Fringe

So I watched the pilot episode of Fringe yesterday. It was one of the new shows I was hoping to watch this year, but so far this is the first chance I had to watch it. Caught it on Hulu, which is actually a pretty good way to watch a TV series, though there are a few things I don't like about it.

The pilot involved the release of a bio-terrorist weapon, some sort of 'virus' released on an airplane which caused the flesh of the passengers to dissolve. A multi-agency task force is created to explore this, and the main character is a female FBI agent involved in the investigation. It becomes personal when her partner and secret lover is infected with the same virus after tracking the culprit.

I had high hopes for the show, but honestly I'm not sure it lived up to them. I liked the concept of a conspiracy show regarding technology run amuck. Certainly there was the undertone of the threat of a rapidly approaching technological singularity, which isn't really stated in the show but is certainly hinted at. (The concept of a technological singularity as a doomsday scenario is an interesting one to me).

Unfortunately, I had a hard time liking the characters. And while the spooky technology and conspiracy stuff was good, the investigative work and methods for assembling the various characters of the show seemed rather...dumb.

Seriously, ok the FBI agent is in love, which causes her to grasp at any straw to try to save her lover; yet she finds a wacky scientist who may be involved by doing a google search for a 'flesh eating virus'? (or whatever). And hes in an insane asylum? And her boss (who seems to hate her) lets her run with it? But tells her she can't see him because he's not allowed to see visitors unless they are immediate family...even when it's a case of national security? um, what?

And the son, whom she tricks into getting her to help him, is an ass for the most part. Yet, he has to be the scientist's guardian, so he's now stuck with them and involved? And considering how blind she was to accept that she was told no matter how crazy, at the end she is the 'sceptic'?

I don't get it.

The fact is, the show didn't do a very good job establishing the premise. No motivations were given. And the characters are so loosely connected as to make the whole situation unbelievable. And at the end, she becomes part of this super secret investigation regarding the pattern...after it turns out that her lover, who she risked everything to save, was a bad guy.

Now, I'm not saying that its terrible. The actual show might be OK. But the setup just plain sucked. And I just didn't like any of the characters...at all. The FBI agent was bland. The crazy-scientist...too crazy (but the best and most interesting of the bunch), the son was a dick, the boss was a bigger dick. And no one else mattered.

Oh well. JJ Abrams normally knocks pilot episodes out of the park (the pilot for Alias is one of the best pilot episodes of all time, and Lost's pilot kicked ass)..but this was a definite foul ball. Not quite a miss, but nowhere close to a home run.