Following the emotional episode from last week, I didn’t think this episode would rate as high for my standards. Surprisingly, Fringe has really crafted a knack for balancing the juggling act of sci-fi mystery versus character development. ‘Snakehead’ is no exception.
Father and Son
In addition to a very interesting case, the episode also manages to squeeze in a very touching storyline between Peter, Walter and Astrid. The one upside to the demise of Agent Francis is that Astrid is starting to come up to the foreground as a character. She lacks the sharpness of field agents like Olivia, but her connection to Walter as well as her intelligence really makes her a likable character.
‘Snakehead’ continues to develop Peter and Walter’s relationship. An often off-kilter father-son relationship, the episode emphasizes Walter’s lack of survival skills, to the point where viewers feel pity for him as one would a child. Despite his genius, Walter has to struggle with something everyone else takes for granted: humanity. Walter has always been my favorite character (Nina Sharp being a close second), but this episode really rakes in the sypmathy points. Of course, John Noble’s poignant performance doesn’t hurt either.
For an episode that seems jam packed with action, gore and slithery parasites, it’s amazing that such a touching storyline can be developed in the midst. From a storytelling standpoint, I very much admire the effort.
The Mad Doctor
While the cases usually don’t require too much analytical attention, I do find this particular case very interesting in that the intentions behind the crime wave is one of healing. Fringe cases normally target villains through and through, but it would be interesting to follow up on the immune-dificiency patients after the fact. After all, cracking this case is not necessarily a win-win; either way, people will be dying as an outcome. Also, while Fringe is always at the top of its game in terms of CGI, I especially enjoyed their rendition of those vicious parasites. Something about them (perhaps the tentacles) really made me uncomfortable, and that does not happen often for me. I am more than relieved to not have to see it swim around in that tank anytime soon.
While structurally I prefer ‘August‘, ‘Snakehead’ is a fine addition to the show with lots of emotional moments outside of the action. Given the promo for next week, Fringe seems to have developed a rather comfortable pacing in terms of storytelling. Despite its weakness in viewership, I am hopeful that the show will continue its consistency.
Rating: 9.2/10
Popularity: 5% [?]
While the idea of rating this episode anywhere above a 7 is rather foreign to me (I think that I personally would probably put it at a 6.3 or so, and I’d consider that pretty lenient), it certainly keeps up the streak of Fringe-episodes that do not bore me. This in spite of basically being full of unoriginal plotlines with no really surprising or interesting twists. The ethical and emotional issues they hint at – which you, too, point out – are not exactly original, but if they’d made them the POINT of the episode, at least it would’ve been captivating and brought out some rather personal sides of the characters as they responded to it. Instead, it is alluded to, mentioned briefly, and by and large glossed completely over. I note, for instance, with disappointment how once the case is solved, no more attention is given to the patients who will now die due to Dunham et al and their investigative successes.
As to Walter, he is my favourite character too, but unlike you I’d put him as such with a very, very large margin. Peter lags a good long while behind, and Nina Sharpe is an even more distant third. I do agree that Astrid had a nice advancement in the amount of attention given her in this episode, which is of course very good indeed. Especially since what we did get was genuinely moving and interesting.
Which brings me to the praise – because I thought the episode rather good indeed, especially considering its bland plotting. The nerve of this story was not the week’s case at all, but rather that of Walter and his social relationships (in reality really only Astrid and Peter), and the pains of being both a confused child and a wise old man at the same time. Particularly, perhaps, this must be an extraordinary burden on a man like Walter Bishop, whose entire life has been about his extraordinary mind and his capacity through it to be more capable at more or less anything than anyone around him.
The relationship between Walter and his son was the only thing that kept me with this show in season 1, and while I feel the show as a whole has improved noticeably in season 2, it remains both the spine and the heart of why I still watch Fringe. This episode is no exception, and moments like the little scene at the end where Walter informs the sleeping Peter of the tracking device makes the drearily familiar main plots of the episodes more than worth the bother.
I do truly wish they could integrate these emotional subplots and intelligent character arcs with less procedural sci-fi stereotypes for main plots, or better yet, simply make the show about the characters it clearly wants to focus on rather than the cases of every individual week. But as long as that is a pie not only hanging in the sky but also very likely baked by imaginary pixies, these subplots will suffice. Because after all, like this episode shows, while the main plots might be trite, they’re at least well executed. And the acting and writing in what little character-development peeks through is on a level that I with a quick glance on the show would never even suspect. So for that alone, it deserves a lot of respect.
Now, if only they’d let Broyles become, you know, three-dimensional. Or at least Dunham/Astrid-levels of quasi-interesting. That’d be good. (Man, do I hate to see a great actor and a potentially great character wasted like he is)
I’m still not sure why Fringe’s formula bothers you so much, but it doesn’t seem to bother me at all. I find the cases and the pacing to be interesting enough, but I really the effort the show takes into incorporating character moments even on an action-driven show like this one. I think in a perfect world, this is the kind of show I would like to write, one that I would describe as sci-fi with heart, but that’s just me.
In addition, Fringe also draws me in for another reason that is lost on you: the mythology. I keep with it because amidst all the fringe cases, I really want to know what happens in the long haul. I see that doesn’t interest you as much because, as you say, it’s been done before. I’m not as well-versed in sci-fi as you, so that’s probably part of the reason. ‘August’ is a perfect example of the kind of episode that really focuses on emotional impact (which I love) but left me wanting more on the revelation side of things.
In a perfect world, or perfect episode, I would want both character and plot advancements without sacrificing either. That’s pretty damn hard to do though. I can only think of one example where I was pleased on both fronts, and it’s very obscure (it’s the second Juliet flashback in season 3 of Lost, where she reveals Claire’s kidnapping).
Yeah, it’s not Fringe’s formula that bothers me – it’s that there IS a formula. I dislike procedurals a great lot, and especially when they don’t even have the decency to try to hide the fact that that’s what they are.
It’s definitely sci-fi with heart, but I just wish the heart could be what the show was about. Instead, it’s about “look! look! We’re sci-fi!” which is a lot less interesting to me. I care about seeing characters and stories grow and become rich and captivating, not about seeing new recipe-like plots I’ve seen twenty times before that just happen to include some relatively interesting characters in them. But I get that popular TV, especially popular network TV, is not really the place to look for that. I mean, I accept it enough to watch it and even sort of enjoy it. At least bits about it. The bits with heart.
The mythology isn’t lost on me. I would be very happy indeed if that was the focus. But just like with the heart, it isn’t. It’s slithering in every now and then in-between the main episode plots, but it is very, very rarely the focal point. If it was, I’d not be complaining. As I said, I want a show about characters and/or story (and by “story”, I mean big, overarching plotlines and themes, including the mythology), but instead, I get a show about “what kind of crazy do they encounter THIS week?” that happens to stir a tiny bit of the two things I want in. Just enough of them to keep me watching, but only very occasionally enough to actually make me outright happy.
“August” was great. I’d like the show a lot more if every episode was like that. But I’d also like it a lot more if every episode was like the mythology-heavy ones. Or if every episode was one of the two, or combinations of the two. Problem is, most episodes are neither. Even “August” had a big plotline tied to the case of the week, though it was integrated enough in the stuff I care about that I didn’t mind it much. That’s the kind of cases-of-the-week I’d be okay with – the kind that seemlessly go together with development of the heart and/or the mythology of the show.
As to plot OR character advancements, sure, I get we can’t always have both. But as I’ve tried to explain in this comment, I don’t really feel I’m asking for both. I’m just asking for one of them – either one – to be the focus of the show. Instead, most of the episodes spend most of their time on plot-points, cases, technologies, revelations and developments that are exclusively of interest to that episode alone. The points that actually affect the characters or the ongoing stories, the feeling heart or the building mythology, those points usually feel like they’re given a second seat. I don’t like that, and I wish that wasn’t the case.
Yes, Fringe is more popcorn fun than its tone makes it out to be, which can be deceiving. It is polished enough for me to digest it, just like Glee (although both are complete opposites).
Indeed. I think I’m having a lot of trouble accepting the combination of the serious, dark, often flat out disturbing tone, and the easily digestible “popcorn fun”, as you call it. It doesn’t seem like a show that wants to be the latter, and honestly, the only qualities I watch it for are the ones that do not fit with such a shallow image. The parts of it that ARE just “popcorn fun” do not really appeal to me at all. So the show’s sucked me in with something that’s not at all its main focus, and is keeping me invested through that and only that as well. I guess I only have myself to thank, then, for still watching it and being continuously half-disappointed with every new episode still not focusing on the bits I do enjoy. The bits that fit the tone.