Fringe is Back!!!

[maxdemo]

FOX 2010-2011 MIDSEASON SCHEDULE

MONDAY
Monday, Jan. 10:
8:00-10:00 PM LIE TO ME (Two-Hour Episode)
Mondays, beginning Jan. 17:
8:00-9:00 PM HOUSE (All-New Episodes)
9:00-10:00 PM LIE TO ME (All-New Episodes)
Mondays, beginning Feb. 7
8:00-9:00 PM HOUSE (All-New Episodes)
9:00-10:00 PM THE CHICAGO CODE (Series Premiere)
****************************
TUESDAY
Tuesdays, beginning Jan. 4:
8:00-9:00 PM GLEE (Encore Episodes)
9:00-10:00 PM MILLION DOLLAR MONEY DROP (All-New Episodes)
Tuesdays, beginning Feb. 8:
8:00-9:00 PM GLEE (All-New Episodes)
9:00-9:30 PM RAISING HOPE (All-New Episodes)
9:30-10:00 PM MIXED SIGNALS (Series Premiere)
***************************

WEDNESDAY
Wednesday, Jan. 5 and 12:
8:00-10:00 PM HUMAN TARGET (All-New, Two-Hour Episodes)

Wednesday, Jan. 19:
8:00-10:00 PM AMERICAN IDOL (Two-Hour Season Premiere, Part One)
Wednesdays, beginning Jan. 26:
8:00-9:00 PM AMERICAN IDOL
9:00-10:00 PM HUMAN TARGET (All-New Episodes)

Wednesdays, beginning Feb. 16:
8:00-10:00 PM AMERICAN IDOL (Two-Hour Episodes)
Wednesdays, beginning April 6:
8:00-9:30 PM AMERICAN IDOL (90-Minute Episodes)
9:30-10:00 PM BREAKING IN (Series Premiere)
***************************
THURSDAY
Thursdays, beginning Jan. 6:
8:00-9:00 PM MILLION DOLLAR MONEY DROP (All-New Episodes)
9:00-10:00 PM BONES (Encore Episodes)

Thursdays, beginning Jan. 20:
8:00-9:00 PM AMERICAN IDOL (Season Premiere, Part Two)
9:00-10:00 PM BONES (Time Period Premiere)

***************************

FRIDAY
Friday, Jan. 7:
8:00 PM-CC ET AT&T COTTON BOWL (Live)
Friday, Jan. 21:
8:00-9:00 PM KITCHEN NIGHTMARES (Season Premiere)
9:00-10:00 PM KITCHEN NIGHTMARES (Encore)
Fridays, beginning Jan. 28:
8:00-9:00 PM KITCHEN NIGHTMARES (All-New Episodes)
9:00-10:00 PM FRINGE (Time Period Premiere)
**************************

SATURDAY
Saturday, Jan. 15:
8:00 PM-CC ET NFC DIVISION PLAYOFFS (Live)
Saturdays, beginning Jan. 22 (no change to lineup):
8:00-8:30 PM COPS (All-New Episodes)
8:30-9:00 PM COPS (Encore Episodes)
9:00-10:00 PM AMERICA’S MOST WANTED (All-New Episodes)
**************************
SUNDAY
Sunday, Jan. 9:
8:00-8:30 PM THE SIMPSONS (All-New Episode)
8:30-9:00 PM BOB’S BURGERS (Series Premiere)
9:00-9:30 PM FAMILY GUY (All-New Episode)
9:30-10:00 PM THE CLEVELAND SHOW (Time Period Premiere/All-New Episode)
Sunday, Jan. 16 and 23:
7:00-7:30 PM THE SIMPSONS (Encore Episodes)
7:30-8:00 PM AMERICAN DAD (Time Period Premiere)
8:00-8:30 PM THE SIMPSONS (All-New Episodes)
8:30-9:00 PM BOB’S BURGERS (All-New Episodes)
9:00-9:30 PM FAMILY GUY (All-New Episodes)
9:30-10:00 PM THE CLEVELAND SHOW (All-New Episodes)
Sunday, Jan. 30:
7:00 PM-CC ET NFC PRO BOWL (Live)
Sunday, Feb. 6:
6:00 PM-CC ET SUPER BOWL XLV (Live)
10:30 PM ET/7:30 PT GLEE (All-New Special Episode; Approximate Start Time)
Sundays, beginning Feb. 13 (no change to lineup):
7:00-7:30 PM THE SIMPSONS
7:30-8:00 PM AMERICAN DAD
8:00-8:30 PM THE SIMPSONS
8:30-9:00 PM BOB’S BURGERS
9:00-9:30 PM FAMILY GUY
9:30-10:00 PM THE CLEVELAND SHOW
​

 

[maxdemo]

FOX 2010-2011 MIDSEASON SCHEDULE

MONDAY
Monday, Jan. 10:
8:00-10:00 PM LIE TO ME (Two-Hour Episode)
Mondays, beginning Jan. 17:
8:00-9:00 PM HOUSE (All-New Episodes)
9:00-10:00 PM LIE TO ME (All-New Episodes)
Mondays, beginning Feb. 7
8:00-9:00 PM HOUSE (All-New Episodes)
9:00-10:00 PM THE CHICAGO CODE (Series Premiere)
****************************
TUESDAY
Tuesdays, beginning Jan. 4:
8:00-9:00 PM GLEE (Encore Episodes)
9:00-10:00 PM MILLION DOLLAR MONEY DROP (All-New Episodes)
Tuesdays, beginning Feb. 8:
8:00-9:00 PM GLEE (All-New Episodes)
9:00-9:30 PM RAISING HOPE (All-New Episodes)
9:30-10:00 PM MIXED SIGNALS (Series Premiere)
***************************

WEDNESDAY
Wednesday, Jan. 5 and 12:
8:00-10:00 PM HUMAN TARGET (All-New, Two-Hour Episodes)

Wednesday, Jan. 19:
8:00-10:00 PM AMERICAN IDOL (Two-Hour Season Premiere, Part One)
Wednesdays, beginning Jan. 26:
8:00-9:00 PM AMERICAN IDOL
9:00-10:00 PM HUMAN TARGET (All-New Episodes)

Wednesdays, beginning Feb. 16:
8:00-10:00 PM AMERICAN IDOL (Two-Hour Episodes)
Wednesdays, beginning April 6:
8:00-9:30 PM AMERICAN IDOL (90-Minute Episodes)
9:30-10:00 PM BREAKING IN (Series Premiere)
***************************
THURSDAY
Thursdays, beginning Jan. 6:
8:00-9:00 PM MILLION DOLLAR MONEY DROP (All-New Episodes)
9:00-10:00 PM BONES (Encore Episodes)

Thursdays, beginning Jan. 20:
8:00-9:00 PM AMERICAN IDOL (Season Premiere, Part Two)
9:00-10:00 PM BONES (Time Period Premiere)

***************************

FRIDAY
Friday, Jan. 7:
8:00 PM-CC ET AT&T COTTON BOWL (Live)
Friday, Jan. 21:
8:00-9:00 PM KITCHEN NIGHTMARES (Season Premiere)
9:00-10:00 PM KITCHEN NIGHTMARES (Encore)
Fridays, beginning Jan. 28:
8:00-9:00 PM KITCHEN NIGHTMARES (All-New Episodes)
9:00-10:00 PM FRINGE (Time Period Premiere)
**************************

SATURDAY
Saturday, Jan. 15:
8:00 PM-CC ET NFC DIVISION PLAYOFFS (Live)
Saturdays, beginning Jan. 22 (no change to lineup):
8:00-8:30 PM COPS (All-New Episodes)
8:30-9:00 PM COPS (Encore Episodes)
9:00-10:00 PM AMERICA’S MOST WANTED (All-New Episodes)
**************************
SUNDAY
Sunday, Jan. 9:
8:00-8:30 PM THE SIMPSONS (All-New Episode)
8:30-9:00 PM BOB’S BURGERS (Series Premiere)
9:00-9:30 PM FAMILY GUY (All-New Episode)
9:30-10:00 PM THE CLEVELAND SHOW (Time Period Premiere/All-New Episode)
Sunday, Jan. 16 and 23:
7:00-7:30 PM THE SIMPSONS (Encore Episodes)
7:30-8:00 PM AMERICAN DAD (Time Period Premiere)
8:00-8:30 PM THE SIMPSONS (All-New Episodes)
8:30-9:00 PM BOB’S BURGERS (All-New Episodes)
9:00-9:30 PM FAMILY GUY (All-New Episodes)
9:30-10:00 PM THE CLEVELAND SHOW (All-New Episodes)
Sunday, Jan. 30:
7:00 PM-CC ET NFC PRO BOWL (Live)
Sunday, Feb. 6:
6:00 PM-CC ET SUPER BOWL XLV (Live)
10:30 PM ET/7:30 PT GLEE (All-New Special Episode; Approximate Start Time)
Sundays, beginning Feb. 13 (no change to lineup):
7:00-7:30 PM THE SIMPSONS
7:30-8:00 PM AMERICAN DAD
8:00-8:30 PM THE SIMPSONS
8:30-9:00 PM BOB’S BURGERS
9:00-9:30 PM FAMILY GUY
9:30-10:00 PM THE CLEVELAND SHOW
​

 

[Nobody_Important]

Why wait for the reruns???

You can see every episode here...

http://www.fastpasstv.com/tv/fringe/
I use the WiseVid, Videoweed, and my fav is MegaVideo (but I hate the time constraints)

Great tip. Thanks, Max.
Kind regards,
NI

 

[RogueScholar]

I kinda felt sorry for the actor who played Jack on Dawson's Creek. Just think you audition for a role to play Katie Holmes boyfriend in a reoccurring capacity with on screen kissing and grinding. You have to be stoked and bragging to your firends. Then the writers tell you that they are bumping your character into contract status so you are thinking maybe I will pop Katie Holmes (Joey's) on screen cherry. Then BLAM the writers tell you "Oh yeah another thing... Your character is going to be gay from here on out and your gonna be kissing dudes on screen."

Talk about misdirection. LOL!!!

LOL, I never looked at it from that point of view, hosnatcher, but you're absolutely right, it was a classic bait-and-switch. It certainly didn't help his career either, while Pacey, Jen and Joey are all enjoying successful acting careers, Jack appeared in Final Destination then disappeared. He was also a little creepy for being so old and still portraying a teen, being 33 years old during the filming of the final season of the series. I'm not even 30 and I couldn't imagine channeling enough enthusiasm and angst to portray a teenager for a whole day, let alone many seasons of a TV series.

 

[maxdemo]

Reminder: 'Fringe' makes a confident Friday arrival

By Alan Sepinwall - Christopher Lloyd guests in strong first episode in new timeslot

Friday, Jan 21, 2011 2:34 PM


Christopher Lloyd hangs with "Fringe" regulars John Noble and Jasika Nicole.

Credit: FOX

If you're still a fan of "Fringe" after two and a half seasons and didn't realize that the show is moving to Fridays at 9 starting tonight, well... you are less info/tech-savvy than the stereotype of a "Fringe" fan would suggest.
Either way, the show is back tonight, on a night where (since "The X-Files" moved to Sundays more than a decade ago) FOX sci-fi shows have gone to die. (It's also, frankly, a night where many other kinds of FOX shows have gone to die, including Fienberg's all-time favorite sitcom, "Brothers." So it's not just the skiffy that suffers.) The night's reputation for killing shows dead is so well-known, in fact, that it's kind of hilarious that the first "Fringe" episode to air there shares a name with one of those dead series: "Firefly."
I've written before that I don't think this is FOX doing wrong by the show. It's in its third season, and at various points has gotten lead-ins from "House," "American Idol" and "Bones." And if we're being honest, it wasn't all that great in its first year-plus. Its audience is its audience at this point, and as Kevin Reilly said at press tour, if most of that audience follows the show from Thursday to Friday, it could run for years. And if not, the show had its shot - had a bunch of them - and either didn't have broad enough appeal or wasn't good enough early on to hold onto its initial, larger audience.
I've seen tonight's episode, which guest stars Christopher Lloyd as one of Walter Bishop's favorite musicians, and features the return of Michael Cerveris as The Observer. I won't spoil anything, but I will say that it's a terrific showcase for John Noble (and for Lloyd, who's so well-known for comedy that you forget sometimes what a good dramatic actor he can be), and one that points the way toward what should be a pretty epic season-ending arc.
So make sure you're on the couch at 9 (or at least that your DVR is functioning properly), and sometime after it's done, Ryan McGee will have a review up on our Monkeys as Critics blog. (Friday nights and weekends have become all but impossible for me to write on, so I'm likely going to take a break from weekly coverage of this show for a while, and if something's really extraordinary - or if I have an angle that's notably different from what Ryan wrote - I'll write it up the Monday after.)
I'm glad that the show accepted what it was, and decided to be about what it was about. As JJ Abrams told me at press tour, better to fail on their own terms than on someone else's. And with any luck, failure won't be something we talk about with this show for quite some time to come.

 

[kidman232]

max- whats the best site to watch current tv shows on (as in new episodes?)

 

[maxdemo]

max- whats the best site to watch current tv shows on (as in new episodes?)

I like www.sidereel.com and http://www.fastpasstv.com/

 

[maxdemo]

Fringe' makes Friday debut, doesn't drop in ratings!

by James Hibberd
Categories: Fringe, Television, TV Biz, TV Ratings

• Comments 7
• Add comment

Image Credit: Liane Hentscher/Fox

By some miracle of magic or science, Fox’s Fringe moved to Friday night and did not go down in the ratings.
The episode — titled “The Firefly” (nicely ironic considering the show’s move to Fox’s infamous Death Slot) — actually improved upon its most recent Thursday performance.
Fringe, which featured Christopher Lloyd as guest star, delivered 4.9 million viewers and a 1.9 preliminary adults 18-49 rating last night. Remember, Fox’s Kevin Reilly said if the show maintains its Thursday numbers on Friday, he’d renew it, so let’s hope the drama can keep this up. (Ken Tucker’s recap here).
The premiere of Kitchen Nightmares (4.3 million, 1.9) served up a solid lead-in for the Fringe and overall Fox was able to win the night.
Fox was helped by CBS airing repeats at 9 and 10 p.m., but first the network aired the series finale of Medium (7.8 million, 1.6), which posted a rather uneventful number for its last episode.

 

[louisvillekid]

i love tht show

 

[maxdemo]

This show just keeps getting better. Just watched Fridays episode and all I can say is I hope Peter chooses our Olivia!!

 

[maxdemo]

Great episode last night.....by far the best show on Fox this season.

to watch on-line
http://www.fastpasstv.com/tv/fringe/

 

[X-Files]

This show totally rocks. I rented SSN 1 & 2, if i recall, so #3 is being aired now?

 

[maxdemo]

This show totally rocks. I rented SSN 1 & 2, if i recall, so #3 is being aired now?

Yes and this is the best season by far.....

 

[maxdemo]

Fox renews 'Fringe' for fourth season

Fox will be renewing the otherworldly procedural 'Fringe' for a fourth season. (Liane Hentscher/FOX)


Lacey Rose and Philiana Ng Hollywood Reporter March 25, 2011, 11:13 a.m.





LOS ANGELES—
Fox's cult drama "Fringe" has been renewed for a fourth season.

The mindbender program -- which follows the adventures of a group of government agents investigating the supernatural side of science -- has been bounced around Fox's schedule for years. It launched on Tuesdays in September 2008, moving to Thursdays at 9 p.m. the following season.

In mid-January, Fox moved "Fringe" from the ultra-competitive Thursday night time period to the otherwise-dead Friday slot, with "Kitchen Nightmares" as its lead-in.

The 22-episode order comes after the show garnered a series-low 1.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic for its most recent episode, "Stowaway," down 13 percent from the previous week in which "Fringe" reached a low in viewership with 3.6 million tuning in.

Season to date "Fringe," which stars Anna Torv, John Noble and Joshua Jackson, has averaged 3.3 million viewers in the ad-favored demographic including its Thursday run, according to Nielsen. So far it has averaged 6.3 million total viewers.

Since premiering on Fridays the series has averaged 4.1 million viewers.

Though ratings have slid since the first season, the show tacks on significant DVR numbers. Through February 20 "Fringe" has seen a 44 percent increase in its key demo rating, rising to a 2.6 (vs. a 1.4) when live-plus-7 numbers are factored in.

Fox entertainment chief Kevin Reilly made his case for the series' survival at the Television Critics Association's semi-annual press tour earlier this year. "It's a fantastic show," he said, "and honestly I'd be heartbroken if it went away."

Executive producer J.H. Wyman tweeted the news, saying "Fringe was picked up!!!! Thanks Fringedom!"

 

[barman]

ack.....just saw the thread and got to Post #4 when I realized I was gonna get Spoilered out.....Still have to see last eight episodes of Season Two on DVD

 

[barman]

But did read your post from today Max, announcing the 4th season .....great news

 

[maxdemo]

But did read your post from today Max, announcing the 4th season .....great news

Very good news....and last nights episode was very good.
http://www.fastpasstv.eu/tv/fringe/season-3/episode-18/

 

[maxdemo]

Just watched the season 3 Finale....WOW!!! Unreal....


'Fringe' season finale recap/review: 'The Day We Died'

by Ken Tucker

Fringe closed out its third season with another peel-your-scalp-back finale in its final few minutes, preceded by an episode that tied many things together while introducing some new concepts. Oh, and also new hair styles, a new villain, and a new eye on Phillip Broyles.
Picking up where last week left off, the 47 year-old “Agent Peter Bishop” in the year 2026 was taken to the hospital after being injured. There we saw Agent Dunham — not Olivia, but her now-grown niece, Ella, who’s just been promoted to Fringe Division agent status. She was soon joined by Olivia; Ella is unsure what formal title she must use with her Aunt Liv, who solves the problem by saying, “Just call me ‘Boss’” — hmmm, Olivia has Broyles’ job now? Also, Astrid is a full-fledged Fringe Division agent as well. Less surprising: Olivia and Peter are married. (Kudos to you Commenters who said you’d spotted a wedding ring on future-Peter’s finger last week.)
Through quick, terse dialogue and by watching TV reports, we knew that the world was rapidly tearing — worm-holes, vortexes opening up in Manhattan and London’s Thames River, among other places — and there was a new-to-us foe, a terrorist named Moreau (Brad Dourif), a leader of the End of Dayers, whom we saw plant a bomb and explode an opera house. (With that one gesture, the show made sure we had no sympathy for Moreau’s cause, and made his subsequent connection to Walternate redound all the more poorly upon Walternate’s bitter revenge plotting.)
In quick succession, we saw now-Senator Broyles, who had a snazzy glowing-blue right eye, the result of some earlier assault, I assumed in Detroit, and he helped bring us up to speed on what happened between Peter’s present-day conjoining with the doomsday machine and 2026: “The entire globe is disintegrating,” said Broyles. And: “Walter is responsible.”
In a most poignant callback to the pilot of Fringe, Peter visited a Walter in captivity, his hair scraggly, his beard bushy. He had stood trial as the man who set in motion all the terrible things that were going wrong in the world and was serving time Peter was spared, as the latter was deemed an unwitting accomplice acting in “self-defense.” Freed on a temporary furlough to help Peter figure out the bomb mechanism found at the blasted opera house, Walter was reunited with Olivia, a scene that was important in establishing that Olivia has now gained such confidence, she could control her telekinesis to do quick, delicate things such as buoying a dropping box of Walter’s fragile lab equipment.
Walter had lost any of the personal-growth momentum he’d been developing in the wake of William Bell telling him he was on his own now and that he should trust his own instincts and intellect. Indeed, Walter called himself “the most reviled man in the universe,” and he was probably not exaggerating — even Ella, who once called him “Uncle Walter,” had a hard time seeing past Walter’s hubristic acts.
There were two almost back-to-back scenes with Peter at the center of them. When Walter blamed himself for all that’s gone wrong, Peter countered with a hearfelt, “You’re my dad” — i.e., he now considered Walter his true father. Then there was Peter’s sit-down with Walternate at the house in Reiden Lake (Peter was, to paraphrase the Observer, given the key… to save the girl?), where Peter apologized to the grim, white-haired man for “the personal suffering I caused you… I’m sorry for destroying our world” — that was to say, the alternate, “red” universe of Walternate’s.
But it turned out that this wasn’t a true meeting: Walternate had sent a sort of hologram version of himself to Peter, and thereby evaded Agent Bishop’s capture of him. Walternate then made good on his threat to destroy something Peter loved, by shooting Olivia dead.
I wish I could show you the little slip of paper on which I has scrawled, soon after seeing the coming attractions at the end of last week’s episode, these words: “Olivia Dies.” I swear, I predicted it… but of course, who cares about guessing correctly, since neither I nor you could have predicted how it happened? That’s one measure of good drama: You may have a strong feeling that, say, Anna Karenina is going to meet a bad end, but you’re moved when it happens anyway, in a manner you did not foresee. I’m not equating Jeff Pinker, J. H. Wyman, and Akiva Goldsman (the producer-writers of this teleplay) with Tolstoy, but the guys sure know about the power of love and family, about long-form foreshadowing, and unexpected pay-offs.
Seeing Olivia shot in the head and her corpse soon thereafter deposited into the sea was also pretty damn eerie, given what’s happened in “real life” in the past week to a certain sleeps-with-the-fishes terrorist.
Between them, Walter and Peter amassed a lot of knowledge: That Peter, since he can “see both worlds,” has to “make a different choice.” One of the implications? Olivia would not be dead.
The First People? Walter, Peter, and, perhaps, the Fringe inner circle — Peter wasn’t even ruling out Astrid. Walter and the First People had sent the parts of the machine back in time millions of years. Father and son realized that “our two worlds are inextricably linked… If one side dies, we all die.”
In one of the night’s final stunning moments, both universes’ doomsday workers were brought together in one spot: Walter facing Walter, Olivia facing Olivia. No more “alternate”s!
Thus Peter placed himself in the machines in both worlds, forming “a bridge, so that we can begin to fix” — but his image flickered out (much as Walternate had done earlier) before he completed that sentence; Peter was gone. It took an (“our”) Olivia to pick up on Peter’s thought, to send us off into next season: She said they had to work together to fix the universe.
This was where any other show would have ended. But there was a final kick: The Observers were arrayed across the green Liberty Island field. “You were right,” said one. “They don’t remember Peter.” “How could they?” said the other. “He never existed. He served his purpose.”
Now, think about the implications of what could happen. I’ll toss out a few. Walter can become whole again, his intellect and his humanity reintegrated. Same with Olivia. Or perhaps for a while we’ll have a pair of Olivias working together, as sisters in revolution.
Everyone will, I presume, be looking for a Peter. (They may have forgotten he existed now, but they’re going to find evidence that a Peter existed, or must exist — that is, must be willed into existence — don’t you think?) What will the disappeared Peter be like next season, what sort of changed man will he be? How will this Peter relate to the Olivia we see next season? My surmise is that Peter didn’t merely form the bridge; he is the bridge, operating, for the nonce, outside of time.
Think, moreover, of one other small thing: There may not be (is not?) a baby anymore. (If so, I for one will be glad. Love babies in real life; in Fringe, not so much.)
Consider about the whole arc of this season and tell me this wasn’t one of the most moving, thrilling, funny, inspiring chunks of television you’ve watched. The performances by Noble, Torv, and Jackson were extraordinarily adroit, never showy or merely clever. I was so glad that, by season’s end, Jackson/Peter had once again taken center-stage — a central importance — to a season that, by the nature of its design, needed to concentrate a lot on Walter(s) and Olivia(s).
Fringe benefit:
• Some clues were doubtless embedded in the phrases that flashed across the silver-gray opening credits, among them: “Thought Extraction,” “Clonal Transplantation,” “Dual Maternity,” “Brain Porting,” and — unprecedentedly blunt-yet-vague — “Water” and “Hope.”
Hope is, and remains, what Fringe is, at its still center, all about.

 

[maxdemo]

Just watched the season 3 Finale....WOW!!! Unreal....


'Fringe' season finale recap/review: 'The Day We Died'

by Ken Tucker

Fringe closed out its third season with another peel-your-scalp-back finale in its final few minutes, preceded by an episode that tied many things together while introducing some new concepts. Oh, and also new hair styles, a new villain, and a new eye on Phillip Broyles.
Picking up where last week left off, the 47 year-old “Agent Peter Bishop” in the year 2026 was taken to the hospital after being injured. There we saw Agent Dunham — not Olivia, but her now-grown niece, Ella, who’s just been promoted to Fringe Division agent status. She was soon joined by Olivia; Ella is unsure what formal title she must use with her Aunt Liv, who solves the problem by saying, “Just call me ‘Boss’” — hmmm, Olivia has Broyles’ job now? Also, Astrid is a full-fledged Fringe Division agent as well. Less surprising: Olivia and Peter are married. (Kudos to you Commenters who said you’d spotted a wedding ring on future-Peter’s finger last week.)
Through quick, terse dialogue and by watching TV reports, we knew that the world was rapidly tearing — worm-holes, vortexes opening up in Manhattan and London’s Thames River, among other places — and there was a new-to-us foe, a terrorist named Moreau (Brad Dourif), a leader of the End of Dayers, whom we saw plant a bomb and explode an opera house. (With that one gesture, the show made sure we had no sympathy for Moreau’s cause, and made his subsequent connection to Walternate redound all the more poorly upon Walternate’s bitter revenge plotting.)
In quick succession, we saw now-Senator Broyles, who had a snazzy glowing-blue right eye, the result of some earlier assault, I assumed in Detroit, and he helped bring us up to speed on what happened between Peter’s present-day conjoining with the doomsday machine and 2026: “The entire globe is disintegrating,” said Broyles. And: “Walter is responsible.”
In a most poignant callback to the pilot of Fringe, Peter visited a Walter in captivity, his hair scraggly, his beard bushy. He had stood trial as the man who set in motion all the terrible things that were going wrong in the world and was serving time Peter was spared, as the latter was deemed an unwitting accomplice acting in “self-defense.” Freed on a temporary furlough to help Peter figure out the bomb mechanism found at the blasted opera house, Walter was reunited with Olivia, a scene that was important in establishing that Olivia has now gained such confidence, she could control her telekinesis to do quick, delicate things such as buoying a dropping box of Walter’s fragile lab equipment.
Walter had lost any of the personal-growth momentum he’d been developing in the wake of William Bell telling him he was on his own now and that he should trust his own instincts and intellect. Indeed, Walter called himself “the most reviled man in the universe,” and he was probably not exaggerating — even Ella, who once called him “Uncle Walter,” had a hard time seeing past Walter’s hubristic acts.
There were two almost back-to-back scenes with Peter at the center of them. When Walter blamed himself for all that’s gone wrong, Peter countered with a hearfelt, “You’re my dad” — i.e., he now considered Walter his true father. Then there was Peter’s sit-down with Walternate at the house in Reiden Lake (Peter was, to paraphrase the Observer, given the key… to save the girl?), where Peter apologized to the grim, white-haired man for “the personal suffering I caused you… I’m sorry for destroying our world” — that was to say, the alternate, “red” universe of Walternate’s.
But it turned out that this wasn’t a true meeting: Walternate had sent a sort of hologram version of himself to Peter, and thereby evaded Agent Bishop’s capture of him. Walternate then made good on his threat to destroy something Peter loved, by shooting Olivia dead.
I wish I could show you the little slip of paper on which I has scrawled, soon after seeing the coming attractions at the end of last week’s episode, these words: “Olivia Dies.” I swear, I predicted it… but of course, who cares about guessing correctly, since neither I nor you could have predicted how it happened? That’s one measure of good drama: You may have a strong feeling that, say, Anna Karenina is going to meet a bad end, but you’re moved when it happens anyway, in a manner you did not foresee. I’m not equating Jeff Pinker, J. H. Wyman, and Akiva Goldsman (the producer-writers of this teleplay) with Tolstoy, but the guys sure know about the power of love and family, about long-form foreshadowing, and unexpected pay-offs.
Seeing Olivia shot in the head and her corpse soon thereafter deposited into the sea was also pretty damn eerie, given what’s happened in “real life” in the past week to a certain sleeps-with-the-fishes terrorist.
Between them, Walter and Peter amassed a lot of knowledge: That Peter, since he can “see both worlds,” has to “make a different choice.” One of the implications? Olivia would not be dead.
The First People? Walter, Peter, and, perhaps, the Fringe inner circle — Peter wasn’t even ruling out Astrid. Walter and the First People had sent the parts of the machine back in time millions of years. Father and son realized that “our two worlds are inextricably linked… If one side dies, we all die.”
In one of the night’s final stunning moments, both universes’ doomsday workers were brought together in one spot: Walter facing Walter, Olivia facing Olivia. No more “alternate”s!
Thus Peter placed himself in the machines in both worlds, forming “a bridge, so that we can begin to fix” — but his image flickered out (much as Walternate had done earlier) before he completed that sentence; Peter was gone. It took an (“our”) Olivia to pick up on Peter’s thought, to send us off into next season: She said they had to work together to fix the universe.
This was where any other show would have ended. But there was a final kick: The Observers were arrayed across the green Liberty Island field. “You were right,” said one. “They don’t remember Peter.” “How could they?” said the other. “He never existed. He served his purpose.”
Now, think about the implications of what could happen. I’ll toss out a few. Walter can become whole again, his intellect and his humanity reintegrated. Same with Olivia. Or perhaps for a while we’ll have a pair of Olivias working together, as sisters in revolution.
Everyone will, I presume, be looking for a Peter. (They may have forgotten he existed now, but they’re going to find evidence that a Peter existed, or must exist — that is, must be willed into existence — don’t you think?) What will the disappeared Peter be like next season, what sort of changed man will he be? How will this Peter relate to the Olivia we see next season? My surmise is that Peter didn’t merely form the bridge; he is the bridge, operating, for the nonce, outside of time.
Think, moreover, of one other small thing: There may not be (is not?) a baby anymore. (If so, I for one will be glad. Love babies in real life; in Fringe, not so much.)
Consider about the whole arc of this season and tell me this wasn’t one of the most moving, thrilling, funny, inspiring chunks of television you’ve watched. The performances by Noble, Torv, and Jackson were extraordinarily adroit, never showy or merely clever. I was so glad that, by season’s end, Jackson/Peter had once again taken center-stage — a central importance — to a season that, by the nature of its design, needed to concentrate a lot on Walter(s) and Olivia(s).
Fringe benefit:
• Some clues were doubtless embedded in the phrases that flashed across the silver-gray opening credits, among them: “Thought Extraction,” “Clonal Transplantation,” “Dual Maternity,” “Brain Porting,” and — unprecedentedly blunt-yet-vague — “Water” and “Hope.”
Hope is, and remains, what Fringe is, at its still center, all about.

 

[maxdemo]

Season 4 starts Friday...

Fri, Sep 23 Neither Here Nor There

The fourth season begins one week after Peter vanished, and as the two universes maintain an uneasy alliance, Lincoln Lee helps the Fringe team on a shape-shifting investigation that hits close to home.