'The Cure' - Fringe, Season One

Fringe

Season One

Episode Six

The Cure - 6.5

'Insert something vulgar about Anna Torv's chest'

Were this a real blog, I would be detailing that I feel like absolute crap. My head feels like it is floating, I can't keep my eyes open and I have a bucket beside me cause I think I might throw up. Because of all this I'll keep it brief (if you are wondering, I try to write reviews almost straight away, before I have a chance to forget anything).

'The Cure' starts with a spectacular opening sequence - a young girl walks into a diner, she accidentally kills everyone and then her head explodes. It is tragic, because not a single person present deserved to die, and almost everyone had been trying to help the poor woman while her brain began to boil. Fringe is always good for a way-out-there cold open, and this is possibly the best so far. It is extremely violent, and the visual of her head bursting all over the glass window was disgusting and unforgettable.

It turns out that the woman has some made-up disease, the radical treatment for which has made her a candidate for weaponisation. Coolio, that kinda makes sense. Something about radiation-releasing particles in her blood. Whatever man, I don't really care about the explanations anyway. All I know is that it had a fantastic beginning and a fantastic ending. The middle, however, was a little long winded and mostly involved Olivia sulking around and doing illegal things to corporate moguls.

I mean, sure, it's her birthday and she doesn't like her birthday, but Olivia's mood was over-the-top cold tonight. Hopefully this isn't an annual occurrence. Although, it gave Anna Torv some great chances to stretch her acting muscles, especially in the suicide scene, during her conversation with Esterbrook and in her feminist monologue with Agent Broyles. All terrific moments for a terrific actress.

Walter also got some good moments, if only because of his hilarious dialogue - 'Expendable gerbils' being the pick of a large litter. Fringe really is a gifted show in a cast and crew sense.

I found the rich-guy-is-evil theme and even the feminism bits veering towards preachy though, and that is always a tad irritating, especially when sick. Lost was also full of messages and morals at points, and those were generally of low quality. Hopefully Fringe learns to steer clear of trying to teach us lessons about how we live our lives and stick to the weird and gruesome cases of the week – and its out-there mythology as well.