Fringe (TV Series) Forced Perspective (2012) User Reviews

The Candle that Burns Twice as Bright Burns Half as Long

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 29 March 2017]

A girl delivers a sketch to a man showing him impaled by a girder. A couple of minutes later, there is an accident in a construction site and the man is indeed impaled by a girder. The Fringe Division investigates the case and Olivia and Lincoln identifies the girl. Emily Mallum talks to them but her father Jm does not allow the conversation afraid to turn her in a Massive Dynamic's guinea pig. However Emily contacts Olivia and meets her in a park. She explains that when her head hums, she can foresee death. Further she is haunted by a vision of a pile of dead bodies. Olivia brings Emily to Walter's laboratory to help the girl and identify where the tragedy will happen. Will they succeed?

"Forced Perspective" is a tragic episode of a girl with the ability to see death. The scene of Emily hypnotized and visiting the courthouse exploded is impressive. The relationship of Olivia and Nina Sharp is intriguing. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Forced Perspective"

Fears for Olivia

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 14 November 2023]

I've never understood why people often refuse to accept help when it is offered. Some friends of mine have died when a trip to a doctor would have prevented it early on. Olivia has received a warning. When she starts with the migraines she can't admit that perhaps it may be serious. Talk about a curse. A young woman who can see the future (where a death is imminent) and not be able to stop it. She at least tries. Walter is now fully engaged when a facsimile of former wife comes to beg him to help Peter. This pulling in and not sharing pain is really sad, especially if the person has not had a history of neediness. I thought the affliction was a bit contrived and am not sure where it fits in with the over all series plot line.

This Season's Money Shot

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 28 January 2012]

As of 1-28-12 the IMDb info is not complete: Looks like Currie Graham (Of Stargate: The Ark of Truth) guest-stars as the father of a girl, Alexis Raich? as "Emily", who has an extraordinary gift, revealed in this Fringe Ep's incredibly blunt Teaser. The Procedural Case of this ep, investigating a girl who can see the future, occurs right after The Observer's Visit to Olivia in the Opera House, and so Orange 'Verse Broyles wants to overly protect her, to Olivia's chagrin- But the two things, the Observer's Visit and Emily's Talent both seem to be inextricably related.

This ep goes back to why I love this show, Walter of course explains the girl's gift in a Fringe Science way. One thing that departs Fringe from X-Files, is that each conundrum is soundly based on some science that has been at least partially proved.

What makes this Ep great is that we finally have Peter Bishop working with the Orange 'Verse Fringe Team, and so he is no longer being avoided by Walter and they are realizing that they work well together. This is the same discovery that took us the first five or six of season 1's eps to discover - That Peter and Peter Only, can speak Walter.

There is a scene, the "Money Shot" I mention - where Emily is being guided through her vision by Walter, this is one of the best effects shots I've ever seen on Network TV, it's Feature Film quality, and knowing that Fringe has had budget cuts this year, amazing that they were able to pull this off- But when it comes down to it, Fringe does not need to dazzle us with CGI shots, the story holds our interest. But I like that once in a while, we get a treat like this. So Far this year, we get the Transparent Skin of the new Shapeshifters, the "Invisible Guy" from "Wallflower", and now this. I just hope they did not blow all of their special effects budget on this one shot!

Nice (hidden) reference to Person of Interest

[interestingstuff · 14 March 2023]

This episode reminds me of Person of Interest (another J. J. Abrams production) where the machine identifies one person being part of a crime without specifying whether that person is a victim or a perpetrator and our main characters are trying to figure out which is which.

In this episode Duncan is originally identified as the person and everyone thinks he's the victim but as Peter figures out "he's not the victim, he's the perpetrator."

It was nice to hear this line that's originally associated with Person of Interest appear in another show like this without making the whole thing appear too obvious.

Two hands but nine fingers, awkward writing, cliché plot, questionable guest, empathic Olivia, unexploited potential, VFX are wicked

[igoatabase · 5/10 · 7 March 2012]

And the first misstep of the season is… The tenth episode ! In fact the pilot had already disappointed me but the other installments were so great that I was convinced the remaining ones would be in the same vein. However Forced Perspective proved that Fringe still has weaknesses that even its own writers can exploit from time to time. My first complain would be the lack of shapeshifting. I'm not sure switching between multiple story lines is efficient. Of course Olivia's migraines are connected to other events but their coverage should be more intertwined. Second the episodic plot couldn't have been more cliché. A young girl with a special ability who has to move all the time to escape evil scientists trying to experiment on her ? I understood their point was to emotionally link her to Olivia but I found some scenes quite awkward and almost forced. Third I question the casting because the guest actress wasn't creepy enough and looked just like the cute girl next door. She would have been perfect in Castle or Ghost Whisperer but not in Fringe. What saved her character were the enigmatic and freaky drawings because the way her visions was expressed was everything but believable. Fourth at least the episode succeeded in the empathy department. I really felt for Olivia and from Broyles to Peter it was obvious most people really cared. That's why they should have come up with something more original. For instance they could have turned her into the young girl she used to be when the freak of the week was featured. It would have made things way more bizarre ! Last but not least I was absolutely thrilled by the frozen explosion sequence, even if it's something we have already seen in Heroes for example, but I would definitely have traded its expensive visual effects for a better script. The Fringe that only superficially blows my mind is not the Fringe I love ! It should instead stick to its The X-Files modern approach, a deeper and more fascinating one.

Note : This review was first posted on Kritikenstein, my weblog.