J.J. Abrams may be in all the headlines right now for his reboot of the “Star Trek” movies, but back in the medium he’s most famous for, his creative team has been cranking out more down-to-earth fiction over the last seven months. Seven years after “The X Files” TV series ended, Abrams has graced us with that show’s spiritual successor. On its surface, FOX’s “Fringe” deals in crime-fighting and the paranormal. But the show, just ending its first season, has evolved into more of a serial mythology about the dark side of science.
Continuing his penchant for one-named series, “Fringe” concerns the work of a branch of the FBI — the aptly named “fringe division” — in solving a rash of mysterious crimes in and around New England. Among the oddities: biological mutations, combustible people, and crazy, half-human beasts. In the wake of such catastrophes, Agent Olivia Dunham, the show’s heroine, is forced to team up with bad boy Peter Bishop and his mad-scientist father Walter to solve the mystery each week.
What started as the Scooby Doo of biological oddities has, over the course of the season, started sowing the seeds of its overlying mythology of shady corporations, underground child-testing, creepy men without eyebrows and a bizarre rash of crimes known as “the Pattern.”
Every week, the pieces of puzzle grow more complicated, and the strange histories of Dunham and Bishop have started to unravel.
Of course, none of this science mumbo-jumbo would be compelling without the strong performances of the main cast members. At first merely serviceable, the actors who play Bishop and Dunham, Joshua Jackson and newcomer Anna Torv, respectively, have grown into their roles as the smarmy sidekick and hard-nosed detective. They are fun to watch as they solve the crime of the week.
But it is the quirky, memory-addled Walter Bishop, played by veteran actor John Noble, who really anchors the wacky half of the show and makes the procedural side unique. Damaged from years performing experiments and landing in a psych ward, his journey back to lucidity is convincingly played. His mannerisms in the lab are sure to both raise eyebrows and make you smile at times.
Since “Fringe” is an Abrams production, there are plenty of lingering mysteries, geeky references — one of the recent episodes had a two-minute Star Trek reference and a Ghostbusters joke — and head-scratching twists. Many of the weekly cases are not for the faint of heart, and some will make you cringe. (I’m looking at you, freaky hedgehog beast from last March!) That said, anyone interested in spicing up their procedurals with a dash of freaky science can catch up with the show online via Hulu or FOX.com.
