The Strange World of Thomas P. Coombe

Fringe: Dear Diary

This was an odd episode. Not odd as in "There's another universe just like ours" or "There's a guy who can read people's minds." 

Rather, it felt kind of disjointed, as if the writers had a bunch of long-term plot-threads they wanted to use and shoved them into one episode. 

The revelations in Fauxlivia's diary, the notion of Peter fighting his own secret war against the shapeshifters, Peter's relationship to the doomsday machine...all of this might have made for a good episode, or at least a good subplot in a monster-of-the-week episode. But all of it all at once made for Fringe's least satisfying episode of the season.

Here's to next week. Other thoughts:

• I like how the show has adopted "Fauxlivia" into its lexicon, the way fans of the show did earlier in the season. Also, she "ruined U2 for all of us," Walter says.
• Wow, Peter just hacked that guy's fingers right off. 
• How long until we see William Bell again? 

Tom Coombe

Fringe: Ripple Effect

Thanks to a recent Twitter conversation, I found myself thinking last week of Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles, one of the last shows to occupy FOX's "Friday Night Sci-Fi Death Timeslot" (or whatever they're calling it).

It was an OK show, sort of like a mini action movie every week, but that's about it. Dollhouse, another show that lived and died in the FNSFDT, didn't find its voice until it was too late.

And Firefly -- the poster-child for brilliant-but-cancelled series, FOX, sci-fi or otherwise -- ended its run long before I was really aware of it.

(I saw it for the first time about three years ago, lamenting the fact that it only got 13 episodes with every one I watched. And now that I think about it, I didn't watch Sarah Connor until after it had ended as well. And while we're at it, I should note that The X-Files was once a Friday show, but that was in a different age.)

But Fringe...well, I've been with it from the beginning -- 52 episodes, more than Dollhouse and Firefly combined -- and I'm much more invested than I ever was in any of the other shows I mentioned here.

It's been on an amazingly strong narrative streak since the middle of its second season. The days when it was an uneven sci-fi procedural anchored by John Noble's performance are far behind it. I want to see this story through to the end, not because of any great, unresolved mysteries -- Fringe, unlike its cousin-show Lost, doesn't have many of those -- but because we've come to care so much about these characters.

"The Firefly" -- a clever in-joke title that belies a much more weighty plot point -- continued that streak.

It was helped along by a rather touching performance by Christopher Lloyd, miles away from Doc Brown. It deepened our understanding of Peter and Olivia's relationship, and of Walter and Peter's. And any episode that gives the Observers any sort of significant screen-time is hard not to like.

All in all, a fine way to christen Fringe's new time slot; here's hoping it has better luck than some of its forebears.

Big Love: Coming Out Party

I've never not loved the Henrickson family, even when they were saddled with some exceedingly stupid storylines.

I'm talking mostly about last season, which had too many plots, and not enough episodes, meaning a lot of stuff just didn't work.

But the writers made a smart move at the end of season four, taking the show's central notion -- that Bill Henrickson needs to hide who he and his family are -- and turning it upside down.

So while Bill begins Big Love's final season dealing with more headaches than usual, they're headaches that have crystalized around the same idea: going public -- like a lot of Bill's plans -- hasn't worked out the way he predicted it would.

Bill has no traction in either of his jobs, Barb feels adrift, Margie loses her home shopping job, and Wayne's getting bullied at school (although, we later learn, by a kid who's part of another suburban polygamist enclave).

It's way too early to tell how well any of this is going to work in the long run, but if Big Love can keep us grounded in the Henricksons' world and away from too much compound craziness, this show can leave town on a high note.

Other thoughts:

• After all his accolades on 24 years ago, I sort of thought we'd see more of Gregory Itzin, but he's only shown up on TV intermittently. He's back here as another politician, although hopefully not as evil as the one Jack Bauer.
• I'm not a big shark-jumper, but if Big Love has a JTS moment, it was when Ana arrived.
• The opening sequence, in which we hear a woman's anguished sobs, would've been much more powerful had we learned it was Barb, and not Marge, going through that much torment. Margene has grown a lot as the show has gone on, and the fact that the scene was played mainly for laughs ("they called me a lying jewelry hooker!") sapped it of its power.

Tom Coombe