The initial buzz on Fringe(Fox, Tuesdays, 8:00 P.M.) was that one of TV’s golden boys, J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost), had come up with one of the few hits of the fall season, plus a possible successor to the late and much vaunted sci-fi/ conspiracy series The X-Files. Like everyone else I bit on these potential tidbits but after a half dozen shows I find the series unable to keep spinning its initial captivating spell, timidly poking around its central mythology while trotting out a far too neatly contained creature-feature of the week. While well cast, Abrams and his writers keep writing the same show: Icy beauty Anna Torv gets whispered to by her handler Lance Reddick about a new bioscience phenomena and she seeks out the help of nutty professor John Noble (who always suddenly recalls a past connection to said phenomena) and his reluctant son Joshua Jackson who somehow tackles a baddie or fumbles around with a gun while spooky Blair Brown oversees the action as the head honcho of some shadowy mega corporation. Filmed in an entirely faux Massachusetts the tone is that oh-so-familiar Orwellian ominousness and the setting the industrial gray of aging labs, empty warehouses, and dank cellars. While most of what’s delineated is presented with a sturdy paranoia nothing actually resonates, and the player’s moves are far too predictable.
2 comments:
Scott my brother,
1) Who are you to question the X-files spawn?
2) You were never an X-files viewer/fan - admit it?
The girl is cute, the psycho father just that, the dead man love interest intriguing, Blair Brown is omniscient which is almost as good as "ominousness" except I didn't have to use a dictionary to confirm the former is an actual English usage word.
Watch "Terminator, the Sarah Conner Chronicles" instead.
3) I got your "ominousness" right here in my pants baby.
1,)Well, I am a purveyor of all thangs pop cultural, including any and all spawn, even sci-fi/paranoia/paranormal spawn.
2)I was never a foam-at-the-mouth fan, particularly of the show's shadowy central mythos, I did watch the show fairly faithfully, even viewed some of the better stand-alone episodes more than once.
3) I do watch Terminator, and I have (and will again) sing it's praises, as a much more effective example of the genre.(And both the Sarah of the title and the robogirl oughta be what you're thinking about when you go south into yer Star Trek pants.)
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