new story line ruins show

[joe.ginder@yahoo.com]

Does anyone else think that this new arch is ruining the show. Week after week it is building and instead of the creative, individuall, unrelated and interesting episodes the show had before, we are hearing the same stuff over and over. I can't stand to watch it anymore. Most shows fall victim to these arching story lines, usually in the third season. Does anyone remember how cool the x files was when the show began with all of the neat, creative and unexpected stories. Later it fell into a boring arch as well. I have seen many shows ruined and I am worried about fringe. Many fail in the fourth season after the arch has been drawn out for a year. Fringe has begun way too early. I really think I could stop watching for a month and pick up again and they would still be discussing the same things. Anyone agree?

[Fringified]

I don't agree, actually. Sorry :( but I like Fringe the way it is.

[The Black Ghost]

The story is far more interesting that the random "pattern".

[BadInfluence]

I would have to agree to disagree. I believe that with Fringe there is so much that needs to be set up in order for the actual story to begin. This first season for me was nothing more than set-up with a hint of what the story may be. Which as far as I know we don't really know for sure. We can guess as to what the story will be but that is all we can do at this point. The only thing that worries me about Fringe is that too many people will give up on it too early.

[joe.ginder@yahoo.com]

For the sake of the show, I am glad to see that everyone disagrees with me. I guess I am the oddball out. I really enjoy the random episodes. When shows create story lines that reverberate I have never enjoyed them when they are central to the show. I hate to keep quoting star trek, but the borg was a beautiful example. There was this very important issue that was revisited several times. They built the story line, but they only touched upon it a few times over the course of eight years. I guess its just me. Maybe the other shows I have enjoyed have simply not done a good job of creating the story line. We'll see. I really thought people were going to stop watching.

[empty_encounters]

If it were just random occurrences in science with no story I'd get bored pretty fast. Character depth especially is why I watch something or read something.

[RickRaider]

Does anyone else think that this new arch is ruining the show. Week after week it is building and instead of the creative, individuall, unrelated and interesting episodes the show had before, we are hearing the same stuff over and over. I can't stand to watch it anymore. Most shows fall victim to these arching story lines, usually in the third season. Does anyone remember how cool the x files was when the show began with all of the neat, creative and unexpected stories. Later it fell into a boring arch as well. I have seen many shows ruined and I am worried about fringe. Many fail in the fourth season after the arch has been drawn out for a year. Fringe has begun way too early. I really think I could stop watching for a month and pick up again and they would still be discussing the same things. Anyone agree?
Joe, I think you need a doobie. This is one of the best of it's kind in a while. You need to get into it, or out of it, whatever your choice. You do make valid points about xfiles though, it got stale, however, as much as I hated the ending of the last epi of the
fringe, it's a must watch (especially for Outer Limit fans)

Cheers.....

[BrassOrchid]

Joe, I think you need a doobie. This is one of the best of it's kind in a while. You need to get into it, or out of it, whatever your choice. You do make valid points about xfiles though, it got stale, however, as much as I hated the ending of the last epi, it's a must watch (especially for Outer Limit fans)

Cheers.....


I tink the problem with X-Files is they didn't know what their overall story was going to be. They just started tossing things in here and there cause they made it cool, but then got to a point they couldn't deliver because they had gotten themselves tied into knots.

Serialized shows can be very very cool, but they need two things to work: A well planned story - First, the writers have to know what the goals are and how they want to get there (note, this does not mean they have to have every detail determined ahead of time, but they need a decent framework to hang stuff on). Second, they need to know how long they have to tell the story. Again, this doesn't have to be decided on Day 1, but they should hav an idea that they want to take, say 4 seasons, or 6, or whatever to tell it. As they approach that point of no return, the point at which they have to start winding it up or it will fall apart, at that point they have to nail down the end date. If both of those things happen, it's beautiful to behold. (See, as an excellent example of this, LOST). If they don't, it's horrible (see X-Files). :D

[joe.ginder@yahoo.com]

Well, I will have to start watching lost. Believe it or not, I have never watched a single episode. I will take your advice. Actually, the last post made me think about my tv preferences. On my myspace page I actually wrote that I like bad tv shows. I do, and I am not sure there is anything wrong with that and I probably won't change. I am curious, however, to watch lost and see what I am missing. I actually loved buffy the vampire slayer, angel, charmed and all the star treks. Many of these shows were ruined (in my opinion) when the writers started created these types of stories. Star trek the next generation is the only one i can think of that never attemped it. (or atleast I never noticed) I am currently watching medium, lie to me, fringe, house and greys anatomy. Even house, has dabbled with these types of story lines. Does anyone watch that show and remember the cop that was trying to lock house up a couple of years ago? I thought it would never end and I am glad that arch did. Anyway, it looks like fringe is building a very devoted fan base and I am glad. Hey, by the way what is everyone's opinon on heroes? I have respect for that show because it seems to keep everyone thinking, but I really don't watch it much and wouldn't consider it one of my favorites.
Thanks

[Montecito]

Does anyone else think that this new arch is ruining the show. Week after week it is building and instead of the creative, individuall, unrelated and interesting episodes the show had before, we are hearing the same stuff over and over. I can't stand to watch it anymore. Most shows fall victim to these arching story lines, usually in the third season. Does anyone remember how cool the x files was when the show began with all of the neat, creative and unexpected stories. Later it fell into a boring arch as well. I have seen many shows ruined and I am worried about fringe. Many fail in the fourth season after the arch has been drawn out for a year. Fringe has begun way too early. I really think I could stop watching for a month and pick up again and they would still be discussing the same things. Anyone agree?

I understand what you say about the X-Files. I prefered the stand alone episodes than the larger story arc. I hope the Fringe will find the balance between the larger mythology of the series and some indepedent story episodes. Indepedent as for the story because everything is connected through the pattern.

[Obyron]

Fringe has had the arch from the beginning, it's just that casual viewers didn't notice. I'm a much bigger fan of shows where the arch is planned ahead of time (Babylon 5, for example, had five seasons of plot planned from day one of shooting) as opposed to being seemingly made up as it goes along (Lost). There were speculations about an alternate universe from the very beginning, to the point that they had to move the reveal to the Season 1 finale, whereas it was originally planned for season three or four(!). If the show had moved that slowly, it would've been interminably boring to watch. I don't want to see a disconnected series of Law & Order style or STTNG type episodes where there's a Freak of the Week and no interconnection at all. That may be great for syndication, but it makes for incredibly weak drama.

[Montecito]

There were speculations about an alternate universe from the very beginning, to the point that they had to move the reveal to the Season 1 finale, whereas it was originally planned for season three or four(!).

Are you sure about this or is just your thoughts? Because if it is true maybe they will reduce the seasons of Fringe. And that is something very dissapointing. Or simply they will have to thing something new or postpone the War (if there will be a war among dimensions or between Technology followers vs Tech haters) for future seasons.

[Obyron]

I'm sure. People were discussing it here pretty early in the season. If they end up making the series shorter, then so be it. I'd rather have 3 excellent seasons than 5 slow ones. You don't need six or seven seasons to pull off a good show (check out Battlestar Galactica for proof). I doubt that'll happen though, since Fringe is getting a pretty good eyeball count (average of 9-10 million per episode per Wikipedia, and I'm not sure if that's counting hits from things like Hulu. I'd imagine DVD sales will also figure in). If the show is popular they'll come up with new plot lines to keep it going.

The big question is whether Fox will commit or if they'll throw it under the bus like 90% of all quality shows they've ever had (Family Guy, Millenium, The Tick, Wonderfalls, Sarah Connor Chronicles, Firefly, Arrested Development, Futurama, Boston Public, Dark Angel...). Once they committed to six seasons of Lost the quality of the series went up. Being under pressure for renewal can make series runners do weird things, like Babylon 5 condensing their main story to 4 seasons down from 5 ("Deconstruction of Falling Stars" was intended to be the series finale), but then having to make up a fifth season after getting renewed unexpectedly. The four seasons were great, and probably benefitted from being tightened up, while the fifth season was just okay and seems disconnected from the rest...

Anyway! My thoughts. :)

[Montecito]

If they end up making the series shorter, then so be it.

I have a feeling that the seasons of Fringe will be 3, too. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. :confused0006:

[AD Skinner]

Personally, I think it's better to leave the party an hour early than an hour late. I would rather that JJ finish the show on a high rather than drag it out into the gutter. Now, I am a huge fan of The X Files, you can guess that pretty well I figure, but I'll be the first one to admit that the series, with regards to its mythology ran out of steam after about five, six seasons, some point after Fight the Future, the first feature film. If you look at the mythology really carefully, you can actually see it going somewhere up to that film, or at the very least the season six two parter Two Fathers/One Son which featured a climax of sort, from that point on the ongoing arc lost a bit of steam and direction, but at the very least the show had its stand alones to fall back on, but that was always something I loved about The X Files, it had the arc for hardcore X Philes like myself, but it also had the ingenuity to have the stand alones to fall back on in order to give the series a bit of variety. Whilst the arcs and mythologies gave the show meat, I like a bit of variety as well, and to be honest I love the way season one of Fringe was structured with stand alone installments that benefitted from having great continuity with the characters with mythology tales (ZFT, Jones, Massive Dynamic, Bell) popping up in between as the show went along. This sort of storytelling I think helps the show keep fresh and prevent the steam from running out. So much of television nowadays is serialised, not that I am complaining because 24, Lost and Heroes are very much apart of my television diet, but it is great to see a series of Fringe that can have varied levels of imagination along with some meatier aspects that hardened Fringies like us can chew on.

[Montecito]

Personally, I think it's better to leave the party an hour early than an hour late. I would rather that JJ finish the show on a high rather than drag it out into the gutter. Now, I am a huge fan of The X Files, you can guess that pretty well I figure, but I'll be the first one to admit that the series, with regards to its mythology ran out of steam after about five, six seasons, some point after Fight the Future, the first feature film. If you look at the mythology really carefully, you can actually see it going somewhere up to that film, or at the very least the season six two parter Two Fathers/One Son which featured a climax of sort, from that point on the ongoing arc lost a bit of steam and direction, but at the very least the show had its stand alones to fall back on, but that was always something I loved about The X Files, it had the arc for hardcore X Philes like myself, but it also had the ingenuity to have the stand alones to fall back on in order to give the series a bit of variety. Whilst the arcs and mythologies gave the show meat, I like a bit of variety as well, and to be honest I love the way season one of Fringe was structured with stand alone installments that benefitted from having great continuity with the characters with mythology tales (ZFT, Jones, Massive Dynamic, Bell) popping up in between as the show went along. This sort of storytelling I think helps the show keep fresh and prevent the steam from running out. So much of television nowadays is serialised, not that I am complaining because 24, Lost and Heroes are very much apart of my television diet, but it is great to see a series of Fringe that can have varied levels of imagination along with some meatier aspects that hardened Fringies like us can chew on.

I was fan of the stand alone episodes of X-Files. I think those were the best. I loved it when Mulder and Scully visited some weird villages or search through the woods for scary creatures..

:camp:

[AD Skinner]

I was fan of the stand alone episodes of X-Files. I think those were the best. I loved it when Mulder and Scully visited some weird villages or search through the woods for scary creatures..

:camp:


Oh totally. It's those episodes that stay with you more and more as the years go on. It'll be interesting to see how we view Fringe in ten years in relation to stand alone tales against the mythology episodes.

Love the smilies by the way.

[QueenBee]

The only storyline that will ruin the show will be giving Olivia all these powers. Come on, she was fine up until they had her go into alternate realities and she had those dreams, and according to Entertainment Weekly superhearing.

I mean, are the writers trying to make her more superior over everybody else? What the heck makes her so special?

[Montecito]

I mean, are the writers trying to make her more superior over everybody else? What the heck makes her so special?

She is the protagonist of Fringe. She is the FBI agent who tries to solve the pattern. And ofcourse there are other good characters as well, like Nina for example.

[OtherPeter]

i dont know, i think in an attempt to make it more accessible to ppl who dont watch it everyweek they need a formula and theyv found it, so they use it again ansd again, ofcourse everything has a purpose for happening and that purpose at the moment is the pattern so we'll keep hearing about it

[Obyron]

I mean, are the writers trying to make her more superior over everybody else? What the heck makes her so special?

Out of Character? She's the series lead.

In Character? The Cortexiphan experiments actually worked fully on her.

This shouldn't be surprising at this point. At least since Ability (1-14, the Light Bomb episode), we've known that the focus of the show was going to be on Olivia being special. Most of us thought that was awesome, but I guess there are people out there who'd disagree.

[QueenBee]

Fine.

[Obyron]

I don't really feel like the show is going that way. Really, I'd say Walter is the most special person on the show right now. He has all the experience and power, but no memory. Olivia has potential, but no experience. The same with Peter really. It's pretty clear from a couple of episodes that there are some special things going on with him. Characters like Broyles and Nina Sharp have their own mysteries right now as well. A lot of the main characters have unanswered questions or quirks that make them interesting to people.

The theme of the show so far seems to be pointing at it being about Olivia coming into the realization of her potential. I'm sorry your favorite characters aren't getting more screen time, but try to keep it in perspective?

[QueenBee]

I will send you a PM.

[MrSuperCzar]

^^ Can we keep it civil please guys?