The Fringe. T.V. show. Your thoughts.

[Baitball Blogger]

It ran for five seasons and concluded this January. I just picked it up on netflix.

I was just wondering, was there a season where you began to feel like it jumped the shark?

Apologies to anyone who detests the term, "jumped the shark."

[hlthe2b]

1. Into season 4, I thought it started to lose its luster, but I liked the series... and

I'm not really too much of a SciFy genre fan.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. I'm starting season 4.

Maybe because I ran through the episodes so quickly I started to see the limitations of emotionally investing in characters when the timeline keeps jumping. At least in Game of Thrones there is enough different characters to make it work!

[hlthe2b]

3. Yes... but I liked the lead actors enough to stay with it-- especially "Walter"--LOL

and it was nice to have a lead female character who was strong and a leader--rather than the usual hapless and helpless caricature.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. No question those characters make it work.

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I even became interested enough in Peter to look him up. Did you know he was the cowboy in Willie Wonka? And that he's married to Diane Kruger?

[hlthe2b]

10. Interesting... I guess Diane Kruger is getting somewhat reemed for her portrayal in "the Bridge"

(she plays a fairly abrasive and socially awkward detective with Asperger's Syndrome..

I think she plays it well, but I have to admit really cringing quite a bit--which then makes me feel guilty, as I like to think myself a pretty supportive and understanding person when it comes to the issue.

Regardless, I think the show is interesting thus far (on FX)

[Chan790]

12. I really like the show.

I think she's doing a great job, but I see why she'd be getting reamed for the character--Sonja is basically as unlikeable of a protagonist as I've ever encountered, getting up there with the unsoftened brutally-cerebral Sherlock Holmes that exists in Conan Doyle's books. Her chemistry with Demian Bechir is incredible, Marco's vulnerability and humanity magnified by the impenetrability of Sonja...she's even matter-of-fact about the worst thing that ever happened to her, the death of her sister.

Every TV/film portrayal has, rightly to some extent, felt compelled to soften the brusqueness of Holmes so they don't lose their audience. People don't want to see Holmes being the prick he is the books, alternately abusing Watson and calling him his only friend, ignoring what is right or legal in favor of his narrow morality and biased worldview (both of which revolve around what he finds peculiar).

Likewise, people are confusing an unlikeable character in The Bridge for a bad performance. Sonja is in a lot of ways Holmesian, but it's not the Holmes that people are familiar with or comfortable with...it's closer to the Holmes that in a roundabout way could be considered the murderer of Prof. Moriarty (he did basically entrap him into his death by playing off his intellectual narcissism) and an amoral misogynist and racist.

(I'm a huge fan of Holmes as a character, I think he's one of the most compelling characters in Western literature as one of the first antiheroes, often no more moral or decent than the criminals he's pursuing.)

[Polly Hennessey]

15. I, really, really like the show

Sonya and Marco play off of each other well. Remember there are people who keep reminding Sonya you can't do or say certain things. I love her perplexed look. Diane Kruger, Demian Bechir and Mary Beth Gish are so good I don't want the program to end.

[Baitball Blogger]

16. I do remember one conversation he had with Watson on a train ride out into the countryside.

I believe it was in the Hound of the Baskervilles. He said that it was easier to get away with crimes in the suburbs, than in the city. That's because there are fewer eyes to see the crime, or because the populations are so small that it is easier to intimidate people into silence.

That is so true and can be applied today.

[Baitball Blogger]

13. I must have a touch of Aspergers because I can so relate to her character.

I think that emotional detachment is accurately depicted.

But I could be wrong.

[OriginalGeek]

4. we lost track of it after the first season

and I am lover of sci-fi and most of all that it entails. I still love the Walter character and Pacey whats-his-name from Dawson's Creek was likable but it the show just didn't compel me to seek it out each week and after a while we just forgot to keep recording it...My daughter stuck with it through season 3ish but even she got tired of it after that...

I thought Grimm was gonna be the same way for me but it turns out I can't stand missing an episode so I'm really looking forward to the new season...

[Baitball Blogger]

7. Based on wiki's numbers, there was a huge

drop in viewership after the first year, and again after the third season.

Grimm didn't interest me. I'm more inclined to watch GoT, Nurse Jackie, Weeds and Walking Dead.

I prefer t.v. series which have a beginning, middle and end. Grimm gave me a feeling that it was formulaic.

[OriginalGeek]

9. Oh it is that

lol, it's just a formula that I like...the side characters make it for me. Also I wasn't sure at first where they were going with it but the main story arc is getting interesting.

I LOVE GoT. It causes me pain when the season is over nearly equal to the joy when the season begins.

[Fringe]

22. I could never get into Grim either.

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I thought I would like it, tried, but lost interest.

I love Weeds, and I watch the walking dead, but i have no business watching it because i can't bare to watch it without fast forwarding pass some of the more gory parts and hate how you never know who is going to die.

I'm emotionally attached to many of the characters so in a way I'm just watching, hoping they will all survive.

[Still Blue in PDX]

5. It kept me riveted, but that might say more about me than about the series.

I'm eager to watch the last season.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. The last season just ended in January.

I hear that it will be available on netflix on September 15.

[Still Blue in PDX]

20. I only recently discovered the show.

I burned through the first four seasons on Netflix, existing on very little sleep and a lot of coffee.

[Flaxbee]

11. I think Season 4, but I still really enjoyed the entire series. If Walter wasn't part of the show,

though, it'd have lost me after the first few episodes. He made a HUGE difference; I also liked the character that played Broyles.

My husband and I liked it enough that we bought all 5 seasons on DVD (something we rarely do; I think we only have three seasons of Babylon 5)

[Baitball Blogger]

17. I hate Bablyon 5!

But not for reasons you might think. My husband taped over my daughter's Christmas recital when she was just two years old. She was brilliant! After that I couldn't stand to watch another B5 episode.

[Flaxbee]

19. totally understand that... I'd cry, too. And I don't love it (B5), but my husband does. I like it

well, enough, but I looooved Fringe.

[Chan790]

14. I loved it.

I'm not sure that it ever jumped the shark in the traditional sense, each season can be thought of as a separate narrative that builds towards moment of clarity near the end where you realize that the smallest things from the first season caused the major conflict of the final season which is ultimately the major conflict of the series as well.

It's a show that is probably better as a whole than in terms of its seasons or episodes...some of which in seasons 3 and 4 are weak at-best.

[Baitball Blogger]

18. I look forward to proving you right.

[Fringe]

21. I didn't like the last season.

But I love, love, love the series over all which is the reason for my user name. I recently watched the whole series again with the exception of the last season.

I've checked the last season out from the library, but I haven't been in the mood to watch it yet so it's just sitting around. It has to go back by next week.

[Baitball Blogger]

23. I won't see it until September when it comes out on netflix.

I'll let you know if it's worth a gander.

I won't have trouble looking you up on DU. LOL!

[NV Whino]

24. Season 1?