Fringe Premiere

[Bullwinkle]

I finally watched the finale tonight.

It was pretty good, but I've felt like Fringe kind of ran out of steam since jumping to the future. 

For a good while there before that, the show was filled with these "Holy shit!" moments that I mostly felt was lacking.  The one big attempt was discovering that the girl in the future was Peter and Olivia's daughter, but frankly that was spoiled with some incredible casting.  One look at that girl and there was no question who she was meant to be.  The Monty Python/Terry Gilliam moment in a recent ep came close, but it wasn't so much a plot shocker as a startling amusing moment.

I've also been disappointed with how much Olivia has been pushed into a supporting role (or at least lost in the ensemble).  Peter has gotten way too much focus, IMO.  Walter, too, to a degree.  Of course, I'm in the camp that thought the Peter/Olivia love connection should never have happened.  But still, why are we only interested in how Peter is with his daughter at the end.  Olivia just grinned in the background and then disappeared for the very end.  I get that the final moment was a Peter/Walter thing, but it really felt like she'd been abandoned by the writers.

Still there were quite a number of callbacks in recent episodes, and while I appreciate the fan service, I could have used more of a refresher, I think.  Especially for the last shot of the finale, which I only learned was a callback to a season 2 episode after looking it up.  Before that I was wondering wtf it was supposed to mean, which made it a little dissatisfying as an ending.

I don't mean to come down too hard on it.  It was still a decent season, and the ending was nice, but I think I was expecting more.

[rshetts2]

While theres truth to your assessment, Bullwinkle, I had a much more positive feel towards the finale. When they announced last year that it would be the end of the series, I think it forced the writers to cut stuff they had planned in order get to the ending a bit more efficiently.  I had read somewhere a few months ago that they had hoped to have 2 more full seasons to bring the series to a close and that they had to reduce 44 episodes down to 13 to finish the series.  You could see the effects of that in that at times this season seemed a bit forced.  Still, as a whole I thought they did admirably, under the circumstances.  As far as the finale,  I thought they did a good job of referencing a lot of the earlier episode stuff and especially enjoyed their assault on the Observer HQ.  It was definitely peppered with shout outs to the series as a whole and a nice send off for the loyal fans.

Spoiler for Hiden:

As far as the last shot, the white tulip was a major turning point for both Walter and the series.  It was a reference to hope, forgiveness and new beginnings and was very appropriate for Walter to have sent that.  It does lead to the question of when did Walter send that?  Before or after he went to the future?

[Bullwinkle]

While theres truth to your assessment, Bullwinkle, I had a much more positive feel towards the finale. When they announced last year that it would be the end of the series, I think it forced the writers to cut stuff they had planned in order get to the ending a bit more efficiently.  I had read somewhere a few months ago that they had hoped to have 2 more full seasons to bring the series to a close and that they had to reduce 44 episodes down to 13 to finish the series.  You could see the effects of that in that at times this season seemed a bit forced.  Still, as a whole I thought they did admirably, under the circumstances.  As far as the finale,  I thought they did a good job of referencing a lot of the earlier episode stuff and especially enjoyed their assault on the Observer HQ.  It was definitely peppered with shout outs to the series as a whole and a nice send off for the loyal fans.

Spoiler for Hiden:

As far as the last shot, the white tulip was a major turning point for both Walter and the series.  It was a reference to hope, forgiveness and new beginnings and was very appropriate for Walter to have sent that.  It does lead to the question of when did Walter send that?  Before or after he went to the future?

Spoiler for Hiden:

On the videotape they watch at the beginning, he said he sent it before he went forward in time, but that was recorded before he was supposed to go forward.  The Observers attacking meant he didn't go forward and that either the letter never got to Peter or Peter never got to the letter.  However, it does seem like the series of events there was a) Walter recorded the tape 2) Walter sent the letter iii) the Observers attack aborting Walter's going to the future and Peter getting the letter (either he never made it home or the post office got shut down or something)

I caught a few of the references in the assault (I have a friend who played the guy that first got the slicing butterfly attack way back when), but not all, I'm sure.  Not all of those needed a handholding explanation before hand (the assault certainly worked without it), but certainly the end moment did.  While I vaguely remembered the referenced episode when I looked it up, that was three years ago!  A lot has happened in between, and, as far as I know, it hasn't been referenced since.

[hepcat]

I've also been disappointed with how much Olivia has been pushed into a supporting role (or at least lost in the ensemble). 

I have to agree with this.  Olivia's role in the show for the last season has been "stand in background and looked shocked whenever Peter makes a decision".