I was thinking about the Musical Episode of Fringe that FOX are having in honour of “Glee Week”. My initial reaction was rather conservative – I could see both the potential benefits and the dangers of Fringe deviating from its normal formula to help FOX promote Glee. I thought it would be a good idea to break the pros and cons into two separate posts to help me decide which way I am leaning most.
Head past the jump to read my One Reason Why Fringe Shouldn’t Have A Musical Episode, and check back tomorrow for the flip-side of the argument.
1. It could ruin the credibility of Fringe..
Which has always been a fun yet serious show. One of the very things that has held Fringe back over the past 2 seasons is the fact that it lacks consistency and, as a result, is yet to fully establish its identity. Well Fringe-me, because this musical episode will do wonders for its identity ‘crisis’. Not.
As I mentioned on FringeBloggers when the news broke, a perverse part of me is curious to see how this whole thing shakes down. I’m open to going through new doors with this Fringe, but when the entire idea is based around a commercially driven Glee Week, well sorry, but that’s taking the biscuit, milk and napkin.
Fringe is not Glee. Fringe is a serious show and it’s also one of the most fun shows on television because it takes itself seriously. Let me repeat – Fringe, alternate realities, molebabies and shapeshifting mutants, takes itself seriously. I cannot emphasise enough how important that quality is, or was.
Although I’m intrigued by the idea of a Olivia, Walter and the gang. breaking out into song, it feels somewhat ‘dirtied’ by the fact that it’s not an organic idea for Fringe – it’s for ‘Glee Week’, and well, that sucks. Can you imagine Lost having a Desperate Housewives episode where Locke and Jack put on their best frocks and throw dishes? OK, so that kinda happened in season 2, but the point stands.
Lost is where it is today, in part, due to the fact that it knows EXACTLY what it is. We’re almost two seasons into Fringe and, honestly, we don’t know from one week to the next whether we’re going to get a ‘proper episode’ (aka character driven mythology/main story arc) or the stand-alone Fringe-lite.
This isn’t a slam on FOX, I think they’ve done some truly wonderful things with Fringe and I believe that they are starting to get a handle on how good this show could be. I just worry that by changing the entire format of Fringe for another show’s benefit, you lose something, even if it’s just for one episode. That loss could be in the form of fans, potential fans, credibility and momentum (seriously, the musical episode airs 2 weeks before the finale!).
Those are some of my thoughts on why the Fringe musical episode could be a very bad idea. However, like I said, I not closed on the concept, and I feel that there are some potential positives that could come from this. Tomorrow I’ll post my One Reason Why Fringe Should Sing & Dance with Glee. 
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, roco, nobody is telling you to watch the episode. get over it.
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BTW, you are not much of a fan if you think this one episode will ruin the show. A lot of shows did musical episodes and did those shows fail because of it? NO IT DID NOT. So, shut up with your whining and grow the fuck up. Loser.
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I completely agree with you: It's not the 'that', it's the 'why'.
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FYI BibbyJosh – all you do is whine about how much the “writers hate Peter” so no one is going to take you seriously when you tell them to grow up.
Also…he didn't say that this musical episode is going to ruin Fringe. Give me – and everyone else who has had the displeasure of reading your posts – a break.
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So essentially you're saying that it cheapens Fringe that they were forced to create this episode in order to please the people at FOX and celebrate “Glee Week,” correct? If that's the case, I don't think that should be the biggest reason against this episode. I understand what you're saying, that it takes the show out of it's true nature when it is forced to accommodate a network promotional idea for another show that is completely different. And that would be a valid point except for the fact that it sounds like the people involved in Fringe have been playing around with the idea of doing a musical themed episode for quite some time. They just needed an excuse to do it, so when FOX announced they wanted to do this, it likely served as the final reason to go ahead and do it. I can think of several interviews in which the creators/producers/actors have mentioned how they tease about doing a musical episode, or how they would like to do something different and fun like that. I imagine they had had the idea in mind for awhile, and having this Glee Week gave them the opportunity to actually go ahead and do it. So I don't think we can say that it was a development that had to be created simply to please FOX. FOX just gave them a reason to actually make it official rather than a joke or an idea that they continually tossed around.
I agree that the timing could be a little bit better. I would prefer an episode like this to show up more in the middle of the season rather than in the last four of the season. But it sounds like they have found a way to make the whole premise of the episode fit in with the events that are taking place in the overall story, and it could actually provide important insight and progression that we will need going into the final episodes of the season.
Now, I know you and I don't completely see eye to eye when it comes to stand alone vs. mythology episodes on Fringe, but I have to point out that I don't think that, just because Fringe includes stand alone episodes, it suggests that Fringe doesn't know what kind of show it is. Just because things may not move along as quickly as they would if every episode was a strong mythology episode doesn't mean that the other episodes are insignificant and evidence of the show not knowing where it's going. Stand alone episodes still contribute to the overall development of the show, just in a more subtle way. Certainly episodes like Ability and Momentum Deferred and Jacksonville are the ones that focus solely on the mythology. But I believe that episodes like The Cure and Fracture and Of Human Action are just as important to developing the events of the overall story. It may not be in a direct, strong way like the mythology episodes do, but the significance is still there. Personally, I haven't seen any reason to believe that Fringe doesn't know its identity or where it's going or the kind of show it wants to be.
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