on the subject of learning from what's gone before

[hradzka]

A friend came over the other night and we watched a few episodes of BABYLON 5. She'd seen later episodes, but had missed the earlier ones. I was a HUGE junkie for B5 back in the day, and so we watched four episodes from the first season over the course of the evening. (For the record: "Midnight on the Firing Line," "Parliament of Dreams," "And

Comments

[kerithwyn]

*deep breath* Okay, so--I am entirely irrational about my fandom of choice these days, so take that as a given. But when I talk about Fringe, trying to turn incoherent squee into an actual rec, a lot of times I invoke a comparison to B5.

(I was both a B5 and a DS9 girl. Is that possible? *g* But B5 was on a whole 'nother level, I agree.)

Fringe, to me, reaches that same level of foreshadowing and ongoing plot. Every case--every one!--ties into the overarching story. And minor details even from the first season's MotW episodes keep having relevance into the fourth season.

It does for me what Lost and Alias before that intrinsically didn't. Great characters, yeah, but as you say, tap-dancing from plot point to plot point without a firm eye on the overall structure. Fringe is the X-Files if the latter had ever decided what its real motivator was: black oil! aliens! bees! -- I lost track. Everything on Fringe ties into the main story. EVERYTHING. And into the fourth season, it all hangs together the way none of those other shows did, save B5.

*helpless flail* Plus John Noble. JOHN NOBLE, David. He will break your heart.

Two pimping links, to augment my inadequate words:

http://a-blackpanther.livejournal.com/86441.html?format=light

and

http://newredshoes.dreamwidth.org/1703894.html
(Post is absolutely correct about the first half of season 1 being a red herring for the true plot...but even there, hints and foreshadowing abound.)

[hradzka]

Everybody talks about FRINGE. I will have to give it a look one of these days. (Work overseas, mostly fall far behind on TV.)