"Fringe" Review: "Brave New World"

I suppose there's some rather excusable anger going about in the wake of "Fringe"s penultimate season finale, mostly due to the fact that there wasn't very much of a stinger on the episode. It wasn't an episode that made for a gut-wrenching denouement, mostly because they'd already done that two episodes back. Their nineteenth episode, which often breaks formula and goes the strange route, broke the rule of leaving surprise revelations on next season to the very end. They revealed that, in the endgame of this season, everything would turn out alright, in a sense anyway. We'd already gotten the tough goodbye to the parallel universe. Now was closing up the arc of this season.

Now I suppose there's the simple suggestion that you leave "Letters of Transit" to the very end of the season, but that would have rung a little anticlimactic. If you think about it, the last four episode of the season really act as a four-part season finale, but in this case the first of those four episodes told us where Season 5 will take us. Does that obliterate any tension from the remaining three episodes? In a manner, yes. We know who lives to see the year 2036, and that makes it rather impossible for any of them to die. But there's also an inevitability to the rest of proceedings. "World's Apart" was such a pedal-to-the-floor episode as it tried to veer in the opposite direction of catastrophe, only to reach the conclusion that closing the door between universes was inevitable.

THE LISTS: Best Guest Performances on "Fringe"

I was caught off guard on this week's TOP 10 SHOTS column, since there just wasn't anything I could muster the heart to dissect for the occasion. The only occasion we have this weekend is Tim Burton's "Dark Shadows", and it's generally difficult to find anything Tim Burton has done that has an abundance of strong shots. Going off cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, I tried revisiting "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", but that's honestly still a really boring film. And even going for a strained connection, "Pan's Labyrinth" was the only thing that came close, and it still failed to amuse me on revisiting.

I have to give an honorable mention to "Where the Wild Things Are", which would have made the cut if I had more time to ruminate. There will be plenty other opportunities for it, I'm sure. So in the rush of the moment, I feel like giving notice to the real event of this weekend, which will inevitably be overlooked in the presence of "The Avengers" and Tim Burton's heightened whining. "Fringe" takes up its season finale tonight, which will fortunately not be the end of the series, given their godsend renewal for season five. The prospect of the definitive end of a show that has been something of a defining attribute for me over the past several years is difficult to say the least, but also tantalizing.

"Fringe" Review: "Letters of Transit"

When "Fringe" gets around to the tailend of their season, they often like to go for an eccentric ride on their nineteenth episode. In season 2 we had the totally fictitious noir-musical marijuana dream of "Brown Betty". In season 3, we were taken inside Olivia's William Bell infested mind on an animated adventure. Season 4 certainly had its work cut out for it, but the writers have instead decided to do something immensely trippy, yet not quite with the happy jib of previous 19th installments. Why? Because at no point in this episode, beginning or end, do they confirm or deny that the future world we are seeing is avoidable, like the one we saw in "The Day We Died".

That episode quite obviously had a lot more rewarding factors, while this one was an immense tease, and I applaud the writers to no end for perpetrating it. What we're shown is a contained world riddled with teasers about things that have yet to come in the current timeline of the story. It's quite a risk, letting us know that David Robert Jones clearly didn't succeed so much as he hoped. One could stand to reason it reliefs all the tension of the current apocalyptic situation in the year 2012 to show that we made it to 2036. But they luckily put in a crucial detail in this episode, that it wasn't without paying a cost that they saved the world.

Dry Months of April

It's hard to peg down a single month that is the most depressive slog of the year, but I'd make a strong case for April. Sure, January is an immediate drop off from the rush of quality cinema that greets the close of the year, and February is little better, but both of those have the positive bump of Oscar season on the skirts to divert attention away from sparse new cinematic offerings. March often has plentiful blockbuster offerings, even if some fail to live up to the stature of others. And we know that May through to December is often full of exceptional fare to some degree. April is four weeks of padding, and even if there are good films out there, they're not exactly bombastic.

Maybe it's that we're so close to big entertainment that small offerings just don't seem to have their place. "Titanic 3D" even seems to have a small nature surrounding it, as unlikely as that sounds. If you see the film, you know that James Cameron packs in quite an exceptional amount of scale, so why isn't that more of a draw? I'm not entirely sure, but nothing in me has much reason to want to see it on the big screen. It might just be a matter of time and place, and April is not a month you really want to head out for massive adventure. Quite often, and this is not just the case for students, it's a time of getting heavy loads of work done.

"Fringe" Review: "Everything In Its Right Place"

Last season of "Fringe" was undeniably about the roles of destiny and choice, and while the predestined is a looming inevitability still in the form of the Observer's ominous warning to Olivia, there's still a great deal about the power of choice. If last season was about the choices that people make leading them to different destinies, this season is about why we make those choices. Lincoln breaking all the rules in 4.01 to avenge his partner. John McClennan in 4.02 risking his life to change the fate of his doppelganger. Raymond Green in 4.06 risking the continuity of the world to be back with the one he loves. The role their fathers played both the Astrids in 4.11.

Peter, Walter, and Olivia are tabled very early on in the episode. Nothing important is happening, and the main team have places to be with the people they love. This brings us around to Lincoln, who lost his partner, found a new one in Olivia, only to have his space finally be taken up by Peter again. He has no role in the world, and Robert Danzig's post-mortem elegy about Lincoln floating off into space seems like such a heartbreaking possibility. He wants a time to escape the isolation he feels, and so he travels to the other side for a customary debrief of the situation with David Robert Jones. But like any circumstance, this problem is intruding on an issue that already exists.

Television Recap: "Mad Men", "Game of Thrones", "Fringe"

I now feel comfortable in once more sharing my thoughts on the latest happenings in television with you guys! This is mostly due to the return of two shows that most deserve review: "Mad Men" and "Game of Thrones". I already launched my sparse opinions on the former's two hour season premiere, and it seemed like too much of a tease not to delve even further into my obsession with the guesswork and continued passion involving this unique form of entertainment. And it would of course be nice to get back home to a place of talking about "Fringe", whose prospects for a final season 15-episode pickup are looking unexpectedly bright. It's a win in all corners. Well, not all corners. "The Killing" is still on the air.

"Mad Men: Tea Leaves"

Directed by Jon Hamm

Oh Betty, what has this world done to you? It seems that when most television actresses become pregnant, they factor that quite literally into the show. Leave it to a genius like Matthew Weiner to not cop to that and instead go for something more dynamic to Betty's character: She's let herself go. It's an eerie move that strikes me like a dagger, since it seems so natural for her to eventually become that sort of overweight mother. It's the start of a story arc that will prove quintessential to her character, I'm certain already. Though it is admittedly an overt move for the show, but it pays off broadly, and not quite so dishonestly. The cancer scare is somewhat too much of a push, even if it does strike a desire for death in Betty.

"Fringe" Review: "Back to Where You've Never Been" (***1/2)

That is a rather fantastic title for an episode that is quintessentially about trust. Peter has realized that there's no chance of Walter helping him out on this side, so he asks for Olivia and Lincoln to help him cross to the alternate universe. Why can't he use the bridge? Because Broyles doesn't trust Peter enough. Why doesn't Walter's portal device rip apart the universes like it did 28 years ago? Because the link between the universes seems to have halted the degradation and diminished the impact of holes in the universes. The writers aren't stepping around these plot points, but accommodating them for a much more exciting story.

With a layer of distrust still existing between the two sides, the only thing to do is to step around each other deceptively. Of course that doesn't work out, and Lincoln and Peter are caught rather quickly, and their story would be stopped right if there wasn't a shapeshifter driving their transport. Of course we don't see that he's a shapeshifter, but at this point it's assumed. The two split, Lincoln is apprehended by Alt-Lincoln and Bolivia, and Peter heads off to ask his mother for help, as you do. But this show has never been about the events, but about the specificities of the exchanges between characters. You wonder how the two Lincolns can exist in the same scene together believably, and against all odds they do, and quite hilariously as it turns out. Peanut Butter & Jam.

"Fringe" Preview: Against the Flow

This season of "Fringe" has been odd kind of animal, and I think a great deal of the confrontation to it has been out of simple misunderstanding. The first seven episodes of this season have been of a slower and contemplative pace, much like Season 1. That is mostly because we are establishing a new set of characters, and also a new universe. The writers have made a gamble to tell a season long story about this fixed group of people, using Peter as the conduit for such, and the story that will take up the remainder of this season really kicks off tonight. But there is one question that holds my interest for future season(s) of the show, if there is even one. If Peter is here, what is going on back where HE is from?

My Final Plea on Behalf of "Fringe"

I'm not going to start out this saying that you may know of my advocacy for "Fringe", as I've said it way too many times to make that assumption. You know I've been pushing for this show for some time, even if I've been rendered silent by the two month hiatus the show has been on since November. And I'm still sick of hearing people recount stories of how they gave up on the show midway through its first season. Everyone did. I did, as a matter of fact, and then I went back to it on the tail end of the first season. It got better towards the end of season 2, and throughout season 3, even if the ratings don't quite show it. If anybody's to blame for the show's dramatic downturn, it's the Fox execs who placed it on Thursdays, and then Fridays.

I'll continue to say that people should attempt catching up with the show, starting at Season 2 (skip episodes 3, 5-7, 11-13 and then skip none at all), but I've reached the point of understanding why people won't. They'll assume it's too confusing, and it's not. It's rather simple if you follow along. It's no great mystery, and the reason I'm urging it so fervently now is because the show is most definitely and undeniably on its final stretch. Not this season, because if you've been watching, you'd never say that this is what finale seasons are made out of. It's strong, but it's only now getting to the most motivating part of its season.

"Fringe" Review: "Wallflower" (***1/2)

God damn, I miss loving "Fringe" this much! I'm having trouble remembering the last time I was this invested and this into an episode of the show. It was probably "Marionette" from last year, which conveniently arrived around this time of year. However, maybe what I loved more was the palpable sense of mystery and unknowing. This show has done a fine job of keeping us in the dark lately. I didn't know how last week was going to unfurl at the start, and was just somewhat satisfied with how they worked that reveal. However, last week felt doused in the semi-hokeyness that this season has been laced with.

Yet in spite of my worries last week that we'd simply be getting a middling and somewhat anticlimactic treatment for the last "Fringe" episode of this year, it quickly established that it was a lot more than that. The episode starts out with Olivia experiencing migraines, which may sound like it has some greater purpose, but kicking things off, it just felt like good storytelling. Such small moments like her going out for medicine give us such subtle indications about her character, and it shows that maybe the writers are picking up on what I've been putting out there. And then her chance encounter with Lincoln was such a sweet discourse between characters. Lincoln started out as something of a shell, but now he's seeming like such a glyph of emotion, with somebody struggling to find a connection in a drastically changed world.

"Fringe" Preview: Like A Human Being

"Fringe" has been more than just a little bit weird this season, which is something I'm kind of glad about, but can understand why many are taken aback by it. Last week's case would've fallen to chaos if they didn't have as skilled a man as Brad Anderson at the helm. And yet every single week features a case that somehow ties into what's going on with our characters. Yes, it's rather coincidental, but it's also kind of great storytelling. This week, we get a man who seems to be fading from the corporeal, right next to our Peter attempting to find a way back into his reality, after being erased from it. Once again, no idea where this is all going. That's kind of exciting.

"Fringe" Review: "And Those We Left Behind" (***)

Peter's had quite a rotten run of luck, but then who hasn't in this show? He pretty much survived cancer as a child, only to get abducted by a man from an alternate universe, who eventually masqueraded as his father, to the point where he believed it. He then found out the truth, went back home, but then realized it wasn't worth it. He started dating a nice girl, but she lied to him and got preggers afterwords. Then he dealt with fallout from his real girlfriend, before finally getting back together with her. Then he destroyed his ex's universe, and his wife was shot in the head by his biological father. And now he's been erased from existence. I might be overshooting here, but that's the most awesome television storyline I've ever heard.

This season, on the other hand, has been something less, and this week continued on that strand. It's a weird advert they're currently going on, with Peter in this new timeline, away from the characters we've grown to love. And yet, there's been something innately charming about it. If this is merely a seasonal detour, it may be worth it depending on how it ends up. This week brought up a number of interesting theories on exactly what's going on. For the first time, we really don't know what's up. We don't know the goal of the observers, though we never have, but we've had some kind of reliance on them. We don't know the purpose of the new shapeshifters, or their eventually revealed leader. It's kind of interesting where we are now.

"Fringe" Preview: Won't Even Look

When am I going to stop attempting to shove "Fringe" down your throat? Not any time soon, I'm afraid. This week puts the show in a position to get better, where it has been mildly disappointing for the past few weeks. Obviously, we only get two more episodes this year before they go on hiatus until January, thanks to the meddling of that nefarious world series. I haven't a clue what tonight's episode will reveal, or how it will move forward the relationships between our characters, or else halt them entirely. I'm sure I'll come up with a few theories once the episode starts, but for now, I've got nothing.

"Fringe": The Problem with Peter

If you saw the title of this post and thought that my confidence in "Fringe" was beginning to wear off, you're sorely mistaken. True, this season has been a tough one for devoted viewers. They want things to move forward and faster, and I trust that they will in time. But there's always a trade-off, and in this case it means setting a radical reset button that slows down the pace of the show. The first four episodes of this season were somewhat hit and miss, not in terms of episode to episode, but sometimes moment to moment. Things have become too corny at times, a sentimentality problem that predates this season, but is most obvious now.

But with Peter's return, there's an opportunity to move forward in the storytelling, and an at first bizarre and somewhat half-baked detour in the show is showing signs of life. Peter has been something of a problem to this show in the past, and there's been a question of exactly what we're supposed to do with him. No offense, but he's just been all too normal at times, and at the season's end, he was almost an infallible hero. But if there's anything last Friday's episode embellished, it's that Peter is still very much in need of improvement, and the trials of this season may indeed lead to that.

"Fringe" Review: "Novation" (***)

I am in such deep turmoil, you cannot possibly understand. I really love "Fringe", and I've enjoyed it a great deal for the past three seasons. I don't know what they're up to right now. It feels like they're going off on a random tangent. Remember the last time they referenced the fact that the two universes are still dying? It was at the end of last season. Has that suddenly stopped. Is the progression of the important stories halted to deal with this apparently terrifying new breed of shape-shifters? I'm sorry, but so much of this season has felt really stingy, and it's honestly left me kind of cold. What does it remind me of? It reminds me of the emotionless running about of "X-Men: First Class" and the last "Harry Potter".

If that doesn't seem so harsh, please go back to my reviews of those films. I remember taking the mickey out of both of them, especially the former. This week has brought back one of the more important elements of the show, that being Peter. He's back, but we don't know why. We're not sure why he's been erased from history, how he escaped his fate, or where any of this is going. I'm not even entirely sure if the writers have a plan for this, though I certainly hope they do. In any case, this episode should have felt a great deal more interesting than it was. But the moments when it felt most in tune with itself were naturally the silent moments.

Peter arriving at Fringe Headquarters and silently arriving at a holding cell. Him silently hacking into their mainframe to keep in the loop of things. The constant undercurrent between him and Broyles. That's what was so interesting. The problem is the dialogue, which has felt unnaturally ham-fisted this season. None of these characters are as close as we remember them, so they don't have that same way of communicating. There's hostility from all corners, but even that doesn't excuse the dialogue being as bad as it is. There aren't the same smooth nuances the show has perfected in its history. Yes, it feels foreign, but not in the right way.

"Fringe" Preview: For Real This Time

It took an extra week longer than we hoped, but Joshua Jackson is finally back on "Fringe" tonight, and as much of a fan of John Noble and Anna Torv as I am, the show isn't right without Jackson. Without him, the show has felt somewhat stingy and inorganic. Stilted and cold might be the best way to explain these past four episodes. While not without strong moments, Peter's absence has been felt. I still haven't a clue what the purpose of any of this has been, but it's becoming clear enough that the Observers don't just erase people when their purpose has been fulfilled. Peter is, or at least was, important. Now, what is his purpose in this story? I'll trust the writers for now, and cross my fingers that the show gets better from here.

"Fringe" Previ... Aw, Damn It!

And here I thought I was leaving last night in a genuinely good place. The Rangers were winning, which in any other case I wouldn't care about. But in this particular case, it meant that "Fringe" was likely to take place as scheduled. But NO!!!! St. Louis had to go ahead and ruin that one, didn't they? So, yeah. "Fringe" won't be returning tonight. It's on hold for another unbearable week because of baseball. This is why I hate sports. They distract from more important things in the world. They're as degenerative to the medium of television as "reality shows" are. But now I'll have to find a way to numb the loneliness, probably by heading back to earlier seasons. Say! Why don't you do the same, and we can touch base having both an idea of what the hell I'm talking about!

And this'll embitter you until then.

Fox and "Fringe": A Tragic Love Story

I talk ever so often about "Fringe", much to the chagrin of those who don't really care. Maybe I'm just beating a dead horse with this, but I'll be damned if I stop now. Never give up on a show like this. There's always a chance it'll surprise you. And I've kept that in the back pocket of my mind throughout the series' past two seasons, during which the show has taken continuous turns for the worst. One can only blame the dreaded choice made at the start of season 2 to move the show to Thursday nights. Had the show stayed on Tuesdays, or at least remained joined at the hip with Fox's constant, "House", it would have made these years without as much trouble or doubt.

But show buoyed in the 6 million viewer range for the majority of the second season. In the first half of the third season, the show lowered to an average of about 5 million viewer a week. Then Fox made the choice that many thought would be sealing the show's fate. They moved it to Friday nights, though it was a statistical move that could yield strong enough benefits on that specific landscape. Needless to say, it didn't entirely work out. The show was then averaging 4 million before heading towards 3 million towards the end of the season. And in fact that is the situation we're in right now.

"Fringe" Preview: Trying to do what's best

Four weeks in, by now you're either settled in on a show, or you're not. The path has been laid, and you're pretty much in it for the long haul. I'm not surprised if many of you didn't take up my offer to take up "Fringe", and it is an offer. You will benefit from it. Still, the show is picking up speed a great deal this week. Anyone complaining on how there aren't enough changes in the new timeline, you'll find new ones tonight. Anyone missing Peter, there's a fair chance he'll have his re-entry tonight. After all, the promotional department for this show has never been all that subtle.

"Fringe" Review: "Alone in the World" (**1/2)

I've heard opinions all over the wall on the general direction of this new season of "Fringe", and I absolutely agree and disagree with them. Yes, the show has seemed almost aimless without Peter, but I think there's so much more purpose in that. Last season, Peter was the driving force in the war between universes, and now that the war is over and Peter is gone, what is the point? That's the question that a great deal of these characters are asking themselves in these first couple of episodes. They are in their lives, but with no purpose to them. Olivia's stepfather is dead, and that was so much of what was driving her. Her own preparation to never be a victim, should he ever come around again.

This week shifts focus to Walter most prevalently, and it raises something very interesting to me. If you're completely new to the series this season, Peter is the overarching mystery. In the first two episodes, Walter is clearly losing his mind quite entirely. He's seeing a strange man in the lab, and hearing voices that are taunting him. He has every reason to believe that it's a part of his psychosis, and watching him grapple with that lucid realization is absolutely heartbreaking. It's yet another moment when we're reminded of how robbed John Noble has been in the past, and continues to be now. He's one of the strongest working actors on television, and he's been ignored largely.