Tuesday, September 09, 2008
J.J. Abrams is about set to introduce the next big thing on television, and so we took it upon ourselves to consider reviewing it. After a solid couple months of considering, contemplating and pondering, we got to the watching, and subsequently the reviewing.
J.J. Abrams is on fire. First (technically not first, but for the sake of what's pertinent to this review, technically yes first), he created Lost, which is now one of the most popular programs broadcast today. I know Alias came first, but Lost is arguably the greater and more noteworthy of the two shows, although I wouldn't know first-hand because I never got into the former. Up next was Cloverfield, which may not have flipped the horror film genre on its ear as intended, but it did more than stir up a bit of commotion. Aside from those projects, he's also in charge of the next Star Trek movie, which is causing all sorts of buzz, even though its slated release date is somewhere in the middle of next year. So what's a simple Abrams to do while he waits for more money to swim into his pockets? How about some dabbling in a field Michael Crichton is no stranger to - pseudoscience.
Fringe is a science-fiction show which borrows from all of the biggest and best to come before it. There's the Alias/Lost-style overarching mythology, the eerie X-Files sense of other-worldliness and government cover-up operations, and of course the macabre moments which could've easily been ripped straight out of a Twilight Zone episode. But what sets Fringe apart from these behemoths is its characters. Abrams introduces Fringe loaded and ready with your average white American couple, but followers of the man's work already know that these two aren't destined to play the typical protagonist part. Instead, Abrams nearly kills his leading man before the second act, beating his initial Lost script to the punch, as it saw the hero-doctor Jack bite the dust after half an hour of screen time. Abrams is always looking to throw his viewers for a loop, whether he seeks to shock us with the use of the coveted mindfuck, or more subtly with a metaphorical "pull the chair out from under 'em."
Speaking of metaphors, Trekkies will take note of the influence (or perhaps coincidence) derived from their beloved space voyage series. Often times in Fringe, a character will explain a complex procedure that an average person may not understand. And since that average person may be you at home, sitting on your couch, the characters relieve potential headaches by means of a simple metaphor. This is a good thing, as it broadens accessibility and gives smarter viewers the opportunity to brag about knowing what's going on before you do.
All homages and blatant rip-offs aside, Fringe started off with a very compelling pilot, and it better have with a ten-million dollar budget. The show's core entities include a nutjob doctor, described as a cross between Frankenstein and Albert Einstein, his son who - a genius though he may be - doesn't agree with his father's eccentricities and confidence in false sciences, and finally the female FBI agent I mentioned earlier. After working the case of a mysterious act of terrorism, Olivia (the FBI agent) is forced to reunite the father and son, and work with them to uncover the truth behind the attack. Also starring is Lance Reddick, who plays Olivia's superior, and only late into the pilot reveals his actual agenda. If truth be told, not much of what you see during the first half of Fringe's pilot is an accurate representation of things to come. By the show's end, the plot has taken several violent twists and turns, and ultimately left me feeling satisfied but curious - a feeling I'm all too familiar with after four seasons of Lost.
Fringe puts its characters in an interesting predicament. It would seem that the only means of obtaining the information they require is by means of pseudoscientific practices - basically any practices that claim to be scientific but don't follow the scientific method. What this means is things like mind-control, dream-sharing and telekinesis are all fair game for show material. In fact, one of those three mechanisms is explored during the pilot, and there are several others mentioned. Oftentimes compared to the X-Files in this aspect, Fringe differentiates itself by maintaining less paranormal and more scientific overtones. The result isn't so much a ghost chase, but a chase ending in the capture of a man whose cell phone exploded in his hand, singing off the skin of his pursuer and leaving he him unscathed. How is that possible? Pseudoscience makes it possible.
Fringe is a show that has a lot to offer, especially to bigtime sci-fi junkies. It has the polish of a show that's been running for several seasons, and the characters have an intriguing sort of chemistry with one another. There's plenty of action with an equal amount of plot developing scenes, and no attention to detail is spared. My only hope is that the cancel-happy network executives at Fox have the sense to give Fringe the necessary time to grow into its potential.
Watch this episode of Fringe on Hulu.
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1 comments:
September 16, 2008 10:00 AM
Hey Ben, long time no see !
Love the wrs site !
How are things going ?
Dad