Pop Vultures

With the new television season about to start, the buzz about some high profile shows is kicking into high gear, and few shows are buzzing quite as loudly as Fringe, the new sci-fi drama by J.J. Abrams. It was the only new show screened at last weekend’s Edinburgh TV festival, a screening that came complete with its own six-page prequel comic book. The show was heavily promoted at Comic Con, and fan sites have popped up before the first episode has even aired. Does Fringe have a hope of living up to the hype?

I’m happy to report that it is, in fact, a good show, though it suffers from the rough edges so often seen in pilot episodes. For the moment, let’s call it 75% good, with the potential for higher marks down the road.

Since you can’t have a J.J. Abrams show without some sort of conspiracy, the basic premise of the show involves government-backed hyper-intelligent pseudo-scientists who specialize in fringe science – astral projection, telepathy, etc. – who are pitted against a corporation run by another hyper-intelligent pseudo-scientist who appears to have malevolent intentions, up to and including experimenting on the human race for kicks. You know, that old story.

Of course it’s a silly premise, but where the show succeeds is the way it embraces the silliness while still telling a dramatic story, The real stars of the show are the two good guy scientists, the father and son team of Walter and Peter Bishop (played by John Noble and Joshua Jackson, respectively). Their incessant bickering allows the show to poke a bit of fun at the preposterous “science” (when they take a cue from The Princess Bride by including a “mostly dead” corpse, you know we’re not dealing with anything approximating facts). The viewer can laugh along with them instead of rolling their eyes. Noble is an absolute delight as the mostly crazy Walter, and Jackson is a big old walking pile of charisma. I have no idea why his career stalled a bit in the last few years, but it’s good to have him back on weekly television. He is able to deliver some truly bad dialogue with honesty and style, a skill he likely picked up after several seasons on Dawson’s Creek. If it was the Walter & Peter Show, I’d happily give it a 95% mark.

However, the other characters need to step it up a bit if they want to hang with the Bishops. The ostensible lead, Olivia Dunham (played by Anna Torv) basically spends the pilot rushing around, trying to save her lover. She’s also a government do-gooder determined to bring down the bad guys. Still, desperate and determined do not a three-dimensional character make, and she’s got a long ways to go before I actually start to care about her. Lance Reddick (The Wire) is also on board as Olivia’s superior, and though we see very little of him, he brings a strong sense of authority and gravitas to the role. Hopefully, the character will be given more to do in future episodes than argue with Olivia.

The overall look of the show is sleek and stylish, of course, with the saturated hues of Alias or Lost, Abrams’ previous shows, replaced with the dark, washed out look of a city in winter. It works, in this case, by grounding the unreal plots in a grubby, believable setting. Although the first episode does little more than gather the key characters together and establish the show’s premise, the stylized editing moves the plot swiftly along. Fringe grabs the viewer and whisks them along, rarely giving them time to dwell on the show’s weaknesses. The show may look dark, but it feels like a really fun ride — one I plan to take again.