It was the first show that I can remember that was able to survive major shifts in the way the story was told.
Fringe suffers from the JJ Abrams problem of “create all this sci-fi lore to hook you, then hope the audience forgets the rules to tell a relationship story.” That’s a really hard sell when you do stuff like encode glyphs in the commercial break bumpers, it kind if points to them expecting the audience to be sitting there with a pad and paper taking notes.
For example…you find people with mystery little discs in their hands. Why do we not scan everyone connected to the pattern with those? Ok, so then Loeb. We find out he’s secretly with ZFT, oh no! Let’s arrest him, then ask him questions. Wait he won’t answer? End of the wiki entry, he’s not important anymore. Hold on, in Season 1 episode 1, don’t you have mind-connecting tech that can literally interrogate someone to give information even after death? Maybe we could, I dunno, pull him out of jail and super-question him? Or are we just gonna forget that detail?
I dunno, many times in that show I felt like it had so much potential but just kind of forgot a lot of its own lore to keep looping the story back to the family/relationship stuff. JJ does this with SO much that he makes…Alias when the Rambaldi device is made and the red orb is floating over Russia…then the sisters connect, and we just kind of move on from the world-ending uberweapon. Or Lost. Or Trek, how he made a world where if you have a whole bunch of Khan’s on ice making blood, you kind of cure death, but then that’s never referenced again.
reminds me of m night shamalan movie’s
Wow! Now that’s low.
I was a big fan back then, however, I never got into the last season. They basically swapped out everyone I liked except Walter, who’s character was changed too much for my liking, and I quit almost immediatly. Is there anything worthwhile in there? Now that I’m thinking about the show, I might go for a rewatch soon.
Dude, fellow Fringe nut right here. Season’s 4 not-reboot is when I started to… not care that much. I still love the show, but it went a little too much into its own lore, and got convoluted. Yet season 5 was not that bad, since they realized they dodged the cancellation bullet one last time, the show-runners got to work and tied everything with a nice bow. No loose ends, and satisfying ending for almost all characters. Still unconvinced about the whole “Watchers as the Bad Guys” mumbo jumbo, but in the end the show focused on the main characters and, in my opinion, it delivered.
A lot of stuff came together in the last season. If you’re curious how it all ended it’s worth a watch. I can see not liking the major changes heading into it, but still felt worth watching for explaining some things that still weren’t resolved heading into that season.
Shows that explore the implausible run the risk of getting lost and becoming incoherent. Fringe definitely got into that problem, but managed to pull it together into an emotionally satisfying conclusion - while not all elements really made sense, it felt right.
I agree with you there. The last season was rough which was really unfortunate, but the rest of the show was amazing.
I love Fringe and grateful that we got so many seasons after endless cancellation worries at the time.
🎶bong sounds🎶 Ah, yes I remember Fringe. The tale of the the lost little boy and the mad scientist who broke 2 universes in his grief. It may be time for a rewatch, let’s make LSD!
If you skip the last season, it’s about as perfect a series as it gets, conclusion and all.
Great show for a few seasons until it essentially became an ad for the Nissan Leaf.
I miss the spooky black SUVs 🥺
Is that as rampant in modern TV? I recall Community basically making product placement the plot in a few episodes. Subway, Honda, etc.
Did you see the X-Files reboot? There’s unironically a full plot irelavant scene showcasing the Ford™ Explorer™'s advanced side bumper cameras, another one that’s about the Remote Unlock™ feature in the Ford™ EcoConnect™ App™ that Mulder uses to recover the keys he locked in their Ford™ Focus™, and of course we can’t forget the knock off Fast and Furious extended car chase scene where Mulder, driving the Ford™ Mustang™ completely outmatches the Totally Not A Charger Missing Its Badges™ in both straight line speed and handling
LOL… so true!
I never made it past season 1.
Every episode was:
(Weird creepy thing happens)
“Walter! Could this be related to your research??!?”
“I HAVE TO GET BACK TO MY LAB!”
“Oh Walter! You so crazy!”
(Weird creepy thing totally related to Walter’s reaearch).
“OMG! Walter was right all along!”
Alien eating mustard.
Beautiful!
