On the morning of January 26th, I watched about 15 minutes of Episode 9 of Season 4 of Fringe, entitled: Enemy of My Enemy on the El Train to work. After work, I returned home, excited to watch Fringe for the first time ever on my Roku.
But it had already been removed from Hulu Plus.
Did I missing something? Am I the only one affected by this? Perhaps I am because evidently Fringe’s ratings are so horrible that it will probably be canceled after this season. Maybe I really am the only person who watches it on Hulu.
The post linked from Twitter also mentioned that it’s produced by Bryan Singer (to which I said “Who?”) who produced and directed The Usual Suspects (to which I said “Holy shxt!”). The Usual Suspects was my favorite movie for at least 4 years, and even now, the only movies I can think of that I like more are all Christopher Nolan’s. Anyway, Singer also wrote and produced X-Men: First Class (which I will watch as soon as they get it on Netflix), wrote, produced, and directed Superman Returns (overrated but good), and wrote, produced, and directed X2 (awesome).
The fact that H+ is a web series gives me hope that unlike TV shows with streaming episodes, they’ll actually leave the entire series up so that people can start watching it any time and go all the way up to the current episode.
It doesn’t hurt that they have Caitriona Balfe (once again, “Who?”) playing someone in the show ’cause…
It doesn’t look like there’s a release date yet (and they could have picked a more Googleable name, particularly for a web-only show), but I Liked them on Facebook, so hopefully that’ll let me know when it starts. Also of note, the Facebook page calls it H+: The Digital Series so as to distinguish it from a “web series” and to try to avoid the stigma that comes with being labeled as such. That said, the preview above does make it look like a much higher quality production than your typical web series, and I would say it looks like it has better production values than most regular broadcast/cable/satellite-delivered TV shows, as well as many big budget movies.
Time to catch up now! I’ve got three episode on Hulu that I’m planning to watch today! I am looking forward to seeing the further development of Anna Torv’s acting skills (because come on, you have to admit, she struggles a bit with any sort of deep emotion. She certainly excels at being geek eye candy, though, right?). I am also interested in Joshua Jackson’s transformation into the new George Clooney (not my words! A friend – who is a girl – actually said that. I know, right? I mean, I have a total man crush on J-Jax, but Clooney? We’ll see…) You can tell I’m excited because of all the random parentheticals and use of pop culture blog like abbreviations!
(Or, the technologist in me wonders, can Android and Sprint save Fringe?)
The answer, were I to answer the question, is of course: Yes. But then, if I were answering this particular question, I wouldn’t actually be asking this particular question, because the question of Fringe being canceled would not even exist. But the real answer? Well, despite the Friday Night Death Knell, I’ve noted a few little plugs (okay, maybe they’re more like hair plugs that you can’t really help but notice and just overlook because you know you’re not supposed to notice) in some recent episodes of Fringe.
Obviously I hope that these little bits ‘o sponsorship from Sprint are bringing in enough money to continue production of Fringe, but the realist in me knows that it’s probably not. Fringe doesn’t strike me as a “cheap” show to make (what with all the special effects and large supporting cast). You would think at this point that JJ Abrams could pretty much do whatever he wants, but even a man with his record is constrained by the limits of the industry.
I would try to get involved in some sort of Save Fringe campaign (I’m sure there’s already at least one), but I’m not sure that’s ever actually worked (at least not for two of the best shows ever: Firefly and Arrested Development), so I’m going to devote my time instead to just blogging about lamenting it I guess.
I just saw today that Fringe has been moved to Fridays when it returns from the holiday break. Sound the Death Knell.
Usually I watch Fringe on Hulu, so I don’t really know what day it’s on, but I happen to know that FOX also had Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse on Fridays, and both of those were cut off after their second season just when they were starting to find their groove. I’d say that Fringe also found it’s groove in the second season, and while it was allowed to continue into a third, the ratings on Wikipedia indicate its only got half as many viewers this season as it did in the first season. I’m afraid in the land of non-pay TV, that means it’s dunzo. Unfortunately for me, TV By The Numbers agrees that TV shows on Fridays are more like to be canceled (and they give Fringe two frowny faces with respect to being canceled).
I guess on the bright side, it means I’ll have an extra 45 minutes of writing time per week.
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Fanatical Pupil.
In the near future, a government intelligence agent uses her position within The Agency to search for her brother while also fighting an organization whose technology is years ahead of anyone else on Earth.
