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post #61 of 439
9/16/08 at 8:53pm

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Wish they would get the locations right. There is no Sergeant Bridge in Stoughton, MA. And the town is not on the water! It's about 25 miles inland, southwest of Boston. I had a good laugh when they showed the aerial shot of the warehouses on the dock with a big cargo ship next to one!! But I'm sure they play fast and loose with areas around, say, LA or New York, too.

--John
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post #62 of 439
9/16/08 at 8:55pm

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Missed the pilot but caught this week's episode. The main characters come off as distant and the lead actress seems like a poor man's Cate Blanchette.

The story idea was interesting but the resolution was a forgone conclusion robbing the show of any tension. I'll keep an open mind for a few more installments but am ambivalent at this juncture.
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post #63 of 439
9/16/08 at 9:05pm

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Hey, I live in Harvard Square and have a good laugh at the buildings they're calling part of the University. This city is made almost entirely of red brick.

Not a bad second episode, although I had my usual conservation of mass issues with the opening, and the eye thing is the kind of clever tech that's too big to introduce once and throw it away - there certainly going to have some corpse whose last sights would be useful, say, next week. Or the week after.
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post #64 of 439
9/16/08 at 9:17pm

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Seaver
the eye thing is the kind of clever tech that's too big to introduce once and throw it away - there certainly going to have some corpse whose last sights would be useful, say, next week. Or the week after.

That reminds me. Didn't they do that in that horrible movie, "Wild Wild West"?
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post #65 of 439
9/16/08 at 10:04pm

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe_H
That reminds me. Didn't they do that in that horrible movie, "Wild Wild West"?

That's...a man's...HEAD...
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post #66 of 439
9/17/08 at 5:27am

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I like this show a lot.

I did think the pilot dragged a bit. It seems to work much better in the hour format. I give shows like this pass when it comes to leaps in logic and plot holes. I mean come on. It's not like this is based in any type of reality. Look what it's about.

I view this as total escapist entertainment and I don't take any of it seriously at all. In fact when there is gaff in logic or the plot I actually find it quite funny which adds to my entertainment.

It's not like there there are any of these issue with Lost or Alias???

I think the creators are perfectly well aware of these issues. They either expect that a certain part of the audience will not notice these things and the part of the audience that does will recognize it for what it is.. Pure escapist entertainment.
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post #67 of 439
9/17/08 at 5:52am

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe_H
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.
The second Walter started talking about that we also thought that Peter was a clone. My son thought that the bodies in the room at the end were Peters, but I thought it was speed-aging guy. We went back to check that it did look like the speed-aging guy.

Neil
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post #68 of 439
9/17/08 at 6:08am

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I enjoyed this episode much more than the first.

Quote:
the eye thing is the kind of clever tech that's too big to introduce once and throw it away - there certainly going to have some corpse whose last sights would be useful, say, next week. Or the week after.

They mentioned that this only was able to work because she had muscle relaxers giver to her just before she died. I don't think that makes sense, but they mentioned that probably to explain why they don't use this again.
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post #69 of 439
9/17/08 at 6:19am

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

I don't think the show is intended to be completely escapist entertainment. Somehow, I get the feel of Numb3rs when I watch it. With Numb3rs, I think mathematicians say the concepts presented are "basically accurate". The literary license comes in with the degree of application, and of course, time compression. Would a team of math experts eventually be able to do many of the things done on Numb3rs? Yes. Would a few people consistently be able to do it like we see on the show? Probably not, for several reason. Still, the basic premise is sound.

The same goes for Bones. And to a lesser degree, I think the same holds for Fringe. The way I watch the show, I see it as the "If you could..." part is basically sound, but the "We can!" part is from a world that doesn't exist. That's why we have this imaginary company Massive Dynamic. They supply the plot with the things that don't really exist (yet) in the real world.

I take the show for what I think it's trying to be -- an exploration of things that are science fiction to us now, but could actually one day be science. Oh, and I continue to enjoy it -- geography errors and minor plot holes be damned.
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post #70 of 439
9/17/08 at 6:23am

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dennis Castro
I view this as total escapist entertainment and I don't take any of it seriously at all. In fact when there is gaff in logic or the plot I actually find it quite funny which adds to my entertainment.

It's not like there there are any of these issue with Lost or Alias???
I don't think Alias or Lost had the same problems as Fringe. The pilot for Alias started slowly, I thought. Halfway through, I thought I wouldn't watch the series.

Then Sydney went to the CIA, her fiance was killed, and we learned that the good guys were the bad guys, and my head almost exploded! The show completely changed tone, intent, and showed Abrams' great flair for the plot twist. On top of that, the characters were interesting. They were distinct, believeable, and fun.

Fringe doesn't seem to have that. There was no interesting plot twist. Worse, there was no interesting plot: evil cabal doing evil things in the shadows is now blase. The characters weren't interesting. Tics, sweetheart, were used instead of personalities.

Fringe isn't terrible; it's just not interesting. Hopefully it will improve (and I'll watch it on DVD next year, if so). But based on the pilot, I don't think it make it past this season.
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post #71 of 439
9/17/08 at 6:24am

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Mildly intrigued, but I could see it becoming tedious quickly if every week's "Pattern" is the result of one more insidious thing that cranky old mad scientist did 17 years ago.
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post #72 of 439
9/17/08 at 7:20am

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveF
I don't think Alias or Lost had the same problems as Fringe. The pilot for Alias started slowly, I thought. Halfway through, I thought I wouldn't watch the series.

Fringe doesn't seem to have that. There was no interesting plot twist. Worse, there was no interesting plot: evil cabal doing evil things in the shadows is now blase. The characters weren't interesting. Tics, sweetheart, were used instead of personalities.

I'm not trying to pick on you or anything, but a statement such as "Fringe doesn't seem to have that," seems like something you totally wouldn't say. I mean, you just said it took Alias halfway through the first season before you go really interested, yet you are willing to completely deny Fringe this possibility.

I ask why? What if a solution (the actual solution) to "The Pattern," is offered up in the next handful of eps? That would certainly, at least in my mind, be out of the norm for a show like this, where you would expect a solution to be dangled just out of reach for seasons on end. I'm not saying that is even a possibility, just pointing out the fact that two episodes into a JJ Abrams show isn't the best place to pass judgement

Heck, LOST still throw out plot twists (at least in my opinion - no need for anyone to turn this thread into a "they are making it up!" thread). And yes, I know LOST is pretty much a Cuse/Lindelof project, now.

Anyway, I like this show enough to keep watching.
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post #73 of 439
9/17/08 at 7:41am

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Quote:
Originally Posted by Josh Dial
I'm not trying to pick on you or anything, but a statement such as "Fringe doesn't seem to have that," seems like something you totally wouldn't say. I mean, you just said it took Alias halfway through the first season before you go really interested, yet you are willing to completely deny Fringe this possibility.

I ask why? What if a solution (the actual solution) to "The Pattern," is offered up in the next handful of eps? That would certainly, at least in my mind, be out of the norm for a show like this, where you would expect a solution to be dangled just out of reach for seasons on end. I'm not saying that is even a possibility, just pointing out the fact that two episodes into a JJ Abrams show isn't the best place to pass judgement
Actually, I think DaveF implied he suffered halfway through the Alias pilot before being interested. Alias did shake things up several times during its run. I can see Fringe has the possibility of shaking things up. Someone who is on the committee we see at the beginning of the second episode is probably part of The Pattern. Someone inside of Massive Dynamic is probably part of The Pattern. Maybe Dunham will take up Nina Sharp's offer later this season and join Massive Dynamic.

Lots of things could happen and people who are bailing out after the pilot or first few episodes appear to have less patience than FOX usually does.
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post #74 of 439
9/17/08 at 8:35am

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

One thing about the episode that did bother me was after they interviewed Penrose and knew that he was lying or hiding some information - why didn't they try to get some people to keep an eye on him? I guess they need to build more infrastructure for their work, but a call to Broyles or the FBI would have been a good idea.
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post #75 of 439
9/17/08 at 10:21am

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Looks like having House as a lead in actually worked. The shows ratings were up from last week.

Here is a quote from ZaptoIt:
Quote:
FOX stayed on top at 9 p.m. with "Fringe," 8.2/13, which, with the help of its lead-in, gained about 4 million viewers over its premiere last week.

I never really put much stock in the whole "lead in" idea. It doesn't make sense that people would decide to watch the next show because they can't be bothered to change the channel.
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post #76 of 439
9/17/08 at 10:55am

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Are we more critical now? Did people in the sixties say, "Meh. Last night's Bozanza was pretty poor. Little Joe was acting totally out of character, and Hop Sing was underused--and misused--as usual. I mean, really. Are we supposed to believe a Chinese cook out in the middle of the old west would know how to make Beef Wellington?"

That said, this is quickly becoming a show like Life for me, that is not particularly bad, but isn't exactly appointment TV. I guess it has elements of the police procedural, and those shows pretty much bore me to death. There are flashes of Kolchak here and there (which I guess are flashes of X-Files, but I never saw that), but right now it's one of those shows that will sit on my DVR for a week before I get around to it, unless we get a curveball.
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post #77 of 439
9/17/08 at 4:43pm

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

What a twisted second episode lol.

I have a technical question, how exactly is this show shot? I ask because I noticed on a few occasions the unmistakable presance of blue anamorphic lens flares during the chase scene near the end and during her dream in the pilot episode.

Do they shoot this show with anamorphic lenses and compose for 1.78:1? That's quite strange if that's the case because most shows shot on film are shot flat and either hard or soft matted for 1.78:1.

Hell they don't even shoot movies in anamorphic anymore (pains me to say that statement ).
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post #78 of 439
9/17/08 at 5:22pm

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

It could have been for any number of reasons John, there's no way they would shoot it with anamorphic lenses though. Those flares aren't specific to scope anymore, they could have added it in post, they could have shot it with a filter, etc. etc.

BTW, technically J.J. Abrams has filmed all of his movies with anamorphic lenses.
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post #79 of 439
9/17/08 at 5:28pm

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zack Gibbs
It could have been for any number of reasons John, there's no way they would shoot it with anamorphic lenses though. Those flares aren't specific to scope anymore, they could have added it in post, they could have shot it with a filter, etc. etc.

BTW, technically J.J. Abrams has filmed all of his movies with anamorphic lenses.

I knew it was unlikely, that's why I asked, i've never seen those kinds of flares on a TV show before.

Good to know about Abrams' movies, God bless the man for keeping the classic (and superior) format alive.
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post #80 of 439
9/17/08 at 5:35pm

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Quote:
Originally Posted by Inspector Hammer!
I knew it was unlikely, that's why I asked, i've never seen those kinds of flares on a TV show before.

Good to know about Abrams' movies, God bless the man for keeping the classic (and superior) format alive.

Eh, I included the "wink" because he's only made 1 film so far.
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post #81 of 439
9/17/08 at 5:50pm

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Ah, okay lol. Even so, one anamorphic film among hundreds of Super 35 films is better than nothing.
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post #82 of 439
9/17/08 at 7:37pm

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zack Gibbs
Eh, I included the "wink" because he's only made 1 film so far.

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.
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post #83 of 439
9/17/08 at 7:43pm

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

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.
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post #84 of 439
9/17/08 at 8:08pm

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Quote:
Originally Posted by John Swarce
Wish they would get the locations right. There is no Sergeant Bridge in Stoughton, MA. And the town is not on the water! It's about 25 miles inland, southwest of Boston.
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.
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post #85 of 439
9/17/08 at 8:59pm

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Quote:
Originally Posted by 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.

Gypsy would be so proud. It brings a tear to my eye.
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post #86 of 439
9/18/08 at 6:30am

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

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.
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post #87 of 439
9/18/08 at 6:50am

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Quote:
Originally Posted by Josh Dial
I'm not trying to pick on you or anything, but a statement such as "Fringe doesn't seem to have that," seems like something you totally wouldn't say. I mean, you just said it took Alias halfway through the first season before you go really interested, yet you are willing to completely deny Fringe this possibility.
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.
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post #88 of 439
9/18/08 at 7:16am

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

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

Fair enough
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post #89 of 439
9/18/08 at 7:27am

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Quote:
Originally Posted by John Swarce
Wish they would get the locations right. There is no Sergeant Bridge in Stoughton, MA. And the town is not on the water! It's about 25 miles inland, southwest of Boston. I had a good laugh when they showed the aerial shot of the warehouses on the dock with a big cargo ship next to one!! But I'm sure they play fast and loose with areas around, say, LA or New York, too.

--John

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
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post #90 of 439
9/18/08 at 7:29am

Re: Fringe - By J.J. Abrams

Quote:
Originally Posted by 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.

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.
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