Catching Up With Fringe

TV Review: Fringe, "6B"

Partygoers at a New York apartment fall mysteriously to their deaths, and it soon becomes apparent that they actually fell through the balcony they were standing on. The team rushes to find the source of this dimensional compromise before it becomes too large for them to handle. Guest stars include Colby Johannson, who is super cute and was on a couple episodes of Battlestar: Galactica, and Phyllis Somerville: prolific old lady. Directed by Tom Yatsko, who also directed "White Tulip," one of the best episodes of the series.

Rant alert: the concept of parallel universes independent of each other with slightly different versions of ourselves doesn't really work in any logical way if you think about it too long, but Fringe usually has a way of discouraging thinking for too long. To hearken back to the theme of a Dr. Manhattan speech in The Watchmen, the chances of any one person existing are so slim that their existence is clinically miraculous. This sounds very profound if you don't think about the exponentially larger figure of potential people that never existed. Basically: there are too many variables involved in a person being conceived and subsequently being born for them to coincide by chance in two distinct universes. Now for the purposes of Fringe (and, I suppose, Sliders) I can generally shrug that logic off, however in the episode "6B," the common elements of the two universes were flouted in front of the audience and it was difficult to ignore. The premise was that an elderly couple existed in both universes, but in our universe the man had died and in the other the woman had died due to differing results of a coin flip. They also, incidentally, live in the same apartment in a building which also exists on both sides. The surviving wife and husband are so devastated by their grief for each other that they compromise the dimensional barriers separating the two universes.

This was actually not that bad an episode, mostly because of Walter's continuing struggle with himself trying to repair the damage he's caused, and also we finally got to move forward with Peter and Olivia's relationship. Walter's goal of duplicating Walternate's amber 31422 highlighted his growing desperation at the deterioration of our universe that he is responsible for. Brace yourself for one of Peter's stupid speeches, which inevitably saves the day.

While this episode takes no discernible nods from X-Files, it does take an odd inspiration from "The Farnsworth Parabox," an episode of Futurama which featured a parallel universe whose only difference was that coin flips had opposite results.

TV Review: Fringe, "Subject 13"

Back in 1984, Walter and his wife Elizabeth try to acclimatize Peter to his new home and dispel his suspicions that they aren't actually his parents. Walter also discovers that one of his young test subjects, Olive, is responding to the Cortexiphan treatments in ways he might be able to use to transport Peter back to his own universe. But Olive's got shit to deal with at home. Guest stars include Chandler Canterbury and Karley Scott Collins as young Peter and Olivia, respectively, as well as prolific TV actress Sarah-Jane Redmont, who I mostly equate with Millennium's terrifying Lucy Butler. Directed by Fred Toye.

I encountered with this episode the same problem I have with Smallville. Olivia's fragmentary memories of Jacksonville make a certain amount of sense, but for her and Peter to have shared a fairly memorable childhood experience (running off) that they both seem to completely forgotten is pretty convenient, and seems like an unnecessary ploy to build a prior history between them when they don't really need it. Luckily, 80s Fringe is always a lot of fun, and we also got to see insights into Peter's relationship with Elizabeth, and some elaboration on what drove her to suicide. John Noble nails is performance as a pre-lobotomized Walter, slightly more brilliant but still pretty sinister. Young Peter is a better actor than Joshua Jackson.

TV Review: Fringe, "Os"

A botched robbery at a metal depository reveals that someone is developing an injection that allows people to levitate. Unfortunately, the process isn't quite perfected yet. Walter, frustrated at his inability to figure out how this was achieved, resumed his research to commune with William Bell. Guest stars Spin City's Alan Ruck, that actor who was everywhere in the 90s, sexy Greyston Holt, and a cameo from Lost's Jorge Garcia. Directed by Brad Anderson, my favourite Fringe director.

This was the first episode featuring Olivia and Peter the couple, so we got to see that Anna Torv and Joshua Jackson share little to no sexual chemistry. I thought it a bit interesting that, perhaps to confirm Peter's defense as to why he hadn't seen through Fauxlivia, Olivia has begun to act a bit more like her. She's slightly more relaxed, smiles more frequently, and is possessed of a better humour. Walter's outlandish plans to essentially resurrect William Bell are kind of all over the place and follow no real pattern. His conclusion that his breach of the dimensional barrier has relaxed the laws of science suggests that Fringe is only going to get crazier, which I'm all right with. Alan Ruck's well-meaning but misguided scientist is given more attention than many of the previous well-meaning but misguided scientists, but Ruck is good enough to hold our attention. As to the big twist at the end of the episode: I'm cautiously optimistic. Anna Torv has had a demanding role as it is, but I feel like if anyone had to do a Leonard Nimoy impression for shows at a time, it might end up looking a bit silly. We'll have to wait and see.