Sep 18 2008
Fringe: Gag me with a surgical clamp
There are things to like about Fringe. I like the interactions among the main characters. I like the mysteries that carry over from one episode to the next. I like the way the bad guy got old, all it once, reminding me of the end of the classic movie Lost (no pun intended) Horizon.
But the torture, the serial killing, the heavy-handed attempts to gross out the viewers — those are things I can live without.
It’s a strange show, with a little bit of this, a little bit of that, X-Files meets 24 meets Catskills shtick. There are slowly unfolding mysteries for LOST fans and others who like their suspense drawn out. There are also stories that neatly resolve at the 55-minute mark for the more impatient.
None of it is particularly believable. It’s not just the fringe science that strains my ability to suspend disbelief — it’s also the cow walking down a Harvard classroom hall, it’s the woman who has no qualms about her date (trick?) taking her to a deserted warehouse, it’s the banter between Peter and his mad scientist dad, which is charming but over the top.
I do want to know what’s up with Peter’s “medical history,” and what Olivia’s boyfriend meant, in the Pilot, in his dying comment that Olivia should find out why Broyles hired her (is Olivia some kind of test-tube clone herself?), and what Broyles and Sharp are really up to, and whether Peter and Olivia will ever get together in condom-protected bliss. In only two episodes, the show has generated a decent amount of suspense. And I do love suspense. Maybe they’ll veer away from the gross-out fest, and I’ll be able to watch the show long enough to find out the answers.
Both episodes are available online.
Somehow I never even heard about this show. There seem to be so many recently that kind of blend together.
Well, you didn’t miss much. I actually gave up on it after the second episode (when my guilty-pleasure show, Dancing with the Stars, started to come on at the same time.)