2x14 "Jacksonville" - Reviews

http://tinyurl.com/ygu4tbe

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It could choose no better episode to go out on than this one. The
mythology-heavy "Jacksonville," both expanded the show's mythology, and
it also gave us a nice little character reveal

(TVOvermind)

Xeen - this title is for you

That guy's wrong about romance, but right about Josh & chemistry.

Nice recap by Featherlite:

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....She tells her friend that she failed. She was supposed to be the one to stop this whole thing. But she can’t and now people are going to die. She’s not afraid of monsters in the dark anymore. The only thing she can fear is failure that will hurt the innocent lives she’s sworn to protect. "I’m scared, Peter." Peter tries to comfort her, reminding her that she didn’t do anything wrong. At this point I shout, "Kiss her, you fool!" at the television. He’s about to listen to me when she repeats, "I’m scared." Only this time she says it like it’s a good thing. Olivia rushes out to a balcony and scans the city skyline. She sees a building glittering in the distance. Gotcha...

Read the whole thing at the link.

Fringe Podcast. Only mP3 right now.

Blue Sunflower wrote:

Xeen - this title is for you

thanks!!!

when i first learned of the title of the episode i couldn't not think of twilight obviously

Nice review by Jeffrey Weeks:

Emotional Fringe Episode Jacksonville is Powerhouse Television
http://tinyurl.com/ybhsyfg

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Jacksonville is the kind of payoff episode Fringe fans live for, a breathtaking tour-de-force through the series mythology which spares the characters no mercy as they look into the eye of the beast that is the world of Fringe.

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tour-de-force

Do we misuse that, in English?

I don't think so.
But that's fun to see so many french expressions are being used in english.

"The spark of a potential romance between Olivia and Peter is like a flickering candle in a storm."

*Sob!*

Not to worry, Cathy, it's one of those birthday candles that never goes out.

Gosh, I hope so.

That's a comforting analogy, Judy.

Pollyanna Power! That's part of my dharma, I think.

Here's a very fun, sharp recap of Jacksonville, LOL-funny in several places, and with several interesting catches & guesses:
Fringe: Shiny Happy Peter
Several pages, all good.
Some highlights:

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When the dust clears, Ted looks oddly... lumpy. One of the room's support beams runs straight through his shoulder and out his back into the floor.

Oh, also? He now has two sets of arms and legs. Ted starts shouting in terror. As you would.

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The alternate Universe Sucks.

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If Walter's interpretation of the laws of physics is correct, why wouldn't the our-universe version of the alternate-universe building that got sucked over be the one that gets sucked back?

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..."Olive" and "Olivia" are two separate names. One is not a nickname for the other....

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Glum with a monkey.

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Nina walks around outside and hears a lot of dogs howling, so she calls Broyles and tells him it's starting. When Broyles said he'd ask Nina to keep an eye out for mysterious happenings, I thought he meant he'd ask her to leverage Massive Dynamic's vast resources to observe any strange phenomena. But hey, this worked, too.

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In her apartment, Olivia fusses with her hair in front of the mirror, even going so far as taking her hair down out of her ponytail. Oh, it's a date. It's totally a date.

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n her apartment, Olivia fusses with her hair in front of the mirror, even going so far as taking her hair down out of her ponytail. Oh, it's a date. It's totally a date.

I Agree. I AGREE.

Quote :

Nina walks around outside and hears a lot of dogs howling, so she calls Broyles and tells him it's starting. When Broyles said he'd ask Nina to keep an eye out for mysterious happenings, I thought he meant he'd ask her to leverage Massive Dynamic's vast resources to observe any strange phenomena. But hey, this worked, too.

That's pretty funny, he's right!

Cathy904 wrote:

Wow! Okay, really? I wish it hadn't been bad for you,

How was the writing so different from previous shows?

Do not ask me my opinion. I warned you:

http://blue-sunflowers.livejournal.com/9185.html

I love your opinon, keep them coming!

Your Deadly Serious Drama vs Lighthearted Comedy is very nice. You went into overdrive slamming how long they took to get to the 'science', but, hey, they can also set the mood and take 20 minutes to do it. The Peter Line Embargo made me laugh out loud.

I think of 'first generation' bloggers 10 years ago as too adoring, 'second generation' bloggers of 5 years ago as too harsh. The kind Tina Fey roasted at her Golden Globe acceptace speech a couple of years ago? I tried to post it but Dick Clark Productions have removed it from YouTube. Too bad. I hope we're the third generation, critical sometimes, but supportive. Assume the writers DO read it, even if they don't. Give them constructive criticism amid the laugh at their expense.

Olivia is a woman and a Superwoman, Jeff Pinkner says she is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLGvA0muZec She's shown fear, tears, courage, and humor since the Pilot. Olivia fans like me have looked for a female lead like her for a long time.

This makes Peter fans crazy. All I can say is Josh Jackson is coming into his own, yes it took long enough for the Line Embargo to be over with, but this was one of the best Shipper episode Peter portrayals I've seen.

Spoiler:

Get it out in one or two days after the broadcast at the latest. You get more original blogger cred and give more original insights for the blogosphere to consider.

Cut it in half, think of Jeff Pinkner reading it, and Asking Your Opinion will be a pleasure, even if you're not happy. And that's my opinion of your opinion!

Thank you for your review!!

Cathy904 wrote:

Olivia is a woman and a Superwoman, Jeff Pinkner says she is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLGvA0muZec She's shown fear, tears, courage, and humor since the Pilot. Olivia fans like me have looked for a female lead like her for a long time.

This makes Peter fans crazy.

No, what makes Peter fans crazy is the assumption that you have to emasculate him to elevate her. It is the same exact thing, in reverse, as all the mysoginistic treatment of women up to, and including now. It devalues both genders, really.
I've been looking for a real female lead for a long time, but superhero isn't it.
She's starting to be, having emotions, treating Peter as an equal adult and finally calling Walter out on the abuse, but it's still a very stereotypical view of humans. She may as well have a removable plastic head.

Here's a quote about patriarchy, the 2nd graph I've changed it to show what I mean about Peter's role when Olivia is A Superhero:

The number one rule of patriarchy - the guiding principle, the foundation of it all - is that women are the sex/second class. They aren't individual people, like men; they aren't full members of the human race. They are appendages. Their role is to give birth to men, to nurture men, to marry men, to f*** men, to serve men, and so on. The only real people in this setup are men. The world belongs to men and is their sphere: theirs to fight over, dominate, settle, destroy, remake. Women are simply adjuncts, like talking pets or livestock.

The number one rule of Olivia as superhero - the guiding principle, the foundation of it all - is that everyone else, especially Peter, is second class. He's not an individual person, like Olivia; not a full member of the human race. He's an appendage. His role is to give backup Olivia, to nurture Olivia, to be saved by Olivia, to bring information to Olivia, to adore her, and so on. The only real person in this setup is Olivia. The world belongs to her and is her sphere: hers to fight over, save, dominate, fail, remake. Peter's simply an adjunct, like talking pets or livestock.

---only in this extra kinky version, where Olivia is supposed to abstain from sex or romance with Peter, he's not even sex class.

What really kills me about this, is hearing JJ Abrams talk about how they want to write a story where you really care about all three people, want to get to know them, how the story is about all three of them and their equally important parts of the story, and then you get story treatments where the roles are so stultified that it's impossible to care about any of them, except to want to pitch a brick at Olivia for being so constipated & infallible.

She doesn't have to be a goddess to be interesting; Peter doesn't have to grovel or be powerless for her to be strong.

I think the problem in this (role reversal stereotyping) is the same problem that also often afflicts Bones: men writing strong women roles often figure, well, what makes men strong is being stronger than women, so for reversal, the woman must dominate and the man be weak. Forgetting that someone else's weakness doesn't make you strong.

But don't forget that we will discover a lot of things about Peter in the next episodes. Peter should discover alone the truth about his origins, to leave the Fringe Division for a while, take alone important decisions. This will prove that Peter isn't only a supporting character. He will have a big role in the upcoming war...Without him Olivia and Walter couldn't do anything, and the war would already be lost. Olivia will need him to fight the enemies from the other side.

Elliot wrote:

I think the problem in this (role reversal stereotyping) is the same problem that also often afflicts Bones: men writing strong women roles often figure, well, what makes men strong is being stronger than women, so for reversal, the woman must dominate and the man be weak. Forgetting that someone else's weakness doesn't make you strong.

i second that. i'm tired of all those clichés and supposed strong women who are merely a reflection of misogynous writers' POV.
whenever superpowers are involved, i feel like i'm being cheated at as a vewer. it's stan lee's mutant magic trick all over again. character development is way too limited on the show and superwhatever, that's just another convenient recipe to make it work.
I have no idea why Olivia being cold and detached and a perfect agent and whatever they throw at her this week should be the archetype for strong role model. it simply doesn't par for me. humanity is what makes you strong in my book.

Xeen wrote:

Elliot wrote:

I think the problem in this (role reversal stereotyping) is the same problem that also often afflicts Bones: men writing strong women roles often figure, well, what makes men strong is being stronger than women, so for reversal, the woman must dominate and the man be weak. Forgetting that someone else's weakness doesn't make you strong.

i second that. i'm tired of all those clichés and supposed strong women who are merely a reflection of misogynous writers' POV.
whenever superpowers are involved, i feel like i'm being cheated at as a vewer. it's stan lee's mutant magic trick all over again. character development is way too limited on the show and superwhatever, that's just another convenient recipe to make it work.
I have no idea why Olivia being cold and detached and a perfect agent and whatever they throw at her this week should be the archetype for strong role model. it simply doesn't par for me. humanity is what makes you strong in my book.

YES! 1000x.

jade86 wrote:

But don't forget that we will discover a lot of things
about Peter in the next episodes. Peter should discover alone the truth
about his origins, to leave the Fringe Division for a while, take alone
important decisions. This will prove that Peter isn't only a supporting
character. He will have a big role in the upcoming war...Without him
Olivia and Walter couldn't do anything, and the war would already be
lost. Olivia will need him to fight the enemies from the other
side.

You make good points. He does need to do those things, and---much as I complain at the superpower thing---BR does come through in the end on the important points, and they must know Peter needs to individuate himself, and to choose to stay, not just stay because he doesn't know any difference. They said from the beginning, Fringe was also about the family you choose for yourself. And he must be integral to their fight, I am sure---Broyles chose all three of them from the beginning, thanked Peter for agreeing to work with him the first time he met him, before Peter had a clue--he already had a dossier on Peter. Unbeknownst to Olivia, btw...

I have forgotten to say that according to me Peter and Olivia are on the same level

Yes, they are--and must be, for all kinds of reasons. But it's good to have it re-stated; thank you!

I'm doing a mini-rewatch, snippets of each episode from the dvd's each evening; last night I saw the airplane ride back from Iraq, where Peter asks Olivia 'you're telling me my father was Dr. Frankenstein?!?'------and she doesn't answer in words, but their faces are eloquent: that is exactly what she is telling him, and on some level he gets it.