Pilot: Fringe

Wow so much for a pilot. Fringe starts its series off with what could almost be considered a movie. But 2 straight hours has its advantages.

This one has been a long time coming. Now I watched Fringe up to about halfway through the first season when it first came out. This may be putting it at an unfair advantage in this competition, however I am basing this review off the pilot.

Fringe is the story of FBI Agent Olivia Dunham (played by Anna Torv) as she begins investigating crimes that are almost unexplainable. In the pilot, her partner and lover (played by Mark Valley) is

wounded by a strange disease that makes the skin transparent.

This disease struck a bunch of people on a plane at the beginning of the episode and killed everyone on the plane. Dunham must recruit the help of Walter Bishop (played by John Noble) and his son Peter Bishop (played by Joshua Jackson) to develop a way to save her partner's life and discover what the cause of this disease is.

The show is based on this team and their investigation of events where strange occurrences cannot be explained by our regular science but by an obscure pseudo science called Fringe Science.

Fringe Science includes ideas of teleportation, tissue regeneration, and other strange phenomenas.

I remember when the show first aired in 2008, it was being described as the new X-Files. I've never seen X-Files but I imagine they're right about that. With a mind like JJ Abrams, how can the show go wrong right?

Well lets look into it and start with the characters.

The show stars Olivia Dunham, played by Anna Torv. I had never heard of Anna Torv before Fringe and I haven't heard of her since. I don't really know what to think of that. Perhaps now that the show is cancelled she'll get into more thing but I don't know.

I have to give them credit for having a female lead. It's not done very often and its hard to do. But if anybody can do it, its JJ Abrams. I can talk more about female characters in another post but Fringe does it right... for the most part.

The honest truth is the first half hour of the pilot is really boring because its focusing just on Olivia Dunham. I don't think its because she's female I think its just her character. She's not that exciting. She's an FBI agent... there's not much said about her besides that and her relationship with Mark Valley. Now if you read my Once Upon a Time review, I may be critiquing a little too hard as this is just the pilot and development happens throughout the series but Dunham was just boring for me, almost throughout. She reminds me of Alice from the crappy Alice and Wonderland reboot done by Tim Burton. She's just kind of wandering in this world of insanity and the other characters are the focus. She's just the vehicle for the audience. And maybe that's a good role for her. However based on the first episode, she's not the part that made it.

Enter the Bishops.

Let's start in order of appearance. Peter Bishop is a very interesting character. Dunham finds him in Iraq of all places trying to get away from some dark past he left in the United States. He's a genius who forged his way into MIT, and he does have a very interesting back story.

I remember Joshua Jackson from the Mighty Ducks. That's all I know him from, I wish he would do more as well, I think he's a talented actor. I think he made things very interesting in this show.

From the very beginning, Peter Bishop is portrayed as a fast talking charismatic character who wants to get away from his past and his father. He's kind of like a genius Han Solo, especially the way he calls Dunham "sweetheart" but he's also set up as the skeptic. The one who sees what is happening in this Fringe Science and says, it's impossible, or this is insane.

From the get go you know there's going to be sexual tension between him and Dunham even when her Mark Valley's character is still alive (spoilers). However, the show with just the two of them would not be enough. Peter Bishop, though an interesting character, could not make up for the blandness of Olivia Dunham

But he's the precursor to the person I think really steals the show.

John Noble plays Walter Bishop. A scientist who used to do questionable science experiments in the 60s in Fringe Science. The incident that happens on the plane and to Mark Valley's character is a phenomena based on his research and he becomes the mind responsible for fixing that problem.

The first scene with him is in the psych ward he's been confined to. He's described as insane and there are a couple lines he has throughout the pilot that are hilarious and confirm the fact he's quite insane.

But at the same time you can see his brilliance and his mind working whenever the science is involved.

Like I said, I think John Noble really steals the show and its really when he comes into play and starts working that things in the pilot get really good.

The three of them realize that the only way to save Mark Valley's character is to find the man who

caused him to be infected by the disease. The problem is that Mark Valley's character is the only one who saw him.

So what's the solution? Link brain waves between Dunham and her partner through their dreams and see the face of the suspect through the linking of the mind.

That... is... awesome...

Like I said before, I had watched this episode when it first came out in 2008. When I watched it then I thought this idea was so very cool. Now in 2013, I watched it not remembering what happened... and I thought it was even cooler.

So it works, they find the guy and they manage to find a cure for Mark Valley's character. However, its discovered that Mark Valley's character actually knew about the suspect from the beginning and may have had something to do with the plane infection. Dunham chases him down but he crashes his car and dies. After that Dunham is recruited to a special team to investigate occurrences similar to that of the plane infection and that's the pilot of the show.

This pilot does it right. Two hours did feel like a long time but it gave the audience the ability to get used to the dynamic of the team and get excited for future investigations. It also gives great easy explanations of this Fringe science to make people think they understand it and wonder at the possibility of it actually happening. The brainwave connection, probably impossible, especially since it includes LSD, is executed perfectly.

So overall, Fringe gets out of the gate with a pretty strong beginning. As long as Olivia Dunham develops as a character a little bit more and becomes a little less bland, the show has a really good set up. It gives the audience an idea of whats to come but still alludes to secrets that are left to be found out which is phenomenal.

At the beginning I was skeptical and thought the hype over Fringe was overstated. Now I'm not quite sure. We'll have to see what other shows I look into before I make my final decision.

So what do you think? Have you seen Fringe? Again, what shows do you think I should give a shot?