13 January 2025

'Fringe' 1.13, "The Transformation"

In this episode, another passenger aircraft gets destroyed by a piece of crazy science gone wrong as a man literally turns into a beast while in the toilet. Insert joke about EasyJet here.

Anyway, some comments on this:

  • Are in-flight movies for everyone still a thing now everyone's got phones and access to at-seat entertainment systems?
  • $4 for headphones would be pricey now, let alone then.
  • Spitting out your own teeth, lovely!
  • Knowing about animal nipples is generally of little use except if you're a vet or you go to some really weird quiz night.
  • "Bishop's House of Horrors" is a great way to answer the phone.
  • Import-export is so often a front for dodginess in TV-land that the perfectly legitimate people in that business must roll their eyes.
  • OK, the situation probably justified it, but generally speaking dealing with a medical emergency trumps intelligence gathering.
  • The Sensory Deprivation Tank should also be called the "Swimsuit Dunham Tank". Because it gives an excuse for the suited Olivia to disrobe.
  • That member trip got gnarly fast. At least she's not walking around those memories in a bikini, it looks rather nippy in there.
  • So, John Scott was undercover. That must make Olivia feel a bit better.
  • "Being fearless doesn't mean you're being safe" is a good mantra. I might use that one.
  • 500 Euro notes, the villain's denomination of choice for big money transfers.
  • Of course Hicks (we had one of them in Alias!) proceeds to start turning during the undercover mission. Fortunately, Walter Bishop is on hand to sedate him.
  • This is a far more episodic show than Alias - there's very much a "case of the week" thing there. I wonder how this would have been made today.
  • At least they're lamp shading how many dire situations they're encountering.
Conclusion

A good, but not necessarily great episode. Apart from giving Olivia closure over her pretty much dead boyfriend, nothing of great consequence happens here.

7/10

No comments: