Fringe 2x02/season 2 + Flash Forward 1x01 reviews
I have a number of reviews to get to, but I wanted to spew these two out before I got to the important one.
Oh, show. After Star Trek, I was all, WHY DID I EVER DOUBT YOU, JJ ABRAMS, OH MAN. But then I watch Fringe again and I sort of remember. Because Lost is bullshit, let me tell you.
I love Fringe. I do. But sometimes, I wonder. The beginning was rocky, nonsensical, unpredictable (in a bad way), and haphazard. It got better, and this season isn't as bad at all, but there are some days I watch and it honestly feels like the episode is just a culmination of three different elements of three different X-Files episodes.
First of all, it feels just like Lost in that the writers have NO IDEA where the show is headed. Yes, it's fantastic to keep the audiences in the dark and surprise them with reveals. But when the reveals are SO OUT THERE and COMPLETELY NEW PLOT POINTS, they will fall flat because the audience doesn't know what to base them on. Take Charlie being killed, for example. The first episode of the season dealt with a shapeshifter, and that's the only time a shapeshifter has been brought up. I feel like Charlie's death would have held more weight if shapeshifters were brought into play earlier, that way, the audience was just waiting for episodes and episodes for something like that to happen. You have to endanger the life of your character first to give more meaning to his demise.
I don't know. Fringe just feels so out of control, sometimes, and I groan a lot when they bring up some brand new out of control experiment. However, the characters are another story. I wasn't so sure about Olivia at first, but she's grown on me. And then there is Peter, and there is Walter, and they are just. They are the bread and butter. Their interactions, their banter, Peter's exasperation, Walter's childlike glee. Peter's love of Olivia, and Walter's attachment to her, as well. They hold the series together, and as much as the plot can make me sigh, I will keep coming back every single week to know how the three of them trudge on in the insanity.
I was fortunate enough to watch a screening of this last week at Paley Fest. I doubted, at first, why I was even there. I'd heard John Cho was in it, so I wanted to see.
God, was I surprised. And absolutely blown away by what I saw. I guess I was lucky in that I didn't know about all the press and excitement before then, so I had no preconceived notion. But what I saw is what I based my opinion on, and that was an INSANELY polished pilot episode with great actors, editing, a compelling story, and absolutely top-notch post production. I more than once let my jaw hang open at some of the composition of the shots. I don't think I've watched a series where I've been in absolute awe of the photography. The DP is just masterful. So much was dangled in front of the audience that it gives you sort of a very vague roadmap for the rest of the show: you know what the map looks like, and how big it is, so all you need is to fill in the pieces. It creates so much wonderful tension, and makes people want to return to their TVs next week to find out what happens.
Before the show screened, they had a panel of the series creators there, and Goyer was present to talk a little about the show. He spoke about how the map that Fiennes' character uses has pieces of evidence on it that will be relevant not just through the whole first season, but through part of the second and third, too. I have to admire a showrunner that takes the time to know where his series is headed. Knowing this, I kept my eyes open for symbols and images and things that repeated, and indeed, they did, like on the sides of a bus in the background of a shot. It's details like that that excite me on a show's possibilities. Now all that's left is to see if Flash Forward follows through on them.
More than that, though, I found myself emotionally connected with most of the characters, even if we knew very little about them, and the experiences they were going through were relatively foreign to me. It says a lot when the little girl opened her palm to reveal the friendship bracelet a character wore in his flashforward, and the whole audience gasped.
I'm so excited for more of this show. And JOHN CHO, God, I love you.
Oh, show. After Star Trek, I was all, WHY DID I EVER DOUBT YOU, JJ ABRAMS, OH MAN. But then I watch Fringe again and I sort of remember. Because Lost is bullshit, let me tell you.
I love Fringe. I do. But sometimes, I wonder. The beginning was rocky, nonsensical, unpredictable (in a bad way), and haphazard. It got better, and this season isn't as bad at all, but there are some days I watch and it honestly feels like the episode is just a culmination of three different elements of three different X-Files episodes.
First of all, it feels just like Lost in that the writers have NO IDEA where the show is headed. Yes, it's fantastic to keep the audiences in the dark and surprise them with reveals. But when the reveals are SO OUT THERE and COMPLETELY NEW PLOT POINTS, they will fall flat because the audience doesn't know what to base them on. Take Charlie being killed, for example. The first episode of the season dealt with a shapeshifter, and that's the only time a shapeshifter has been brought up. I feel like Charlie's death would have held more weight if shapeshifters were brought into play earlier, that way, the audience was just waiting for episodes and episodes for something like that to happen. You have to endanger the life of your character first to give more meaning to his demise.
I don't know. Fringe just feels so out of control, sometimes, and I groan a lot when they bring up some brand new out of control experiment. However, the characters are another story. I wasn't so sure about Olivia at first, but she's grown on me. And then there is Peter, and there is Walter, and they are just. They are the bread and butter. Their interactions, their banter, Peter's exasperation, Walter's childlike glee. Peter's love of Olivia, and Walter's attachment to her, as well. They hold the series together, and as much as the plot can make me sigh, I will keep coming back every single week to know how the three of them trudge on in the insanity.
I was fortunate enough to watch a screening of this last week at Paley Fest. I doubted, at first, why I was even there. I'd heard John Cho was in it, so I wanted to see.
God, was I surprised. And absolutely blown away by what I saw. I guess I was lucky in that I didn't know about all the press and excitement before then, so I had no preconceived notion. But what I saw is what I based my opinion on, and that was an INSANELY polished pilot episode with great actors, editing, a compelling story, and absolutely top-notch post production. I more than once let my jaw hang open at some of the composition of the shots. I don't think I've watched a series where I've been in absolute awe of the photography. The DP is just masterful. So much was dangled in front of the audience that it gives you sort of a very vague roadmap for the rest of the show: you know what the map looks like, and how big it is, so all you need is to fill in the pieces. It creates so much wonderful tension, and makes people want to return to their TVs next week to find out what happens.
Before the show screened, they had a panel of the series creators there, and Goyer was present to talk a little about the show. He spoke about how the map that Fiennes' character uses has pieces of evidence on it that will be relevant not just through the whole first season, but through part of the second and third, too. I have to admire a showrunner that takes the time to know where his series is headed. Knowing this, I kept my eyes open for symbols and images and things that repeated, and indeed, they did, like on the sides of a bus in the background of a shot. It's details like that that excite me on a show's possibilities. Now all that's left is to see if Flash Forward follows through on them.
More than that, though, I found myself emotionally connected with most of the characters, even if we knew very little about them, and the experiences they were going through were relatively foreign to me. It says a lot when the little girl opened her palm to reveal the friendship bracelet a character wore in his flashforward, and the whole audience gasped.
I'm so excited for more of this show. And JOHN CHO, God, I love you.