Elizabeth/Lidabet (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
opusculasedfera) wrote2012-10-15 08:09 am
opusculasedfera) wrote2012-10-15 08:09 am
Entry tags:
Belated Fringe thoughts
Well, parts of it were excellent? The problem is that finding things is not really as interesting as doing things. So all of this going places to find the next piece of the puzzle is way less compelling than if they had to work out a plan themselves. Also everything would be a lot tenser if we had a clear idea of what they're actually up against with the Observers. And you can't make me believe that Etta doesn't know this shit and that she wouldn't have told everyone else at least what she believed to be the extent of their surveillance. Yet they seem to have secure comms with no trouble at all and, despite incredibly good quality 3D images of all of them on security feeds - images that the cops knew existed so Fringe div, even this corrupt Fringe div would have to know about as well - the Observers are having difficulty tracking them, despite them taking pretty much no precautions?
I mean, I would also accept increased tension because our team thinks they've taken precautions, but the Observers actually have tech that they don't know about, but not this weird kind of thing where sometimes they do have everything they need and sometimes it's rare, but never actually difficult, except when they need to have unnecessary dramatics. Really, it was pretty obvious that leprosy!Beckett (admittedly, I didn't actually place him until I looked him up on imdb after, though I did spend the whole ep sure that I knew him from somewhere) was going to sacrifice himself because doing is better than watching, and parents making sacrifices for their kids are clearly kind of a thing for the writers.
Also I want more information on how you get these isolationist groups within a police state and how they're not only surviving, but surviving with pretty good tech and what looked like fairly new clothes and so on.
I did like that Olivia and Peter are still super awkward together, but I'm really not keen on any time they make Olivia go on and on about motherhood. Seriously, writers, you can have someone who wasn't desperate to be a mother discover later that she does actually really want kids and is happy with a family. Not everything has to be buried tragedy and, while Olivia's backstory is ALWAYS about buried tragedy then at least tie it into her fucked up upbringing and all that stuff they dropped a couple of seasons ago about how she was basically subconsciously made to believe that she was a soldier at the end of the world, which isn't a headspace that's particularly conducive to having kids. It's especially galling because otherwise they've actually been pretty good about not having her fucked up backstory be something that made her ~unfeminine~. Red!Olivia was pretty obviously supposed to be what happened when Olivia grew up with a different set of issues, but she was also not especially femme or desperate for children, she was just more outgoing and brash. Obser!verse Olivia makes it seem like we're supposed to interpret not wanting to have kids immediately as an uncomplicated indicator of fucked-up-ness, which, uh, NO.
I guess I've seen a couple of people say that they were happy that a woman on tv got to have mixed feelings about kids at all, and I can see their point, I just also would like it if maybe we could have women with mixed feelings who then don't change their minds and that be fine too?
I also think they could do more with the fact that all of Walter's charming tics would be a million times less charming when everything was going to hell around them. That seems to be the theme of this post, really. MAKE IT HARDER ON THEM. If I, someone who loathes the omnipresent despair and soul-crushery in totalitarian dystopian fiction, think that the protagonists have it way too easy so far, something is pretty seriously wrong and I hope they work out how to fix it.
I mean, I would also accept increased tension because our team thinks they've taken precautions, but the Observers actually have tech that they don't know about, but not this weird kind of thing where sometimes they do have everything they need and sometimes it's rare, but never actually difficult, except when they need to have unnecessary dramatics. Really, it was pretty obvious that leprosy!Beckett (admittedly, I didn't actually place him until I looked him up on imdb after, though I did spend the whole ep sure that I knew him from somewhere) was going to sacrifice himself because doing is better than watching, and parents making sacrifices for their kids are clearly kind of a thing for the writers.
Also I want more information on how you get these isolationist groups within a police state and how they're not only surviving, but surviving with pretty good tech and what looked like fairly new clothes and so on.
I did like that Olivia and Peter are still super awkward together, but I'm really not keen on any time they make Olivia go on and on about motherhood. Seriously, writers, you can have someone who wasn't desperate to be a mother discover later that she does actually really want kids and is happy with a family. Not everything has to be buried tragedy and, while Olivia's backstory is ALWAYS about buried tragedy then at least tie it into her fucked up upbringing and all that stuff they dropped a couple of seasons ago about how she was basically subconsciously made to believe that she was a soldier at the end of the world, which isn't a headspace that's particularly conducive to having kids. It's especially galling because otherwise they've actually been pretty good about not having her fucked up backstory be something that made her ~unfeminine~. Red!Olivia was pretty obviously supposed to be what happened when Olivia grew up with a different set of issues, but she was also not especially femme or desperate for children, she was just more outgoing and brash. Obser!verse Olivia makes it seem like we're supposed to interpret not wanting to have kids immediately as an uncomplicated indicator of fucked-up-ness, which, uh, NO.
I guess I've seen a couple of people say that they were happy that a woman on tv got to have mixed feelings about kids at all, and I can see their point, I just also would like it if maybe we could have women with mixed feelings who then don't change their minds and that be fine too?
I also think they could do more with the fact that all of Walter's charming tics would be a million times less charming when everything was going to hell around them. That seems to be the theme of this post, really. MAKE IT HARDER ON THEM. If I, someone who loathes the omnipresent despair and soul-crushery in totalitarian dystopian fiction, think that the protagonists have it way too easy so far, something is pretty seriously wrong and I hope they work out how to fix it.
no subject
And you are totally on about the team having it *easy* so far. I keep wondering what the precognitive/teleporting Observers are doing, if they're so busy they can't be bothered to chase our heroes.
I also keep waiting for Peter to slap Walter, but after he's been lost in at least two timelines, I guess he's gotten good at being patient. Astrid, though. Astrid really should be hella pissed about doing the crap jobs/being left behind and man, there's a rant I'm starting to pick up steam about.
no subject
I can believe that none of the characters would be too pissed at him because they're either still pretty clearly mentally living sixteen years ago when they didn't have to be quite as careful, or Etta, who I can see as a little bit in love with suddenly having a family again. What I really want is for the narrative to admit that he would be a liability and DO something with the possibility. Complete agreement on Astrid though.