My jury is still out — and probably trying to resist the urge to have Chipotle for lunch — after watching the first two episodes of Fox’s Fringe. Last night’s opening scene, focusing on that unexpected "baby" delivery, was hideously cool, from the squelching sound effects right down to the screaming nurse, but the show’s three central characters — Anna Torv’s Olivia Dunham, Joshua Jackson’s Peter Bishop, and John Noble’s Walter Bishop — are all perilously close to stepping over the border of Quirkyville and right into Annoyingland. I find Noble’s performance particularly distracting; he reads every line as if he was imitating John O’Hurley playing J. Peterman on Seinfeld. When Jackson’s character snapped last night that dear old dad should try talking like a real person, I found myself shouting back at the TV: "Yes! YES!"
That said, I’m probably going to stick around for another episode or two, at least. I’m loving Blair Brown’s chillingly enigmatic corporate power-player, and crazy as it may sound, I’m a little bit obsessed with the X-ray-like title cards that run before each and every commercial break: the toad with the "phi" symbol on his back; the daisy with the insect-wing petal; the leaf with the etched triangle pattern; and especially the apple with the creepy fetus seeds! Tell me I am not the only one who’s ba-da ba-bah-bah…lovin’ ‘em.
I said to my roommate last night that Peter has filled the void that was Chandler Bing’s missing sarcasm. I’m sticking around for now. I’m into it – even though I’m not a big Lost person, and wasn’t that into Alias or the X-Files.
Whoa. I had absolutely no interest in this show until you showed those creepy title cards.
Annoyingland can’t be as bad as the new 90210′s hometown:
Skinny Hooch Junction.
What I like about this show is that we have realistic characters in strange situations. This is not a show were the characters create the drama, they are dealing with it. That might be your problem with the show so far.
I love the acting. It shows a nice sense of realism when shows like 90210, Gossip Girl, My Name is Earl, and Pushing Daisies is all about strange characters.
It think you’ve got this one backwards. The world they live in is strange. They are not. Give them a little more time, and try watching the show with that POV.
Terrible episode last night — very disappointing for a second episode of a new series. Hackneyed plot (if you didn’t see where it was going from about 15 minutes in, have you ever watched ANY sci-fi/fantasy TV?), really clumsy exposition, arbitrary character development — and the business with retrieving images off the optical nerve?? Come on. Geordi LaForge, what technobabble can we use to save the ship this week? Seemed like a rushed effort, and deflated a lot of whatever interest I’d had in the overall “mystery” they were trying to rope us into. It’s dicey as to whether or not I watch this next week.
Still like the show although I’m not sure how it went from being the winter at the beginning of the episode and high summer by the episodes end.
The minute they end up “we need to re-configure the blah, blah, blah technobable, nerdspeak, blah” I’m out of there.
Well… it wasn’t as good as the pilot, for sure. But, you can’t discount the entire concept of the show is FRINGE science – that is extracting the last sights from the optic nerve, and it is reanimation, and it is all the stuff that is still “fantasy”. If you sit and criticize that whole concept… might as well not bother watching the show.
I was hooked from the pilot so I’ll continue watching. I’m also a huge LOST fan and I see a lot of similarities between the shows. One good thing about that is that Fringe has enormous chance for character and story development.
Whoa! I’ve watched both episodes, and I noticed the triangle on the leaf, but not the other weird stuff. The title cards are officially the best part of the show. Last night’s episode was…not great. I do NOT like Torv.
Even though I recorded the pilot, yesterday’s installment was my fist. It’s not a bad show and kept my interest, but much of it feels too much like ersatz X-Files; and this is coming from someone who hasn’t watched X-Files. I at least agree with Michael (not Slezak) on the plotting, which easily veered into procedural crime territory. I’m not too entranced by the characters either, and it could take a cue on its lead in House on the subject of quirky character.
Fringe is entertaining enough if I have nothing better to do or watch, but if anything better comes along, I’m out.
Correct me if I am wrong, but this show’s plot seems a bit like the plot of the Canadian show ReGenesis.
Bah. I meant to say ‘I haven’t watched MUCH X-Files’, not ‘I haven’t watched any X-Files.’
I’m a huge LOST fan, and enjoyed ALIAS, of course, so I was disappointed by the execution and mechanics of the episode relative to the usual polish Bad Robot delivers. I really want to love the “fringe science” concept, but I worry about how well it’ll hold up — and the way it was integrated into this episode was pretty stiff. I’d've loved to have seen more about the “growing soldiers” backstory, but the plot just kept jumping point-to-point in ways that just seemed contrived.
I agree the 3 main characters are hokey. The actress who plays Olivia is…still learning to act? She’s clearly the weak link in the ensemble. The “wacky prof” is bordering on cutesy, and just how did his terrible relationship with his son suddenly become Bosom Buddies?
My biggest issue with the show is that it tries to push “science” but it’s clearly made-up science. The precog stuff, the eyeball…at least X-Files’ Scully gave us real scientific explanations. The science on Fringe is all ridiculous, so knowing it’s not true, it makes the whole show seem silly. I know it’s sci-fi, but the science can still be real to make it more authentic. I agree with Slezak- it’s too quirky for its own good, period, and the acting is subpar (Olivia and the prof)
That wasn’t BC in the episode last night. It also doesn’t look like Boston. Perhaps they should use some of the huge budget for this show to film something on location–at least background shots.
I like Eureka on Sci-Fi a lot better. It’s funnier, and yet at the same time can be just as dark and sad as any show on television. The science and effects are cooler too.
The intro/outro graphics are beautiful. One of them showed up on a door security hand scanner at the creepy company.
The show is okay. But not even Pacey is enough for me to give it a season pass. I might watch occasionaly.