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Fringe - S3
I finally managed to watch the S3 finale of Fringe yesterday and... er, well it was pretty timey-wimey and definitely very WTF, especially at the end!
I don't really know what to say about the show that hasn't already been said other than that it's great and that if you're not watching it, then why not? If, like me, you're someone for whom characterisation has to be front and centre of a telly programme, then I reckon Fringe is the show for you. It's got a trio of central characters that continue to evolve, an overarcing plot for those who like having their brains broken, a complex yet understandable mythology - and this:
- for those who like to appreciate the pretty :-)
Like most 22 episode seasons, there were good episodes and bad episodes, and I've forgotten how many hiatuses. (Hiatus? Hiati?). Seriously, when will the US networks stop trying to make 22 weeks = 1 year and have their dramas run from start to finish? Okay, maybe I'll allow them a break over Christmas, but other than that, just STOP IT! How can you expect a programme to gain a following when it's forever on and off? I know 'twas ever thus, but back in the 70s and 80s there wasn't so much to compete with the telly.
As a show, I think that Fringe has got more right than it's got wrong. Walter Bishop - fragile, damaged, childlike and brilliant - is simply one of the best conceived characters on the small screen right now and it's his relationships with Peter and with Olivia that are at the heart of the show. Olivia Dunham has also come such a long way from where she started that I don't really know where to begin. I admit that it took me a while to warm to her - I don't know if that was to the character or to the actress who plays her, but whatever it was, that's in the distant past and she's probably my favourite female TV character right now. If I've got one niggle about the characters it's that the idea of Peter Bishop as "man with a shady, probably unpalatable past" seems to have been put to one side in favour of building him into the romantic lead/hero. I don't have a problem with him as the latter, but I'd have liked to have seen more of dark!Peter. I suppose we did get a glimpse of it this season when it was revealed that he was the one who'd been murdering the shape-shifters, but that plotline seems to have been dropped and hasn't (so far) resurfaced.
I think the most gripping episodes came at the start of the season. At the end of the previous one, we discovered that our!Olivia had been replaced with the Olivia from the alternate universe (Alt!livia). In the first few episodes, we skip between the two universes as our!Olivia is turned into Alt!livia and Alt!livia lives our!Olivia's life in our universe. Living our!Olivia's life included having a relationship with Peter - and the fact that he wasn't able to tell the difference between them did, I know cause outrage among some fans. But uncomfortable as it was, I'm glad they didn't shy away from it. Alt!livia is an exact replica of our!Olivia physically, and is actually a somewhat more attractive character, not having any of our!Olivia's hang-ups and trust issues. (But then she probably wasn't experimented on as a child, so that's understandable!) She's more outgoing and open while being just as kickass as the original.
Anna Torv was utterly brilliant playing both parts. Somehow, she managed to differentiate them in incredibly subtle ways, with body language or vocal inflection or whatever, and incredibly, although Alt!livia was written and played as "the baddie", she (Torv) managed to elicit some sympathy for her as we were able to understand her motives, so that her "turn to the good side" (sort of) towards the end of the season was completely believable.
I have some niggles with the latter half of the season, especially as we get near the end. The accelerated pregnancy thing seemed very contrived (but then I suppose it would be) and the sudden "reappearance" of William Bell (with another terrific performance from Anna Torv) at a crucial point in the story (Olivia has just learned that Peter is responsible for killing the shape-shifters) seemed a very convenient and contrived way of side-stepping the issue. Seeing Olivia's reaction towards the man she's just forgiven for falling for her double to the fact that he's been keeping another huge secret would have made for much more interesting telly, IMO. That said, I did like the psychotropic cartoon episode simply because it was so bloody bonkers and completely in line with the stuff that the Fringe team likes to throw at us from time to time.
I suspect that there was possibly some padding going on once S4 had been given the go-ahead.
I'm not completely sure what to make of the finale. Was the majority of the episode a vision of the future that Peter could see whilst he was in the machine? Or was he actually IN the future somehow? Maybe I'm being dim (quite conceivable!) but if it WAS him in the future, how come the make-up department had made with the grey hair colouring in an attempt to age him by 15 years, and how come he was able to accept so quickly that he was in the future and that he was married to Olivia and all the other things he didn't question? That's my reasoning for it being a "vision" but maybe I'm wrong or I've missed something important.
And then, in mid-sentence, he just disappears in a puff of smoke - the lack of reaction to his exit later explained by the observers who tell us that he's been erased from existence.
Hang on. Cracks in the universe. People never existing.
Haven't I been here before?!
Can I just point my fellow Fringe fans to this excellent piece of meta on S3 by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
selenak. She has far greater insight than I and you'll find yourself nodding to everything she says!
And finally - how fabulous was Astrid's hair in 2026?
I don't really know what to say about the show that hasn't already been said other than that it's great and that if you're not watching it, then why not? If, like me, you're someone for whom characterisation has to be front and centre of a telly programme, then I reckon Fringe is the show for you. It's got a trio of central characters that continue to evolve, an overarcing plot for those who like having their brains broken, a complex yet understandable mythology - and this:
- for those who like to appreciate the pretty :-)
Like most 22 episode seasons, there were good episodes and bad episodes, and I've forgotten how many hiatuses. (Hiatus? Hiati?). Seriously, when will the US networks stop trying to make 22 weeks = 1 year and have their dramas run from start to finish? Okay, maybe I'll allow them a break over Christmas, but other than that, just STOP IT! How can you expect a programme to gain a following when it's forever on and off? I know 'twas ever thus, but back in the 70s and 80s there wasn't so much to compete with the telly.
As a show, I think that Fringe has got more right than it's got wrong. Walter Bishop - fragile, damaged, childlike and brilliant - is simply one of the best conceived characters on the small screen right now and it's his relationships with Peter and with Olivia that are at the heart of the show. Olivia Dunham has also come such a long way from where she started that I don't really know where to begin. I admit that it took me a while to warm to her - I don't know if that was to the character or to the actress who plays her, but whatever it was, that's in the distant past and she's probably my favourite female TV character right now. If I've got one niggle about the characters it's that the idea of Peter Bishop as "man with a shady, probably unpalatable past" seems to have been put to one side in favour of building him into the romantic lead/hero. I don't have a problem with him as the latter, but I'd have liked to have seen more of dark!Peter. I suppose we did get a glimpse of it this season when it was revealed that he was the one who'd been murdering the shape-shifters, but that plotline seems to have been dropped and hasn't (so far) resurfaced.
I think the most gripping episodes came at the start of the season. At the end of the previous one, we discovered that our!Olivia had been replaced with the Olivia from the alternate universe (Alt!livia). In the first few episodes, we skip between the two universes as our!Olivia is turned into Alt!livia and Alt!livia lives our!Olivia's life in our universe. Living our!Olivia's life included having a relationship with Peter - and the fact that he wasn't able to tell the difference between them did, I know cause outrage among some fans. But uncomfortable as it was, I'm glad they didn't shy away from it. Alt!livia is an exact replica of our!Olivia physically, and is actually a somewhat more attractive character, not having any of our!Olivia's hang-ups and trust issues. (But then she probably wasn't experimented on as a child, so that's understandable!) She's more outgoing and open while being just as kickass as the original.
Anna Torv was utterly brilliant playing both parts. Somehow, she managed to differentiate them in incredibly subtle ways, with body language or vocal inflection or whatever, and incredibly, although Alt!livia was written and played as "the baddie", she (Torv) managed to elicit some sympathy for her as we were able to understand her motives, so that her "turn to the good side" (sort of) towards the end of the season was completely believable.
I have some niggles with the latter half of the season, especially as we get near the end. The accelerated pregnancy thing seemed very contrived (but then I suppose it would be) and the sudden "reappearance" of William Bell (with another terrific performance from Anna Torv) at a crucial point in the story (Olivia has just learned that Peter is responsible for killing the shape-shifters) seemed a very convenient and contrived way of side-stepping the issue. Seeing Olivia's reaction towards the man she's just forgiven for falling for her double to the fact that he's been keeping another huge secret would have made for much more interesting telly, IMO. That said, I did like the psychotropic cartoon episode simply because it was so bloody bonkers and completely in line with the stuff that the Fringe team likes to throw at us from time to time.
I suspect that there was possibly some padding going on once S4 had been given the go-ahead.
I'm not completely sure what to make of the finale. Was the majority of the episode a vision of the future that Peter could see whilst he was in the machine? Or was he actually IN the future somehow? Maybe I'm being dim (quite conceivable!) but if it WAS him in the future, how come the make-up department had made with the grey hair colouring in an attempt to age him by 15 years, and how come he was able to accept so quickly that he was in the future and that he was married to Olivia and all the other things he didn't question? That's my reasoning for it being a "vision" but maybe I'm wrong or I've missed something important.
And then, in mid-sentence, he just disappears in a puff of smoke - the lack of reaction to his exit later explained by the observers who tell us that he's been erased from existence.
Hang on. Cracks in the universe. People never existing.
Haven't I been here before?!
Can I just point my fellow Fringe fans to this excellent piece of meta on S3 by
selenak. She has far greater insight than I and you'll find yourself nodding to everything she says!And finally - how fabulous was Astrid's hair in 2026?
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I started out meh about Olivia and now I adore her character and I think Anna Torv is freaking brilliant. Watching ourOlivia and Fakey stare each other down is just mind blowing. And her facial expressions in the hospital caffeteria during Marionette ... meep, that there is the sight of someone's heart breaking.
And JJ is as hot as he ever was and still playing very sweet (*sighs*). Agree it's a shame about them dropping the shady past, but he does romantic lead so well...
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