Fringe

[Hawkbit]

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?

[Surlyboi]

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.

[luckton]

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.

[HaemishM]

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.

[luckton]

 

[Tannhauser]

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

I feel like I missed five episodes. 

[cironian]

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.

[Surlyboi]

Maybe.

Except next week they're back in the present.

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

[luckton]

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

[Surlyboi]

You might be right.

[HaemishM]

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."

[Surlyboi]

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.

[Surlyboi]

Fringe renewed for a shortened fifth season.

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

[Hawkbit]

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.

[Tannhauser]

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. 

[luckton]

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

[Tannhauser]

Wow, what a surprsing episode! 

[luckton]

Season finale last night.

[Tannhauser]

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.

[Wasted]

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:

[luckton]

Fringe is back, baby!   

[Ookii]

I forgot how batshit insane this show is now.

[Tannhauser]

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.

[Ubvman]

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."

[schild]

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.

[Hawkbit]

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.

[schild]

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

[luckton]

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.

[Tannhauser]

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

[luckton]

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.

[Mrbloodworth]

Definitely in X-files session 8 territory here.

[Surlyboi]

Noooooooo!

[Tannhauser]

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. 

[luckton]

Noooooooo!

This.

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. 

And need more of this.

[cironian]

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