william bell-related stories
Posted Nov 20th 2009 5:40AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Fringe
(S02E08) "Who are these people?" -- Peter
Awww ... we have met The Observer, and he is shy and caring. Or a cold-hearted killer, take your pick.
At long last, it was good to learn a little more about these mysterious creatures, although there are still lots of questions about them. We know there are many of them, that they observe people throughout the course of their life, and that they're not supposed to interfere. Oh, and they like hot sauce, but we already knew that.
So even with all of the scary stuff she sees in her line of work, Olivia is scared of roller coasters. I guess it's one thing to peer down a dark corridor with a gun in your hand, and yet another to be at the mercy of the roller coaster builders. At least she and Ella got their day at the theme park. If only we knew what that Observer meant when he said ...
Continue reading Review: Fringe - August
Posted Nov 13th 2009 3:23PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Fringe
(S02E07) "Truthfully, I really don't spend a lot of time thinking about what human brains would taste like." Astrid to Walter, while he's dissecting a brain
As with last week, this episode of
Fringe wasn't completely centered on the alternate universe and its goings-on, but that's ok. We still got plenty of good stuff to tie us over to next week, when it's all about The Observers.
What struck me most about this episode in terms of relationships is how broken up Walter was over the loss of his son. As mentioned in my other reviews this season, Walter is like the kid and Peter is the parent. John Noble does a fantastic job of portraying a scared kid who's lost his dad in a department store. I've said it before, and will again: He deserves an Emmy and whatever other awards are out there.
Continue reading Review: Fringe - Of Human Action
Posted Oct 16th 2009 3:52AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Fringe
(S02E05) "Whether you admit it or not, your life is something of a nightmare." - Bowling Alley Guy to Olivia
For a minute there, I thought maybe we were in a
True Blood crossover with the horned guy in the first few minutes of this episode. But no, it was the usual twisty-turny
Fringe-isms involving mind control, computer chips and dream states.
And it appears that something many of us assumed had happened to Peter actually did happen -- though with this show, you can never be sure until it all plays out. It wouldn't surprise me if it's something completely different from what I'm assuming it is. All this, and Mysterious Bowling Alley Guy after the jump ...
Continue reading Fringe: Dream Logic
Posted Oct 9th 2009 3:38AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Fringe
(S02E04) "Momentum can be deferred, but it must always be paid back in full. As I always said to Walter, physics is a bitch." - William Bell to Olivia, on the dangers of jumping universes
Cryonics, frozen heads, worm juice, mercury blood, shapeshifters, and Leonard Nimoy were all featured in this episode, and I loved it all.
Let's start with the worm juice. Olivia must have been seriously craving her William Bell memories to drink that awful stuff. And what a trooper that she was able to keep it down, too. I guess it must have worked. She got some of her memories back, along with some help from the bell -- both the bell they chimed during Rebecca's psychedelic adventure
and William Bell. Or Willem, as Olivia used to call him.
Is she right not to trust him? Could he have started the war? It's certainly possible, given his mysteriousness. He said for reasons she might understand later, he couldn't come back to this universe right now, possibly never. Why? What's he doing over there? Is he the one building the army? Is he being forced to? Will he and Walter face off eventually?
Continue reading Fringe: Momentum Deferred
Posted Sep 21st 2009 9:00AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd, Reality-Free, Fringe, Jane After Dark
In anticipation of the season two premiere of
Fringe last week (read my review and your comments
here), I revisited season one to refresh my brain. There are so many subtleties that connect seasons one and two, and it was good to go back and watch it again.
While there were a few creature-feature episodes that appeared to be stand-alones (but who really knows with this show?), for the most part, much of season one was devoted to weaving an intricate mystery and setting things up for season two. It's too much, really, for one small blog post, but a few things sprang to mind ...
Continue reading Jane After Dark: Fringe, season one - pudding, ZFT, and The Observer
Posted Aug 27th 2009 1:29PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free, Fringe
Fox has released a few photos from the
Fringe season two premiere, "A New Day in the Old Town," which airs Thursday, Sept. 17, at 9 PM ET. I'm so ready for the return of
Fringe, and anxious to see where the show goes this season with the parallel universe storyline. And I've really been missing my Walter fix since season one ended earlier this year.
Interesting that there's no sign of Anna Torv in the photos. Rather, junior agent Amy Jessup (Meghan Markle) is pictured in the last photo after the jump. She's been assigned to an investigation with the Fringe Division. That would be Walter Bishop, Peter Bishop, Astrid Farnsworth and, supposedly, Olivia Dunham. Maybe she got stuck in the alternate universe. Walter apparently made it back!
Continue reading Here are a few pics from the Fringe season two premiere
Posted Aug 6th 2009 6:44PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: TV Royalty, TCA Press Tour, Casting, Reality-Free, Fringe
The panel for
Fringe just ended, and in it was some nice news for anyone who were psyched to see Leonard Nimoy appear last season as the elusive William Bell. The producers of the show told the gathered critics that Nimoy has already shot one episode for the second season and that they will want to have him on the show "as much as he wants."
EPs Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman, along with co-creators Roberto Orici and Alex Kurtzman, even talked about a day of shooting in a super-hot Vancouver soundstage, where Nimoy acted like a pro. "He never went back to his trailer, and shot pages of dialogue." So it seems like they like having him around the set.
The show will take place mostly in the present universe, but there will be some events that happen in the parallel universe introduced last year ( "over there," as the producers put it). Events "over there" will affect events in the present universe, as well.
More on the panel later.
Posted May 13th 2009 8:27AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Fringe
(S01E20) Oh my. I wondered how they would wrap things up (or not wrap things up) in the season finale, and they definitely delivered the goods. It's no big shocker that we're dealing with an alternate reality; most of us probably saw that coming. But there was that one moment that made me gasp.
We knew Walter had done experiments on Peter when he was a kid, but it never occurred to me that Peter might have died -- or maybe it was just buried in the deep recesses of my brain. When Walter visited the graveyard, I fully expected to see his wife's name on that gravestone. Instead, we saw Peter's.
Continue reading Fringe: There's More Than One of Everything (season finale)
Posted May 6th 2009 8:31AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Fringe
(S01E19) It's an interesting premise. That we can have several different alternative realities, and if the brainwaves are hitting just right, we have the option to see more than one reality. Or in this case, more than one charred body.
I must say, Olivia handled it way better than I would have. I would have been FREAKING OUT and curled into a fetal position if the whole time-shift thing was happening before my eyes. But she took it all in stride, using it to help solve the case and find the twin sister in the lab. But oy ... what a shocker ...
Continue reading Fringe: The Road Not Taken
Posted Apr 29th 2009 8:00AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Fringe
(S01E18) We're definitely getting closer to some sort of revelation on Fringe. Last week, we heard Leonard Nimoy's voice on a videotape as William Bell, talking with Walter about a young Olivia in the room with them. This week, we learned that William Bell, founder of Massive Dynamic and the richest guy in the world, is the person funding ZFT. But it's not all that shocking. We've pretty much known all along that he's involved, unless ... there's some big, new twist about his involvement yet to come.
Continue reading Fringe: Midnight
Posted Apr 22nd 2009 8:04AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Fringe
(S01E17) I really love it when Olivia works someone over, like she did in the above photo. But wow, this episode of
Fringe was one psychological creep-fest from start to finish. As with
last week's episode, they really had us feeling like something eerie was about to happen, and sure enough, a bunch of eerie stuff DID happen.
Just the idea that someone could possess mind-control abilities is creepy, and now it looks like at least one of our main characters -- Olivia, a.k.a. "Olive" -- might be in that situation. The scene on the street with Nick gathering followers and taking them to the rooftop gave me goosebumps. Olivia was really in a tough spot. Either shoot the guy with the mind-control powers, or let everyone die.
Continue reading Fringe: Bad Dreams
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