Saturday, September 25, 2010

Fringe Science and Chemistry both make Fringe Season 2 a blast

Fringe: Season 2
FOX
Thursdays, 9 PM




Fringe is an interesting show, part science fiction drama and part police procedural, the first season was somewhat of a shock to me. I do not like police shows as a general rule, but this show is different. The show was created by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and J. J. Abrams ( creator of Felicity, Lost, Undercovers, and producer of Star Trek and Cloverfield).

The show follows the FBI's “Fringe” division based in Boston, MA (Go Boston!). The team of FBI agent Olivia Dunham(Anna Torv), mad scientist Dr. Walter Bishop(John Noble), and his son Peter Bishop(Joshua Jackson) investigates strange unexplainable incidents using “fringe science”. In the first season we learn these occurrences are related to previous experiments done when Dr. Bishop was young, and possibly to an alternate universe.

This season we learn more about this “alternate universe” and about the shape-shifters that we learned in the first season are coming from this universe. We also learn the truth about who Peter is. Leonard Nimoy guest starts in this season, as well as the first, as Dr. Bishop's previous partner, William Bell.

In this season, we learn more about the alternate universe, and we actually go there. We find out the truth about what happened to Peter when he was a child, and we meet the man pulling the strings from the other dimension.

The end of season cliffhanger was fairly obvious to me, and one I wasn't too impressed by. The same plot is often used in alternate universe shows (such as Sliders), and is not original in the least. Time will tell in Season 3 if it goes somewhere new.

The core cast of this show shares unequaled chemistry, the characters of Dr. Bishop, Peter, and Olivia are human, complicated, and extremely well acted. Dr. Bishop's helpless, confused, crazy, mad scientist is among the most heartwarming characters in modern television who at times seems innocent and naïve and at other times selfish and amoral.

The beauty of this show is that unlike other science fiction dramas, you can catch an episode here and an episode there, and you will not feel lost.

Fringe: Season 2
3 ½ stars out of 5

No comments:

Post a Comment