I once read how Gillian Anderson described the winning formula for the X-Files. All you needed was a mysterious menace, a room so dark that you needed flashlights to explore it, and Scully yelling "Mulder!" I couldn't help but think of this after watching the first two episodes of FRINGE. There's plenty of hunting by flashlights, whether it's an airplane with all the passengers killed, a storage unit that contains a mysterious lab, or an operating lab where a mad scientist extracts pituitary glands from helpless women. You have to wonder, why don't the federal agents ever turn on the lights?
I was really looking forward to Fringe, given that JJ Abrams knows how to produce an incredibly slick TV show; I was devoted to Felicity, Alias, and LOST (and still a devotee of that show). Fringe features a strong female lead character, just like Alias did, played by newcomer Anna Torv. The production values on Fringe are incredible and it actually looks as good or better than most feature films. Fringe is really designed to be the successor to X-Files for Fox, but what happens you produce a clone from a source that wasn't entirely functional? Michael Keaton had the answer: Multiplicity.
Instead of the alien mythology, we have a mysterious "Pattern" that is referred to by Agent Broyles (Lance Reddick from the Wire). Apparently the Pattern can be responsible for just about anything, from rapidly aging fetuses to reanimating dead corpses. It sounds like the writers have an idea what the Pattern is, but it will be slowly dribbled out over the lifetime of the show, which if it goes the way Fox wants, it will be over five years!
Instead of Fox Mulder getting involved in the alien conspiracy after the abduction of his sister, Fringe's Agent Olivia Dunham (played by Anna Torv) gets hooked because of her boyfriend, another federal agent played by Mark Valley. As soon as I saw Mark Valley's name associated with Fringe, I started to cringe. Valley's been associated with more failed TV shows than any other actor I can think of, not necessarily his fault, he just seems, well, cursed somehow. From the moment I saw Valley in bed with Torv's character, I knew he wasn't going to last until the end of the episode. But surprise--Valley's character is wrapped up in the conspiracy of the Pattern. He's supposed to be dead at the end of the pilot, but we see his corpse being wheeled into a lab at the Big Evil Corporation Massive Dynamics. And we continue to see Valley's name in the credits. He'll be back, but this invites another comparison to X-Files, Valley might be kind of like Alex Krycek, the character who keeps coming back to beguile Fox Mulder.
Instead of the X-Files Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), we get Lance Reddick as Torv's boss. In the pilot, he's just as gruff and skeptical as Skinner used to be. But when you start to see Torv's character flying to Iraq to recruit Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), opening up a closed laboratory in Harvard to setup his father, Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble), you start to wonder, how is it this lady is spending all this government money so easily? In the real world it would take ages to do all this stuff. By the end of the pilot, Broyles' resistance to Dunham has mysteriously evaporated, because Broyles wants to investigate anything related to the Pattern! Ta-da! Let's form a secret squad of agents! Now we have a formula for a TV show.
The X-Files was successful (for at least the first five years, in my opinion) because the two leads were polar opposites. You had Mulder, who believed in aliens and the supernatural, and then you had the Scully character, the skeptical unbeliever that questions the fantastic at every turn. Fringe tries to do that with Peter Bishop, who questions his father's kooky ideas at every turn. But this is the weakest and least thought out character on the show. Peter's resistance quickly fades and he winds up helping the team solve whatever needs to be solved. You can tell there's going to be some romantic tension between Peter and Olivia, but it's too contrived and happening too quickly. The X-Files did better by keeping Mulder and Scully at arm's length for years until they got desperate.
Perhaps the one element of Fringe that does not have an X-Files comparison is Dr. Walter Bishop. He's the scientist that did all this crazy research in 70s, but wound up in a mental institution. That same research has been used by other crazy scientists and the Massive Dynamics corporation. Basically, whatever evil thing is whipped out by the Pattern, Bishop can whip out a solution by the end of the episode. But wait, isn't Bishop kind of like the eccentric Lone Gunmen, all wrapped up in one tidy convenient character?
I loved the X-Files, despite all of the faults it had. Tying in the alien mythology with Roswell, Area 51, and Mulder's father all drew me in. It was a great mystery, unfortunately it never paid off in the end. The standalone horror episodes were usually very well done. But at least the characters were clearly defined and played well against each other. Mulder had to deal with Skinner and his superiors as much as he did the Cigarette Smoking Man. The FBI was opposed to Mulder going out and researching alien activities. That grounded the story more in the real world, and it ultimately made Mulder more heroic by doing things on his own.
With Fringe, I just can't believe the US government is spending all this dough on the whole Pattern mystery. The actors are doing a great job, especially Reddick and John Noble as the mad scientist. He had a touching moment at the end of the 2nd episode, where his son sings "Row Row Your Boat" to help him sleep. I thought Torv was just beautiful in the first episode, almost like she was Cate Blanchett's little sister or something...then in the second episode, we see her face more clearly in daylight. She's still pretty, but flawed (kind of pimply), thanks to HD broadcast. Joshua Jackson can be smartass funny at times, but I still think of Dawson's Creek when I see him. Pacey, your girfriend is married to Tom Cruise!
But if you like dark rooms and flashlights, Fringe is a great show. At the climatic moment in the 2nd episode, when Dunham finally finds the guy hacking out the pituitary glands, Torv's face is illuminated by a flashing yellow warning light. Creepy, but not creepy enough. I'll watch Dexter instead. Nuff said.
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