‘Fringe’ review: Etta totally rules ‘In Absentia’
There was something very interesting about Friday night’s new episode of “Fringe” in that it took most of the grand themes and massive hype surrounding the whole idea of saving the future, and while it did not necessarily throw all of these out the window, it did opt instead to focus the story in on some smaller moments where the characters could shine … in particular a daughter of Peter and Olivia who is far from being the most innocent little girl in the world.
So what was young Etta really up to during this episode? To be frank, the best way to explain it is that she spent her time torturing a man using some crazy and horrifying piece of equipment that managed to age him in front of our very eyes. This was completely awesome to watch, and we were actually a little disappointed, strange as it may seem, to see her parents try and get her to ease up a little bit. This really felt like a similar problem we had with the final season of “Chuck” or “Weeds,” where the producers felt a little too desperate to wrap up a story knowing that they had to get on to the next thing. It would have been better to scale back on a few things down the road just so that we could have seen more of a gradual transformation here,
As for what some of these stories coming up will be, it looks like Fringe Division is going to be on a series of fetch quests in order to complete the videotapes left behind by Walter, who is now useless with much of his memory gone. We’re exciting for this story, but also skeptical. Really, it all depends on how the producers decide to execute this. It could come across as really cool, but it’s a risky proposition if the stories to find these tapes are not tied together closely enough.
What did you think about this episode?
Anna
October 6, 2012 @ 12:21 am
Too much Etta, not interested in Etta at all, this is the final season, we shoudl finally learn about why Olivia Dunham was used by Bell and Walter.
I sincerely hope that is was not to be activated while being pregnant to create super-Etta.
They are doing more effort in 2 episodes with Ettas backstory than they did with Olivia Dunham in 4 seasons.
From Etta I already know everything, from Olivia I have yet to hear the name of her father, and maybe Olivia for once talk about her mother.
Etta is a cold poor copy of Olivia, Olivia pilot was full of emotions, after the death of her man, she closed off but always was tehre the empathy the caring, all the pain in her eyes.
but as usual beautiful introverted acting by a woman does not get the awards and praise(only if you are a man).
Not impressed by poor acting by G.Haig, being hardened by events is not a reason to be cold, emotionless, empty, but no criticism for her.
As much as socalled critics were ready to bash Anna, the opposite is with Georgina
So it was a personal vendetta after all?
And Georgina is so profiting from the popularity that Anna and Olivia have.
Olivia was signed by her past and childhood, something we only got through some facts every now and then by the writers, but was brought to us in each second on screen by brilliant acting of Anna Torv.
Stand out was Anna Torv, Olivia Dunham silently dominated the episode, with simply looking, her eyes and face said everything, Anna does not need the gadgets and the lines,
she just tells it all with her expressions.