A Short Story About Love
"A Short Story About Love" | |
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J.H. Wyman | |
Written by | J.H. Wyman Graham Roland |
Production code | 3X7015 |
Original air date | March 23, 2012 |
Guest appearances | |
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"A Short Story About Love" is the fifteenth episode of the
It was co-written by executive producer
First airing on March 23, 2012, in the United States, "A Short Story About Love" was watched by an estimated 2.87 million viewers, a decrease from the previous episode. It received mixed to positive reviews from television critics; the villain attracted mixed reviews, and most praised the revelations surrounding a beacon that was last shown in a first-season episode. In 2013, it landed on several lists detailing the best Fringe episodes of the series.
Plot
The Fringe division tracks down a series of deaths of wives shortly after the deaths of their respective husbands. Discovering traces of the husbands' DNA on the bodies of the wives, Walter Bishop (
During the investigation, Olivia finds that the memories she is gaining from Peter Bishop's (Joshua Jackson) original timeline are overriding her original memories. Nina Sharp (Blair Brown) becomes concerned and suggests that Olivia talk to Walter to help reverse the memory loss. During the case, in talking with the latest victim's wife, Olivia realizes that she is truly in love with Peter. After the conclusion of the case, she admits to Nina that she will let the memory alterations continue, even if this means she will forget the times she spent with Nina during her childhood.
Simultaneous to these events, Peter has attempted to flee to New York City and points beyond to stay away from Olivia, fearing that staying near her would further erode her original memories. Walter calls him back, identifying that the
Production
"To us, Jeff and I, it's kind of like a perfect version of what a Fringe show is because it has a great terrifying element to it which is very 'fringy.' On the other hand it has this incredible love story aspect and things that people are going to be really, really excited for, we believe, as far as the relationships in the show. So it was an honor to do it and it was just incredible. It turned out really well. We love it. It was just an incredible experience."
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"A Short Story About Love" was co-written by executive producer
Co-showrunner Wyman also served as episode director, marking his television directorial debut.[4] He noted his love of the experience, as it permitted him to grow closer with the series' actors and "actually work with them on a level that [he hadn't] before and really get down there with them."[1] Wyman was originally supposed to direct several episodes the previous year and earlier in the season, but found he was too busy. He explained, "Then an episode was coming up that we were thinking about writing and I really felt close to it. The opportunity came up where somebody had fallen out and I felt that this is the perfect time because everything was completely under control. It allowed me to go and do it. It's an episode that's really close to me. It's about love and it's about all the great things that we talk about on Fringe."[1]
Actor Joshua Jackson was pleased that Wyman directed, as he found it nice to have "somebody who's in the writer's room day-in and day-out and knows the show so intimately, come in and jump behind the camera and are just a font of information."[5] Seth Gabel was also happy with Wyman's direction, as the two were able to discuss themes in the script as well as how Wyman planned to shoot certain scenes. Gabel remarked that the director "wanted to do this fun thing that actually related to Lincoln's feelings about Olivia and how they were changing based on everything that's been happening. We played so many things that weren't in the script, that were between the lines in just looks, and he told me how he was gonna shoot it so I could really play with what the character was thinking and know that it would actually be seen in the end, and not end up on the cutting room floor because it wasn't in the script."[5]
Guest actor
Reception
Ratings
"A Short Story About Love" was first broadcast on March 23, 2012, in the United States on the Fox network after a month hiatus. An estimated 2.87 million viewers watched the episode,[7] marking a decrease in viewership from the previous episode.[8] "A Short Story About Love" earned a ratings share of 0.9/3 among adults aged 18 to 49, meaning that it was seen by 0.9 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds, and 3 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of broadcast. Among total viewers it placed in third for the night and second among adults.[7]
Reviews
The episode received mixed to positive reviews from television critics.
"For the first 40 minutes, this episode was well-crafted but not particularly remarkable, but then that capsule spiraled out of the earth and made everything so much better."
Writing for The A.V. Club, Noel Murray gave the episode a B. He had an issue with the episode "reducing 'love' to an abstraction, for the sake of making it into a plot-driver," but noted that "at least 'A Short Story About Love' confines those wince-inducing reductions to a couple of short scenes, and in service of propelling this season’s 'displaced Peter' arc to a place that it needs to be."[6] SFX's Dave Bradley was more critical of the episode, opining that the love premise failed to "completely satisfy, at least not on a rational level" and that the "orange" universe explanation felt like "hand-waving, a cheeky attempt to untangle the series’ continuum without any further universe-hopping."[4] Bradley also noted that the plot surrounding the villain, a "mad scientist MacGuffin," seemed rushed and the script and direction "jarringly unsubtle", but that the episode featured good performances with "great details in every scene".[4]
Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly named "A Short Story About Love" the fifteenth best episode of the series, explaining "The timeline reboot of season 4 frustrated some fans, but the premise yielded several truly cool capture-the-imagination ideas that made for provocative drama, most notably Fringe's most romantic hour... The fact that the episode also featured one of the show's seediest creepazoids — a serial killer who murdered men for their pheromones so he could make a perfume that allowed him to seduce their grieving female significant others — was a bonus. Icky, but bonus."[11] Cory Barker of TV.com named the episode the 17th best of the series, saying, "Fringe has never been afraid of coming up with intimate, emotionally based—and sometimes very hokey—resolutions for its grand plots. Whatever you think about the choices the writers made in Season 4, it's hard to deny the emotional wallop this episode delivered."[12]
References
- ^ a b c d Wax, Alyse (2012-03-24). "'Fringe' Producers Pinkner and Wyman On Tonight's Major Episode - And Future Plans". Fearnet. Retrieved 2013-05-10.
- ^ J.H. Wyman (director and writer), Graham Roland (writer) (2012-03-23). "A Short Story About Love". Fringe. Season 4. Episode 15. Fox.
- ^ a b c Roffman, Marisa (2012-03-02). "FRINGE: J.H. Wyman Teases 'A Short Story About Love'". Give Me My Remote. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
- ^ a b c Bradley, Dave (2012-03-28). "Fringe "A Short Story About Love" REVIEW". SFX. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
- ^ The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2012-07-04.
- ^ a b Murray, Noel (2012-03-23). "A Short Story About Love". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
- ^ a b Kondolojy, Amanda (2012-03-26). "Friday Final TV Ratings: Final NCAA Game Ratings; No Adjustments for 'Fringe', 'Nikita' or 'Supernatural'". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on 2012-03-29. Retrieved 2013-05-14.
- ^ Ng, Philiana (2012-02-25). "TV Ratings: 'Fringe' Improves, 'Shark Tank' Matches High". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2013-08-13.
- ^ a b c Isler, Ramsey (2013-03-24). "Fringe: "A Short Story About Love" Review". IGN. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
- ^ Hanson, Andrew (2012-03-24). "'Fringe' recap: the Smell of Love". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
- ^ Jensen, Jeff (2013-01-18). "'Fringe': 19 Best Episodes". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2013-01-19.
- ^ Barker, Cory (2013-01-18). "Looking Back at Fringe's Five Seasons: The Top 20 Episodes". TV.com. Retrieved 2013-01-25.
External links