You can almost hear the pitch meeting for this one. "It's like 'The X-Files', but instead of Mulder and Scully, it's…well, a different man and woman." That's about as much thought as it would take to come up with this make-a-quick-buck facsimile. No, fellas, this isn't like "The X-Files", this simply is "The X-Files". But instead of "Files'" playful dance between science and faith - exemplified by the Mulder and Scully characters - "Fringe" proposes a conspiracy (yes, another conspiracy) called The Pattern involving a company called Massive Dynamic (ok, that name's pretty great). The company's spokesperson, played by Blair Brown, sits in a preposterously enormous, stark white room with three chairs which, I suppose, is meant to be her office.
Apparently, from what we know so far, back in the (unspecified) day, experiments in "fringe science" went awry, causing an outbreak of plotlines which are intended to support the series for as long as viewers can stomach it. In the two episodes that have aired, we've seen (in gory detail) a flesh-melting toxin and a guy who steals pituitary glands (I assume he'd be charged with gland larceny. Sorry). Sure, those plots could have been salvaged from discarded scraps off the floor of the "X-Files" writer's room. That's not my problem with "Fringe". The problem is the glee with which the show's creators revel in the grotesquery of the proceedings. Mild spoilers follow…
The pilot opens with the aforementioned toxin released aboard a full aircraft in mid-flight. The horrified passengers run about the cabin as their bodies dissolve into goo-covered skeletons (the co-pilot gives new meaning to the term "slack-jawed"). If that's not enough for you, episode two turns it up a notch. The pre-credit teaser sequence is essentially five minutes of a freshly post-coital woman screaming in terror as something grows in her abdomen. Still screaming, she's abandoned at the E.R. by "the bad guy" and, before you can say "'Alien' rip-off", she's rushing into the operating room where the screaming continues until there's a sickening ripping sound. "What was that?", a doctor asks, before vomiting when he gets his answer. Yes, the doctor throws up. He's the one character I could relate to on the show.
Maybe I'm getting sensitized in my old age, but this opening sequence was simply too much. It makes the infamous, shown-only-once "Home" episode of "The X-Files" - you know, the one with the inbred, baby-killing Neanderthals - feel downright quaint. I was actually embarrassed to watch "Fringe" on a plane for fear someone would think I was some kind of torture-loving sicko (note how I avoided inserting a Republican joke there).
And it didn't stop after the teaser. Ten minutes into the episode, steely FBI Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv - good, but no Scully) describes the disgusting plight of another female victim. Lest viewers get discouraged by all the talking, a scant four minutes later yet another female victim is picked up at a bar, taken home and drugged. Five minutes after that, she's strapped to a bed "Clockwork Orange"-style. I'm sorry, I thought I was watching a sci-fi show about unexplained phenomena, not "Saw VI".
Truly, this is a troubling track record for only the second episode of any series. "Fringe" seems bent on doing for the grotesque what "Tell Me You Love Me" did for soft porn - pushing the envelope to the point that you might tune in next time just to see how far they go. Amazingly, another ten minutes later, the script has the nerve to discuss the difficulty women have advancing in the workplace - cut to a female victim's eye being removed (I kid you not) while the killer picks up yet a third girl.
While I don't plan to continue watching "Fringe", I hope it doesn't rely on perpetuating the lazy trend of violence-against-women that permeates other freak-show procedurals like "CSI" and "The X-Files'" own spin-off "Millennium"
What makes "Fringe" all the worse is the pedigree of its creators, J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Ok, so Mr. Kurtzman and Mr. Orci are best known for the "Transformers" movie, but come on J.J. Abrams! While "Alias" never caught on with me, I enjoyed its winking tone and it featured a strong female lead. And as for "Lost"…I've said before: "It's terrible; I never miss an episode".
I now have to be concerned that Mr. Abrams has been entrusted with the "reboot" of my beloved "Star Trek" franchise. Are Kirk and Spock going to be seen disemboweling a Gorn, or sifting through Klingon entrails? People, please. Shock isn't storytelling. You writers went on strike? Hey, thanks for coming back to work. Don't do us any favors.
To be fair, the non-gross aspects of "Fringe" are promising. Ms. Torv does serviceable work and I like Joshua Jackson playing the anti-Mulder, the disbeliever - a brilliant MIT grad with a Scully-esque skeptical streak. These two have an easy presence, though neither touches the memorably dry-as-a-bone characters created by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Lance Riddick from "The Wire" is fun as Dunham's boss (marvel at how he bites into the word "liaison") but he's no Mitch Pileggi, and John Noble plays an unhinged scientist (who may hold the key to The Pattern) with the same verge-of-insanity vocal quaver that made him so memorable as Denethor in the "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King".
Look, I'm not naive enough to be surprised that a TV show is a blatant copy of something that preceded it. That's been the M.O. of Television programming since Ralph Kramden's first hare-brained scheme all those years ago. But let's not insult the audience, shall we? There are likely to be several out-of-work "X-Files" writers out there that can contribute ideas, so tap into them. And spend some time creating characters for your lead investigators - even Mulder and Scully didn't really hit their stride until season two. And, above all, don't forget to keep it light. "The X-Files" had a fanciful quality to it; the mysteries were rooted more in fantasy than in hard-nosed criminal procedure (if anything, the FBI work was always a bit shoddy).
Characters are what Mr. Abrams does best, and the show's creators have claimed that "Fringe" will focus more on standalone episodes than overarching conspiracies. Whatever they focus on, let's hope its shifts to something more palatable than what we've seen so far. Mr. Abrams is better than this - and so are we.
