So... Fringe. J.J. Abrams is at it again. Not satisfied with thrilling espionage junkies with the decidedly underrated Alias and dementing half of the world's population with the indecipherable-yet-indispensable Lost, now he's gone all X-Files on our asses. Except, in the show's self-imposed parameters, he hasn't. This is a programme about the possible, people. We're talking FRINGE science ladies and gentlemen... and in case you didn't get that, that's science that we're on the cusp of, that's within our grasp, that we could see being an actual possibility meagre years into the future. Like, maybe a gigantic black hole machine that re-creates the Big Bang?
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist).
Okay, so, given that the executive producers of this rather slickly produced, wonderfully directed and, to be fair, quite strongly scripted new series want us all to invest in the show’s science, to acknowledge that it is all perfectly plausible, you’d think they’d tone down the completely fantastical (and frankly, technobabble laden) explanations and resolutions that seem to run rampant through each of the show’s first three episodes. First, we get our central character (superbly cast and pleasingly three-dimensional, it must be noted) suspended in a vat of liquid with some electrical device plonked on her head (while in an LSD-induced state), ‘entering’ her comatose boyfriend’s dreams to communicate with him. Riiiight. Next, it’s experiments to create clone soldiers resulting in a woman suddenly appearing pregnant and giving birth within about ten minutes, to a child that ages to around seventy-five years within the space of half an hour and then dies. Uh huuuuuh (oh yes, there’s also the ‘reading the last image a person ever saw from their retina using a projector’ bit in the same episode, but let’s forget about that for now). Finally, we have this week’s gem, a man who is ‘picking up’ radio transmissions on a top-secret bandwidth and having them translated into images in his mind. Our good kooky doctor manages to convert these to sound by, um, plonking some sort of electrical device on the guy’s head (hmm… haven’t seen that one before) and, viola, he’s speaking the words that are being transmitted over the ‘ghost radio’. Well, of course. I can see the boffins at Newcastle University doing just that next week.
I am, of course, being deliberately pedantic here. I must say, I am quite impressed with the show. Granted, it is a little formulaic; something unusual happens, the ‘fringe’ group enter the fray, Walter Bishop (ably played by the brilliant John Noble) remembers that he posited (the show’s favourite word) something similar years ago and that what is happening now is a direct result of what he did then, he comes up with some implausible method of acquiring a vital clue, vital clue is acquired, case is (relatively) solved. Add a dash of angst over the lead’s double-crossing deceased boyfriend (a nice twist in the pilot, by the way), sprinkle a liberal dose of indecipherable Massive Dynamic conspiracy (looking like a strong on-running story arc, a ‘mythology’ of sorts that we’re, pleasingly, only being treated to snippets of for the time being to amplify the intrigue) and stir with Joshua Jackson’s wooden spoon. Hey presto, an episode. But that’s being rather unfair. It’s a perfectly acceptable, and rather fulfilling, blueprint and it’s all done with such finesse that you’ll find you can’t help but return the following week. It has yet to amaze me, merely please, but I have every faith that it will sooner rather than later. It’s picking up pace; all Fringe needs to do now is hit the ground running. And just acknowledge that they’re dealing in the paranormal – then, a little paradoxically, we’d all have less trouble believing.
Oh yeah, Darin Morgan’s on the production staff too. That can only be a good thing.
101: ‘Pilot’ – 8.6
(Wr: J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman; Dr: Alex Graves)
102: ‘The Same Old Story’ – 8.3
(Wr: Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman, J.J. Abrams & Jeff Pinkner; Dr: Paul A. Edwards)
103: ‘The Ghost Network’ – 8.5
(Wr: J.R. Orci & David H. Goodman; Dr: Frederick E.O. Toye)
If you prefer your viewing experience via the medium of British broadcast television, you can ‘imagine the impossibilities’ from early October on Sky One. The billboards are everywhere people… if you miss it, you’ve got no-one to blame but yourself.
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