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1) "Fringe Division"
There's never even a definite article or anything. Sounds so very, very awkward. Even if it was just "Broyles' Division" or, oh, I dunno, "Division X" (ha) it would be better. I actually liked that they had no official designation for the first ten episodes.
2) Wacky sister with marital problems and cute kid comes to stay with protagonist.
This felt awkward, yes, and cliche-addled, certainly, but I can see the storytelling logic behind it. I've heard complaints about Anna Torv's acting (although, personally, I like her as a bit emotionally stunted, it works for the character) and she's been written as very closed off from the world around her. I imagine the sister and kid have been brought in to "humanize" her, although honestly I don't see why they don't just put more in more scenes with her, Peter, Walter and Astrid working together; they humanize her more than artificially-scripted "family" sequences.
3) Complete reintroduction of new plot to rope in new viewers.
...which was? What, the (possible) twist of Evil Mitch's confession?
4) Gratuitously dumb fight scenes.
The episode was rather heavy on them, yeah.
5) OMG antagonist from protagonist's past comes to investigate and is a hardass!
I was curious initially but quickly decided that the investigator has to die, horribly, because he's terribly annoying. Then I realized that it's because this is a pointless plot-obstacle. One that Abrams has used many times before on Alias. Yawn. Get rid of him and get back to the main flow.
That said, it does highlight quite nicely how the working relationship between Broyles and Olivia has changed.
6) Apparent abandonment of cliffhangers very cool and interesting villain.
Can't quite parse that. As a series, FRINGE hasn't depended too strongly on cliffhangers in general. I actually thought the cliffhanger from the last episode to this one was generally pretty weak; it's standard Alias fare that I've seen too, too many times. It's a nervous tic, like Warren Ellis and the bastard coffee bastard talk.
7) Has Massive Dynamic been dropped?
I'm guessing not, but I like that they did not immediately jump to that well. I like Massive Dynamic in the long run but this series could do from not foregrounding them as much, because they'd begin to bore me.
Giganticized cold germs were fun and weird and gross. We got some nice dialogue between "Olivia's Weirdos," but it was still pretty clunky. It felt like Peter and Walter weren't given much to do, but I am glad to see Mitch and wife removed from the playing board. |
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