111: 'Bound'
Wr: J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner & Alex Kurtzman
Dr: Frederick E.O. Toye
Synopsis: After undergoing a strange medical procedure, Olivia escapes her abductors only to discover she's the target of investigation by a vengeful Homeland Security consultant assigned to monitor the Fringe Division. Meanwhile, Olivia's sister Rachel comes to visit, and the team investigates the case of an epidemiologist who was killed by a giant cold virus.
Review: When the writers' credit for a single episode contains no less than four names, you know you're in for a bit of a cluster fuck. 'Bound' feels like a decidedly disjointed effort, perhaps reflecting the method of its composition. It certainly isn't much of a stretch to determine that a couple of folks worked on the investigation, one handled the (somewhat unwelcome) character drama and the other, namely J.J. Abrams, focused on the elements pertaining to the show's on-going mythology which, it must be said, were frustratingly obtuse and maddeningly minuscule. Within the space of the first seven minutes, the episode puts to bed the highly dramatic cliffhanger that we ended 'Safe' on, and this feels rather like a cop out. After giving us a month's build, thirty days of pondering just what happened to Olivia and how she and her fellow Fringe Division compadres are going to handle it, she's out of her kidnappers' hands quicker than you can say 'postulated'? And with a trick as completely obvious as asking for a fucking glass of water? Oh come on. Are you telling me these people have been living in a cave all their lives? That they aren't aware that it's Kidnapping 101 not to let your victim do or so anything? Jesus tap dancing Christ. So anyway, with this pesky cliffhanger out of the way, 'Bound' gets down to the apparently important stuff: introducing two utterly pointless, and thoroughly annoying, peripheral characters into the mix in an effort to create, ooo, 'conflict' and, aaah, 'emotional resonance'. Pah. The introduction of the FBI agent who just happened to be the guy that Olivia put away for sexual assault is completely and utterly contrived and, rather than create inticing tension, is simply going to royally piss viewers off. This tool? Hampering all of the investigations? Sticking his nose in where it really, really isn't wanted? It's not interesting guys, it's just annoying. And as for the sister... well, the jury's out I suppose as she didn't really do anything but then, that's possibly the point. It seems she is going to be used to give the writers an excuse to have Olivia reflect on the complex nature of her life every once in a while. Which would be fine if we actually cared. But frankly, what with all the crazy spinal taps, super size common colds and matter penetration that's going on around Ms Dunham, there are other things we'd rather spend our time with, thanks. The investigation narrative is actually quite entertaining, if only because the idea is a novel one, and at least we get to see the duplicitous Mitchell Loeb again and he gives a couple of intriguing lines, particularly relating to the idea that they are trying to 'save' Olivia rather than cause her any harm. Still, it would be nice if we could have a little more of this and a little less irritating character 'drama'. Reading this back, I have perhaps been a little unfair to 'Bound': it certainly isn't a bad episode; in fact, it's quite an enjoyable one. It's just, after the grandiose events of 'Safe', I was really expecting something more. I mean, we didn't even get to see Mr. Jones. Meh. 7.9
112: 'The No-Brainer'
Wr: David H. Goodman & Brad Caleb Kane
Dr: John Polson
Synopsis: Olivia, Walter and Peter are brought in to try and stop a killer with the ability to liquefy the human brain.
Review: With each passing week, Fringe becomes more and more like The X Files. And Alias. Which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if it weren't the more regrettable qualities of these particular shows that it chooses to emulate. 'The No-Brainer' is very much a stand alone episode, taking a side step from the mythology of the Pattern to deliver a kooky story about a highly intelligent computer programmer who has somehow developed the ability to liquefy people's brains by looking at a series of images on their computer screen. Uh huh. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? That's because it is. To this writer's mind, Fringe abandoned all semblance of scientific credibility many, many episodes back so it's not too much to swallow. What I refuse to blindly accept, however, is that virtually no explanation is given as to the how and why. At least in previous instalments, some attempt has been made (often with rather laughable pseudo-science, admittedly) to delineate the way in which the event is actually possible. Here, Bishop mumbles something about computer viruses transferrable to humans and that's it. Nothing about the science behind such an idea (although there is a jargon-filled sentence or two thrown in there, just to beguile), nothing about why 'what's that noise?' is even remotely significant, everything just is. And I'm sorry, but I have a hard time buying into what is effectively lazy writing. Things don't get much better elsewhere, unfortunately: while we get a nice cameo from Mary Beth Piel (my fellow Dawson's Creek fans and I were squeeing like crazy), and the scene between she and Walter is nicely done, the other character beats just fall infuriatingly flat. First, the sister. She's still there, hanging around like a bad smell, giving Olivia a chance to sit on a couch, listening to MOR acoustic music and talk about 'her life', and now it looks like she might have designs on Peter (great! Romantic distractions we don't care about!) Then there's Sanford Harris who needs to get off our screens as soon as possible. There he goes again, getting in the way of the progression of the narrative and just generally pissing everyone off. Whomever thought introducing an irritating piss weasel like this into the story was a good idea needs to be forcibly ejected from the world of television pronto. As with 'Bound', I suspect my inherent distaste for these particular elements of the narrative may be clouding my judgment of the whole. 'The No-Brainer' is a decent episode. It coasts along at a fairly stable rate and can be enjoyed at face value as an entertaining piece of dramatic television, provided you don't think about it too much. And look away whenever Michael Gaston's on the screen. Come on Fringe... you can do better than this. 7.2
No comments:
Post a Comment