From J.J. Abrams ("Lost"), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the team behind "Star Trek," "Mission: Impossible III" and "Alias," comes a new drama that will thrill, terrify and explore the blurring line between science fiction and reality. When an international flight lands at Boston's Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent OLIVIA DUNHAM (newcomer Anna Torv) is called in to investigate. After her partner, Special Agent JOHN SCOTT (Mark Valley, "Boston Legal"), is nearly killed during the investigation, a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to DR. WALTER BISHOP (John Noble, "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King"), our generation's Einstein. There's only one catch: he's been institutionalized for the last 20 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son PETER (Joshua Jackson, "Dawson's Creek") in to help. When Olivia's investigation leads her to manipulative corporate executive NINA SHARP (Blair Brown, "Altered States"), our unlikely trio along with fellow FBI Agents PHILLIP BROYLES (Lance Reddick, "The Wire"), CHARLIE FRANCIS (Kirk Acevedo, "Oz") and ASTRID FARNSWORTH (Jasika Nicole, "Law & Order: Criminal Intent") will discover that what happened on Flight 627 is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth.
Maybe the set up the bar too high. Maybe calling it the new The X-Files was too high a standard to meet and indeed, Fringe did not meet my high expectations. I guess I was expecting too much since the show was created by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias, Felicity) because I was disappointed by this show.
An FBI agent, Olivia Dunham, along with Dr. Walter Bishop (who is crazy) and his son, Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) investigate strange occurrences, called Fringe science, that reside on the extremes of science (reanimation and such). These occurrences are part of a bigger thing called The Pattern.
The show is a mix between The X-Files and one of the many cop shows (C.S.I. or any other), completing it with the now old idea of the monster-of-the-week. The characters do not seem to have that interesting of a story to tell nor with interesting enough personalities to carry the show. The actual interaction between the characters is dry and forced. I understand that shows stumble in the beginning trying to find their niche, especially in the Fringe episode, but this show is trying to do and say too much at the same time. The second episode wasn't that better. The show is too much of the same old thing.
On this particular episode, "The Arrival", I was rather disappointed by the blatant copying of a Doctor Who episode "Midnight". It was scene by scene the same on the part where a man reads someone's mind. What is this show doing?! Copying the greatest shows and making it their own, admittedly, without much success.