Fringe---"The Same Old Story"---9/16/08
 

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Synopsis for tonight's episode

I'll get it one more shot

^^ Same here. Last week was so-so but I wanna like it because it's Abram's baby.

I'll at least give it the whole season. So far it is entertaining enough.
On that note, I never got around to watching X-Files, but always wanted to. I know I know I could just watch X-Files on DVD. But perhaps this is my chance at redemption. I will watch Fringe. At least until FOX cancels it! :)

That's how I feel, but I've tried to get through the pilot at least 3 times and haven't been able to do it. In truth, I finished it once, but it just was so unengaging for me that I was shopping on my laptop during it and couldn't even tell you what happened at the end.

Let's hope that the second time's the charm. The pilot was weak, so I'm hoping it'll get better. Well, it can't actually get any worse.

I guess I'm one of the few that really liked the pilot so I'll be there with bells on.

I liked the pilot as well. It's not shocking that something like this that's received alot of hype will get alot of negative remarks.

With all the promotion and hype surrounding this show, it seems like alot of people here are disappointed because they were expecting the 2nd coming of Lost.

The second go around was indeed better. Better story with some intense moments. If you're willing to suspend disbelief higher than Cheech and Chong this show can be enjoyable.

I'm still week to week on it. My Tuesday nights are empty right now. If something better comes along this will get the ax.

The second was much better. It had a more even tone. The story was completely predictable but it was called "The Same Old Story" after all. I think the pilot was trying to do too many things and it was a muddled mess. I'll def. give it another week.

Wish they would get the locations right. There is no Sergeant Bridge in Stoughton, MA. And the town is not on the water! It's about 25 miles inland, southwest of Boston. I had a good laugh when they showed the aerial shot of the warehouses on the dock with a big cargo ship next to one!! But I'm sure they play fast and loose with areas around, say, LA or New York, too.

--John

The pilot was an origin story, they had to use a lot of the time to get the cast together. Since that is now out of the way, it frees up the show to tell it's stories in a more straight-forward manner.

I thought this was a dramatic plunge in quality after the less than stellar pilot. All of the dialog in the first half of the episode consisted of exposition reiterating the plot points of the series.

"Hey remember that time you were in an insane asylum for 17 years because of the dangerously cutting edge science work you did for the government and then I, your son (despite my supposedly gruff exterior, checkered history, and 190 IQ,) got you released in order to help that one young, attractive, female FBI agent solve mysterious crimes in your dangerously cutting edge laboratory in the basement of Harvard University?"

I fell asleep for about 10 minutes half way in and decided to give up. (Nothing against the show...I was TIRED!)

I am like others...I WANT to like this a lot. And the premise they set up was interesting...I'd like to see the complete episode.

For some reason, I just cannot get into the main actress carrying the show. She just lacks charisma to me. I don't find her all that entertaining to watch.

I'm fine with time travel and spaceships moving faster than light but how the heck would hormones speed up chemical kinetics or turn existing hair white?
And how would a baby grow to the size of an old man unless the staff had been feeding him hundreds of pounds of food?

I feel as though Massive Dynamics will prove to be a Deus Ex Machina for the series as a whole. The eye you're trying to take an image from doesn't have an S-video out? Call up MD!

The series also seems less "real" than the one it is being most compared to, The X-Files. While X-Files was obviously fantastical in nature, everything about it, for me, felt more grounded somehow in reality. Fringe just seems to not bother with a sense of scope and realism, and instead just opts to toss out some technical babble, and hope people buy it.

Finally, two things:

1) What was the final scene? Three people in a hospital-esque room?
2) Are we to assume that the reasoning behind the son's IQ, and general conditioning, is due to meddling from the father at a genetic level?

All this having been, poorly, I might add, said (I'm operating off roughly three hours of sleep here; cut me some slack), I'm going to give it a full ride until it's ultimately cancelled. Go team Abrams!

I'm going to keep watching, but yeah this seemed sloppy and uninspired. Not what I expect from JJ.

This is the same JJ who gave the world Six Degrees and What About Brian, right? I'm not sure why the crappiness of this series so far would be a huge surprise. I like LOST enough to complain constantly about it like everybody else, and I know a lot of you loved Alias (which I have no opinion of one way or another). It's not like the guy has a bulletproof rep, though.

I was bored last night. I may give this show one more try, but I told my wife she may be watching this one on her own since she seems to like it.

Not impressed with this show thus far...

THREE OF THE SAME PERSON. I couldn't place the face since it's such a short and weirdly angled shot, but it is definitely the same person in each bed...so some sort of CLONE angle is coming up soon.

I thought it was decent, on par with the pilot. I'm sticking with it for it's (probably short) run...and HEY!@@#$%@$ What About Brian? was awesome.

Interesting title for a show that looks like it will collapse under its own convoluted story

Wouldn't the girl's last image have been of the killer standing over her? A lot of time eapsed between when she looked at the bridge and her death.

I would think her last image would be darkness since her eyes were likely closed while she was still alive at the very end and all she could see was the inside of her eyelids.

But that just makes me laugh at myself. I'm ok with them finding ways to project a persons last image on a TV screen and I accept that there was a baby that died of old age a few hours after it was concieved. I'm ok with all this. What bothered me about the episode was the ridiculous technology they used to figure out what building she was looking at the bridge from.

what an awful mess this show is...JJ must've been so busy with Star Trek that he forgot to put his stamp of quality on Fringe...and unfortunately, this show doesn't have a Damon Lindelof behind the production...the writing is fair at best, the characters are written clumsily and the plot of last night's show was ridiculously over the top and sadly predictable...

at least with the X-Files, the outrageousness of bizarre 'science' was actually made semi-believable with Carter's crew and the likability of Duchovny and Andersen...Fringe, if it doesn't shape up is gonna be a goner...and it looks that way so far.