Farewell, my Fringe-friend

[JasonEvans]

Fringe said goodbye tonight. Episodes #99 and #100. I loved this show, the best sci-fi on TV during its run. But, I cannot bring myself to be sad at its departure because Fox gave it so many chances and such a long run considering the American public just never warmed to the show. Most weeks, it struggled to get 3 million viewers.

My editors at the Wall Street Journal allowed me to write a bit about it today. First, I did an interview with Joel Wyman (http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/01/18/fringe-producer-j-h-wyman-previews-the-series-finale/), the Fringe showrunner who has been the Exec Producer and lead writer on the show since season two.


“What I really want is, the next day after viewing it, for fans to be able to get in their car and say ‘I could imagine I know where these people I love are. They are just a universe away.’”

I also did a recap of the finale. It is just a play-by-play of what happened over the final 2 hours. Still, if you care to read it (on.wsj.com/XlilT0)... feel free.

--Jason "note, I did not get into the crazy time travel paradoxes that took place in the final few episodes. No reason to ruin a fun show with that -- but the paradox introduced by Walter's final solution to the Observer problem was pretty ridiculous" Evans

[jimsumner]

Fringe said goodbye tonight. Episodes #99 and #100. I loved this show, the best sci-fi on TV during its run. But, I cannot bring myself to be sad at its departure because Fox gave it so many chances and such a long run considering the American public just never warmed to the show. Most weeks, it struggled to get 3 million viewers.

My editors at the Wall Street Journal allowed me to write a bit about it today. First, I did an interview with Joel Wyman (http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/01/18/fringe-producer-j-h-wyman-previews-the-series-finale/), the Fringe showrunner who has been the Exec Producer and lead writer on the show since season two.



I also did a recap of the finale. It is just a play-by-play of what happened over the final 2 hours. Still, if you care to read it (on.wsj.com/XlilT0)... feel free.

--Jason "note, I did not get into the crazy time travel paradoxes that took place in the final few episodes. No reason to ruin a fun show with that -- but the paradox introduced by Walter's final solution to the Observer problem was pretty ridiculous" Evans


Nice job, Jason.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I'll read your review, Jason, after I watch the show on my DVR. I was at the Football Banquet last night :cool: so I couldn't watch it in real time.

[JasonEvans]

I'll read your review, Jason, after I watch the show on my DVR. I was at the Football Banquet last night :cool: so I couldn't watch it in real time.

It is not a review, it is just a recap. The article with Joel Wyman is more thoughtful.

Also, in my haste as I was furiously writing the recap, I had a Lost flashback and accidentally called the Observer badguy Whidmore (as in Charles Whidmore) instead of Windmark. Doh!!

-Jason "not a great ending... but it works" Evans

[killerleft]

Well, I put off seeing the last hour for as long as I could stand. Just finished watching. I thought the ending was very well done, and I wasn't sure that everything had really worked out until Eta finally was in Peter's arms. Both my wife and I feel sad that our favorite sci-fi show has ended. John Noble as Walter Bishop will always be one of my favorite fictional characters on screen or in print.

Kudos to Fox for staying with the show and allowing the time for a satisfying finish. Another favorite of ours, Life on Mars, could have really used a short season to wrap up instead of just a couple of episodes.

Thanks also to Jason Evans. You have helped me keep a few things straight in my mind over the course of the show. Can't wait to see what JJ and friends are coming up with next!

[JasonEvans]

Can't wait to see what JJ and friends are coming up with next!

Did you read my interview with JH Wyman? He and JJ are writing a pilot script that sounds incredibly cool. "Blade Runner but Decker and Rutger Hauer are cops who are also partners."

-Jason

[OZZIE4DUKE]

It is not a review, it is just a recap. The article with Joel Wyman is more thoughtful.

Also, in my haste as I was furiously writing the recap, I had a Lost flashback and accidentally called the Observer badguy Whidmore (as in Charles Whidmore) instead of Windmark. Doh!!

-Jason "not a great ending... but it works" Evans

Watched the last episode and read the articles. Good job, Jason. I'm satisfied with the ending. Wish they could redo the last episode of Lost... ;)

[Lord Ash]

Ah! I finally got to watch the finale!

I had a mixed reaction. I'll be honest, this season largely lost me. I just didn't love the "future" story, was uninterested in the whole Etta story (the actress was wonderful to look at, but irritating to watch), and didn't love that Liv felt like she became sort of a secondary character. Also, I didn't LOVE the ending... I felt like, with the time line reset, that Olivia and Peter were totally different people. It was strange, to me... it largely ruined any emotional connection I felt to the ending.

Also, I am not a fan of a story that is impossible to solve ahead of time if you pay attention and are smart. I felt like they were trying to solve a lot by telling us all sort of things that suddenly made it all make sense, instead of carefully planning it out and making it all click naturally. I know that is hard with a TV show, and I appreciate some of the ATTEMPTS at this (for example, working in the "child observer" even though I doubt they had that in mind when they wrote it) but still..

And man, they STINK at action. The shoot out was TERRIBLE; lots of folks running out of cover and back and forth getting shot, and horribly dinky sound effects. Terrible. And "you are lucky this room has no ventilation"? Really? Ugh. I won't even bother with the fact that all of these guys far in the future are driving around brand new antique humvees and using antique submachine guns:)

That said, there were some good bits. I was glad Olivia FINALLY went all "CORTEXIFAN!" and smushed December... I was predicting her to go all nutzo for a while, and was glad she did. I thought Walter was just a great character, and they really did well with him. Seeing all of those references to original cases was fun, too, although man it made me think Olivia and Peter were BRUTAL... did they know that time would reset and all those people would be okay? I also liked that we got to see altOlivia and Lincoln again.

So yeah... I felt like the show definitely got weaker this year, to the point that the wife and I were having to force ourselves to watch it. It is a shame, but I suppose that is natural.

[killerleft]

Did you read my interview with JH Wyman? He and JJ are writing a pilot script that sounds incredibly cool. "Blade Runner but Decker and Rutger Hauer are cops who are also partners."

-Jason

I did read that! I guess I meant I'm waiting to see how good it is, but they have the cred, that's for sure.

[Lord Ash]

Ahhh... no further discussion? Come on, Evans!

[killerleft]

Just to keep this going, I thought the (1st?) season-ending episode with the camera backing away and out of the alt-Twin Towers was one of the more memorable and surreal moments that any television dramatic series has ever produced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qfjMraEE7o

[Lord Ash]

Just to keep this going, I thought the (1st?) season-ending episode with the camera backing away and out of the alt-Twin Towers was one of the more memorable and surreal moments that any television dramatic series has ever produced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qfjMraEE7o

Ohhh, absolutely. That was a GREAT shot. Honestly a little moving.

On a less important note, I remember one shot of an apartment on the alt side where they had a bunch of comic books, but they were mixed up compared to the real ones... I remember really enjoying that.

[JasonEvans]

Ohhh, absolutely. That was a GREAT shot. Honestly a little moving.

On a less important note, I remember one shot of an apartment on the alt side where they had a bunch of comic books, but they were mixed up compared to the real ones... I remember really enjoying that.

Here is an article (http://www.fringetelevision.com/2010/05/alternate-fringe-comic-books-from-over.html) on the alternate comic books, complete with images of the originals and the alternates.

And here is the amazing final scene from season 1, with the Twin Towers. Go to the 2:20 mark in the clip if you only want to see the end shot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qfjMraEE7o

-Jason "great, great show... though it went off the rails at times" Evans

[Lord Ash]

Great find, thanks Jason! Love the "Man of Steel Returns" one especially:D Great attention to detail from the director/set folks there.

Hey, can I ask you Fringe-watchers... were you okay with the last season A) being set in the future and B) really getting away from the "Fringe event" formula so heavily? Did that make it feel special to you, or did it pull you out of the show a bit?

Also... was anyone else as annoyed as I was by all these antique cars being shown 30 years down the road as new? Every time a loyalist police squad showed up in a current day humvee carrying P90s I sputtered and complained:)

[JasonEvans]

Great find, thanks Jason! Love the "Man of Steel Returns" one especially:D Great attention to detail from the director/set folks there.

Hey, can I ask you Fringe-watchers... were you okay with the last season A) being set in the future and B) really getting away from the "Fringe event" formula so heavily? Did that make it feel special to you, or did it pull you out of the show a bit?

Also... was anyone else as annoyed as I was by all these antique cars being shown 30 years down the road as new? Every time a loyalist police squad showed up in a current day humvee carrying P90s I sputtered and complained:)

I think the last season was a product of them essentially finishing their story at the end of season 4. When Olivia stops the plot to collapse the two universes, it concluded a very long storyline for the show. The producers clearly had no idea if they would get a 5th season so they wrapped things up there.

Then, they were given a 5th season -- albeit a shorter one. They had set up the idea behind it when they first sent us into the future in Ep 19 of Season 4 and they just ran with it. I agree that, in many ways, it bore only a slight resemblance to all the previous seasons -- though following Walter's videotapes allowed them to do some "Fringe investigation" kind of episodes.

I will tell you that my wife checked out midway through season 5. She just didn't care any longer. I don't blame anyone for doing that. I stuck around, mostly because I loved the quality of the writing and the acting -- if not the specific plots.

Frankly, I think serial network TV is an incredibly frustrating medium -- especially where ongoing mysteries are involved. It works if you follow a soap-opera kind of format, like Scandal or Grey's, but when there is some larger mystery being explored, serialized TV is doomed to not work. By its nature, it is in the interest of the show to keep the mystery going as long as possible... But the audience wants to see it solved. As a result, shows are forced to invent new mysteries and storylines, which often make little sense and do not follow the previous logic of the show.

This is what doomed Fringe, Lost, XFiles, and many, many others. They peter out because they start going places that were never envisions when the show began. I see Once Upon a Time falling into this trap as well. I imagine that Revolution will fall prey to it too. The best solution is probably something like the 24 model where each season is pretty much self-contained and has little relation to previous seasons (though even 24 had real trouble maintaining that over a full 24 episodes, often ending one plot and starting another so quickly it made little sense).

The bottom line is that the producers of these shows are doing the best they can, given the constraints of the uncertainty of being renewed versus the desire to stay on the air as long as you possibly can.

-Jason "TV is an imperfect medium -- if only every show was Downton Abbey!" Evans

[killerleft]

Great find, thanks Jason! Love the "Man of Steel Returns" one especially:D Great attention to detail from the director/set folks there.

Hey, can I ask you Fringe-watchers... were you okay with the last season A) being set in the future and B) really getting away from the "Fringe event" formula so heavily? Did that make it feel special to you, or did it pull you out of the show a bit?

Also... was anyone else as annoyed as I was by all these antique cars being shown 30 years down the road as new? Every time a loyalist police squad showed up in a current day humvee carrying P90s I sputtered and complained:)

I enjoyed the future setting, but I would have preferred that the last season end in the present. As far as the cars go, I just figured that no more updates were made to anything that didn't benefit the Baldies' plans to take over, hence there were no new models made.