Fringe

Fringe, the increasingly popular TV series, I believe on Fox, has some fine actors, one of them is John Noble, who plays the eccentric Dr. Walter Bishop. Our family, the older 19 year old and Robin and I watch the show on Hulu, or some other online place of residence. Dr. Bishop has a myriad of problems—most of them guilt related, as he was somewhat of a Nazi-type experimenter on certain strangely gifted children. Although Dr. Bishop's motivation could be perceived as having a benevolent side to it, nevertheless he inflicted some psycho damage along the way. Add to that, Dr. Bishop's meddling science was responsible for the kidnapping of a child (in order to save his life) from a parallel universe. This crossing over between universes is destroying the other universe and bodes ill for ours as well. And you think you have guilt! Oh yeah, the kid he saved from the other universe, Peter, was the counterpart to his dead son in this universe. This brings up every permutation of the Star Wars, "You're not my father!", from the current living Peter. Peter, in these later episodes, now knows he was snatched from Universe B, and actually is growing to love his stand-in dad. 

We can sure forgive a lot of crappola. And John Noble's character, who is responsible for wrecked psyches, countless deaths, kidnapping etc. worms his way into our hearts, as he suffers for his wrongs and hides his pain with the use of medical marijuana. The character is honest and childlike. He actually needs a supervisor because he is slightly mentally incapacitated. But that incapacitation allows the writers to have Dr. Bishop blurt out what most of us think but never dare to say ourselves–this aspect of the character is why, along with John Noble's skill as an actor, has made him the center piece of the show.  I still play the guitar while watching the series, but find it a worthy distraction while I practice my scales.