TALES FROM THE FISHBOWL
“I can’t believe there’s a holiday where a jolly prowler breaks into your house and leaves gifts” – Squidward Tentacles
I FEEL AS IF THIS IS GOING TO BE A EULOGY, as all signs indicate that this may be this show’s final season. But I shall still weigh in since so many of the television intelligencia (?) has already. Fringe premiered on september 9th, 2008 and was created by J.J. Abrams of Felicity and Alias fame and co-conspirators Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci. When the show aired, the comparisons were immediate to another FBI centered supernatural series, The X-Files: The granddaddy of serialized sci-fi television. While some comparisons are obvious (FBI, encompassing story arc, on FOX), the two shows couldn’t be more different. While The X-Files’ central theme was one man’s search for “the truth” and his missing sister, Fringe is all about defending the world from the threats of bugnuts science with equally bugnuts science! The series focuses on kick ass FBI agent Olivia Dunham, played by the ravishing Anna Torv (Niece of “billionare tyrant” Rupert Murdoch. His words). After an unusual mass murder involving a commercial airliner, she is assigned to a department of the bureau called Fringe Division. It’s led by Homeland Security agent Philip Broyles (Lance Reddick) who starts off acting like one of those annoyed black leutenants from any given cop movie from the 80’s but grows to become one of the stronger supporting characters on the show. Fringe Division deals specifically with crimes committed by means of what is known as “fringe science”. The division eventually discovers that the crimes are part of an elaborate network of events known as The Pattern, as if the world itself is being experimented on. To combat the threat, the division recruits the one person who can solve the bizarre cases: Dr Walter Bishop, played by the incomperable John Noble who is known to geekdom as Denethor the Steward Of Gondor in the Lord Of The Rings movies. He is the quintessential mad scientist and for that he is institutionalized for an accident that happened almost 20 years prior. He needs a next of kin to be his legal guardian to be outside. Enter his smart ass and brilliant son Peter Bishop, played by the far from removed Dawson’s Creek Joshua Jackson. His intelligence rivials his father’s and is the one person to keep him straight. So, Agent Dunham and the Bishops, under the direction of Broyles, set forth to solve various scintific crimes and mysteries. That is the simple explanation of the show, but the show is hardly that simple. I can’t say anymore without spoiling the overall series or having three or four more pages of exposition. As of this writiing, the show is on its fourth, and possibly final, season as noted earlier. So it would be prudent for you to get the first three seasons on DVD and then catch up with this season on hulu.com. You will not be dissapointed as with other serialized television (I’m looking in your direction LOST!).