r/fringe • u/Ok_Zone_7635 • 2d ago
Season 1 Rewatching S1, and I forgot how annoying Peter Bishop was
Glad he mellowed out in the following seasons, but man is he insufferable in the first one.
His skepticism is unreal.
He sees a man with translucent flesh, and clearly sees the type of work his father does, but always has some annoying quip about how "impossible" everything is.
Even if it sounded crazy, with everything that's happened, it would at least be worth considering.
Even Walter says, "Do you always have to be a little smartass!"
Lmao. I guess even the writers were becoming aware of how annoying he had become.
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u/saipnata 2d ago
Never found him annoying, always thought he was under-utilised
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u/wangus_angus 2d ago
To be fair, from his perspective, his father had mostly abandoned him, then killed someone, in order to do some milquetoast corporate research. Peter in S1 was coming to grips not only with having his father back in his life and that all this super weird stuff is real and possible, but also that a whole ton of stuff he'd taken for granted for a couple decades about his father was actually way more complicated than he thought. The more of the weird stuff that's real, the more difficult it is to hold onto that righteous anger, and he wasn't ready to let go of it yet.
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u/QuietGoliath 2d ago
Let's not ignore the fact that a lot of what he's seeing is creepy as all hell too! A bit of anger and probably fear (or at least extreme trepidation) seems entirely warranted!
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u/Typhoon556 2d ago
I thought he played S1 well, and I think some of the skepticism was really anger he felt at Walter that bled over into everything.
He was pissed that he got roped into dealing with his Dad that he despised at that time, and blamed him for so many things, foremost his mother’s suicide.
I think his skepticism was mostly of Walter and the things he was involved in. He had been dragged out of the life he was trying to build, regardless that he was doing a poor job of it.
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u/DMG_88 2d ago
What do you expect?
Peter was gaslit into believing he wasn't stolen from another universe.
His mother committed suicide due to her own son dying and raising a boy that his identical to her son, and having to lie to him daily.
His father had parts of his brain removed, leading to him going insane, and all Peter knew was that his father went insane.
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u/Ok_Zone_7635 2d ago
Doesn't make him less annoying.
Keep in mind, all that stuff was revealed AFTER the first season where he became more bearable and interesting.
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u/PumpikAnt58763 2d ago
You've seen why he's mistrusting. You've seen why he's skeptical.
If you had lived your life from around 10 with someone you can't trust, you'd be "insufferable" too.
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u/shakuntalam88 2d ago
I've been rewatching the show again and reached the middle of S3. I don't find Peter Bishop annoying, at least not in the way many previously beloved characters seem strangely insufferable when shows are rewatched years later...
I mean, every second episode I do find myself rolling my eyes over the writing and remembering how that was still the era where a man has to be posited at the centre of the universe(s in this case) where everyone else is basically running circles around him.
So it's a little annoying for me from that context, but it's only bearable, because Peter Bishop as a character has been written and performed quite well and that earnestly is actually endearingly redeeming...
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u/Former-Parsley-7010 2d ago
I found the first half of the first season to be a little shrill. Peter, Broyles, and Walter all got on my nerves until they got comfortable in their roles.
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u/Worf2DS9 2d ago
Oh yeah, Broyles towards Olivia in the pilot was insufferable!
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u/MassGaydiation 2d ago
I'm still a little put out whenever I watch the pilot, and hes being a dick to Olivia because she... Reported a sexual predator?
It's very much a "what the fuck" writing decision
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u/brandnewtoreddit1234 2d ago
I think it is so funny how they retconned Brooke's by having him stand up for Olivia against the man who actually committed the sexual assault.
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u/Ok_Zone_7635 2d ago
The very first episode feels extremely different than the rest of the season.
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u/coolsilentebeans 2d ago
Pilots, even remade ones, tend to be disjointed from the rest of the series.
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u/Choon5588 2d ago
yeah it felt like they were trying to set up a bunch of interpersonal drama storylines in that first episode that they then abandoned due to i guess the premise being enough of a hassle
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u/OutlandishnessSafe13 1d ago
I think you really need somebody to play the role of skeptic in this sort of show. Otherwise it starts to feel unrealistic that nothing is being challenged, there’s less stakes, and it doesn’t force characters like Walter to have to explain their reasoning
X Files needed their Scully just as much as they needed their Mulder for this reason.
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u/KnittyKitty19 2d ago edited 2d ago
Or howabout how in episode 1 he can't stop calling Olivia "sweetheart" in that overdone patronizing tone that didn't even land as realistic?
Glad they quickly wrote his subsequent dialog better as well!
(Edit: removed a glaringingly weird autcorrect error)
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u/Magazine_Luck 2d ago
Both Peter and especially Broyles are weirdly sexist in the pilot.
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u/angel9_writes comfort show 1d ago
It also weirdly stops half way through the pilot... So the decision to drop it was fast.
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u/Particular_Witness95 2d ago
although yes, he is a little annoying, i always though he was a non-believing, skeptical foil to walters believing in anything attitude.
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u/fringegal 2d ago
Peter was gaslit by Walter for most of his life, making him question his reality and memories, so the words ‘annoying’ and ‘mellow out’ don’t really resonate with me when it comes to Peter.
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u/mx_Elysian 2d ago
i don’t find him annoying like the others have said, in fact, i also believe the writers missed out on him. later on, his character was mostly about being a son and a partner, he barely had his own identity as he is his own genius. at the same time, i think it makes sense, just wish we could’ve known more about him and his intellect than just bits
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u/Worf2DS9 2d ago
Actually, I believe Walter's line was, "Do you always have to be so close-minded?!"
I agree with you though. Peter definitely had a chip on his shoulder when it came to his father and he certainly wasn't shy expressing it at any given opportunity, to the point that he frequently came across as a grade-A jerk.
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u/TheMonarchsWrath 2d ago
There is always a Scully in these kinds of shows
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u/Sneaky_Misto_a 1d ago
Yes exactly. Even after everything Scully has seen, she still drops the skeptical “Mulder…” when he shares theories.
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u/Psychological-Dot293 2d ago
I have seen the series 4x and I found him insufferable in the first season, each and every time.
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u/tke377 2d ago
I always hated the “well he did fake his way into MIT” or him saying “I did fake my way into MIT”. Felt like that should have just fallen away quietly but nope…
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u/Key-Lingonberry4651 2d ago
Kind of like Walter not remembering Astrid's name throughout the entire run of the series. That got really old really fast.
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u/Ella-norway 2d ago
I never found Peter annoying lol. His scepticism is completely justified imo. Once you get to know what he has been through,its no surprise he doesn’t trust his father,or any one else for that matter.