Fringe(d)

Saw FRINGE last night. The "underground vibrating suppository" episode.

Saw something that totally drew me out of the story 20 minutes in. One of those moments that had me frothing at the mouth and yelling at my cathode ray tube:

"What the fuck! Don't you assholes get paid enough to do the fuckin' research?!!!"

More later after I re-watch the episode today after the meds do their nasty work.

Okay I'm Back: 10:58 am

In last night's episode we have a scene where Broyles tells Olivia that Colonel Jacobsen is expecting her visit. Cut to: Olivia is at Jacobsen's house (after we see a 2nd unit shot of the exterior of the Colonel''s house to establish location) having tea and she is reminiscing with him. Then she gets to the narrative regarding the "vibrating suppository" that Jacobsen saw back in the 1980's...

And then he tells Olivia that she can look at his files on the mysterious object. He will turn them over to her.

Oh shit.
(and I'm not talking that little speck of birdie doo-doo on the sidewalk. I'm talking massive herd of Bull Elephant herd shit being dumped all over the story)

I don't care who the hell you are in the military or any other branch of the government:

YOU. DON'T. GET. TO. KEEP. CLASSIFIED. FILES. FOR. PERSONAL. USE. EVAR.

You don't get to take your work home. It stays at work. It doesn't get transmitted over the internet. It doesn't make it's way into your home safe. Even the President, when he goes to Camp David, has a staff that maintains the files that are in transit. His subordinates have to sign out the files and are responsible for their return.

Pulled me right out of the story because you can easily call "bullshit!"
Let's call that STRIKE ONE.

Another thing that really screwed with the story was the fact that Jacobsen - a man Olivia hadn't seen in years - commented on the secret relationship she had with Agent Scott. The relationship that only a few within her immediate department knew about, but didn't comment on - even to Olivia. STRIKE TWO.

Are we to believe that Walter could have escaped from the basement lab; driven away to the country to his wife's grave site; buried the cylinder then gone for a root beer float in the space of a couple of hours? Hmmmm....

Then, we see Olivia use the CCTV camera to spot the bad guy grabbing Peter, but didn't use the same tech to see Walter coming out of the lab with a "giant vibrating suppository? "

STRIKE THREE - YOU. ARE. OUT.

***Addendum***

If this were a pulp movie, we would never have been at Jacobsen's home. He would have been taken to an interrogation area (either in the Headquarters or in the warehouse where we first see the suppository - probably the latter) and he would have been interrogated by Olivia - his friend who is put in the position of needing to get info from Jacobsen after seeing a majorly redacted file of his from back in the 80's. More tension. Fewer locations. (Story told, money saved).

Seriously - they could produce this show with more tension on less money. They way they have written it - it's an expensive show, that - IMO - doesn't deliver the goods.

***Further***

It was nice to see Michael Kelly as the bad guy in this episode. He's an old friend from SC who was one of the "stars" in the aborted version of HEAD CHEERLEADER DEAD CHEERLEADER. He has since been featured in THE SHIELD as a rapist/ serial killer who tries to outwit Dutch and in UNBREAKABLE as a doctor who is amazed Bruce Willis isn't oatmeal after the train crash.