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

[Joe_H]

I never watched Alias, but I'm guessing you mean the backstabbing double agent type stuff?

 

[Scott-S]

Is this show going to be like Lost. By this I mean, we get more and more mysteries about some large corp. and never get any answers?

God, please don't be a clone of Lost. I like lost, but I don't need another show that has no answers.

I sure hope they have mapped out this thing. (unlike lost)

 

[Joe_H]

Well, Abrams actually barely has any involvement in Lost, from what I understand. That's all Lindelof and Cuse.

 

[Ken Chan]

When he said, "I love you," I said out loud, "Well, he's a dead man." Of course I was right. And then I was wrong. But then I was right again. And in a future ep, I may be wrong

The "fringe" stuff didn't do much for me, but I liked the funny. And does being naked really enhance the brain sync experience? It seems like something a scientist might say just because he can. To make matters worse, why wasn't she actually naked?

 

[Don Giro]

The pilot didn't do much for me, but I've heard that it really picks up a few episodes into the storyline.

I loved the three-dimensional lettering that labeled each location, especially the "Baghdad, Iraq" label that was STILL visible over the soldiers as the scene progressed. It reminded me a lot of the title credits for "Panic Room," one of my favorite openings.

 

[Jason_V]

Yeah, that was pretty much all that kept me watching in the first half hour. I'm a sucker for stuff like that. I guess it shows my geeky side.

Otherwise, the first 30-45 minutes were very very dull. I'm not sold on Anna Torv in the lead quite yet. There's something about her delivery that doesn't inspire confidence in me OR leave me looking forward to six or seven years with her. However, the moment the Pattern was mentioned and we saw the mechanical arm, the show started picking up. By the end, I'm on board.

 

[Joe_H]

Same exact thing I thought.

 

[Holadem]

While I would have sworn I watched more than an hour of this thing before quitting, maybe I only watched 45 mins or so then, because the entirety of what I watched was duuuuuuuullllll. The script assumes that we care about what happens to any of these people, without give us a reason to. The characters are as unengaging as they get, and so is the dialog. So we spend a lot of time watching people we don't care about doing things we don't care about. Terrible.

--
H

 

[Holadem]

Have you watched LOST lately? The last season has been extremely rewarding. A lot of things have fallen into place. And it's obvious that much of it was planned.

Now, speaking of LOST, the musical cues are very similar here, and thus quite distracting.

Looking online, a lot of people quit at about the 1h mark as well.

--
H

 

[TravisR]

I mostly was referring to the girl agonizing over having to save the man she loves and the all stuff that came along with that. It's not like they lifted a story from Alias but that show had similar stories dealing with the characters' personal lives and their emotional crisises (if 'crisises' is a word

).

 

[Quentin]

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.

 

[Greg_S_H]

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.

 

[JohnS]

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

 

[Patrick Sun]

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

 

[NeilO]

That was a really cool effect.

Neil

 

[Josh Dial]

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.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

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.

 

[John Swarce]

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

 

[IanDP]

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.

 

[John_Lee]

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