Fringe

[loneraven]

Hello, flist. I am home ill, flu-ish, headachey and not a little bit over-anxious. (Case in point: I thought I would make use of the time by at least popping out and sending some parcels. Mission aborted when yours truly was too pathetic to find somewhere to park, and came home having smudged the parcels' labels in the rain, but not actually sent

Comments

[parrot_knight]

If you are ill, better be on the sofa than at work, I'd say... and as for smudged addresses, I managed the same today, thanks to dropping an envelope address-down on a wet pavement.

[loneraven]

So sensible people tell me, but I have GUILT. Also, rain and post just suck. I wish you could post things through the internet.

[jennyrad]

Your description of The Mentalist (and oh, how I hate that name! But anyway) strikes a chord with me, but I think it has one major redeeming feature which I feel the need to share: it's like Derren Brown, but without actually manipulating real people, because it's fictional.

[jennyrad]

(P.S. Hope you feel better soon!)

[loneraven]

Thanks! I have to admit I don't know who Derren Brown is.

[icepixie]

FRINGE OMG!!!

Yeah, you do need to stick with it for a while until it becomes awesome. (Also much less like an X-Files knock-off.) FWIW, I think the turning point is episode fourteen, "Ability," which is massively important and also very good. From what I remember, the really necessary ones of S1 are episodes 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 17, 19, and 20, but it's entirely possible I'm missing something or have mixed up in which episodes things occurred. (I...kind of watched all of S1 in a week last summer.) Also, this is a show where the least little thing is liable to come back in a big way two or three years later, so if you find yourself really liking it once you get to the awesome in S2, you'll probably want to go back and look at the ones you skipped.

Also, in re: optimistic sci-fi: I think Fringe is actually quite optimistic in its main plot, especially after this season. And the episodes quickly start ending on very hopeful notes. Despite the pain and woe everyone experiences, there seems to be a genuine underlying belief in

I really should have a Fringe icon.

[macadamanaity]

There are definitely skipable episodes but as I mainlined all three seasons in about a week and a half, I'm not 100% sure which ones they are. In some ways it starts out like Law and Order where it's all Procedural Procedural Procedural Procedural Is this because I'm a lesbian? Procedural Procedural... but as each season goes on the underlying character development comes to the forefront as part of the plot and it's freaking amazing.

[littlered2]

Instead it seems to use a swimming-pool palette, washed out blues and greens, which is nice and creepy without being invisible on VHS. (Not that this is a problem now, but oh, X-Files, way to stamp on my love.)

BtVS and Angel are both guilty of that. *glares* I like to know what's actually going on in a scene, directors! How can I be excited if I don't know who's punching whom? (On a similar note, see any scene which has both Buffy and Angel in. They will speak in such low, heartfelt tones as to be completely inaudible. So maddening!)

I hope you feel better soon - try to relax rather than feeling guilty about being at home.