Oh, hello. LJ-versary. Also, Fringe.
Yesterday was apparently the ten year anniversary of my LiveJournal, so I thought I'd post something. I just finished mainlining all 5 seasons of Fringe, so I guess I will put some blah-blah about Fringe under the cut.
Show took a while to warm up. I don't necessarily mind things being fan-fictiony, but it felt like that in S1 and rubbed me the wrong way. It didn't help that I didn't much like The X-Files, which is what it seemed to be fan fiction of. It seemed careless and I didn't much care for the characters, and though I loved the ridiculous, fast-and-loose name "Massive Dynamic," the "Pattern" bored me.
But that same loose, irresponsible, "we're not really making a TV show here" style really grew on me. I agree with The Critics that from about the middle of S2 through late S3 the show was actually quite good, and, more importantly, likable. I liked how they were willing to do just about anything, as long as it was fun. Which is why S5 didn't bother me. It wasn't as good as S2-3, but I found it completely consistent with the show's overall style and ethics, which was "anything goes and who cares if it makes sense," with a huge side order of "I love you I love you I love you." They kept setting up things that were pure soap opera - I mean classic, olden times daytime drama - like Peter's inadvertent affair with Fauxlivia, but then just when they'd set it up for Peter to lie more or for someone to keep a secret that would spin the story out for another 3 months, Peter would just turn around and tell the truth, or taken the widget out of his brain, or something like that, and resolve it. If they needed more story, they could always just add a universe or mix up the timelines or basically do whatever they wanted, all the time.
And Walter was really quite a bit like my father (a scientist, a narcissist, and an eccentric) in some ways, and very well done. Obviously he was the center of the show.
I liked the family spirit, the sentimentality, the silliness and carelessness, especially when combined with the episodes in mid-series where the plot of the week was always an allegory about themes in the main soap opera arc, like the zombie marionette as a commentary on mistaking Fauxlivia for the real thing. This proves that Buffy was way better than X-Files, as if more proof was needed. QED.
Unfortunately I did not keep a list of favorite lines and episodes, or I'd go on for pages more. It had some really charming and weird dialogue at times, and I felt pretty sure that John Noble must have been writing a lot of his own lines (or else they had a dedicated writer for him, the way Joss Whedon wrote Darleen on Roseanne). It was a marked contrast with the inane platitudes that made up Olivia's character, although I did end up thinking her character was very sharply drawn. Fauxlivia really helped with that, and Anna Torv played both roles very well. Lincoln was good in both universes also. My feeling about Peter for the first year and a half was, why do they want a guy who doesn't seem to give a shit about anything, ever? Being saddled with his crazy father, hails of gunfire, the supernatural - everything seemed to roll off him like he'd been dipped in Neverwet. But, cute and genuinely likable in the event, even if - predictably - a little too in love with himself in episodes of Nobility (was that a joke? that was a joke, wasn't it.)
I guess the main point is that I feel like TV has gotten too planned and lacks sufficient idiosyncrasy a lot of the time. I liked the looseness and rough edges and playfulness. It felt like a show made by people.
Oh, oh, did you know that Anna Torv is Rupert Murdoch's niece???? Well, her aunt, anyway, was married to Murdoch for 31 years, per Wikipedia. I am hoping she is not a member of Team Murdoch, but who knows.
Show took a while to warm up. I don't necessarily mind things being fan-fictiony, but it felt like that in S1 and rubbed me the wrong way. It didn't help that I didn't much like The X-Files, which is what it seemed to be fan fiction of. It seemed careless and I didn't much care for the characters, and though I loved the ridiculous, fast-and-loose name "Massive Dynamic," the "Pattern" bored me.
But that same loose, irresponsible, "we're not really making a TV show here" style really grew on me. I agree with The Critics that from about the middle of S2 through late S3 the show was actually quite good, and, more importantly, likable. I liked how they were willing to do just about anything, as long as it was fun. Which is why S5 didn't bother me. It wasn't as good as S2-3, but I found it completely consistent with the show's overall style and ethics, which was "anything goes and who cares if it makes sense," with a huge side order of "I love you I love you I love you." They kept setting up things that were pure soap opera - I mean classic, olden times daytime drama - like Peter's inadvertent affair with Fauxlivia, but then just when they'd set it up for Peter to lie more or for someone to keep a secret that would spin the story out for another 3 months, Peter would just turn around and tell the truth, or taken the widget out of his brain, or something like that, and resolve it. If they needed more story, they could always just add a universe or mix up the timelines or basically do whatever they wanted, all the time.
And Walter was really quite a bit like my father (a scientist, a narcissist, and an eccentric) in some ways, and very well done. Obviously he was the center of the show.
I liked the family spirit, the sentimentality, the silliness and carelessness, especially when combined with the episodes in mid-series where the plot of the week was always an allegory about themes in the main soap opera arc, like the zombie marionette as a commentary on mistaking Fauxlivia for the real thing. This proves that Buffy was way better than X-Files, as if more proof was needed. QED.
Unfortunately I did not keep a list of favorite lines and episodes, or I'd go on for pages more. It had some really charming and weird dialogue at times, and I felt pretty sure that John Noble must have been writing a lot of his own lines (or else they had a dedicated writer for him, the way Joss Whedon wrote Darleen on Roseanne). It was a marked contrast with the inane platitudes that made up Olivia's character, although I did end up thinking her character was very sharply drawn. Fauxlivia really helped with that, and Anna Torv played both roles very well. Lincoln was good in both universes also. My feeling about Peter for the first year and a half was, why do they want a guy who doesn't seem to give a shit about anything, ever? Being saddled with his crazy father, hails of gunfire, the supernatural - everything seemed to roll off him like he'd been dipped in Neverwet. But, cute and genuinely likable in the event, even if - predictably - a little too in love with himself in episodes of Nobility (was that a joke? that was a joke, wasn't it.)
I guess the main point is that I feel like TV has gotten too planned and lacks sufficient idiosyncrasy a lot of the time. I liked the looseness and rough edges and playfulness. It felt like a show made by people.
Oh, oh, did you know that Anna Torv is Rupert Murdoch's niece???? Well, her aunt, anyway, was married to Murdoch for 31 years, per Wikipedia. I am hoping she is not a member of Team Murdoch, but who knows.