Fringe 4x19
Apr. 21st, 2012 04:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
opusculasedferaWHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, FRINGE. I have no judgement at all about that episode. I think it might have been quite good on its own terms, but that was basically all crowded out by my intense desire for that not to have happened. Which, to be fair to the show, I suppose, could very well happen in the next ep because this show lives to screw with us.
Augh. Fringe has, sadly, become one of the shows where all I really want is for everyone to be happy and for them to fix things and have it all go right, so this is unbearable. Fascinating as hell, but I have no words, only flailing. (Except for the approx. a million words below, but they don't count? And could be equalled by the amount of words I want to write that more or less equal "I am so sad about Olivia" repeated ad infinitum.)
It definitely doesn't help that they took Olivia out of the picture. I feel like we were all side-eyeing the writers enough for how they've been dealing with her character the rest of the season, if they've actually just written her out of the show I will be pissed forever. Etta doesn't really seem to be a bad character, its just that there's not much there so it pales in comparison to the amazing that was Olivia. They took all the boring bits, really. All the appearance stuff and the not being a science person, and the technically being a subordinate was kept the same, which missed out on the way that Olivia manages to be a great character even as the non-scientist on a show where science saves the day by being clever and competent in her own way. Etta was just kind of there, being super subtly Olivia and Peter's kid and looking wide-eyed while people did science. Sure, it makes a certain amount of sense that someone who was, at most, four when the Observers showed up has less of a visceral reaction to them than, say, Simon did, plus less experience means she was clearly a junior agent and all that, but still!
This ep does raise a lot of questions, which are quite interesting: if Peter and Olivia vanished when Etta was four, how did they hide her? Clearly Nina knows who she is, but surely the Observers would also know if Nina had full-on taken her in? And would presumably care? Etta was definitely keeping her parentage a secret so it would have to matter, but how the hell did she get into Fringe division and also know about her parents unless she was brought up by someone who knew all this stuff too.
I also want to know why it wouldn't work to push people out of the Amber with a stick or something else? If you can do it bodily, I have no idea why this wouldn't work except for plot reasons, which is the worst reason to have something work the way it does.
I did sort of enjoy the way that this ep took the Observers right from kinda sketchy into full on enemies without making a fuss about it, that was good. And it is kind of nice to have a show where the enemy is pretty explicitly identified by being bland white guys who are way too into the past.
Mostly, I feel like it could have been stronger if they'd switched Simon and Etta's roles around a bit and added a little more subtlety to the uninteresting revelations. I do feel kind of skeevy about suggesting that they make a woman's role less prominent, but they could have cast a woman as Simone and that would have been fine. It just seemed to me that what they wanted was for Etta to be a little mysterious, plus the timing meaning that she would have to be junior and shit, so I think it would have been easier to keep that if she'd been less obviously the main character and been the tech person? Which also makes the roles more even because Etta would have the mystery whereas Simon was more open about why he was involved, but also actually do something by doing all the science, as opposed to technically being the protagonist, but mostly standing around. So start with Simon(e) getting info from the guy in the club (skipping the scene where Etta can't be scanned), then S. takes ambered Walter to the sketchy junior tech in Fringe division, who turns out to a)be surprisingly knowledgeable about this stuff and b)to have some suspicious connections, when she is still the one who is able to get in to see Nina. You then let the revelation that she can hide her thoughts come when they get challenged in the train station (it wouldn't be super hard to come up with a scenario in which Walter and Simon go on ahead, Etta is stopped by an Observer who questions her and lets her go).
Then things proceed more or less identically, Simon gets ambered, Astrid and Peter are freed, and there's a chance that the revelation that Etta is Peter and Olivia's kid has a ghost of a chance at being a surprise because you wouldn't have all the pieces right from the start, plus you would have that revelation that the ostensible protagonist isn't actually the protagonist (because Simon was a little more prominent! but then he gets ambered! and Etta is a Bishop-Dunham! so gosh, apparently she's the protagonist!) It wouldn't be subtle either, really, but it would be slightly more? Because I have to say, the second I saw the family resemblance I was rolling my eyes that Etta was going to turn out to be their kid and then it was confirmed the second she turned out to have telepathy blocking powers.
Plus making Etta a junior tech would make it even more plausible that she would get away with this stuff, which I think is what they're going for? I can't tell what Broyles is supposed to know, I think he's not supposed to be aware of who the other agent (Etta) was with Simon, though possibly he was faking that for whoever he was talking to? I feel like he would definitely know all his field agents way better than that. Though really, I have no idea how they plan to hide three totally unregistered people in what is clearly supposed to be a police state? Though possibly that will be easier if they can only get them out of New York as I'd be willing to believe that things were less obviously dystopian elsewhere? If there's one thing Fringe does do pretty well, it's show that life goes on even in dystopias. They did it excellently in red!verse and pretty well in Peter's previous glimpse of the future (which had nothing to do with the future in this ep, which is interesting...)
afghosdprjgtpsdkmg I know nothing, really, but I desperately want the next ep NOW, which is I suppose the goal of tv? Or people who also want to blather at me, that would be good too.
In less emotionally incoherent news: last night's Pens-Flyers game was an amazing let down of people remembering that they are adults who all know how to play hockey rather than small children who aren't quite clear on the rules. I especially enjoyed how the announcers were also clearly sad that things had calmed the fuck down. And we're moving on to Game 6! Which is all I want really: I don't really have a team I support so much as I want to watch these two teams play all the fail!hockey against each other forever because it's funny as hell. I have been following other series because apparently hockey is a thing that has been happening to me, but they have been so much more staid in comparison, which is a hell of a thing to say about ridiculous hits and endless last minute game-tying shots.
Augh. Fringe has, sadly, become one of the shows where all I really want is for everyone to be happy and for them to fix things and have it all go right, so this is unbearable. Fascinating as hell, but I have no words, only flailing. (Except for the approx. a million words below, but they don't count? And could be equalled by the amount of words I want to write that more or less equal "I am so sad about Olivia" repeated ad infinitum.)
It definitely doesn't help that they took Olivia out of the picture. I feel like we were all side-eyeing the writers enough for how they've been dealing with her character the rest of the season, if they've actually just written her out of the show I will be pissed forever. Etta doesn't really seem to be a bad character, its just that there's not much there so it pales in comparison to the amazing that was Olivia. They took all the boring bits, really. All the appearance stuff and the not being a science person, and the technically being a subordinate was kept the same, which missed out on the way that Olivia manages to be a great character even as the non-scientist on a show where science saves the day by being clever and competent in her own way. Etta was just kind of there, being super subtly Olivia and Peter's kid and looking wide-eyed while people did science. Sure, it makes a certain amount of sense that someone who was, at most, four when the Observers showed up has less of a visceral reaction to them than, say, Simon did, plus less experience means she was clearly a junior agent and all that, but still!
This ep does raise a lot of questions, which are quite interesting: if Peter and Olivia vanished when Etta was four, how did they hide her? Clearly Nina knows who she is, but surely the Observers would also know if Nina had full-on taken her in? And would presumably care? Etta was definitely keeping her parentage a secret so it would have to matter, but how the hell did she get into Fringe division and also know about her parents unless she was brought up by someone who knew all this stuff too.
I also want to know why it wouldn't work to push people out of the Amber with a stick or something else? If you can do it bodily, I have no idea why this wouldn't work except for plot reasons, which is the worst reason to have something work the way it does.
I did sort of enjoy the way that this ep took the Observers right from kinda sketchy into full on enemies without making a fuss about it, that was good. And it is kind of nice to have a show where the enemy is pretty explicitly identified by being bland white guys who are way too into the past.
Mostly, I feel like it could have been stronger if they'd switched Simon and Etta's roles around a bit and added a little more subtlety to the uninteresting revelations. I do feel kind of skeevy about suggesting that they make a woman's role less prominent, but they could have cast a woman as Simone and that would have been fine. It just seemed to me that what they wanted was for Etta to be a little mysterious, plus the timing meaning that she would have to be junior and shit, so I think it would have been easier to keep that if she'd been less obviously the main character and been the tech person? Which also makes the roles more even because Etta would have the mystery whereas Simon was more open about why he was involved, but also actually do something by doing all the science, as opposed to technically being the protagonist, but mostly standing around. So start with Simon(e) getting info from the guy in the club (skipping the scene where Etta can't be scanned), then S. takes ambered Walter to the sketchy junior tech in Fringe division, who turns out to a)be surprisingly knowledgeable about this stuff and b)to have some suspicious connections, when she is still the one who is able to get in to see Nina. You then let the revelation that she can hide her thoughts come when they get challenged in the train station (it wouldn't be super hard to come up with a scenario in which Walter and Simon go on ahead, Etta is stopped by an Observer who questions her and lets her go).
Then things proceed more or less identically, Simon gets ambered, Astrid and Peter are freed, and there's a chance that the revelation that Etta is Peter and Olivia's kid has a ghost of a chance at being a surprise because you wouldn't have all the pieces right from the start, plus you would have that revelation that the ostensible protagonist isn't actually the protagonist (because Simon was a little more prominent! but then he gets ambered! and Etta is a Bishop-Dunham! so gosh, apparently she's the protagonist!) It wouldn't be subtle either, really, but it would be slightly more? Because I have to say, the second I saw the family resemblance I was rolling my eyes that Etta was going to turn out to be their kid and then it was confirmed the second she turned out to have telepathy blocking powers.
Plus making Etta a junior tech would make it even more plausible that she would get away with this stuff, which I think is what they're going for? I can't tell what Broyles is supposed to know, I think he's not supposed to be aware of who the other agent (Etta) was with Simon, though possibly he was faking that for whoever he was talking to? I feel like he would definitely know all his field agents way better than that. Though really, I have no idea how they plan to hide three totally unregistered people in what is clearly supposed to be a police state? Though possibly that will be easier if they can only get them out of New York as I'd be willing to believe that things were less obviously dystopian elsewhere? If there's one thing Fringe does do pretty well, it's show that life goes on even in dystopias. They did it excellently in red!verse and pretty well in Peter's previous glimpse of the future (which had nothing to do with the future in this ep, which is interesting...)
afghosdprjgtpsdkmg I know nothing, really, but I desperately want the next ep NOW, which is I suppose the goal of tv? Or people who also want to blather at me, that would be good too.
In less emotionally incoherent news: last night's Pens-Flyers game was an amazing let down of people remembering that they are adults who all know how to play hockey rather than small children who aren't quite clear on the rules. I especially enjoyed how the announcers were also clearly sad that things had calmed the fuck down. And we're moving on to Game 6! Which is all I want really: I don't really have a team I support so much as I want to watch these two teams play all the fail!hockey against each other forever because it's funny as hell. I have been following other series because apparently hockey is a thing that has been happening to me, but they have been so much more staid in comparison, which is a hell of a thing to say about ridiculous hits and endless last minute game-tying shots.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-22 10:29 pm (UTC)