Warning: This post contains spoilers for the season premiere of Fringe.
I am incredibly angry at Fringe and, by extension, JJ Abrams.
As soon as Charlie started walking down the hall toward the furnace, I groaned and said to my wife, "Please tell me he's not going to replace Charlie." And that's exactly what happened.
Last season was so good, and my hopes for this season were even higher. Then they go and do this. It's a cheap trick, and it was done cheaply. Based on what we'd already seen, there was nowhere near enough time for the villain to kill and copy Charlie, let alone retrieve the doctor's body from whereever he'd stashed it-- we'll give the benefit of the doubt and say it was in the same room-- and position it to be found by Peter. It was a horrible cheat.
And it's a cheat we've seen before, when Sydney's best friend Francine was killed and replaced by a doppelganger on Alias. Hey JJ, just because you're stealing from yourself doesn't make it any less lazy.
I liked Charlie. Though he was often peripheral, he served an important function, connecting Olivia to the real world. He was her anchor. Taking him away may advance the plot, but it insults the audience and weakens the show. I am not looking forward to weeks of Charlie's sinister looks behind Olivia's back. How tedious. This show had so many other great things going for it-- there was no need to resort to such a hackneyed stunt.
Perhaps in the other universe, there's a show called Fringe not written by hacks.
Posted by Peter at September 26, 2009 8:35 PM