Fringe "The Same Old Story" 09/16/08 **Plot Spoilers may be included**

Yeah, we still like it. Yeah, there's still some plot holes. The first half of the show was a little too something. But, this was only the second episode so I give it a pass on some of the weak dialogue. The acting is good and so are the "production values."

The gross out opening was a full reminder of "X-Files" which was and is a grabber, particularly for those who don't switch from House soon enough.

There is underlying science or pseudo-science in everything they present. We got more of a feel about the back story on Dr. Walter Bishop, a vague reference to something maybe genetically hinky about Peter Bishop, And the ending leaves us with something to think about.

I keep getting thrown by Blair Brown as Nina Sharp as to me she was Molly Dodd, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't throw most people. But her role took a confusing shift in this episode with the advisory group.

At least Fox won't be canceling it soon. Between last week's premier with 9.0 million viewers and Sunday's repeat with 5.7 million viewers they got 14.7 million viewers. Last night coming out of House which got 14.7 million viewers Fringe got 13.2 million viewers, an unprecedented jump over the previous Tuesday, but not the surprise the media press makes it out to be.

I like knowing a show I like won't be canceled at the end of the third episode and Fox is terrible about that.

Whether Fringe will go more than a year will be indicated next week and the week after. In addition to the reality crap on NBC and the soap on The CW it was up against this week, next week it will be up against the new season second day showing of ABC's popular Dancing with the Stars and the premier of CBS' The Mentalist coming out of NCIS. In most households, I think next week is going to be tough for The Mentalist and Fringe.

Overall, the first episode of the regular production run was superior to the pilot. It was more tightly written, even with two minutes of exposition in the beginning. There were fewer CGI location titles, which is just fine... they're distracting. The aerial shots were actually of the city of Boston, although the location shoot now looks like New York or Philadelphia more than Boston. I wish they would hire a local Bostonian to help them with locations though.

I am still confused by Nina Sharp... is she on the Pattern side or the DHS side or both? At the end of the pilot, she was preparing the transparent guy for interrogation, and then at the beginning of the first episode she is in the DHS meeting.

Overall this show is going to live or die for me based on how willing I am to accept the pseudoscience.

Some rather major problems... even if you accept that it's possible to get someone's last image from their retina then why would it be the bridge? She was awake with eyes open long after seeing the bridge. Also, you just can't make a defibrillator out of spare parts. You just can't. This is so wrong I don't know where to start.

We'll see... we'll see.

Jaspear said:

I just wanna know if the woman who runs Massive Dynamic is the twin sister of the woman over on Eureka who runs Global Dynamics.

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No, but we are getting some kind of type casting - older redhead holds executive position in big dangerous company in scifi show.

Stuart Sweet said:

but did it make sense?

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Maybe I missed it (I did dose off a couple of times), but here's what bothered me the most (well, maybe not the most): This guy had been killing strippers in different hotel rooms for a long time. Why did he all of a sudden switch to the warehouse? Not just once, but twice in a row? Because something went wrong (she got pregnant and there were witnesses)? No biggie, just stop banging them first. That's not reason enough to stop using hotel rooms. Just seems like it was written that way, so he'd be easier to catch.

Here's my thoughts in a nutshell. I LOVE Lost. I was really looking forward to this show. At one point last night I said something to my wife about holes in the plot and/or dialogue and she said "So what? Suspend disbelief. Lost has holes too.".

But it doesn't. When I watch Lost, I always get the feeling that the writers are a lot smarter than I am. When I watch this show, I have the opposite feeling. That's what it comes down to. Maybe my hopes were too high. Maybe it's too early to tell. I just see a lot of sloppiness with Fringe.