JJ Abrams Interview

The King of Media himself, JJ Abrams, spoke with a handful of journalists (including one of our own) on Friday about Fringe. Specifically, this week's finale and what to expect in Season 2 (no specific spoilers). Here's the audio from the call:

We got to ask two questions, including one of your own! Here's the transcript from our part of the call:

(At the 10:30 mark)

Adam Morgan

All of your projects feature very strong-willed, independent females like Olivia Dunham. Who or what is your inspiration for those characters?

JJ AbramsI would like to think that I've been luck enough to work on projects that have strong-willed characters who happen to be male or female, and in the case of characters like Kate or Sydney Bristow, and certainly Olivia Dunham, those are females that hopefully pop because they are interesting and strong-willed, but I could also point to certain male characters that have the same things. I guess the answer is that I don't really try to write characters that are strong women, I just try to write, when I can, strong characters, and if they happen to be women, they happen to be women.

And in my life, I've got the most spectacular wife in Katie McGrath. She is probably the strongest and best influence on me that I've ever had. And I would say that it's no coincidence that it was after I met her that I wrote Felicity, mostly because she reminded me to write about stuff that I actually care about again. It had been a while. But her strength, and her amazing ability to not only immediately understand right and wrong, but she's amazingly capable of articulating that position. And she's very socially active and politically minded, and fights the good fight, and she's someone who is definitely an inspiration, who happens to be a woman.
(At the 25:10 mark)

Adam Morgan

By the way, I saw Trek last night, and I'm going again tonight. I loved it.

JJ AbramsGod bless you, sir. Thank you very much.
Adam MorganAnyway, now that we've seen Charlie and Broyles in this alternate reality, do you think we might run into, say, a still-breathing John Scott over there?

JJ Abrams

I would say that it would be very difficult now that "John Scott's" show got picked up.

Adam Morgan

Ooo, that's right.

JJ Abrams

But having said that, I'm very excited that it got picked up. And I do think that there will be some very interesting things happening, given this "other place" that you're referring to. And again, that's part of the fun of the show, and I hope one of the aspects of the show that makes it incredibly unique. Meaning, my favorite kinds of ideas are the things that we work on that make me think, "there's no other show on television that could do that wierd thing." That's my favorite kind of an idea. And I just think that if you don't go for those, then the show becomes increasingly mundane and disposable. But the more you can do some of those things, even if they don't work, to try and do those things that feel specifically "that show." Anyway, there are some things with that "other place" that I think will feel uniquely "Fringe."

Anna Torv On Good Day LA

Anna Torv was on Good Day LA, where they mostly grilled her about her relationship with co-star (and now husband) Mark Valley. (Thanks for the tip, Kim!)

Walter's Lab Notes: The Road Not Taken

Two new pieces of the Fibonacci spiral this week, plus some other goodies:

• Walter reasserts that it was William Bell who wrote the Manifesto (the typewriter was better-suited to his long fingers).
• He compares the Chapter of Ethics to the Gospel of Judas again, convinced that it will prove Bell innocent.
• He alludes to mythological "firestarters," such as Prometheus, Mixcoatl, Surt, and Vulcan.
• He deplores himself for being unable to answer Olivia's questions in the coffee shop, and vows to jump-start his memory using his old record collection.
• Walter prefers Chicago over Delta Blues!

Page 3.14

Here is a round up of stories that just didn’t make the FringeTelevision front page, or what we like to call…. Page 3.14!

• SpoilerTV: Fringe - Jasika Nicole Interview
  
• RedEye: 'Fringe' star Jasika Nicole is ready for action
  
• Starpulse: Anna Torv on the Fringe finale
• SciFi Wire: Fringe's Jasika Nicole promises we'll learn about Astrid. Next year
• USA Today: Leonard Nimoy makes a logical move: Guest-star on 'Fringe'
  

Fringe Episode Review: The Road Not Taken

Sorry for the delay on this review, but May (like December), is when all things happen at once.

Since Fringe returned on April 7th with Inner Child, we've gotten one great ep after another, and the roller coaster continued this week with The Road Not Taken, a brilliant serial-procedural hybrid that featured several compelling mysteries, Emmy-worthy performances, and some real pay-offs for devoted fans. Oh, and some shameless cross-promotion for a little movie that came out this week.

"Blonde girl about 5'7. Really well-done. Melted fillings."

Spontaneous human combustion? Nah. That was The X-Files. This is Fringe.

So Susan Pratt and Nancy Lewis were part of the same Cortexiphan trials as Olivia and Nick Drake. It looks like Cortexiphan affects more than just perception! Sure, Liv can see into alternate realities, but she, along with this week's twins, can also excite molecules until they conflagrate. What other kinds of mind-tricks are ZFT recruits capable of? And why did William Bell think these super soldiers were necessary to win the imminent inter-reality war?

"Each choice we make creates a new reality."
Walter confirmed it: Fringe doesn't just take place in our own universe, but in the meta-universe. The world we've occupied since the Pilot is only one path of causality, out of an infinite number of possible timelines, akin to Hugh Everett's Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum physics.

The narrative implications are endless. Is there an alternate Boston where John Scott is still alive? Where Peter and Walter weren't rescued from drowning by the Observer? Where history as we know it is remarkably different? That certainly seems to be the case with the reality Olivia glimpses in The Road Not Taken. Here's everything I noticed about it:

Dell is still a ubiquitous computer manufacturer. Everyone wears kevlar. Things are...bluer. There seems to be no trash pickup. Lots of graffiti. Lots of smoke and fire. The FBI communicates via red bat-phones. Kirk Acevedo is mean. And scarred. And giving shoot-to-kill orders. The city of Boston is being both evacuated and quaratined (which seems a contradiction).

My biggest question about Olivia's visions: is this reality the one with whom ZFT prophecizes a war? The one they created super soldiers to fight? If so, I'm confused. Where do the Observers fit in? And what's so special about this particular alternate reality, when there are an infinite number of them in the meta-universal manifold?

"William Bell is not the enemy."
Look out, we've got another Ambiguously Powerful Figure from JJ Abrams, the same man who brought us Arvin Sloane and Benjamin Linus. All of Season 1, the writers have establish Bell as a morally corrupt Man Behind the Curtain of Massive Dynamic, the Pattern, and now ZFT. But in The Road Not Taken, both Nina Sharp and Walter defend Bell's character, assuring viewers that he's been misrepresented.

Who do we trust? Will the apocryphal Chapter of Ethics really prove Bell's innocence? I have a feeling Bell's intentions may be benevolent, but his means, unethical. Maybe we'll find out in next week's finale. And if Bell's not evil, who's responsible for ripping out the Chapter of Ethics and corrupting ZFT? Mr. Jones?

Stray Thoughts

• Best Walterism of the Night: "When he was five, he built me a popsicle napkin-holder. Dreadful design. Utterly useless."
• How slick is Lance Reddick? The man could kill someone with a glance.
• Interesting cameo from Clint Howard. I imagine Akiva Goldsman talked him into it. Did this shameless Trek plug bother anyone?
• How many of you cheered when Sanford Harris went up in flames?
• Blair Brown was awesome as Nina Sharp in this ep, and I think John Noble deserves an Emmy for this performance. The coffee-shop scene particularly.
• Nina seems to be limping all of a sudden. Just how much of her is robotic, do you think?
• Nice to see Astrid out of the lab! Get that girl a gun next season.
• I liked the return of the light box. Here's hoping we see ZFT Test #2 next year.

Adam Morgan is a writer for both the page and screen in Chicago, and he blogs pseudo-daily at Mount Helicon.

Could Fringe Be An Emmy Contender?

The LA Times' awards blog "The Envelope", has an interesting article discussing the possibilities of Fringe joining "the Emmy Mainstream". It's certainly not unprecedented, with other "genre" shows such as LOST and X-Files taking home Emmys in the past.

The deadline for nominations is not until May 31, and the Fringe season finale which airs next Tuesday could be the best episode yet.

According to Jason Hughes of TV Squad: "Fringe is one of the best hours on television right now, and it could well be poised to be one of the all-time greats!"

What do you think about an Emmy (or two or three) for Fringe? Outstanding Drama Series? John Noble for best supporting Actor?

Fringe Scenemaker 119: The Road Not Taken

Scenemaker is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Fringe. This episode shows the making of the exploding Sanford Harris scene from the Fringe episode The Road Not Taken.

You can watch previous episode's scenemaker videos here.

Fringebusters 119: Science of The Road Not Taken

For each episode of Fringe, Popular Mechanics asks experts to analyzes the science of Fringe, and separate the science fact from the science fiction.

For "The Road Not Taken," PM brings in Dr. Steven Novella, Yale neurologist and founder of the New England Skeptic Society, to discuss Spontaneous Human Combustion.

PM: Fringe takes on Spontaneous Human Combustion, Gets Burned

You can read other "Fringebusters" posts here.

What Would You Ask: JJ Abrams

Tomorrow afternoon, we'll get the chance to chat with J.J. Abrams, the man behind FRINGE, not to mention LOST, the new Star Trek movie, Cloverfield, Alias, et al. This will undoubtibly be a crowded conference call, so we may only get to ask one or two questions, but we still whnt to know - What would you ask JJ Abrams?

Submit your questions in the comments by noon tomorrow, and we'll try to include as many as we can!

Leonard Nimoy in TV Guide

Leonard Nimoy is in the new TV Guide talking about Fringe.

* Thanks to SpoilerTV for the scans!

Leonard Nimoy Speaks About Fringe Finale

The Fox's Official Fringe website has a new video titled "Where is William Bell?"

HD Screenshots for The Road Not Taken

High-Definitions screenshots for Fringe: The Road Not Taken are now available at FringeFiles.com

And if there's a screenshot you want to see that is not in the gallery, let us know in the Request A Screencap Thread.