f13.net

Ok I saw the pilot months ago when it was leaked on the Net.

It has the potential to be a pretty good show, I liked what i saw and will definitely give it a good viewing.

From the adverts it looks like it's going very heavy on the Science is Bad!

It's going to have more of an X-files feel it seems.  It is a J.J. Abrams show, so you never really know.

Every character in Fringe is poorly cast except the old guy from what I saw in the Pilot.  Joshua Jackson, I mean really?  And then there's that random lead chick who can't act, they should of made her boyfriend (the awesome Mark Valley) the lead.

Is Mark Valley the guy with the charisma of a plank of wood from Boston Legal?

Fake edit: and he was the lead in 4400 too, no?  I liked the show but he couldn't act his way out of a paper bag there either.

Oh I never saw the 4400. Maybe he just does well with fantastic writing, because he was great on Boston Legal.

Mark Valley was Buzz Lightyear.

Lies!  That was Tim Allen!   :grin:

Watched it last night. Looks like it has potential, though the pacing of the pilot felt slow at points. The acting was averageish.

Pastey?

Dude, this acting is shite.

I'm more offended by the fact that the pilot has the same general plot as the pilot for Alias.

I am not offended by that. At least JJ Abrams is staying in his comfort zone whereas Joss Whedon is just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks (Fucking Dollhouse is replacing the second half of terminator season 2, REALLY?)

It's FOX...  They probably only ordered like 8 episodes or something because they think its gonna bomb.

I KNOW RIGHT FUCK. I JUST HAD THAT CONVERSATION WITH SOMEONE. YEA KEEP GIVING THE FUCKER SHOWS JUST TO CANCEL THEM. FUCK.

Bad acting, bad script, invasive and nonsensical music cues. (Like the final "DUN DUN DUN" as the image of the leaf spins) So many things about it didn't work. Jackson is horribly miscast, him calling the female lead "sweetie" was idiotic considering that she looks older than him. His only purpose was to babysit and he spent most of the episode doing one-note delivery of snarky comments. I liked his dad at first but he went from crazy guy to pretty normal over the course of it.

To me it was a bad amalgamation of X-Files, Lost and the 4400. Hell, one of the incidents they mentioned at the end was exactly the 4400. No compelling reason to watch IMO. Then again pilots are often fairly different from the following regular series.

I enjoyed it.

So 'Jericho' bad then?

Watched it.  It was very meh.  Acting was noticeably sub par, and the main chick is a really bad actor.  Plot really wasn't very well done, except for the overall conspiracy angle (which I'm always a sucker for).

Having said that, it does have potential, and could pick up.  The feel I actually got from it was that Abrams was sort of trying to go for a Planetary (the comic) feel/story.  Some super scientist guy at the top of a corporation, hording all the major scientific breakthroughs for themselves and/or testing them on the globe.  Good guy team is constantly racing to beat them to new discoveries, etc.  That could be pretty cool if he does try to copy imitate that.  Or it could just suck.

Saw this last night.  I really liked the science stuff and the old crazy guy.  But i do hope that the crazy guy stays crazy.  The scene in the mental ward cafeteria was great. 

"science talk, science talk...They have the most dreadful butterscotch pudding on mondays here"
"Its thursday"
"Yippie!  no scary butterscotch pudding!"

The wife watched it and said I had to watch it so I could explain the gaping plot holes to her.  I refused and said I am not capable of explaining away someone else's bad writing.  She also says it's trying hard to be X-Files but failing.  I plan on staying away.

Science of the Lambs?

Definitely poorman's X-files. Hell near the end, the bald guy pulls them out and starts reading them.

I thought Denethor was good but Galadriel's younger sister wasn't particularly compelling.  I think Gene may be the breakout star.

I've watched about an hour of this and really like it so far. The chick is fairly interchangeable, but I like Joshua Jackson and Denethor. I look forward to seeing more of both.

Someone should do a show like this but make the female AND male lead actors FBI agents.

Oh, and instead of having one crazy scientist, maybe have three out-there-super-genius types.

Maybe change the old and wrinkly one armed woman character into a smoking wrinkly old male character.

Yeah, that would totally rock.

On tonight, yes?

Yes. I finished the first episode and liked it a good bit.

That was pretty much my thoughts on the show. I really cant see myself watching any more of it. Not with all the other good shows about to start.

The lead chick is not likable in any way, they really should kill her off and replace her with a better actor/actress.

That's my biggest problem with the show.. she's crap.

I missed it, going to have to watch it tonight on the stream.

Except for the shows I already liked, Dexter, House, Californication, I haven't liked any of the new ones I've seen.  Granted it's not much, Fringe, True Blood, I can't remember what else, but I thought they all pretty much sucked in every way possible.  Of course, most tv shows always seem to be a snooze fest for me.  Luckily the Showtime ones I enjoy are included in that On Demand service so I don't really have to remember anything.  The only thing worse than most of these tv shows is my memory.

Watched it last night, i agree there isn't much to make you like the lead lady (yet?), but the rest of the cast is interesting. I enjoy the shades of lost and X-files of this show, and the episode was good IMO.

I watched most of Fringe and it wasn't as bad as I thought.  Not as good as Supernatural, but that's probably very debateable.  It has potential but this point has already been touched on by previous posts.  Better casting for Woman and Black Man would have helped.  I like Ewan McGregor and Crazy Man.  It would be cool if Woman was replaced with Afro Assistant, she seemed OK from the bit of screen she had.  However, probably it will turn out that Cow talks and they gain Spunky White Sidekick.

Apparently she's Australian so maybe she's too busy concentrating on her American accent rather than concentrating on acting.   :oh_i_see:

Ah, like what happened with Bionic Woman?  Of course, that show had really crappy writing weighing it down as well.

They has a special episode where she spoke with a British accent because she was undercover or some nonsense.  She sure was hot though.

I know.  She was actually decent in that episode.

I think the show has potential.  Lead FBI woman is being improperly cast as the straight (wo)man to the more interesting characters; hopefully the writers loosen up that character soon, as she's really the least-interesting thing on the screen at any given time.  Crazy old dude is the best thing to watch thus far, though sarcastic son has the occasional good line.

Scully did fine as the skeptical foil to Mulder thanks in large part to Gillian Anderson's adeptness at delivering her lines.  Regardless of what science-babble the script had her saying, her bearing and presentation of the lines always did a good job of getting across the idea of, "*sigh* Mulder, you are so fucking retarded."

Except.. Mulder was always right (except, like, once), and she was the retarded one.

[edit] uh, this is the tim hutton show on tnt, right? been meaning to watch it...

[edit] oops, my bad. it's a fox series.

You can watch it right on the fox Website.

Anyone still watching Fringe? Dropped to page 2 pretty quick.

Not convinced of it, especially the main character, but I still tune in religiously.

I was hoping that electro-magnetic dude in the last episode was going to cause more carnage like Maximum Overdrive styles.

Dropped it off my dvr about 2 or 3 weeks ago.   

I have it on the DVR but haven't watched this week's episode yet. I keep hoping it gets better. The pilot showed awesome potential, but it feels like they're sliding away from their initial premises or something. Anyways, I'll probably watch this week's episode tomorrow morning before work.

I have to remember to cancel it as I keep accidentally clicking on record series instead of record episode, mostly because I'm clumsy.  Anyway, I don't watch it anymore.  It's crap.

If the initial premise was "Human-weapon of the week and how it may fit into a global conspiracy to.. fuck knows what" then they're staying true to it.  If you thought it was anything else then, no, it's nowhere near.  This week; electrictity man! Next week; radiation girl!

You called me on it and now I can't put my finger on what exactly I thought this series would be like. Maybe it is what I thought it would be only it's not very good at being that. New take on the X files? I don't really know. So, take that post and this one as apparently fucking pointless.  :uhrr:

No post is ever pointless.

Postcount ++

I watched the episode last night and this show is garbage.

I particularly liked how Electro not only made the car start at the end of the episode, he somehow made "electricity" cause it go in to gear and depress the gas petal. That's fucking sloppy, considering the guy was sitting in the passenger seat and they could have just as easily had him use his hands to put the car in gear...

Wait.  Electro is in this?  Like in the comic book?  That's not the same one as with all the arms, right?  Or is it?

Edit:  nm - that was the Octopus.  This show didn't seem very comic-book-y to me.  But considering how popular Heroes is, it seems reasonable people would try and cash in on it.

Are you watching the same show we are?  It's not comic-booky, it's X-Files-plus-Millenniumy but minus any good things, like writing and acting.

I'm still digging it. I was expecting a lot of "monster of the week" stories, though, with little tidbits of information on the bigger story arc dropped very liberally. I really dig mad scientist guy and his son - Olivia I'm lukewarm on. It's good enough for me to continue.

I don't know!  I thought maybe it changed or something.  

Ok, I went back and read more of this thread and I think I just got confused with "electricity man" and "Electro".  I don't know what I was thinking.  Sorry.   :ye_gods:

I am still enjoying it. The bird thing was a little weak, but whatever. This isn't a show about normal people, or reality, its about fringe science. It almost has a "Dr.Who sonic screwdriver" thing going for it. lol.

As Dr.Bishop said in one of the earlier episodes:

"When was it son, that you lost your imagination?"

It has lots of fringe but little science.  The security cameras were fried in the elevator, flesh was charred, but the cassette tape was basically unharmed?  Do elevators really have weight sensors, and shouldn't those have fried also?

This episode was much better when the subject was Giovanni Ribisi.

John Noble and the decent production values are enough to hold my interest at the moment.  This ep was a bit back to its formula while the last ep with the Observer and the capsule was much better IMO.

Oh yeah, totally agree. But i don't mind a "The thing" now and then.

Did you notice the observer getting out of the elevator before the electromagnet dude destroyed it?

Uh yep. Did you know the observer is in almost every episode, including before he was introduced?

Nah, not till he was introduced.  Guess I am not that observant of the observer.

I knew the Observer had appeared a few times before the episode where they named him that, but I didn't realize it was every episode. He's cool.

Hey, I'm liking the show so far. Adding it to my list of weekly watches.

Just wondering when they're going to move away from monster-of-the-week and start linking more things together.

It apparently got a full season's worth of shows ordered.

There have been more "the pattern" advancing episodes than the "monster of the week ones", and considering, they are all related to the pattern.. just about every episode does advance, if only a tiny bit, the overall plot.

Just like x-files.

Good lord, the dialogue does seem pretty crappy. I hope that it's just an off episode, rather than something I simply hadn't noticed until now. At least there was some nice lesbo action in House.

No observer sightings yet

Edit: oh snap! Evil father letter! When you think about it, having your old man do that to you is kinda twisted.
Gee, I wonder if he's involved in any frrriiiiiiiinge science.

I'm still liking this show, and the more episodes I watch, the more I like it. It didn't immediately grab me from the start like Lost did, but the mad scientist character in a modern world is really growing on me. It doesn't hurt that John Noble seems to be having so much fun playing it. Didn't expect the brain 'splosion at all - it actually made me yell "WHOA!" Chunky brains flying all over during dinner =  :awesome_for_real:  :uhrr:  :awesome_for_real:

I really hope the twisted step-father isn't involved in Fringe science, but is just a normal crazy subplot.

Last episode was ho-hum - not enough mad scientist.  The papaya exploding scene was well done..."One of the friendlier fruits". 

The plot lines that surround massive dynamics are intriguing....must know more.

I haven't removed it from my DVR even though I haven't watched the last three episodes.  It seems really bad.  Which leads me to believe Fox is going to bleed this series dry for another five years and it'll be gangbusters with nerds simply because it's in the sci-fi genre and they'll put up with anything (you know, like Heroes or Jericho).

Can't really compare with X-Files since I never liked or got into that show, but the acting seems a good bit worse and the show is really predictable.

I like that the woman's head explodedead and fried. I think as I get older..I get a bit_more_creepy.

Meh. I'm done with it. High hopes have been dashed. It's off my DVR.

Saying "fringe science" in this way makes me think of the "super science" from The Venture Bros.  Except that the latter is a fabulous show.

I know it's cheesy but I think I would have liked it if it were the theme song from x-files in that episode

 :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :angryfist:
 :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :angryfist:
 :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :angryfist:
 :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :angryfist:

My best impression of green, green, green, red hypnotic pattern.  Apparently the gggr pattern has been seen in a few other episodes (observer binoculars, John Mosley's hat)

Still giving this show the benefit of the doubt. 

I'm still digging this show. I like that the chick used the GGGR sequence to escape.

I'll give it another chance once I can watch all of the episodes consecutively.  Right now I'm having a tough time because missing out on things like previous occurrences of the gggr pattern really pisses me off, but in a way that makes me want to buy the DVD.  Damn you, JJ!

To tell you the truth though, I really never noticed the reoccuring GGGR....until seeing it mentioned on the interwebs.  Nor do I pick out the random observer appearances.  You can fully enjoy the show otherwise.

The last episode was  :drill:, and moved "the patten" story forward.

Does anyone else think this show just got fantastic with the last episode?

Complaints:

- For now, Walter Bishop is used as a "Deus Ex Machina" a little too much (even if it's justified in the context of the series.).

- Formula is a little repetitive, and brings us back to the "show the villain and its evil act first, and then the investigation leading to it after".


The tenth episode (but the fourth one, introducing The Observer, was good too) has broken the mold, so to speak, and I hope we get more of that, just like it happened in Alias.


The visual quality of the product is excellent, but I expected no less from the experienced Kurtzman/Orci/Abrams trio. It's very high quality, every detail is there for a reason.

John Noble is stellar, Anna Torv is slowly getting into her character, Joshua Jackson is quite good and I really hope they make more use of the actress who plays "Asterix" Farnsworth ;)

Lance Reddick (Broyles) is (evil) god.

Oh yeah. I have liked the show since it started, but it absolutely hit perfect stride with this "mid-season" finale. It was perfect from start to finish, and paying off an earlier episode with such pure awesome tells me there's more good stuff in store.

Yes, but then again, i have been enjoying it from the first one.

I agree - the cliffhanger episode was OMFGBBQ!

I love this series and cannot wait for January!

This is a great series with a likeable cast and interesting stories.  I too didn't catch the gggr stuff.  The last episode was quite good and revealed at a good pace.  When Anna Torv's FBI agent lets down her hair (or pretends to) she has got great charisma.

Turns out Walter Bishop was a busy man back in the day, inventing and hiding many many strange devices.  The writers need to set up another scientist rival maybe so Walter can investigate devices other than his own.

Wow, they picked a lukewarm and crappy episode to kickoff the second part of the first season.

Sometimes I like this show and sometimes I hate it.

There was an ad that made it look good recently.  This show didn't even make it off hulu onto my hd last time I tried it out (got to like ep4) should I come back?

I think I like the show more as Dunham becomes more unhinged.

Yes, because it built to a great midseason finale. Then they started up again, and though it wasn't as good as the midseason finale, I still liked it.

Anyone else notice the observer standing on the sidelines at the Philly-Cards playoff game last week? Fox promo bullshit....maybe I am just upset my eagles lost.

Fringe is doing some serious ass kicking, for goodness!

Loved the first episode after the break; can't wait 'til tomorrow night, when my personal donkey will return from the States with the new episode.

Fringe is great, but if it's a fucking alien invasion I'll just quit watching it and go watch X-Files reruns.

You're a fucking dickhead HaemishM. I hope you choke on your wrongness and its bile overfills your guts and makes you choke on its wrongness,

:headscratch:

He's upset at the possibly that Fringe will cut&paste the conspiracy plot from X-Files.

Fringe couldn't do that plot any worse than X-Files did.  :awesome_for_real:

They could steal from LOST too and have them jumping around in time to save themselves from the aliens...on an island.

Hm, I don't remember writing that. Maybe I thought it was a spoiler more than a prediction. Hooray for drunk posting.

I'm liking the show for what it is but I'm getting the feeling it's gotten a little 're-tooling'. Massive Dynamic hasn't been seen yet in the second half of the season (couldn't turn around without bumping into them in the first) and now we have the sister and niece in the picture. I'm trying to see the need for introducing those characters.

So the leading lady has something to loose?

The sister was acting extremely odd about why she was dropping in.  I imagine it will end up being the center of a story arch along with some sexual tension between her and the male lead.

I just want to chime in and point out that JJ Abrams always fumbles romance and it's notably the beginning of the end of any of his series.

Tomorrow: The Thing

JJ Abrams doesn't have the attention span to keep his projects going along full steam. He's as bad as Warren Ellis in that way.

Story progressed nicely last night - so there are no episodes till April now? Is there even TV seasons anymore? so haphazard.

Fantastic episode.  Just enough to keep me curious and the pacing was good.

The little revelation at the end was predictable but enjoyable.

I like this show better than Terminator: TSCC now.  The mythos is developing but also creating more questions.  Writing still very good and I spotted The Observer!  Still haven't seen the gggr sequence though.  Massive Dynamic is back as well.


Consider me re-intrigued.

Well since TSCC is on Fridays now, it'll canceled soon anyway.

It'd fucking better not.

Has any show survived on Fridays other than X-Files?

A FOX show? Don't think so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_night_death_slot

Finally caught up to last week's Fringe. I've been enjoying the hell out of it. The worst episode was the computers melting browns episode, but it's been all uphill from there. The multi-dimensional war is a good change of pace from the expected aliens from outer space thing.

Fuck. I guess I need to pick this back up and catch up on episodes. Its starting to sound pretty cool. Or it really sucks and this is all part of some HaemishM evil plot to make our eyes bleed.

If you didn't like it before, I'm pretty sure you won't like it now. But it has continued some of the threads from earlier shows and moved them along slowly. And there are rumors that they've already started filming a 2nd season, so no worries about it getting canned.

Might have been discussed here, but I'm too lazy to look. 

I recently found out that The Observer makes an appearance in every single episode.  Kinda like G-man from HL2. 

This week's episode was pretty good as well.  I saw the twist at the end coming a mile away, but it was still interesting.  I was pretty "meh" about the show in the beginning, but it has been in convenient time slots for me and it managed to keep me interested.  Since the new episodes have started after the short break I find I'm actually looking forward to the next week's episode instead of just watching it because it's convenient.

Feeling exactly the same. 

If the show gets picked up again for next year, I hope they keep the feel of it.  They don't need to do anything bigger, because it's got enough back story for about six seasons as it stands.

That was some mighty fine fan service to boot.

He has also been seen on other Fox shows - he was in the front row at the beginning of American Idol last week.

This week's episode started REALLY SLOW, but by midway, I realized it was an "arc" episode and perked up. It got really good from there. What is it, 3 episodes left this season? Next week's looks to really open it up.

From that wiki article:

Bolded part is exactly what I did with X-Files. My friends and I would sit home getting ready to go out, watch X-files and have a few drinks, then head out for the night.

Oh yeah, and I really like Fringe.

There is also, more than one.

I'm aware of multiple observers in the lore.


But are there others showing up in episodes?  I haven't seen any others yet. 

We don't actually know that the Observer we see is always the same individual. It could be multiple clones.

If we have an Observer does the other place have an Observer from us?

hm possibly, but it seemed to me that the ZFT was much more of a guerrilla and defensive based organization in response to this otherworldly aggression. Maybe too early to guess at but that would be fun to see

Looks like a kickass showdown is approaching  :drill:

Since the episode called "Ability", I always wondered: do you think Olivia will eventually change sides and join the "bad guys" (well, ok, whatever they are) ?  It would remind me of (spoiler about "Alias", series by the same authors)

I hope they wait till S2 to blow that wad.  It would make sense though.  She obviously had the capability to fuck shit up royally as a kid and I'm guessing she still does now, only it's latent.  The ZFT are actually the "good" guys, you'll see. 

Yowzers, tonight had a good episode.  This might be my favorite show on TV.

Show just gets better and better.

My thoughts for the season ender:

The World Fucking Trade Center holy balls, batman

Yeah, that got me. 

Excellent season.  Without a doubt my favorite show on TV.

My question is... What's up with the alternate world's versions of Bell and Bishop? 

Here's what I think
I'm really happy I watched this through the season.

I thought he went over to get his wife. I'm very slow on the uptake.

I didn't catch it either.  But it makes prefect sense. 

I bet the reason that that Parallel Obama is moving in to the new Whitehouse is because the planes hit the Whitehouse instead of the WMC on 9/11.

I am annoyed with this finale because, although a Mini-boss died, I still don't have a clue why there is a conflict.

The scene in the beach house, where Peter picks up the dusty picture frame keeps bugging me.  He wiped off the dust only from the faces of his father and himself, yet there was another (presumably his mom) person he left dusty.  

So either they chose not to show the mom because it would require too much explaining in a short time or else there's a history there that remains to be told.  Peter never talks poorly about his mom, but it makes me wonder why he never talks about her at all.  

The whole superior-technology-universe-exploiting-the-shit-out-of-the-inferior one seems to be the set up for war.

At this point, and all other points before this, we still don't know *who* they are preparing for war with. There's still a lot of mystery left in this show and a lot of room for it to grow in. I'm very glad for that, as a few weeks ago I would have thought we were reaching a terminus.

We still don't know who the Observer(s) is (are). Are they like the Watcher in Marvel Comics, just cosmic entities that can only observe and not act? Are they cosmic balancers trying to keep the two universes from destroying each other? I get the feeling we'll have a bit of explanation in the first episode of the season followed by a number of "monster of the week" episodes.

Glee and Fringe?

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/fringeflowchart1253204761.jpg)

Tonight.

Ready and waiting!

Surely not earth-shaking, but overall it was a very good season-opener. I didn't have many expectations regarding an immediate reveal  about the "other side" Olivia ended in at the end of last season. Guess we'll have to be patient about that.

Not sure about the new female cop, but she's hot and that's enough for me, at the moment :P

Highlight of the episode: Asterix Astrid making Custard and listen carefully to Walter while looking at the open intestines of the dead guy like nothing out of the ordinary is happening :D

Another great scene was the typewriter one, pretty freaky  :awesome_for_real:

Charlie   :ye_gods:

Not that great.  Kinda undoing the advancement made at the end of last season.  Shape shifting super soldiers?  You mean just like X-Files.

I always disliked X-Files (watched just a handful of episodes) but I read that in yesterday episode there were a couple of evident references to Carter's show, like an episode of X-Files running on the TV during a scene, and when Broyles is in front of the Washington committee, and they refer to an old "X" unit and their parascientific investigations

Didn't think they filmed in Canada. Neat.

About that Charlie thing in the first episode of this season: It doesn't make sense right?

I'm mean Charlie ends up with the shape shifter in a room, the shifter take his form and hides charlies body. But then where does the nurses body come from?

You mean where the shapeshifter got the form?

32 minutes in the shapeshifter walks up to the hospital and pulls the body stealing device out of his pocket.  It cuts to a shot of the nurse standing next to a door by a dark hallway drinking coffee.  She turns around and finds the shapeshifter behind her.  Cut to shot of new-copy-lady and Peter talking in car. :oh_i_see:

Yeah duh!

But it's a bit too convenient for me, and how did the nurse's body end up with the bulletholes? I don't know, for some reason it irks my suspension of disbelief.

What irked me was how fast he did everything after shots were fired and the others raced to the scene. 

Last week's episode was much better.  It was a monster of the week granted, but it was intriguing and suspenseful.

This show is such an X-Files clone, but at least they had the grace to refer to XF and sort of admit it. 

Great episode for the winter break.  Really one of their all time best as Olivia's specialness is more detailed.  Episode packed an emotional punch that took me by surprise. 

Loved the last episode, but goddamnit... APRIL? The fuck?

Yeah, its neat, the x-files exist in the fringe world, been referenced a few times.

Damn it there is too much stuff on Thursday night.

It was awesome seeing the exact moment when Walter became a mad scientist.

I loved the 80'sish version of the opening!  Font and music!

Also - Back to the Future starring Eric Stoltz. :)

Yeah, the retro episode was fucking awesome, especially the opening. Was the blond scientist he argued with the one who died in the lab experiment that drove him nuts?

 :ye_gods:

Guessing that's in response to the last episode?

If so, I'm kinda excited and kinda scared (since I haven't watched it yet)

Never go full retard.

Well, at least it wasn't a clip show.

Edit: I think I'm actually going to watch it again. I just got done watching it on Hulu and being that I'm working on a bit of a good old drunk right now, I honestly don't know what to make of it. I didn't hate it, but I don't quite know what to make of it. Goddamn Old Crow was caw'ing in my ear the entire time.

No, it was pretty much shit. Except for an interesting bit that bookended the show, everything in between would have been better as a clip show than this shit. It felt like someone really was forced to add musical aspects to go along with this Glee week shit, they hated it and their hatred ejaculated all over the screen and my face. It was fucking awful.

I don't know. Watching Walter toking to Yes and then singing Tears for Fears was pretty goddamn awesome in my book.

When Walter started singing "Head Over Heels," I had the exact same expression on my face as Astrid and the Kid.  :ye_gods: It was just so WTF AM I WATCHING?

I don't know. I dug it. I mean, if you had to imagine Walter singing the most unlikely song in the universe that Walter would ever sing, that would probably be it. Least he had good taste in music. But then I'm partial to damn near anything 80's.

Ya, it was fine. I guess. I still need my Fringe fix, because even if it wasn't the incarnation of the Antichrist, it wasn't Fringe.

I liked it.

Walter in full drugged up mode trying to tell stories to a little girl. That was full of  :ye_gods: and some  :drillf: the singing corpses and the cow with multi colored spots almost had me spew my drink out my nose when I saw them.

Heh I knew it!  Also can't believe Peter carried a whole episode, an episode that rocked.

Preview looks  :drill: :drill: as well.

Awesome episode indeed.

And is it just me, are am I seeing Martha Plimpton from the goonies in more and more shows lately?

yesss. this is the fringe I know and love. weird crap in dismal places with a light sprinkling of paranoia!

Yep, great episode. Totally expected that ending, but really who didn't? Cannot wait to see Anna Torv as a brunette next week.

Good season-ender, but who didn't see that 'twist' coming a mile away?  Glad it happened though, I like the other universe.  Walter's face at the end was amazing, damn but can that guy act!

Yeah, it wasn't a blockbuster ZOMG finale, but a really good set up for next season. After Dunham plants a huge kiss on Peter, now we have next season where all that sexual tension is going to be completely misplaced.

Solid start.  Walternate is just as crazy.

wtf... it's back ?   


 :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real:

Kind of slow going at first, but it picked up steam and the ending was NOT what I was expecting! 

I am not sure I like the new season as much as the last ones, but I am quite curious as to where they want to go with the story on this one.

Was talking to a friend about Fringe and he remarked that he wished there were less of the psychic serial killer of the week filler episodes. I agreed. That said, the psychic serial killer episode in the walternate universe was interesting and kind of served to both forward the Olivia/Bolivia story and highlight some of the differences in that world vs ours.

This show is so good right now.

Up until season 3, I always thought Anna Trov was the weaklink of the show.  But she has done such an excellent job making the two Olivias distinct characters.

The story arch really feels like it is going places.

And her accent doesn't slip every 10 minutes anymore either.  :awesome_for_real:

Fringe is moving to Fridays. :sad_panda:

On Fox on a Friday night?  Kiss of Death.  I hope Good Guys hasn't been canned. Fringe is really solid right now, love every aspect of it.  If I had to nitpick

2nd time the show's moved in 3 years.  Someone wants it dead in favor of even more reality show programming.  (Apparently American Idol is going into Frigne's old timeslot)

What. The. Fuck.

I fucking hate Fox.

Actually it is Glee's fault :awesome_for_real:

(Glee is keeping its Tuesday spot which is why AI is moving to Wednesday/Thursday).

So they're moving to the 9pm spot on Thursday, when the 8pm slot is equally available?  

"No, no.  That'd mean moving Bones.. can't have that.  Move that shitty sci-fi show. Nobody likes sci-fi except nerds and they'll watch it whenever we put it.  It's not like they go out on Fridays."

Or, hey. They could have put AI on Tuesday at 9pm, since they're willing to do a 9pm thing and the results show on Wednesday in place of Human Target or Hell's Kitchen, moving one of them to Friday.

Given Fox's history and treatment of Sci-Fi shows AND having that confirmed several times by Warburton when interviewed about The Tick, I have no reason to believe it's anything other than an attempt to kill the show.

I'm not sure which idea is more stupid from a programming standpoint: putting the AI performance show at 9pm so it can't be used as the lead-in or putting AI on the same night as Glee which is currently the #1 scripted show in the coveted 18-49 category. Last season Glee was after AI in the 2nd half of the season cause FOX wanted to give Glee the best chance for success (which has paid off so far this season) but Glee can now clearly stand on its own.

For FOX its best shows going into the 2nd half are AI, Glee, House, and The Simpsons, and all are being used as lead-ins at 8pm. House is Monday, Glee is Tuesday, AI is Wednesday and Thursday and The Simpsons is Sunday (which I'll ignore for the rest of the discussion since that's animation night at FOX). The leaves 6 hours of programming on the weekdays which has to be filled by a mixture of existing shows and new shows FOX wants to test out. Bones is doing okay (about 2x the numbers of Fringe) so it gets to stay on Thursday but moved to 9pm after AI. FOX is keeping Raising Hope (which is doing well) after Glee, so on Tuesday that only leaves a half hour slot for a show (Mixed Signals, a new show). Wednesday is problematic cause some of the AI performance shows will be 90 minutes (presumably to maximize ad dollars) so you can't stick a full half season one hour show after it (Human Target will finish its season and then there will be a new 30 minute show Breaking In).

So that leaves Monday at 9pm and Friday at 8pm and 9pm. Even though both Fringe and Lie to Me are doing poorly Lie to Me, for whatever reason, got the Monday 9pm slot. That means Fringe gets Friday at 9pm after Kitchen Nightmares which sucks for Fringe but is still better than being outright canceled for the rest of the season.

Excellent analysis.

Our only hope now is that Rupert Murdoch really loves his niece.

Trippy, not to be snipe-y, since the information is interesting, but how do you know all this stuff? Just years of observation, or have you worked in the industry?

http://tvbythenumbers.com/

Is Hulu counted by the ratings gods?

If fringe gets canceled on FOX, i bet Sci-Fi will snap it up in a heartbeat.

Why would they do that?  It's a science fiction show.

Nielsen television ratings are meant to measure the "live" and same day viewership numbers. Hulu doesn't show television episodes until the day after. Because the Nielsen ratings are one of the inputs used to calculate advertising costs and ads are often "time sensitive"* it wouldn't make sense to include online viewership numbers into the regular Nielsen ratings.

* E.g. one of the reasons why the broadcast networks, except for FOX until they shifted AI, compete so heavily on Thursdays is because the movie studios pay big bucks for prime time ad space to show trailers on that day.

Well then someone needs to get with the times then. I suspect a good chunk of the shows viewership are people like us, that stream and play games or something.


 :awesome_for_real:

I hadn't even considered the lead-in effect, Trippy, you make a good point.   I'm don't analyze things on Fox that much anymore because any show I get invested in gets canceled or run into the ground so as to be painful (Simpsons & Family Guy).  I was posting out of emotion, not rationale.


Last I heard details on it they don't count time-shifted viewing either.  Ratings are all about how many people were sitting there watching your commercials, not the show.   Time shifters bypass the whole "must watch commercials" thing.   

As for "people like us" if you mean 20 somethings to lower 30's you'd be right from what I've read.   Mid thirties and up, no, the majority watches live with a fraction time shifting.  Given the way ratings work, I expect Matlock to make a resurgence in 3 years as the demo #'s show only old people watching live TV.   :awesome_for_real:

They do count the time-shifters they are measuring that watch the show on the same "day":
http://en-us.nielsen.com/content/nielsen/en_us/insights/rankings/television.html

Huh, that's new then.  Hopefully they'll update it soon enough to include next day as well.  I know if I'm recording something I don't watch it for a few days. Appears to hold true with other folks I talk to as well.

Thought I'd necro this due to this internet promo Fox is doing for Fringe.  Looks like they might be slightly bullish on the show.  But it's Fox so who knows.
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2010/12/14/fox-has-fun-with-fringes-friday-move-in-promo-video/75518 (http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2010/12/14/fox-has-fun-with-fringes-friday-move-in-promo-video/75518)

Eh, most people watch that shit online/other places anyway. Wtf does it matter what time it airs.

Because Friday night is the death sentence for many Fox shows.  And you won't be able to watch it 'other places' when it's cancelled.

What? Really?  Because if people don't watch, ratings are low and it's axed, that's why.  It's all about the ad revenue which is tied to ratings, which was traditionally tied to timeslot.  It's never, ever been about how good/ bad any show is.

If a show has 500k people who watch it on "Friday at 9pm" (quotes for timeshift) it's going to be seen as not pulling in enough revenue and axed.  People watching elsewhere aren't counted and it used to be people who time shifted weren't counted either.  Now it's only people who time shift to the next day who don't count.  So until such time as ratings care about total viewership online, 'live' or tivo'd to next week, the time it airs matters.

And that brings us back to. The ratings system is behind the times by a large margin, not just in who the issue the system to.

That's a lot of development for a single episode, especially considering there are 11 more scheduled for this season. As long as they don't cram too much filler in, this might turn out quite awesome even if it's cancelled after the season.

Yeah, I'd normally have expected the 5 murders and the resolution to be spread out over 3-4 episodes at a minimum.  That it was all in a single episode was great.  Looks like it's "threat of the week" next week. Getting a strong 3rd-4th season X-files vibe here where they do these kind of things flipping between the long arc and the short ones to keep folks invested.

I'm hoping they realize they are likely to get shitcanned at the end of the season and wrap up the "Doom Machine" storyline and tie up a lot of the Walternate/Fauxlivia storylines. That way, if they do get canned, we have a resolution that doesn't suck ass like X-Files did, and if they get renewed, they can dream up something else without it feeling like they are dragging out a show past the shark jumping moment.

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/704172/anj_jawdrop.gif)

Right there with you. Serious WTFage right there.

I'll see your (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/704172/anj_jawdrop.gif) and raise you a
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/86041/brushybat.jpg)

What. The. Fuck.

I love this show!  Nice tie up for the season while opening more doors for the next.  Seriously fucked up ending!

Aside from my initial WTF moment, the more I think on it the less it makes sense and irritates me as bad writing.  I'm hoping it's just because I don't know the resolution yet.

So yeah...new season's up.


Query: If Joshua Jackson isn't actually going to be in the first few episodes, does he still get a full paycheck?  :awesome_for_real:

The first episode of the new season felt really slow but on reflection, it threw A LOT at us in a short time. It's actually kind of masterful, IMO, the way they subtly integrated some of the consequences of Peter's absence without hitting us over the head with it. I especially liked seeing the effects on Walter of not having Peter as his anchor. I think once the season is over, this will either be one of the best writing jobs ever, or the worst.

If anything it setup the main story-arc of the season, whatever these new shapeshifters are or whatever.

Also, was nice to see Joe Flannigan can still get work in a post-Stargate world.  I was quite shocked to see him turn up, and then subsequently killed off...would have been nice to have him around, IMO.

I like where this is going...

It was good to see an Olivia/Walter episode.  The bravery of Walter leaving the lab and Olivia's compassion and the small moments they had were terrific. 

One can only infer. Would still like to see the Other Side Nina at some point  :oh_i_see:

Season 3 is on sale at Bestbuy this week.  $18.99 for DVD or $24.99 for Blue Ray. 

Perfect timing- gives me something to watch while travelling!

Anyone still watching this?

Despite the clear Chris Carter tendencies I'm still enjoying it mostly, but the storylines have got very confused. I may have to go back and re-watch a lot of previous seasons to try and work out wtf is happening.

They badly, badly need to get some tighter control on it though. I'd like to see them wrap it up, not let it drag on into nonsense for another 3 seasons, but it doesn't feel like they have enough creative oomph to achieve that.

Still watching off and on.  It can't hold my attention but I leave it on as background noise Friday nights.

It's on American TV, it won't "Wrap Up" until the ratings plummet and they're told there won't be another season.  We don't kill shows making money until WAY past their prime when the narrative should have long-ago ended or the cast gets sick of doing it. (24, Family Guy, South Park, Simpsons, Seinfeld, Friends, Married With Children)

Ed: Haemish's comment in Alcatraz about TN made me go look to see if that piece of shit was cancelled (not yet)  In doing so I discovered Fox announced Fringe was losing money (A sci-fi show on Fox Friday losing money?! That's a first!)  so they'd better wrap-up this season.

This season has been decent so far. Not super, but solid. Watching Anna Torv play the two Olivias is genuinely fascinating. The body movements, the speech patterns, she's gotten a lot better as the show has progressed.

The twist this season has taken the show in a direction I didn't expect.

Breaking Bad. Hopefully the exception to that rule!



Yeah that's been great, very impressed with how both her and John Noble (Walter) have acted different versions of the same character. Lance Reddick (Broyles)? Not so much.

I'm still quite enjoying it.  Really enjoying the mythos still and the acting is great.  My only worry is that they don't finish it up, especially the Observers, before it's cancelled.

I didn't watch Terra Nova because Fox cancels too quick and that it sucked anyway.

I think in this case they've given the show more than enough of a chance to form an audience.  Each season premiere attracted fewer and fewer viewers; two million fewer each time, in fact.  The show is now down to 2.7 million viewers for the ninth episode of the season, and that's down a whole 700,000 from the premiere.  If the show doesn't receive closure I'd consider it the fault of the producers/writers of the show for choosing not to end it while they still can and not Fox.

Ok that's a fair point.  The writing does suuuuuuucccccckkkkkk.

I actually like what they've done with the new timeline this year, but I can see where it would create confusion. Essentially, everything that happened on the show before HASN'T happened. David Robert Jones didn't get cut in half by Peter, so no one knew about him on either side. It's given them the ability to make any story they want without being fettered to past continuity unnecessarily. I do think they better wrap it up this year, because if it survives, I'll be amazed. The ratings are terribad.

Rumors were circulating that, due to the ownership structure of the show, it is much more likely to stick around with sub-par ratings at least until they get to a good number of episodes for syndication.  Warner Television is the rights holder, so it makes sense to generate content for their cable channels.

Holy shit, Astro!

New episodes are back on right now...a non-stop trip of new ones for the next 7 weeks to be exact.  The new one from Friday was pretty  :drill:

Fringe is back!  Yeah, at this point they should double down for syndication.  WGN or TBS will run it into the ground.
Poor Lincoln Lee, how can he go up against a dude who travels universes.  Go update your twitter feed #niceguysfinishlast

I saw the reveal coming a few episodes back, still awesome.

So with that reveal, what was up with the future time travel apocalyptic bit from the last season finale?  I don't see how this fits in. 

Also, they sure as hell laid some cards on the table with this last episode.  Maybe too many?

Quantum theory states that that's one possible future. Peter going back in time from that future and opening the permanent bridge between the two universes potentially stopped that.

Honestly, I think the only thing that's going to fix this shit is for him to use "The Machine" again to separate the bridge 'and' fix any holes between our universe and the other side.  Why Peter didn't do that in the first place is beyond me, since I thought that's what the plan was, but whatever.

I don't think Peter had a choice in the first place. The machine was a trap by the Observers to remove him from the timeline. They thought that would fix the issues but it didn't and the universe showed them they are not as all-powerful as they thought.

 :drill:

OK, that was cool but I don't know what the fuck is going on anymore.  :ye_gods:

I feel like I missed five episodes. 

Yeah, cool but not at all what you'd expect four episodes away from the end of the series.

Although with the finale being nominally a two-parter, I guess this is basically part one of an extended four episode ending.

Maybe.

Except next week they're back in the present.

Maybe it's like that Dollhouse future two-parter.

All in all, I enjoyed last night's show.  Would watch again  :heart:

You might be right.

I don't think this is going to be the series' end. Fox has hinted that even though its ratings are shit, it could last another season. I got the feeling watching this episode that someone had been re-reading the X-Men story "Days of Future Past."

Well, if you're gonna steal from comics, might as well steal from the good shit.

Fringe renewed for a shortened fifth season. (http://screenrant.com/fringe-season-5-renewed-aco-167584/)

Thirteen episodes, but it's better than killing it this season.

I think there's great merit in that.  Consider Lost, which spent the greater part of the final season just dragging towards the ending.  Maybe with "only" 13 episodes they can get a solid final story down. 

I will state my general disappointment that Fringe didn't end up more episodic like it was in the first season, ala Xfiles.  What we got was good, though.  Hard to complain.

Really enjoyed last nights show.  Glad they are getting another season.  Also liked the master plan.  Our villain is constantly underestimated.  Also very low key.  Kudos to Fox for actually allowing them a new season. 

RE: Last night's Part 1 of the season finale

Wow, what a surprsing episode! 

Season finale last night.

I enjoyed it last night, but now that I'm thinking about it I like it less and less.  Don't like how some of the storylines were resolved.  I wonder if this was written before getting renewed because they were moving heaven and earth to achieve closure.

They apparantly had two scripts prepared for if they got renewed or not.  It seems to me that the inclusion of September was probably the only main difference between the two.

I liked it even if it did seem to lack the sort of epicness in effects the story warranted.

Edit to add:

Fringe is back, baby!   :drill:

I forgot how batshit insane this show is now.

Glad it's back!  Going to be interesting to see how it all plays out.  I still don't think this is how the Observer story line was originally going to play out but oh well.

Does it need spoiler tags since it's the whole premise of the show now?

So, the whole premise  is now a "V" style resistance show with Walter coming up with cunning fringe schemes every week against the Observers, all the while reconstructing the super-plan that was lost in the interrogation - culminating in the season finale.

I don't know if I like that. I had gotten used to the, "alternate reality war with fringe science premise."

The end of Season 4 and the beginning of Season 5 is some of the most forced plot development I've ever seen in a TV show. I don't like that knowing they have all of half a season left or whatever is dictating the speed at which they jumped into this Observer shit, but I liked the observers as a weird tertiary thing to the world more than I like what it became in season 4. Also, I liked there only being one observer - though I did like him getting an absolutely stunning name.

In other words, not a huge fan of what the show has become. Season 2 and 3 were so much stronger than the first. With Season 4 and the this is the same world but different and we're going to make those differences arbitrary also there's a bridge to another world and because Olivia was on Zee Drugs she can fix all the things and recover all the memories. Basically, season 4 undid all the cool shit, though the climax was pretty spectacular even with the absolutely hamfisted foreshadowing.

This shit is like the opposite of the Highlander Four Horseman Arc. Or "The Greys" episode of X-Files (or "Home" or "Darkness Falls"). Or Game of Thrones' "Blackwater." Or "Three Stories" from House. Or the pilot of Twin Peaks.

Bah, you get the point. Fringe could've been amazing and they just sort of petered out (pun not intended) and it all went to shit.

Pretty much spot-on.  I'm not really sure I'm going to watch this final season; I simply don't like the plot at this point. 

I think the show was successful in S1-S3 because it followed the Xfiles development, with episodic content that loosely tied people together and finales that simultaneously wrapped things up and opened more.  The S4 came along, and really threw that all away for nothing.  To try to be Lost, or something.

I made that comment to more than a few friends here. It went from middle-era X-files to every-era Lost.

That we even got a season 5 is just fan-base catering.  The last minute of the season 4 ending in which September comes and says "Ya'll lesser humans are fucked." wasn't even supposed to be in the episode unless they were greenlit for a season 5.  They could have ended season 4 as it was and left us with the questions.

From what I've gathered, the whole premise of the show revolves around two main plot lines: The Observers and the Walter/Bell fringe science journey.  We spent the first three seasons watching the characters develop in a time line that, apparently, wasn't actually supposed to happen due to September fucking shit up by saving Walter and Peter.  But because he did, because Peter existed and lived, we got to see the Fringe science unfold the way we did, and every now and then we saw the Observers coming in to influence things.  This influence all led up to the season 3 ender that tried to fix Sept.'s fuck up by erasing Peter from ever being in the game and allowing things to happen the way they were supposed to so that the Observers could do their "Well we fucked up the future, guess we'll do the Terranova plan and go back in time to survive" thing.

So season 4 was a nigh retcon of the series (essentially, the events of season 1-3 repacked and compressed into 1 season), except that because of forces even beyond the Observers, Peter still lived and found his way back into reality.  And because Sept. didn't want to finish the job, he get persecuted by the rest of the Observers.  With the Walter/Bell fringe science plot essentially resolved at this point, all that's left is the Observers, which is where we're at now.  Something tells me that the final solution will probably be one more retcon, in which the Observers get banished for good, and everything gets reset right back to 2008 again.

Wow, that was a bad episode.  Like, really bad.  Beginning to think the show should have ended last year.

Eh, it's not surprising, really.  Fringe has always been a roller coaster of good one week, horrid the next episodes.  Most of the time the season starts off on a high note and then dips for a couple shows before climbing back up again.

Definitely in X-files session 8 territory here.

Noooooooo!

Much better episode.  Lots of action and of course the shocking end.  I really liked how they used an old Fringe case to fight back. 

This.


And need more of this.

Glad to see that the stupid mine episode remains the exception and the rest is still great.

Yeah that's a nice contrast.  But poor Astrid, she only exists to ask how Walter and Olivia are feeling.  And Olivia is really too passive this season.  But I am enjoying it a lot more now after the mine episode.  The references to old Fringe cases make me happy in my fan pants.

An interesting thought after last night's eps:

Damn, son, I think you're on to something  :ye_gods:

That's where I figured they were going the minute he took that first step.

Goddamn if tonight's episode didn't have the most epic Walter trip ever.

The Terry Gilliam was strong with that one.

I can't wait until that gets uploaded to Youtube. That was possibly the most brilliant sequence they've done on the show. I thought Grand Theft Auto: Fringe was great but this took the cake.

Monty Python + Fringe =  :drill:

We can't stop here. This is Python country.

While this episode was good i am still pissed off by last weeks episode.

Boom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRaA6mLJW54

The frog in the "python" clip was also in the warehouse at the dock before they got on the boat. Kinda freaked me out when I saw it the first time. Had to rewind to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

I did the same thing :)

Well holy fucking shit. Look who the leader of the Observers is. I don't think there's an emoticon awesome enough to that choice justice.

And next week looks -insane-

Next week is the 2 hour series finale.

Yes. I'm both excited and sad at the same time.

Can you explain?  Didn't recognize.  Good episode, really touching moment between Walter and Peter. Meanwhile, Olivia can't even be trusted to guard a kid.  Otherwise a setup episode for the series finale. 

Well unless I'm completely wrong,
edit: I'm probably completely off my rocker. I didn't pay attention to the credits last night, can't find an online copy that has the credits, can't find any evidence that it is indeed this actor other than the fellow had expressed an interest on being on the show and some upvotes I got on reddit for making a similarly cryptic post. I don't know if I even need to spoiler it. I just didn't want to wreck the surprise for anyone in case I was right.

Oh well. Slinking away now.

Huh. Not sure, but it might be. I didn't see anything while watching, but looking at the still frame the nose and ears are just about right. Really hard to tell with the observer makeup and the no hair. But then I didn't recognize  at first either.

(edit because not sure if spoiler)

I went back and watched the scene again online and I'm pretty convinced it's him (eyes and mouth seem to be the dead giveaway for me). He's not mentioned in the opening credits and I can't find the ending credits. I kinda doubt he'll be there either as it seems like their sneaking him in to see who will notice.

edit: Damn. Completely wrong. Apparently it was James Kidnie.

http://seriable.com/fringe-casts-james-kidnie-observer-boss/ (http://seriable.com/fringe-casts-james-kidnie-observer-boss/)

Two minutes 'theatrical' trailer for the finale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x4jptm7Yedo

 :drill:

Good series ending.  Sad to see it go, really was a unique show that was allowed to end gracefully.  Good to see Olivia back to kicking ass and of course great emotional tones.


It was a good run, who knows, maybe they'll do a TV movie or something. 

To start, this was a good episode and a very satisfying finale. 

The center 9 episodes of this season should have reverted back to the basic first season philosophy of being episodic content with brief mentions of the final plan.  I think it would have made the finale stronger in that regard. 

However, I really like the way it wrapped up. 


That said, I hope they leave the story where it is now.  I think they did the best they could with it after last season, and making a movie will ultimately end up feeling like the Xfiles movies: successful, but cashins.

The only thing I'm confused about...


Or am I just trying to look too deep into this and I should just shutup and be content with the Scooby-Doo ending?

But, yeah, I'm happy with the ending too.

I'm satisfied with the ending.

A satisfying finale, I'm going to miss this show.

Oh yeah, that's right, thanks that makes sense now (Peter's item)

Me too. J.J. Abrams best series as far as I'm concerned. (Person of Interest running a close second.)

Wasn't the timeline in the last season the one in which Peter DID die??  Him being there was a function of him being trapped in a place that wasnt his.  In the end he had to make it his home regardless, and the people around him began to have memories as if he'd existed all along (Walter [moreso after the boy Observer touched him], Olivia, Nina, etc.).  So, essentially the Observers not being there wouldn't have any effect on that particular timeline because in reality Peter did still die.  When he came back he came from another Universe altogether, implanting his existence in the new timeline.  Granted, I could be getting my seasons/timelines mixed up.

The other theory being the standard string theory of time, which is that a new timeline branches off at each moment of choice. 

Yes Peter 'died' at the end of season 3 as time was changed so that September didn't save him from drowning in the lake.  Further back from that, The only reason Walter took Peter from the redverse was because he needed to save Peter after Walternate was distracted from finding the cure by September.  Without September interrupting him, Walternate would have been able to cure Peter from the disease that killed Blueverse Peter.

What I don't understand is why the Observers didn't invade both universes.

The Fauxlivia Universe was a shitty one likely to be annihilated, that's why. 

It was collapsing and I think I remember a throw away line that it wasn't going to be around to conquer.

Plus, the conquest of the main universe was still ongoing and drawing on their resources (converting the Atmosphere), so it seems like a really good idea to keep the people next door unaware of what is going on. At least until it is their turn to be invaded.

I thought it was because the observers could time travel, not shift dimensions.

Except they COULD shift dimensions, because we saw that one chase Olivia back and forth across universes. That was what made me ask the question.

Yeah, that's the only time I can recall that happening though. That to me was a point of confusion.

There were background observers in the redverse episodes.