Blog Archives
‘FRINGE’ Photo Recap: “Brave New World – Part 2″
Physically, I may be sitting in a hotel room typing this on my laptop while listening to the Prince of Egypt soundtrack, but mentally and spiritually I’m still dancing in an imaginary conga line with the rest of the Fringe fandom because THAT WAS THE GREATEST THING EVER. (I know I say that a lot, but I think you know that this time I’m not exaggerating.) The season finale of Fringe was wondrous, magnificent, and all the other synonyms that are listed under “awesome” in the thesaurus. (I’m too lazy to type them all here.) It reminded me of this book I once read, where this guy had to save the world by dying and coming back to life, and this other guy built a huge boat for him and a bunch of animals to live on, and this other guy had a magical technicolor pea dream coat. That’s right, ya’ll. I’m talking about the Bible. This season was like one big long walk through the Old Testament, and the final episode marked the transition to the New Testament with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, AKA Olivia Dunham.
If you had asked me back in season one what the perfect finale episode would be, I probably would have described exactly what happened in “Brave New World, Part 2”: the whole team together, smiling and eating Red Vines, and Peter and Olivia HAVING A BABY TOGETHER. Of course, now that I’ve seen all the magical things Fringe has to offer, I would have to amend that vision to include Lincoln Lee (shirtless of course), Henry the cab driver, a musical number, Broyles on LSD, and AltLincoln and Altlivia riding a horse together in the background. (What can I say? I dream big.) But this finale was damn near perfect. And it certainly had more closure that I’m used to in my Fringe finales. Let’s get this party started!
‘FRINGE’ Photo Recap: “Brave New World – Part 1″
Do you ever wonder if the Fringe writers have like a checklist in the writers’ room so they can make sure that each episode elicits all of the various reactions within the range of human emotion that you can possibly fit into an hour of television? Based on this episode, I worked up a list, complete with emoticons (which I imagine is how the pros do it). See if you can guess what scenes match the responses:
- “Holy s**t that was awesome!!!”
- “WTF?!”
- [Adorbs overload]
- “LOLz!”
- [Swoon]
- “Wait, am I watching Lost?”
- [Fringe nostalgia]
- “MY HEART WILL NEVER BE WHOLE AGAIN”
- [Plaidgasm]
- “Seriously though. What just happened?”
- [Jaw = floor]
- “I’m hungry…”
- “I CAN’T HANDLE ALL THESE FEELINGS THAT I’M FEELING”
- [Emotional grab bag]
…Okay, so I just wanted an excuse to use the black sheep emoticon. Also, since when is “pizza” an emotion? I’m just saying, it was on the long list of emoticons that I had way too much fun researching for the purposes of this highly scientific chart. But anyway, the point is, this show always makes me feel like I’ve been slapped in the face repeatedly. This episode definitely set the stage for next week. And apparently that stage involves a very not-dead William Bell, which begs the question, what the hell is going on?! Come with me on a magical journey of discovery through this episode, and watch me try to make sense of it by making nonsense of it.
Like this:
‘FRINGE’ Photo Recap: “Worlds Apart”
Okay, I’ll just come out and say it. I know we’re all thinking it, so let’s put it out there: my new favorite pairing on this show is Peter and plaid. Seriously, how had I never noticed before how amazing he looks in plaid? It goes so well with his rugged Canadian handsomeness. He looks like a scientist who raided a lumberjack’s closet. And how fortunate that we had plenty of plaid to distract us from all the sadness of this week’s episode.
Like this:
‘FRINGE’ Photo Recap: “Letters of Transit”
Here’s the thing about Fringe: There’s only so many times they can crank up the level of epic-ness before we run out of words in the English language to describe it. At this point I feel like I need to make up a word to describe the mind-blowing, jaw-dropping, heart-stopping, earth-shattering awesomeness of this show. So here it is: extrasplendinifferous. That’s my new word. This season of Fringe has been extrasplendinifferous. And this week’s balls-to-the-wall future-set episode was no exception. “Letters of Transit” could easily have been the first part of an epic sci-fi movie. Or a spin-off series. Or a graphic novel companion series. Or an amusement park ride. THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS. That’s another great thing about Fringe—just when you think, “What could they possibly do that they haven’t already done? We’ve got multiple universes, rebooted timelines, flying porcupines… Where else can they take this?” they pull something huge out of their magic hat of fantastic ideas. You thought David Robert Jones was a problem? WRONG. The Observers taking over the world, now THAT’S a problem. I’m sorry Fox, but how are you gonna watch that episode and not give Fringe a fifth season? HOW, I ASK YOU.
Like this:
‘FRINGE’ Photo Recap: “The Consultant”
You know what was pleasantly surprising about this week’s episode of Fringe? I didn’t weep through the entire episode! Sure there was some intermittent sobbing, but it was punctuated by some heartfelt moments of almost-joy, and even the occasional instance of laughter. Once again Fringe proved its ability to make us feel ALL THE FEELINGS, which was an impressive feat, considering that after last week’s episode I was pretty convinced that I was no longer capable of feeling anything but crippling sadness. But “The Consultant” was filled with moments of bittersweet joy, amusement, fear, anger, nausea, sexual tension, and a lot of confusion in addition to the profound sadness at the center of things. Plus, more fun food symbolism! First toast, then bacon, and now eggs? This show is so good at combining my two favorite things: metaphors and breakfast food! Let’s get to it then. Unfortunately, things started off on a devastatingly sad note…
‘FRINGE’ Photo Recap: “Everything in Its Right Place”
So. About that episode. I’m not really sure I’ve processed it fully, mostly because my brain decided to shut itself down in order to protect itself from the crippling sadness that resulted from those final minutes. After I finished vacuuming up the tiny pieces of my heart from where it shattered on the floor—all the while electrocuting myself repeatedly due to the waterfall of tears flowing from my eyeballs to the electric cord—I decided that what we need most during these difficult times is laughter. So, without reliving the saddest scenes, I will do my best to find some humor in this week’s episode, despite my suspicion that nothing will ever be funny ever again. But if there was one thing that could make us laugh, it’s Gene in a bovine-sized FBI t-shirt on Grazing Day.
Like this:
‘FRINGE’ Photo Recap: “Nothing As It Seems”
First off, can I just say that I would watch Peter and Olivia shop for furniture for an entire hour? Or vacuum. Or polish sconces. I don’t even know what a sconce is, but if Peter and Olivia found one and polished it, I bet it would be the most adorable thing involving a sconce anyone had ever seen. They are so freaking adorable together! Don’t get me wrong—I love the longing glances and the sexual tension that comes with the “won’t they” half of the will they/won’t they dynamic, but there’s something to be said for the openly joyful smiles and the unabashed kisses shared between Peter and Olivia now that their stars have finally become uncrossed (knock on wood). Some TV couples become less interesting when they finally get together, but lucky for us, Peter and Olivia are definitely not one of them. (At least in my humble, slightly biased opinion.) The only downside of the whole Polivia romance (blasphemy, I know) is that poor baby Lincoln is left out in the cold. Granted, this is pretty much how it has to be. Unless there’s a third Olivia we can import for him from another universe/timeline. But I think we all know that Lincoln isn’t really jealous of Peter…he’s jealous of Olivia. (Or, more likely, a little bit of both.) So for the purposes of this recap, we’re going to assume that Peter and Olivia are blissfully happy together, but they’re so secure in their love and so open and progressive that Olivia is totally cool with Lincoln and Peter continuing their relationship, because that kind of chemistry cannot be denied. It’s kind of like Vicky Cristina Barcelona, but with two men and one woman. And also not horrible. (My apologies to anyone who liked that movie.) But anyway…now that we’ve established that watching Polivia is like looking into the sun, and that Fringe defies the laws of love with its adorable, stunningly attractive central threlationship, let’s get started on the actual episode, yeah?
‘FRINGE’ Photo Recap: “A Short Story About Love”
After four painful Fringe-less weeks of waiting, our suffering finally came to an end this week. And I have to say, after all the hype surrounding this episode, I found it to be a little disappointing.
…
JK IT WAS BASICALLY THE BEST THING EVER.
I replayed that last scene, like, 108 times. If only each time I watched it counted as a Nielsen family… But honestly, who needs good ratings when your show is this awesome? (Okay, there are some flaws in that logic, but just go with it.) Hey, remember that time Peter and Olivia made out in the middle of the street and birds sang and unicorns danced on rainbows and all the universes held hands and sang together and everything was beautiful? Let’s get going so we can revisit that wonderful moment.
Like this:
‘FRINGE’ Photo Recap: “Pilot”
Sadly, Fringe is on hiatus for another two weeks, so here’s a little something to keep you going until then. That’s right—I’ve gone back to the beginning and created a photo recap of the very first episode of Fringe. After being entrenched in the drama of season 4, it was a challenge to go back to season 1 with everything we know now (Alternate universes! Doppelgängers! Lincoln Lee!) but I tried to put myself in the mindset of the first season. Oh, who am I kidding, no I didn’t. But it sure was fun to make all those Polivia innuendos! I hope you enjoy this blast from the past while we await the next new episode of Fringe…
‘FRINGE’ Photo Recap: “The End of All Things”
Fringe is charging full-speed towards the season’s end, which means tons of teasing tidbits of backstory, high-stakes confrontations, emotional gut-punches, and dynamic fisticuffs. So why do I still feel so empty inside? Probably because this episode had a lot of Nina Sharp, and also Peter’s dream-walk down memory lane with September was more than a little soul-crushing (in a good way). I hope you’re up on your Princess Bride, Star Wars, and Say Anything references, because this week’s recap is chock full of ‘em. (Sorry if I got a little carried away.)
