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Telly catch-up - Fringe
I've just caught up with the last couple of episodes of Fringe - and I am totally gobsmacked.
Why are people not raving about this show?
What started out as a bit of an X-files clone has become something very different. Yes, there are aliens, and yes there are nasty-goings-on; yes, there's a man and a woman (an FBI agent named Olivia Dunham) who work together and who are attracted to each other... but there's a lot more than that, too. At the heart of the show is the incredible relationship between the slightly barmy, brilliant and fragile Walter Bishop and his son, Peter - emotionally damaged, with a shady past that seems to have involved a lot of moving around and distrust.
The first half of the first series was a bit formulaic, it's true, but it was also clearly constructed to give the show an "end" if it didn't get picked up. As luck would have it, it did and from then on, we started to get more and more of the characters' back-story and more of the Fringe-verse mythology introduced.
In a nutshell - there's an alternate universe in which ours is seen as a threat (whether real or created for political reasons remains to be seen). The Peter we see actually comes from that alternative universe (having been taken from there by "our" Walter when he was a boy, to replace "his" Peter, who had died). This kidnapping has set in motion a chain of events that is now playing out - and at the end of the second series, Olivia was trapped there, while the "her" from the alternate universe took her place in ours. That in itself is an interesting premise, but what's taken it far beyond "interesting" is the fact that now, we're getting to see the fall-out. At the end of S2, Olivia and Peter had pretty much declared their love for each other - and shortly after that, the two Olivias switched places. At the start of S3, "faux"-Olivia is living in our universe and, it later emerges, while she got close to Peter in order to keep tabs on him and Walter, she seeems to have been falling for him. When "our" Olivia gets back, she's devastated to find that Peter hadn't known that he'd been having a relationship with the "other" her and what I really liked was seeing that while on an intellectual level, she understood why it happened, emotionally, she couldn't deal with it. She's starting to get over that now, although I imagine it will take a while yet, considering recent plot developments. And if nothing else, I really love the way that the UST is being played out. So many shows get bogged down in that whole "will-they / won't-they?" that it can sometimes get tiresome, but here, for once, the writers have found a way to keep it going once the characters concerned have kissed and told each other how they feel. I doff my hat to them!
That's just one of the many things I love about Fringe.
And now, things are getting more complicated as we're starting to see that Peter has a very dark side and that all is not as it seems with him, either.
It's well written, it has humour, pathos, great characters and heart. I'd say it's one of those shows it helps to have seen from the beginning - even though the first half of S1 is basically a standalone arc, it nonetheless introduces the main characters, sets the foundation for their relatonships and introduces some of the concepts that will become important later on.
If you've not seen it - give it a try. I don't watch a great deal of telly, but it's rapidly become one of my "must see" shows.
Why are people not raving about this show?
What started out as a bit of an X-files clone has become something very different. Yes, there are aliens, and yes there are nasty-goings-on; yes, there's a man and a woman (an FBI agent named Olivia Dunham) who work together and who are attracted to each other... but there's a lot more than that, too. At the heart of the show is the incredible relationship between the slightly barmy, brilliant and fragile Walter Bishop and his son, Peter - emotionally damaged, with a shady past that seems to have involved a lot of moving around and distrust.
The first half of the first series was a bit formulaic, it's true, but it was also clearly constructed to give the show an "end" if it didn't get picked up. As luck would have it, it did and from then on, we started to get more and more of the characters' back-story and more of the Fringe-verse mythology introduced.
In a nutshell - there's an alternate universe in which ours is seen as a threat (whether real or created for political reasons remains to be seen). The Peter we see actually comes from that alternative universe (having been taken from there by "our" Walter when he was a boy, to replace "his" Peter, who had died). This kidnapping has set in motion a chain of events that is now playing out - and at the end of the second series, Olivia was trapped there, while the "her" from the alternate universe took her place in ours. That in itself is an interesting premise, but what's taken it far beyond "interesting" is the fact that now, we're getting to see the fall-out. At the end of S2, Olivia and Peter had pretty much declared their love for each other - and shortly after that, the two Olivias switched places. At the start of S3, "faux"-Olivia is living in our universe and, it later emerges, while she got close to Peter in order to keep tabs on him and Walter, she seeems to have been falling for him. When "our" Olivia gets back, she's devastated to find that Peter hadn't known that he'd been having a relationship with the "other" her and what I really liked was seeing that while on an intellectual level, she understood why it happened, emotionally, she couldn't deal with it. She's starting to get over that now, although I imagine it will take a while yet, considering recent plot developments. And if nothing else, I really love the way that the UST is being played out. So many shows get bogged down in that whole "will-they / won't-they?" that it can sometimes get tiresome, but here, for once, the writers have found a way to keep it going once the characters concerned have kissed and told each other how they feel. I doff my hat to them!
That's just one of the many things I love about Fringe.
And now, things are getting more complicated as we're starting to see that Peter has a very dark side and that all is not as it seems with him, either.
It's well written, it has humour, pathos, great characters and heart. I'd say it's one of those shows it helps to have seen from the beginning - even though the first half of S1 is basically a standalone arc, it nonetheless introduces the main characters, sets the foundation for their relatonships and introduces some of the concepts that will become important later on.
If you've not seen it - give it a try. I don't watch a great deal of telly, but it's rapidly become one of my "must see" shows.
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All the characters are amazing. Even the "minor" characters are well written and you care about them. The whole "Over there" thing is great, especially once the "other" them start to see what life on this side might be like.
I totally love Walter (and want to do Peter!). There are times I want to shake Olivia, but she's been through a lot, so I'll let her off. She needs to lighten up a bit.
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