Fringe Review and God Help the Girl

Amid a sea of reality television, shows about Vampires and gruesome cop shows,Fringe is a surprisingly fresh breath (although at times heavy handed breath) of fresh air. While both The Event and now Once Upon a Time have been billed as answers to the void left when LOST wrapped up I feel Fringe is a better solution. Part X-Files part cop show, Fringe draws heavily (and knowingly) from both genres. Like the X-Files, Fringe poses the question of what will/could/would happen if our desire for technology gets ahead of our common sense. Furthermore it relies on the seemingly inextinguishable fear that we were experimented on in the drug addled 60's/70's. The fear that our society is controlled by forces we can't see or know and that our daily lives are not what they seem is what drives Fringe and what drove X-Files before it. In the age of ever increasing transparency we also seem to have ever increasing fear that the things that happen around us are part of something bigger and more ominous than we know. Fringe answers this question with a war between parallel universes, mixed up with some solid stand alone episodes and occasional (very occasional) scenes of gore. Add the fact that chemistry between Peter (Joshua Jackson) and Olivia (Anna Torv) as well with Walter (John Noble-who seems to get all the funny lines) and Astrid (Jasika Nicole) is right on and you truly have a great show. The supporting roles are also strong with Agent Broyles (Lance Reddick) and Nina Sharpe (Blair Brown) standing out particularly as supporting characters that you want to see more of. I will concede that Fringe is at times too self important for its own good and at times it wouldn't hurt everyone to crack a smile or a joke. Fringe could stand to poke a bit of self-referential fun at themselves-even X Files did.

Case in point: side note-glad to see that there are only really old school, bad quality X-Files clips on youtube. Other side note-I'm glad to see Fringe has Nina Sharp in a red bob, surely this must be a nod to Scully?

On a completely unrelated note-I was randomly listening to Dear Catastrophe Waitress last night and I was reminded of how much I love that album, and in fact Belle and Sebastian in general. Sometimes I ponder if they have split up, they've been around sooo long but then inevitably something pops up in my facebook feed and I can breathe a sight of relief knowing they are about doing, well, whatever Belle and Sebastian do, which apparently right now is a musical. So. Everyone and their cat has a musical already, I know but nevertheless I can't wait to see this.