Fringe: Season 1

Like Arrow, this review is a longtime coming.

I watched the pilot of Fringe last November. It was the start of my series of pilots that I watched that really didn't go the way I thought they were going to go. I thought I was going to end up watching Fringe, then Arrow, and probably never finish Once Upon a Time. (Screw all the other shows I watched) Instead it was the exact opposite. I watched Once Upon a Time, Arrow, then Fringe. Why is that?

For me, Fringe is a very difficult show to really say whether I love it, or think its boring and slow as hell.

There are a lot of elements of the show that I really, REALLY like. But at the same time, there are weird small things that are small enough to be difficult to point out, yet big enough to make me question watching the rest of it.

As stated in the pilot review, Fringe follows the story of a secret task force in the FBI that investigates unexplainable phenomenas only explained by the controversial Fringe Science. Things like telepathy, hypnosis, teleportation, and lots of other paranormal and unexplainable occurrences.

The main team is FBI agent Olivia Dunham (played by Anna Torv), an ambitious woman interested in the facts and the logical explanation to things. Dunham recruits the help of a disgraced scientist who has been in a mental institution for decades and allegedly performed illegal and unethical experiments on his  test subjects. This scientists name is Walter Bishop (played by John Noble). The final member of the trio is Walter's son Peter Bishop (played by Joshua Jackson) a brilliant shady fellow who faked his degree at MIT and has been on the run for the majority of his adult life.

This is the first big thing that must be mentioned about the characters in the show.

This relationship was awesome. -------->

John Noble and Joshua Jackson have one of the most unique and yet most familiar father son relationship on television and its just entertaining as hell. If this show was just about Peter and Walter Bishop, I would think this show was absolutely brilliant... with a couple of miss steps along the way as well, but I'll get to those.

By themselves, both actors give a superb performance. I think the show doesn't allow for them to really get into the acting that they could really do given the opportunity, but the two work with what they have and the little in depth character development we do get out of these two is very, very good.

Walter becomes more than an aloof comic relief and Peter becomes so much more than the Han Solo renegade of the group.

And that's not to say I really don't like Olivia Dunham in this show, she does add a lot to the show, especially later in the season. But she's not nearly as interesting as Peter and Walter. There are so many episodes were these two steal the show and its even better when the two have entire episodes about their relationship. I wish there was more developing them as characters, more than there already is that is.

There are some really good episodes focused on Walter and Peter, Walter more than Peter, but they are done very, very well.

And then there's Olivia.

Again, its not that Olivia is a bad character. She's just not that developed.

I never really felt like I knew who Olivia was. She always just seemed like she was the vehicle, the blank space I've made mention to multiple times. She's the Neo, the boring protagonist who is the focus of the show and yet only brings us along so we can see the things we actually want to see, like John Noble and the crazy things that happen in his laboratory.

For the majority of the show, there's really not much known about Olivia, at least not enough to really tell me what kind of person she is. The episodes that are ABOUT Olivia are the episodes where she holds a psychic link between her memories and the memories of her dead partner (played by Mark Valley). These episodes were great, but not because we really learned anything about Olivia. She felt betrayed by his partner, she is haunted by his memories. Betrayal, not really something new, people being haunted by the memories of their loved ones, just awesome!

Eventually they start doing a little bit of development when they bring in her sister and eventually delve into her past, but when things are revealed about her past, its very quick, doesn't give much build up and again, just isn't as intriguing as the Bishops, or the guest stars the episodes dwell on.

The way I said before that Peter and Walter become more than what they were created as in the first episode, that doesn't exactly happen to Olivia. She still maintains skepticism, she still maintains her denying of things that happen right in front of her pretty much till the end of the first season even though every episodes has shown how crazy things can get.

Luckily, with the Bishops, Dunham becomes interesting enough to carry the show between the three of them.

Could the Bishops carry the show without her, yes. But that's not important.

The characters outside of the trio are interesting enough and I think they actually get a little more attention then the main characters do sometimes.

The lack of development of these characters I think is attributed to the confused direction of the show in the first season (I can't speak for the later seasons). Some (most actually) episodes are episodic procedurals. Each episode brings in the new mystery of the week and these episodes were good... sort of.

Maybe I'm more into the serials than the procedurals, a cohesive large storyline then the weekly adventure (excuse me if i got the terminology wrong). I wanted to know the huge mystery behind all of this about 15 episodes before there was an actual hint of an overarching storyline, because honestly, if the show was looking to connect the events (which I don't think its doing for all of it) there's a lot of events and even where they are doing it intentionally, I'd have difficulty remembering certain episodes and connecting it to the big overarching story because there are so many events that happen and they're so unique.

But if all these events aren't significant, it kind of makes the overarching story not as epic. I don't know if any of that makes sense but I think the source of all my frustration is in episode 18 of the season.

In episode 18, Dunham brings up that since she has started working the Fringe Division, a lot of people have died. This is the first time that they can actually get some traction and make a difference... This is in response to a terrorist organization they finally put all the events of the first season under as a campaign of biological attack. I guess that's the only way they can classify this, but the thing that bothers me is... Episode 18?!?!?! They waited till Episode 18 to really make any traction?!?!?! They've been running in circles for 18 episodes!?!?!

And that's really the biggest problem with the season. While the episodes are dark, fascinating, and get you hooked, you finish up the episode wondering, okay, have they gotten any closer to a larger goal, they haven't figured out the man behind the curtain as it were. Its not until episode 18 that they really figure out what is going on. Before that, they're really just spinning their wheels. And without proper character development, it gets kind redundant.

Does it pay off in the end? Somewhat, the last few episodes are really good and that's when they start talking about alternate dimensions and delve into more well known and probably more far fetched theories of Fringe Science, but until then, its kind of difficult because you can't really put a name on the overarching bad guy, you don't know what exactly they're fighting quite yet.

I think I would have been fine if this show had stuck to one method or the other, either make it a week to week procedural, like a paranormal Criminal Minds or have an over arching story. While the end result isn't the worst thing that could ever happen, I had a difficult time finding a reason to continue watching. I would watch an episode, feel satisfied with what I just watched and as far as I was concerned, the show could be cancelled next week and I wouldn't feel empty.

The question I actually pose now that I've had a few days to think about it is, What does this show, and other shows say about J.J. Abrams?

On gut instinct, I would probably say I really like J.J. Abrams. When I was younger and all these TV shows were coming out, I'd see J.J. Abrams, see the hype reviews about the show and correlate the two. If Lost was good, J.J. Abrams must be a great director and writer.

But then I really take a look at what the man has actually done.

Alias, I don't care for. I've only watched a couple episodes but I'm not overly impressed by it.

Lost, watched 5 seasons, enjoyed it but never felt totally fulfilled, or didn't love it enough not to get sick of it and just stop watching it the same way I lost steam while reading the Harry Potter books.

Fringe, well, I like it and yet feel restless, like its right on the cusp of being something I could love but is missing something.

Then we get into movies.

Mission Impossible 3. I really don't like that movie. Its not the worst movie ever made but again, something right on the cusp of being something I would love but falling short.

Super 8, really didn't care for it.

The one thing that I can point to with Abrams is Star Trek. I did love the Star Trek films.

Despite its lens flairs, I really did love the first Star Trek film and the second one was just as good if not, in my opinion better.

Now, that is despite the second movie having some problems that I can acknowledge. Maybe Khan wasn't as great as he could have been, yada yada yada. But I really enjoyed the second film.

I think I'm a lot less skeptical of Abrams now since I've seen Star Trek, but a part of me still is kind of wary of the guy. Only one of the projects I mentioned I really loved. The rest were either good but not quite good enough, or just decent to not good at all.

And this is the man we're handing Star Wars over to?

I'm not saying Abrams won't do his best with Star Wars... or at least he'll try. I definitely think the man cannot be convicted of not trying.

But the more I think about Fringe, and other projects I wasn't wild about, I get a little nervous about Abrams taking the helm on Star Wars. He's just always been that director I've been on the fence of being a total fan of or not liking him at all.

I really hope my wariness is unfounded. Abrams seems to be busting his ass on Star Wars and the tailer makes me very excited (in case you didn't know from my review).

I don't know what it is because for normal people, there has always been a hype around Abrams, a hype I guess I never got on board with. I really only got on board with him because everyone else has been.

Hopefully, I should have gotten on board a long time.

But, back to the point at hand. I think Abrams did a good job with Fringe, however there are a couple problems with the show, mainly the underdeveloped main character(s) and the feeling of the spinning of the wheels for the majority of the season.

The good thing is, I think I want to continue watching. The reveal of alternate dimensions, an actual overarching storyline, and Leonard Lemoy as William Bell are all things that make me very excited for the second season. Hopefully it doesn't take me over a year to get past that one, but who knows. I'm sorry if this review turned into a rant on J.J. Abrams but its all relevant... I hope...

But those are my thoughts on Fringe. What do you think? Is it your favorite show of all time? Without spoilers, comment and discuss below! And follow me on Twitter and get updates on future reviews and posts. @cmhaugen24

I'll leave you with this. Despite having my uncertainties about him, J.J Abrams, the guy just seems like a very sincere fun guy. What the hell, here's his ALS Ice Bucket Challenge video. At least its not a Cracked video. Enjoy!