Pilot Episode

Here are a bunch of the early Pilot script reviews for Fringe (careful, there are spoilers below!):

The Zap2it Blog say that the Pilot has an X-Files meets Altered States meets Alis vibe, and they go on to say:

The actual plot of the pilot could probably have fit into a standard hour, but Abrams and Company are making the effort to give the material a global scale and the script plants at least a half-dozen potential running mysteries that will allow Fringeto have both serialized elements and also freak-of-the-week plots. The set-up of these three individuals against a vast corporate/government conspiracy has been fruitful for Abrams in the past and there’s no reason to believe that it won’t work here. While Abrams has always been able to write carefully delineated female characters, Olivia is initially the weakest link in the show’s core trio, another strong, career-minded female whose personal life threatens to undermine her professional prospects. The inevitability of a strained will-they/won’t-they romance between Olivia and Peter already has me rooting for an expanded role for Astrid, the FBI underling to be played by Jasika Nicole.
How It Might Play: For FOX, the best thing about Fringe — other than getting into the J.J. Abrams business, of course — is that the series has the potential to partner with almost any established show on its schedule, depending on how they spin it.

The Futon Critic is “blown away” by JJ Abrams vision and craft, and remark on the premise of Fringe:

It’s a territory ripe for exploration as real world science and technology begin to take off into all sorts of trajectories. The show then wisely operates in that “fringe” or pseudo area where the dots haven’t quite gotten connected, meaning it can pull off its various crazy concepts without having to fully explain them – but at the same time gives them enough rules so that they aren’t easy outs or cure alls. It’s a tantalizing combination and the pilot even spends a few scenes theorizing about all the various avenues that could be taken in future episodes. The real treat however is the pilot’s closing acts which not only set up a head-exploding amount of mythology, but also rip the rug out from under everything you just saw.

TV Squad reveal some juicy Pilot spoilers:

The pilot opens with as a plane from Hamburg, Germany landing at Boston’s Logan airport with everyone on board dead. And they are not just dead…they’re all gooey and translucent. Obviously, there needs to be an investigation.That’s when we meet our FBI special agents: Olivia Dunham, John Scott, and Charlie Francis. We also meet Phillip Broyles at Logan airport. He’s with Homeland Security and will be leading the investigation. So FBI, CIA and other acronyms can report to him. They board the plane, check out the goo, and set about uncovering which terrorist is responsible for this atrocity.

After John Scott is hurt in an explosion, he suffers from the same gooey affliction, but the hospital slows its progress by putting him into a drug-induced coma. This is when Olivia Dunham gets seriously involved with the investigation. Her discoveries lead her to Dr. Walter Bishop, a pseudo-scientist (paging Dr. Suresh) who has been institutionalized. But, she can’t access the doctor without an immediate family member. So, Dunham gets his estranged son, Peter Bishop, to help out.

Later in the pilot, Dunham’s investigation leads to corporate executive Nina Sharp of Massive Dynamics. From here, Dunham finds out that while she thought she had clearance and knew all the classified information about Flight 627, she has really only scratched the surface. The Hamburg flight is part of a much larger set of events called “the pattern.”

We first see our heroine in bed naked with her co-worker. Why am I not surprised?

Fringe’s music (not the opening credits) is similar to Lost’s. It has more of those discordant drawn-out strings that give us a good dose of the creeps.

Best exchange of the pilot… Walter Bishop (dad): I just pissed myself. Peter Bishop (son): Excellent. Walter Bishop: It’s just a squirt.

You can find more here.

{ 0 comments }