Fringe Frayed...

What have you done to our beloved Fringe?! I've been a fan for four long, delighted years, watching this show find its voice, experiment, build the characters - supporting it through thick and thin with the hope that despite poor ratings, the gods would see fit to give Fringe a 5th and final season so they could wrap things up and have a proper send-off. Now I'm not so sure.

The Fringe I've been in love with is missing in action.


Like some leftover episode of Heroes, suddenly we've jumped into the future - where The Observers are completely the opposite of who we've always believed them to be. Not neutral altruistic Swedes - but hateful Nazis who've now turned into The Invaders, occupying our planet like an episode of V.

Since the invasion, everyone's conveniently been trapped in amber - you know, like during a writer's strike? Meanwhile, Olivia and Peter's daughter has grown up into a somewhat expressionless, high-cheekboned knock-off of her mom, a completely pointless character who is cut from the same unconvincing "tough blonde" cloth as Sarah Jones on Alcatraz. So far, actress Georgina Haig brings nothing to the table, save her Germanic cheekbones and the occasional pouty frown. She's taking time away from Olivia and giving us nothing in return. "Etta" is not someone I've become invested with over the course of the show like I have Astrid and Peter - or Lincoln Lee, for that matter? Who cares about this tranquilized blonde, fer cryin' out loud?

I miss Fringe. I miss it being set in our time and being a bizarre reflection of the weird corners of our reality. I miss Massive Dynamic and Broyles and Nina and Gene! I hope this is only brief detour into the first half of this final season and things right themselves for the finish - but I hate having The Observers be evil and I'm more than done with Henrietta and amber. You had a great thing here, people - please don't let this be another J.J. show that couldn't find the dismount (cough-cough - Lost).

The Fringe I've seen these last two weeks has been held together by the spark of Walter's (John Noble) personality - no surprise there - as both Peter and Olivia seem more passive and less colorful than they have before. Running around as a half-baked collection of "resistance fighters" trying to solve the puzzle of how to topple an evil (yawn) regime, it feels more like Hogan's Heroes than another trip down the rabbit hole.