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“The Pattern” has begun. A series of biological man
made plagues are appearing randomly all around the world.
Is it the work of international bio terrorists or something
else…something much bigger? Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv)
finds herself smack dab in the middle of “The Pattern” when
she along with fellow FBI Agent John Scott (Mark Valley)are
called in to investigate a plane that has just landed with
all of the passengers dead. When Dunham boards the plane
she discovers that they’ve literally melted away. In pursing
the bad guy Scott gets exposed to the chemicals that melted
the airplane passengers and crew and begins melting away
himself. Her supervisor Philip Broyles (Lance Reddick) at
first appears to be a bit hostile to Dunham but once she
proves herself he asks her to be a permanent part of the
team. ***
Dunham discovers that the only person who can save
Scott is Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble from “Lord of the
Rings”) a man who has been institutionalized for the last
decade. Dunham uses Bishop’s estranged son Peter (Joshua
Jackson) to get access to Bishop and to act as her interpreter.
She discovers that Bishop worked with the founder of Massive
Dynamic for the government in the Fringe Science Division
creating things like the virus that is killing Scott. ***
“Fringe” may have taken the template for “The X-Files”
(and “Twin Peaks” which provided some of the template for
“Fringe” although there’s a clear link to “LOST” as well)
but J.J. Abrams and his co-writers/co-producers and directors
have clearly departed from “The X-Files” territory. “Fringe”
has a very clear end game in mind for the show. The first
season story arc although it doesn’t come to a firm conclusion
does manage to tie up many of the questions raised in the
first episode of the series. ***
Abrams and his writers fashion a dynamic for the characters
not unlike “The X-Files”. Dunham takes on the role of Mulder
open to learning about the strange things she’s seeing.
Peter takes on the role of Scully the doubting Thomas of
the group that expects empirical evidence. Bishop is the
team’s “Lone Gunman” and every other odd scientist that
Scully and Mulder encountered during their 9 season run.
There is a fourth member of the team who has been defined
yet ***
“Fringe” has top notch production values, writing and
direction and real chemistry with the cast of eccentric
characters. It also has the plot twists that Abrams has
been famous for since “Alias”. Abrams provides us with the
character of Dunham to identify with and we see the strange
new world she’s facing through her eyes understanding it
as she does. The only drawback so far for the series is
a reliance on an O. Henry like twist towards the conclusion
of the show (or we could call it a “Twilight Zone” type
twist often filled with more than a touch of irony) which
might make the show a tad bit predictable as time goes on.
I’d suggest to Abrams and his top notch team of writers
and directors that they might want to vary the story structures
a bit to keep the show surprising. That’s a minor flaw in
a gem of a show that’s more horror/fantasy than science
fiction (when they refer to fringe science in this show
you can be sure that the science they are referring to is
borderline fiction itself). ---
Image & Sound:
“Fringe” isn’t on the border when it comes to the transfer
for the show itself. “Fringe” looks very nice in its Blu-ray
presentation although Warner packs a bit too much on each
disc resulting in some minor compression artifacts but overall
the show is noticeable digital video noise some of it intentional
and some the result of putting too much material on a dual
layered disc. Colors are subdued with natural flesh tones
but that’s true to the original presentation of the show.
Detail is sharp throughout and the show doesn’t appear to
be digitally over processed . ***
Audio sounds extremely good throughout with dialogue
front and center. Surround speakers are effectively used
to convey atmosphere and bring a big, bold almost theatrical
“sound” to the TV show. We get subtitles in Spanish, French,
Portuguese as well as English. ---
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