The third season of Fringe starts off with a real horror show; Olivia is trapped in the alternate universe and the ‘other’ Olivia is posing as her. How much drama is that to take for a season opener? It’s a kick-start to what later becomes a very back and forth story. In one episode you’ll see the other Olivia in action with the original universe. The next episode will have you with the original Olivia in the ‘other’ universe. The only issue with this back and forth is that somewhere in the middle it gets a bit unbalanced.
As the zenith of the ‘other’ Olivia’s story starts getting closer and closer, the switch to the other storyline with the original Olivia starts to get unattractive. You will want to stay on the ‘other’ Olivia’s story until it concludes. It’s simply just a more entertaining portion of the overall story. It’s understandable that the writers needed to add just a bit more variety to a body of story like this that brings both places to life and, more importantly, creates a real place in each universe. It would be a tough sell to try to tell people about the other universe if it wasn’t really shown much. I just wished the ‘other’ side didn’t seem so much like the X-Files.
Anyway…
So, I understand the need to do the back and forth in the season, as the ending really does need the audience to know about both places. Getting to know how both places operates helps the believability of the overall storyline. When you see the original Olivia getting memory injections to slowly turn her into the ‘other’ Olivia that particular process will have barring on the ending of the season; so all that unexciting storyline slowly makes complete sense in the overall scheme of things. This is what makes Fringe great because everything that happens serves a purpose.
The third season is packed full of fun. You’ll have plenty of moments where you’ll feel tense and uncomfortable, especially the ending. You’ll find out more about Walter, a lot about Peter’s purpose (say that five times) and you’ll get a comfortable grip on how the ‘other’ side operates. I can’t tell you how great the ending is for the third season of this show. You’ll simply have to find out yourself.
This is some of the best television available people, especially on Blu-ray.
The Blu-ray portion of this season, Fringe always looks and sounds good in the format. There’s little to no graininess or artifacts. In this season (as opposed to the first) there is no color banding, especially during the darker scenes with single lighting. The quality of the HD shines through pretty beautifully and enhances the best parts of the show, which ends up being the weird occurrences. So when you see things like bugs emerging from someone’s neck or mercury spilling from the empty eye socket of a cyborg, you’ll see how detailed the HD video truly gets; also you will notice how incredibly clean the picture can be. Warner Home Video did a great job with preparing this show for the home.
Equally as good with this release is the audio. One of the stronger points to suspense/thriller/sci-fi shows like this is how good key moments of episodes can sound. So you’ll get the jarring sounds, the transitional sounds and the carefully crafted music composition. All of it sounds sweet coming through 5.1 speakers in DTS-HD. Also, I have to specifically give props to the last episode of the season for the sound effects. You’ll appreciate it (I’m not telling you why).
If nearly perfect visuals and audio wasn’t enough on this Blu-ray set, here’s what you’re getting in the special features department:
• Duality of Worlds: Four featurettes exploring The Other You, Visualizing an Alternate World, A Machine of Destiny and The Psychology of Duality
• Animating the “Lysergic Acid Diethylamide” Episode
• Constructing an Extrasensory Soundscape
• Glimmer to the Other Side
◦ Experience “Os” in Selectable Maximum Episode Mode with Pop-Up Experience-Enhancing Commentaries and Featurettes
• Commentary on “The Plateau” with writer Monica Owusu-Breen, executive producer Jeff Pinkner and paranormal author Timothy Good
• Commentary on “Lysergic Acid Diethylamide” with Fringe insiders Jay Worth, Luyen Vu, and Tanya Swerling
• Unusual Side Effects: Gag Reel
The features on this set are mostly SD. They are good as a whole. You’ll get a lot of insight about this season, especially the commentary on the select episodes. Having commentary on a show like this is an entertaining treat. You will find some features not quite as exciting as the rest, especially the soundscape featurette. I appreciate the sound when it’s in motion, but don’t find the creation process all that thrilling. The gag reel is a nice add-on, though. Overall, the special features on this television Blu-ray release is pretty good.
