The Return of Fringe

Wow, it seems like so much has happened since the last time a new Fringe aired. I’m going to use this huge break as the excuse for why I didn’t manage to make a connection between the really pale bald kid and the really pale bald guy on the show until it pops up at the end. I was thinking more along the lines of octogenarian kid, not alternate dimension kid (that’s where the Observer is from right? It’s been a long time since I saw that ep). Though I hadn’t been keeping an eye out for the Observer’s appearance in the episode at all, so it seems like I fell right off the Fringe bike.

fringe-kid On to the episode itself, I really liked the fact that the weirdness this time wasn’t the case Dunham had to solve, but the means of solving it. A nice little change from the standard episode formula. It also felt like Walter was hitting the correct crazy-to-quirky ratio, and honestly that hasn’t been an issue for quite a few episodes, they seem to have figured out how to write him now. I really am liking the show more than I was during the first 6-ish eps, though I’d still say as far as freshmen shows go it rates behind Leverage, Dollhouse, Life on Mars, Raising the Bar, Castle, True Blood, Party Down… Which is more commentary on how awesome this season has been for new shows than on the quality of Fringe because it really is a good show.

That said, I’m going to be getting tired of Olivia’s sister and her kid pretty fast unless they start having some relevance to the show’s central conceit at some point. To use a JJ metaphor they’re the Will and Francie of Fringe. If Will and Francie were totally lame.

-Jerk