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Fringe, Season 1
A few nights ago, I finished watching the first season of Fringe.
A lot of people called this show a rip-off of the X-Files and stopped watching it. I never watched the X-Files, but I've heard elsewhere that the X-Files could not simultaneously manage Monster of the Week episodes with an overarching plot. Fringe manages to do this, and to do it really well.
The dialogue on Fringe is not always masterful - in fact, sometimes the character interactions seem almost cheesy. But I think that it makes it that much more compelling when something changes, when a character figures something out, when there's a sharp dip from the norm you the viewer are expecting.
I think that the entire season takes place in Autumn, with everyone in pea coats, breath visible, trees stark, leaves on the ground. The characters, in addition to the literal background of the show, are waiting for strings to be tied together, for things to make sense, and in the season finale (and the episodes leading up to it), we get a big heaping full.
I'm finding myself more and more attached to these characters, even the ones who most annoyed me in the beginning (Walter).
The writers are even capable of bringing huge LULZ to the audience - that lead-up Star Trek reference and then a guest appearance by Leonard Nimoy was priceless.
Sometimes the special effects are too grotesque for me, but Fringe sometimes functions as a sci-fi CSI, and for me to be interested in CSI, there needs to be plausible vampires who suck CSF and time travel and etc.
What I'm hoping for now is a more prominent role for Astrid and some makeout action between Joshua Jackson and Anna Torv.
Is anybody else watching this show?
A lot of people called this show a rip-off of the X-Files and stopped watching it. I never watched the X-Files, but I've heard elsewhere that the X-Files could not simultaneously manage Monster of the Week episodes with an overarching plot. Fringe manages to do this, and to do it really well.
The dialogue on Fringe is not always masterful - in fact, sometimes the character interactions seem almost cheesy. But I think that it makes it that much more compelling when something changes, when a character figures something out, when there's a sharp dip from the norm you the viewer are expecting.
I think that the entire season takes place in Autumn, with everyone in pea coats, breath visible, trees stark, leaves on the ground. The characters, in addition to the literal background of the show, are waiting for strings to be tied together, for things to make sense, and in the season finale (and the episodes leading up to it), we get a big heaping full.
I'm finding myself more and more attached to these characters, even the ones who most annoyed me in the beginning (Walter).
The writers are even capable of bringing huge LULZ to the audience - that lead-up Star Trek reference and then a guest appearance by Leonard Nimoy was priceless.
Sometimes the special effects are too grotesque for me, but Fringe sometimes functions as a sci-fi CSI, and for me to be interested in CSI, there needs to be plausible vampires who suck CSF and time travel and etc.
What I'm hoping for now is a more prominent role for Astrid and some makeout action between Joshua Jackson and Anna Torv.
Is anybody else watching this show?
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But: give X-Files a chance! I never felt that the show wasn't balanced. In fact, I feel that the monster-of-the-week episodes are often really fun (and can be really funny), and allow for a lot of great character development. I haven't seen the last couple of seasons, but was a huge fan when the series was originally airing. We've been watching them from the beginning (filling in random missed episodes for me, starting fresh for E and J), and I love them even more, if that's possible. E is REALLY loving them.
To prospective viewers: The show definitely would not have been continued if it aired today. The first season, while entertaining, is not nearly as good as subsequent seasons. It does set up very important plot and character points, though. The show really picks up about halfway through season two.
/evangelism
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XF's mytharc was (a) written on the fly -- the show had no bible -- and (b) therefore brought up only occasionally. Because the premise was basically "These people are so powerful that they will crush you like a bug if you challenge them," so you couldn't bring it up every week. And aliens, as a sci-fi element, mix well with some other sci-fi elements but not with others. When the mixing works ("Duane Barry", using brain science and aliens) it's great; but it's really hard to pull off a circus episode ("Humbug") that has anything to do with aliens. So they didn't try.
The thing about XF that may be hard to wrap your brain around now is that people didn't used to do series TV that looked like that. The camera-work and the set-building were really remarkable: weird, detailed, solid, done with an artist's eye rather than just to advance the plot. The director of photography was called "The Prince of Darkness" because he routinely lit whole sets with just a couple of flashlights. Now everybody does that (or most shows do), but at the time, it was really a striking departure from the norm.
(It's also hilarious, because in 1993-4, Canadian Actor Bingo was as yet unborn, and so every face was a fresh one more or less. They worked pretty hard up until about season 7 not to cast famous guest stars, but that doesn't mean that the guest stars didn't get famous afterward -- Seth Green's in season 1, and Bradley Whitford shows up in season 2.)
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The fact that the X-Files' mytharc was written on the fly would really bother me, I think. I get really, really annoyed when writers don't have things planned out in advance, especially when the existence of a plan is a huge basis for the show (see: Battlestar Galactica).
Still, I've seen a few episodes of the X-Files, and I plan on watching more....eventually.
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I dunno. It's fun as hell. I think you'd like Scully as a strong woman who balances her Christian faith with her identity as a scientist, even in the face of supernatural events.
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If you look back at early episodes of XF, you'll find it's often downright nihilistic. There isn't a plan, because it's all about how you're never really sure; the evidence disappears or you can't trust your own perception of it. In a lot of ways, it began as a story about the fantastic, that borderline stuff where it might be supernatural or it might not.
(When it became a straight-up science fiction show -- when the mytharc became prominent; after the movie came out -- is when it became boring to me.)
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[And so does the tube sock.]
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