Fringe is just an absolute disaster. I keep watching, waiting, wanting it to be good. But it’s no use. I’ve ceased to be remotely entertained by it anymore. The storylines are unengaging. The science is just ludicrous. The characters are all flat. The only character I find remotely interesting is the lab assistant Astrid. And she’s nobody! The only time Dr. Bishop doesn’t make me want to scoop out my eye balls with a rusty spoon is when he’s talking to Astrid and messing up her name, like when he called her Asteroid. I think I’m officially giving it up. It’s on Hulu so I can always catch up if it turns around and I hear amazing things about it. But for now, I’m done. Is anyone else still watching?
Me and Baldvin stopped watching a few episodes ago. We realised, the whole show is very formulaic and not in a good way. Our summary was as follows:
The plot is explained and something horrible happens
The horrible event, always occurring in the vicinity of Boston, comes to the attention of our main heroes
Bishop knows everything about the event and how it happened but refuses to tell anyone
The others find out everything, which we already know because it was explaned in the teaser
The culprit is caught or killed using pidgins or cows or warp drive or whatever (BTW with no possibility of them coming again)
Everything returns to status quo ante and you have no incentive to watch the next one
I am severly disappointed, I expected wayyyyy more. I actually thought it would be good and was very optimistic after the first episode but god, it’s bad. I’m hoping that if it gets a second season, everything will be revamped. I will give it a second chance then, and see, because the concept has potential. But it’s just not good. I think the main problem is in the fact that it’s very episodic, and people have just come to expect a highly serialised structure (Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, LOST, Alias, Battlestar Galactica, Pushing Daises etc.) The old Simpsons/Star Trek timeline resetting is out of fashion. And J.J. Abrams is probably too sure of himself as being so cleaver and genius after his past success he just assumes people will be interested in the weird stuff he gives us. But sorry, I ain’t buying it. You have to give us some reason to suspend disbelief. LOST built up the whole mystery stuff very slowly, only turning to real Sci Fi in the last season and Alias only gave you a tiny bit of the whole picture so you were always interested. FRINGE however just tells all right away, such as that potentially interesting, creepy observer guy; he was just revealed completely in the first episode he was featured. How lame is that? Did you see every weird think the Cigarett Smoking Man stood for right away in the X-Files? No. That’s why he was creepy.
Sorry.
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I “watch” it in that I keep the TV on after House. I call the characters Dr Frankenstein, Pacey and Mr Abbadon because I haven’t bothered to learn their names or what their deal is. Basically I let the weird stuff pass before my eyes without really caring one way or the other.
Never did watch it, but I hear that Torchwood show is pretty neat.
Course, its not on right now, but I’m really enjoying Skins on BBCAmerica.
HUGS…
Sorry about the typos BTW. I get that way when ranting.
We’re still watching it, but I’m not impressed. I was hoping it would be the next “X-Files”, but WRONG. I’m pretty sure I’ll be done with it altogether pretty soon.
Kári: The only way they could revamp it and make me watch would be to kill off Olivia, permanently, not like they killed off her boyfriend who can’t freaking stay dead. (Cute though he is.) I liked Peter, seemed like the only sane one in the bunch, oh and Olivia’s old boss (the younger guy – Sidebar: Was he not having a relationship with the boyfriend too since he said “He told me he loved me too.” and should she not have been freaked out by that? – Oh wait, she used her multi-use facial expression, guess I was supposed to assume that was shock that her boyfriend had a boy on the side – then again maybe she thought it was hot.) but otherwise I just didn’t care. I’m supposed to want to know why all that crap was happening, what the mystical device was and I just didn’t really care. I stopped watching a couple of weeks ago. It just started on Space so I suppose I could watch what I missed, but … unlikely. I did like the cow itself, cows are cool. Olivia has one facial expression and when I see the commercials for the show I find myself trying to mimic it, earnest and confused at the same time. Keeps me occupied for minutes at a time.
Polt: Don’t think I get Skins up here. You hooked me on Torchwood (thank god you weren’t pimping crack, I’d be living on the streets since I seem to do whatever you tell me LOL) but not sure how I will find Skins. Guess I could search for it.
Since there’s not too much else on right now, I’m still giving it a go. But if it doesn’t impress me enough by January, when Lost and Battlestar Galactica come back, it’s off the season pass.
I think the main issues with the show are twofold. First, the creators are diverging too much from Alias and Lost. Instead of steeping Fringe in mythology, to a point where you’re lost if you miss a few episodes, they’re keeping the mythology lighter, so if you miss a few episodes, you’re not totally confused. Problem is, the mythology is so light, it’s been nearly forgotten. Just saying the words “The Pattern” every episode doesn’t do the trick. Secondly, I understand the show is about fringe science, but it’s getting a bit ridiculous. Electrifying pigeons to hone in on a brain signal? The only things I’ve seen pigeons do is crap and look vaguely threatening when grouped en masse. The science in the show is so out there, some of it leaves the realm of being possibly believable and becomes more of a writer’s trick to solve the plot.
FDot: I still think mini-marshmallows on wires up your nose to make you tell the truth was sheer genius. ::gigantic eye roll::
Crapperooni, why does this stupid computer keep changing my e-mail address so I lose my avatar? And why don’t I realize that and change it when I post? Is there some fringe science that can help me with this? (Imagine me with the earnest but puzzled expression patented by Olivia while I bitch about this.)
Tam: Stick some mini-marshmallows and wire into the floppy disc drive. Your computer will then tell you why it is acting up.
I stopped watching after 0.5 episodes. However, this may have been influenced by the knowledge of that Craig et al would inform me if it got better.
It’s okay Craig. Your recommendations of Pushing Daisies, Chuck, Survivor, and Legend of the Seeker make up for it.
To return the favor, I recommend Dexter.
Fringe eh, it really is just an annoying show. I stopped watching after episode 5. There’s just too much good tv on nowadays to waste any time with it. I totally agree Craig, it just is too ludicrous and it tries to make it sound like it’s entirely possible. Like that weird eye imagery thing that was done in Wild, Wild West, an equally stupid thing. I just hope Dollhouse ends up being less disappointing but I mean, how can Joss Whedon lead us astray? He is absolutely amazing in everything he’s done: from Buffy, which you should finish watching Craig, it gets way way better after the mediocre first 2 seasons; to Dr. Horrible (eh? eh? watch it yet? hahaha)
Ryan: i love, love, love Dexter. It is so amazing ryan, truly a well written, mostly well acted show with great cinematography.
i gave up after 4 episodes. watching all your tv online really helps in weeding out what you do and don’t like. once you fall behind two weeks the question “do i really like this show?” answers itself.
Never actually jumped on board, and now I’m glad I didn’t. Looking forward to the next show you turn me onto…
Did anyone watch THE BIGGEST LOSER last night?
It started out so bad that I actually went to the NBC message boards and there were thousands of other people just like me that logged in just so they could post a message about how much they hated the Blue Team. Then in the middle of the episode it got even worse when another Blue Team member was able to come back on the show.
But the ending was so awesome!!! I have never been so happy to see a person eliminated from a reality TV show. 1 down 3 more to go!!!!
I’m counting on Michael Cerveris’ character (mysterious bald guy) making it more interesting as it goes along.
Speaking of sf shows, I just started watching the first season of Supernatural. It’s very cool, very scary! Have you seen it?
Tam: Beware the persuasive powers of Polt!
Did I mention I’m probably going to Toronto in April? YOu should come down, it’ll be a blast! 
HUGS….
Kári: For a rant, you still managed to hit the nail right on the head!
Tam: LOL @ “Imagine me with the earnest but puzzled expression patented by Olivia while I bitch about this.”
Ryan R: You’re welcome! I’ve been wanting to watch Dexter for a while. I’ll get around to it eventually.
digkv: No, haven’t watched it yet
Adam: I don’t watch Biggest Loser, but I can assure you that Mom and Dad were clapping for a solid 15 minutes at the end.
Michelle: Never watched Supernatural, but have heard great things.
“Oh the inanity!”
I think it’s been getting better each episode. I’m definitely still watching.
How funny is that? I was going to email you this morning and tell you I was done with Fringe. I guess last night did it for both of us. The story lines are silly and the actors are all way over-acting. The lead actress and her bald boss are horrible. I do like Peter though. In my mind, he’s been holding the show up for the last few weeks. Here’s to another hour of my life back each week.
Does Michael Cerveris appear on Fringe more often? I never watched it, but bf might be interested now, as he did some shows with Michael way back in College, whose nickname there was Michael Cervical Cancer. College Humor, don’t you love it?
I stopped watching two or three episodes ago after I pretty much fell asleep while watching it. While they started leaving bits and pieces unexplained, it wasn’t enough to keep me watching the same formula with a new mystery caused by yet another study from the 70s.
Avitable: I’ll rely on you to tell me if it gets better. But then again, we appear to have varying differences in what’s better.
John: Yeah, I feel like I was watching just for the sake of watching. Why bother if you’re not enjoying it?
Bernd: My cousin Michelle is friends with Michael Ceveris, and he performed in the show “Road Show” that we saw this past weekend. When we met up with him afterwards, he told us that he’s in every single episode as kind of a “Where’s Waldo” in the background, except for the one where he was obviously featured more prominently. For example, he was exiting the elevator when the electricity guy and the receptionist he was stalking was getting on a few episodes back, but you only saw him for a split second. So if you want to get your bf to watch, just tell him it’s his job to spot him somewhere in the background!
Alex: Agreed. Mysteries of the week aren’t my thing without a better overall story. Especially when the mysteries of the week aren’t all that interesting to begin with.
I gave up after 4 episodes. It’s like a bad X-Files movie. Thank god that will never happen…. oh, wait….
I tried to watch an episode. I really did. And I got halfway through it and didn’t care and found myself getting mad, so I stopped.
The same thing happened with “Six Feet Under”, which I’d heard was great. I watched the pilot twice, trying to get involved [and in fact I really liked parts of the black humor of the show] but couldn’t care about any of the people, and gave up. (I might try again, though, because our library has several seasons so it’d be easy to watch.)
Michelle: Supernatural rocks! Glad to find someone else loving it.
Polt: Toronto, I’m there! Please not when I’m in NYC. We’ll talk.
I watch Ugly Betty sometimes. there’s not a lot of supernatural stuff going on but there is a tranny and a few gays.
Fun times…..sigh…..I was just trying to contribute. :-\
Thank you, Craig.
We almost need to number Michelles here on this blog, as well as Daves
I will be honest I ditched it after the first horrible episode. There was to much other good TV to watch this season.
If you’d like better sci-fi (besides Torchwood), I’d recommend watching either the 1980′s series Voyagers or the more recent Tremors: The Series.
FDot: Tremors has a series? My daughter LOVES those movies. Hmmm. Wonder if we get it up here.
Yay! Ugly Betty.
All I watch these days are Ugly Betty and Pushing Daisies…
Hey Michelle: Supernatural is up for a People’s Choice Award in Sci-Fi. Oh and Privileged is up for something too Craig. I voted for it on your behalf since it was the only show I recognized in that category.
You can vote here http://www.pcavote.com/pca/ if you want to kill some time. Some weird pairings.
yay ugly betty. It’s so great this season, I am really loving it, even with the lack of Alexis Meade. I think it’s gotten a lot better since that Henry vs. Gio storyline got really tiring last season. I’m also really loving Desperate Housewives so much, it feels so fresh and new again as we learn more about how our favorite characters have evolved: great writing. and TOP CHEF is on tonight everyone. You should all watch that.
digkv: Do you mean the finale of Season 3 of Top Chef? That’s what on here on Food Network Canada. My daughter is totally addicted but we’ve seen Season 3 (well, I watch/listen by default). She is eagerly awaiting the next season but not sure when its on up here. We aren’t always on the same wavelength as the US for some shows.
Okay, ignore that last post, I just got yelled at saying its a new season of Top Chef and the stupid tv guide is wrong. Sheesh, like its my fault. Seems it is Season 4, so guess who’s staying up way too late and going to be a total witch tomorrow and which mother is too lazy to push the issue? (And I forgot to check the freaking e-mail address on my previous post …. AGAIN! Grrrr)
I’ve recently put Heroes on notice. If it doesn’t convince me that it’s going to get better by the mid-season break, I won’t bother to figure out when the break ends.
Tam: aw Tam, that sucks, I think season 5 is starting tonight which is hopefully better than the snoozefest that was season 4.
Digkv: I don’t know, It was something in NY and ran for 1.5 hours, now she’s going to be ultra-bitchy tomorrow. LOL Martha Stewart will be on the show soon? Is that season 4? I have no clue, I was up in my room so I only got the recap after. Maybe it is season 5. Whatever. LOL
Tam: Yep! That’s season 5 you’re watching, the brand new one! It was pretty good I gotta say, much more exciting and fun, though with significantly less man eye candy but some beautiful, hot gorgeous women.