Of all the new shows this season, none has as much buzz as “Fringe,” the latest from the mind of “Lost”/ “Alias” guru JJ Abrams.
The show, which debuts tonight at 8 on Fox (an encore airs at 8 p.m. Sunday), is a gooey blend of “The X-Files” and “CSI” – with a little bit of “Lost”’s paranoia and unexplainable sci-fi touches.
You might wonder during the show’s opening sequence why Abrams apparently has some weird fascination with bad things happening on airplanes (see: “Lost” pilot).
But so far, the show’s strongest points are the ones that make all of Abrams shows more than riveting plot twists – it’s the people.
Newcomer Anna Torv is FBI agent Olivia Dunham. Her partner – who is a little more than a work pal – John Scott (Mark Valley), encounters some unfortunate repercussions while investigating the aforementioned plane issue (cue the icky CGI effects).
Olivia – an appealing mixture of steely, Scully-like determination and a wussy romantic – frantically tries to find someone to help John. Her discovery is Walter Bishop, a genius with a few flaws: he’s been institutionalized for 17 years and isn’t the easiest person to work with.
Bishop’s son, Peter, (Joshua Jackson) is recruited as a translator of sorts, and during their investigation, the discovery that a big, evil, multi-billion dollar company might have had something to do with the bizarre events that occurred on the plane.
Last week, Abrams, who is the show’s co-creator, executive producer and writer, along with former “Dawson’s Creek” star Jackson, talked to reporters about what “Fringe” represents and where it might be going.
Jackson said he wasn’t necessarily looking to return to TV, but…
“This project drew me back specifically. The quality of the script, which is now our pilot, and the density of it. And while it was a totally satisfying story unto itself, you could see it was laid in there with potential for a whole world, a whole universe of other stories. And JJ’s ability with the group of people surrounding him to tell these stories well over a long period of time, that was my hope if I ever came back to TV—to be with a group of people who had a track record of being able to keep shows at a high level over a long period of time. I think JJ is the best on TV with that right now…
I try not to live my life as much as possible defining myself against something. I didn’t worry about coming back as that guy from ‘Dawson’s Creek’ – I wasn’t purposely running from that, but I wasn’t looking for television work.”
Abrams talked a bit about how far the writers will push something before it becomes unbelievable:
“When we did the pilot for ‘Lost,’ we had the monster appear at the end of the first act. We did that very consciously because we wanted to say to the audience, we’re jumping the shark now, we’re doing crazy s*** from the beginning, we’re not going to wait.
On ‘Fringe,’ we very consciously did what is in many ways, a preposterous, out there, far-fetched story point in order to say to the audience, this is what you’re going to be getting on the show, it may be more extreme in some cases, less so in others. Some shows will deal with science very much as it exists, but the most part, for me…in the genre of horror and sci-fi, we’re pushing the envelope and going further than you might otherwise.
I think the show will definitely be pushing the envelope, but I don’t think we’re going to be trying to top ourselves every week, because then we’ll just be in a race with ourselves and we won’t be able to win that one…I’d rather be delving into who these people are and what makes them tick than doing something just for shock value.”
Abrams was also asked why he picked Jackson for the pivotal role of Peter:
“I’ve know Josh a little bit from the days of ‘Dawson’s Creek. I was doing ‘Felicity’ so I was in that same universe. I’ve always been a fan, loved his sense of humor and the gravity that I thought he could bring to something as self-operatic as what we were doing on the WB…I felt the same thing with Keri Russell. There are actors where you go, they are really good! They elevate the material and make it better, and all you ever want is actors who will make it better. I always felt that Josh had that ability.”
Jackson then talked about why he wanted the role of Peter, and how his character interacts with his unstable father and the desperate Olivia.
“While there’s a lot of stuff going on with Peter, the fun of playing him boils down to being a translator between Walter, who is brilliant but half-cracked, and Olivia, an intensely no-nonsense character. She’s very much a just-the-facts-ma’m person. You bring this Peter character into that world who has to be the extremely reluctant go-between—that’s an interesting dynamic…That boils down in my mind to a very typical dysfunctional family. You put that dynamic, which is relatable and understandable to everybody, and put it in this fantastically outrageous world of ‘Fringe’— that makes for an interesting day’s work.”
Abrams also noted that over time, a relationship between Peter and Olivia will definitely surface.
Finally, Abrams fielded the inevitable question of how does “Fringe” compare to “Lost” or “Alias”?
“My expectations are sort of irrelevant. I never know what to expect. You can never guess or assume what anyone will think…it’s one of those shows that if I had nothing to do with it and I saw it coming out, I’d want to kill myself, I’d be so miserable, because it’s so the show that I want to watch. That doesn’t mean anyone else will or it’s good or bad, but it’s so the show that I’m excited to shoot.
One of the experiments we’re doing on “Fringe” is writing the show so it’s not as overly serialized as ‘Alias’ and ‘Lost’ are or were…because I’m so drawn to long-term stories, there will still be the mythology, the evolution of characters, what the pattern means, how they connect to that.”
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