Failing at fringe

Fringe is a show that could easily be compared to the X-Files, but in this case the plot lines seem more futuristic and technology driven. Three main characters move the story along—Peter Bishop, his father Dr. Walter Bishop and FBI agent Olivia Dunham.

The show began with the three being recruited by Massive Dynamic, a large technology corporation, to head up a new operation aimed at strange criminal occurrences. The group was charged with the task of investigating these “fringe science” matters, mysteries that have involved everything from rare diseases to psychic abilities to chimeras.

Now in its second season, Fringe walks the line between brilliance and confusion. Each episode employs intriguing new scientific queries, but can be rife with loose ends left untied by the end of the episode. This would be fine if these loose ends were picked up later in the season, but they are often forgotten and thrown to the side of the road.

In addition, they often dance around issues for an entire episode—or even longer in some cases—only to tackle them in the last five minutes of the episode. There ends up being a tremendous amount of build up to a miniscule climax, leaving viewers dissatisfied and miffed as to why they just wasted a good chunk of their evening investing in this story.

The show is, of course, not without its merits. The characters are likeable and interesting, and the cast certainly portrays them well. Olivia (Anna Torv) is the perfect mix of professionally cold and deeply human while the father-son combination of Walter and Peter (John Noble and Joshua Jackson, respectively) is touchingly quirky.

Upon first watching the next episode of Fringe, “August,” it seems like it could be a turning point in the confusion. As the episode plays out, however, it becomes abundantly clear that the writers for this episode bit off a bit more than they could handle.

“August” will deal with The Observers, a race of people that seem to come from another world and have appeared throughout history at pivotal moments in our world’s culture—at least, that is how the episode is billed.

The finished product strays a bit from that plan. The focus instead ends up on a completely different area, with many of the questions about The Observers left unanswered. If unanswered questions weren’t the show’s norm, it would be a little easier to stomach. Instead, it’s just more of the same.

What it comes down to is a trimming of the fat. Fringe‘s writers need to tighten their game and spend more time crafting not-so-scatterbrained plots and less time coming up with the next weird mystery. If some of the focus was taken off the details and placed instead on structure, perhaps those details would make more sense in the end.