Fringe: "Northwest Passage" 5/6/10 - Grading & Discussion
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^ I was thinking Twin Peaks.
Best one evah i thought!! "Its the toaster pastries that should be in jail!"
Best one evah i thought!! "Its the toaster pastries that should be in jail!"
^ Really? I don't know. I didn't dislike the episode, but somehow I was expecting more from Peter's first solo outing. I like the actor, but I guess a lot of the strength comes from chemistry with the others (particularly Walter), and unfortunately the sheriff had the presence of a sack of potatoes. Not to mention the astounding coincidence that Peter happens to be in this town with a serial killer who likes to remove pieces of the temporal lobe (although the incision looked to me like it was made in the occipital lobe?), and whose first victim (I assume, since nobody noticed any previous murders of this nature, although I didn't manage to count the trophy jars) is a girl he was just chatting up. Oh well.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
Well, I wasn't sure what to expect from this episode since it was Peter-centric but I was pleasantly surprised. In the early part of the first Season I really didn't like Peter's character that much. It was really Walter, then Olivia that drew me into the series. Slowly he's found his groove though and I thought he performed reasonably well given the storyline he had to deal with. So, Kudos to Joshua for developing a character into someone I actually care about (finally).
As for Walternate being the mystery guy...........really..........who didn't see that coming?
The last two episodes look spectacular. I expect Season 2 to go out on a higher note than Season 1 did and that's saying something.
Kudos to Fringe for refining who it is to become one of the better Sci-Fi shows on TV in some time right behind Lost, Nu-BSG and X-Files.
As for Walternate being the mystery guy...........really..........who didn't see that coming?
The last two episodes look spectacular. I expect Season 2 to go out on a higher note than Season 1 did and that's saying something.
Kudos to Fringe for refining who it is to become one of the better Sci-Fi shows on TV in some time right behind Lost, Nu-BSG and X-Files.
They've gone full X-Files now, with Peter running around the Vancouver woods with a flashlight and a gun!
All we need is a Sheriff who's obviously from Canada and bright lights in the Vancouver woods. Oh and it has to be raining
This is like a Twin Peaks renaissance or something... weird things happening in a sleepy town in the North East just as a quirky investigator shows up? It's like everyone decided to reference it for some reason.
Oh yeah! I LOVED this episode. I don't really like Olivia (i know i am in the minority on that)...and there was very little of her in it.
I adore Walter and his scenes were sooooo good. Especially the one in the supermarket. He was amazing. God i love John Noble.
I don't care for Astrid but she was terrific playing off of Walter in this one. Her empathy and taking care of him was really touching.
I really love Peter and thought the whole "is he just paranoid or is this really happening" thing was great. I really liked Martha Plimpton in the sheriff's role too.
Yuppers, i loved this episode!!!
w00t!I voted excellent. I've always felt that the character of Peter never got the respect and exposure he deserved. I've enjoyed JJ's work since Dawson's Creek and he is WAY underused and unappreciated as a character in this show so I liked the focus on peter in this episode. Finally showed his potential without being basically a sidekick/dense skeptic to Walter and Olivia otherwise. Add in the other side Walter showing up and you have a great episode.
They've gone full X-Files now, with Peter running around the Vancouver woods with a flashlight and a gun!
And they even made a subtle inside joke to that. In fact, they make quite a few allusions to the X-files in this show.
Seldomly is a guest character fleshed out as much as Sheriff Mathis was. It's also noteworthy that they had to write her as a Fox Mulder-like character, otherwise she wouldn't have believed one bit of the stuff Peter told her. And yeah, Peter Bishop/Joshua Jackson is actually capable of carrying an episode on his own. Liked that episode.
So, what's alternate Walter secretary of? Did he become the United States Secretary of Inter-Dimensional Affairs in the other universe or is he just a plain old Secretary of Defense (considering that our Walter worked for the DOD during the 80s and Newton and his men are always described as "soldiers")?
So, what's alternate Walter secretary of? Did he become the United States Secretary of Inter-Dimensional Affairs in the other universe or is he just a plain old Secretary of Defense (considering that our Walter worked for the DOD during the 80s and Newton and his men are always described as "soldiers")?
^ Yes i believe she did! Great ep!!
I saw Martha Plimpton was in it, then paid no attention until it struck me, looking at her. OMG! To me, she's still the girl from the movie "Parenthood." Won't even watch the tv show, the film was good (for what/when it was).
Liked the show. Can't believe that neither Olivia nor Astrid realized how bad Walter would be. It's really not Astrid's job, but it kinda is Olivia's duty to take care of Walter. She's the one who got him out of the asylum.
CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT WEEK IN THE ALTERNATE-U!!!
Liked the show. Can't believe that neither Olivia nor Astrid realized how bad Walter would be. It's really not Astrid's job, but it kinda is Olivia's duty to take care of Walter. She's the one who got him out of the asylum.
CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT WEEK IN THE ALTERNATE-U!!!
Average.
This was one of those episodes that builds well for 3/4 of the hour then is hurt by a weak & unsatisfying payoff. It was basically--like last week- a way to delay the big developments and fallout until the season finale.
It started off as an intriguing mystery with Peter and Sheriff Mathis investigating what appeared to be some sort of case linked to Newton that ended up amounted to no more than "Peter and Sheriff Mathis investigate a routine murder case involving a run of the mill standard by the book serial killer of young women because he wants them". Really--this is tired on any of CBS' procedural crime dramas the last place I want to see it is on a show that purports to be more imaginative in their storytelling. I was so disappointed that it had nothing to do with Newton.
I also couldn't stand the way the writers deliberately contrived the killer's MO to suggest Newton's involvement. I also never understood how her partner wound up at the dairy farm--was he snooping but we never got info as to why he would be snooping and if it was the case where he kidnapped the partner to get access to his vehicle to pull over Gwen it seems a bit forced.
So ultimately this was a standalone crime plot time killer--the very epitome of filler. The only interesting parts were involving Walter struggling with Peter's absence, the confirmation of suspicions that the Secretary was alternate Walter and what now appears to have just been brief teases involving what Newton was doing out in the woods. I will say the characters have much improved in the last half of the season and I find myself drawn to them in a way I previously hadn't been.
These kind of episodes are aggravating and continues to be the albatross that is preventing this show from being really engaging week in and week out. The unevenness in episode quality is maddening and I'll reiterate what I've said all season--the show would benefit from being all mythology all the time and heavily serialized--the writers have repeatedly demonstrated they are not up to writing an interesting one-off that is capable of demonstrating to the audience that taking detours from the main arc can be just as worthwhile and interesting as the big myth episodes. The X-Files did, Fringe hasn't. Also why have the last two very simple rehashes required so many writers to be involved--these haven't exactly been examples of complicated storytelling. There ought to be a running joke about how many writers does it take to write a pedestrian one-off on Fringe.
This was one of those episodes that builds well for 3/4 of the hour then is hurt by a weak & unsatisfying payoff. It was basically--like last week- a way to delay the big developments and fallout until the season finale.
It started off as an intriguing mystery with Peter and Sheriff Mathis investigating what appeared to be some sort of case linked to Newton that ended up amounted to no more than "Peter and Sheriff Mathis investigate a routine murder case involving a run of the mill standard by the book serial killer of young women because he wants them". Really--this is tired on any of CBS' procedural crime dramas the last place I want to see it is on a show that purports to be more imaginative in their storytelling. I was so disappointed that it had nothing to do with Newton.
I also couldn't stand the way the writers deliberately contrived the killer's MO to suggest Newton's involvement. I also never understood how her partner wound up at the dairy farm--was he snooping but we never got info as to why he would be snooping and if it was the case where he kidnapped the partner to get access to his vehicle to pull over Gwen it seems a bit forced.
So ultimately this was a standalone crime plot time killer--the very epitome of filler. The only interesting parts were involving Walter struggling with Peter's absence, the confirmation of suspicions that the Secretary was alternate Walter and what now appears to have just been brief teases involving what Newton was doing out in the woods. I will say the characters have much improved in the last half of the season and I find myself drawn to them in a way I previously hadn't been.
These kind of episodes are aggravating and continues to be the albatross that is preventing this show from being really engaging week in and week out. The unevenness in episode quality is maddening and I'll reiterate what I've said all season--the show would benefit from being all mythology all the time and heavily serialized--the writers have repeatedly demonstrated they are not up to writing an interesting one-off that is capable of demonstrating to the audience that taking detours from the main arc can be just as worthwhile and interesting as the big myth episodes. The X-Files did, Fringe hasn't. Also why have the last two very simple rehashes required so many writers to be involved--these haven't exactly been examples of complicated storytelling. There ought to be a running joke about how many writers does it take to write a pedestrian one-off on Fringe.
The bland reliance on outrageous coincidence reminds me of how Olivia regained her ability just in the nick of plot in Jacksonville. By itself, such things are really crude writing. A fundamentally comedic series can get away with this, but Fringe is far too solemn and heavy handed. Plotting is poor.
This is the first character episode for Peter, though, which is interesting in itself. That's such a shockingly long time, it shows how limited the talent is in this show. What we learn about Peter is that he's an idiot, totally self-absorbed and hallucinates enemies. The general notion that ordinary people can hallucinate at odd intervals is better than the idea that ordinary people never hallucinate, but not much. Like the doltish idea that poor Walter could be so incapacitated for daily life but whip scientific miracle outs of his ass, it just isn't so.
If the writers choose to make Peter such an unattractive person, Olivia's attraction to him is stupid. It is also quite contradictory to the person who, despite grousing, has stood up and taken care of his father. Also, why Broyles would want such an idiot around is beginning to stagger the imagination. The right judge would gladly grant conservatorship for Walter to a competent candidate the FBI would prefer.
Below average.
This is the first character episode for Peter, though, which is interesting in itself. That's such a shockingly long time, it shows how limited the talent is in this show. What we learn about Peter is that he's an idiot, totally self-absorbed and hallucinates enemies. The general notion that ordinary people can hallucinate at odd intervals is better than the idea that ordinary people never hallucinate, but not much. Like the doltish idea that poor Walter could be so incapacitated for daily life but whip scientific miracle outs of his ass, it just isn't so.
If the writers choose to make Peter such an unattractive person, Olivia's attraction to him is stupid. It is also quite contradictory to the person who, despite grousing, has stood up and taken care of his father. Also, why Broyles would want such an idiot around is beginning to stagger the imagination. The right judge would gladly grant conservatorship for Walter to a competent candidate the FBI would prefer.
Below average.
Same reaction except the movie I had in mind was "Goonies"!
BTW, can someone explain me how to read (decipher) the glyphs?
