Fringe Pillot Review

I watched the Fringe pilot. It dissapointed me greatly on all but two points, and only one really matters.

First, the Mad scientist was a fun and great character. The show will probably revolve around him being the central plot motivator, since he seems to be the psuedoscientific wikipedia. He's McGuyver, except he has a cow instead of a jeep and an enablingly gullable FBI agent instead of a swiss army knife.

Second, the special effects were very well done and mostly believable. Sure, its a testament to the budget and vision, but I don't care about that so much. I don't like the locations being mixed into the backgrounds like the signage is ambient. I care more about story and characters than special effects.

Overall I found the story too contrived to create any suspense, and I feel like they took a random episode of the X-Files and tossed in spiffy effects. The characters, mad scientist aside, felt like hollow typecasts. The FBI agent felt wholely shoved into the role of living Meatloaf rock ballad - doing anything for love, including that.

There was no need for her to strip down to underwear to go into an isolation take on LSD. You can do that with clothes on, it was fanservice since the lead is female and the target audience is not.

Oh, and the twist in the last 30 minutes? Obvious and irrelevant given that based on how all the characters were so poorly fleshed out you don't really care what happens to any of them.

In defense of the show, I have read and studied about a lot of 'Fringe' science areas so I may be a bit jaded when it comes to a show like this. I was a child of the X-Files movement, so much of the show felt rehashing old ideas. First seasons, and first episodes especially, are known for being a little off while they are trying to figure the characters out. Remember Star Trek TNG's first season? If the show lasts till a 3rd season, and I'm sure it will with it's timeslot, the show should be pretty good. That's when the old favorites become classics, afterall.