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Thoughts on the Fringe series finale
Nonspoilery, outside the cut, I wanted to say that if you haven't seen Fringe and you're thinking about watching it, I thoroughly recommend it. (I wrote this outside-the-cut part a week ago -- I just wanted to wait to post it 'til I'd seen the finale, so I'd know if I still felt that way ... and I do.)
The show wasn't always perfect, by any means. The plot ran off the rails in places, the science made Stargate's science look plausible (my husband and I semi-jokingly refer to Fringe as the place where science goes to die), and there were a few characters who deserved much better than they got, over the years.
But the show always kept me guessing, surprised, intrigued and delighted. I adored the characters, and the actors. I loved some of the things the show had to say about -- well, "redemption" is too flat a word, but the way that the choices we make determine the people we become, and the fact that you can always make better choices (but it doesn't erase what you've already done).
And it was one of the only shows I've watched in the last few years that went just long enough. It didn't end prematurely, leaving bitterness and regret for what it might have had a chance to become; it didn't limp onward to a miserable finish that made me wish it had been cancelled years ago. I had some ups and downs as a viewer, even a couple times when I thought about taking a break from the show, but ultimately, I ended the series feeling just as positive about it as when I first discovered it and marathoned the first three seasons, two years ago.
As for the finale, I pronounce it "pretty darn awesome". That was, I think, one of the better series finales that I've watched.
... even though I am fairly sure this is also one of those episodes that is all glorious and shiny at first, but makes no sense the more you think about it, especially taken in context of the series as a whole. But you know ... I don't really care. :D Because that episode pushed all my happy buttons, and was full of a little something for everyone, from badass Cortexiphan!Olivia, to seeing the Alt-verse one last time, to those gorgeous Peter + Walter scenes, plus a really kickass battle at the end, which was basically all the scifi action cliches -- but I love those cliches. :D It managed to remind me of all the things that I've loved about the show over the years. Without being a series retrospective in any sense, it was still a showcase of the best the show has to offer: the wacked-out science and the daring escapes and the alternate universes and the characters' love for each other.
I didn't want to lose Walter; losing Walter breaks my heart. But narratively, it really was perfect that he went out the way he did. Not only because he was a hero at the end, but because the series, in a sense, started with Walter walking through a portal hand-in-hand with a child, and that's the last we see of him: doing it again, to fix what was broken. And I appreciate that they didn't shy away from the buildup to Walter's heroic sacrifice and give him an "out", thereby cheapening all the goodbyes and the tears.
There were many things I loved about this show (and a few things I didn't), but one of the things I loved most was the way they handled the redemption trope with Walter. Leaving aside a few minor issues of scientific plausibility, it was redemption done right: one step forward, two steps back, never brushing aside the things he'd done and the person he'd been, forcing him to fight every step of the way to, eventually, build rock-solid connections to the people around him. The show never forgot, but it did eventually forgive, and I think all the tearful goodbyes in the episode really say so much about the person that he'd managed to become.
The ending felt terribly sudden, but I'm glad it ended when it did, and didn't drag on. We can easily fill in the rest of the stuff we didn't see: Peter, Olivia, Astrid, Etta, et al go ahead and live their lives, and are happy. (And for that matter, as my husband pointed out 2 seconds after the episode ended, Fringe Season 6 could easily be Peter and Olivia's epic quest to build a time machine/dimension portal/whatever and retrieve Walter; the show's science is so inconsistent and wacky that an eventual reunion is by no means ruled out by the "laws" of their universe, if one should want to insert a headcanon fixit in lieu of a permanent parting.)
The show wasn't always perfect, by any means. The plot ran off the rails in places, the science made Stargate's science look plausible (my husband and I semi-jokingly refer to Fringe as the place where science goes to die), and there were a few characters who deserved much better than they got, over the years.
But the show always kept me guessing, surprised, intrigued and delighted. I adored the characters, and the actors. I loved some of the things the show had to say about -- well, "redemption" is too flat a word, but the way that the choices we make determine the people we become, and the fact that you can always make better choices (but it doesn't erase what you've already done).
And it was one of the only shows I've watched in the last few years that went just long enough. It didn't end prematurely, leaving bitterness and regret for what it might have had a chance to become; it didn't limp onward to a miserable finish that made me wish it had been cancelled years ago. I had some ups and downs as a viewer, even a couple times when I thought about taking a break from the show, but ultimately, I ended the series feeling just as positive about it as when I first discovered it and marathoned the first three seasons, two years ago.
As for the finale, I pronounce it "pretty darn awesome". That was, I think, one of the better series finales that I've watched.
... even though I am fairly sure this is also one of those episodes that is all glorious and shiny at first, but makes no sense the more you think about it, especially taken in context of the series as a whole. But you know ... I don't really care. :D Because that episode pushed all my happy buttons, and was full of a little something for everyone, from badass Cortexiphan!Olivia, to seeing the Alt-verse one last time, to those gorgeous Peter + Walter scenes, plus a really kickass battle at the end, which was basically all the scifi action cliches -- but I love those cliches. :D It managed to remind me of all the things that I've loved about the show over the years. Without being a series retrospective in any sense, it was still a showcase of the best the show has to offer: the wacked-out science and the daring escapes and the alternate universes and the characters' love for each other.
I didn't want to lose Walter; losing Walter breaks my heart. But narratively, it really was perfect that he went out the way he did. Not only because he was a hero at the end, but because the series, in a sense, started with Walter walking through a portal hand-in-hand with a child, and that's the last we see of him: doing it again, to fix what was broken. And I appreciate that they didn't shy away from the buildup to Walter's heroic sacrifice and give him an "out", thereby cheapening all the goodbyes and the tears.
There were many things I loved about this show (and a few things I didn't), but one of the things I loved most was the way they handled the redemption trope with Walter. Leaving aside a few minor issues of scientific plausibility, it was redemption done right: one step forward, two steps back, never brushing aside the things he'd done and the person he'd been, forcing him to fight every step of the way to, eventually, build rock-solid connections to the people around him. The show never forgot, but it did eventually forgive, and I think all the tearful goodbyes in the episode really say so much about the person that he'd managed to become.
The ending felt terribly sudden, but I'm glad it ended when it did, and didn't drag on. We can easily fill in the rest of the stuff we didn't see: Peter, Olivia, Astrid, Etta, et al go ahead and live their lives, and are happy. (And for that matter, as my husband pointed out 2 seconds after the episode ended, Fringe Season 6 could easily be Peter and Olivia's epic quest to build a time machine/dimension portal/whatever and retrieve Walter; the show's science is so inconsistent and wacky that an eventual reunion is by no means ruled out by the "laws" of their universe, if one should want to insert a headcanon fixit in lieu of a permanent parting.)