the good guys (or at least, what the protagonists believe to be the good guys). Besides, I don't know that they specifically said he wasn't getting Science and Nature delivered to him at the institution. The man has time to keep up on his research.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

We made it through about 10 minutes of this. My son actually thought that the melting faces and membranous skeletons were pretty cool, but then my wife reminded me (in a "turn that off before I crush your skull" sorta way) that he's only 3. Fortunately, he didn't seem fazed by it.

He was still talking about the "Nasty Pilot" this morning.

Sounds like we didn't miss much though. Say, did anyone else watch the movie preview they aired before the show and think "that was supposed to be a remake of what?!?!?!"

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I was all geared up for the pilot but was sadly disappointed. Great start to the series - focusing on the macabre. But it fell rather quickly after that. The biggest problems I had with this show is the "likability" of the characters and all that technical stuff explaining the possibilities of the Fringe-verse. I also found that the plot was jumping all over the place (literally - in different geographical locations. To be honest, I not sure if it would've mattered if all the "action" took place in Boston). Give us some perspective here, writers.

I love Sci Fi but only when the characters are fun to watch. I doubt I'll go for episode 2.

Lights out

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Looks like they're doing limited commercials again tonight.

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I saw the pilot. Bored me too. I told my wife, hey i see the pitch now, Alias meets X Files. If only.
The eye rolling moment for me was that after 17 years no one sold all the wacky doctors lab stuff. Hello, that stuff is expensive, so is the space its being stored in...the lab!

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Just finished the second episode. I thought it was better. The problem with the first episode was it was too drawn out with characters we didn't care for and with mysteries that weren't all too interesting.

This one held my attention much more even if the characters are still a bit hard to connect to. I didn't get the significance of the last shot though. Any ideas?

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I believe the last shot was showing that there are others of these 'super soldiers' that the killer was one of that were grown, as well as the one who died.

And based on the part near the end my theory about the 'medical condition' is that Peter is a clone of Walter. All the stuff about how well he knows him would then make a lot more sense.