The following is a spoiler-free perspective, with the time-shifted viewer in mind.
The Fringe finale brought answers on what you might call “multiple” fronts. It did not feel like it was stretched to meet any expectations. It rounded out a decent first season for its maiden voyage on Fox.
When I first saw the Fringe panel at Comic-Con last year, the crowd was thin and the set-up questionable. I panned it out and came away from the panel thinking it was going to flounder.
Did I miss the mark, or what?
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When the series started, we saw FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) come on the scene and right up front she loses her fiancee / FBI co-worker. That is, except for that him-hanging-around-in-her-head thing.
Olivia didn’t sit well with me in the beginning but as the show progressed, so did she as we started to see just how she fit into this funny puzzle of science tampering.
Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) was the reluctant player in this whole ordeal. From being coerced into coming on board, to having to babysit the father he seemed most reluctant to deal with. It was a tragic scenario for Peter as he had to leave his happy life in the shadows and live a life as a consultant for the FBI, assisting Olivia in wrangling his father, begrudgingly.
In the beginning, Peter was a character that interacted with the stories and the scenes. But was it me or in these last few episodes was Peter less integral in the dialog? Peter was getting on my nerves. I loved his sarcastic whit. I really did… he converses much like I do, but it was almost all he ever did – Throwing out snarky quips for conversational bits. I found myself wishing they’d give more depth to Peter’s role in this whole picture in the back 1/2 of the season.
Peter’s father, Walter Bishop, is played wonderfully by John Noble. Ah Walter. Talk about a well-meaning loose canon who wasn’t exactly connected to the here and now. But I don’t think he’s nuts. He’s just so absorbed in his thinking processes that his preoccupation appears as if he’s not quite connected. That and being a science nerd, not being socially well-integrated only seemed to make him nuts. He’s forgetful. He’s obsessive. But I’m just not sure he was really nuts. And the funny part is that John Noble was just like this at the Fringe panel last year at Comic-Con… rambling with subtle undertones of wise and insightful humor led on by years of experience… or read very well into his role.
Walter is a hoot, with his intermittent inappropriate flatulence to his urges for sugar-laden cereals from yesteryear. We’ve also watched Walter grow and become a working part of the team. Albeit, in his own special way. He has a cow you know! No, really, a cow. Everyone needs a pet.
This nice part is seeing the father-son bond grow with time, as Peter and Walter are slowly coming together understanding each other more and more.
Then the man in charge of this whole thing, Homeland Security Agent Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick), leads the team as they investigate these patterns.
He’s gone from the stoic leader of this rag-tag group of feds and become the stoic leader of this ragtag team that has learned to work together as the season progressed. But now, he’s more forgiving and lenient with Olivia’s requests unless he has orders that come from high in the scheme of the government.
The rest of the cast is just, well, the rest of the cast that helped or hindered our mystery-chasing good guys.
In the finale, it all comes together. Through different channels the group learns about the deja vu of it all.
And, Olivia gets what she wants with regards to both David Jones and William Bell while we are left with something that’s not necessarily a cliff hanger, but one heck of a daring cliff dangler!
I cannot wait to see it all start up again for season 2. Bring it Abrams, bring it.
How do you feel the show has evolved? Does it merit the 2nd season it’s been given? How long do you think it will keep this up? Keep in mind that though this article is technically spoiler free, the comments may very well not be!
You’ve been warned.
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15 Comments
Did you see the season finale? Looks like they will be doing something very interesting with Peter.
Also, it is interesting to note that this is the only new show of this genre to get a second season.
Yes StevenL, I did. I saw “both” of them. (No folks, there weren’t two for you to see in this reality.)
I like the show, but if I may compare it to its clear inspiration The X-Files, they’re both juggling with two concepts. They want to have an ongoing mysterious storyline, but also close a case within one episode, which takes up most of the time. Personally I want to see more of the conspiracy, the ones responsible for testing all of these weird phenomena, instead of being given episodes wherein there are zero answers and zero developments concerning the overall plot. So, for me, this season finale is a start.
In regards to the sublime finale of Fringe S1…
Let me start off by saying I was very upset with myself in learning the identity of Bell (Nimoy) prior to the episode. Silly me thought that was the main gotcha moment of the episode. Little did I know that there were 3 whoppers.
I was very sad to see Jones get killed off. I loved his character and that storyline. Hopefully they will bring him back.
I have never been shocked twice during a tv show and Fringe provided me with 2 great ones. The whole Peter story Arc is mindblowing and extremely interesting and the last scene was flat out AWESOME. I must say I enjoyed very much seeing the twin towers again.
None of my cronies watch the show and my wife only watches from time to time. Therein lies my torture. No one to discuss this great show with. Hopefully this site will help and the show will catch on.
I love the show and where they are going with it.
I am in it for the long haul.
TMOTH41: Ohyea… the Peter twist was a jaw dropper for me. And the massive amount of loss and guilt that Walter carries around inside him must be insane.
I looooooooooove this show . It reminds me of the Xfiles even though ( imo ) it doesn’t try to BE the X files.
I’m still a fan of Xfiles but I do think this show is better.
The writing is fantastic and the cast is top notch.
I never took Joshua Jackson seriously prior to this show , now I do.
John Noble is a brilliant actor and I do think Walter is crazy ( in a good way – lol ) but thats because he is an absolute genius { in my opinion , most geniuses are quite mad } .
I had never heard of Anna Torv before this show came out but I am VERY impressed with her performance. Also , she bears a striking resemblance to a woman I was madly in love with , so I may be a bit biased where she is concerned
Loved it from Day 1 on board til the end.
Go Fringe!
This show is unbelievably intelligent, outstanding acting, huge twists and turns, I love Fringe, I’m actually gonna follow Fringe unlike Lost.
Yes…late as always…sorry, just finally saw the final 4 episodes last week. I too noticed the X-Files similarities, and was pleased rather than bothered by it (because when the X-Files was good, it was REALLY good). I loved the alternate reality story line (what WOULD that be like?), especially with Peter. Poor, tortured Walter. As for Olivia, she’s tough, feminine, powerful, without all that brassy, ballsy, pushy stereotypical woman-in-charge thing going. Nicely done! Can’t wait for next season! I wonder if Abrams has a vision, a plan, and if he intends to carry it out. Time will tell.
i loved how in previous episodes Walter hints being able to time travel and just before that scientist died with the crazy animalistic wife he said to Walter “how far would you go in order to save the ones you love?”.
I loved the foreshawdowing and even in the finale he tells his son that one was able to travel and get somethign very special to him. in Walters case *cough* *cough* Peter!
Well I gave FRINGE a go, as I LOVE JJ and everything he’s touched, but I was very disappointed after the first few epsiodes.
Firstly I was a bit peeved that Fringe was just ramming two XFiles plots together into one episode…(cloning/chimeras & animal rights, vampirism and chemical addictions/needs, yada yada).
I found Peter continually snarky and hollow, I wasn’t sure why the heck he was hanging around if all he was going to do was insult, antagonise and irritate, Olivia was just a parrot, repeating dialogue in the form of question as if the scriptwriters were so unsure we’d be able to follow their leftfield craziness that we needed reassurance from the characters every scene. Adn even Walther annoyed me when the comedy cow and inappropriate behaviour just seemed shoehorned in to make the audience chuckle instead of giving us story points and uselful info.
However, I perservered. Rested my irritation and came back to it without that fever of expectation and anticipation. And rewatched every episode through again. Second time around I was actually entertained, and managed to get past epsiode 10 and into the good stuff.
I think basically it’s a very good supernatural/horror/mystery show that steals and builds on some great ideas from other great series of the past. But that’s not a bad thing because it’s all done with such visual style and slickness that it keeps you thinking after the credits roll. I think creators are so scared of not grabbing an audience for ratings quickly enough these days that they dumb everything down INCREDIBLY for the first 1/4 season, so they can collect the floaty, non-committal types and survive for a full season. It certainly felt like that, I gave up because I felt patronised. But I came back and found the last part of the season to be excellent. It’s just a shame these techniques are scaring thoughtful, dedicated and loyal viewers like me away, exactly the opposite of what they want!
Personally, I think this show owes a lot of credit to the X-Files. In fact, the only reason I’m watching Fringe is because it’s similar to the X-Files, but ultimately sub-par. The chemistry between Olivia and Peter isn’t believable for me as it was for Mulder and Scully due to the writing. And when there isn’t any onscreen chemistry to compel the viewer, there needs to be some interesting plots. The whole ‘mythology’ of the show involving William Bell and Massive Dynamic is interesting, but the ’stand alone’ episodes are terrible compared to what’s in the X-Files. I’m hoping season 2 can be better.
This is one of the best shows on the planet! I whatch this T.V show every time it is on. when they killed off Joseph, i didn’t know what to think. Hope the show never Fails. oh, and by the way, Walter is a Genious!
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