FOX's Fringe depicts an underground club scene that is not so underground...

April 30, 11:11 AMAtlanta Underground Club Scene ExaminerCasey Morris

Previous Next

1 comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Atlanta Underground Club Scene Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Fringe, FOX Tuesdays 9 eastern

I'll admit it.  I'm a huge fan of J.J. Abrams work.

For me, it all started with Cloverfield.  I hadn't been interested in "Lost" because I heard that the writers were all over the place, and that it was a show written purely to screw with the audiences' heads.  While I normally love shows that make you an active viewer, causing you to think about everything that is going on and really pay attention to the details, I didn't want to watch a show that was using that aspect as a gimmick.

I thought Cloverfield was brilliant.  Many people will disagree with me on this, but then again I thought Wanted was one of the stupidest movies to have ever been made, and most people I have talked to love that movie.  Cloverfield was suspenseful, funny, and at the heart of it, romantic.  Some people just can't get over the "shaky hand cam", but that added another interesting element.  Since the character holding the camera was an amateur, he would put the camera down but it would still be rolling, and the camera angle would be very interesting, or focus on an important evironmental detail that would not be appropriate to focus on in normal camera work because it is away from the action.  I digress.

Fast forward to the summer of last year.  Network promos start coming on FOX announcing J.J. Abrams newest show, "Fringe".  There was never any doubt in my mind that I was going to watch it.  Admittedly, after the first episode I was kind of stunned, and not just by the 3-D floating establishing titles, which in my opinion are somewhat funny as it seems to be a bit of a farce on the common film element, but also by the concept of the show itself.  It is a sci-fi crime drama; "X-files" meets "CSI", and it's brilliant.

The primary cast consists of Anna Torv, the relatively unknown Australian actress, John Noble, a better known Australian actor (I loved him as Lord Denethor in Lord of the Rings:  Return of the King), and Joshua Jackson ("Dawnson's Creek", Cruel Intentions).  The cast works amazingly well together, and I especially love the banter between Walter and Peter (Noble and Jackson).  If you haven't seen it yet, you're missing out!  It comes on FOX Tuesdays at 9pm.  You can also watch full episodes online at fox.com

Now, for the real reason I am writing this blog:  this week's episode.  If you haven't seen this show, or this week's episode, there are SPOILERS!  Ye be warned!

This week's episode proved to be interesting right from the beginning.  The show starts with a guy dressing in all black and listening to Bauhaus "Bella Lugosi is Dead".  I immediately think, okay, they want the audience to think he is goth.  There is nothing "goth" about this character, other than he is dressed in all black and listening to Bauhaus.  He is wearing a nice button up shirt and pants and looks like a Banana Republic model.  Shots of his apartment reveal some vague elements of goth:  black furniture, a fleur de lis bed frame, but nothing that couldn't be seen in any mainstream condo.

In the next scene he goes out to a club.  There is an upwards-pointing pentagram on the door of the club.  I suppose mainstream audiences might not know the difference between upwards and downwards pentagrams, but if the writers were trying to make this guy seem hardcore and like he was going to a really underground club, the pentagram should have been downwards-pointing.  Upwards is a friendly Wiccan symbol of faith, and downwards symbolizes satanism.  Quite an oversight I think.

Scene 2:  Inside the club.  The music is now She Wants Revenge "Tear You Apart".  Great song, and it could easily be played in an underground club.  But the people in the club were all completely mainstream looking and dancing like they would at a regular club.  Could they have not gotten at least a few goth extras to pepper in the crowd?  How is this supposed to be an underground club?

Later in the show, the characters return to the club because they are tracking a woman who is infected with a virus that makes her almost vampiric.  She has bright blue vampire eyes, and she is wearing a hot little black dress with cut-out shoulders.  Now with that look she could definitely fit in at an underground club!  She must kill her victims and drink their spinal fluid in order to stay alive.  Sweet!

The song playing at the club this time is a newer Nine Inch Nails track, "Discipline".  NIN is an underground DJ staple, but newer tracks aren't as popular.  The next song on the "DJs set list" was "Burning Up" by Ladytron.  Now this song was completely believable and could easily be played on any given club night here in Atlanta.

So, they got the music right, but the club-goers and the club itself left much to be desired.  I'll take the cheesy Matrix versions of underground clubs over the half-arsed version on "Fringe"!

Overall, "Fringe" is still a brilliant show, and I am definitely hooked and will continue to tune in every week.  A lot of my favorite shows will make mistakes here and there, like when on "Terminator:  The Sarah Connor Chronicles", Sarah referred to midnight as the witching hour, when of course it's actually 3am.  As a video producer and wannabe TV writer/producer, these mistakes really bug me.  But you have to look at the big picture and realize these are still really good shows.

Notes:  After I fell in love with "Fringe", I decided to go back and watch "Lost".  I am totally hooked!  J.J. Abrams is just brilliant.  And I can't wait for Star Trek on May 8!