FRINGE

The first of the two big new shows I'm looking forward premiered last night, Fringe (the other being Dollhouse coming in early 2009). I think the first time I ever heard about this show, it kinda just surprised me. Joss Whedon, being the creator of my all time favorite show, Buffy, is someone I follow very closely. So from the very first instant any news about his new show Dollhouse started to appear, I was right there online reading it. J.J. Abrams I don't always tend to follow as closely, but I still really love his shows. Felicity, Alias and Lost are all from him and have been some of my favorite shows. So just knowing his name was behind Fringe, I knew I'd definitely be checking it out.

The first trailer that came out for the show looked pretty damn good. It didn't even feel like it was a trailer for a show! It looked like a movie! It felt intense...I was excited about it. So last night, I finally got to see the premiere. And I must say, I wasn't let down. :)

I don't like spoilers, and I don't plan to give any. So I'll just mention a few things I loved about the show. First up, the cast. There's Joshua Jackson. He was always my favorite Dawson's Creek'er. :) He plays a smart (and smart-alecky) guy, Peter Bishop, who's running from some troubles, but is brought back to help on a creepy case that his father might be able to help out on. It's nice to see him back on TV. I think he did a good job in this episode and am looking forward to seeing him more. The leading actress, Anna Torv, who plays the FBI agent, Olivia Dunham, I don't know much about, but she was also cool. So I love those two as the main characters. And the man who plays the dad, Dr. Walter Bishop, the scientist, was great as well. I was also surprised to see Kirk Acevedo, who played Miguel Alvarez on Oz. I'm not sure if he's gonna be a regular, but I hope he is. :)

The show itself would probably fall under the "Thriller-Mystery-Horror-SciFi-Drama" category. Which of course, are usually my favorite categories! lol So there are times when it's a lot of talking and mystery solving, and then there are others when it's fast paced action or scary moments. So a great mix. And of course there are a few funny lines thrown in through it all, especially by Jackson's character.

Oh and I haven't even mentioned what it's about. In case you don't know. Basically, Agent Dunham, Dr Bishop and his son work together to try to solve a mysterious case in which another agent has been infected with some type of virus or disease which is literally making his skin transparent...killing him slowly. This all falls under the category of "Fringe Science"...the strange mysterious scientific phenomena such as mind reading, reanimation, etc. There seems to be some big company that's behind all this. Hush hush, top secret of course. I guess the series will revolve around these mysterious events, trying to solve them and see whose behind them, and ultimately finding a way to stop them. Yeah, my description's not the best. lol But just to give you a general idea.

Although I really did like the show and will definitely continue to watch...I must say it didn't exactly blow me away. I didn't feel that initial excitement I first felt when I saw the Lost and Alias pilots. But nonetheless, I still enjoyed it very much. I also loved that they had limited commercials! For the most part it was just 60 or 90 second breaks! The two hour premiere took just 90 mins of air time. :) The only drawback is that I don't have TiVo so I can't pause it during those very short breaks when I needed to make a run to the kitchen or restroom. lol

Oh and I do have one little bone to pick. Some of the teasers for the show had "real life" people that had seen the pilot giving us their reactions. They focused those ads on a specific comment that several people had made regarding those "last two words" that they say at the end of the episode. So that really had my interest peaked to find out what they were! And yeah, they were pretty interesting...a nice way to end the episode. But they weren't really anything to get THAT excited over. lol Or maybe the little hype from the ads just had me expecting something way more major than what it really was? Sometimes I hate that in ads/marketing. Making me get all hyped up and then just giving me a bit less than I was anticipating. hehe

But no worries, I'll continue to watch. The season previews already look interesting. :)