Reminder: Vote For Fringe in Hulu "Best In Show" Poll

The voting for Hulu's second annual Best in Show competition is still going on, but time is running out!

There are only two more days left to vote, and Supernatural. has a slight lead over Fringe in this first round of voting.

Come on Fringe fans! We have almost double the viewers of Supernatural (4 million viewers vs. 2.2 million)... are their fans just more dedicated?

However, since HitFix Senior Editor Alan Sepinwall gets a 5% vote, and he picked Fringe, a close race still may go to Fringe. But let's not let it come to that...

There are also 15 other shows that need your vote, like How I Met Your Mother, Dexter, and Mad Men. The voting for round one ends on March 6th!

Why Is JJ Abrams Obsessed With Alice in Wonderland?

(Note:This article is a tad old, but continues to ask a relevant question. As recently 2 episodes ago we met a confused character named Alice Merchant who was viewing through a looking glass.-fringeobsessed)

Jan 3, 2010 3:00 PM
Why Is JJ Abrams Obsessed With Alice in Wonderland?
Kiala Kazebee — JJ Abrams and Alice in Wonderland: What's the connection? Lost is rife with Carroll-isms, and now Fringe is falling down the same rabbit hole. We investigate the Abrams/Alice relationship just in time for Fringe to pick up January 11th.

Abrams has been mining the Alice mythos for years -Alias, Lost, and yes, even Felicity are all filled to the brim with Into the Looking Glass subtext and, as is the case with Fringe, actual context. For the sake of brevity, topicality and to spare you the pain of many, many white rabbit-related metaphors we'll keep the focus on Fringe with a bit of Abrams' back catalog to support the theory.

Alice in Abramsland

"Oh how brave they'll all think me back home!"

We know Abrams has a penchant for pretty female characters cast adrift in dangerous waters. Sydney Bristow, Kate Austen (who was originally slated to lead the Losties, not Jack) and Abrams' current muse Agent Olivia Dunham all embody the Alice character: fearless young women with unhappy home lives and an insatiable amount of curiosity.

Think about it - Olivia has no qualms about stepping into Walter's LSD box time and time again, essentially mimicking the "Drink Me" scene in Alice's Adventures and eventually finds herself at the end of Season one on the other side of the looking glass talking to William Bell in a parallel reality. William Bell may even be her white rabbit, as evidenced by the Fringe Season Two poster revealing a bunny in the shrubbery wearing a tiny bell around his neck. And, of course, they are all surrounding a gigantic hole in the ground (referencing episode 2 Night of Desirable Objects). This has actually been discussed here because the internet is a vast and wondrous thing.

The Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit and the Pocket Watch

Alice: What a funny watch! It tells the day and the month, but not the time!
Mad Hatter: Why should it? Does your watch tell you what year it is?
Alice: No, because it stays a year for so long.
Mad Hatter: Well, then, I rest my case! (via)

Time travel - and the concept of time in general - is a constant (heh) in Abrams' world and Fringe is no different. The Observer, who resembles the white rabbit in more ways than one, carries the ubiquitous pocket watch everywhere he (or they, I guess) goes, constantly checking it for a yet to be determined purpose. What we do know is The Observers have been around since time began at every "important" historical event. Also they really love spicy food which has absolutely nothing to do with Alice in Wonderland but is a bit of whimsy much in keeping with Carroll's brand of literary nonsense. Or it helps metabolize the time travel. Who knows?

Walter Bishop is quite obviously the Mad Hatter, solving and creating new riddles and completely off his rocker supposedly due to his love of hallucinogenics (although by now we know his crazy stems from his missing brain grapes).

Peter Bishop, the Queen of Hearts, and the Cheshire Cat

I think the theory goes that Peter Bishop is actually Another Dimension Peter, able to pop in and out rakishly without any damage done to his mind. Is he the Cheshire Cat? My gut says maybe. This isn't an exact science people; it's Fringe science. (Nina Sharp, however, she of the red bob and God complex, is most definitely the Queen of Hearts.)

So, where are we at with this whole Alice thing? We've got an entire Lostpedia wiki written about the Alice connection, even IMDB notes the Wonderland theme throughout Alias and now we've got a curious lady with long blonde hair taking hallucinogens, following a white rabbit (or several) down a hole or through a glass or across time or what have you and thwarting the Queen of Hearts while courting the Mad Hatter's son who may or may not be the Cheshire Cat. I think I've made my point. Or spouted a bunch of literary nonsense. What do you think?
Source:io9.com

Finally! 'Fringe' Merchandise Available from WB

It's way overdue but very welcomed! Finally there's some Fringe merchandise that you can buy at the Warner Brothers(WB) online store!

Use the following links and get yourself a mousepad, T-shirt, mug (yea!), and the Fringe graphic novels.

And you may want to thank the WB people for the arrival of this stuff. Maybe they'll make more, like the Fringe calendar I've been dreaming of?

Link to Fringe merchandise at Warner Brothers' Store: http://www.wbshop.com/Fringe/fr,default,sc.html?src=wfrfans (and look at the webaddress, doesn't it look like 'wbishop'?)

Fringe comic series, 2009, paperback, 144 pages: http://amzn.to/ecz6oV

Tales From The Fringe comic series, 2011, 144 pages: http://amzn.to/feAbfX

Violet Sedan Chair on Amazon and iTunes

If you weren't able to find a vinyl copy of the Violet Sedan Chair album Seven Suns in your local record store (or buy one used on eBay,) it is now available for download on Amazon or iTunes.

Amazon has the entire album available for $8.99, or you can buy individual tracks for 99¢ each.

iTunes has the album for $9.90, or you can buy individual tracks for 99¢ each.

And if you would like to print out your own cover, here are some high-res scans of the front, back, and record label.

* Thanks to Joe for emailing us!

Fringe Fridays Reanimated Screenshots

 

The recently released Fox promo "Fridays Reanimated" contains some Easter eggs hidden in the flashing imagery. Some of the screenshots are a little bit spoilery, so I put them up over at FringeSpoilers.com.

I have also uploaded screencaps of the entire video "Fridays Reanimated" at FringeFiles.com. 

BTW, when the high-res version of the video is released on Friday, I will update the images here and on FF.

New Fringe Friday Trailer

Fox has just released a new trailer.

This new promo have some easter eggs, can you find it?

Fringe Wallpaper: EGNIRF Typebars

Fox has created a new FRINGE wallpaper featuring the title of the show represented by the typebars of a typewriter (a Selectric 251 perhaps?). Download it in multiple sizes at Fox.com/Fringe.

Vote For Fringe in Hulu "Best In Show" Poll

The voting for Hulu's second annual Best in Show competition has begun! They are taking your votes to find out which show is the most incredible, era-defining series on television.

In this first round, Fringe is up against its Friday time-slot competition Supernatural.

Here is the match up, according to HitFix Senior Editor Alan Sepinwall, who gets a 5% vote (and picked Fringe!):

FRINGE - Critic's Choice!
The second "Fringe" stopped running away from its own identity as a weird science fiction drama with a complicated mythology, the show became much, much better. The war between the two parallel universes has added scope and depth and intrigue to the series, and getting to play a different version of Olivia has dramatically livened up Anna Torv's performance.

SUPERNATURAL
Not that Sam and Dean's rabid fans need any more encouragement to vote for it, but a deep run in this contest will give me yet another reason to feel guilty for never finding the time to get caught up on a series I've enjoyed on the handful of occasions when there wasn't a big time conflict. Muscle car + well-constructed arc storytelling is right up my alley usually.

While Fringe has a much bigger audience (nearly double), SN fans are very devoted, so the competition will be fierce. In this early stage, Fringe and Supernatural are neck and neck.

Also, there are 15 other shows that need your vote, like How I Met Your Mother, Dexter, and Mad Men. The voting for round one ends on March 6th!

* Thanks to Chris for sending this in!

'Subject 13'-A Review

"I think the children are the key."

When I first read the spoiler that the writers were going to give us a flashback and explore the Peter/Olivia relationship, I have to admit I was a little skeptical, but they delivered in a big way.

They also answered a few questions and made us come up with so many more, as is one of Pinkner's/Wyman's goals.

'Subject 13' is a riveting episode, and as usual, I believe there is a lot of foreshadowing in it regarding Season 4 and maybe even Season 5 (should we be so lucky).

This is an episode that gives us the history of the P/O dynamic, and informs us of what happened to both sets of Peter's parents, post-'Peter.' First, let me point out that executive producer, Jeff Pinkner, told us months ago that 'Peter' and this episode would be like bookends, giving us the information we needed regarding the before and after Walter Bishop's crazy act of abducting a child from one universe and taking him into another. It should come as no surprise to you that 'Peter' and 'Subject 13' were both written by Jeff Pinkner, Joel Wyman, and Akiva Goldsman, as one can certainly tell from the smoothness of both of these episodes.

Read more »

Fringe Easter Egg Roundup for "Subject 13"

Here are some recurring "Easter egg" screen shots from the Fringe episode Subject 13:

The Observer can be spotted walking in the Bishop Dynamics lobby, just as Walternate arrives.

Hidden Glyphs: If you want to count cartoon versions of the Fringe glyphs, then butterflies, seahorses and frogs can be found near the Jacksonville Family Daycare Center entrance. There are also some seahorses on the Bishop family's fridge.

Next Episode Clue: As we mentioned in the last Easter egg roundup, the episode "6B" contained an abundance of tulips, which were in fact references to "Subject 13". In this episode, a very special field of white tulips is the location that young Peter visits twice. Once driving in the car with his mother, and once when he finds Olivia. The White Tulip was also a very important symbol for Walter Bishop:

"I, too, attempted the unimaginable, and I succeeded. I crossed into another universe, and took a son that wasn't mine. And since then, not a day has passed without me feeling the burden of that act. I'm going to tell you something that I have never told another soul. Until I took my son from the other side, I had never believed in God. But it occurred to me... that my actions had betrayed him and that everything that had happened to me since was God punishing me. So now I'm looking for a sign of forgiveness. I've asked God for a sign of forgiveness. A specific one, a white tulip.". - Walter Bishop (to Alistair Peck)  in White Tulip.

Read more »

Optimism From E!Online Regarding Season 4

This just in from Kristin and the E! Online website!
Take a little breath fellow fans, and keep praying.


Dan in Pompton Plains, N.J.: What are your thoughts on Fringe? Canceled or renewed? It would be a crime if it gets axed. Almost as bad as John Noble not getting an Emmy nod for his role as Walter/Walternate.Inquired about Fringe's future for you, and insiders are pretty optimistic that Fringe will get another season. The show is said to be a personal fave of Fox boss Kevin Reilly, the DVR numbers are great, and oh yeah, in comparison to shows Lie To Me and Human Target, the series is a veritable critical darling. There are no guarantees in life or in television programming, but we feel pretty confident that season four of Fringe will happen. Yay!
Source:eonline.com

Fringe Now: Alternate Universe Articles - Tucker Auto

The Sprint "Fringe Now" page of the Fox website has a new "Alternate Universe Article", which shows a news article from the Red universe, on one of those ubiquitous Motorola XOOM type devices.

The article is titled "Tucker Auto - The company claims to have fixed past problems.":

Tucker Auto announces a new line of electric-fusion passenger cars. The company claims to have fixed past problems with catastrophic engine meltdowns, which led to high-profile lawsuits during 2006 and 2007. A company spokesman says the new vehicles demonstrate the firm's ongoing commitment to green innovation.

The Tucker Car Corporation in our universe folded in the 1940s, due to lawsuits and an SEC investigation. The Tucker '48 was a very futuristic car for its time, including features such as a "water-cooled aluminum block,  flat-6 rear engine, disc brakes, four-wheel independent suspension, fuel injection, the location of all instruments on the steering wheel, and a padded dashboard." An electric-fusion engine, however, was not an option.