Oct 13, 2010

Fringe Theory

Fringe is just about the oddest television show I've ever come across. And I'm not just talking about the content of the show itself. I'm talking about my relationship with the show, mostly. A real "on again/off again" type of affair.

Back when it debuted, I really thought it had a chance to be something special. But after about half the season, it seemed to have deteriorated into a sad X-Files clone. Your generic "mystery of the week" type of show, and it was doing nothing for me. Sure, the acting (especially the fantastic John Noble) was decent and it was science-fiction after all, so I should have been hooked. But I wasn't. So I dropped it like that bad habit they are always talking about in Proverbs.

Then, for some reason, I watched the last handful of episodes from last season. And it finally hooked me. I haven't gone back to watch the season and a half plus that I missed, maybe one day I will. But for now I'm pretty happy just watching the new episodes as they appear each week. Lots of fun stuff going on. Specifically another universe that is freakishly similar to ours in a lot of ways, but weirdly different in small ways that makes it a lot of fun. Like they have a comic-book character over there called The Red Lantern instead of The Green Lantern. Or occasionally a siren will go off and everyone needs to start sucking from n oxygen tube. And Back to the Future was made with Eric Stoltz in the lead role instead of Michael J. Fox.

Well that last one is something that very nearly DID happen in our own universe. In fact, Stoltz played Marty McFly for about 5 weeks of shooting before the switch was made. They say the Stoltz version would have been more somber and much darker than the comedy that Fox provided. I dunno. I'm not one of those people that adored BTTF, but there are a bunch of them around. Maybe I would have liked the Stoltz version better.

I'd like to switch realities/universes for a couple of hours to find out.

(embedded video may not appear on feed reader)



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Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Wait...McFly...Stoltz played the lead character in The Fly II. Am I on to something here?

11 comments:

hello haha narf said...

huh. i've never seen fringe. you make me wanna.

Verdant Earl said...

Becky - I'm not sure what a good jumping in point would be. Maybe last season's two-part finale. Or maybe just from the very beginning.

RW said...

My "Fringe" story- Totally true. I was thinking I had really lost touch with what was going on in pop culture anymore. I seriously could not converse with anybody about what was on TV or anything - and that's not a point of "oh I'm so special etc etc" nut more like "dude... i am OUT of it."

So I decided I was going to really try and get into a series (that wasn't Top Chef) and get *involved* in a story.

I saw the coming attractions or whatever they call them on TV for "Fringe" and I said - THAT'S the one I'm going to get into. So I marked the date and sat down to watch and was immediately unable to suspend my disbelief long enough to buy into it. I can suspend disbelief for stuff, like the movie "The Illusionist" - even with it's flaws of logic and sequence, I can buy into it. I was not given that impetus from this show. So I quit it.

I know, I'm pretty pathetic ain't I.

Slyde said...

Fringe just did nothing for me. i dont have any burning desire to revisit it either.

p.s. im back.

Verdant Earl said...

RW - I hear you. Fringe is a HUUUUGE "buy the premise, buy the show" kinda thing. I, however, have always been able to suspend belief. Probably because my favorite books were sci-fi and fantasy. So my brain naturally lends itself to that kind of thinking. But even I internally guffaw at some of the stuff going down in Fringe.

Slyde - You were away? Huh. I think you would like the current season of Fringe much more than the old "monster/mystery of the week" episodes from when you watched it.

Verdant Earl said...

RW - I hear you. Fringe is a HUUUUGE "buy the premise, buy the show" kinda thing. I, however, have always been able to suspend belief. Probably because my favorite books were sci-fi and fantasy. So my brain naturally lends itself to that kind of thinking. But even I internally guffaw at some of the stuff going down in Fringe.

Slyde - You were away? Huh. I think you would like the current season of Fringe much more than the old "monster/mystery of the week" episodes from when you watched it.

sybil law said...

Never seen it.
I love the Eric Stoltz thing, though. Then again, I just like Eric Stoltz.

marty mankins said...

I like Eric Stoltz as an actor. I mean, who doesn't adore Lance in Pulp Fiction.

But finally seeing this footage, and being the big BTTF fan that I am, I'm still plenty pleased about Michael J Fox playing Marty McFly.

As for Finge, I've never seen it (looks like I've got company here).

Verdant Earl said...

Sybil - I dig Stoltz too, but he's bugging me on Caprica lately.

Marty - I've never been a big BTTF fan, so I'd like to contrast and compare please. ;)

Commander Zaius said...

I enjoy Fringe although I fell out of watching the show last season and can't seem to catch up now.

Avitable said...

You know, RW and Earl, all of the science from Fringe is theoretically possible. In fact, the writers get all of their storylines from extrapolating Popular Science articles and quantum physics research. The only suspension of disbelief I have to do is some of the character logic, but it's a very well thought out show.

I gave up on Fringe halfway through the first season, then started watching again at someone's insistence. Somewhere towards the end of season one it started getting good again, and season two also improved as it continued. This season has been pretty consistently entertaining, as well - I'm loving the alternate universe almost more than ours.