TV Review - Fringe Episode 1.16 - Unleashed
Walter, Peter, and Olivia do the Monster Mash
J.J. Abrams is the new wunderkind of pop culture. Getting his feet wet as a producer on movies such as Regarding Henry and TV shows like the relationship drama Felicity, he has since found his niche on the decidedly geeky side of the tracks. After creating super-spy Sydney Bristow of Alias, he went on to father the cultural phenomenon we know as Lost. This summer, he is deigning to give us his take on a little franchise known as Star Trek, which apparently has a few fans here and there.
Fringe premise
Premiering this past fall, Fringe is Abrams' foray into a serialized Sci-fi procedural of sorts. Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) is an FBI agent tasked to partner with the brilliant but vastly eccentric scientist and ex-mental patient, Walter Bishop (John Noble), to investigate crimes of an unusual nature that can only be explained using controversial, or "fringe" science. Reluctantly along for the ride is Walter's son, Peter (Joshua Jackson), a man with a shady past and a genius IQ who is basically there to keep his father on his meds and in focus, as well as to contribute his own thoughts and ideas to the investigations; forensic, scientific, or otherwise.
Fringe vs. The X-Files
One thing that sticks out about this show, even in the mere description of the premise, is its similarity to The X-Files, Fox's phenomenon from the '90s, which concerned two FBI agents and their investigations into paranormal cases, which in turn bore a resemblance to Kolchak: The Night Stalker, a series from the '70s about a reporter on the trail of the paranormal.
So where do they differ, aside from the characters and settings? While The X-Files' overriding mythology involved a shadow organization working (possibly) with extra-terrestrials, Fringe hangs its hat on the idea that there are actual Earthly scientific bases for everything unexplainable- unethical and fantastical though they may be. That's about it. (There's a shadowy organization involved here, too, performing some of that nasty science.)
As its popularity grew, X-Files episodes came to be classified in two types: "mythology", and "monster-of-the-week".
Fringe "Unleashed"
This episode of Fringe felt very much like a "monster-of-the-week".
The cold open of the show has a group of young animal activists breaking into an unidentified laboratory to gather evidence of illegal animal testing, and they unwittingly unleash the mysterious beastie on the greater Boston area. The unusual pattern of claw and tooth marks on the bodies left in its wake prompt the call to our heroes to investigate. Thus endeth the synopsis.
Anna Torv as Olivia continues to take somewhat of a backseat here, as she's only, at most, a capable actress on this show. But that may not be her fault; her character is rarely given much else to do but furrow her brow, and really, anyone would have a tough job sharing the screen with John Noble as Walter Bishop.
Madness as a trait might seem like a cop-out choice to make a character interesting, but the writing on this show and the consistently great performances by Noble really endear us to him. This week he even gets a chance to take some rare action in the field, motivated as he is by guilt over his supposed responsibilty for the monster's creation.
Joshua Jackson is undoubtedly charasmatic, but also has one of the easier jobs in showbiz, merely playing exasperated to his father's weird ramblings and randomly sexual and scatalogical outbursts.
At least Kirk Acevedo, as FBI agent Charlie Francis, gets a little more play this time as a wounded victim of the monster, with some unfortunate consequences as a result. We even get to see him at home with his wife! Who knew he had one?
The Last Word
Overall, the plot was rote, the CG of the monster looked a little made-for-tv, and it smacked of The X-Files even more than usual. But that's not always bad. Mediocre Fringe is still better than the best of many other shows on prime time.
Fringe airs Tuesday nights on FOX at 9PM (EST).
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