After recovering from our streaming issues with Fringe, we finished it up this weeekend by binging the last two episodes. Fringe gets recommended quite often in the Reddit groups and its been on our radar for a while so my expectations were sort of high. With a few days to try and wrap my head around it, I have a few thoughts.
I really enjoyed the story, the Fringe events that drove the more procedural episodes were good but the overarching story arcs were really interesting and compelling and the real reason to watch. It was sometimes hard to follow exactly what (or when, or where) things were happening but when you combine time travel, multiple dimensions and J.J. Abrams I expected to be a little confused. I just went with it though and enjoyed the ride at the expense of trying to overthink and getting frustrated.
What I really enjoyed though was the mystery of it all and trying to anticipate what was going to happen, and talking to Gina about each new development and how it all fit together. It was pretty common for us to have dinner conversations about the show as we clarified things and shared our theories.
Characters were interesting and it was fun to learn more about them as the show went on and their relationships changed and developed. I especially liked how we were able to [I am leaving this out to avoid spoilers…]
I thought all of the acting was good but I really want to give some extra props to John Noble who we previously knew as Sherlock’s father Morland Holmes on the wonderful show Elementary. He plays such a different character here on Fringe that it was hard to believe it was the same actor sometimes. It actually took us a good 10 minutes or so to place him when he was first introduced. His portrayal of the very interesting and eccentric Walter Bishop here is really outstanding and he was such a delight to watch.
I wasn’t going to compare this to Lost but I just need to say that the ending here was thoughtful and satisfying and I have no regrets with the time investment I made to watch it.
If you like Sci-Fi and the mystery aspect of a show like this (I guess I could compare it to something like X-Files) I think it’s worth the time to watch. We’re on the lookout for our next series in the genre to take its place but it’s going to stay with us a while.
On a completely unrelated note – if you need a good VPN service to maybe pretend you are from the UK to maybe watch something on a network like ITV, Proton VPN works really well in the browser and on Google TV devices like the Chromecast. Or so I have heard…
Your thoughts?