Product Description
-------------------
Immersive. Compelling. Hypnotic. Brilliantly imaginative.
Endlessly thrilling. Pick your term. The mystery of the universes
deepens in the critically accled 22-episode third season of
television’s most exciting sci-fi. The Fringe team escapes from
the parallel universe – except for Olivia, trapped in the other
world and replaced in ours by her double, who turns Peter and
Olivia’s tentative relationship into a love affair. Then Olivia
returns, bonds of trust fray, ever more bizarre and terrifying
phenomena occur and secrets that stretch back to 1985 threaten to
destroy our universe. Or theirs.
.com
----
What might be television's smartest and most intriguing
science-fiction series pushes forward with 22 episodes (on six
discs, including bonus material) comprising the third season of
Fringe. The first season of this Fox show introduced us to the
members of the Fringe Division (an obscure wing of the FBI
assigned to investigate all manner of supernatural phenomena),
and the principal characters, Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv),
mad scientist Walter Bishop (John Noble), and Bishop's son Peter
(Joshua Jackson). In season two, we learned of the existence of a
parallel universe, and that Peter is not Walter's real son, but
rather his doppelgänger, whom Walter kipped when his own,
"prime universe" son died. This two-universe paradigm now takes
center stage--in fact, for the first third of the season,
odd-numbered episodes take place in the parallel universe, with
even-numbered ones set in "our world" (the remaining episodes are
mostly, but not exclusively, in the latter). The two universes
are substantially similar, notwithstanding some quirky
differences, with everyone having a counterpart in the site
world. Olivia, referred to as "Fauxlivia," spends multiple
episodes in the prime universe; meanwhile, in the parallel
universe, Walter's far less benign site number ("Walternate,"
Peter's real her) is the secretary of defense, who schemes to
get his son back and annihilate the prime universe in the
process. Thus Walter's kipping gambit 25 years earlier caused
an off-balance chain reaction that threatens both worlds, while
Peter, the only one who has no doppelgänger, becomes the
linchpin, sort of the Harry Potter of the series; not only is he
alone capable of operating Walternate's "doomsday machine," but
he's also unique in believing that the two universes can coexist,
instead of wiping each other out.
Portions of Fringe take place in the past as well as the future,
a fact that, when added to the ping-ponging between the two
universes, can make the series somewhat confusing and a bit
tedious, especially for newcomers. Fortunately, the weird science
that made earlier seasons so enjoyable is still around. There's
an "ultrasonic music box" that kills anyone who opens it, a
strange blue powder that melts the s of anyone who inhales
it, beetles that eat people from the inside out, a "molecular
destabilizer," and a "negative matter ring." Various episodes
feature a nut who tries to reanimate his girlfriend by retrieving
her harvested organs from those who received them when she died,
shapeshifters who bleed mercury, a poor fellow who can't stop
reading other people's minds, William Bell (Leonard Nimoy),
Walter's old partner and friend, who at one point occupies
Olivia's mind… and Walter's not-infrequent consumption of LSD.
Trippy? You bet. But Fringe, with bonus features including
multiple featurettes, a couple of audio commentaries, and other
bells and whistles, is well worth the investment. --Sam Graham