TV made its impact in my life, once again, in the winter of 2003. I just finished my first semester of Grad School and I had over 5 weeks of time off to do absolutely nothing. For the most part, that's what I did. While doing so, I dusted off the complete sets of Alias Season 1 and 2 that we had in the house and decided to watch them. Numerous TV marathons after, here I am blogging about TV. I decided to take some time off this winter break to start taking a few things off my list. One of them: FRINGE.

There were a lot of reasons I wanted to like this show when it premiered in the Fall of 2008. It was a JJ Abrams joint. It's about weird science fiction. I like TV. I went maybe 4-6 episodes into the season and never loved it. In fact, it disinterested me so much that I discontinued it from my dvr. With having LOST and Battlestar Galactica, I already had enough dark/heady/serious stuff to pay attention to. (Supernatural's well done and sometimes very dark and sometimes steeped in drama, but it's balanced. Smallville's a farce. Eureka's super quirky and light. Bones is also.)

So, I scoffed a bit when I would hear people talk about FRINGE on Facebook like must-see stuff. Like it was a cult-hit worth anything. And, then it began to pick up steam towards the end of the season even from highly pretentious critics (who I often trust, pretentiousness aside). So, with the mix of the enthusiasm of friends and the support by critics that it was watchable, I decided to catch up through NetFlix.

I got through parts of Disc 2 over the past few weeks. Most of these episodes were reruns in a sense because I had seen some of them. But I didn't remember them that much meaning I didn't pay attention while watching because I was engaged. Made it to Disc 3 and some of the stories started picking up. I watched two of those episodes last night. Went onto Disc 4. Watched most of that last night and capped the 4th episode this morning. Boy, it's getting good.

Not sure where the turn happened. There are still some lulls here and there, and some Alias-ing going on. But it's solid - way more solid than Flash Forward, for instance.

Two of the major issues I had when watching it were not connecting with Olivia and not liking Walter - I thought he was hard to understand and thought his quirkiness was more annoying than interesting. Oh, and a third was not being able to see Peter (because I always see Joshua Jackson as "Pasey" from Dawson's Creek.) In fact, this is what I wrote last September:

Fringe, on the other hand, is not Eureka. And, I'm not sure what I think of it yet. Well, I do, actually. I want to like it and I'm hoping that it'll get better. As of now, there are interesting moments but also many moments when I feel disconnected (and somewhat bored). I still haven't warmed to the lead. I still see Pacey. I'm slowly understanding Walter a bit more (I think they're intentionally lessening the density of his lines).

Pretty good. I remembered. Anyway, those issues have dissipated for me. I think Olivia's the shit. They Sydney-ed her. They balanced out her stoicism and scorn with a softer side like what Sydney had in the first season of Alias. Not that I Olivia or Fringe could or should become Sydney or Alias, but the balancing of her story is needed - not because she's a woman and she needs a soft-family side. But ALL lead characters need complexity - and for her it was added when her sister and young niece became part of her life. Then, in the episode "The Ability", the larger arc of the show's mythology and Olivia's life got expanded infinitely. Although, I'm still wondering if that was her or if it was Peter. Here's a review on one of the episodes that was very Alias-ish. Spoilers beware.

Pacey, I mean Peter is growing on me, also. He's essential to the show because he's the only real human of the three leads - or at least as it is now. He also has his internal conflict to resolve with how he interacts with his father. He translates Walter for us. He supports Olivia for us. Slowly, he's also becoming more essential to solving the mysteries with his "network" of guys rather than being a younger and more common sensical version of Walter.

As for Walter, what I had pondered about his lines in fact came into fruition. He did become easier to understand both in his lines and also as a character. His quirks are still out there and sometimes still random but I enjoy them more. I'm not sure if that's just because it grew on me or if they've written them in more naturally. As it typically is, these types of quirks are easier to write once a character has settled in rather than at the beginning when they seem forced. He has become my favorite character in the show. He obviously "knows" everything. He's involved with all the "science". He is also the character that has the largest capacity to grow - and we get to see it every week. He's regaining his humanity. He's gaining some resolution. He's evolving and earning the trust and understanding from Olivia and Peter - just like we're supposed to be doing also.

Last September, I also wrote this about FRINGE:

Earlier in the [2nd] episode, Walter referred to Jules Verne. [I think] That was a nod to original science fiction when technology really was theoretical and the concepts of hard science fed the fluffiness of imagination. So, I appreciated that moment and [it revealed] what I THINK they want this show to be: and old school science fiction jaunt masked in very very heavy drama.

The science is obviously beyond "fringe" and is much more fictional. I don't see an issue with this. It's farfetched, but so are a lot of shows. It's TV. I'm not going to worry about it. What I do like a lot is the sense of adventure this show has. It's also full of suspense, mythology, and an expanding level of empathy for its characters and dynamics.

What I am very interested in, though, involves a larger arc of the series. At first, it seemed like Massive Dynamic would be the core of the mythology of the show - and it still might be. But, in a few episodes there have been a group of people/scientists that believe in metaphysical theories of folded space and time (multiple/parallel universes/planes). They follow a bible based on those theories. (SPOILER!!!!
!!!!! !!!!!! It !!!!! Was !!!! written !!!!! by !!!!!!!!! Walter.)

What it brings up is the great exploration of faith versus science - a theme in all of JJ Abrams "scifi-ish" shows (Alias - Rambaldi's science and his followers' faith, LOST - Locke's faith versus Jack's logic). I don't think faith is the absence of science and science is by far not the absence of faith. Science, in fact, is fueled by faith. Sometimes we are bogged down by the idea that true faith lives in the absence of full knowledge and since science is that method of answering questions that it must be in competition with faith. But science goes nowhere without faith - it goes nowhere without postulating far out ideas that either get proven, disproven, matched, or exceeded. Flight was a matter of faith - faith that it could truly happen and it was achieved through science. Beyond that, though, are the theories of creation and space. Do we really KNOW that we live in a galaxy formed around a SINGULAR ball of gas? And do we really KNOW that the universe is almost infinitely full of these balls of gasses? And do we really KNOW that there is an end to this universe - and if there is - do we really KNOW that there is an absence of anything beyond? We've been taught that - and yes I believe with excitement - but we have no real way of knowing. We can't beam ourselves to the end point or to Saturn or to that galaxy where they recently found a red dwarf star surrounded by a planet that's somewhat similar to Earth. We have faith that all this science is true. I know I'm not the first person to say this and if this is somehow "scientologist" that is very much unintended, but it's a fascinating idea that FRINGE explores and challenges in every episode.

Yes, it's getting good.

posted by breakfast boy@ 10:19 PM