Mind Time

I watched "Inner Child" last night, a first season episode of Fringe. It's the best example so far of the show's tendency to introduce two ideas and have them converge. In this case, Olivia's pursuit of a serial killer turns out to be aided by the simultaneous discovery of a feral child in an abandoned building with special powers.

Walter insists they're not psychic powers but empathic powers. I'm not sure that goes anywhere towards explaining how he knows names and addresses Olvia doesn't know. But okay, it's still fun. It's sweet she and the boy form a bond, it'll be kind of a shame if the show just forgets about him.

I also watched "Crackers Don't Matter", the legendary Farscape episode, last night because sometimes it's comforting when the level of craziness you encounter in life is reflected and amplified onscreen.

X Sonnet #1815

Desired action fizzled out of light.
Reflective disks contain the movie stuff.
A broken laser dropped the day for night.
The angry captive broke a rusty cuff.
With simple shading, pictures sleep alive.
Distorted fire brings itself to bliss.
The meaning changed for desert kings to thrive.
Another swing was Casey's final miss.
On fire loops, the dreams return to port.
Assuming sherry's gone the way of knights.
As dreary voices stall the royal court.
The absent cabbage wins the daily fights.
Across a rougher soil, linen breaks.
And all her sequined skies, the lady stakes.

Were-Porcupine

I managed to get Fringe working again after it hadn't been playing on Amazon Prime for me for some reason. Last night I watched the first season episode "The Transformation", one of the best episodes so far. A man transforms into what I might best describe as a were-porcupine on an airplane.

I like how the episode doesn't become about the main cast fighting this monster, or others like it, but just about them investigating what it is and how it came into existence. Walter has an interesting monologue about nipples.

I am noticing a slightly repetitive pattern on the show of Olivia in one tense situation while on the phone with Walter and/or Peter who are in another, slightly related tense situation and separate kinds of shit hits the fan in both places at the same time. It's kind of losing its punch, but otherwise I'm still enjoying the show.

The episode was written by Zack Whedon, brother of Joss, and J.R. Orci. It's available on Max, which I've decided to keep my subscription to for the time being because when I was in the middle of unsubscribing I was offered the chance to continue at 7.99 a month for a few months. This has happened to me a few times with different streaming services, you might want to try it.

Working It Out

Last night I watched "The Equation", another episode from the first season of Fringe. It's another episode that feels distinctly X-Files-ish, with a plot about geniuses being abducted to solve a mysterious equation.

The main appeal of the show continues to be Walter Bishop, the heroic mad scientist, who in this episode returns to the dreaded mental institution to interview an inmate. He doesn't want to go back but he can't in good conscience avoid an opportunity to find a clue that might lead to finding a kidnapped child. John Noble, who I knew primarily as Denethor from Peter Jackson's film of Return of the King, gives a performance that's an intriguing mix of deadpan and vulnerable. He's good for a joke here and there but you also worry for him.

The kidnapped child is a musical genius whose composition turns out to be the important equation, transposed to musical notes. There are lots of fan covers of the song on YouTube, which is by Michael Giacchino.

Fringe is available on Max.

With Chest Parasites Like These . . .

I watched episode seven of Fringe last night, written by JJ Abrams and Jeff Pinkner. I had no idea JJ Abrams could be so clever, not that I'm a hater of his Star Trek and Star Wars movies. But this episode of Fringe feels oddly more like a classic Star Trek episode than his Star Trek movies ever did.

An FBI agent seems to suffer a heart attack and he does, though not in the traditional sense, as Broyles says. It turns out there's some kind of toothy parasite clammed down on his heart which is graphically portrayed when a surgeon cuts a gaping hole in his chest. That's pleasantly wild stuff, and then I like how it unfolds as an alien medical detective story. It all culminates in an absurd but gripping climax in which Olivia has to get an answer from a detained spy in Germany who will only talk to her if Walter can temporarily revive the brain of a dead man. It's quite the three ring circus.

Fringe is available on Max.

The New Familiar Face

Last night I watched "Power Hungry", the fifth episode of Fringe which guest starred Ebon Moss-Bachrach as a man who unintentionally causes machines around him to become deadly. I know Moss-Bachrach from the first season of The Punisher, in which he was really good. So it was nice seeing him. The episode itself wasn't bad except it falls prey to the "everyone finds out everything" plot contrivance I dislike so much. Moss-Bachrach has pictures of a girl he likes on his phone and twice an unlikely bit of clumsiness leads to people seeing the pictures, first his boss, then the woman herself.

Otherwise, the episode was good. Walter has a funny bit where he demonstrates static electricity by shuffling around very solemnly in wool socks.

It's starting to get properly cold around here. I was lucky it didn't rain yesterday because I didn't bring an umbrella to school. When I saw about half the students had brought umbrellas I was filled with dread at the prospect of walking home in a freezing downpour. AccuWeather has let me down too many times. Though I guess it didn't yesterday since it didn't actually rain. I sure hope it snows.

X Sonnet #1796

The length of arms bespoke a vicious void.
Reflections change the sound of ancient words.
Salvation burned the cords of ev'ry droid.
Return to air that harbours breathing birds.
The heater teams rebuild the rink for games.
Amassing questions froze beyond the board.
Allowing lets the action rock the dames.
Computers gather more than rubber cord.
Improving trees involves some added light.
We picked the shiny orbs to thwart the mice.
Remember stone when changing suns of height.
To burn them once is not to burn them twice.
The sum of whales could crack the glacial core.
MacGowan's Christmas came the future's score.

On the Edge of Winter

Last night I watched the second episode of Fringe, "The Same Old Story", which aired September 16, 2008. I got some strong X Files vibes off this one, though not at all in a bad way. It was fun watching the trio investigate a serial killer who impregnates prostitutes with rapidly aging foetuses.

Anna Torv and Joshua Jackson give TV sizes performances while John Noble is definitely cinema as Walter Bishop. He's entertainingly brusque and the gags about his faulty memory are cheap but still funny. Anna Torv's Olivia is a little bland but I like how they gave her some impressive Sherlock Holmes moments.

I'm watching Fringe on Max (formerly HBOMax) which I realised I could get a 2.99 a month subscription to if I get the one with ads. They actually placed the commercials in the commercial break moments on the show which is kind of a nice thing for the pacing. It's been years since I've seen new commercials and I feel like it's a particular psychic link to pop culture I've been lacking. I've been having "broadcast editions" of MST3k playing while I cook dinner, episodes transferred from people's VHS collections including commercials from the early '90s. All those Mentos commercials and Big Red commercials and--damn--Sears commercials. I still have some shirts from Sears. I got to be careful with this nostalgia.

I heard Mystery Science Theatre 3000 didn't make its minimum donation goal during its Turkey Day marathon this year. I can't say I'm surprised. The new episodes are only streaming on the show's own dedicated streaming service, the Gizmoplex, which is slow and expensive, so I haven't been able to watch it and I imagine a lot of other fans can't. What I have seen from episodes shown on YouTube is a generally inferior product to all the episodes readily available on YouTube or Shout Factory on Amazon Prime. And, of course, RiffTrax. Joel Hodgeson, series creator and original star, may have a great creative mind but it seems clear now that Mike Nelson was really who held the show together. He was head writer from the second season, when the show first premiered on Comedy Central, and now apparently he's the only one with the business sense to make the format financially sustainable. It's always been a cheap looking show with a small fanbase but increasingly large budgets due to the need to pay for the rights to the movies being riffed--the minimum donation goal for the new season was over four million dollars. Oh, well. We'll always have the memories.

On the Weird Outskirts

I finally watched the first episode of Fringe. The 2008 series created by J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci isn't bad so far, certainly better than what I've become accustomed to from Alex Kurtzman's work on Star Trek series.

The pilot episode centres on a beautiful FBI agent called Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv). After her partner is infected by a bizarre manufactured virus, she must enlist the aid of a mad scientist called Walter Bishop (John Noble). To spring him from a nuthouse, she needs the help of his handsome rogue of a son, Peter (Joshua Jackson).

After this first adventure, the FBI assigns them to "Fringe" science cases so it seems like the show's pretty much The X-Files except with Walter Bishop creating some of the strange phenomena from within the group.

The science feels legit enough to give stakes to the action and the emotional journey Olivia undertakes is pretty good, even if Anna Torv is a bit stiff. I like the show's use of a device that allows people to enter the dreams of others, including dead people. I can see that idea having a lot of potential.

Fringe is available on Amazon Prime.

Twitter Sonnet #1714

Withholding camel cars requires sound.
To hear again, the deafened mobster sang.
In choosing roles, the critic starts a round.
An endless loop requites the restless gang.
The glowing green delineation jumped.
Between the brains, a notice killed a dream.
In sweaty haste were punchy fluids pumped.
To scare mosquitos, trolls become a team.
The nose of Death was nostril black and deep.
Regress to foam or pay the sea with sand.
When giant bullets speak they do in "beep".
A golden butler lends the shell a hand.
Surprising snacks explode the plastic can.
Enriching Otter Pops have forged a man.