Posts tagged #Fringe

GHOSTWOOD 034: "Twin Peaks in Pop Culture" is Up!


"That's right!  I'm the one."
"I'm talking to Audrey."
"I've got pictures, see?  Here's me about to kill her.  Here's me killing her.  Here's me wrapping her in plastic."
-- Leo "The Murderer of Laura Palmer" Johnson (Chris Farley) and Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), Saturday Night Live: "Twin Peaks" 

It is happening again...My co-host with the most Xan Sprouse and I are back with a new episode of Ghostwood: The Twin Peaks Podcast!  This time, we discuss the 1990 Saturday Night Live sketch parody of Twin Peaks featuring host Kyle MacLachlan, along with the various Twin Peaks parody sketches, homages and references from pop culture!

LET'S ROCK!

In our latest episode, Xan and I discuss things like creating bonus content for our Patreon subscribers, the third great age of Saturday Night Live, Leo being the Chad of his day, Kyle MacLachlan's SNL host monologue, Xan finally becoming a Princess Bride fan, the various home video releases of Twin Peaks and Star Wars, Xan's crush on Chris Farley, Victoria Jackson's homage to Sherilyn Fenn's cherry stem knot, Mike Myers as the Little Man from Another Place, Northern Exposure's "Russian Flu" and the show as a quirky TV replacement for Twin Peaks, Xan's crush on Chris-in-the-Morning, Cookie Monster and Sesame Street's "Twin Beaks", Darkwing Duck's "Twin Beaks", The Simpsons episodes "Who Shot Mr. Burns (Part Two)" and "Lisa's Sax", the Fringe episodes "Northwest Passage", "The Firefly" and "Immortality", Fringe and Twin Peaks sharing the same TV universe, the Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated episodes "Stand and Deliver" and "Nightmare in Red", the movie Living in Oblivion, Peter Dinklage, Kyle MacLachlan on Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Late, Late Show with James Corden, the Simpsons "Steamed Hams" parody, and more!

If you'd like to check out our latest episode, you can find us on...

iTunes -- RIGHT HERE
Direct MP3 downloads/Libsyn -- RIGHT HERE
YouTube -- RIGHT HERE
Ghostwood's Facebook page
Ghostwood's Twitter account

Be sure to come back in two weeks as Xan and I attempt our first commentary episode as we watch "Traces to Nowhere", the second episode from Twin Peaks Season One!  Look for more of Ghostwood: The Twin Peaks Podcast on iTunes, YouTube, Libsyn, and the official Southgate Media Group website!

Saying Goodbye to Five Years of FRINGE


After five seasons and 100 episodes, it's time to finish up your last strawberry milkshake.

On September 9, 2008, 9.13 million viewers and fans of executive producer J.J. Abrams' previous television series Alias and Lost tuned in to see Fringe, his major debut into the world of science fiction.  This latest series would focus on the members of a special division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation as they involve themselves in mysteries of the strange, disturbing and unexplainable.

Sound familiar?  It should, considering the Fox network aired nine seasons of a little show called The X-Files that ended just six years earlier.  Fringe's first season was essentially an updated version of The X-Files that struggled to distinguish itself apart from introducing its own mythological elements such as rogue scientist David Robert Jones, Olivia Dunham's Cortexiphan treatments as a child test subject, and ultimately, the big revelation that Dr. Walter Bishop's son Peter actually died as a child.

About one-third through Season 2, Fringe finally found its voice in the game-changing episode "August."  The show's mythos expanded beyond X-Files mysteries with the introduction of the Observers, mysterious time-travelers that play a huge role on Season 5, and the concept of parallel universes.  In addition, Peter learned that Walter brought him over the parallel Earth and kept him as a replacement for his deceased son.

Season 3 fully embraced the parallel Earth concept, with Walter's dark doppelgänger "The Walternate" and a more energetic and less serious version of Olivia nicknamed "Fauxlivia." The season jumps back and forth between the two Earths, even having special opening credits for the episodes set on the alternate Earth.  As part of Walternate's schemes, Fauxlivia swaps places with Olivia and engages in a relationship with Peter, ultimately having his son Henry.  Peter ends up becoming part of a huge, intricate machine that creates a bridge between the two universes but erases Peter from reality in the process.

As a result, the show's fourth season began with an alternate timeline where Peter did not exist.  This creates opportunities to explore past stories differently until Peter finally is brought back and he and Olivia rekindle their romance.  Late in the season, another game-changing episode "Letters of Transit" introduces the dystopian world of 2036 and Peter and Olivia's daughter Henrietta (Etta).

That episode becomes the basis of Fringe's final season, with the series and characters jumping ahead to 2036 with Walter, Peter, Olivia and Astrid Farnsworth emerging from being sealed in amber in 2015 shortly after the Observers take over Earth in an event known as "The Purge."  Etta is killed by the Observers, Peter almost becomes an Observer in a quest for vengeance, and a young Observer child named Michael is key to Walter's plan to defeat the Observers once and for all.

Over the course of the entire series, the show becomes increasingly experimental with its format.  Glyph codes are featured in images during cuts to commercial breaks.  Some episodes are set during events in the 1980s with their own '80s-style opening credits and new wave theme music.  One episode is set in a noirish detective story from the 1940s, while another features CGI animated versions of the characters, and a third has an homage to Monty Python.  One standout moment even linked the show to the world of Twin Peaks

Fringe became one of the most innovative and hard science fiction series ever to air on television, but gradually declined in the ratings until being being consigned to Fox's dreaded Friday night "Death Slot."  However, the series persevered and managed to survive just long enough to reach the magic number of 100 episodes for syndication, debuting in rerun goodness last fall on the Science Channel.

My wife Lori and I greatly enjoyed our time together watching Fringe and I take some small pride in being able to convert my 70+-year-old parents into regular viewers as well.  We've shared a number of conversations about the series about Saturday breakfasts together and that's something I'll always cherish as time goes on. 

So thanks for five great years, Fringe.  Here's hoping tonight's final two episodes give you the sendoff you so definitely deserve...although, I wouldn't say no to a movie...

Posted on January 18, 2013 .

Your 2013 Geek Movie and TV Calendar


Once again, the new year brings us closer to The Films and TV Shows You've Been Dying to See for Like Forever.  If you enjoy sci-fi, fantasy and comic book based entertainment as I do, you already have several must-see flicks and television programs in the pipeline for 2013.  With that in mind, I thought I'd go ahead and give a helpful chronological rundown of which geek movie and TV goodness arrives when.  Some of these films will be worth the long wait, others you wouldn't watch even if they were free on cable, but each have their audiences and key target demographics.  Start planning your work vacation/sick/personal days accordingly.

JANUARY

5 - Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Young Justice (TV)
6 - Downton Abbey (TV)
11 - Fringe (TV)
14 - Continuum (TV)
16 - Arrow (TV)
17 - Archer (TV)
19 - Ripper Street (TV)

FEBRUARY

6 - Spies of Warsaw (TV)
7 - Community (TV)
10 - The Walking Dead (TV)
14 - A Good Day to Die Hard (Movie)

MARCH

29 - G.I. Joe: Retaliation (Movie)
31 - Game of Thrones (TV)

APRIL

Spring 2013 - Doctor Who, Hannibal (TV)
5 - Jurassic Park 3D (Movie)
19 - Oblivion (Movie)

MAY

3 - Iron Man 3 (Movie)
17 - Star Trek Into Darkness (Movie)

JUNE

June 2013 - True Blood (TV)
14 - Man of Steel (Movie)
21 - Monsters University, World War Z (Movies)
28 - Kick-Ass 2 (Movie)

JULY

3 - Despicable Me 2, The Lone Ranger (Movies)
12 - Pacific Rim (Movie)
26 - The Wolverine (Movie)

AUGUST

2 - RED 2, 300: Rise of an Empire (Movies)
9 - Elysium (Movie)

SEPTEMBER

20 - Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones 3D (Movie)
Fall 2013 - Boardwalk Empire, S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)

OCTOBER

October 2013 - American Horror Story (TV)
4 - Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith 3D (Movies)
25 - The World's End (Movie)

NOVEMBER

November 2013 - An Adventure in Space and Time (TV)
1 - Ender's Game (Movie)
8 - Thor: The Dark World (Movie)
22 - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Movie)
23 - Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special (TV)

DECEMBER

13 - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Movie)
25 - 47 Ronin (Movie)

FRINGE Promises Series Finale Fans Deserve


You'd better enjoy those strawberry milkshakes while you can, Fringe fans.  The Fox science-fiction TV series is about to begin its fifth and final 13-episode season, jumping ahead to the year 2036, where the Observers have taken over Earth and the planet's only hope lies in the former members of Fringe Division (of course).

In a recent interview on TV Guide, showrunner J.H. Wyman discussed how Season 5 will pay off for longtime fans and moving the series forward to the world of 2036, last seen in the Season 4 episode "Letters of Transit."  He remarked that this episode was similiar to a backdoor series pilot, adding, "We had talked about this being a possibility.  We wanted to see how people would react to it and if they would engage with it."

Season 5's main objective, according to Wyman, is to pay off on the relationships of the show's characters.  "We've always said the show is this great family drama that is masquerading as this science-fiction show," he said. "For me, [Season 5] is a metaphor for how difficult it is to have a family in this day in age."

Concerning fans getting proper closure on the series' intricate mythology, Wyman remarked, "Another part of the challenge was to bring back things that you've forgotten about, some things maybe you haven't forgotten about, recontextualize them and make the series make sense, and that was a very big part of what I was after," he said.  "There's going to be a lot of those [moments] and one specifically that's going to be very impactful, I hope."

"I truly believe that the show has a natural end," he said.  "I want to see [fans] get what they deserve to get...I want to feel like what they get has been earned."

Executive Producer J.J. Abrams also weighed in by way of a pre-taped video.  "Fringe is a show that I'm enormously proud to be associated with," he said.  "Fox has been unbelievable, going far beyond any expectations allowing the show to be on the air.  Fringe has always been true to its name -- a little more of an outside-the-box series.  [Wyman] has come up with some remarkable stuff, and I think this is going to be far and away the best season yet."

Fringe Season 5 is scheduled to begin on September 28, 2012 at 9 p.m. EST.
Posted on July 25, 2012 .

FRINGE's Alternate Earth is a World Without Batman


As if things weren't already bizarre on Fringe's alternate Earth -- the Dodgers are still in Brooklyn instead of moving to Los Angeles, Back to the Future starred Eric Stoltz instead of Michael J. Fox, Berkeley Breathed's comic strip character Opus is a peahen instead of a penguin -- now comes the disturbing revelation that DC Comics character Batman doesn't exist in this strange parallel world.

In tonight's episode, "Everything in Its Right Place," written by J.R. Orci, Matt Pitts and David Fury, FBI agent Lincoln Lee travels to the alternate Earth and assists his Fringe Division counterpart Captain Lee and Olivia Dunham with a mysterious vigilante case where criminals have gone missing, junkies have vanished, and victims have called in claiming that their assailants were attacked mid-crime.

"Maybe Batman's moved to the Bronx," jokes Agent Lee, causing the puzzled alternate Olivia to ask what a Batman is.  "The Caped Crusader, The Dark Knight..." explains Agent Lee, "...Billionaire playboy puts on a cape to clean up the streets of Gotham?"

"Oh, you mean M.A.N.T.I.S.," replies Captain Lee, referring to the short-lived FOX TV series starring Carl Lumbly that aired from August 1994 to March 1995.  Like Batman, M.A.N.T.I.S. (short for Mechanically Augmented Neuro Transmitter Interception System) was a superhero vigilante that used a vast array of technology to fight crime, but he wore a powered exoskeleton that allowed his paralyzed body to walk and also gave him other superhuman abilities.

Agent Lee, however, isn't impressed.  "Seriously?  Your superhero is an insect?"

"Oh, what," counters the alternate Olivia, "because nothing says badass like a flying rat?"

If you'd like to check out the scene, you can watch it below thanks to the kindness of YouTube user LovecraftsSon...

Posted on April 7, 2012 .

FRINGE Recaps for Next Week's Return


Still not on board the Fringe goodness train?  Well, here's your chance to get quickly caught up on what you've been missing.

Fox has produced a five-minute recap video narrated by star John Noble, who plays the brilliant and occasionally LSD-affected scientist Dr. Walter Bishop.  The video is part of the "Fringe: Past + Present + Future" series, which summarizes the fourth season's storyline to date, while asking if Peter Bishop will find a way to get back to his own timeline.

The show's fourth season was just getting really interesting when Fox put the ratings-challenged series on an extended holiday break.  The season’s seventh episode "Wallflower" took the show into the break with the cliffhanger revelation that Nina Sharp, head of the megacorporation Massive Dynamic, has been secretly injecting Agent Olivia Dunham with some lovely migraine-inducing drugs.

You can check out the recap video below, followed by a trailer for next week's episode, "Back To Where You've Never Been."



Posted on January 7, 2012 .

Imagining a Greater SyFy Channel

I know, it's no universe-shattering revelation that the SyFy cable channel pretty much sucks these days.  What was once a prime source of fun science fiction-based television has devolved into a basic cable dumping ground for "reality" shows about fake ghost hunters and cheesy Something vs. Something Else TV movies destined to be featured on a remake of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in about 15 or 20 years down the road.

Yes, the mistakes SyFy has made as a network are obvious to everyone except them.  But in the spirit of science fiction that asks the classic question "What If," what if Syfy didn't have to suck all kinds of suckness in suckitude?  What if the channel actually lived up to its tagline and...yes, imagined greater?

The thing is, SyFy does have a nice little foundation to build upon.  There's one more season of Eureka to air, and other current series such as Warehouse 13, Sanctuary and the U.S. remake of the brilliant U.K. series Being Human are perfectly decent, albeit not especially groundbreaking, programs.  However, the best science fiction series currently on television aren't found on SyFy these days. 

HBO now has two great shows with Game of Thrones and True Blood that are far superior to SyFy's offerings of the U.K. series Merlin and the Being Human remake.  AMC recently found zombie gold in their adaptation of Robert Kirkman's comic series The Walking Dead, while FOX has Fringe, arguably the most hardcore science fiction series on the air right now, and is serving up the big-budget Terra Nova at the end of the month.  And of course, BBC America gladly took over from SyFy's bungled attempt at airing the relaunched Doctor Who and has steadily grown the show's audience into becoming their top-rated series.  Oh, and BBC America also currently airs reruns of classic sci-fi series such as The X-Files and the Battlestar Galactica remake that yes, used to air on SyFy.

I realize SyFy is pretty set in their cozy low-budget programming mentality and that's not likely to change anytime soon, so it's frustrating to see the channel remain a mere shadow of its former self.  There are plenty of old shows that could use some love on the channel -- the aforementioned MST3K, classic episodes of Doctor Who from the original 1963-89 run, Babylon 5, Farscape, Quantum Leap, Alien Nation, Smallville and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to name just a few.  And when you think about the number of terrific comics properties that could (and should) be developed into television shows, it boggles the mind that SyFy can only offer up something like Alphas.  Oh, and remember when SyFy/Sci Fi's Battlestar Galactica remake was mandatory viewing on Friday nights?  Imagine if Buck Rogers or yes, Star Trek received the same creative and budgetary effort?

Imagine something...greater.
Posted on September 7, 2011 .

FRINGE Showrunners Tease Season 4


In a piece for The LA TV Insider Examiner, Fringe writers/executive producers Josh Wyman and Jeff Pinkner dropped some hints about what we might see when the show returns for Season 4 this fall on September 23rd.

At the end of Season 3, Joshua Jackson's character Peter Bishop created a dimensional "bridge" between Earth and the alternate Earth from where he originated.  However, doing so caused him to vanish from reality after things changed so that he never existed.  "Josh’s character, Peter, made a heroic choice," said Pinkner, "and Walter recognizes he might have to sacrifice to save his son, and now we’re fighting the consequences of that."

With Joshua Jackson still listed as remaining with the show as a series regular, it probably won't be long before we see Peter return...somehow.  According to Pinkner, though, he isn't going to be the only one returning.  "Without revealing anything, we have some really -- we have some things we’re very excited about.  We’re bringing back some characters who were among our favorites."

So who does that mean?  Charlie FrancisThomas Newton?  Personally, I'm hoping for David Robert Jones.

And if you happen to be foolish enough to not watch one of the best science-fiction series currently on television, Wyman says that the Season 4 opener is a good place to jump on.  "We’ve had a lot of people say ‘We love the promos; we want to figure out time to watch’, but not everyone has time to sit down and watch (three full) seasons, so we tried to make this season like a new pilot.  We did that a little bit last season, too, but it will just be an entry point for people to come in who haven’t seen everything."

He also added, "We always look at it as a new chapter every season.  It’s like you get the book and so you can expect something you did not expect.  We like to say that.  It’s not as easy as ‘Oh, it’s a jump forward.’  We always try to go a little deeper than that."

Wyman and Pinkner originally started with a six-year plan, so as long as the ratings continue to hold up well enough, it's going to be interesting to see if we're at the halfway point or if the overall timetable has been pushed up so that we're now at the homestretch and heading for home.
Posted on June 23, 2011 .

FRINGE Producers Drop Season 3 Finale Spoilers


DEATH!  Delicious, strawberry-flavored death!

According to TV Line, Fringe executive producers Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman dropped a major spoiler for the upcoming season 3 finale, "The Day We Died," scheduled to air on FOX on May 6th.

In a conference call to reporters, Pinkner revealed that "Someone who we all love deeply will die" in the season finale.  Added Wyman, "Fringe always does things the way you don't expect, so it's going to be effective, and it will be self-explanatory.  That's sort of all we can say without spoiling everything."

Pinkner later remarked, "Hopefully, it will be wholly unexpected and it will recontextualize the story of Season 3 in a really cool way, and be fun and entertaining and mind-blowing."

However, the season finale will not feature a long-rumored third universe.  “We are not introducing a third world,” said Pinkner.  “We still have plenty of story to tell just in those two worlds.  Maybe at some point in the future there will be a third world, but not yet.”

The executive producers for the recently-renewed science-fiction drama also hinted at the return of Leonard Nimoy's William Bell in some form or another.  “William is present,” Pinkner remarked, “and in a way that gives new meaning to alternate reality, but its very much Leonard Nimoy.”

My personal guess for the character who dies?  Well, since killing off a character as great as Walter Bishop would be ratings suicide for Season 4, I think I'll go with...Astrid Farnsworth.

Posted on April 15, 2011 .

100 DAMN Good Posts...So What Have We Learned So Far?


When I started my blog relaunch of DAMN Good Coffee...and HOT! back on September 17, 2010, I had very little idea of where I wanted to take it.  As it happens, I still have very little idea but thanks to Blogger's handy Stats functionality, at least I get some impression of what you lovely and obviously very wise people who stop by are actually interested in reading.  So now, after my one-hundredth post of absolute nonsense, I thought I might share some of my observations for the two of you who might be interested in such uselessness...
  • The Really Good News:  DAMN Good Coffee is Trending Upward -- As you can see by the screenshot above, the pageview line keeps going up just about every month, reaching an all-time high of 2,283 views in February 2011.  So either I'm posting things that people are more interested in or I'm getting more traffic or some combination of both.  I'm guessing the latter, because the stats for my Top Ten most-viewed posts seem to have a post or two from roughly every month since I've started.  Either way, my many thanks for showing The Little Blog That Could some love.
  • Fringe + Twin Peaks = Pageview Gold -- Of those Top Ten posts, two of them are posts about the current TV show Fringe referencing the 1990-91 TV show Twin Peaks and both are in the Top Five with 410 and 193 pageviews respectively.  Of course, with Fringe's ratings being signficantly lower since FOX moved the series to its current Friday Night Death Slot, I worry about losing one of my favorite shows as well as what it's going to do to my pageviews if the series isn't around to reference Twin Peaks once in a while.
  • At Least My Doctor Who Rambling is Worthwhile -- Only three posts about Doctor Who have cracked the Top Ten, but "Doctor Who: Memories of Time and Space" is sitting right at the top with 410 and the other two have at least 150 pageviews.  A solid piece about Doctor Who is good for roughly 50 pageviews, double that if it involves something that happened on The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson.
  • Marvel Comics Pwns DC Comics -- I wish this stat was a little more evenly balanced between the two comics companies, but the simple fact here is that posts about Marvel Comics properties get more pageviews than ones about DC Comics properties.  Five posts about comics appear in my Top Ten and four of them involve Marvel characters.  The highest post, "ESPN and Marvel Twist the Knife in Cleveland's Back," currently clocks in at 354 pageviews and crushed the others on the Top Ten for months before finally being overtaken.
  • DAMN Good Coffee Has a Decent Following in Australia and Europe -- Oh, the United States rules the pageviews with 5,878 (U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!), followed by the United Kingdom (992) and Canada (334), but Australia (189) is up there while Germany (154), Italy (132), Spain (118) and France (118) make a surprising showing as well.  Some of that probably has a lot to do with my posts about Doctor Who, which has such a global following, but it does give you an idea of how small the planet has become since the Internets were invented.  But Brazil (65) and Denmark (49)...I really think you both can step your respective games up, don't you?
  • Want More Pageviews? Try Linking to Bleeding Cool and The Beat -- I post fairly regularly on higher-profile websites such as Rich Johnston's Bleeding Cool or Heidi McDonald's The Beat, depending on the article content, and doing so has resulted in an unexpected bonus of getting pageviews from both of those sites.  Posts such as "Somebody Finally Tells Alan Moore to STFU" (179) probably wouldn't have received as many views without people visiting those sites clicking on my links to DAMN Good Coffee, so my thanks to Rich and Heidi for allowing the linkage.  I figure the least I can do is send some of you back in their direction.
  • Some People Have Very Interesting Ways of Searching for Information -- The Search Keywords I see sometimes really make me wonder just what's really going in your brains at a particular moment.  Some of my personal favorites have been "Michelle Forbes Nude," "Hot Sex Teen Titans," "Doctor Sex" and "Alex Kingston Rampant Rabbit."  At least I'm not the only degenerate out there.
So that's all for now, I suppose.  Maybe I'll post an update after 500 posts, providing I haven't chased everyone off with my meaningless meanderings.  Until then, though, cheers for the blog love and here's hoping we can keep that trending line going higher and higher...
Posted on March 5, 2011 .

FRINGE Goes Back to TWIN PEAKS in "Immortality"


It is happening again.  It is happening again...

FOX's science-fiction series Fringe once again referenced the classic series Twin Peaks, less than a month after directly referencing Peaks character Dr. Lawrence Jacoby.  Last night's episode, "Immortality," featured none other than actress Joan Chen, who played Josie Packard on Twin Peaks, as a character named Reiko who is apparently the mistress of the alternate universe version of Walter Bishop, a.k.a. "The Walternate."

In a bedroom scene, Reiko consoles Walternate, who is having doubts about being able to do anything to save his alternate Earth.  "But in fact, there are lines I simply cannot cross," he tells her.  "Does that make me weak?"  Reiko replies, "No, it's what makes you the most brilliant man I've ever known."  Walternate also expresses concern about getting his son Peter back to his Earth because of his emotional attachment to Olivia Dunham, but Reiko reassures him that he will eventually find a way.  He then remarks that he trusts Reiko "more than anyone" and as the scene ends, the camera pulls back to reveal a spinning ceiling fan, an item focused on in camera shots from several Twin Peaks episodes.

Another Twin Peaks reference was made earlier in the episode, when a soon-to-be victim of the episode's villain, Dr. Anton Silva, orders a cup of coffee and a slice of cherry pie at a diner, something Peaks character Dale Cooper was very fond of doing.  The name Silva could also be a reference to the late actor Frank Silva, who played the murderous spirit Killer BOB on Twin Peaks.

It seems the Fringe writing and production staff must have some serious Peaks Freaks on board, so here's hoping this isn't the last we'll see of these fun connections between the two series.  Maybe it's time for FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole to pay a visit...?
Posted on February 12, 2011 .

FRINGE and TWIN PEAKS Share the Same TV Universe


Oh, Fringe...I am really going to miss you if you end up becoming the latest victim of the Friday Night Death Slot.

For a show that started off blatantly ripping off episodes of The X-Files, Fringe finally found its voice halfway through its second season when the creators started focusing on their own mythology involving an alternate Earth.  Since then, the show has become one fun and insane rollercoaster ride and one of the best science-fiction series currently on television.


One more piece of Fringe's brilliance occured in tonight's episode, "The Firefly," when occasionally-high mad scientist Dr. Walter Bishop, played to perfection by John Noble, gave a shout-out to none other than Dr. Lawrence Jacoby from the classic series Twin Peaks.  After donning a pair of glasses with 3-D colored lenses, Walter is told that they look good, to which he replies:  "Yes...They were sent to me by a Dr. Jacoby from Washington State."  The town of Twin Peaks, where Dr. Jacoby operated as the resident psychiatrist, was located in the state of Washington.

This, of course, means that Fringe and Twin Peaks now share the same TV universe, however unofficial or official it actually is.  So, Walter...How about setting aside all that Observer and Walternate nonsense aside just long enough to rescue Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Dale Cooper from the Black Lodge?  If anyone can, it's probably you.

Posted on January 22, 2011 .