Fringe, Season 5 (first half-ish)

[cahn]

Okay, um, I am up to 5x08 ("The Human Kind", mostly just started) and my principal feeling is one of bafflement. Who are these people? Who is this Walter who is a "different person"? (In 5x06, when he started expressing his sadness as to putting science over people, I was like… but Walter… whenever I've seen you on-screen that's what you do! With, like, one exception?) Who is this William Bell who sold out Fringe for profit? No! I loved the plot twist in S4 because it makes perfect sense for cortiphexan!Bell to be completely megalomaniac, but for him to just be pettily venal… no, that's not how his personality fractures! Who is this Olivia who just kind of stands around and occasionally goes to collect a plot coupon? Who, in fact, are the Observers, who used to, like, know what was going on in the future because of being time travelers and stuff, and who appear to currently be letting Fringe walk all over them without predicting their every movement? I DON'T KNOW THESE PEOPLE. WHEN DID I START WATCHING A DIFFERENT SHOW.

(Okay, a Bishop who reacts really badly at a loved one's death, I know him. And Blair Brown is sufficiently awesome that I still really enjoy watching Nina.)

Also, the plot coupon plot is just terribly boring.

Also, as I commented on fringe_rewatch, I thought Etta's death was a great plot twist (which I did not see coming at all and which devastated me in the best way), but I feel like as a long-term season move it came too soon and without character support; we have no visceral character connection with dystopia!world anymore. (Broyles or Sharp could have provided this, but they weren't given the proper screen time or writing support.)

Comments

[seekingferret]

I thought Etta's death was a great plot twist (which I did not see coming at all and which devastated me in the best way), but I feel like as a long-term season move it came too soon and without character support;

Yeah, fundamentally that is what my S5 vid is about, which I guess you'll watch when you finish. If they'd only paced out the twists a little better, and trusted the depth of their cast a little more, Season 5 would have been really effective at telling Etta's story. As it is, you can kind of piece together the story they should have been telling if you squint the right way.

I like that these characters have evolved, are not the same as their Season 4 or Season 3 counterparts, but I also found it hard a lot of the time to see the line that gets you from Season 4 to Season 5.

[cahn]

Yeah, part of why I'm doggedly carrying on with S5 is so I can watch your vid :P :) I mean, it is still good to watch while I'm doing chores, but...

But yeah. I really wish they'd spent more time on that line between S4 and S5. Peter and Olivia, I kind of get how they've changed. But it would have been greatly improved if, for instance, Walter (and Bell, but Noble can basically act Bell in Nimoy's absence) had been able to express his post-S4 self at all before trying to hang plot twists on it.

[seekingferret]

The moment in Season 5 that most frustrated me was Olivia's reunion with Nina. It made no sense at all on the throughline from Season 4!!! Remember how Olivia and Nina had been at the end of Season 4? Remember how angry the whole fandom was about it? And then in Season 5 they skip over all the hard emotional work that must have happened in the interim to lead to their reconciliation???!!!

[ase]

Just assume I'm nodding along with 90% of this. I have different feelings about S5!Bell, mostly because I can't believe Bell would do something for the money. Mad science? Complex plan to save the world, or wind up on top of the new world order? Yes. Money? Nope.

And for crying out loud why not use Olivia better. What happened to S1!Olivia?

What I remember best about "The Human Kind" is crying foul about magical Negroes in an era when the writers ought to know better. And the writing twisting into knots to get that bullet back into play. I wish there had been just as much effort to make more crowing moments of Olivia being awesome.

[cahn]

I honestly didn't care in the moment because BLAIR BROWN CAN SELL ANYTHING TO ME OKAY. But I was also very confused, because what with all of season 4 and the number of alt-characters and alt-plotlines I was like, is this good Nina or bad Nina?? Is this Nina who is upset at Olivia or Nina who isn't? WHO KNOWS ANYMORE. Maybe we are back in one of the alt universes!

(Nina could have been given the role of saboteur instead of Bell -- would have made a lot more sense. And waaaay more emotional resonance than Olivia/what-reaction-am-I-supposed-to-have-to-this-Nina-again and Doomed Bell/Sharp which, whatever.)

[cahn]

I have different feelings about S5!Bell, mostly because I can't believe Bell would do something for the money. Mad science? Complex plan to save the world, or wind up on top of the new world order? Yes. Money? Nope.

YES THIS ALL THIS. (I might not have made that very clear in the post? But this is exactly what I thought!)

And for crying out loud why not use Olivia better. What happened to S1!Olivia?

ALSO THIS. What happened to her moments of intuitive awesomeness? Lost in the amber?

Yeeeeah, there was something that wasn't pinging me right about "Human Kind" (haven't quite finished it yet, but am far enough that I see what you mean) but I couldn't articulate it. Yeah.

[seekingferret]

Is this Nina who is upset at Olivia or Nina who isn't? WHO KNOWS ANYMORE.

Sometimes it is better to pretend this is just Season 5 AU Fanfic Nina.

[ase]

Fringe is kind of hit or miss at miscellaneous one-shot characters; the compression of the fifth season makes me rather uncharitable toward the misses, like Red Shirt - er, Cecil - in Looking Glass, and whatshername in Human Kind. Especially when the misses are offensive cliches. Grrr.

Maybe things like guessing the Loyalist was feeding the pigeons in 4x02 is supposed to reflect Olivia being smart and awesome? If so, there needed to be a lot more of that sort of deductive reasoning.

The last couple of episodes do pull together a coherent arc and theme, if not with the focus I most wanted. And I kind of love Peter's midseason arc. It flows organically from Peter's character as depicted in all seasons of the show.

[seekingferret]

Yeah, Peter's midseason arc is great, especially the dynamic of Peter making the same mistakes his father made and Walter being unable to stop him, and Josh Jackson does a damned good Observer impersonation, but given how short the season was and how the season was supposed to be about Etta, it's still annoying that they took so much time for it.

[ase]

Ha, after the fourth season I was so done with expectations. (Not that I'm bitter or - no, wait... the bitterness meter is still registering when I think about 4x15.) I wish it had been about Etta. After Bullet, it felt like there was so much that hadn't been resolved. Maybe that was the point, but... yeah. Instead of the fifth season being an Etta season, it torqued into a Peter, and Walter, season. One reason I react so happily to Peter's arc is that it's on a short list of writing choices S5 executed really well.