I recently had some free time and a chance to catch up on the last two seasons of Fringe. I remember when the show first started, I watched every week for the first two seasons and then lost track of the story sometime during Season 3.
It started out feeling a lot like X-Files with hints of some other similar shows. Then they really introduced more of the arcs with the other universe. I hated the other Olivia. Then they smoothed over the conflicts between the universes and they started working together. I was surprised to be so upset when they closed off the bridge. I had come to like the other Olivia. And I still think “Walternate” has to be the best character name ever. I have to believe they chose the name “Walter” simply so they would be able to have Walternate. Brilliant. The fact that the characters called him that was even better.
Fast-forward to Season 4 and 5. I didn’t care at all for how they had Peter show up in some new dimension. It wasn’t either of the two universes we already know. We started off with different Olivia, Walter and Astrid. Nina Sharp was nicer than ever. Olivia-3 then becomes the original Olivia through proximity with Peter and that was okay? Sorry, but not for me. That was probably where things went off course most for me. And never recovered. The last part of Season 4 and then Season 5 in 2036 didn’t take the show in a direction I enjoyed.
How did Etta’s partner not know she was “that” Bishop? They carefully avoided saying her last name during the whole episode, but still he had to know. It was a nice touch the way she called Peter “Dad” but it felt far too contrived. Walter’s plan to take the Observer child forward in time so that they Observers wouldn’t be created also didn’t really feel completely logical to me. And yes, despite all the far-fetched things that happen on Fringe, I still expect the “big solution” to make sense. I probably should have expected this since JJ Abrams did the same thing during the last part of Lost. I never liked how that wrapped up either.
At least this one ends up with a happy ending, though I still need to puzzle through the logic as to when Walter would have disappeared from the timeline and whether Olivia would even have met Peter. She only meets him when she needs to get to Walter, so if Walter left before that point… well, you can see why it’s still a bit fuzzy. I should watch the last few episodes again. I admit I haven’t read any commentary, but just wanted to share some of my own thoughts on the end of the show.
Overall, I’m glad I watched and I think there were a lot of brilliant aspects to the show. I’m constantly impressed with John Noble. He’s a fantastic actor who brought so many sides to Walter that even when he was doing something ridiculous I liked him. Seeing Noble as Walternate was a great foil and further proof of his skills. Anna Torv definitely improved along the way. She didn’t impress me at all to start, but gradually grew into her role. I even began to enjoy her as the other Olivia. Leonard Nimoy’s special appearances were fun as well, though I wish they had resolved William Bell’s storyline differently. Finding that he was even crazier than Walter was a surprise, but it still felt wrong.
I could go on about more things, but I won’t. I’ll just wrap up by saying that after watching the last of Season 5 I started watching Season 1 again, just to get an idea of how everything started, particular because I hadn’t really grasped the importance of the Observers—or even remembered them as far back as Season 1. I do like that they wove that thread in from the beginning.
I saw a lot of parallels with Season 5 of Supernatural. Olivia taking cortexiphan and turning into something more powerful reminded me of Sam’s plan to defeat Lucifer by taking power from the rings and from the blood. It’s no wonder that JJ Abrams and Eric Kripke ended up working on a show together. They seem like the kind of guys who could create something fantastic if they teamed up. And they can both pull off the multi-season arc in ways I haven’t seen done as successfully in other shows.
Which means I really need to start watching Revolution. Is it as good as Fringe, Supernatural and Lost all rolled into one?
Petra's Paranormal Palace 