tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post3010285015692440385..comments2024-03-17T07:11:44.454-04:00Comments on John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV: TV REVIEW: Fringe: "The Same Old Story"John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-45767897587731116872008-09-22T10:40:00.000-04:002008-09-22T10:40:00.000-04:00Hey K!I totally agree with you. I would MUCH pre...Hey K!<BR/><BR/>I totally agree with you. <BR/><BR/>I would MUCH prefer that "Fringe" were an exciting, scary, thrilling show that stands alone. <BR/><BR/>I'd much rather write a positive review of a good series than point out these problems in a bad series.<BR/><BR/>I don't want to be perceived as just rotely defending The X-Files either. <BR/><BR/>Honestly, I don't have a horse in this race. All I can say is that - quality wise, one show is incredibly creative and fresh (The X-Files) and the other -- so far -- is a disaster (Fringe).<BR/><BR/>I guess people will just say I'm an X-Files fan, but though I admire the series deeply, that's not why I'm pointing out the flaws in Fringe.<BR/><BR/>I'm doing it for reasons of intellectual honesty. How can people not see what a rip-off Fringe is?<BR/><BR/>Fringe is - frankly - pretty terrible so far. I just can't believe how poorly executed it is; and how much it appropriates from X-Files canon.<BR/><BR/>You're right about the super-soldiers. <BR/><BR/>You're right about "Hungry." <BR/><BR/>(There's also an episode, "Teliko" about a mutant stealing pituitary glands, right?) <BR/><BR/>You're right about the efforts to make a Mulder/Scully style relationship using a familiar visual shorthand.<BR/><BR/>If "Fringe" had aired in 1999, people would have received it the way they received Burning Zone, Prey, Sleepwalkers of even Strange World (which I liked!). <BR/><BR/>In other words, they'd be calling Fringe exactly what it is: an X-Files rip-off. <BR/><BR/>In 2008 (almost 2009), the memory is short, apparently, and most people -- even critics, -- are unwilling to call a spade a spade.<BR/><BR/>Also, the marketing for Fringe - the interviews and even some reviews - have been pounding home the idea that this is NOT an X-Files rip-off. I mean, they explicitly say that. <BR/><BR/>Which just goes to prove that the show is EXACTLY a rip-off of The X-Files and even the creators know it. <BR/><BR/>So much so that they "hyped" this message (and our cowed critical press picked it up without a thought or judgement). We are victims of a Jedi Mind Trick.<BR/><BR/>Keep up the thoughtful analysis; keep noting the comparisons.<BR/><BR/>We don't blindly have to accept sloppy writing or derivative storytelling. We should demand that TV be better than that.<BR/><BR/>My prediction at this point is that Fringe won't get a second season. People like you and I were wary after the bad pilot, but generous enough of spirit to wait and watch and hope for something good. Generally, I'm an optimist. I'd rather look for the good than attack the bad.<BR/><BR/>But that patience is going to wear out soon for a lot of viewers. <BR/><BR/>Especially after the terrible second episode.<BR/><BR/>best,<BR/>JKMJohn Kenneth Muirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-9275855972128937582008-09-21T16:37:00.000-04:002008-09-21T16:37:00.000-04:00I read and appreciated both your reviews of the X-...I read and appreciated both your reviews of the X-Files movie and the first episode of Fringe, so I was looking forward to this one.<BR/><BR/>I, like you, am trying to give this show a few episodes before making a final judgment, since I don't want to be just an X-Files fan nitpicking on a new show, but it just seems to be getting worse and worse.<BR/><BR/>I would say that, besides the characters' flaws you've indicated, there are still so many rip-off elements that is, at times, embarrassing. Another episode of The X-Files that you forgot to mention, which had a similar story, was Hungry with the brain-eating teenager. But what about the attempt to manufacture something resembling the sexual tension between Mulder and Scully using the typical gesture that made them famous (the brushing of hands, emphasized by the camera) in the bench scene? Or the argument that Olivia had a relationship with her FBI partner she was not supposed to have (which is bad fanfiction, not even reality)? Or the line "You joined the FBI because you thought you could make a difference", same line Scully had in her very first scene in the pilot? Or the soldier-experiments that sound so familiar to the lowest form of X-Files mytharc, the supersoldiers?<BR/><BR/>But most of all, what annoys me about this show is how it is absurd in its attempt to pass as clever science what is effectively a jumble of non-sense. Not to mention the procedures: why is Olivia allowed to do all she does? how can they just take corpses and patients out of hospitals and into a secret lab to perform tests on them? How does Harvard allow a crazy professor to have access to his lab again after years of being convicted and not bat an eyelid? <BR/><BR/>I'll give it a couple of more episodes, but it's not looking good right now.<BR/><BR/>kAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-83879864773844413522008-09-20T17:52:00.000-04:002008-09-20T17:52:00.000-04:00I was beginning to think I was the only one who fe...I was beginning to think I was the only one who felt this way about "Fringe" as many people I know don't see it as the rip-off it is. Thank you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com