Tuesday, September 09, 2008

"Fringe": The pilot



The cast of "Fringe" hopes you'll make them appointment TV. Photo by Fox.com

A disclaimer: I saw the pilot back in July at Comic-Con. (If you don't go, you should REALLY check it out. Tonight, I rewatched and it confirmed what I knew back then: This is a really GOOD show.

Of course it comes from JJ Abrams who knows how to create good shows. See "Lost" and "Alias" and of course "Felicity".

"Fringe" starts with a plane in a really bad electrical storm. Lightening is striking and the plane is jostling everywhere. A nervous passanger is sweating profusely and injects himself with a substance. He then tries to go to the front of the plane and a flight attendant struggles to put him back in his seat and then she sees that he's infected with a virus that makes the skin transparent and what's worse, it's spreading through the plane.

The plane lands safely and all aboard are dead. Agent Olivia Dunham is assigned to the case after struggling with Homeland Security Agent Phillip Broyales. They try to figure out what's going on with the plane. Dunham is keeping a secret, she's having an affair with another agent. After her boyfriend, Agent Scott, is hurt, she looks for the one person who can help him. That leads her to mad scientist Dr. Walter Bishop and his son Peter.

Peter is in Iraq brokering shady deals when Olivia asks for his help in getting his father to share the information needed to help Agent Scott. The Trail leads to a powerful company, Massive Dynamic, and it's liason Nina Sharp who as a secret or two of her own.

Bishop then tries some "fringe" science on Olivia to allow her to get into Agent Scott's head to see the face of the person who injured him. After the guy is captured, we learn that Agent Scott is actually a DOUBLE AGENT and a bad guy. He's killed and Dunham is offered a her own team to investigate paranormal activity. Meanwhile, we learn that Massive Dynamics has claimed Agent Scott's body and that he can be questioned after being dead for five hours!

That being said, the show seems to be a gorier version of "X-Files" and a little "La Femme Nikta" involved.

I'm onboard, for now. I hope you will be too.