Pilot Inspektor: FOX's "Fringe"

Every once in a while a pilot comes along that is so perfect, such a shining indication of what the final series will be, so perfectly cast and directed, that it's impossible to look away.

That pilot, ladies and gentlemen, is definitely FOX's phenomenal science-tinged drama Fringe.

In a nutshell, Fringe is The X-Files for the new millennium: eerie, gripping, and still haunting even after the final credits have rolled, albeit containing an overt (rather than subtle) humor that never existed in that series. In this case, the aliens aren't from outer space: they're the mega-corporations that dot the American landscape, pushing science and technology past their limits and exploiting that for their own gain. It poses several ethical questions: when does the pursuit of scientific discovery go too far? Who is monitoring the rapid advances in technology in today's day and age? And what happens when a scientist--or a group of scientists--decides that the world is their laboratory?

Longtime readers of this site know my longstanding love for the pilot script, from Transformers scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman... who previously worked with executive producer J.J. Abrams on his seminal ABC series Alias and on the feature films Mission Impossible III and Star Trek. My original review of Fringe's pilot script from last October can be found here.

A quick recap: a German plane self lands at Boston's Logan Airport with no signs of life on board and the windows covered in what appears to be blood. An inter-agency team is quickly assembled to investigate the incident; a team which includes Agents Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and her secret lover/colleague John Scott (Boston Legal's Mark Valley) and is overseen by Philip Broyles (Lost's Lance Reddick). Broyles puts Olivia onto a possible lead involving a storage facility; they discover a makeshift lab, which their suspect detonates, unleashing a wave of chemicals onto Agent Scott... and then he escapes into the night. Looking for a way to save John's life, Olivia tracks down the only man capable of saving him: Dr. Walter Bishop (Lord of the Rings' John Noble), a genius scientific researcher who had been committed to a mental hospital years before. But the only way she can get to him is through his estranged son, Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), a genius misfit with no love lost for his father.

Still with me? During his years working on a classified project for the US government, Walter Bishop investigated the shady area of fringe science (ha, not just a clever name), studying things like teleportation, telepathy, reanimation: the inexplicable things hovering on the, well, fringes of pure science.

The produced pilot of Fringe, which I ran home to watch last evening, doesn't differ all that much from the written script. Under the master direction of Alex Graves (Journeyman), it's even more taut, suspenseful, humorous, and downright scary as the pilot script but now has the added benefit of a top-notch cast and stunning visuals. Hell, even the on-screen graphics that announce the varied locations of the pilot episode are creative and innovative, existing not so much as words on the screen but words embedded in the actual landscape, through which the camera moves like thick smoke. It's a genius visual and one that gives the action a distinctive and unique flair. And the special effects--particularly those involving Agent Scott's transformation into a transparent, crystalline structure--are absolutely breathtaking.

As Olivia Dunham, Australian newcomer Anna Torv is transcendent. Once again proving that no one picks a star in the making like J.J. Abrams, Torv is positively radiant on screen, effortlessly combining the steeliness of Jennifer Garner with the soulfulness of Cate Blanchett. Simply put: she's riveting, whether she's jumping off the roof of a building or climbing into a sensory deprivation tank. You can almost see the wheels turning in her head as she begins to put the pieces of this puzzle together as she begins to see that isolated and inexplicable incidents may be linked, as she begins to see The Pattern.

In reading the original pilot script last year, I was a little concerned with how the character of Dr. Walter Bishop would really be portrayed: it's a difficult character to play, one gifted with genius and cursed with madness and the line between the two facets of his personality seem pretty darned blurred when Fringe first begins. In the gifted hands of John Noble, Walter does spring to life and his scenes are master classes in the making: at once heartbreaking (he's unable to find the appropriate words when he first lays eyes on his son after 17 years), disturbing (he admits he's wet himself in the car), and hilarious (his astonished amusement at SpongeBob SquarePants).

As for Joshua Jackson, he seems as though he hasn't ever left television. He is such a natural as the gifted and misunderstood Peter, so adept at running from his problems, that it almost seems written for him. Jackson gets to play wry, sardonic, and romantic, sometimes all in the same breath. The chemistry between him and Torv is outright palpable as much as both of their characters might fight against it. The scene in which she disrobes in order to slip into the tank is so understated (and Peter's awkwardness and attraction to Olivia so apt) that it's easy to root for them. ('Shippers, start your engines now.)

Fringe could have been a bleak, darker-than-dark series but instead the tension and foreboding atmosphere are abated by the inclusion of some off-kilter humor, often from Walter Bishop himself. And, hell, there's even a cow. But these moments aren't overused, still shining like little gems among the darkness of the rest of the plot.

Ultimately, Fringe is spellbinding television, flawlessly setting up both an intricate overarching mythology (another J.J. Abrams specialty) as well as the possibility for self-contained procedural storytelling, a rare combination and one that will undoubtedly work for the series in the long run. As for this jaded critic, I'm going to be the first one in line for what promises to be yet another dizzying and mind-opening J.J. Abrams rollercoaster ride.

Fringe launches with a two-hour premiere on August 26th on FOX.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: NCIS (CBS; 8-10 pm); Most Outrageous Moments/Most Outrageous Moments (NBC); Reaper (CW); Dancing with the Stars (ABC); American Idol (FOX)

9 pm: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC); Reaper (CW); Dancing with the Stars (ABC; 9-11 pm); Hell's Kitchen (FOX)

10 pm: Shark (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC)

What I'll Be Watching

8-10 pm: Britcoms on BBC America.

I don't know about you but by Tuesday night, I'm usually in need of some comedy in my life. Why not stick around on Tuesday nights for BBC America's new comedy lineup, consisting of classic episodes of Coupling, new comedy Not Going Out, and Absolutely Fabulous? You'll thank me in the morning.