Assorted thoughts on Fringe S3
Jan. 11th, 2012 02:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieOnion pita + garlic hummus + tabouleh + garlic and herb feta = OMG YES. How did I not even know tabouleh existed until just a few months ago? This stuff is amazing! Though I used way too much lemon juice in this batch (my first homemade batch). It's very citrusy. I am thoroughly safe from scurvy.
The Fringe rewatch continues apace. I'm two-thirds of the way through S3 now.
The Ourlivia-trapped-in-Redverse arc was indeed much better at DVD pace (and at knowing-she-gets-home-by-episode-eight pace) than it was during broadcast. And I caught new things about some of the characters, like the fact that Red!Lincoln apparently has some kind of fancy science degree! (I think it was physics, but as with all TV scientists, apparently he's a polymath and can handle chemistry and biology with equal aplomb.) ...Hush, when this was originally airing, I spent most of these episodes desperate for Olivia to get home. You can't expect me to pay attention to silly things like plot and characterization when I have that on my mind!
Anyway, yes, new appreciation for that arc and the episodes within it now that the giant ball of nervousness was gone. Though I also renewed my unappreciation for Fauxlivia and for Peter's observational skills. You know, by the season finale, I had gained something like respect for Faux; my extremely mixed feelings about the baby storyline aside, it did in fact serve to make her almost likeable. But now her completely unnecessary murder of the deaf guy, the woman in the restroom, and the shapeshifter she threw out the window are fresh in my mind, and I'm back to not being able to stand her. (Well, pre-timeline-reset version of her. I actually enjoyed Amber-timeline Redlivia when she showed up in "One Night in October." Not murdering people tends to make me like you more!)
And UGH, Peter, I get your reasoning about thinking your new relationship was bringing out another side of Olivia, but COME ON, Anna Torv made everything about Fauxlivia different from Ourlivia, from her walk to her vocal cadence to every one of her expressions. Plus you had just come back from another universe WITH HER EVIL DOPPELGANGER, COULD YOU MAYBE THINK TO ASK HER ABOUT THE GREEK PHRASE BEFORE EIGHT WEEKS HAD PASSED? *headdesk*
Argh. Moving on. "Marionette" was as amazing and heartbreaking the third time as it was the first. Whyyyyy did no one win an Emmy for that, argh. "Firefly" was still excellent as well. There was a valley of suck from "Reciprocity" through "Immortality," but at least I had "6B" as a light at the end of the tunnel. I still don't understand why Peter was secretly killing the shapeshifters. Okay, maybe he was weaponized by the machine (I think the jury is still out on that; it may have just been Walter attempting to justify Peter's actions to himself), but honestly, it's not like anyone would've cared much had they known he was doing it. Hell, I think Olivia and Broyles might have helped. (I don't think they know that some shapeshifters can stay in the same body for years, like the policeman with the wife and kid that Newton shot, right? Doesn't everyone on the team see them basically as machines at this point, because though they knew there was something hinky with Senator Van Horne, they didn't know that he might have been in that body for years?) And then annoyingly enough, it never actually went anywhere, though I suppose they kind of implied they might get back to it in "Novation." But it still feels like so much pointless character-warping for the sake of an episodic plot.
I think I recall taking the last part of "Concentrate and Ask Again"--mind-reader Simon's revelation that Peter still had feelings for Fauxlivia--at face value, since they had earlier gone to the trouble of having Sam Weiss tell Nina that Peter had to CHOOSE AN OLIVIA OMG to save the world. Now I'm pretty sure Simon was just messing with Olivia, since he did say, right before handing her the envelope, that now she would know how he felt all the time, not that he was answering her question specifically. And since he was awkward and anti-social, how he felt all the time was rejected. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.
(P.S. Sam's prophecy was much easier to take with the knowledge that it was complete bullshit.)
SIX BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Also still one of my favorite episodes. FEELINGS! Everything is about feeeeeeelings! And not the stupid soap operatic triangle kind of feelings they were pushing a couple episodes ago!
"Subject 13" was almost as pointlessly retconnish as it was the first time around, and it still needed to end with blows to the head for both Olivia and Peter so that they would not remember such a significant event in their lives (and for Olivia, some five years, minimum, of experiments). Argh. On the other hand, S4 has actually made it rather relevant, since it seems Olivia killing her stepfather in the Amberverse can be linked to not having met Peter in the field of white tulips. (At least, I assume that's what happened--talking about the abuse to Walternate-whom-she-thought-was-Walter acted as a release valve for some of her bottled up anger and fear, so she only wound up injuring her stepfather instead of killing him? IDK.) And I do still think the "imagine the world you want and make it come true" thing is going to have bearing on the eventual resolution of the Blue/Amber timelines. Plus there was Peter's toy plane showing up again in "And Those We've Left Behind," which is very mysterious.
Completely unrelated to any of the above, today my brain decided that Astrid/Brandon would be a most excellent crack!ship. THINK OF THE NERDINESS.
The Fringe rewatch continues apace. I'm two-thirds of the way through S3 now.
The Ourlivia-trapped-in-Redverse arc was indeed much better at DVD pace (and at knowing-she-gets-home-by-episode-eight pace) than it was during broadcast. And I caught new things about some of the characters, like the fact that Red!Lincoln apparently has some kind of fancy science degree! (I think it was physics, but as with all TV scientists, apparently he's a polymath and can handle chemistry and biology with equal aplomb.) ...Hush, when this was originally airing, I spent most of these episodes desperate for Olivia to get home. You can't expect me to pay attention to silly things like plot and characterization when I have that on my mind!
Anyway, yes, new appreciation for that arc and the episodes within it now that the giant ball of nervousness was gone. Though I also renewed my unappreciation for Fauxlivia and for Peter's observational skills. You know, by the season finale, I had gained something like respect for Faux; my extremely mixed feelings about the baby storyline aside, it did in fact serve to make her almost likeable. But now her completely unnecessary murder of the deaf guy, the woman in the restroom, and the shapeshifter she threw out the window are fresh in my mind, and I'm back to not being able to stand her. (Well, pre-timeline-reset version of her. I actually enjoyed Amber-timeline Redlivia when she showed up in "One Night in October." Not murdering people tends to make me like you more!)
And UGH, Peter, I get your reasoning about thinking your new relationship was bringing out another side of Olivia, but COME ON, Anna Torv made everything about Fauxlivia different from Ourlivia, from her walk to her vocal cadence to every one of her expressions. Plus you had just come back from another universe WITH HER EVIL DOPPELGANGER, COULD YOU MAYBE THINK TO ASK HER ABOUT THE GREEK PHRASE BEFORE EIGHT WEEKS HAD PASSED? *headdesk*
Argh. Moving on. "Marionette" was as amazing and heartbreaking the third time as it was the first. Whyyyyy did no one win an Emmy for that, argh. "Firefly" was still excellent as well. There was a valley of suck from "Reciprocity" through "Immortality," but at least I had "6B" as a light at the end of the tunnel. I still don't understand why Peter was secretly killing the shapeshifters. Okay, maybe he was weaponized by the machine (I think the jury is still out on that; it may have just been Walter attempting to justify Peter's actions to himself), but honestly, it's not like anyone would've cared much had they known he was doing it. Hell, I think Olivia and Broyles might have helped. (I don't think they know that some shapeshifters can stay in the same body for years, like the policeman with the wife and kid that Newton shot, right? Doesn't everyone on the team see them basically as machines at this point, because though they knew there was something hinky with Senator Van Horne, they didn't know that he might have been in that body for years?) And then annoyingly enough, it never actually went anywhere, though I suppose they kind of implied they might get back to it in "Novation." But it still feels like so much pointless character-warping for the sake of an episodic plot.
I think I recall taking the last part of "Concentrate and Ask Again"--mind-reader Simon's revelation that Peter still had feelings for Fauxlivia--at face value, since they had earlier gone to the trouble of having Sam Weiss tell Nina that Peter had to CHOOSE AN OLIVIA OMG to save the world. Now I'm pretty sure Simon was just messing with Olivia, since he did say, right before handing her the envelope, that now she would know how he felt all the time, not that he was answering her question specifically. And since he was awkward and anti-social, how he felt all the time was rejected. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.
(P.S. Sam's prophecy was much easier to take with the knowledge that it was complete bullshit.)
SIX BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Also still one of my favorite episodes. FEELINGS! Everything is about feeeeeeelings! And not the stupid soap operatic triangle kind of feelings they were pushing a couple episodes ago!
"Subject 13" was almost as pointlessly retconnish as it was the first time around, and it still needed to end with blows to the head for both Olivia and Peter so that they would not remember such a significant event in their lives (and for Olivia, some five years, minimum, of experiments). Argh. On the other hand, S4 has actually made it rather relevant, since it seems Olivia killing her stepfather in the Amberverse can be linked to not having met Peter in the field of white tulips. (At least, I assume that's what happened--talking about the abuse to Walternate-whom-she-thought-was-Walter acted as a release valve for some of her bottled up anger and fear, so she only wound up injuring her stepfather instead of killing him? IDK.) And I do still think the "imagine the world you want and make it come true" thing is going to have bearing on the eventual resolution of the Blue/Amber timelines. Plus there was Peter's toy plane showing up again in "And Those We've Left Behind," which is very mysterious.
Completely unrelated to any of the above, today my brain decided that Astrid/Brandon would be a most excellent crack!ship. THINK OF THE NERDINESS.