This is a thread about the TV show Fringe.
I admit I come into this topic with a strong bias. I'd been told by a couple of people I vaugley respect that it was worth watching, but then something happened. Something that would ruin any chance I had of enjoying this show.
The show appears to be about how science is going to kill us all. Instead of worrying about humanistic idealism based applications of reality, the show seems to blame science. Not specific scientists or a specific avenue of science, but science. There's a pattern. And no-one ever bothers telling us why there's something called The Pattern (capitals seem important here) or why the things that are bad are part of The Pattern, or why the things discovered by clear scientific demonstration with unquestionable evidence in this fictional universe aren't utilised by the scientific community within the fictional world...
Anyway. The pilot is the most scientific part of the series. Sure, it involves a chemical agent (couln't possibly be biological considering the rate it works at) that somehow manages to multiply within the blood of a single human being and then somehow becomes airborne and manages to also replicate itself within others and spread at what could only be considered an insane rate, and later there's a semi-psychich mind/dream meld in hippie isolation tanks (which for some reason are represented as a scientific standard)...
Yeah. Anyway. That's the most scientific episode. Which explains just how scientific it it.
I want to clarify here for people who haven't seen this series. This wouldn't stick in my craw if they didn't use the words science, scientific and scientists constantly. They use the words in every episode many, many times to explain things with analogies that ignore anything moderately scientific.
So... I think I have no chance of enjoying this show. This is in large part due to an event in my life. I like things that are unrealistic on TV and in movies, so long as they work within the fictional construct they've created. This doesn't. And. Well. There's a reason why it speaks to me so much in this case.
It was a Romanian woman. I'm an Aussie mobile computer repairer by trade. I anwer calls and fix computer problems. It's not a job that requires smarts, but it pays well and allows me to be lazy, my natural state. So I had a call-out. To visit a lady with a strong aspect about some kind of computer problem. She demanded I sit on the couch and have a hot chocolate - something I try to avoid 'cause as a computer repairer I have enough working against me fitness wise. But she wouldn't take no for an answer.
After clearly expressing her opinion of me depended on accepting the hot chocolate and explaining it was good for me, I submitted. Why upset the client? She was happy, and gave me the hot chocolate. After talking to me about heyzeus knows what for 10 minutes she explained her special secret that she alone knew to making hot chocolate - Nescafe in the green bottle, 'cause of the anti-oxidants, and Cadbury Drinking Chocolate. Oh yes, quite the standardised everyone-uses-it secret. And yes, it was technically a mocha, but she called it a hot chocolate.
After this the conversation continued... well, the pontificatiion by the Romanian lady. Several times the concept of Killer Brains (people with evil brains, who can kill you was the general meaning I was getting) was brought up. Around this time the idea of Fringe being reality surfaced. I knew of it, but had never seen it at that point. I was told that planes would go overhead and we'd all go to sleep (haven't seen an ep of Fringe where this happens yet, but that was certinaly what she was saying). I expressed that maybe the show was fictional - to be asked that how did I not know about this show that was true. She made the point that Fringe was the new Jules Verne - since someone had predicted something, all things predicted will come to pass. That the Killer Brains (at this point clearly Science Brains) might surround you and turn your brain Killer came up several times.
About 20-25 minutes in to being polite and not even being introduced to the computer I was called out to fix, I asked what I could help her to fix(breaking the random killer-brain related conversation). She had no computer problems. She was talking to me to ensure I didn't have a Killer Brain. If I had a Killler Brain, I couldn't repair her computer. You have to know your doctor, make sure they don't have Killer Brain, before you get them to advise you on medical issues. Ergo she needed to make sure she knew me, to make sure I didn't have a Killer Brain, to make sure I gave good computer advice.
At this point I was a wee bit worried. I hadn't wanted a hot chocolate, but she had demanded it. She then started talking to me about her plants, shocked that I didn't know them by name, and started kissing their flowers. I was a little worried about maybe some extra non-Nescafe non-Cadbury additives to my drink. Not Killer Brain paranoid about it, but slightly worried.
I excused myself as rudely as I possibly could. It involved me saying repeatedly I was leaving, and normally I charge by the hour. The logic being if I could be impolite enough she wouldn't call me back when she actually had a computer problem to fix.
So. This is why I struggle to enjoy Fringe.
How do people who haven't had conversations with killer brain magical thinkers feel about it?
I admit I come into this topic with a strong bias. I'd been told by a couple of people I vaugley respect that it was worth watching, but then something happened. Something that would ruin any chance I had of enjoying this show.
The show appears to be about how science is going to kill us all. Instead of worrying about humanistic idealism based applications of reality, the show seems to blame science. Not specific scientists or a specific avenue of science, but science. There's a pattern. And no-one ever bothers telling us why there's something called The Pattern (capitals seem important here) or why the things that are bad are part of The Pattern, or why the things discovered by clear scientific demonstration with unquestionable evidence in this fictional universe aren't utilised by the scientific community within the fictional world...
Anyway. The pilot is the most scientific part of the series. Sure, it involves a chemical agent (couln't possibly be biological considering the rate it works at) that somehow manages to multiply within the blood of a single human being and then somehow becomes airborne and manages to also replicate itself within others and spread at what could only be considered an insane rate, and later there's a semi-psychich mind/dream meld in hippie isolation tanks (which for some reason are represented as a scientific standard)...
Yeah. Anyway. That's the most scientific episode. Which explains just how scientific it it.
I want to clarify here for people who haven't seen this series. This wouldn't stick in my craw if they didn't use the words science, scientific and scientists constantly. They use the words in every episode many, many times to explain things with analogies that ignore anything moderately scientific.
So... I think I have no chance of enjoying this show. This is in large part due to an event in my life. I like things that are unrealistic on TV and in movies, so long as they work within the fictional construct they've created. This doesn't. And. Well. There's a reason why it speaks to me so much in this case.
It was a Romanian woman. I'm an Aussie mobile computer repairer by trade. I anwer calls and fix computer problems. It's not a job that requires smarts, but it pays well and allows me to be lazy, my natural state. So I had a call-out. To visit a lady with a strong aspect about some kind of computer problem. She demanded I sit on the couch and have a hot chocolate - something I try to avoid 'cause as a computer repairer I have enough working against me fitness wise. But she wouldn't take no for an answer.
After clearly expressing her opinion of me depended on accepting the hot chocolate and explaining it was good for me, I submitted. Why upset the client? She was happy, and gave me the hot chocolate. After talking to me about heyzeus knows what for 10 minutes she explained her special secret that she alone knew to making hot chocolate - Nescafe in the green bottle, 'cause of the anti-oxidants, and Cadbury Drinking Chocolate. Oh yes, quite the standardised everyone-uses-it secret. And yes, it was technically a mocha, but she called it a hot chocolate.
After this the conversation continued... well, the pontificatiion by the Romanian lady. Several times the concept of Killer Brains (people with evil brains, who can kill you was the general meaning I was getting) was brought up. Around this time the idea of Fringe being reality surfaced. I knew of it, but had never seen it at that point. I was told that planes would go overhead and we'd all go to sleep (haven't seen an ep of Fringe where this happens yet, but that was certinaly what she was saying). I expressed that maybe the show was fictional - to be asked that how did I not know about this show that was true. She made the point that Fringe was the new Jules Verne - since someone had predicted something, all things predicted will come to pass. That the Killer Brains (at this point clearly Science Brains) might surround you and turn your brain Killer came up several times.
About 20-25 minutes in to being polite and not even being introduced to the computer I was called out to fix, I asked what I could help her to fix(breaking the random killer-brain related conversation). She had no computer problems. She was talking to me to ensure I didn't have a Killer Brain. If I had a Killler Brain, I couldn't repair her computer. You have to know your doctor, make sure they don't have Killer Brain, before you get them to advise you on medical issues. Ergo she needed to make sure she knew me, to make sure I didn't have a Killer Brain, to make sure I gave good computer advice.
At this point I was a wee bit worried. I hadn't wanted a hot chocolate, but she had demanded it. She then started talking to me about her plants, shocked that I didn't know them by name, and started kissing their flowers. I was a little worried about maybe some extra non-Nescafe non-Cadbury additives to my drink. Not Killer Brain paranoid about it, but slightly worried.
I excused myself as rudely as I possibly could. It involved me saying repeatedly I was leaving, and normally I charge by the hour. The logic being if I could be impolite enough she wouldn't call me back when she actually had a computer problem to fix.
So. This is why I struggle to enjoy Fringe.
How do people who haven't had conversations with killer brain magical thinkers feel about it?