tvthatdoesntsuck

What with Heroes, The Office, Supernatural out and Pushing Daisies on its way, there is so much great TV out on DVD that I’ve almost lost my enthusiasm for the new television season.  Nevertheless, I tuned in and caught the premiere of J. J. Abrams’s new show, Fringe.  I was a bit wary, until I saw that Abrams was joined by two other co-creators, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.  I do love me some Abrams, but I’m also very aware of his flaws.  His creative force is explosive when he’s working on a show with other creators (Lost) but his more solo efforts tend to be flimsier (Alias).  Whatever the case may be, this review isn’t a psychological break down of Abram’s creative process, it’s about the fact that Fringe was actually quite good.  I left with the same feeling I had after watching True Blood; very entertained, but my mind wasn’t blown.  However, I think I’ll give Fringe a slightly better grade because I expected True Blood to be brilliant, but it was just good.  Fringe, I wasn’t sure what to expect, and it turned out to be a good, entertaining watch.  Let me break it down.

1. CAST: For the most part, this is good.  John Noble, the crazy King Denethor from Lord of the Rings, is probably the strongest member of the cast, followed by a favorite of mine, Joshua Jackson, who manages to check off both comic relief and badass with his performance.  The only weak link I could find was Anna Torv, who plays the lead Olivia.  Maybe I’m wrong about this, because there is talk about her joining Jennifer Garner, Keri Russel, and Evangeline Lilly* ranks as the new star actress Abrams brings to light, but I kind of think she gave a very mediocre performance.  There were moments that touched me, but there were also scenes where I had to shake my head a bit.  Time will tell.

2. Writing is pretty solid.  Could have been better, but it was definitely not bad.  It was slow in parts, fantastic in others.  I got the impression that it was a more inventive version of The X-Files** that pays great attention to character.  There were some crazy twists that I didn’t see coming at all, and some parts that were a tad predicatable.  Overall, it’s a mixed bag, but what I noticed was that they found a nice balance between the comedy and the drama.  Joshua Jackson could have had some better humorous lines, because the majority of the lines they gave him were just him pointing out how stupid his father’s plan was, but the actual structure of how they integrated the comedy into the show was set up nicely.

3. I hated that they had huge letters at different locations saying where the action of the show was moving.  I get it.  Stylistically blah blah blah, but it looked horrible.  It pulled me out of the action of the show, and I felt like I was being screamed at.

4.  Few extra tidbits.  Loved the “Remote Free TV” aspect.  With the sixty second commercial breaks, that were spread far out over the hour and thirty five minutes, it felt like I was watching a movie.  And, in conclusion, they had a NICE set up for the rest of the season.

* Abrams didn’t really discover her.  Let credit go where it’s due.  Roswell was the first TV show she starred in.

**I’m one of the few people who think The X-Files was mediocre.  Yeah, it influenced a lot of shows that I love, but the simple fact is that those shows did it better.  The X-Files pays little to no attention to character.  Kill me now!

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