Check out the new JJ Abrahms TV show, Fringe (Alias + The X-Files )

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Pilot episode now available from the usual torrents and alt.binaries.multimedia.

I gotta say this show really won me over -- for the first hour, the pilot just seems very lame and very "CBS".  It feels like an episodic FBI procedural with some nonsense science hokum behind it, but eventually the mythology emerges and there are some compelling twists.  After finishing my viewing, I'm totally on board for more.  It's a shame that FOX will probably cancel it after the first 7 episodes are aired, but oh well.

Kidding aside, I think the show has a good chance for success.  Fringe will obviously compromise serialization with any number of standalone episodes, but will also have an overarching backstory that compels regular viewers onward.  At first I thought it was just going to be like The Inside (a short lived FOX show from Firefly's Tim Minear).....just a dark procedural for a network that wanted them one.  But Fringe straddles the line between Lost, CSI, and The X-Files pretty effectively.  I don't know where FOX will put it on their schedule, but obviously it would be a good companion to Bones or House or maybe 24.

Already they've got one of this year's most memorable lines -- "Excellent, let's make some LSD!"

Things that bothered me -- SPOILER nitpicking:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The show really stretches credulity at times.  The DHS guy from The Wire is supposed to be a hardass, but he lets Olivia do all kinds of crazy shit on the company dime -- setting up a lab for for Bishop, buying him ridiculous stuff he demands.  Somehow a judge issued an arrest warrant for the criminal based on Olivia's LSD-induced vision and not much else.  As in any crime show, things move way faster than they should too.

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[CHOW CHOW]

Yeah, I saw it and thought it was great.

RE: your spoiler

spoiler (click to show/hide)

If you remember when Scott was dying from the car crash at the end, he whispers into Olivia's ear asking "Why do you think Broyles(sp?) asked you to go to the storage units?" implying that Olivia was picked for a reason and was given that freedom with the lab and stuff for a reason, etc.

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Obviously part of the problem with Lost's viewer retention was that the characters' situation was so dire, every episode not dealing directly with mythology was dismissed as worthless filler.  People got bored with not knowing the answers, and ratings suffered.  Obviously it won't be so much of an issue here since there's room for compelling single-episode mysteries.  I do worry that FOX will pull an Alias and slowly demand that serialized elements be removed or heavily altered.

For CHOW CHOW:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yeah, I assume that some of that stuff may be resolved once the mythology becomes more clear, but still things happen at ridiculous speed.  In the time from when her BF is said to have 24 hours to live, they manage to do things that would probably take days to clear through courts and bureaucracy (arrest warrant, confession, immunity agreement).

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[TVC15]

I just checked this out and I dug it quite a bit.  My only real problems probably have more to do with it being a two-hour/episode pilot, which is too long for a TV show.  Yeah, there were a few leaps of plausibility and what not, but I thought it was handled reasonably well.  It's got potential and I kinda wish there were a few more episodes so I could tell whether this is something to keep on my radar or not.  I'd recommend other genre fans to give it a shot.