The poor airline industry. As if rising gas prices, increased security measures and constant cost-cutting were not enough, now there's another J.J. Abrams pilot. Travelers who have finally shaken the anxiety-provoking images of cult-inducing "Lost" can look forward to a whole new set of phobias thanks to the opening moments of Abrams' new show, "Fringe."
As lightning crackles around an international flight to Boston, a wild-eyed passenger injects himself with something one can only hope is a tranquilizer, and then next thing you know . . . well, I don't want to spoil anything for the 19 people who haven't seen the pilot online, but it results in the assemblage of every law enforcement agency in the country donning hazmat suits.
Because comparisons are unavoidable, it must be noted up front that this is not the same sort of jaw-droppingly what-the-heck-kind-of-show-is-this pilot that "Lost" had. Frankly, we know what kind of show this is going to be. "Fringe" stands for Fringe Science, which includes everything from mental telepathy to reanimation, so much of your enjoyment will depend on how much you still miss the "The X-Files." While "The X-Files" told us the truth is out there, "Fringe" posits the equally vague notion that "Everything is part of a pattern." So, if you're the type of person who needs every little thing, or indeed any little thing, to make sense in a pilot, then you should probably watch "Fringe" in solitude, preferably with the door closed, so the rest of us can enjoy it for what it is -- an uneven but promising jumble of horror, thriller and comedy that is not afraid to reference SpongeBob and "Altered States" in practically the same scene.
Let the games begin. On scene at Logan Airport are secretly trysting FBI agents Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and John Scott (Mark Valley), reluctantly reporting to Agent Phillip Broyles ("Lost" veteran Lance Reddick), the stern and possibly sinister head of the interagency team investigating the "incident."
It becomes abundantly clear that Broyles has a beef with Dunham, who, in her role as interagency liaison, recently busted one of Broyles' friends. Vindictively, or so it seems, he sends Dunham and Scott to follow a weak lead at a storage facility. There the discovery of a secret lab leads to an explosion in which Scott is exposed to chemicals that leave him in a coma and looking like a child's anatomy model, you know, the ones where muscle and bone are visible through a clear plastic shell. Olivia, fortunately, receives naught but a becoming scratch on her porcelain forehead.
