Welcome back to Multiversity’s summer binge of Fringe! The show’s second ever episode is a pretty horrifying plunge back into the middle of the sci-fi crime world of the show. It’s an ambitious second outing but very few people have made great television by playing it safe.
1. “Magic Old Man Baby and the Pregnant Lady”
Olivia Dunham’s first case as an official member of the Fringe Division is a weird one: a prostitute (Glow’s Betty Gilpin in an early role of her’s) is dropped off at the hospital seemingly pregnant, only to die in childbirth as she gives birth to a fully gown child. By the time the Fringe division is on the scene, he’s a dead old man. The investigation that follows is relatively forgettable, though its imagery is terrifying and seared into my brain. Mostly, it serves as the exact type of first formal mystery that a show like this should have- bad in a straightforward way, a little conspiratorial, and very weird. There’s also an interesting gender dynamic that comes up here; Olivia is eager to find the villain’s next guest. She spends a good chunk of the primary sci-fi mystery solving scene talking about the fact that being able to stop another sex worker from being killed is more urgent than the two men trying to find her are treating it. It’s not some big moment about the ways that the justice system fails women but it does feel like the scene alludes to that in a sort of subtle, possibly unintentional way. Episode two certainly deserves credit for its ability to deliver smaller character moments in deeply affecting ways. When Peter sings Walter to sleep in the last scene, it’s a touching, beautiful moment between a father who needs to be taken care of and a son who wasn’t. The show’s portrayal of that relationship, among others like Olivia and Charlie’s, is a big reason that this whole thing works. Where a lot of series like this one get caught up in the conspiracies and big ideas, Fringe never loses sight of its characters.
2.A Strong Command of Tone
A lot of the time in tv shows when something ostensibly scary happens, I don’t feel particularly scared. Fringe is a totally different story. Everything that the villain of this episode does is genuinely horrifying (I never thought the words “pituitary gland” would give me chills). Part of it is the fact the show is showing off pretty viscerally awful stuff like a dead old man with an umbilical cord and a woman strapped to a table with her mouth forced open; if those don’t make you feel awful to see, there’s something wrong with you. At the same time, there’s a level of buy-in that the show is capable of pulling out of people that’s truly impressive. Most series wouldn’t be able to pull off those images in such impressive, evocative ways. This is also a show that’s able to pivot between images like those and something like Walter milking a cow in his lab seamlessly. It’s a delicate balance to do those both so well but Fringe does it handily. All of that being said, there’s is a bit of an odd thing going on where the show becomes cold and Nolan-esque in certain moments- moments where it feels like a joke or an emotion is being gestured at but not actually happening. Those beats aren’t frequent by any means, but they also aren’t insignificant.
3. Weird Science
The way this show does science fiction is really interesting. It’s fake science, yes, but it also feels more thoughtful than the hand wave style that most things like this do. There’s more time dedicated to describing the fake science and they make the language more easy to understand; it’s an incredibly simple thing but it also helps to make the show more accessible and easy to feel connected to. When they describe the means by which they’re going to use a dead woman’s eyeball to find out where her killer is located, it feels a lot more convincing than most science-fiction series would be able to make such a ludicrous concept feel.
4. This Cast is Rock Solid
Continued belowThank god for the cast of Fringe because they are such god damn professionals. It feels like John Noble, Joshua Jackson, and Anna Torv came to set every day and just decided to be workhorses instead of show horses. Now this is a television series we’re talking about so being a workhorse is being a show horse but stay with me here; the way that they play their characters is so measured and smart and natural that even though I’ve seen all these actors in other things, their characters are the ones I’m watching. I don’t feel that way about some of my favorite actors but I do about these three. Torv anchors the show beautifully, Jackson brings a deeply fun performance that evokes very similar qualities as Justin Timberlake in The Social Network, and Noble is the heart of it all- bringing the humor and the tugging the heartstrings regularly. This episode also showcases the very strong chemistry of Torv and Jackson incredibly well. The two have an energy that doesn’t feel explosive but it’s certainly undeniable which is a lot more interesting.
5. The Conspiracies Deepen
The larger story of the Pattern and whatever it is that’s going on with Massive Dynamics gets moved firmly into B-plot territory this week but to good effect. Instead of doing making any big reveals or even small reveals, the show opts to allude to what’s going on. Nina Sharp tries to recruit Olivia to Massive Dynamics in a way that’s actually communicating the corporation’s indomitability to audiences. It’s smart writing and it goes a long way. Then there’s the matter of Peter’s mysterious medical records that Walter wants to keep from him. This is all good stuff and I know I’m excited to see (remember?) what’s coming next.
