Fringe: The Box & The Plateau
So, I really oughta write up my thoughts on these!
So there are two main things I want to discuss here - ALtlivia and Walter.
Altlivia I'm actually enjoying a lot more than I thought I would. I thought I'd enjoy her but...while I don't love her as much as either Ourlivia or Walter, I'm starting to see the commonalities between her and Ourlivia, while she still feels very much like a different character. I love that she puts Newton in his place - she has such an aggressive swagger while Ourlivia's is so understated but authoritative.
I thought the scene where she killed the deaf dude was really well handled because she obviously felt bad for him but also, she has a mission and she honestly believed this was necessary, essentially to save her entire world. And if she didn't, Newton would have, or the police would have found her if the deaf dude went to them, which he was trying to do at the time. But at the same time, she murdered a guy, stashed him in her bathroom and then made out with a dude to cover it up, so I think it's gonna be a balancing act if they want to keep her away from the "Evil Olivia" stereotype for the masses. That said, if they CAN manage that, it's a lot more impressive, interesting and worthy to do with a character who's willing to kill civilians in the name of the bigger picture, especially if you can draw strong parallels between that character and the female lead.
Oddly, despite my strong dislike of Peter/Olivia (more below), I kind of ship Peter/Altlivia and am sort of hoping beyond both hope and likelihood that when Ourlivia gets back there isn't an icky triangle because Peter just sticks with Altlivia and Ourlivia can go out and get hammered about it and then go back to being the Man of the House for her hilarious little family unit with Rachel and Ella. But I think this is highly unlikely. Although I do miss watching Olivia get hammered because dagnabbit, they both think they're the teatotal version and I find the lack of hard liquor unacceptable!
WALTERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Omgs, I missed him. And it was so nice to see that things aren't just magically fixed for him and Peter and more than that, that he's compensating by interacting more with Astrid. Because the show always needs more Astrid, but especially needs more Walter and Astrid friendship and it was just so...touching and sad, the way he confides in her and the way he goes to her at the end.
I do wonder what Nina's letter said and whether she'll be superpissed at Bell for not leaving her the company or whether she knew that was going to happen. And I just have SO no idea about what's going to happen with Walter owning Massive Dynamic that I'm not even going to TRY and guess.
Moving on to the Plateau!
In this one I pretty much just want to talk about Oliviaaaaaaa. OMG, Anna Torv is a really good actress and it pains me that probably lots of people still think she's "wooden" just because they don't like the way she handles Olivia - a character that's supposed to be, well, wooden in some ways. Because watching this, I really thought I was going to miss Ourlivia like woah, and I did but also, I felt like I was watching her? So instead of it being, dagnabbit, wake UP I was the REAL one back, I felt like I was watching the real one with an endless "Oh honey," desire to hug her until she works out what's really real or not.
I love how much her team love her, and that Charlie loves and trusts her enough to question the official line - I hope when she inevitably remembers (which I'm not 100% certain she did by the end of the episode), I hope he's there for her as an ally.
As to the very end, I'm soooo torn. Because on the one hand, I'm so happy that her own subconscious is explicitly telling her what's up, even if she continues to fight it. And I can even handle it being through the medium of Peter. But I really, really don't ship them (even though, weirdly, I ship Peter with Altlivia). I see them more as siblings and just don't see the chemistry between them. I also confess that I have some past baggage about shows *cough*BSG*cough* where putting the expected guy together with the expected girl has just led to some really depressing narrative failure and I guess some of my attitude is based around those fears. If I didn't have that baggage I think I'd be bored by it, but not as actively annoyed. Blah.
So I'm trying to concentrate on the fact she's still her and not worry too much about the inevitable love triangle especially since I also generally loathe love triangles like burning.
And those are my thoughts! :)
So there are two main things I want to discuss here - ALtlivia and Walter.
Altlivia I'm actually enjoying a lot more than I thought I would. I thought I'd enjoy her but...while I don't love her as much as either Ourlivia or Walter, I'm starting to see the commonalities between her and Ourlivia, while she still feels very much like a different character. I love that she puts Newton in his place - she has such an aggressive swagger while Ourlivia's is so understated but authoritative.
I thought the scene where she killed the deaf dude was really well handled because she obviously felt bad for him but also, she has a mission and she honestly believed this was necessary, essentially to save her entire world. And if she didn't, Newton would have, or the police would have found her if the deaf dude went to them, which he was trying to do at the time. But at the same time, she murdered a guy, stashed him in her bathroom and then made out with a dude to cover it up, so I think it's gonna be a balancing act if they want to keep her away from the "Evil Olivia" stereotype for the masses. That said, if they CAN manage that, it's a lot more impressive, interesting and worthy to do with a character who's willing to kill civilians in the name of the bigger picture, especially if you can draw strong parallels between that character and the female lead.
Oddly, despite my strong dislike of Peter/Olivia (more below), I kind of ship Peter/Altlivia and am sort of hoping beyond both hope and likelihood that when Ourlivia gets back there isn't an icky triangle because Peter just sticks with Altlivia and Ourlivia can go out and get hammered about it and then go back to being the Man of the House for her hilarious little family unit with Rachel and Ella. But I think this is highly unlikely. Although I do miss watching Olivia get hammered because dagnabbit, they both think they're the teatotal version and I find the lack of hard liquor unacceptable!
WALTERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Omgs, I missed him. And it was so nice to see that things aren't just magically fixed for him and Peter and more than that, that he's compensating by interacting more with Astrid. Because the show always needs more Astrid, but especially needs more Walter and Astrid friendship and it was just so...touching and sad, the way he confides in her and the way he goes to her at the end.
I do wonder what Nina's letter said and whether she'll be superpissed at Bell for not leaving her the company or whether she knew that was going to happen. And I just have SO no idea about what's going to happen with Walter owning Massive Dynamic that I'm not even going to TRY and guess.
Moving on to the Plateau!
In this one I pretty much just want to talk about Oliviaaaaaaa. OMG, Anna Torv is a really good actress and it pains me that probably lots of people still think she's "wooden" just because they don't like the way she handles Olivia - a character that's supposed to be, well, wooden in some ways. Because watching this, I really thought I was going to miss Ourlivia like woah, and I did but also, I felt like I was watching her? So instead of it being, dagnabbit, wake UP I was the REAL one back, I felt like I was watching the real one with an endless "Oh honey," desire to hug her until she works out what's really real or not.
I love how much her team love her, and that Charlie loves and trusts her enough to question the official line - I hope when she inevitably remembers (which I'm not 100% certain she did by the end of the episode), I hope he's there for her as an ally.
As to the very end, I'm soooo torn. Because on the one hand, I'm so happy that her own subconscious is explicitly telling her what's up, even if she continues to fight it. And I can even handle it being through the medium of Peter. But I really, really don't ship them (even though, weirdly, I ship Peter with Altlivia). I see them more as siblings and just don't see the chemistry between them. I also confess that I have some past baggage about shows *cough*BSG*cough* where putting the expected guy together with the expected girl has just led to some really depressing narrative failure and I guess some of my attitude is based around those fears. If I didn't have that baggage I think I'd be bored by it, but not as actively annoyed. Blah.
So I'm trying to concentrate on the fact she's still her and not worry too much about the inevitable love triangle especially since I also generally loathe love triangles like burning.
And those are my thoughts! :)