8.5 | / 10 |
Users | 4.8 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.1 |
Fringe revolves around three unlikely colleagues – a beautiful, young and determined FBI agent (Anna Torv), a brilliant but off-the-wall scientist (John Noble), and his sardonic, roguish son (Joshua Jackson) – who team up to investigate a series of peculiar deaths and disasters known as “The Pattern.” The trio suspects that someone is using the world as a laboratory. And many of the clues lead them to Massive Dynamic, a shadowy global corporation that may be more powerful than any nation.
Starring: Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, John Noble, Jasika Nicole, Lance ReddickSci-Fi | 100% |
Mystery | 48% |
Thriller | 34% |
Supernatural | 29% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Four-disc set (4 BDs)
Bonus View (PiP)
BD-Live
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Updated (11/15): My review of Fringe's third season was written in August of 2011. I'm currently adding this brief introductory update in November, after watching the first six episodes of Season Four. While the body of my third season review remains unaltered, I am officially a full-fledged Fringe fan once again. Season Four not only addresses the vast majority of issues I had with the final episodes of Season Three, it's turning out to be one of the best of the series. So keep that in mind as you proceed below. I still stand by many of the points I originally made, but my analysis of the last four episodes is, to cut to the chase, shortsighted. If you feel the same frustration and disappointment I did at the end of Season Three, hold onto hope. Season Four justifies almost every climactic twist, turn and disappearance made in those last four episodes, and makes Season Three a more satisfying entry in the saga than I initially thought. I'm still convinced Fox did the series a great disservice, but that'll teach me to doubt the know-how and quick-thinking of the Fringe showrunners...
Fringe had me. It had me. After two daring seasons, the J.J. Abrams-born series was nipping at The X-Files' heels, juggling alternate universes with Trekish ease, and filling the hole Lost left in my heart. And then -- pffft -- just like that, the thrill was gone. The last five minutes of Season Three were, as far as I'm concerned, the most infuriating five minutes of television in recent memory. I wasn't shocked, I was outraged. I wasn't intrigued, I was baffled. I wasn't hungry for Season Four, I wanted to delete the entire series from my TiVo queue. I'm sure some fans got a kick out of the last-minute game-changer, but it didn't drop my jaw, it simply dropped the ball... along with logic, plausibility and good sense, even by Fringe standards. (And that's saying a lot.) The problem didn't start there, though. Despite a string of bold twists and a heap of terrific episodes, the third season began unraveling from, well, the beginning. But the problem didn't start there either. No, it started in the Fox boardroom; festered as, week after week, the series was threatened with cancellation; worsened once the series was unceremoniously moved to the dreaded Friday Night Death Slot; and metastasized when, after months of shoulder shrugging, the powers-that-be still couldn't decide whether to drop the ax or give Fringe a reprieve. Showrunners Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman, in turn, were stuck in the worst of creative corners, unsure as to whether they should answer looming questions and bring their saga to a satisfying close or raise new questions and set the stage for another season. Make no mistake: Fox may have spared Fringe's life at the eleventh hour, but, creatively, the network put a bullet in the series long before that.
"If you could get me out of here... I could get myself home."
Like The Complete Second Season, Warner has spread The Complete Third Season's twenty-two episodes across four BD-50 discs. It isn't HBO-roomy, mind you, but it'll certainly do. Backed by a capable, altogether resourceful 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer, Fringe's latest outing hits the ground running. Chilly but lifelike colors, striking primaries, natural skintones and satisfying black levels make their presence known from the get-go, contrast is strong and fairly consistent, and detail is quite impressive. While closeups will win the most attention -- be it by way of Broyles' pores, Sam's tangled beard, Olivia and Fauxlivia's dueling hair, the lint on Walter's jackets, the seared skin peeling at the edges of Lincoln's burns, or the stomach-turning contents of whatever sludge happens to be seeping out of a corpse -- fine textures are well-resolved on the whole, edge definition is nice and clean, and delineation is suitably revealing (or suitably secretive, as is often case). A soft shot here, a soft shot there, sure. ("Subject 13," set in the '80s, is extremely soft, hazy even, but only by intention.) Nothing so distracting, though, that it spoils the proceedings. That said, the faint, film-like grain that hangs over the image spikes wildly on occasion, minor artifacting wavers into existence in a few scenes, and slight banding appears as well. Fortunately, none of it amounts to a deal-breaker or, really, much of a distraction. (Most people won't even notice.) Significant macroblocking, aliasing, ringing and other nuisances aren't a factor, and the intermittent eyesores that creep in are gone before they cause any serious problems. As it stands, The Complete Third Season's high-def presentation is comparable to its Second Season predecessor, and that shouldn't worry anyone.
What's this? Doth my eyes deceive me? No!? Fringe: The Complete Third Season arrives on This Side and the Other with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track; an exciting development that marks a big change in Warner's upcoming television releases. (The first season of Nikita, the second season of Vampire Diaries and, joy of joys, the sixth season of Supernatural are also set to offer lossless audio.) And it's a change Fringe takes full advantage of. Dialogue is nicely centered and perfectly intelligible, crowd chatter and panicked screams swell convincingly in the rear speakers, and the most subtle sound effects -- the slick schlerk shirk schrick of a knife cutting through a brain, the squishy squelch squerch scoosh of an autopsy, or the faint shzzz pssst szztt of a rift between universes -- are exacting and, when called upon, utterly nauseating. But that's not all, Fringe fanatics. Directionality is precise, ambience is engaging, acoustics are convincing and the soundfield is, as you may have already gathered, wonderfully immersive. Cars hurtle past as Henry does his best to help the strange woman in his cab. Olivia's labored breaths rise and fall as she races to escape Walternate's labs. The warble that fills the room as a quantum entanglement wreaks havoc. And it all comes complete with weighty, floor-thrumming LFE output that grants every explosion, implosion, gunshot and portal real authority in the mix. Ultimately, my enthusiasm may have tapped my score from a 4.5 to a 5.0 -- it's hard to be completely objective when I've been writing about Warner's use of lossy audio for four years now -- but I can live with a little bit of subjectivity every now and then. Regardless, fans will be thrilled with the results.
The 4-disc Blu-ray release of Fringe: The Complete Third Season isn't exhaustive -- two audio commentaries and an hour of extras doesn't amount to much -- but it does feature a first for a Warner television release: a Maximum Episode Mode Picture-in-Picture experience. Sure, it's only available for one episode, but if future Warner releases follow suit (particularly if more episodes are explored per season), TV fans are in for a real treat.
In an alternate universe, I loved every minute of Fringe's third season. On the Other Side, I'm penning an entirely different review. But here, in the good ol' U.S. of Prime, Season Three started strong, fizzled as it neared its endgame and finally deflated with a pffft. I hope Season Four puts things in perspective -- I hope it inspires me to update my impressions in light of some brilliant revelation or series-defining twist -- but, at this point, it would take a miracle. (Pinkner and Wyman have worked plenty of miracles in the past, though, so I'm not quite ready to give up.) Fortunately, the 4-disc Blu-ray release of The Complete Third Season isn't disappointing at all. A fuller selection of special features would have been more ideal, but Warner's excellent video transfer and exceptional DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track more than make up for it.
2008-2009
2009-2010
2010-2011
2011-2012
with Comic Book
2011-2012
2012-2013
2010
1997
2016
2009-2010
Special Edition
1951
2008
2008
2014
2010
2011
2017
2011
The Final Season
2010
2009
The George Lucas Director's Cut
1971
1996
2017
2007
2018
1984