Fringe 5x08
Dec. 11th, 2012 04:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
opusculasedferaStill undecided on this season...
Things that were excellent!
-Olivia self-rescuing like the glorious woman I fell in love with in S1. This is, admittedly, worth like a billion points to me.
-Peter stopping becoming an Observer because that was dull
-brief mentions of things like how they're getting food and supplies when they're in hiding!
-Olivia ztill being the kind of sensible person who knows she can't actually help with the science so she may as well do something else useful instead of fretting.
-Walter casually reanimating a brain.
Things that were less excellent...
-augh, so tired of people being ~too cynical~ because they don't trust everyone they meet. FFS writers, can we stop acting like someone who doesn't accept everything people say on absolute face value and reserves judgement is the rudeness equivalent of someone who demands to pat down everyone they're speaking to? Because it's really not.
-followed by Olivia, the ~too cynical~ failing to bring her gun when she goes to check on an obvious set-up. I don't dispute that everything we've learned about Olivia's character 100% says that she would never be able to pass up a situation where there's the remotest possibility that people were hurt, but it's not actually unreasonable to bring a gun under the circs.
-Astrid still not getting much of anything to do.
-Baffling spiritualism (admittedly, this a "not my jam" kind of point.)
So, generally, mixed feelings. I feel like the writers haven't noticed that when you make the conclusion vaguer you actually cut DOWN on the tension because we can't spend as much time trying to put the pieces together and then having to rejig everything every time a new ep provides us with new data. This is all very "here are the steps. Now they will take the next step" and we can't even speculate as much because all the data we're getting is based on SKIENCE, which I have no problem with as a plot device, but does make it rather harder to predict what magical thing Walter will make an electromagnet do.
Also I would like some actual discussion of the resistance and the fact that the Fringe Team are still pretty clueless about the Obser!verse, and Etta dying is not just a personal tragedy - though it is, and I do like how they're dealing with that side of it - but an actual horrible blow to their modus operandi as well. I want to shake the writers and shout "world building!" at them. :(
I don't know what to do with the Peter vs. the head Observer plotline because I've mostly found it weird. It did contain the only moment of legit tension about the overwhelming power of the Observers, but also makes Peter much duller of a character, so... *hands*
Things that were excellent!
-Olivia self-rescuing like the glorious woman I fell in love with in S1. This is, admittedly, worth like a billion points to me.
-Peter stopping becoming an Observer because that was dull
-brief mentions of things like how they're getting food and supplies when they're in hiding!
-Olivia ztill being the kind of sensible person who knows she can't actually help with the science so she may as well do something else useful instead of fretting.
-Walter casually reanimating a brain.
Things that were less excellent...
-augh, so tired of people being ~too cynical~ because they don't trust everyone they meet. FFS writers, can we stop acting like someone who doesn't accept everything people say on absolute face value and reserves judgement is the rudeness equivalent of someone who demands to pat down everyone they're speaking to? Because it's really not.
-followed by Olivia, the ~too cynical~ failing to bring her gun when she goes to check on an obvious set-up. I don't dispute that everything we've learned about Olivia's character 100% says that she would never be able to pass up a situation where there's the remotest possibility that people were hurt, but it's not actually unreasonable to bring a gun under the circs.
-Astrid still not getting much of anything to do.
-Baffling spiritualism (admittedly, this a "not my jam" kind of point.)
So, generally, mixed feelings. I feel like the writers haven't noticed that when you make the conclusion vaguer you actually cut DOWN on the tension because we can't spend as much time trying to put the pieces together and then having to rejig everything every time a new ep provides us with new data. This is all very "here are the steps. Now they will take the next step" and we can't even speculate as much because all the data we're getting is based on SKIENCE, which I have no problem with as a plot device, but does make it rather harder to predict what magical thing Walter will make an electromagnet do.
Also I would like some actual discussion of the resistance and the fact that the Fringe Team are still pretty clueless about the Obser!verse, and Etta dying is not just a personal tragedy - though it is, and I do like how they're dealing with that side of it - but an actual horrible blow to their modus operandi as well. I want to shake the writers and shout "world building!" at them. :(
I don't know what to do with the Peter vs. the head Observer plotline because I've mostly found it weird. It did contain the only moment of legit tension about the overwhelming power of the Observers, but also makes Peter much duller of a character, so... *hands*
no subject
Date: 2012-12-11 10:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-12 12:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-12 03:06 am (UTC)We should know a lot more about the Observers by now than we do. I think this must of been the season seven end game and that they needed two more seasons to properly set this up.
This is the worst plotted season of the five by far. It's too bad.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-12 03:15 am (UTC)It makes a lot more sense if this !verse was supposed to be a couple seasons from now, yeah. :(
no subject
Date: 2012-12-16 11:26 am (UTC)5x08 wasn't too terrible, I thought, but mostly I was singing HALLELUJAH! at the screen re: Olivia large and in charge (and yet, of course, full of empathy).
More later...I shall post re: Fringe, eventually!
no subject
Date: 2012-12-16 02:35 pm (UTC)I haven't seen it yet, but that's good to hear. (ETA: oh, nevermind, I've just been fucking up my numbering because I'm bad at that kind of thing. Damn, I was hoping for good news about 5x09.)
I look forward to it. :)