Fringe

:

Season 4
  • Network: FOX
  • Series Premiere Date: Sep 9, 2008
Season #: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
User Score
8.2

Universal acclaim- based on 197 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 170 out of 197
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 197
  3. Negative: 15 out of 197
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User Reviews

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  1. DarthKate8215
    Jun 5, 2012
    3
    Funny how the worse the show gets, the more rabid the last of its fanbase becomes. Fringe peaked early in season three but the writers soon forgot what the main draw of their show was. Bell's warning of the "last great storm" and Olivia having to grow into her destiny as the "guardian" have been all but forgotten. Season four is a clusterf*ck of uncompelling "will-they-wont-they" dramaFunny how the worse the show gets, the more rabid the last of its fanbase becomes. Fringe peaked early in season three but the writers soon forgot what the main draw of their show was. Bell's warning of the "last great storm" and Olivia having to grow into her destiny as the "guardian" have been all but forgotten. Season four is a clusterf*ck of uncompelling "will-they-wont-they" drama mixed with terribly lazy plot devices and forced character derailment all in the name of forcing a completely juvenile "power of love" theme down the audience's throat as if the show was a freaking Nick Jr. program. Furthermore, some of the most compelling mysteries of the series are either dropped completely or answered with pathetic handwaves so that the showrunners can set up season five's generic-dystopian-fascist-state plot (which came right the hell out of nowhere with no development or buildup). You know you have a serious writing problem when the presence of the brilliant Leonard Nimoy actually makes your story worse. The alternate timeline was ultimately a baffling and pointless addition to the show. Fringe has transformed from smart compelling sci-fi series, with respect for its audience, into a petty ham-fisted joke, worthy only of the few codependent shippers who still defend it.… Expand
  2. Stabs_with_Pudz
    Jan 16, 2013
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. SEASON 4 - It went from extremely good to extremely bad, the ratings have plummeted and with it, the show's budget and the writers' & actors' talents.
    The 1st of many mistakes it made was when when they completely re wrote the show leaving a lot of plot holes in its wake. Everything we knew about the show is instantly changed and for the worse by the looks of it - William Bell apparently was killed in a car crash, They never went to Edina, David Robert Jones is still alive (seriously they brought back past enemies!), Rachael never broke up with her husband. The plot holes that it leaves are these:
    How does Olivia get kidnapped and swapped when the reason the gang went to the other universe was to bring Peter home when Peter wasn't even there to begin with, why would they go in the first place? Another would be: How did they operate the Bridge when it requires Peter to operate it? Why would Frankie still break up with Alternate Olivia when there was no pregnancy? How did Olivia get Walter out of St Clare's when it requires a family member to get him out!
    2nd mistake - Another thing that has taken a turn for the worse are the massive coincidences it has when 2 unrelated characters meet - in this case Nina Sharp and Olivia. I find it completely ridiculous how Nina ends up adopting Olivia and Rachael when they were kids, they are completely separate characters with no history and only met for the first time in the pilot yet coincidentally they end up meeting! LIKE COME ON! REALLY!?! another is the fact that Our universe Lincoln Lee ends up running into Fringe Division... again, really?! Other far fetched coincidences include the bad guys like: Nina turns out to be evil... oh no it actually turns out to be the alternate Nina Sharp working for David Robert Jones who was never sliced in half and made it the other side... but wait! What's this? It turns out David Robert Jones is actually working for William Bell who has been alive the whole time. But wait William Bell is actually evil and wants to destroy both universes and create his own universe ERMAHGAWD the horror! see what i mean, its so stupid?
    3rd mistake: half way during the season the writers try to cover their asses by making Olivia remember Peter and the old timeline randomly. Olivia's memories start changing but she doesn't care because she's in love with Peter apparently, if my entire life was being erased with a new one i would want to keep my old life but no, Olivia wants to keep the new memories because she is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO in love with Peter... (thats bullcrap)
    4th mistake are the ridiculous far-fetched stories.
    The science behind Fringe has always been a bit far fetched but a lot of it is actually possible and the characters can intelligently explain it and a lot of it actually looks cool. Except in season 4 the writer's must have run out of ideas and have started making stuff up! Like one episode it shows an invisible person stealing people's colour.... come on really?! is that the best you can think of?!
    5th mistake: Changing the logic behind Cortexiphan See Cortexiphan is the drug that Walter and William tested the kids with in 1985. See the human brain actually has limitless power and capabilities at birth including the abilities of Telekinesis, pyrokinesis, tissue regeneration & travelling between universes but as the brain gets older it starts to go through limitation and the abilities eventually fade as the person reaches adulthood, what Cortexiphan does is stop limitation so the person can keep the abilities and use them, but Cortexiphan can't reverse limitation. But series 4 treats it as if it can strengthen the effects and the powers of the person which just completely contradicts everything said in the 1st two seasons.
    Another aspect of Fringe that has suffered is the special effects and CGI, with the slashed budget from miserable ratings the special fx has suffered, some of it does look ok but a fair bit of it looks bad and takes some of the thrill out of the show.
    Without the clever writing and snazzy effects to distract us we see the true flaws of the acting (to sum it up) Joshua Jackson can't act to save his life (sorry), Anna Torv's acting is bland, most of her dialogue is said with little emotion especially during emotional scenes, Blair Brown's acting has gone south also - like I said with Anna, bland dialogue..... The only episode I did like was the episode that was set in 2036 when we got a break from the god awful plot line.
    So basically Season 4 is a pretty rubbish season and its good to know that Season 5 has improved on it.    … Expand
  3. Zilliman
    Oct 9, 2013
    2
    Season 4 and the series has now become painful to watch. The plot has got sidelined and is spiking all over the place with no real cohesion. I presume the writers have been asked to keep writing until the end of days, so they are forced to fill in with episodes of irrelevance. Some of the main ideas were very good but have got distorted and washed down as time goes on. Season 3 failed toSeason 4 and the series has now become painful to watch. The plot has got sidelined and is spiking all over the place with no real cohesion. I presume the writers have been asked to keep writing until the end of days, so they are forced to fill in with episodes of irrelevance. Some of the main ideas were very good but have got distorted and washed down as time goes on. Season 3 failed to provide definitive answers and closure. Season 4 starts without Peter and in some other Universe timeline I mean this can go on forever. Let's have Season 5 on the planet of the Observers maybe. Or when Peter was a child. Or in some other timeline where Peter is still dealing weapons and drugs in Iraq.

    The good guys can be good, bad, indifferent, or not even present depending on which episode you watch. Are we on the real Universe? Or the parallel one? Are we on this timeline or in some other? Are we on Season 1 or Season 4? Put all those in the blender and pull out what the main characters will be like in this episode.
    Many weak points with the plot. Are we trying to save the Universe today or just chase down some lunatic serial killer? Let's toss a coin. Noone seems to be overly worried even though black holes keep appearing all over the place the shops are still open and people still commute and go to work as usual. And depending on the episode the main characters will be busy closing down black holes or simply trying to catch some ingenious serial killer does not matter which.
    Almost every single bad guy and bad situation has its roots on Walter and his experiments in the 70s. In almost every confrontation Olivia will be alone fighting the bad guy with bare fists, since he always tricks her and she drops her weapon. And the other dozens of agents simply sit and watch. In many episodes the main characters get attacked or abducted because they ignore all warnings and fail to take the most simple precautions.
    And the most serious flaw even though Walter has described it a million times, he has even sketched it on the board: every single moment that passes generates an infinite number of parallel universes but we are stuck with two. Just two. And in Season 4 we have a third one.
    .    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
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  1. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ken Tucker
    Sep 19, 2011
    91
    If you think Fringe has forgotten anything in its history/mythology, you underestimate these wily master producers.
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