New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

This fall, BOP takes a look at every new show from the five broadcast networks. Armed with some strong coffee and our beloved TiVo, we'll slough through the entire slate of freshman dramas and comedies, weeding through the trash to find the new shows that are (surprise, surprise!) actually worth your time and energy.

This week on Watch What We Say: Bringing fringe science back to primetime television

JJ Abrams must have a really strong fear of flying. First, he kicks off his hit ABC show Lost with one of the more spectacular plane crashes in TV history and now, he brings Fringe to the Fox network with an opening sequence that involves no less than:

1) A plane barely managing to navigate a turbulence-inducing electrical storm
2) A distressed, panicked, diabetic passenger that stumbles disorientedly down the aisle
3) A disgusting, plague-like infection that infects every person on the plane (including the pilots), melting the skin of passengers and turning the entire scene into a live-action Salvador Dali painting

How much you wanna bet that JJ Abrams takes Greyhound when he has to visit his Vancouver shooting locations?

But we're not here to talk about Abrams' travel habits. Oh no. We're here to talk about Fringe. In an obvious effort to fill the sci-fi void left behind by The X-Files (of which I was a huge fan), Fox has turned to Abrams to craft a suspense-filled, well-acted and overall creepy-feeling show about a team of government investigators that study strange cases involving fringe science. The X-Files would have just called it "paranormal activity," but I digress.

The protagonist of Fringe is Agent Olivia Dunham, played with remarkable conviction by Anna Torv, a relative newcomer to the TV landscape. She, along with her co-worker/boyfriend, John Scott, are assigned to investigate the aforementioned "electrical-stormy-plane-crash-in-which-everyone-melted" event.

Along the way, we're introduced to a bevy of stoney-faced men in suits, none more intimidating than Agent Phillip Broyles. He's still POed about the fact that Dunham had successfully convicted his friend (a fellow Homeland Security agent) for statutory rape. While he sympathizes with his buddy, she sympathizes with the three rape victims, and this of course leads to a great deal of tension brimming just under the surface during all of their encounters.

When Scott becomes infected with the biological agent that led to the death of the passengers on the plane, Dunham puts her career and reputation on the line by risking everything to find a cure. Among her many questionable actions along the way is the decision to enlist the help of mad scientist Dr. Walter Bishop, who is clinically insane but had an extensive history working on the biological agent that afflicted both the flight's passengers and Scott. Also along for the ride is Bishop's son, Peter, who's both a genius and a sullen, spoiled boy.

Peter is played by Dawson's Creek-alum, Joshua Jackson, who (I'm sorry) couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. He still acts like he's on the WB – acting immature and pouty, never seeming to recognize the gravity of the situation surrounding him. Anna Torv is much better in the show's starring role. We really believe that this driven, meticulous woman would go to any length to save her boyfriend.

Continued:       1       2