Pilot Episode

Boston.

FBI Agents Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and John Scott (Mark Valley) are having a secret relationship, as agents in the same unit are discouraged from gettting romantically involved. However one late phone call to a bizarre incident shows that their romance is the least of their problems.

The Passengers have died in the most mysterious circumstances and Homeland Security is also involved in the investigation. It doesn’t help that the agent in charge is Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick) is not the biggest fan of Anna.

While Olivia and John chase a lead, John becomes exposed to the same strange material that killed the people on the plane. His tissues thicken and he goes into a coma, giving Anna a limited amount of time to save him. She learns that her best chance is the genius scientist Walter Bishop (John Noble) who has been in a mental institution for the past 17 years. Her only access can be through his son Peter (Joshua Jackson), a guy with an IQ about 190 and would rather spend time in Iraq then see his dad…

Olivia manages to get Peter to see Walter and have Peter sign him out. But Walter’s methods seem just as insane as she is. Will she be able to save John? And is the plane incident only the beginning of a series of highly disturbing events?

What’s to Come & Characters

Olivia eventually makes peace with Reddick and tries to come to terms with what John had been keeping from her. Reddick recruits her to investigate similarly weird phenomena that can not be solved without Peter and Walter, so they become a part of this elite team.

Peter doesn’t like his father’s past involvement with this Fringe Science, as every case seems they run across happens to be at least partly Walter’s fault.  However he likes working with Anna and ends up getting to know his dad better.  He also often finds himself translating his father’s language to Anna and others, as well as using his genius IQ to help matters.

There is a talk of The Pattern and a gigantic corporation called Massive Dynamic, founded by William Bell – a scientist who used to be Walter’s lab partner. Massive Dynamic seems to be behind all Patter- related things. However being a powerful company and ever- playing the helpful party, Olivia finds herself asking help from the woman running the company – Walter’s right arm- Nina Sharp (Blair Brown)…

Creators, Alias & Lost

Fringe TV Series was created by J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci. If you like this mystery/thriller genre with a sci-fi touch, you probably heard of J.J. Abrams who created the hit series Alias and Lost.

Fringe’s plot differs vastly from the previous shows of course but as a hardcore fan of Alias, I can’t help but noticing some fun similarities. The parallels should probably be the topic of another show but if Massive Dynamic reminded you of SD-6 and Nina Sharp reminded you of Arvin Sloan, we are on the same page: ) )

The Verdict

Creating highly engaging and addictive TV shows is J.J. Abrams’ specialty. And while I wasn’t able to get caught up in the hype of Lost, I enjoyed the show to a certain extent. But I always felt that it lacked the heart of Alias and well, while Alias still remains my favorite, Fringe is a close second.

I didn’t think I’d be interested in fringe science until Fringe started but now I can’t get enough of the episodes. The show comes up with semi-surreal plots that are too realistic to be sci-fi and too fantastic to be realistic.

The characters are interesting and the cast is pretty good. However the stars of this show are the episodes themselves. The show is currently in its 3^rd season.

I really hope J.J. doesn’t lose interest in this one and leaves it hanging as he moves on to greener pastures (shows).

9/10 from me. Rated at 8.8 on IMDB.

Fun Note:

It seems like Anna Torv and Mark Valley really got caught up in playing a couple in love, since they got married in 2008. They are separated now, though.

 

Recommended Posts, Movies & Series

Alias Review- TV series created by J.J. Abrams

Forever Young- movie starring Mel Gibson & Elijah Wood- written by J.J. Abrams

Regarding Henry- movie starring Harrison Ford & Annette Bening – written by J.J. Abrams

The Shadow Dancer- romantic drama starring Joshua Jackson, Harvey Keitel & Claire Forlani