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Hard Clumping
Mar 19, 2008

Y'ALL BREADY
FOR THIS
(We're doing a watchthrough! Check our progress at the bottom of this post)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-YyEcIJzpI

Do you enjoy your crazy sci-fi with the important characters developing interpersonally over the course of several seasons until it reaches its apex in a final 13-episode sprint where the creative team got to end it all on their own terms?

Then welcome to the Fringe retrospective thread, A.K.A. "A September To Remember" A.K.A. The Violet Sedan Chair Fan Club

This thread is for new and old watchers and those who may be interested, and though this OP will contain some spoiler-y stuff, let’s be polite to people in the thread who are new to the show and spoiler certain things in discussion, especially if a regular poster is currently working through the show (otherwise known as "Star Trek Thread Rules"). If you love this show as much as I do, you know the spoilers in this show are wild and worth keeping secret.

Though the first sections of this will be generally spoiler-free (although hint-laden), when you see the :siren:s, beware.

--(newbie friendly) Fringe Synopsis--

Fringe is the story of odd science, a no-bullshit female cop with everything to prove and daddy issues, a jack-of-all-trades young man with a questionable past and daddy issues, acid, a one armed lady, music, a cow, a hard-nosed boss who must accept the cow, more acid, baldies with slick fashion sense, a flower with intense emotional symbolism, some more music, the redemption of an old man, and daddy issues. Now multiply that by two and add some more acid and daddy issues and you’ve got yourself a five season emotional rollercoaster with monsters of the week and also it’s sci-fi, did I make that clear. The fun-as-poo poo kind of sci-fi.

--Main Characters--

Olivia Dunham



--

Walter Bishop




--

Phillip Broyles



--

Peter Bishop




--

Astrid Farnsworth, a.k.a. Astral, Asgard, Asterisk, Asteroid, Astringent, Asprin, Astricks, Ashram, Ostrich, Claire, Athos, Alex, Afro, Agnes, Aphed, Abna, Acid, Asset



--

The Observers



--

Agent Gene



--

--Violet Sedan Chair--



Violet Sedan Chair is a fictional band created for the show by J.J. Abrams. Christopher Lloyd played the keyboardist for the band and Walter’s musical hero in the episode, “The Firefly.”

Fringe’s producers including Abrams actually put a band together to write and record Seven Suns, the album mentioned in the show. Snippets can be heard on rare occasions in the show, but i it can be found on Youtube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_grVlDDGSHg&list=PL2F9DD46F3DBE6176 as well as on Spotify.

Abrams originally spread the album around the country in a limited vinyl pressing. Each vinyl contained a unique pattern on the last track that Abrams hoped fans would piece together to reveal a further clue about the show. It never happened.

(“Violet Sedan Chair” is an anagram for “OLIVE CAN READ THIS”)
(“Violet Sedan Chair Seven Suns” is an anagram for “ONE CHILD CAN SAVE UNIVERSES”)

If you couldn’t tell, this fake band with a full album that barely even fans of the show have listened to is actually a super important thing (along with music in general on this programme) and that’s pretty fuckin’ rad, okay.

:siren::siren:SPOILERS AHEAD:siren::siren::siren::siren:SPOILERS AHEAD:siren::siren::siren::siren:SPOILERS AHEAD:siren::siren::siren::siren:SPOILERS AHEAD:siren::siren:

--Alternate Universes--

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUbTShv7sBY





Arguably Fringe’s central stunt involved the gradual introduction of a universe parallel to our own, effectively doubling their cast while allowing their existing actors to show some their chops by playing different versions of their characters.



--Fringe Success Stories--

Mr. Snazz posted:

Stood in line to meet Peter Weller today. My fiancee brought a white tulip for him to sign, and it had a big impact on him. I had read about his wife recommending that he take the role, but he offered up more to the story. Apparently they had an extremely similar fight on their way to register, with him leaving the car, etc, so the script really hit home for both of them.



~~Product Placement & Recipes~~





https://www.facebook.com/WalterBishopsCookbook
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAjzjia3tL0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4fY1_NSxF0

---

Here's a mostly-working youtube playlist of every song Walter Bishop listened to or heard during the course of the show

--



--

:siren:~*~FRINGE WATCHTHROUGH SUNDAY~*~:siren:

A weekly chilled out Fringe watchthrough. Let's dig in.

1x01 - Pilot http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3682168&pagenumber=3&perpage=40#post438041655
1x02 - The Same Old Story http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3682168&pagenumber=4#post438350018
1x03 - The Ghost Network http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3682168&pagenumber=5&perpage=40#post438648674
1x04 - The Arrival http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3682168&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=5#post439043530
1x05 - Power Hungry http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3682168&pagenumber=5&perpage=40#post439301170

Hard Clumping fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Dec 22, 2014

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grilldos
Mar 27, 2004

BUST A LOAF
IN THIS
YEAST CONFECTION
Grimey Drawer
Everyone food up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iVeXt35x_E



PS: This is the poo poo:

Hard Clumping posted:

Here's a mostly-working youtube playlist of every song Walter Bishop listened to or heard during the course of the show

EDIT: :siren: :siren: :siren: :siren: :siren: :siren: :siren: :siren: :siren: :siren: :siren: :siren: :siren: :siren: :siren:

Despite the plea to use spoiler tags, we proceeded to immediately spoil some major poo poo in this show, so if you still haven't watched it yet, gently caress off and come back.

grilldos fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Nov 20, 2014

Rocksicles
Oct 19, 2012

by Nyc_Tattoo
Giggity

Whens the official rewatch?

bobkatt013
Oct 8, 2006

You’re telling me Peter Parker is ...... Spider-man!?
New Thread!!



Its also due to this show that it reminded me how awesome David Bowie's Man who sold the world.

Regy Rusty
Apr 26, 2010

Fringe is my favorite TV show.

pentyne
Nov 7, 2012

Regy Rusty posted:

Fringe is my favorite TV show.

It was surprisingly low key for a show that basically did everything the X-Files was trying to do but actually maintained its momentum and carried it through the entire show. Also being the only sci-fi genre show on at the time.

I think it almost got cancelled after season 3, but they managed to luck into a season 4, and then John Noble just sat in a room staring at the FOX producers menacingly until they greenlit season 5.

Rocksicles
Oct 19, 2012

by Nyc_Tattoo
Also redeemed Joshua Jackson for Dawsons Creek.

Gatekeeper
Aug 3, 2003

He was warrior and mystic, ogre and saint, the fox and the innocent, chivalrous, ruthless, less than a god, more than a man.
Just finished a rewatch of this show. Even with the shake-ups in the last season, it was still such a solid sci-fi show with a great cast and excellent stories. I rarely get so attached to a cast, John Noble and Joshua Jackson in particular. I've been watching Sleepy Hollow lately and it's nice to have more John Noble on my TV, but I wish he was a little less Denethor-y and a little more Walter-y. His character arc on Fringe was just incredible, from the first episode to the last.

There's a Walter Bishop playlist on Spotify that's great although I don't know how complete it is.

Exploder
Nov 15, 2005

Just a humble motherfucker with a big ass dick

Gatekeeper posted:

Just finished a rewatch of this show. Even with the shake-ups in the last season, it was still such a solid sci-fi show with a great cast and excellent stories. I rarely get so attached to a cast, John Noble and Joshua Jackson in particular. I've been watching Sleepy Hollow lately and it's nice to have more John Noble on my TV, but I wish he was a little less Denethor-y and a little more Walter-y. His character arc on Fringe was just incredible, from the first episode to the last.

You make it sound like the final season wasn't completely awesome, which it was. Easily one of the greatest things to grace my television with it's presence. But anyway, it's funny, because it was hard to get through the first half of the first season for me. I didn't think I would care much about Olivia nor Peter, and only kept watching because of John Noble and Cedric Daniels... err, Lance Reddick (now when I watch The Wire, I can't un-see Broyles). After a while though, I became attached to all of them.

Great OP! It gives me a strong urge to re-watch, even though I just finished it a few months ago.

Ugly In The Morning
Jul 1, 2010
Pillbug

pentyne posted:


I think it almost got cancelled after season 3, but they managed to luck into a season 4, and then John Noble just sat in a room staring at the FOX producers menacingly until they greenlit season 5.

Wasn't the show constantly in a state of almost being cancelled? I'm amazed it lastest for a couple seasons in the Friday Night Death Slot.

All the complaints about bad acting in the first season are pretty funny once you see a couple of seasons. They all knocked it out of the park, especially Anna Torv and John Noble. How he didn't win a shitload of emmies for playing Walter, I have no idea.

howe_sam
Mar 7, 2013

Creepy little garbage eaters


Why isn't Gene listed as a character in the OP? She had her own FBI jacket and everything? :colbert:

Fringe was such an amazing show. Absolutely one of my all time favorites.

Ugly In The Morning posted:

...and John Noble. How he didn't win a shitload of emmies for playing Walter, I have no idea.

Unfortunately Best Supporting Actor is a loaded category. Noble just had the bad luck of trying to compete with Aaron Paul and Peter Dinklage. That he never even got nominated is the worst crime.

Hard Clumping
Mar 19, 2008

Y'ALL BREADY
FOR THIS

howe_sam posted:

Why isn't Gene listed as a character in the OP? She had her own FBI jacket and everything? :colbert:

She was mentioned in the synopsis (written by my good friend grilldos), but I dig your thought process and have added her.

Keep throwing your OP ideas at me, everybody. Wanna make it good.

Hard Clumping fucked around with this message at 13:53 on Nov 18, 2014

CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK
Sep 11, 2001



pentyne posted:

It was surprisingly low key for a show that basically did everything the X-Files was trying to do but actually maintained its momentum and carried it through the entire show. Also being the only sci-fi genre show on at the time.

I think it almost got cancelled after season 3, but they managed to luck into a season 4, and then John Noble just sat in a room staring at the FOX producers menacingly until they greenlit season 5.

Really? I felt the opposite. The whole thing feels a bit disjointed and loses momentum between seasons. Especially going from season 4 to 5.

PriorMarcus
Oct 17, 2008

ASK ME ABOUT BEING ALLERGIC TO POSITIVITY

CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK posted:

Really? I felt the opposite. The whole thing feels a bit disjointed and loses momentum between seasons. Especially going from season 4 to 5.

I honestly feel like the odd one out. Season One and Two are amazing, but it starts going downhill the moment Peter comes back and Olivia is switched out.

Ugly In The Morning
Jul 1, 2010
Pillbug

PriorMarcus posted:

I honestly feel like the odd one out. Season One and Two are amazing, but it starts going downhill the moment Peter comes back and Olivia is switched out.

I thought 3 was fantastic and probably the best season, but the whole timeline shenanigans had me iffy about S4 when it was first airing.

I didn't like the whole "First People" bit of S3 all that much because it felt really cliche, but I like how it ended up playing out in the end.

PriorMarcus
Oct 17, 2008

ASK ME ABOUT BEING ALLERGIC TO POSITIVITY

See I thought that adding a search quest really undid the building war narrative they had been heading towards, and having B-Olivia around felt like really artificial character drama.

I think it would've been better to have Peter stay in the Red Universe by choice as a way to get to know that side and make it more sympathetic without the brainwashed stuff they had to pull with Olivia.

That way Peter can form bonds with people over there and when he does eventually join the two universe's together it feels more like a character decision rather than a plot one.

Gatekeeper
Aug 3, 2003

He was warrior and mystic, ogre and saint, the fox and the innocent, chivalrous, ruthless, less than a god, more than a man.

Exploder posted:

You make it sound like the final season wasn't completely awesome, which it was.

I'm just saying it was different. I know it isn't the most popular season, but I still loved it. Especially as a resolution for Walter's arc. And that scene of him in the cab in his robe listening to Yazoo was almost too good.

grilldos
Mar 27, 2004

BUST A LOAF
IN THIS
YEAST CONFECTION
Grimey Drawer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DybrM4CSNy4

If there was a better way to end the first episode of Season 5 and establish every theme at once, I don't know it.

Also, Peter deleting himself from existence was a super cool hosed up moment and I will treasure the what-in-the-gently caress mind break it generated in me forever.

PriorMarcus posted:

That way Peter can form bonds with people over there and when he does eventually join the two universe's together it feels more like a character decision rather than a plot one.

I do like this idea, but they reached the benefits of that approach (making the other side and its characters sympathetic) eventually and effectively anyway. Our Main Characters Fighting To Be Together has always been the most important thing for the writing team.

grilldos fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Nov 18, 2014

howe_sam
Mar 7, 2013

Creepy little garbage eaters

Hard Clumping posted:

She was mentioned in the synopsis (written by my good friend grilldos), but I dig your thought process and have added her.

That was perfect, thank-you.

I know Letters of Transit setup the world of season five, but it still felt like it came out of nowhere. That being said, the finale was about as perfect as you could hope for, even if what actually happened makes no goddamn sense.

computer parts
Nov 18, 2010

PLEASE CLAP

Ugly In The Morning posted:


I didn't like the whole "First People" bit of S3 all that much because it felt really cliche, but I like how it ended up playing out in the end.

The weakest part in Fringe is that they always had a shaky landing for wrapping up their story arcs (remember Peter as Observer?). I did like how the series as a whole ended, though.

Ugly In The Morning
Jul 1, 2010
Pillbug

computer parts posted:

The weakest part in Fringe is that they always had a shaky landing for wrapping up their story arcs (remember Peter as Observer?). I did like how the series as a whole ended, though.

Normally, I would agree that the ending of the First People thing was an anticlimax, but when you resolve a stock "mysterious precursor race with advanced technology" plot thread with "Nope! Future Walter just dumped a bunch of poo poo in a wormhole!" it's really hard to not like it.

howe_sam
Mar 7, 2013

Creepy little garbage eaters

My only problem with the First People was how offhand the resolution was, kind of like the explanation for the mystery of Sam Weiss.

grilldos
Mar 27, 2004

BUST A LOAF
IN THIS
YEAST CONFECTION
Grimey Drawer
I choose to file those things under They Wanted Seven Seasons And Got Five So Fast-track Some Of This poo poo.

However, I enjoyed how offhand the First People explanation was, it suits Walter. That seasons-long worldbuilding of an advanced but extinct race of humans that served as an odd macguffin for some current events? Yeah that was just this crazy old man's necessary paradox that got embellished organically over time, whatever, I heard there are milkshakes here, where are the milkshakes??

Mulva
Sep 13, 2011
It's about time for my once per decade ban for being a consistently terrible poster.

Rocksicles posted:

Also redeemed Joshua Jackson for Dawsons Creek.

PaceyFest did that, now and forever.

HUGE SPACEKABLOOIE
Mar 31, 2010


This is just a WONDERFUL OP. Any chemists want to tell me how hard it is to synthesize LSD? :allears:

Fringe Fridays, I have missed you.

Hispanic! At The Disco
Dec 25, 2011


I've listened to that Violet Sedan Chair album three times now, and it's going in my regular playlist.

Ugly In The Morning
Jul 1, 2010
Pillbug

Patchwork Shaman posted:

I've listened to that Violet Sedan Chair album three times now, and it's going in my regular playlist.

I just realized the one happy part of the new S4 timeline- because Peter died at Reiden lake, he never caught the firefly, so the chain of events leading to the keyboardist's son getting hit by a truck got erased. :unsmith:.

No idea how I didn't realize that when I watched the whole series in like two weeks.

E:And yeah, for an album that was made for a TV series and then wasn't even used that heavily in the one episode it was made for, it's pretty fantastic.

Ugly In The Morning fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Nov 18, 2014

I AM GRANDO
Aug 20, 2006

Did any more of those Violet Sedan Chair LPs turn up? I remember one of the producers saying that they made 500-1000 and arranged to have them put in record-store clearance bins, but only about three ever turned up after they were announced.

It's sad, because it sounds like they put a lot of effort into making them all different from each other, and the liner notes specifically mention that some kind of supernatural effect will take place if thee copies are played together in one room at the same time.

grilldos
Mar 27, 2004

BUST A LOAF
IN THIS
YEAST CONFECTION
Grimey Drawer
I'd pay good money for one of those vinyls. And there were a lot less pressed than that.

Edit: Hell.

grilldos fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Nov 18, 2014

I AM GRANDO
Aug 20, 2006

grilldos posted:

I'd pay good money for one of those vinyls. And there were a lot less pressed than that.

Edit: Hell.

I probably shouldn't admit that I bid on that very auction when it was around $200.00, or another around the same time. I always figured more would pop up.

I guess the majority of the albums got snapped up immediately by diehard vinyl fans who had never heard of Fringe but noticed an apparently vintage album from a band and label they had never heard of.

I haven't seen anything about them since 2011.

grilldos
Mar 27, 2004

BUST A LOAF
IN THIS
YEAST CONFECTION
Grimey Drawer
Somewhere there are about 8 people who have this album, thinking it's some cool looking forgotten record. And JJ Abrams jerks off to this fact at night.

Fun fact: JJ Abrams name-dropped Violet Sedan Chair before season 1 even finished airing.

Aika
Mar 12, 2008

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SEAL THE EXITS!!!

pentyne posted:

It was surprisingly low key for a show that basically did everything the X-Files was trying to do but actually maintained its momentum and carried it through the entire show. Also being the only sci-fi genre show on at the time.

There is so much in Fringe that calls out the X Files for some of my least favorite parts of it (and the X Files is my favorite series) and it rules.

The amount of call outs in "Earthlings" is amazing, a dude on IMDB caught almost all of them.

Spoilers that won't make sense unless you've seen the episode:



The thing he missed was that the monster is a homage to the terrible season 1 episode "Space".

This Fringe-File Homages two, actually Three X-Files, "Soft Light" and "Trevor" — both had to do with people who had been altered physically, giving them the "gift" of being able to reduce other people to just so much ash. Also, "Leonard Betts" - I'll X-Plain later.

And just like those X-Files, this episode occurs in Long Halls with Hard Stark Shadows.

A Man is setting up a surprise for his wife (Michelle Harrison of 2003's "Paycheck") on their anniversary - She thinks he is getting on a plane, but in fact he is at their home setting out the romantic artifacts and accouterments.

So when she gets home, she does indeed get a big surprise: Her husband is sitting in his chair. But when she touches him as he is not responding to her, he crumbles to Ash.

Walter inspects the remains in his lab — and finds a curious lack of radiation in the ashes. More ash-bodies are discovered, and a camera reveals a shadow walking through hospital corridors - But no person is making the shadow.

This Fringe File further homages X-Files as being the one and only FRINGE division case dealing with a bona fide Extra Terrestrial.

And, as an added bonus for FringePhiles and X-Philes alike: A scene mirroring a scene from the X-Files episodeode "Leonard Betts" - The antagonist, "Tomas" (Ravil Isyanov) shows compassion for friend Nurse Maxine (Johanna Marlowe), to which he says "I wish you had not seen me here"- before he injects her with something. In the X-File of the same name, "Leonard Betts" does this to his friend and co-EMT played by Laara Sadiq - Who Ironically, was in the FRINGE Episode "White Tulip."

Furthermore, Senator Van Horn (Played by Gerard Plunkett who was The Doctor/Alien Shape-Shifter "Dr. Calderon" in the two-episode Skully "Emily" MythArc)- Which Broyles does not know yet that he has been absorbed by a Fringe Walternate Mercury-Shape-Shifter- Sends Broyles a package, which when opened contains a very X-File looking X-File, with the Red Borders labeled "Top Secret." Still not convinced? I think this episode was deliberately rifed with references to famous X-Files Eps.

A Great stand alone MOTW Fringe Case, nonetheless.


What lost me was season 4, honestly. It just dropped all the momentum and I missed the original versions of the characters.

Season 5 was the perfect middle finger to seasons 8 and 9 of the X Files, covering both an alien invasion and a lost child with a lot more sense and pathos than the X Files even attempted.

howe_sam
Mar 7, 2013

Creepy little garbage eaters

In the season 2 premiere not only is there a reference to a previous "X designation" of Fringe cases during Broyles's congressional hearing, but they actually show a clip from an X-Files episode on a tv in the background of a scene.

Aika
Mar 12, 2008

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SEAL THE EXITS!!!

howe_sam posted:

In the season 2 premiere not only is there a reference to a previous "X designation" of Fringe cases during Broyles's congressional hearing, but they actually show a clip from an X-Files episode on a tv in the background of a scene.

Yeah, the actor who played that senator iirc was also on the X Files as a random federal agent.

Ugly In The Morning
Jul 1, 2010
Pillbug

Aika posted:


Season 5 was the perfect middle finger to seasons 8 and 9 of the X Files, covering both an alien invasion and a lost child with a lot more sense and pathos than the X Files even attempted.

This is pretty much why I'm glad Fringe always had the cancellation worries- X Files was a great show but it got bloated as hell over 9 seasons. Fringe was going to wait until season 3 to reveal the alternate universe until ratings made them move it up. Weaving it in early really helped the show.

I AM GRANDO
Aug 20, 2006

howe_sam posted:

In the season 2 premiere not only is there a reference to a previous "X designation" of Fringe cases during Broyles's congressional hearing, but they actually show a clip from an X-Files episode on a tv in the background of a scene.

I have sometimes suspected that they put that clip in there to warn people away from taking the earlier reference too seriously.

Though later they straight-up say that Walter knows Dr. Jacobi from Twin Peaks, who mails him a package from Twin Peaks.

Taffer
Oct 15, 2010


PriorMarcus posted:

I honestly feel like the odd one out. Season One and Two are amazing, but it starts going downhill the moment Peter comes back and Olivia is switched out.

I'm kinda with you there. I enjoyed season 1, thought season 2 was great, and thought season 3 was phenomenal. I honestly thing it's my favorite season of any show, ever. But season 4 and 5 though still being enjoyable were way downhill after S3, and were pretty rocky overall IMO. But I'm glad it got a good wrapped-up ending.

HUGE SPACEKABLOOIE
Mar 31, 2010


I do think season 4 was the weakest because of the fact that most of the characters were totally reset but I loved season 5 and Letters of Transit.

Ugly In The Morning
Jul 1, 2010
Pillbug

HUGE SPACEKABLOOIE posted:

I do think season 4 was the weakest because of the fact that most of the characters were totally reset but I loved season 5 and Letters of Transit.

As much as I didnt like the S4 resets, and found it brought down the whole season for me (Will Olivia and Peter get together for realies again? TUNE IN NEXT WEEK, OR WE SHALL SURELY BE CANCELLED!) it still had two of my top-ten episodes. The ones where A-side lincoln goes to the B-side, and the one where B-side Astrid visits.

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pentyne
Nov 7, 2012

Ugly In The Morning posted:

As much as I didnt like the S4 resets, and found it brought down the whole season for me (Will Olivia and Peter get together for realies again? TUNE IN NEXT WEEK, OR WE SHALL SURELY BE CANCELLED!) it still had two of my top-ten episodes. The ones where A-side lincoln goes to the B-side, and the one where B-side Astrid visits.

Alternate Astrid was a really good portrayal of an actual autistic person trying to cope with genuine emotional stress rather then just BBT Sheldon beep-boop what are emotions?

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