J.J. Abrams has unleash two goggle box shows about organized religion and skill and foreign reflections of realness . interference fringe will never be as popular as Lost , but it has the electric potential to be far corking , as it proved last night . spoiler below …
Thing is , I still love lose a lot , and I ’m still cling to go for that the whole “ two thousand years of sibling rivalry ” storyline culminates in something amazing . But I ca n’t remember the last clip Lost made me feel quite as exhilarated as last night ’s Fringe . Maybe it was partly because Fringe make do to work so many character beat and emotional moments into an hour , it felt like enough drama for ten Lost installment . Or maybe it was because of the sequence ’s loopy gadget and twist , which kept knocking me off balance .
No , you sleep with what ? It ’s because this show is so unabashedly science fictional , and embraces the estimation that scientific discipline fabrication stories can be at the same time personal and intimate , and Brobdingnagian and widescreen . Lost has always scramble against this idea , seeming somewhat grudging about its scientific discipline fabrication component and almost never throwing theme at you as gleefully as Fringe does . Just look at this sequence : It begins with Peter already on the “ Other Side , ” and then we find out that there ’s some sort of Doomsday Machine that Peter ’s go to be hook up to , which could destroy our world , and then we pick up that William Bell may have turned himself into a molecularly tenuous ghost with his world - jumping — and that ’s just the first ten moment . Lost ’s Daniel Faraday had moments where he near this level of insanity , but he was never allowed to just guide with it for very long .
And not to sound like a broken record , but last night ’s episode proves yet again that John Noble merit to win all the Emmys , include the one for sound and lighting design . He was that estimable — both as Walter Bishop and as Walternate . You could be forgive for cerebrate they ’d brought in a entirely different worker to play the “ other ” Walter . baronial can run through a hundred emotions in a second , like in the scene where he ’s search through his paper because he ’s forgotten something important . And the bit where he apologized to the Cortexiphan redshirts , and explained that they believe the Earth need guardians , deal to be both essence - breaking and stirring . And the moment of supplication ! And then despite everything that ’s at stake , Walter still manages to demo some of his trademark childlike curiosity and vitality at exploring the Other Side .
It ’s been a long time since Lost ’s Michael Emerson has gotten the chance to show his range like that .
And there were tons of other great part moments in the episode , include Olivia drinking alone , Peter talking with his “ real ” mom about his adopted mummy , alt - Astrid stressing about whether to initiate quarantine communications protocol , alt - Olivia ’s relationships with Charlie and her squeeze Frank , and the Cortexiphan redshirts ’ surprising option for their traditional “ last Nox of cut loose before the suicide mission . ”
But also Fringe has something turn a loss can never have , at this peak — a cohesive mythos that fuses the personal and the universal . I ’m not articulate that Lost ’s mythos is n’t rich and coarse-textured , or that Lost wo n’t play all of its huge threads together in its final sequence . But Lost long since abandoned the opportunity to have a single tale screw thread that ’s as fundamental and multifaceted as the floor of Walter and Peter Bishop .
Everything revolves around the unmarried act of Walter Bishop add his Word back from the other cosmos — he did it to save Peter ’s aliveness , but he fuck the consequences could be horrific . And more and more , we ’re seeing that spirit Over There has been one prospicient tragedy ever since , turning their Fringe Division into something much more paramilitary . Plus even though Peter be as a result , the act destroy both Bishop family , and lead to Walter becoming the destroy , blow over creature he is today . ( The bit where he compares himself to the old theater is utterly moving . ) That foundational turn is such a rich source of outlandishness and play , what with Peter ’s identity crisis and Walter ’s skin to contain the damage , I do n’t think we ’ve even see half of what ’s there .
And had I missed it previously , or was this the first fourth dimension we learned that an Observer tell Walter that he could never return Peter to the other world , a few yr after Walter brought Peter over ? This whole mess is looking more and more like the Observers ’ fault .
Oh , and do you think aliens really kill our psychic abilities ? mayhap that ’s the plot of time of year four !
I think perhaps the principal difference between Fringe and Lost — and the reason why , ultimately , Fringe has the potential to be something greater — is that Fringe is pulpy and Lost is more literary . There ’s copious sum of weirdness in Lost , but it ’s always submerged in grain , and the personal stories are often used to keep us at arms - length from the middle of the weirdness . In Fringe , the weirdness is the warmness of the show , and all the personal relationships revolve around it unapologetically . periphery is less allusive , less full of eldritch cultural referent , and much more intent on bombarding you with weird scientific discipline and cool images . Nobody ever stare at a Flannery O’Connor book on Fringe , that I ’ve find anyway .
But here ’s the thing — flesh is the raw literature , thanks to writers like Jonathan Lethem and Michael Chabon who ’ve embrace the pulpy ideas of yore . And by being so attached to its loopy scientific discipline fable premise , Fringe achieves a form of purity of storytelling that is admirable and bracing . Walter Bishop shows all the signs of becoming one of literature ’s outstanding tragic heroes , a blend of Don Quixote and James Orin Incandenza . And Walter is so memorable and such a stark character precisely because he exists in a pulp narration of alternate world and molecular ghosting — you could n’t take away him from that surroundings and have him retain the same resonance .
So yeah , by possess fewer literary aspirations , Fringe may in reality end up being more literary than Lost . Check back in a twain years , when we ’ve all had a chance to rewatch all six time of year of Lost a few time , and Fringe is either soaring or plummeting in its fourth time of year . But last dark ’s instalment definitely do a stiff case that Fringe is on its way to becoming the show that Lost has always wanted to be .
Akiva GoldsmanCarlton CuseFringe recapJ.J. AbramsJohn Noble
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