11 Oct 08
Fringe Television
Tomorrow night, (Sunday), UK viewers can see episode two of Fringe, the new science-fiction series from ‘Lost’ creator J. J. Abrams. Today I watched the first two episodes back-to-back. Obviously be warned, if you’ve not seen at least the first episode yet... here be spoilers!
In Episode One, FBI Agent Olivia Dunham (Aussie actress Anna Torv) is investigating a plane crash where all of the passengers and crew appear to be have been dissolved and by an unknown airborne biological agent. The investigation quickly leads to the death of Dunham’s partner, (and secret lover), who turns out to be involved with a multi-national corporation ‘Massive Dynamic’, who seem to have many skeletons in the closet they would like to keep secret. Joining Agent Dunham is former Government fringe-scientist Walter Bishop (John Noble), and his son Peter Bishop (Dawson's Creek's Joshua Jackson). Walter has spent the last 17 years in a mental hospital, and has a history of ethically dubious research into the paranormal and unexplainable phenomena.
By Episode Two, the three of them have formed a team investigating “The Pattern”, a series of unexplainable crimes and terrorist acts involving teleportation, reanimation, psychokinesis, transmogrification and other "fringe" science.... (or “pseudo-science” if you want to be accurate).
Fringe is a mix of horror, science fiction, and government conspiracies. The production values are top notch, with a really cool use of floating graphics, last seen by me in the Russian horror movie Night Watch. Unfortunately it is not only the science that is implausible, as there were simply too many obvious inconstancies in the plot to allow me to fully engage with the episodes, Walter Bishop may have spent the last 17 years in a mental hospital, but he appears to be completely able to work a modern computer whilst being fascinated by heated car seats and florescent lights... an odd amazement for the brilliant scientist seeming fluorescent lamps have been on sale since the late 1930s. Also apparently waving of the USA-Patriot Act around a lot will get you everything from breaking the aforementioned mad scientist out of hospital, and getting Harvard to let you use their storeroom as a basement lab.
John Noble as the recovering psychiatric hospital inmate, steals every scene he is in, as a fragile yet brilliant mind and I suspect the unravelling story as to what exactly his time as a research scientist led to will be one of the more engaging story arcs. By the end of Episode Two, plenty of seeds have been planted for future development, and although I have enjoyed the first two episodes, so far despite is high production values it never fully manages to shake off the shadow of its forerunner, The X-Files. Fringe appears to have none of the unsettling atmosphere of The X-Files, which is packed with genuinely creepy moments, where you glance over your shoulder and give the shadows in the room a second glance. Hopefully once it gets into its stride, Fringe will rectify the style-over-substance imbalance, and realise that for an adult television series, you have to at least reach the scariness levels of certain Dr Who episodes.
Evidently the series has done well in the US, with the show having average 10.7 million viewers and as such Fox has commissioned a full season of the show.
Fringe airs on Sky1 and Sk1 HD on Sunday nights at 9pm. Also available on Sky Anytime.
Disclosure: I work for BSkyB.