There's some pretty cool stuff going on when Fringe hits its last episode of February. "Jacksonville" will be the last episode for a few weeks until Fringe resumes its run after FOX airs the midseason Past Life. I suppose that FOX hasn't considered that erratic scheduling may be the cause for Fringe's relatively low viewership.
But regardless, it'll be going out with a bang with episode 2.14, "Jacksonville." No, that doesn't mean that the episode revolves around star Joshua Jackson. Instead, it means that the gang (Walter, Peter, and Olivia, of course) are going to be taking a trip down Florida way. Why? Because that's where Olivia grew up. And more importantly, it's where she was experimented on with Cortexiophan, a mind-altering drug that is having still-unrealized effects on Olivia (it has do with the alternate dimension). It's sure to be a mythology-laden outing.
Here's the press release for the episode.
TWO WORLDS COLLIDE WITH DISASTROUS RESULTS ON THE WINTER FINALE OF “FRINGE” THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, ON FOX
After a violent tremor shakes a Manhattan office building to its core, leaving only one survivor who leads the Fringe Team to believe he is not from this reality. Walter surmises that what shook the building was not geologic, but rather something discovered by him and William Bell many years ago. With another catastrophe imminent, the team races to Jacksonville, the site of Walter and William’s experiments, forcing Olivia to face her mysterious past in an effort to save hundreds of people from certain death in the all-new “Jacksonville” winter finale episode of FRINGE airing Thursday, Feb. 4 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (FR-214) (TV-14 V)
Cast: Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham; Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop; John Noble as Walter Bishop; Lance Reddick as Phillip Broyles;Blair Brown as Nina Sharp; Jasika Nicole as Astrid Farnsworth
And, of course, the promised promotional photos. All photos are, of course, copyrighted to FOX.
I think the low viewership has to do with the fundamental change in the show. Season 1, and the beginning of season 2, there was a momentum of the unknown. Every show they were chasing "the pattern". We had Massive Dynamics and the Observers in most episodes. We had the ventures to the other side. The second half of season 2 has been straight out of the X-Files, only the characters are different. They moved production to Vancouver, so it has that same dark, dreary, atmosphere, and the frequent wet, and foggy appearance.But more than that I think is the stand alone episodes that do nothing to continue the saga. As a scifi critic, I usually despise the ongoing soap opera theme, requiring me to watch every episode and detail to follow along. However, in this case I think the stand alone episodes are not doing much help for keeping the show alive.I agree the "erratic scheduling may be the cause for Fringe's relatively low viewership", pointing directly to the Monday January 11th broadcast, outside the regular Thursday night slot. It wasn't well publicized and to add insult to injury, it was a lost episode from season 1 with Charlie (he and his doppelgangers character from the alternate universe are NOW dead).There's slim pickins' in the scifi TV world right now, besides Fringe. There's FlashForward that is in danger of being cancelled. Caprica made its television debut last night; it was on DVD and the syfy.com site for months. And I wouldn't count on Stargate: Universe to be around more than another season or two, it just doesn't do it for me.