Fringe - Season Two  

I watched the first season in a week binge and enjoyed it much more that way.  The pacing of story progression is too slow during the regular season airings.  Of course the last moments of S1 have me extremely interested to see how things go now.

I've noticed that this is often the case with shows that feature on-going mysteries and long story arcs.  When Babylon 5 was still airing in first- run syndication I was travelling on business a lot, and would sometimes end up taping three or even four episodes while away, then watch them in a marathon when I got home.  I really made a difference in the viewing experience.  Similarly when the first four seasons started airing in reruns every weekday on TNT, they were even more enjoyable.  (And rewatching shows like these is also rewarding because you see connections and foreshadowing that was impossible to see the first time around.)  The much-maligned (unfairly in my opinion) first half of the fifth season of that show also "plays" much better when played back-to-back-to-back.

 

Looking forward to season two of Fringe and the deeper mysteries to come. 

Regards,

Joe

 Joe,

   Your B5 analogy reminds me of when the show first aired.  It was the only show I would stare at the clock and hope their was more time left.  While I loved the story arc.  I hated the fact I would have to wait another week for another episode.  

Another week?  How about a month or more when PTEN would run those strange alternating blocks of reruns and new episodes?  How about the "big" break every season coming three or four episodes before the season finale, so that when the show came back you'd watch the end of one season and go immediately into the next, undermining the whole concept of the "season finale/cliffhanger"?  And don't even get me started on TNT and the breaks for basketball during S5. 

People who complain about breaks on current shows should have been around for that circus. 

Getting back to Fringe, I suspect that S1 will also benefit from being watched again after the later seasons have aired.  Another lesson learned from watching an arc show like B5 after it is complete is how much foreshadowing and laying of ground work can be done when such a show is well-designed.  A lot of people asked "where is the arc?" or complained that a given episode was "filler" or "didn't advance the main story" - criticisms also leveled at Fringe S1 at times, and at shows like Lost.  But my guess is that we're going to see a lot of stuff being setup from the earliest episodes that will pay off much later.  I'm rewatching B5 at the moment (just past the middle of the series) and am still catching little details and moments of foreshadowing that I missed before.  I'm also appreciating how layered the storytelling is, and how careful JMS was to remind us about characters, events or plot points several episodes (or more) before they take center stage.  

A typical example is the late season two episode "Knives".  Ostensibly a personal episode about Londo, it illuminates his character and advances his story somewhat, but it was criticized at the time it aired as "filler".  Yet this episode manages to put in place a good many "arc" pieces.  In addition to the obvious Londo stuff, we get the introduction of the mystery of Grey Sector ("The B5 Triangle"), which will resonate in "Comes the Inquisitor" (Sebastian does his work in Grey Sector) and, of course,  "Grey 17 is Missing" in S3.  The episode also contains reminders about the Markab and their religious rituals (soon to feature in "Confessions & Lamentations") as well as B4 and Sector 14 - pointing towards both Keffer's pursuit of a Shadow vessel there in the S 2 season finale and "War Without End" nearly a season later.

Regards,

Joe

Agreement all around.  I'm really looking forward to this next season.  I just wish I had the willpower to sit on a few episodes on the DVR and watch them together!  I'm watching LOST for the first time on Blu-Ray and I can't imagine having to wait each week or hiatus for answers!

Hmmm, the lack of updates in this thread cannot be a good sign for the series.

I love the over arcing storylines ie Olivia's ability(s) and Peter's background story but last night's stand alone episode encapsulates what frustrates.  The stand alone mystery was imminently disposable and the only item of interest was Peter's dream.

The pacing of the show needs to pick up.

^ There's two threads. The more active one is here: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/293060/fringe-season-2

Ah - merci!

And if you're on the east coast, there's a baseball game on.

Was there a new episode of this last night?  My DVR didn't record anything, I guess maybe it had baseball scheduled, but I don't know if they showed a rerun of something or a new episode with the series over.

Yep, it was a new episode.  I had to manually set my TIVO to record it as the season pass was not picking it up (even after I manually told the TIVO to dial in and get the updated program info).

Not quite sure what the point is of all the dial-in connections when they don't seem to update in real-time for the purposes of season pass and such.

Sigh. Another stand alone episode.  It was nice to find out some thing about Broyle's back story but in the end this is another episode that did nothing to advance the show mythology.

The shadow monster and ash effects were cool though.

I'm not sure if I love or hate the way the show seems to alternate between mythology eps and standalones.  It's almost like clockwork how you can predict if the episode is going to tie into Massive Dynamics/Bell/the alternate reality simply by the order of the episodes.

I'm just catching up with the show, but does no one else appreciate that Fringe Season 2 has two threads on the HTF?  Was this planned by Massive Dynamics?  Are there two Fringe threads in every discussion forum?

"There's more than one of everything."

:)

One for each reality.  ;)