 |
 |
 |
| by Bridget Petrella with additional writing by John Mundazio |
|
J.J. Abrams is indeed one of TV’s
golden boys. Felicity, Alias and Lost, are each a dysfunctional child of
his beautiful mind, all come equipped with their own fervent fan base.
Those fans are happy to follow Abrams wherever he leads them, and Fox is
banking on him leading them to “Fringe.” The pilot reportedly had a
budget of over $10 million. Trust us, if “Lost” makes your brain bleed
with its convoluted plotlines and hefty mythology, “Fringe” might make
for a more palatable and balanced dose of science fiction with new
mysteries every week.
Twenty-something gals may still be
squealing for Joshua Jackson’s post-Pacey return to TV as snarky
misanthrope Peter Bishop, but the real star of “Fringe” is Anna Torv.
Her stateside debut as Olivia Dunham gives the show a heroine who’s
coolly ambitious, resourceful and kind of hard to not adore. Torv’s
fellow Aussie John Noble plays mentally unbalanced scientist Dr. Walter
Bishop, and Lance Reddick (Lieutenant Daniels from “The Wire”) is eerie
team liaison Agent Phillip Broyles. I don't want to use this review to
spoil you on last night's premiere. I merely want to use it to encourage
you to give it a try. During a time when shows are canceled as quickly
as they start, I genuinely feel this one needs to be given a good
chance. It's dark, it's funny, it's other worldly and it's jam packed
with pure, unbridled imagination. |
|
Bridget
Petrella is the Publisher and Editor in Chief of UPBEAT Entertainment
News Online. At this point in her life, she's seriously contemplating a
complete and unbridled abandonment of typical network television...
opting instead for Silver Surfer comic books, novels with wordy titles,
Retro TV Land, HBO and Showtime's Original Programming schedule and
of course... Nick at Night. |
|
|
|
|
Finally,
the show I've been waiting for premiered last night and yes, I loved
it. Every bit of it. As an avid X-Files and Lost fan, I was looking
forward to Fringe, but expected to be a harsher critic than most.
Afterall, Chris Carter did place the ACTUAL ending of The X-Files: I
Want To Believe film right AFTER the credits... But I do digress.
Anyway, as I sat in sheer anticipation while gnawing through an entire
bag of my favorite guilty pleasure, kettle corn... I pondered... can the
relationship between Mulder and Scully ever really be matched? How about
the unexpected always shocking twists and turns of the Lost plot? Turns
out Fringe has it all, and a whole lot more. A plane lands in Boston on
auto-pilot, and officials make a gruesome discovery: Everyone on board
is dead, blood has spurted everywhere and the victims' flesh appears to
be melting. As the passengers are beginning to separate from their skin,
FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and her FBI partner John Scott (Mark
Valley) are rumbling in the sheets when they get word they are needed on
the tarmac. The "X-Files" breeze continues. But when John is stricken by
the mysterious flesh-eating germ, Olivia becomes a strange crusader,
suspending her own disbelief to an alarming degree and following the
instructions of an eccentric scientist (John Noble) and ignoring the
warnings of the scientist's estranged son (Joshua Jackson). Olivia winds
up on an acid trip, locked inside an aquatic chamber and apparently
communing with her dying lover by mental telepathy. There's a good twist
at the end that most people won't see coming. Presumably that's the end
of this particular germ threat, but the mad scientist, his son and
Olivia will continue to fight similar threats and try to unravel a
bigger mystery involving an evil corporation run by a truly creepy woman
with an artificial arm, nicely played by Blair Brown. 
It
should also be pointed out that as a show built on "twists and
turns", so far it all seems fairly cohesive, as opposed to the Lost plot
that tends to leave us scratching our heads— I was genuinely impressed
with the writers giving us an exciting storyline while introducing us to
the characters all at once. Most pilots feel like a long and drawn out
meet and greet, this show opened with a bang. Not only did we get to
meet Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) but we were also instantly thrown
into her new, just-said-I-love-you relationship. I thought this was an
interesting take compared to the usual partners in love but leave us
hanging until the end (i.e. Mulder & Scully or Bones & Booth). Of course
if you watched last night, then you know said new relationship had more
road bumps in 48 hours than most have in a lifetime, making it more
relevant than we initially thought. As the story continues, we
seamlessly meet the other lead characters like Peter Bishop (Joshua
Jackson), the Catch Me if You Can like character that Agent Dunham scams
into helping her save her newish beau, Agent John Scott (Mark Valley).
Through Peter, we're finally introduced to Dr. Walter Bishop (John
Noble), the one who can save us all through his study of fringe science,
with a healthy dose of madness. 
When
asked to wax philosophical about the obvious ongoing comparisons
between The X-Files, Lost and Fringe, actor Joshua Jackson gave us his
own perspective on the phenomena, "Lost is a thing unto itself. I don’t
know if there will ever be a TV show like that again. Even if Fringe has
that success or level of engagement with the audience, this isn’t a
mystery show. When it comes to Lost, people are obsessed with peeling
away the layers and trying to get one step ahead. While there are
mysteries inside our show and will certainly be ongoing elements, I
don’t know if it replicates the intrigue Lost has. If you remember at
the beginning of X-Files, it was all about Mulder having to find his
sister. That was the driving force and then there were all of these wild
and strange paranormal things happening around them. This isn’t that
show. Because it’s science based, taken to the level of science fiction,
there will never be the werewolf episode, we will never have a Jigsaw
Man unless there is a scientific explanation, which would be a bit of a
stretch." As for his character Peter, "Yeah, well, ... Peter is just
sort of discovering he's part of this world right now. Because when he's
initially brought in, in the pilot, it's completely against his will,
and he's only brought in because Olivia needs him to serve a function
and get access to my father. But then, like anybody who's got a bit of
curiosity, he sees this wild world and the access that he has through
being a part of this world, and it sort of draws him in." Well, Mr.
Jackson, we couldn't agree more. UB
