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

Picked up this show again after my sister convinced me it was worth it and she was right - wtf why hadn't anyone told me earlier how great it had gotten? Walter is awesomeness.

lol upthread at someone pointing out that Peter was more plot device than character - one of my first "wait, didn't he...?" moments was in the first season where I think they had a subplot about Peter's past catching up with him, except... it never did.

Interview with John Noble from the other day:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2011/09/john-noble-and-the-beautiful-challenge-of-fringe.html

Thanks! dude is def the best part of the show - I mean, there are about five different Walters, all at different ages/realities, and it's just amazing how he manages to keep them all distinct but essentially the same person simultaneously.

I think the structure of the season opener, going from monster of the week to intro to multiple universes to showing that it wasn't a monster of the week episode but a possible lead into shady goings-on was a decent, if kind of boring, plot.

Yeah, I was thinking as the ep was going on that this was all setup for the season arc in the guise of 'wacky case of the week'.

Liking the idea of retconning your own main character/plot device out of existence. Though without Peter how does the whole parallel universe thing happen in the new timeline? Given the 'he has reasons to hate you' Walter is still responsible, I would assume Peter dies in both timelines after the parallel universe is broken into.

I assume that Walter still entered the alt-universe and took Peter, but that Peter died in the icy lake w/o help from the Observer dude.

Liking the continued equivalence of parallel universe=afterlife (on the other side your loved ones are still alive etc etc)

I've been joking that the weird hybrids in the Season 4 opener are from yet another universe where Walteralternate has a grudge against Walter and Walternate.

Oh shit!

BTW nu-shapeshifters and Astrid's earpiece are sort of like our-world approximations of their shifters and cellphone earring things, right?

That was a solid, fun if unspectacular opener.

Question I never resolved from the last season: How does Walternate actually learn about the existence of "the machine", if it's not in his world?

I've been joking that the weird hybrids in the Season 4 opener are from yet another universe where Walteralternate has a grudge against Walter and Walternate.

That would be very Season 3 Alias, so hopefully not...

Happy to see Agent Lincoln Lee upgraded to series regular. Prefer Alt-Linc tbh (he and Alt-Charlie are great), but looking forward to seeing "our" Lincoln becoming part of the team.

I like the actors and general vibe so much that I will pretty much watch this show through peaks and valleys. But I feel like they're going to kick more ass this season.

Pefer Alt-Linc tbh (he and Alt-Charlie are great

Yeah, everyone on our side is a fun-hating po-faced emo, except for their Aspie Aspirin, who, btw, has much better hair again yay.

Agent Leee ;)

everyone on our side is a fun-hating po-faced emo

which is funny considering it's their universe that's disintegrating. (how weird is it talking about our and their universes like they actually exist btw?)

any theories on how they're going to deal with the inevitable return of Peter (Joshua Jackson is still listed in the main cast so he's not going anywhere)?

like would it reset back to the time he was in the machine - which i don't think would happen because it would make everything that's going on right now moot - or would they just suddenly start remembering him again? Feel like they're getting into dangerous territory with this whole "he never existed" thing.

how long can they really last? when shows do this don't they tend to omit the character for at best a few episodes? the shorter the absence, the easier it is to make up some bullshit reason to change it all back.

btw what are people calling the new credits-color?

Amber. :)

Yeah I'm guessing Peter's back very soon if only for in real world reasons - main castmembers usually have clauses in their contracts about the minimum number of appearances/episodes they need to make every season right? just curious to see how they'd get around it while keeping everything else post-machine the same with nu-shapeshifters, Lincoln joining Fringe etc.

Just watched the second episode. It was really good. I like all the plot parallels that were going on like "I killed him (my stepfather)" and the sentimental things that leave an imprint on your soul (Peter on Walter's soul)

And I like that the parallel universe isn't the main focus now but rather a nice addition to the Fringe world

AArgh Hulu and your annoying embargo forcing me to, you know, seek other alternatives.

Then again, this is kinda lol: http://www.hulu.com/watch/281094/fringe-a-sit-down-with-joshua-jackson

Agent Leeencoln Leee!!

I like fun-hating Lincoln because they put glasses on him and now I'm all, "oh, HELLO." Such a sucker for a boy in glasses.

Well its obvious they are going to link a lot of events to Peter never having existed, like how suddenly alternate Broyles is alive again with no explanation.

Forgot to mention o_O Shirtless Walter. He and Broyles should start a bodybuilding team.

The second episode, for all of its plot holes and sentimentality, is actually pretty dark, though I would've preferred it if they went with a more downer ending, tbh.

walter seems like not the perfect person to get fringe s02 recaps from.

walter ;_;

or rather ;_<

lolololol

I like fun-hating Lincoln because they put glasses on him and now I'm all, "oh, HELLO." Such a sucker for a boy in glasses.

And now they've began this episode with Olivia in glasses, I like this trend.

Show still seems to have a great balance between standalone procedural episodes and the mythology stuff. Like I never think, "Ack, this episode isn't going to advance the mythology at all, DO NOT WATCH." And it's not the X-Files, where the standalones were always the best ones.

Having said that, looking forward to the return of non-emo Walter more than I am Joshua Jackson.

what was walter listening to on his headphones?

Two thoughts on the first "Peter's back" episode (watching via Hulu):

1. God, why does our side hate fun so much?
2. The actress who plays the shapeshifter is rrowr, but wow she can't act. Wonder if she won the part on a reality tv show.

This week's ep was much better, even though it was pretty much "White Tulip" mk ii.

2. The actress who plays the shapeshifter is rrowr, but wow she can't act

u just don't understand her kind!

Walter is listening to ... Styx, 'Too Much Time On My Hands'

I am kind of amazed at how good this show has gotten. Peter has no chemistry with anyone but in this role of man-with-no-context his woodenness is now apropos.

Liking how his reaction to being shuttled around in time this ep just makes him annoyed, not completely horrified like anyone else would be

why does walter's amber-timeline house have a flatscreen tv in it? has he only been living in the lab there in recent times? the house looks a lot more disused than that.

The modern tv fucked with me, too. Maybe it's a sponsored prop by LG or something?

haha was about to post that, it's obvs a continuity error with the props dept. Then again, it's possible that Walter invented it way back when...

Wait a sec, what do you mean by "amber timeline"?

Anyway: woman doing math, now that's what I call a fringe event, amirite?

Not to be *that guy*, but the Fibonacci spiral doesn't actually appear in nature: http://www.shallowsky.com/blog/science/fibonautilus.html

well, not timeline, but this episode was still in amber-world, right? in which everyone but peter has a different history than they did in green fringeworld. (uh.... or whichever color the not-red one was.)

Oooh you're referring to the title sequence, thought you meant amber as in the stuff the alt. universe uses to seal up breaches.

no but i had kind of assumed that would come into play eventually in the amber world.

do we need a NSFW on this thread or can someone remove the Newgod porn?

fixed. also, good show.

Ta, remy.

They're getting decent at leading the audience on to believe that a character is like their other universe counterpart was, and then yanking the rug out from underneath.

Yes, some neat swerves and foreboding prophecies, but along the way, the dialogue and characterizations have become 10 times clumsier.

omg, take me to your leader

alternate earth is the alien planet

Damn Peter's mom is a fox.