Fringe (new JJ Abrams show) : Mad scientist, flesh eating virus, a cow and talks with the dead

I like it a lot--the mythology is interesting but doesn't dominate or make the stand-alones seem annoying or pointless. Walter is my favorite current TV character--nice that they made him a bit of a monster in his past.

Bones pwnz (Bwnz pwnz?), but it's working in an entirely different direction than Fringe works in (the whodunnit is the least important thing in Bones, in which the meat of the series is in the relationship and chemistry between the two leads), so comparing these two shows doesn't accomplish much imo.

The comparison to other procedurals is interesting, though honestly, at least CSI/L&O manage the genre better than Fringe does its paranormal/supernatural spin on the procedural.

I don't mind standalone episodes per se, just that the ones Fringe offers are so dull. They're not frightening, they're not gripping; they're pedestrian and boring.

Could not disagree with you more, the average Fringe episode is about 10000x more gripping than any given L&O/CSI episode.

Got a copy locally since I was bored and the weather scuppered my plans to go into the city this evening. I actually liked the pilot! It pushes all my X-Files/Millennium buttons. Not GREAT tv, but solidly entertaining, and Ye Steward of Gondor is awesome. (Also, Warren Ellis really should be getting some kind of royalties from this show; I get kind of a watered-down Planetary/Global Frequency vibe from this).

Also, I like that Massive Dynamic's billboads are seemingly done by the same ad agency that handles the Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems account.

Ok, into episode 2, and a) didn't the X-Files do this (ok, half of it, with a gland-eating serial killer) and b) AGH GINGIVAL VIOLENCE DO NOT WANT

Ok, this seems to be picking up with episode six- they're using the random-person-experimented-on-by-sinister-forces thing way too much, but the intro was fantastically nasty (surprised they got away with it on network TV, even with CSI and such raising the bar for TV gore) and there have been some wonderful Walter moments ("Opium: fantastic stuff!" *stabs meat thermometer into dude's brain*)

so uh now I will cease liveblogging a year-old tv show and resume actually watching it

Once it moves beyond the 'stand alone X-Files episode' feel, it really comes into its own. They have a great special effects crew (ie old-style gross-out stuff)...when they do gross they really do it well. And Walter has to be one of my favorite TV characters...his layers just get better and better as the show goes on.

Still liking this, but I must have missed something in the ending of "The Equation." So you have built a device capable of effecting the scientific biological transmogrification of an apple into...an apple. Brilliant. And if I am to understand the Important Science Graphics on the attached monitor, this involves wormholes somehow. Seems like rather more effort than strictly necessary.

If I remember correctly it was a certain property of the apple that changed and the guy's arm? (I missed it too but my companion pointed out what I missed). I would suggest watching that end scene again because from what I heard it more or less has to do with what happened in the first couple minutes of that episode (assuming that was the episode with the bank job at the beginning - one of the best bizarre science things of any episode)

The apple went through metal.

Aaah. Must have been distracted, I have no idea how I missed something like that.

Xpost no bank job in this one, this is the episode with the neurologist kidnapping people after hip-mo-tizing them with flashing lights.

intro was fantastically nasty (surprised they got away with it on network TV

My wife and I have a running joke with each other about the "gore budget" for this show. I have to let her know when it is ok for her to look at the tv while the show is on. (I have stumbled on to far worse on the internet so the imagineered splatter on the show doesn't bother me at all. It's part of the "fun" when they do it well.

Okay tonight's episode was pretty good, glad to have at least one backstory cleared up... a little. LOVED the 80s opening sequence and the font.

3 things got good explanations: "car crash", glimmering Peter, and MD lady's hand injury. We got to know more about William Bell via Walter's decription. We got to know more about the bald men - like they can switch universes at anytime or see into the other universe wheneve. I liked how the episode ended with "was it morally okay for Walter to kidnap his alt-son?". He did save his life

I guess the new question this episode brought to my mind is "what goes wrong when an opening is made betwwen universes?"

episode was okay. a bit too late to have much impact. i'd imagine most viewers were able to guess that this is pretty much what happened. only real surprise for me was the origin of nina's arm injury.

oh wait -- the credit sequence was pretty awesome.

yeah credit sequence was the high point--i love walter but i dont need an episode with ONLY him, especially one that tells a story they could have told with about 90 seconds of dialogue

The window machine was awesome and I enjoyed seeing Walter talk to the army generals. I liked seeing this story arc in action even if it was predictable and for the most part not really emotionally moving because it was predictable. It was actually better that young Walter didn't cry - so props to the director for not making the past into a big sob story. The only real emotional bit was present day Walter's plea to Olivia and that worked nice as a climax to a mostly predictable storyline (with awesome cinematics and special effects as usual). Also it was funny seeing the observers at Back to the Future. I'm guessing that they don't have the ability to time travel. A few episodes back they said: "too bad about what's going to happen to her" referring to Olivia or her niece whom were on a roller coaster at the time - but that doesn't mean they can time travel.

The intro was awesome. I liked how most of the words that popped up in the intro weren't bio-related but it appears that next week's episode will be something about cancer. Maybe a "freak of the week" episode which isn't necessarily bad but probably not groundbreaking either. Good free entertainment

episode was okay. a bit too late to have much impact. i'd imagine most viewers were able to guess that this is pretty much what happened. only real surprise for me was the origin of nina's arm injury.― jeff

Surprises in tv shows are overrated. Sort of like how some people in the lost thread seem to judge current episodes solely on surprises/big revelations

The point of all the words that popped up in the retro-intro was that they were hilariously FUTURISTIC things that would have seemed awesome in 1985 but are run of the mill or ridiculous now. I laughed.

Still think my prediction about the Walternate being up to bad shit is likely.

It was a decent episode, but this:

Surprises in tv shows are overrated. Sort of like how some people in the lost thread seem to judge current episodes solely on surprises/big revelations

With JJ Abrams shows (ok, Lost is more Darlton babby now), big plot twists are almost always the most compelling part of his series, because the guy's ideas about character and relationships are ripped directly from the soaps aka no thanks.

i meant surprise as in new information that entertained me, not major mindbending twist. most of the information about this event had already been revealed. and as leee says, most of the surprises (hello twin towers) in this series have been amazing and have made the less eventful moments (85% of every monster of the week episode) all the more dreary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbaG3C1GQ-c

really great episode. i was going to suggest that weller could've had a multiepisode arc but from the preview for next week's ep, it looks like they're returning to the head stealer / portal / shapeshifter storyline.

huge lols at walter calling astrid "astro."

I love this show its such good fun!

fantastic episode. robocop was excellent, the ending was really powerful.

also, ARE FRIENDS ELECTRIC?!

Am I behind? I thought the last episode was the one with cancer dude and walter making taffy

You are behind, so don't read past this line.

Clearly inspired by "Cause and Effect" from Star Trek: TNG, but with enough twists and yeah, the ending was a total gut punch, to make it well worth while.

Can anyone make out the return address on the letter to Walter?

http://i39.tinypic.com/seoz2h.jpg

Crying Cat

fanfuckintastic ep all around. fuckin' peter weller. fuckin' gary numan. fuckin' interlocking dramatic ironies and necessities. if every ep could be like this, FRINGE would be the best show on broadcast.

Awesome episode. Love love love love Weller, great role for him. He brings the intense-crazy so well. And Walter!!! <3 him more and more with every episode, my chest is sure to burst. Gorgeous twist in the timetravel trope, really beautiful surprise ending, I can't stop thinking about it.

"the walternate" was the second best thing about the retro 80s episode

why didn't the walternate (equally smart if not smarter than walter and has a motorola razr) go grab peter back in '85?

i suspect that'll play out in due time

did walter go grab peter before or after he sent a car across to the other dimension? and how come there was none of the mass-replacement palaver which was the crux of the previous episode?

didn't know this. Apparently the show works with Science Olympiad to craft lesson plans to teach high school kids about the weird science depicted in an episode. For example:

http://www.fox.com/fringe/fringe-science/season-2/episode-19.htm

really didn't feel this week's ep

Yeah it was a bit ridic, one of those "well, we better pause a minute so we don't run out of story arc" eps.

really? I liked it a lot, as a sort of fairy-tale representation of the Walter/Peter situation. Loved their weird little semi-steampunk additions, the weird cell phones, the wooden laptop...seemed like they had fun with this episode. A little indulgent, sure...but I dug it. Loved the musical interludes...Dunham doing her Stevie Wonder, and as a Wire fan, seeing Daniels SING was awesome.

He went to the Eastman School of Music!

Great episode and great timing to for a dramatic pause in a dramatic story arc. I mean it would be kind of weird if Peter came back immediately. Not to mention that there is 1 new twist in this current story arc (what the bald guy said at the end of the episode).

Back to this episode. The music was lols and the singing was pretty damn good (especially Astrid). "The Candyman" with singing corpses was also awesome. The first two songs that Walter played on the records after smoking pot were awesome ("Roundabout" and "Head Over Heals"). Those are two of my favorite songs and I still have friends who probably couldn't even recognize them. I also got lols while seeing Olivia try to use her cellphone while drowning in the coffin (the goofy mix of 30s or 40s with future technology). It was a happy, heartfelt episode with some great dialog and parallels to the current story arc. The sad ending actually made me feel sad for Walter. Oh and "reverse operation" was very clever as well. Lots of goodies. I'm glad I watched this today when I was refreshed rather than last night when I was hella tired.

I had to watch the Robocop train episode twice because the first time I saw it I practically fell asleep (I watched it really late after my night shift). The second viewing (or 3rd or 4th for some parts) proved this to be a great episode as well. VegemiteGrrrl said it best: "Gorgeous twist in the timetravel trope, really beautiful surprise ending".

Kind of brutal to ask Anna Torv to try to do a hard-boiled accent, but man this episode was a delight.

OMG

Woweee wow.

Just. Wow.

Also girlcrush on Martha Plimpton still in perfect working order. She's grebt

Oh god, she was the cop, wasn't she? Dang, didn't even register.

I think there may have been a Twin Peaks vibe in this episode but I never watched much Twin Peaks
I didn't see the ending coming but my dad did

I had my suspicions, but it was still a cool surprise reveal. I hope people didn't tune out because they thought Peter rockin' the mixtape was the end.