The final season of Fringe…
Hmmm…
Well…
This isn’t my favorite season of Fringe. I’m confident that I mostly know what’s going on but I can’t seem to care. The arrival of The Observers was highly anticipated but they turned out NOT to be mysterious and awe-inspiring but a stock collective big-bad who are marginally smarter than Storm Troopers (No offense to Storm Troopers).
Why was Ella introduced only to have her killed only to have Peter install Observer tech in his neck only to take it out? Don’t answer that because I don’t care.
Why are on this ridiculous Beta tape hunt? Oooo! Wait… I don’t care.
The Observer kid was actually December! Yayyy! But zzzzz, I figured it out already.
Nina is dead… I got misty-eyed but ok now what?
I gotta tell ya, I see a lot of story-layering and mythology-building leading up to something major but I can’t see how it all will end in a satisfying way. It’s a good thing if the end of Fringe is epic. It’s a bad thing if the key to defeating The Observers is something lame like love, or prayer, or pixie dust. If either of those scenarios happen in any form, I’m gonna take to the streets and cause MAJOR damage.
…and by take to the streets and cause MAJOR damage I mean I’ll either complain on my blog or send out a tweet saying “Sigh #fringe“.
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With 3 episodes left, Fringe returns January 11, 2013 and airs Fridays 8/9c on FOX.
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I listen to three Fringe-specifc podcasts and at least a couple others that talk about Fringe sometimes, and there seems to be big differences in how people define pacing, whether this season is slow-paced or fast-paced, and if they believe it’s slow, is it in a good way or bad way. At least two of these podcasters from two different podcasts feel this season is going at break-neck pace with no wasted moments at all. I agree with others that feel that this season is actually pretty slow — not bad, just slow.
I thought the 13-episode time frame would push this season into high gear, but it actually seems to be trudging along at Fringe’s normal, calm, introspective pace. At least one episode has even felt stand-alone except for the finding of a scavenger hunt item. I had to adjust my expectations as to what the pace & mood of this season would be like.
Aside from pacing, I agree with some of your frustrations too. Etta was temporary. Peter as an Observer was temporary. First we get a tape that says there are other tapes, and each of those tapes sends them on a chase for a piece of the plan — a mysterious plan that no one knows will work. They are really banking a lot of hope on the pieces of this plan. When it’s ready, this plan better be awesome and better work.
I remember being frustrated with the on-island portion of Lost season 6 but loving the “sideways” universe — up until the reveal in the final moments of the finale that made me retro-actively hate virtually all of season 6. I worry that if this big plan of Walter’s fails or is just plain lame in some way, the build-up from the rest of this season is going to lose its appeal the same way.
But, I think the reason I’m keeping the faith a little better is that Fringe still does such a decent job with production quality (despite a probably reduced budget), has strong performances especially from John Noble as Walter, and does very good with the quiet, sentimental moments between characters.
While Lost continually spun a web of mystery but then used character development as their last-ditch excuse for abandoning the mysteries, Fringe does a better job using sentimental moments to remind us that it really is a show all about the characters. Well… Sort of. It does occasionally blink characters out of existence and reset other characters accordingly and permanently close portals on parallel universe characters we’ve come to love and end a support character’s arc with a suicide, etc. But, other than that, it cares about characters. I think.
Anyway, I’m hoping the big plan somehow resets time back to a happier, shinier place where people are alive, together, happy, and sane. Because if the plan only rids the current 2036 timeline of the Observers but leaves everybody with that monumentally crappy post-Observer world to clean up after, then I may not be so happy with Fringe either.