Last night we attended the Fringe Premiere as part of the NYTVF. I think it is a tremendous idea to celebrate independent television as we do film. Television as a medium has historically been viewed as inferior to film though it plays a much larger role in most of our lives considering the average person watches nearly 132,000 hours of television in their lifetime. Not to mention television allows characters into our homes every week, allowing us as viewers, to become emotionally invested into their fictional lives. So I commend the NYTVF for giving TV the props it deserves and thank them for inviting us!
With that said it was hugely disappointing that across the board the festival lacked the star power that brings such festivals “to the next level”. Let’s face it, like it or not, what makes the most popular festivals (Tribeca, Sundance, TIFF) a success is pure star wattage. For instance, the top billed stars and creator of Fringe (Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, and J.J. Abrams) were not on hand for the show’s premiere. Our little website opted not to do red carpet interviews because the “big names” weren’t there, how do you think other news organizations covered the premiere? I’m guessing without fanfare. (With that said, my loyal readers know that I am just all about Josh Jackson so my view may be skewed.)
We did opt to take pictures on the red carpet and picked up on one interesting “behind the scenes” brouhaha. A guy came down and wanted to walk the carpet because he claimed he was on another new Fox show and they told him no, then he “escalated” the situation and asked to speak to someone else and two other women came over and told him no again. He still stood there for the longest time, looking longingly at the red carpet, and the worst part was his mom was with him! No, the worst part was a little while later they let a “celebrity trainer” walk the carpet! There wasn’t much press there, would it have killed them to just let the guy stand in front of the phototags? There were only 6 paps there (including us)!
The premiere itself consisted of a screening of the next episode of Fringe, a short Q & A with the cast members/producers that were there including Blair Brown, John Noble, Jasika Nicole, and Mark Valley (we’ll post our pictures, details, and video from the Q & A tomorrow). After the premiere, drinks were served in the lobby of the New World Stages and the stars were there to mingle with the common folk. We did get a chance to talk to Mark Valley at the after party and asked him about the spoiler we saw a few weeks ago. He would only tell us he “thinks that guy does die” and was quite mysterious about the whole thing! We also congratulated Jasika Nicole, who was too cute, she must not be jaded by the business yet!
Now the good stuff, Episode 2 SPOILERS (I am spilling all so if you don’t want to know, don’t read ahead, I’m sure the festival wouldn’t approve but we are here for you!):
The episode opens with a woman in bed after having sex with a guy who is about to kill her but before he can go through with it, she starts convulsing. He brings her to the hospital because she is apparently in labor though she isn’t pregnant. Then she dies giving birth to a baby who grows into an old man and dies within four hours. Very weird. I did record the whole thing but was trying to be stealth about it and only got the top tenth of the screen. I could never be a bootlegger!
So Olivia calls Peter and Walter and the three of them head to the hospital to investigate. This is when Joshua delivers a very Pacey line, “we’re supposed to believe grandpa here was born four hours ago”.
Then they show the guy that was going to kill this woman and of course he is a serial killer in a strip club looking for his next victim and this just happens to be a case Olivia had worked on with John.
Then there are some scenes where Olivia struggles with fact that she didn’t know John for who he was.
Then we flash back to the killer who does find a stripper and kill her.
Next, Walter milks the cow. Then he figures out that the rapid grow of the baby has to do with the pituitary gland and remembers he worked with a guy on experiments involving this gland (this continues on and on in geek speak at which time I zoned out).
Then they figure out the killer removes the pituitary gland from his victims and it all comes together.
Oh and somewhere in here the sexual tension heats up between Peter and Olivia as he touches her hand and “is there for her”.
In the gross out segment of the show Walter figures out that they can see the last thing the dead stripper saw by using some fancy camera (borrowed from Massive Dynamics). To do so he pulls out her eye ball and they “play” the last thing she sees. Next they pull a CTU and triangulate the image to find out where she was killed. At this point Olivia and her future love interest Peter high tail it over there just in time to save the next stripper. After the obligatory chase scene the killer ages and dies right before Olivia’s eyes. (But his father/helper gets away.)
Oh, and in the meantime Peter is saving the stripper’s life via instructions from Walter over the phone.
We find out this colleague of Walter’s is the killer’s father and he grew the son in a test tube as part of an aging experiment. Now to keep him from growing too quickly and dying they must steal pituitary glands and use them to slow his growth (conveniently the glands all come from hookers and stripper but I won’t go there).
When Olivia returns the camera to MD she is offered a job which she turns down. Finally, in the big “cliffhanger” Walter mentions “the truth about Peter’s medical history in my file” to Olivia, she doesn’t know what he is talking about but I am sure we will find out soon enough.
The show ends with Pacey, er, Peter in bed having a bonding moment with his father in the next room. This is the highlight of the show as he is shirtless.
Oh, and the very end is a flash of an ominous looking hospital type room with three people in three beds (they appear to be men).
I am sure I am missing something and this is more my interpretation of what happened than what probably actually happened but if you want a preview, now you have it!
Finally, here are the notes I took during the Q & A (this is more internal dialogue than actual facts or real insights):
Is Nina actually William Bell?
That’s what she was in, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd!
Instead of everyone speaking for J.J. over and over, why didn’t he just show up himself?
If Josh and John Noble were filming together at 10 AM this morning and John Noble is here…
Viewers need to pay attention to the symbols before ads, duh!
I guess they will branch out onto the web, wasn’t that done before? Oh, that’s right, on Lost! I guess if the formula works, why change it? Anyway, I bet it is all related, like a modern Happy Days/Laverne and Shirley, I can see it now….
They are going to continue extended episodes, don’t they know that completely screws up my tivoing schedule!
So, that wraps up my (mostly insignificant) thoughts on the Fringe Premiere. Check back for pictures and video tomorrow!
Thanks for all the info. You did a great job. That 2nd episode sounds really interesting and can’t wait to see it.
The other person missing from the festival, other than Josh and Anna was Olivia’s boss. I can’t think of what his name is (the guy who was on The Wire). I’d say it was a good bet that these guys were filming. Since, the rest of the cast was there, I would think they would of been too, if they could.
It was a shame you didn’t get to see them. Maybe next time or on location.
Josh and Anna were also hosting the repeat/encore with extras episode tonight for Fox. Don’t know if that was done live or prerecorded.
That’s right, Lance Reddick wasn’t there, and I think he is a fan favorite too beause of The Wire and I know Kirk Acevedo was orginally sceduled to be there but was off the schedule at the last min.
I am sure they had prior commitments or something and I am sure as the fest grows (which hopefully it will) they will be able to secure more celebs.
It was still a fun night! And I am sure you will enjoy the second episode, it was actually really good!
It was great to meet you Christine. I had a great time. I’m really sorry now that my friend & I had to dash out of there when the Q&A started to catch the bus home (long story – my car died as soon as we got into the city, had to be towed, blah blah blah). Damn, so I missed hobnobbing w/ Mark Valley & John Noble????? Crap!
I was very disappointed that Lance Reddick didn’t show, as I loved him in The Wire, & he was the one I most wanted to see. I would be really upset now if he had & I missed getting to meet him after!
I loved the episode, loved hearing & seeing the whole theater’s reaction to the gross out scenes(the eyeball scene is really disgusting!!!), & to the funny scenes. Josh Jackson & John Noble really play off each other hysterically well.
One thing that was really cool: the scene where the killer drops off the pregnant/not pregnant woman @ the hospital was covered & photographed by Amy @ filminginbrooklyn.com on her site!: https://filminginbrooklyn.com/2008/07/12/a-frustrating-night-on-the-fringe/ I almost jumped out of my seat in excitement seeing it, & thinking about how excited she must be, wherever she was in the theater. I can’t wait to keep watching & see more of the locations she covers.
All in all, it was great, & I love the show. It’s a great roller coaster ride. You never know what’s coming next.