Season 4, Episode 15
“I don't want to feel like this anymore.”
It's been four weeks since Fringe aired its last new episode. Welcome back. Are you well rested? Did the time away help you to gain a little perspective about the show? Nah, me neither. However, the time away did temper the frustration that I've been feeling with the show (absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that), but I'm not really sure if it prepared me for what I was about to watch, an episode that managed to further answer some of my questions/concerns about the season as whole, but was frustrating for a large part of running time – and for reasons that surprisingly had little to do with the serialized plot.
Let's start of with the good, which was surprisingly the serialized plot, and concerned Peter following a lead left in his eye by September during his in-a-flash disappearance last episode. This plot was surprisingly low-key and simple considering all the narrative weight that it seemed to be carrying on it's slender shoulders, and relegating the serialized plot to a B-plot, as opposed to a full-episode or just opening and closing bumbers, it something that I've failed to be engaged by in the few other times the show has done this.
But that's not the point. The point is that we definitively know that the Prime and Amber timelines are one and the same, and though based on my thoughts on the last episode, you'd right for guessing that I was frustated by the show reversing it's stance on this issue once again, it's simply nice to have some closure. However, given that most of this season has been spent with a version of Olivia that isn't the version that we're used to, it was pretty hard to feel any sort of emotion with the closing kiss between her and Peter. It also didn't help that we were told that the reason Peter was able to come back was because of LOOOOOOOVVVVVVEEE, which much like it was used in “6B”, is the sort of bullshit that destroys the facade of quasi-realism that the show tries to prop up everyweek. Obviously Fringe isn't a show that can claim to be based in reality, but it at least tries to provide some internal logic for how and why things happen, so when something it said to have occurred because of “the power of love”, it comes off as some sort of lazy-ass resolution that destroys the logic of the show. It's also as corny as hell to boot.
Unfortunately, the corniness didn't stop there, and for the first time in a long time, I found myself actively hating the case of the week. Long time readers of the blog are no doubt used to my general tendency of skipping over of the standalone plots, which I do mostly because I rarely find them as interesting as the serialized stuff, and it's always hard to talk about something that bores you. That's right, I find most of this show's standalone plots boring, as I do with most procedurals on the air right now, since apparently writing a good, compelling standalone case has become something of a lost art in the television industry. However, even if the standalone plots are boring, it's rarely something I get worked up over, because how can you arouse passion for something for passionless.
Yet I actively hated the standalone cases this week because it insulted our intellegence several times over the hour. That, by the way, is the reason that I started with the good of the episode, because after I tear apart this plot, I don't want anybody thinking that I don't appreaciate what the B-plot did by treating it as an after thought. So, without further ado...
There's nothing wrong with telling a story where the Freak of the Week is in someway compelled by love. Heck, it's been the basis of some of the show's best episodes. But the show needs to understand why love is compelling the character, and have that adequetely expressed to the audience, or else it just comes across much like when you use “love” as an explination for the sciene-fiction parts of your narrative – as if you don't have an actual answer, and thus you just thrown up some bullshit that you hope people will buy because it's a universal expierence.
To that end, we never learn exactly why Carr is targeting loving couples and killing off the man, and then getting all rapey with the woman. (Gender tranditionalist much?) There's maybe something about how Carr never expierenced love, and thus he's trying to get others to appreciate what they had/have, but wouldn't it make more sense if his heart was broken by somebody first? And what's up with his scarred up face? And does that have something to do with his fascination on love? Because it seems like it should.
Now, it's quite possible that the show did explain this, but in a vague enough way that I didn't catch it. Or maybe it was because I was so disintered by the point that infodump happened, and that was thanks to plot mostly just fucking with us. I mean, there's something to the idea of a show using a reveal about a loving couple being a man and his mistress as opposed to his wife, but I don't think that reveal was set up properly either. Based on the wife's testimony, it appeared as if the husband was in love with her, and that's why she settled for him when she didn't love him, and that's fine, but then why did he fall in love with the mistress?
Do you see how this plot is full of holes? Anyways, I'm not going to keep going on about it, because that would be overly frustrating for both you, the reader, and me, the critic. Usually when Fringe does a standalone plot along with some important serialized work, there exists some sort of emotional connection, as the standalone and the serialized are used to comment on each other, but apart from some vague connectiong about love (because due, it's in the title), it didn't really work, mostly because the standalone plot wasn't as fleshed out as it needed to be to carry the weight. It's been a long time since I've seen a standalone plot sink an episode in this way, and I hope it's a long time before I see another example, if it doesn't end up being never.
Quotes and Other Thoughts:
Was John Noble sick during this episode? Because his voice certainly sounded a bit off to me.
Walter had Scooby Doo playing on one of the other screens while he was looking over the video of September's disappearance. I doubt it means anything, but certainly was interesting to see.
“Is everything all right?” “We're out of jelly beans.”
“Walter wants to know which of you has fearless nasal passages.”
But that's not the point. The point is that we definitively know that the Prime and Amber timelines are one and the same, and though based on my thoughts on the last episode, you'd right for guessing that I was frustated by the show reversing it's stance on this issue once again, it's simply nice to have some closure. However, given that most of this season has been spent with a version of Olivia that isn't the version that we're used to, it was pretty hard to feel any sort of emotion with the closing kiss between her and Peter. It also didn't help that we were told that the reason Peter was able to come back was because of LOOOOOOOVVVVVVEEE, which much like it was used in “6B”, is the sort of bullshit that destroys the facade of quasi-realism that the show tries to prop up everyweek. Obviously Fringe isn't a show that can claim to be based in reality, but it at least tries to provide some internal logic for how and why things happen, so when something it said to have occurred because of “the power of love”, it comes off as some sort of lazy-ass resolution that destroys the logic of the show. It's also as corny as hell to boot.
Unfortunately, the corniness didn't stop there, and for the first time in a long time, I found myself actively hating the case of the week. Long time readers of the blog are no doubt used to my general tendency of skipping over of the standalone plots, which I do mostly because I rarely find them as interesting as the serialized stuff, and it's always hard to talk about something that bores you. That's right, I find most of this show's standalone plots boring, as I do with most procedurals on the air right now, since apparently writing a good, compelling standalone case has become something of a lost art in the television industry. However, even if the standalone plots are boring, it's rarely something I get worked up over, because how can you arouse passion for something for passionless.
Yet I actively hated the standalone cases this week because it insulted our intellegence several times over the hour. That, by the way, is the reason that I started with the good of the episode, because after I tear apart this plot, I don't want anybody thinking that I don't appreaciate what the B-plot did by treating it as an after thought. So, without further ado...
There's nothing wrong with telling a story where the Freak of the Week is in someway compelled by love. Heck, it's been the basis of some of the show's best episodes. But the show needs to understand why love is compelling the character, and have that adequetely expressed to the audience, or else it just comes across much like when you use “love” as an explination for the sciene-fiction parts of your narrative – as if you don't have an actual answer, and thus you just thrown up some bullshit that you hope people will buy because it's a universal expierence.
To that end, we never learn exactly why Carr is targeting loving couples and killing off the man, and then getting all rapey with the woman. (Gender tranditionalist much?) There's maybe something about how Carr never expierenced love, and thus he's trying to get others to appreciate what they had/have, but wouldn't it make more sense if his heart was broken by somebody first? And what's up with his scarred up face? And does that have something to do with his fascination on love? Because it seems like it should.
Now, it's quite possible that the show did explain this, but in a vague enough way that I didn't catch it. Or maybe it was because I was so disintered by the point that infodump happened, and that was thanks to plot mostly just fucking with us. I mean, there's something to the idea of a show using a reveal about a loving couple being a man and his mistress as opposed to his wife, but I don't think that reveal was set up properly either. Based on the wife's testimony, it appeared as if the husband was in love with her, and that's why she settled for him when she didn't love him, and that's fine, but then why did he fall in love with the mistress?
Do you see how this plot is full of holes? Anyways, I'm not going to keep going on about it, because that would be overly frustrating for both you, the reader, and me, the critic. Usually when Fringe does a standalone plot along with some important serialized work, there exists some sort of emotional connection, as the standalone and the serialized are used to comment on each other, but apart from some vague connectiong about love (because due, it's in the title), it didn't really work, mostly because the standalone plot wasn't as fleshed out as it needed to be to carry the weight. It's been a long time since I've seen a standalone plot sink an episode in this way, and I hope it's a long time before I see another example, if it doesn't end up being never.
Quotes and Other Thoughts:
Was John Noble sick during this episode? Because his voice certainly sounded a bit off to me.
Walter had Scooby Doo playing on one of the other screens while he was looking over the video of September's disappearance. I doubt it means anything, but certainly was interesting to see.
“Is everything all right?” “We're out of jelly beans.”
“Walter wants to know which of you has fearless nasal passages.”
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