Fringe Season 3

So, the season finale of Fringe aired back on Friday. I have made some pretty long blog posts regarding this show but I'm going to keep this one short. Overall, a really strong season. It ended with a really great cliffhanger which I had to rewind and watch a couple times just to make sure I got what was going on with the two Walters, two Olivias, no Peter and a whole pack of observers. One of the great things about this show (besides the show itself) is the fact that it has already been renewed for another season. So, I will look forward to September to see what happens.

Which Olivia is holding the gun? Do you know? I do!

Fringe does it again!

OK, so we had the Fringe Season 2 Finale back on Thursday and it was DYNAMITE! This is a great show and it had another great season. Last season's finale was awesome but this one was even better. Like last season this one ended with Olivia stuck in the alternate dimension. However, the great thing about this one is that nobody knows it yet because the Olivia from the other side has taken her place. I also have to wonder if we have really seen the end of William Bell. I can't wait to see how everything will play out next season. I think they did a really great job with designing the alternate universe. I think it is effective because they differentiated it from our world in very subtle ways. Though there are some pretty hefty differences (The blimps, The Statue of Liberty being a different color, Madison Square Gardens being encased in a giant wormhole) most of the differences are in the small details. I think that makes it more believable for the audience than it would be if the other world were vastly different.

In addition to this season ending well it also had some really great episodes along the way. One of these was the episode "Peter" in which we get to flash back to 1985 and see the story of how Peter ended up on this "side." I also thought it was great how Peter finally figured out the truth about where he came from. Though, I think the best episode was "Brown Betty." It was a really creative episode and I loved how they presented it as Walter telling an old fashion 1940s detective story but still having modern elements mixed in.

All and all, it was a great season and I look forward to watching it again when it returns in the fall.

FRINGE

As we all know it is season finale time. This is both an exciting and depressing time for me as season finales are usually the most exciting episodes but they also mean I have a minimum four month wait for new episodes. Last night I watched the finale of the first season of Fringe and it was a doozy. I know, I said doozy. It was the best I could come up with. Anyway, I really enjoyed this show’s debut season. The show was packed full of teleportation, alternate realities, weird genetically engineered mutant monsters, mental telepathy and bunches of other stuff that makes sci-fi nerds get all excited.

One thing that I think is really effective in a TV show for creating a compelling and exciting story is having that one mysterious character that is kept in the background for a significant amount of time. Usually, the mystery of this person is built up for a number of episodes and there is a big climactic moment in which you see the character for the first time and surprise, the part is being played by a well known actor. This is what happened in Chuck when we met Chuck’s dad last season played by Scott Bakula and in Heroes when we saw Linderman for the first time played by Malcolm McDowell. In Fringe we have William Bell, the mysterious founder of Massive Dynamics played by none other than Leonard Nemoy. I think these kind of reveals are most fun when you don’t know ahead of time who is going to be playing the “man (or woman) behind the curtain.” Unfortunately, I heard on the radio ahead of time that Leonard Nemoy was going to be appearing in this role so it took some of the excitement out of the reveal. Of course, the fact that Agent Dunham meets Mr. Bell in an office in one to the World Trade Center towers in an alternate universe seems only fitting considering Nemoy’s Star Trek roots.

Speaking of Star Trek; I gotta say something about the second to last episode. There was a great scene in which Peter and Agent Dunham are speaking to a guy who is giving them some information about Massive Dynamics and their role in a big conspiracy. The guy turns out to be nuts when he informs them that the Romulans are behind it all and informs them that he is Spock. Funny how this episode aired just a couple of days before the new Star Trek movie opened up. Oh, and Fringe creator J.J. Abrams directed Star Trek. That Abrams is so sneaky!
Last I just want to mention the character of Walter Bishop. There was a scene where Walter was in his old beach house with his son Peter having a bit of a loony freak-out session and I almost expected him to start ranting about how there could be no victory against the evil in the east and to set himself on fire. I wonder what it would look like to see John Noble play someone who isn’t crazy.