"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.

"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" 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" Preview: He Doesn't Have Any Theories

I'll say that "Fringe" still doesn't have me nearly as buzzed as it did last year, but they're still getting back into the groove of things. We're building towards the return of Peter, and we haven't a clue when that will happen, although inclinations lead us towards the end of episode four as a potential date. I will say that the show is revealing too much in their little previews. They should take a hint from the marketing on "Breaking Bad", which is that less is more. But more than that, I want them to shake things up dramatically with the relationships. I want Olivia to hook up with Lincoln and Alt-Lincoln simultaneously. I want Peter to sleep with Fauxlivia in a drunken daze. And I'm still waiting for Walter and Astrid to get to it. I don't care if it's creepy. This is "Fringe"! Make it happen. Go to those morally dark areas. I want to see a lot more of that! That is all. Watch it tonight a 9 on Fox.

Let "Fringe" Be "Fringe"!

Comic Con is now come and gone, and I didn't go as crazy with it as I expected to. I'm not there, so who am I to comment on it? Nevertheless, the Con did give me an excuse to return to my favorite show on television, Fringe. The show has had quite a rough going for the longest of times, with some critical difficulty in Season 1, which is undeniable, and an unsteady transition to mythology based television in Season 2. That had quite a negative effect on the ratings, and that has continued through Season 3, to the point where the ratings on Thursday tanked, the show moved to Fridays, and it's gotten even worst since then.

Not the show, mind you, but the ratings. Through all this struggle, and every trial thrown at the producers and cast, they have performed exceptionally well. Season 3 was a very exciting story, dealing with quite a few moral qualms and difficulties, some of which should be carried into Season 4. There were several great episodes, but my favorite, and this is still a trigger point, is the still mindblowing season finale. Why is that? Because it's probably the first time Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman have truly 100% grasped what their show was, which is a subversive, potentially avante garde, uncompromising piece of genre television.

Television Breakdown: No More

Fringe: 6:02 AM EST/The Last Sam Weiss/The Day We Died

I've gone through a considerable process in managing my thoughts on the epic season finale of Fringe, first by watching each episode individually. I then went back to the final installment to get some sort of idea of what actually happened. Finally, I went back through the entire three-part endeavor to gain some sort of cohesive intelligence. And you know what? I'm still absolutely confounded by what Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman have done. I thought I knew where this was all going, and I was proved wrong in the ultimate gut-punch of the season. I'd like to just get to that final scene so that I can try to make some sort of prediction of where the series will go from here, but let's start from the beginning.

6:02 AM EST kicked off with Walternate accelerating the endgame of the show by activating the machine via the blood ascertained from Peter and Fauxlivia's son. Suddenly our world is starting to unravel at an increased pace, with a vortex swallowing up a herd of sheep and their unsuspecting owners with them. It turns out that the activation over there triggered an activation over here, and the race is on to find a way to hasten our world's decay, or else to turn off the machine. Before suspecting that they wouldn't give us a moment of peace or happiness, the morning scene with Olivia running into a nude Walter gave us a glimmer of hope heading into the finale.

The entire episode was everything that we expected from the season finale, from Fauxlivia going AWOL against her side in order to bring Peter over to her universe, to Peter submitting to his fate and entering the machine. It was all that we had predicted, but that's not to say that it wasn't as emotional as it needed to be. The one-on-one sentiments between Fauxlivia and Lincoln, Walter and Broyles, Walter and Peter, and even Walter and God, managed to deliver a heavy emotional tension. Looking back, I really wish that it had ended that way. Peter dies, and the two worlds are left in indecision about their worlds still collapsing, be it not at as fast a rate as before. It's still filled with heartache, questions, and emotion, but it's something that I can understand. Unfortunately, Pinkman and Wyman had other plans in store, and decided to blast Peter away, straight into a coma.

For Your Anticipation: Dispose of the Excess

Fringe is back again tonight, and I have to say that I am particularly excited about the string of exciting events that's about to happen in the coming episodes. Tonight's case of the week delves into levitation, one of the few unharvested grounds on this show. In the many side-arcs of this show, Peter comes clean to Olivia about killing shapeshifters, Walter tries to forestall the damage he's done to the fabric of our universe, and a beloved character makes an entirely unexpected return. Oh, and Jorge Garcia from Lost plays a massive dynamic employee. This episode will be awesome, I assure you.

For Your Anticipation: I Want to Go Home

Last week certainly didn't inspire as much confidence as we had hoped for Fringe, especially after hitting an all time low in the ratings. I'll admit that I wasn't the biggest fan of 6B, and it really brought out what I think are the worst qualities of the show. So what better way to counteract that than with tonight's followup to last year's mind-blowing emotional powerhouse Peter. Not only does tonight deal with the aftermath of Peter's abduction and how Walter and Elizabeth Bishop convinced him he was their son, but it also deals with Peter and Olivia's first meeting in Jacksonville, as well as Walter's experimentation on her. There's also supposed to be a sojourn to the alternate universe to see how Walternate reacted to the dilemma. This is prime emotional territory, and I love the 1985 period setting to these episodes. If this means a return of the retro title design, I'm a happy camper.

For Your Anticipation: Obama Sucks At Golf!

I absolutely love the dense and complex mythology that Fringe has crafted for not just one universe, but two. In the alternate universe, Sheep were completely wiped out over a decade ago, JFK and Martin Luther King are still alive and making renowned political victories, and Sean Combs (P. Diddy) is an award winning novelist of such books as "A Long Walk Down A Crooked Path". Meanwhile, in our home universe, there are plenty of fun political references, such as Patricia Nixon trying to seduce Walter in the old days, and now the fact that Broyles is better at golf than Obama. It's mostly played for laughs, but it shows how different the slightest change in history can be. It would be a shame if Fringe came to an end so soon, so please take the time to see tonight's episode, no matter the cost!

For Your Anticipation: Fringe Friday

You might have been routinely ignoring these posts of me rambling on about my fondness for Fringe and how more people should notice it. By now you know it's transitioning to Friday nights and so there's a precarious chance that it'll either hit it big or die a slow death. You know that I'd do absolutely anything to keep that from happening, because it is the only show that is occasionally cinematic in how it is told. That is to say it's the only show currently airing that provides such an experience. The world would be a poorer place if Fringe suddenly left far before its time was done. We don't know how long Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman intend for the series to go on, so for all we know it could go on to season 10. I'd certainly love such a thing to happen, but only time will tell. Tonight's episode is a big one, and I understand if you decide not to tune in, but if you do then you will not be disappointed. It's airs at 9 p.m. tonight on FOX.