'The Transformation' - Fringe, Season One

Fringe

Season One

Episode Thirteen

'The Transformation' -9.0

I've grown weary of the blue tinge. MY KINGDOM FOR SOME WARM COLOURS!

I do slightly remember watching this episode from the first time, and I remember thinking how stupid the idea of a man turning into the porcupine thing was. How then was I so impressed this time around? My best guess is that I didn't actually remember how I really felt about 'the Transformation', since the start of the episode bears so little resemblance to how it goes out.

It is always logical to start a review with the start of the movie, or episode. Whatever. In this case, the cold open was... interesting. Some guy for some reason or another, decides to freak out an airplane of crew and passengers by asking for weapons and sedatives, you know, pretty standard airplane protocol. Next thing you know, he's a giant porcupine.

What did I think? Well, as I said in the introduction, it's a bit stupid. Nonetheless, the creature's reveal was very well handled - a brief lull in the hushed conversation between two stewards heralds his eruption from the lavatory, followed by a hazy rampage through the passengers. It was a bit like something out of a creature feature, the old cheap ones that couldn't afford to show us the beast because he looked like a man in a costume. The last three or so seconds of the opener are what make it worthwhile, as well as the short scene after the title sequence which shows the plane careening down over a soccer pitch and landing in a fiery explosion behind a nearby forest. For a brief moment, all we could see was the reflection of the doomed jet in the tinted glass of some soccer mum's SUV, and it was terrific.

Somehow, this plane crash turns into a bioweapons sale in Chicago; something about the man's transformation being caused by a synthetic compound which has been weaponised. Maybe? Anyway, that doesn't really matter, what matters is that by some weird John Scott-related means they discover another man who is on the cusp of his own crazy metamorphosis and Walter is able to slow the transition down. But who cares about that?

John Scott? Yes, his memories are still stuck in Olivia's pretty head, and they mean she knows that John knew the man who transformed on the plane, and thus so does she. Being Olivia and completely selfless, she goes back into the tank she enters in the Pilot and 'the Dreamscape', endangering herself to the horrible side effects associated. So far all these sequences have been fantastic, very atmospheric and foreign, and at first this one seems comparatively more rushed and erratic. By its end, however, things get weirder than they have in the others. John Scott full on talks to Olivia while Peter and Walter start to worry about her signs. Before we now it, John Scott is actually aiding his former partner in finding 'Conrad', the mastermind looking to see the porcupine-serum. Turns out Scott isn't as evil as we thought, and that in reality he is an undercover NSA agent who's task was to take out Conrad while infiltrating the FBI for some reason. Who knows, right?

With the help of some other NSA guy John Scott's memories led them to, we find out where the sale of the weapon is going down, and we are presented with one of the finest pieces of television I have watched; Olivia and Peter head in on a sting operation to find the weapon and apprehend all involved, perhaps even Conrad. It is so well written and so well acted, one of the tensest and most captivating things I've seen in a long time, and credit should be given to the writing staff and to Anna Torv and Joshua Jackson. Everyone did an amazing job crafting one sequence that makes the entire episode worth watching. I can't stress enough how perfect it was.

I enjoyed the ending as well, since it seemed to be built as the final time we will see John Scott, which is a great thought. Walter revealed to Olivia that her brain was ridding itself of Scott, and that soon her mind will purge itself completely of him. Olivia being Olivia, she turns it into a reason to go back in the tank. I think it's her favourite place now, she always ends up there somehow. The location for their final meeting was well scouted, it was truly a beautiful stagnant lake - and no, that isn't sarcasm, it was really pretty. As much as I hate Mark Valley, the scene - which was essentially a marriage proposal - was heartbreaking for Olivia, as the second he said those clichéd words he vanished, and she was free of him forever, even though that's not what she wanted anymore. Ah, I thought it was well done, despite it being about Scott.

'The No-Brainer' - Fringe, Season One

Fringe

Season One

Episode Twelve

The No-Brainer - 6.0

There's a masturbation joke here somewhere. 

When I decided to write these as a series of blog entries, I originally intended for them NOT to sound like the review section of a half-arsed university newsletter. I don't mean five star quality literature, I mean I wanted to add a little personality to what I write, while ensuring that they were only reviews on the surface, and could double as a blog entry underneath. Sadly, my life is exceptionally boring so in the end, it is far more interesting to focus solely on what happens in the television I watch and how it made me feel. Well, you might think it's sad, I don't really. For the time being I am an aspiring film maker who is doing something I actually love to do; watching TV.

Fringe is one of the many shows I love to watch, and to be honest I'm not good enough at analysing media to tell you why. I enjoy the characters, the story, the acting, the special effects, yatta yatta yatta. It'd be great to say that I love how thematic it is or whatever, but I'm not the artsy type you might think an aspiring film maker to be, generally themes bore the crap out of me. I like fast, I like action, violence, sex, bright colours and shiny things. Does that make me shallow? God I hope so.

'The No-Brainer' is the twelfth episode of Fringe's premiere season, and so far we've come to know and love FBI Agent Olivia Dunham, mad scientist Walter Bishop and his son-with-a-colourful-past Peter, along with the secondary cast Astrid Farnsworth, Charlie Francis, Philip Broyles and Nina Sharp. By this point in the show, we have learnt too much and seen too much to be able to sit down and allow an hour of this wonderful sci-fi 'procedural' to go by without advancing the greater plot a little. Does this episode give us that? I don't really think so. We get a better look at antagonist Sanford Harris, who continues to impede Olivia's attempts to do her job, and we are led to believe Walter receives closure for a devastating event from his past, but in my opinion neither of these events constitute an adequate leap forward.

I've decided to be a bit lenient, mostly because of the previous two episodes which shot the story in the right direction with a freaking cannon, and it is strange for a semi-procedural to have three important episodes in a row, especially right in the middle of a season. I didn't expect this to be a game-changer, and it wasn't.

It started relatively simply, with some teenager talking with his friend over the computer. In typical Fringe fashion, everything goes pear-shaped pretty damn fast and a couple of viewer-minutes later we come to know that the kid had his brain sucked out of his head by a program his computer had downloaded. The scene itself didn't really enlighten us, it only confused us, but I guess I'm cool with that. There was at least a nice visual with the hand slowly reaching out from the computer screen and grabbing his head, all the while the suspenseful score dramatises the brain-suck moment. Yum.

What is kind of a surprise is exactly how many different instances there are of the programming cranial assault - the boy, a car salesman, some woman's new husband and nearly Olivia's own niece and the programmer himself. And the episode didn't even seem filled! I was a little impressed, sometimes that many separate events can leave one exhausted or desensitised, but not here. Each new death and almost-as-such is handled differently, and we don't suddenly come down with a case of been-there-done-that. Still, it wasn't particularly interesting at the start. The best sequence by far was Peter's discovery that the program was being downloaded at Olivia's own apartment, where her sister and niece, Ella, were staying. There was a thrilling race interspersed with Ella playing what is undoubtedly the best computer game of all time - 'Paint a Pony' - which reinforced the notion that we had only known the young girl and her mother since the last episode, and there were by all means expendable. Of course, a show like this wouldn't cover the main character's apartment in the brains of her young niece, and we were at least a little aware of this. When Olivia rushes in and manages to distract Ella from the screen, we aren't really surprised, but we are relieved.

At episode's climax, it is revealed that True Blood's Chris Bauer is the perpetrator of these horrible acts. I don't mind True Blood, but Bauer is the most annoying SOB on the entire show, and he doesn't really break character here. The acting was off and unbelievable, and I wasn't upset by his kind of accidental suicide, even when his kid found him like that. Eh, he killed your step dad and your best friend, I'm sure you'll come to understand the justice served here. Is there anything else that really needs to be said about the week's bad guy?

You know what was more annoying than Bauer? Walter's dead-lab assistant sub-plot. Look, Fringe, I know and remember why he was in the mental institution, I just didn't care that much. Don't spend ten minutes of the episode building up a mystery then revealing it to be the dead girl's mother. Yay, emotion. Sometimes a little softer plot is great, but when the main plot isn't that action-packed a saccharin story about redemption is a not gonna enthral me. BAH. And was anyone else a bit disturbed when Astrid performed a serious invasion of privacy on Peter by reaching into the trash to pick up his letter? I don't even really know you, you scheming wretch, stop messing in the affairs of important characters!

So why does the episode score relatively high? It's simple really, because while the episode's entire plot verged on boring, it never went over the edge. The acting from the main cast was exemplary as usual, and I did enjoy the episode's aesthetic with the hand and stuff. I also really like the moment where Olivia was looking into the security camera when our bad guy pulled a gun on her - you'd have to see it, I thought it was a striking image.

As a final note, I'm going to suggest that it be made a law that unnecessary Beyonce on television should be a crime. I don't mind the woman, but her music was pointless and distracting. I'll Single Ladies you Ms. Knowles, don't try me.

'Bound' - Fringe, Season One

Fringe

Season One

Episode Eleven

'Bound' - 8.5

'So comfy right now... What's a spinal tap again?'

It seems like this episode and the preceding episode are two parts of a greater one, as the story in 'Bound' jumps straight into where 'Safe' left us. Olivia has been kidnapped, and at the current time no one is aware of it. It is almost unnecessary to say that she escapes before the end of the cold open, and this pretty much sets the pace for the entire episode that seems to end the Mitchell Loeb arc and usher in a new type of obstacle for the group.

Olivia's capture and escape sequence was beautiful and painful. I was impressed how Anna Torv showed her anguish as the men in their creepy-ass masks performed a freaking spinal tap, cause you know, of course. The sets and the fast, jolting camera work were almost nauseating - in a good way - and they definitely made the entire ordeal seem more realistically strange (oxymoron? maybe). I was a bit irritated at the bogus way she got off the bed, I mean if I were a kidnapper I'd never untie my prisoner, even if they begged me for a glass of water. You've only had her for like an hour mate, she isn't gonna die of dehydration on you. Don't you have like an IV or something anyway? Regardless of ignorant mercenaries, once she was free her beat down on a whole mess of bad guys was pretty fun, and it made the fight scene from 'the Equation' seem tame. There were guns, surgical trays, the old push-'em-into-the-table-from-behind routine, it was terrific and I loved it, even if it was only two or three minutes long.

Another positive of this whole escape-thing was that it actually made Olivia seem like a competent and very active agent; she thinks fast, takes some evidence and hides it. Often in cases like these on other shows, the characters will always get really dumb, mostly so that the writers can add more conflict and make it harder for the characters later. Luckily, Agent Dunham doesn't appear to be as useless as most television law enforcement professionals. In the end, however, she still got tasered again, though this time she ended up in the hospital. I actually thought that twist was fantastic, I swear my heart skipped a beat when the other agents pulled a gun on her.

I'm not one to usually enjoy the romantic storylines in shows like these, but I really did enjoy Walter's numerous and obvious attempts to set up his son with Olivia. Being aware of where this will lead in the not-too-far-distant-future, it is kinda fun to see the beginnings come about here.

What was kinda surprising, was how quickly Olivia turned from stoic and recovering FBI agent to loving and doting aunt. I'll admit it was sweet to see her being genuinely happy for once, but I'm not sure I completely believed how easy it was for her to forget what was going on and act the way she did. Of course, this is Olivia Dunham, she's not the most emotionally capable character of all time. Anyhow, her sister and niece are very nice and very clichéd, with their own problems being absolutely miniscule and completely uninteresting when compared with the epidemiologist who was killed when a slug scampered up and out of his oesophagus.

Did I fail to mention that? Ah, well, this slug grew in this guy’s stomach - while he was teaching a class at University - then totally just climbing out of his throat right in front of everyone. Hooray children! Diseases! Don't get them! Walter discovers later that it is a giant version of the common cold, which is a horrendously creepy thought, but also illogical. I thought viruses were non-living, as in not organisms and therefore incapable of movement? Either way, the virus came from eggs planted in the guy's water, and these eggs turn out to be what Olivia stole from the guys who took her. See, the cases did end up linking! In all though, apart from when it happens to a second epidemiologist in the FBI interrogation room, this storyline didn't amount to much and was far less interesting than Olivia's kidnapping. To be honest I don't know why a good part of the episode was devoted to it.

A great moment was when Olivia - who had recognised Loeb's shoe from when she was taken - goes to his home to investigate further. His wife happened to be there though, so Olivia did the old 'Can I use the bathroom' routine then went about ransacking the place for evidence condemning the rouge FBI agent. Meanwhile, Mrs Loeb contacted her husband, simultaneously alerting Peter and Charlie to the new plot to kill Olivia before she left the house. I love these suspenseful scenes, and I thought from that moment to when Mrs Loeb ended up with a hole in her head was some of the best stuff we've gotten from Fringe. I was pretty much on the edge of my seat, even though I knew they weren't gonna kill off Olivia.

I didn't really like Loeb himself much, he was very military, everything was orderly and precise, he had a little army and they didn't know anything much about their mission; it felt a bit clichéd, so I am happy to see him off the main scene, by the looks of things. Sure he's not dead, but I'm sadistic enough to be happier with incarceration, it's just a more long-term punishment. I thought the end of his story couldn't have been more satisfactory - he's caught, so hopefully we'll get some information out of him, and his wife is dead. Everything worked out for the best here.

However, with the loss of Loeb we get a new, different kind of villain. This one may not threaten the lives of our agents, rather he threatens Fringe Division itself. Mr Sanford Harris has some bureaucratic job that involves doing reviews, commandeering entire departments of the FBI and acting like an utter douchebag. He's a sex offender in some way or another, and that always means evil on television - there never seems to be some sort of reprieve for those guilty of sexual crimes on TV. It's just too naughty. In any case, he didn't get up to too much mischief in 'Bound', but it does look like he may just be around for a while to shake things up, and oddly, I'm looking forward to it. Bring it on, bitch.

'Bound' is just as good as the episode preceding it, managing to continue the plot at an incredible pace, while also adding new elements to the story and keeping us on our well-worn toes. Keep it up, Fringe, because it's just been getting better and better.

'Safe' - Fringe, Season One

Fringe

Season One

Episode Ten

'Safe' - 8.5

You just know one of our heroes is going to cave this smug face in with their boot. 

So we are clearly in the thick of it now - 'Safe' is anything but its namesake, pushing Fringe out of its normal week-by-week procedural genre and into lightning-speed action drama. By episode's end a presumably formidable opponent is on the loose and our protagonist is kidnapped by a dangerous group of scientific terrorists.

Everything just happens so fast, it was easy to forget how simply it started. A bank robbery perpetrated by Agent Loeb and a bunch of mercenaries, using technology that allows them to simply phase through the bank's safe's walls goes wrong and one of the gang ends up stuck halfway between. The scene is only about three minutes long, and yet it has to be one of the most filled and absolutely enthralling cold opens the season has brought us. The presence of Loeb automatically forces us to acknowledge the episode as integral to the show's mythology, and we are not wrong to do so.

Turns out that they are stealing safety deposit boxes which Walter placed years before he was even institutionalised, and contain a device he created that would pluck someone or something from somewhere else in the space-time continuum. A time machine crossed with a portal essentially, I believe. However the second we learn this we know what is coming, since our English friend David Robert Jones had been making almost irrelevant appearances throughout the episode. Obviously the device was for him, and I found his scenes unnecessary and a bit belittling, even if they were intriguing nonetheless (he totally murders his lawyer for a suit).

Despite his clear preference for evil, I do enjoy Jones' presence. He seems to bring an air of class mixed with absolute insanity - a bit like Hannibal Lector, in a comparison I'm sure I've made before - that fits this show like a tailored glove. Since this episode is the end of the first half of the season, I'm excited to think that we may get to spend the next half hunting and defeating this big bad, as well as excited to think what he may do to avoid his inevitable fall.

It is apparent he wants something from Olivia, telling his Lawyer that he wants her 'procured' by his associates. Her kidnapping scene at the end of the episode was fine, but I did feel that it was slightly rushed. One second everything's cool, then she is chased by some black SUVs and is caught the second she tries to make it on foot. It could have been a truly action-packed sequence, but I guess a quick bang-bang approach makes the twist seem more sudden and to-the-point, which isn't that bad. Hopefully we learn more about what Jones has in store for our heroine as soon as next week, though I can't see how she'd be able to escape a hostage situation without learning a little bit about her kidnappers. Of course, this is Fringe and I can't make assumptions.

A surprisingly good moment offered by 'Safe' involved Peter performing an impromptu interrogation of one of the mercenaries, caught at one of the robberies. Seems that the process of phasing through walls is a little radioactive, and Peter is able to deftly persuade the poor man with the promise of treatment for his radiation sickness. The dialogue is clever and cruel, and the acting from all parties involved is first rate, even the guest star who performs well as desperate, but proud. I do wish that Peter would cease to be portrayed as a tough guy, cause Josh Jackson just doesn't act like the rebel Peter's supposed to be, and every time his troubled past comes up I basically tune out or get huffy. We get it writers, he was a bit of a confidence man. I just don't care anymore, so stop referring to it.

I will say at least one more thing in favour of 'Safe', it has left me wanting more Fringe; I am pretty eager to get going with the next episode so I can rediscover how Olivia can get out of this mess and defeat David Robert Jones. An extremely solid and action-packed episode by the crew and cast.

'The Dreamscape' - Fringe, Season One

Fringe

Season One

Episode Nine

'The Dreamscape' - 7.5

Fringe is a show that will force you to make a choice between sense and enjoyment. You can't have both. 

Now that Fringe is moving towards the halfway point of the season, the last few episodes have all been relevant and important to the overarching storyline. 'The Dreamscape', though it starts with an unknown character being murdered by butterflies, eventually becomes a story that focuses on what Olivia does and doesn't know about former lover/partner John Scott.

The cold open of this episode may not be the most action packed of sequences, but I believe that is was incredibly beautiful. The very thought of killer butterflies is intriguing, but they were handled so majestically here, with the show making them still as pretty and harmless-looking and - acting as we believe them to be. Those insects manage to tear the poor Massive Dynamic employee apart with their razor-sharp wings whilst looking absolutely innocent and elegant. Just as I thought it couldn't get any more gorgeous, the shot of our victim falling from god-knows-how-many-storeys-above-the-ground with the shattered glass floating down beside him was almost poetic - although that was probably the idea there. I guess the gist is, it may have started with a board meeting but it ended with a man sliced up by butterfly wings and falling onto the roof of a New York taxicab.

Later the episode continues the stylish approach, with an entire sequence devoted to Olivia kind of re-entering the mind of John Scott, but without the floating kayak-alignment portion. You see, after she begins investigating the death of the scientist from before, Olivia is led to a vital clue by an email from none other than her deceased lover. I loved the brief moment she was walking down the basement hallway with the soft sound of movement around her (which turned out to be toads), it was wonderfully suspenseful and visceral.

Anyhow, the 'dreamscape' I assume the episode is named for was typically eye-catching. Presented with atmospheric camera-angles, an abundance of lens flare and arrangements of blurring and shadow, I found it engaging and much more subtle than the Pilot's dreamscape, which was too in-your-face and computer animated. There was a sense of reality in this episode, they were real-world settings we were looking at through the eyes of memory and the show wanted us to be sure of it. At the same time as being attractive, the sequences also managed to impart a lot about John Scott, and that perhaps he was as evil as we thought. Clearly he is capable of murder - he sort of murders two people over the course of the episode - but we don't know who he was working for, why he did what he did, or really what his connection to the victim was. What we are told is that they had met and made a deal, and it can be assumed that that deal is what got him murdered by the pretty.

I should just mention quickly that it wasn't actually butterflies; turns out he had been slipped a drug that caused him to envision the insect barrage, which was so frighteningly real to him that he actually suffered the injuries he was imagining he was receiving. Eek. The same thing happens towards the end to another member of the four-man deal, who instead had his throat opened by an apparition of John Scott, who was also a part of the deal.

It's all confusing to me, we don't learn much in regards to anything. Massive Dynamic is evil, maybe, John Scott is evil, maybe, MD murders two people, maybe, the deal was against MD, maybe, Scott worked for MD, maybe. I don't know, so I assume that this will be clearer by the end of the season.

So yes, 'The Dreamscape' is beautiful and packed with information, though it fails to really answer any questions, rather posing us more and more to work with, while also presenting us with extended periods of the insufferable John Scott. You're dead, man, you shouldn't be important anymore.

'The Equation' - Fringe, Season One

Fringe

Season One

Episode Eight

'The Equation' - 4.5

Fringe is by far the hardest of my shows to find a picture for, so here's Olivia with a  horse statue. 

'The Equation' effectively ends Fringe's winning streak of excellent episodes, having some terrific visuals that were let down by some shoddy acting, a platitudinous (I'm having fun with a thesaurus right now) and lengthy asylum sequence and some serious pacing issues.

Child actors are a problem whenever they are needed, only a small percentage of them actually appear half-decent at portraying complex emotions. In this episode, a young boy was tasked to play a musical prodigy kidnapped by a mysterious woman who wants him to finish the musical piece he's writing. Personally, I am more of a mathematician than a musician - and I'm really no mathematician - but while I'm aware that music can be viewed mathematically, I wasn't particularly sold when Walter took about thirty seconds to transpose an intricate equation into musical notation. I just don't know if it's possible, but I don't think it is - at least not when there are so many variables and stuff. Anyway, that was only an issue because it distracted me then, as it is now. Back to the kid, who as a whole was alright. He managed to get the most important shot pretty right in my opinion, but in general, I thought the actor looked bored and distant.

The case-of-the-week was at first about crazy-hypno-Christmas-lights, then quickly became about the woman who kidnaps gurus of various fields in order to help her decipher the eponymous equation, before releasing them back into their lives completely insane from the experience. This is what leads to the asylum that Walter came from in the first episode, as he is able to recall the tales from his friend Dashiell, who was a former victim of the kidnapper. For some convoluted reason or another, the FBI were not simply allowed to question Dashiell, rather Walter had to ask the questions himself in the middle of the hospital. In a bizarrely serious seen for the mad scientist, he not only caused a psychotic break in his old friend, but also seemed to suffer one himself and get himself temporarily recommitted.

Regrettably, the institutionalised portion of the episode slowed it down considerably, and while John Noble's performance deserves to be lauded, it was great a bit less interesting than the story of the boy should have been. Alas, there is nothing I can do now, and in the end Walter was freed, unknowingly with the knowledge that would save the day. It just seemed to me that the knowledge could have come in the initial questioning scene, rather than about fifteen minutes later.

I was impressed by some of the visuals in the episode. The first scene was wonderfully creepy, it was built up to be like the first kill of a horror film, but instead became a quiet, eerie moment where everything felt fine the entire time, until you realised what had happened. The green-red hypnosis-lights were a good choice as they are well timed and utilised to be both plot and aesthetic devices. When the kidnapper begins trying to coax the child into completing his composition, she both coerces then punishes him with visions of his dead mother. At first the mother is able to comfort him, but later, as her child has trouble finishing his work, her face practically rips itself open. It is disturbing, but the kid and his mum do a terrific job.

A favourite moment of mine featured Olivia attempting to apprehend the evil woman, because not only did it bring us our first hand-to-hand cat fight, it also brought us a great moment when Olivia was caught up in the flashing lights herself and inadvertently let the kidnapper escape. Charlie was there too, and Charlie's kinda cool, I like him.

This surprisingly ended up being an episode with strong ties to the overall mythology - it turns out the equation was needed by Loeb, who wanted to utilise it to phase through walls. Loeb's scene was brief, but was filmed and paced formidably - at first. It showed him set all his little gadgets up, then pull an apple right out of small metal safe from the back. I thought it was amazing, until he shot the kidnapper. I didn't like her or anything, I just had assumed she was an intelligent woman, and we all saw that coming. Surely she did too? Anyhow, no more information was given as to what Loeb will use this for, but presumably we won't have to wait too long.

As would be expected, the episode ended on a light note, presenting the healthy and probably still a little sane son to his relieved father. It was all very nice and sweet, and then it ended. I was almost surprised, as while it sounds like it, it was not overly satisfying and did not feel like a proper conclusion. Realistically, I think Loeb's scene would have been a far more striking and memorable finale, but whatever. I'm not the director... yet.

'In Which We Meet Mr. Jones' - Fringe, Season One

Fringe

Season One

Episode Seven

'In Which We Meet Mr. Jones' - 8.0

With Astrid standing where she is, this looks like a horrible porn scene. *Shudders*

The seventh episode of Fringe gives us a satisfying advance in the series' overarching plot line, even if the case-of-the-week is a bit too far-fetched to be at all believable.

It is always a positive thing when a show is able to introduce a beguiling villain who can stand toe-to-toe with our intelligent and articulate good-guys. David Robert Jones is just that villain. Not only does his name roll absurdly well on one's tongue, but his actor, Jared Harris, is truly fantastic as the accented genius. His interrogation scene with Olivia is absolutely mesmerising to watch, the exchange being so deftly written and spoken, it is almost like a dance or fight scene.

There are also two other evildoers introduced - Mitchell Loeb and his wife. Mr. Loeb is the unfortunate fringe-event this week, suffering from a severe case of heart-being-clamped-by-spiky-worm-thing-itis. We only get a couple lines from either Loeb during the episode, none of which are particularly character-building. For a while all we know is that Mitchell was some sort of FBI agent and that theirs is a loving marriage. Aw, cute. Nonetheless the final minute-long scene subverts the personas we assumed on them by implicating them as the orchestrators of the entire parasite fiasco, although it doesn't explain if their relationship was staged or real. Either way I honestly don't care, we barely meet the two of them, let alone conclude they are completely good. It was not particularly shocking or inspiring that they are terrorists. Perhaps better actors or more time spent developing their unblemished facade would have benefitted the final twist.

Aside from the overall progress this episode brought to the show, it also provided quite a few excellent scenes. On top of Jones' interrogation, there was anything involving the death and subsequent questioning of Joseph Smith as well as the simple look on Agent Broyles face as Walter explained his memory of a cocktail he missed - all the while Broyles' friend lay dying only a few metres away. Hilarious job by both actors, by the way.

Joseph Smith, though he doesn't actually get any real lines, had a real and noticeable presence in 'In Which we Meet Mr. Jones'. His bullet to the brain became an important and original plot point - forcing Walter to hook him up to his son and shoot him up with electricity. The fast paced electro-shock therapy was interspersed with Jones' interrogation to create an incredibly unnerving and nearly disturbing sequence. I absolutely loved them both, even more so combined.

So what is the verdict? Well overall I really enjoyed the episode, and I believe that it will be an incredibly integral point for the rest of the season; we meet three new mysterious villains, as well as the parent company they may all work for, ZFT. I am really looking forward to the show digging deeper into the history and the goals of the terrorism-by-science group.

'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. 

'Power Hungry' - Fringe, Season One

Fringe

Season One

Episode Five

'Power Hungry' - 8.0

'I've been wanting to do this since you died.'

While it isn't quite as good as the last episode, it looks like 'Power Hungry' is the second in hopefully a long streak of terrific episodes of Fringe.

It's not quite obvious where the quality dips below what we saw in the previous outing, it may be the relative lack of action, or the fact that in the long run this episode probably won't have the same impact the last one did. The discovery of John Scott's old files will surely be important, but that is more a plot point than a drastic altering of the show's backbone, like we saw in 'The Arrival'. Don't let the irrelevance dissuade you, 'Power Hungry' is a fine hour.

It opens with a well-made sequence of scenes which introduce us to the aptly-named Joseph Meegar (if you can't tell, it's similar to Meagre), who is pushed around helplessly by his boss and his mother, and is pining after a girl at some random company he occasionally takes deliveries to. However, this all goes to hell when Meegar develops the ability to influence electric devices. This causes all sorts of problems, which were initially simple things like computers crashing, lights dimming, appliances fizzing out, you know, clichéd technopathy stuff, all caused unintentionally when Meegar lost control of his emotions. This all leads to a brilliant moment when he accidentally drives the elevator he and an indeterminate (it varies between five and eight) number of passengers into the ground, killing everyone else whilst he walks free. The lift crash is so well filmed, and the explosion it causes is pretty breathtaking. Even Meegar's walk of shame through the parking garage was fantastic, as he sets off every car as he passes them. Great stuff, and only the first five minutes of the episode.

Following on from the previous episode where Olivia caught a glimpse of dead beau John Scott, she spends tonight grappling with questions of sanity. It's all fine to me though, I like how it's been like a month and she is still pining for him on the inside - at one point even making out with hallucination - because a lot of other shows choose to practically jettison lost loves from the memory of their characters. I hope she is forced to dwell on John Scott's death for many more episodes, even if I didn't really like him. Hopefully he won't just be a device to unearth a bunch of files, and can actually allow Olivia to grow in our eyes and her own.

I did appreciate the 'scientific' explanation behind Olivia's visions of Scott, since the explanation behind Meegar's new ability was pretty stupid. It is kind of clever when a science-fiction show is able to give a rational-sounding reason for implausible or impossible events or circumstances.

As with much of Fringe the effects are well-done, whether it be something violent like Meegar's boss getting his arm ripped to pieces, or something simple and kind of beautiful like Olivia's necklace floating in the lift due to the remnant magnetic radiation. Ah, pretty. What Fringe does best is not call attention to its more shoddy CGI manoeuvres, and I believe that the odd blue lens flare that appears at random intervals aids that cause. There are few moments that sway our sense of disbelief or forcefully eject us from this universe, as a badly computer-generated scene can do.

Complaints and concerns? Well, this episode was pretty light on character development. Yes a bit of it was spent detailing Olivia's well-hidden desire to rip John Scott's corpse from the ground and either kill it again or have sex with it, but in the end it was more reminiscent of groundwork to develop her even more. I feel like what could have been said tonight is being saved for another time, if that makes it any clearer. Walter and Peter barely feature at all, only there occasionally to discuss the case or help Olivia overcome her psychotic break. Aside from this, there was only the smaller quantity of action-packing that were not in favour of 'Power Hungry', and ultimately it was a largely pleasing experience.

'The Arrival' - Fringe, Season One

Fringe

Season One

Episode Four

'The Arrival' - 9.0

Cute. Boy or girl? 

'The Arrival' is really the first episode of Fringe that deals solely with the overall mythology of the series. While initially the show had seemed like a by-the-week procedural with continuously linking and building season-long elements, we are pretty explicitly told here that Fringe is going somewhere and it's taking us with it. Sure there is a 'beacon' that comes and goes over the course of this episode, but it leaves behind a thousand questions and moves the plot and the characters forward to an extent I didn't think we would see this early on.

There is little to call out over the forty or so minutes. It appears to me that the makers of the show have watched long-running sci-fi hit 'the X-Files', which Fringe resembles on paper, and weeded out exactly what made the 1990s cult classic so... last millennium. No, Fringe is modern, and it is going somewhere. The questions are obvious - what is the beacon? Who is the Observer? Who's the man trying to get the beacon? - but they don't feel like they will go unanswered, not yet. The way the plot devices are introduced, it at least seems like the writers have an idea of why they are important. Hopefully this won't turn into Lost.

Something that made the X-Files good was that it assumed its viewers were intelligent, capable of coming to their own conclusions while still providing us with some answers to the truck-loads of questions. In this regard Fringe is not overly different - for those who have yet to watch the next few seasons of the show, many questions are in fact answered - but Fringe also chooses to leave its episodes less open-ended, at least in my opinion. It lacks the infuriatingly vague story-telling style that plagued its predecessor.

'The Arrival' featured some terrific moments, outside of the beacon. That first scene is a worthy opener, and makes the entire episode a must-see for any TV fanatic; if only to see the Observer make and eat a disgusting hamburger to Willie Nelson's version of 'Crazy'. Lovely stuff.

Walter is at his finest tonight, managing, as usual, to be both utterly insane and the smartest person in the room. This entire episode is set over around about forty-eight hours, and in just that time he sedates Astrid, steals the beacon, meets with the observer, gets arrested by the FBI and gives us some surprising clues into one of the great mysteries of Fringe. It was thrilling to watch, most in part due to the captivating acting ability of John Noble. In fact, almost every actor in this episode does a fantastic job, especially during Walter's interrogation scene. Peter's impatience and anger are palpable, while Walter's typically insane ramblings are as believable as ever. The diner-based meeting between the Observer and Walter was also terrific, I was genuinely shocked when he simply sat down across the table. He is probably Fringe's greatest creation, that hairless man.

I'll also commend the episode's villain - apparently referred to as 'the Rouge', who did a great job humanising someone who appears to only feature tonight. His dialogues with his victims were surprisingly well written and acted, and I do hope that he can make another appearance in some form. Also, I loved the sounds and effects of his futuristic gun, it provided some epic stunt work and lots of sparks. Literally.

This was Astrid's first real acting job, not only was she drugged she also got to act unimpressed by her assailant's babbling apology. It may not sound like much, but it was the most she'd been given so far. The moment she got syringed by Walter was a nice twist, I didn't see it coming, and I love that she hands him the very syringe he sedates her with. Later, after the action’s over, he comes to admit his guilt and apologises for attacking her in one of the most well-scripted scenes the show has sent our way. I won't transcribe it, but it was perfect, if too short.

I can't give the episode a ten out of ten, not because it has flaws, but only because there could have been more. The bad guy and his great gun were too underused, he should have done more, shot more, killed more. There probably were slightly too many questions raised as well, I mean the Observer is freaking bewildering on his own, but the beacon? We aren't dumb, but don't overestimate our ability, like Boardwalk Empire or something. Nonetheless, I'm very happy to give 'the Arrival' my highest rating so far for the show as a whole.

'The Ghost Network' - Fringe, Season One

Fringe

Season One

Episode Three

'The Ghost Network' - 6.0

It's awesome that this amber shit comes up again later down the line. It really is.

I'm feeling pretty sick right now - just the flu - so I'll try a give a relatively brief review of Fringe's third outing, 'the Ghost Network'. The episode concerns telepaths and psychics, which are always a risky avenue for sci-fi shows, however by the episode's end the focus has shifted to a broader and ultimately more interesting idea.

I didn't like Roy, the unfortunately mind reader. He seemed whiney and jittery, utterly ineffectual and weak. Sure, he's a one-off character, but we are supposed to care for his plight and want the best for him. I didn't. Am I a horrible person? Regardless, I thought the actor was crap and Roy's lines were unbelievable and unremarkable. However his storyline does become more and more enthralling as it goes on - from the moment Walter starts the brain surgery the episode kicks into high gear, and the sequence at the train station was exemplary.

It was action-packed and as quick as they come. From start to finish would have only been five minutes, at most, but it was the best part of the entire episode. The random death of both villains was well done, though I effectively predicted both, especially the one who threw himself in front of the bus. That's so cliché.

I guessed that the partner was evil from the get-go, I mean why else dedicate a scene to him giving an emotional farewell to one of the victims when we don't even know who he is? It was a bit lazy in my mind, I thought they could have hidden the truth better, or maybe even not have the bad guy be someone we've met; the real bad guy wasn't, and it didn't negatively impact the plot or quality.

There is a lot in this episode I found a little confusing, for example the little discs removed from the victim's and John Scott's hands, when do we discover what is said on them? Do we ever? Anyway, I was more confused by the Broyles - Nina Sharp connection, are they evil, or just good friends? They didn't sound like they were planning something or anything, so if we were supposed to be put on edge by this revelation it kinda failed. I can't make any real assumptions though, so I can't complain too much.

On the topic of John Scott, where did the funeral scene end up? It had little relevance to the story and Olivia didn't really mention it again afterwards. Will Scott's mother reappear later, or was there a deleted scene? In the end, I believe this was unnecessary, and could have been simply referred to rather than shown. Also, John looks great for someone who's been dead a couple weeks, as seen at the episode's end.

I'm gonna stop now, my head is spinning and keeps colliding with the table. If anything here doesn't make sense, tough titties for you.

'The Same Old Story' - Fringe, Season One

Fringe

Season One

Episode Two

'The Same Old Story' - 8.0

This is the same scene in which John Scott's baby nearly erupts from Anna Torv's womb. I'm not even joking.

Like most shows that begin with a movie-style pilot, the transition to a more television-friendly hour-long episodic format creates a massive and noticeable change in quality and appearance. 'The Same Old Story', Fringe's first normal episode, manages to hold on to the expectations of those of us who watched the thrilling double-length pilot, while also catering to the characterisation needs that become apparent in television.

Fringe's pilot was very expensive, and it showed. The lighting, the cinematography, the music, the locations and sets, all looked immaculately chosen and modified - the episode had a distinct aesthetic; it was cold, but not uninviting, the colours of technology and the future as we believe it will be. Luckily, this second outing manages to continue the look and feel that was so captivating before. Once again, the director does not shy away from the great violence that a story like Fringe would realistically contain; tonight, a prostitute is impregnated by a brain-surgery-performing serial killer, only to have the baby grow at an incredible rate, killing her only minutes after the conception then dying of old age half an hour later.

You can probably guess the degree of crazy, but the makers here manage to keep the show extremely grounded. The characters react in a reasonable way to everything they encounter, and even the explanations for why the impossible is suddenly happening are so well scripted it doesn't appear overly implausible.

The cold open is typically memorable and shocking - there is a lot of screaming, which is a sign of a great scene. I believe body horror, though a bit lazy, is incredibly effective if you wish to scare or disturb the viewer, and that was obviously the aim in the painfully three, four minute sequence.

'The Same Old Story' only really pulls great performances from Anna Torv and John Noble - Josh Jackson doesn't get too much to do. Noble is almost always fantastic, and tonight is not really any different. He has perfected his facial expressions, mannerisms and speech to depict true insanity under the occasion guise of lucidity. We know Walter could say or do anything on less than a whim, and he rarely disappoints. Torv, though she is not given a great deal to do either, completely sells Olivia's confused and overwhelmed state-of-mind from the things she has seen over the past few weeks. Probably her best moment in 'The Same Old Story' is non-verbal work as she watches the killer age from young to old over only a few minutes. The lighting is amazing, and the scene is underplayed and chilling, it would not be out of place in a good horror film.

Something I didn't remember occurring in this episode from my very first viewing was the clue at end. I won't call a lot of attention to it, but a hint into the 'medical records' of Peter refers to a story line that will run until the end of the show, though the big reveals only happen in Season Two. I am more impressed knowing that such important plot points are referenced this early on.

Something I don't really understand is the inclusion of Olivia's dream sequence at Massive Dynamic. It might be the show running with the horror-motif, as such a scene is indeed scary and shocking, however quick and irrelevant it is. I get that it represents Olivia's uncertainty in regards to her former partner/lover, but we did already know enough about that. Oh well, it was a well shot moment, I can't fault it there.

Many shows suffer an increase or decrease in quality in their second episode - most often because it is shot a considerable amount of time afterwards - but Fringe manages to make the best out of the hour. 'The Same Old Story' is more enjoyable and accessible than the original pilot, but the show still maintains its feature-quality cinematography and science-fiction aesthetic.

'Pilot' - Fringe, Season One

Fringe

Season One

Episode One

‘Pilot’ - 7.0

Kinda looks like a creepy halloween jelly. Great, now I'm hungry. 

Fringe begins with a cold open that is as memorable as Lost's - a normal flight is reduced to disgusting, skin-melting hell over the space of about two minutes, and not a single main or recurring character appears. It is truly gross, and nearly unforgettable. Nearly four years after it first aired, I can still remember the first time that I saw it, and how that I knew there was something attractive about Fringe.

I will admit that when I saw this pilot for the first time, it was the only episode of the show I saw that year. It wasn't a conscious decision of mine to stop watching, rather I would continuously forget that it was on at the same point every week. Is this indicative of the quality of the episode? I wouldn't say so, although it has convinced me that this lacked the pulling power of Lost's magical first episode. Possibly this is due to the distant way the show is made; we don't really get a good look into any of the characters, and it is quite cold and aloof - at least until Walter turns up.

The first main character we meet is Olivia Dunham, played by Australian actress Anna Torv. In future seasons her abilities will be praised, though in the pilot there is little to distinguish her from other protagonists, other than that she is a strong, intelligent woman. Before this gets all feminist-y, you should note that Dunham's motivation is her man, so she isn't a completely perfect model for the modern woman, not yet anyway. Other than her love for fellow FBI Agent John Scott (real original name there), little more is delved into in regards to her personality or her history. All we know is that she is focused, stubborn, smart and emotionally stunted, all of which are pretty standard traits for any main character.

No, in this episode at least, the character who appears the most is not the character that stands out. Here, that role goes to former scientist Walter Bishop, acted with ferocious enthusiasm by another Australian, John Noble. Noble brings Bishop's insanity away from over-the-top, managing to ground his non sequiturs and occasional psychotic breaks in a plausible way, while still allowing the audience to find hilarity in the unfortunate man's suffering. It is indeed a nice break to have the comic relief be possibly the most important main character, and that is exactly what happens in Fringe.

There are obviously actors who aren't Aussies taking part in this uber-expensive production. Canadian Joshua Jackson plays the young Peter Bishop with subtlety - you never really notice the acting at all, which cannot be a bad thing. Blair Brown from Altered States gives a rousing and immaculately-delivered monologue about cancer and the rise of technology in one of her two scenes in the pilot.

In this episode, however, it is not the actors who steal the show. In Fringe, it is all about the visuals. The camera is constantly moving, never remaining static. The cinematographer plays with light and colour, he alternates wildly between close-ups and wide-angle shots. Len’s flare, though used far too much in some shows and films, is used to perfection here, and gives it a modern, fresh look without compromising a scene. The effects must have taken endless days to render so perfectly, and though you often can tell what is and isn't CGI, it is inarguably fantastic stuff for television, especially considering this was made a couple of years ago. The director's skill is apparent in many of the riskier scenes - Olivia's dazed and confused awakening after the bomb blast is spectacular, and we feel right there with her, experiencing the after-effects of a near-lethal explosion. There are two chase scenes, the first being the better, on-foot, it tracks over roof tops and down fire-escapes, jumping from the top of a building to a garbage disposal. The shots which follow Olivia as she dives over the alley to the stairwell on the other side was breath-taking and endlessly re-watchable. The second chase was vehicular, and was also pretty damn good for television, with the final crash the perfect end to the tense, emotionally draining pursuit.

There are issues, as nearly every episode has. As stated, Olivia's character is barely touched on, despite her being in nearly every scene. Similarly, Astrid Farnsworth stands in the background in many pivotal moments, only coming forth to do something for someone else. It's an odd addition to the cast, since she doesn't really do anything. Agent Scott is not particularly well portrayed, nor well explored, though it looks like his role in the show will be expanded upon later, despite his death at the conclusion of the episode.

On that note, the twist. It seems that all pilots need a twist at their end, and in this we learn Olivia's beloved has his hands dirty with the mess on the plane, and was involved in some way with the terrorist. I don't know about any of you, but I did not expect it. Sure, it wasn't that big a deal - we hadn't gotten to know the guy at all - but it was moving only because Olivia had just spent eighty minutes trying to save the man. Still, there are clearly going to be repercussions later on, and they will no doubt be worth the pain.

I don't know what the deal is; Fringe is an amazing show. Yet, I find myself having issues getting back into the early stories. Is it the dramatic increase in quality that the show goes through in the second season? Who knows, but the pilot is still a great piece of work. Sure, it looks like JJ Abrams attempted to recreate the feel of Lost, but that doesn't overly detract from the experience. In my opinion, it is a must see show as a whole, and thus, the pilot itself should be watched by anyone who likes a good sci-fi with an overarching mystery.