Because of the stiff competition on Tuesday nights this fall, Fox and the CW premiered their 9:00 PM Tuesday shows in early September hoping to capture the particular audiences these shows would appeal to. On Fox, it’s the new J.J. Abrams (Lost) sci-fi series, Fringe; while over at the CW, it’s the dramedy Privileged, which has the good fortune of being created by Rina Mimoun, one of the guiding forces behind the beloved Everwood. Of the two, Privileged has turned out to be a great surprise and Fringe a bit of a letdown.

Fringe, which was also created by Abrams Alias buddies, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, follows the exploits of a special government task force investigating aspects of “fringe science” (i.e. telepathy, levitation, reanimation, etc.). All around the world, a series of fringe incidents, referred to as “the pattern,” are occurring and this special group is in charge of finding out why. The principle person in this group is FBI Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), who enlists the help of literal mad scientist, Walter Bishop (John Noble from The Return of the King). Bishop has been locked up in a mental institution for 17 years and the only person who is able to keep a handle on him is his son, Peter (Joshua Jackson of that Dawson’s show). Peter has issues with his dad and is responsible for keeping him locked up. Once he realizes that Walter may not be as evil as he thought, Peter’s guilt leads him to become his father’s care taker and a member of the fringe team.

Overseeing this group is the great Lance Reddick (late of The Wire) as Phillip Broyles, a Homeland Security agent in charge of following the pattern and how it relates to possible terrorist attacks.

Trying to sum up everything that is going on in Fringe is a little pointless because, this being an Abrams vehicle, there are major conspiracies at work here that may not be revealed for years to come, if ever. Fringe seems to be trying to replicate is the mystery and quirkiness of The X-Files. Unlike that once great show, Fringe goes out of its way to take out the mystery of each episode’s mysteries. With every fantastic thing that happens, Walter goes off on some long diatribe about some experiment he performed years ago how that experiment is being manipulated for evil. At these points in the show, Noble seems to be channeling Russell Crowe from A Beautiful Mind, trying too hard to nail the “brilliant/troubled scientist” role. After any of these explanations, Jackson usually throws in some snarky one liner to balance the hooey of Walter’s explanation. Sometimes it works, but most of the time everything feels a little too forced. Watching Reddick recite some of his sci-fi dialogue makes me wonder if he’s not thinking “How the hell did I go from The Wire to this?” (more…)