reviewed by Charity Bishop
 

The pet project of creator J.J. Abrams, the brains behind LOST and ALIAS, the premise of Fringe is an unusual one somewhat reminiscent of the X-Files. Revolving around the mysteries surrounding a brilliant scientist turned madman, it unravels in a series of revelations leading up to an explosive finale.

Concern for terrorism is predominant in the minds of the FBI agent dispatched to look into the mystery surrounding a commercial flight from Germany that landed at the Boston airport without a single surviving passenger or crew member. Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) is assigned to look into the case along with her lover and partner, John Scott (Mark Valley), but when he suffers severe chemical burns, she is forced to seek out an expert on scientific advancement for his assistance. Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble) has been shut up in a mental institution for the past seventeen years and most of his controversial experiments have been hushed up. In order to get him out of lock-up, Olivia must convince his wayward son Peter (Joshua Jackson) to take full custody for his father. Peter has no interest in being of use to the federal government, but has problems of his own -- namely former estranged "business partners" in search of what is owed to them.

As the unlikely trio strive to safe John's life and discover the source of this airborne cotangent, they unearth clues that point them toward Massive Dynamic, a huge multimillion dollar scientific corporation funded by Walter's former lab partner. Potential terrorism notwithstanding, there is much more to Massive Dynamic, and to Walter Bishop, than meets the eye. Astounded with her new discoveries, Olivia reels from unexpected losses and attempts to prevent horrific incidents from transpiring, all while trying to piece together fragments of her own past to learn what is happening around her. The result is a fairly complicated but engaging program not for the faint of heart (the autopsies and grisly remains of various experiments gone wrong will turn even the most hardened of stomachs) but that with some patience and perseverance, rewards its viewers with cleverly planted clues leading up to the eventual climax.

Most of the episodes seem stand-alone but the truth is that they build on one another and if you miss one, it could take you hours to figure out where you left off. Walter has the distinction of being one of the most eccentric and humorous characters on television. The plain fact of the matter is -- he's half crazy and acts like it, whether he is asking for a soft drink at a crime scene or planting maggots in sandwich meat to see what happens next. He has a personal cow that shares his lab space (for milk, presumably) and tends to talk in his sleep. It's a brilliant performance by John Noble that makes Walter endearing as well as frustrating. It's not hard to see why Peter wanted nothing to do with it. The rest of the characters are equally engaging but not as memorable. Abrams has said that clever audiences can figure out what is coming next thanks to subtle clues planted throughout, but not having exerted the brain power to make a valiant attempt, I found it merely an engaging week-to-week mystery. It was not "must-see" television, but it was good television.

Being an adult program, it goes without saying that the content is sometimes unnerving and almost always gruesome. I'm accustomed to a fair amount of blood and gore (but don't care for it) and more than once this show had me a little grossed out by some of its graphic effects. What kind of effects? How about mutilated bodies in which the spine has been ripped partially out of the body, leaving it exposed in the corpse? Exposed brains? People's remains reduced to a puddle of goo? Bloodied crime scenes, and ghastly bio hazard experiments gone wrong. One cotangent seals off all orifices so mouths and noses disappear and the person suffocates to death. There are some brutal shoot-outs and explosions. In a particularly icky moment, a corpse's midsection bursts open to reveal a mass of rapidly-growing giant maggots. Brains liquefy and run out of noses and mouths in goopy grayish streams.

Sexual content is not particularly graphic but the first episode opens with Olivia and John in bed together. It's implied they have been sleeping together for quite awhile despite governmental policies. Later, she kisses passionately a former acquaintance and starts to undress but they are interrupted. In an experiment, she enters the consciousness of a man and so we see Olivia (instead of the man) ogling strippers in a club and kissing a woman. Olivia experiences everything the man does, and so the others overhear her in the trance heavily breathing and moaning. Walter is incredibly insensitive and blunt and on occasion makes indelicate sexual remarks. It contains occasional mild profanity.

There is a fair amount of questionable experimentation into psychic energy and related topics. More than once, Olivia is hypnotized (submerged half-dressed into a tank of water) in order to visit John's memories. One episode features around a young man capable of foretelling the future. Olivia discovers she has a mental link to other individuals with similar experiences. On one occasion, she believes that her subconscious is committing murders in her sleep when her dreams coincide with actual events. The show brings up a lot of questions about the moral ethics involved in scientific experimentation, and whether or not knowledge should allow others to "play God." The program is designed to make us question what we see and in that respect is even more interesting than a straightforward television show. It is not quite as original as the X-Files, but is a reasonable recent alternative, and attempt in the same vein to approach the sci-fi genre in a different format than little green aliens.