Fringe Write up

Monday

Bad news. I was really enjoying Fringe whilst it was fresh and new. I must be on episode eight now, or was it nine? Anyway... there's a pattern. In a kid's show like Phineas and Ferb, pattern's and repetitions in episodes comes across as cute and funny. In fact, they are rather expected. However, the pattern is something I am finding annoying. Actually, that's not quite right. CSI had a very repetetive pattern that actually made it very intriquing. I'm not sure how to explain how the Fringe's pattern is annoying.

Let me start over. SPOILER ALERT
If you are in anyway interested in watching the series, DO NOT read the following.

Every episode starts off with some weird event. A typically twisted, medically gross, and barely within the realm of the scientifically rational type of event. For example in the first episode, a plane full of people get attacked by a gas that literally strips them all the to bone.

Then, in every episode there is someone that potentially knows something. Our heroine, Duhham, then spends the rest of the episode trying to get an audience. It's always someone with whom she needs to talk.

Also, as a side piece of every episode, the old man Bishop needs some sort of random food thing to babble on about. One episode it's root beer, another it's christmas carols etc. Each time, it's something that is mildly related to the main episode thread.

Finally, the good (and very crazy) doctor and his son always work together with on some sort of crazy pseudo-science to save the day. The concepts are great, but does the crazy doctor Bishop really already have to know either the test subject, the evil scientist, or the Fringe science concept? I'd like something to seem like he didn't already know it.

Things could change with time, but eps 3-8 were way too similar. Episode 9 at least mentions Omaha, NE, so it gets brownie points. Actually, all in all, episode 9 felt fresh. Hard to explain why. Episodes ten and eleven tried a little harder to elaborate on some more things, so I actually enjoyed them. However, either I had mostly missed it until now or it really hadn't happened before, but the doctor did some overly crass descriptions this time around.

The things that I look forward to in each episode are things like more information on Massive Dynamic, better information on the Pattern, the newest concept for the episode, and most especially the progression of Dunham's relationship to her coworkers and her boss. Honestly, the tit for tat between her and her boss every episode is excellent. It even progresses and changes delightfully. Second of all, is her old (current) flame still alive after all that, is he really dead, or is did she really absorb a section of his subconscious.

There, now that I've given away nearly the entire framework for the series, enjoy!

P.S. The series would be insanely awesome if you only saw things from the limited perspective of Dunham. Then you wouldn't encounter things like Scott being keep in a pseudo-alive state so that his memories could be harvested. It would add the proper amount of mystery to whether Dunham really has his memories in her head or if she was really encountering him. They allowed the solution to come clear way too soon.