Pilot review: Fringe

This show was fun. Olivia is likeable. Walter is likeable. Whatever Joshua Jackson's character's name is is likeable. (But how did I watch the whole hour and a half long episode and not catch his name? And now I've looked it up so I know it's Peter.) The plot was intense at the right moments and playful and fun at the right moments. Eh, who am I kidding. I just liked staring at Josh Jackson.

But seriously, there was some contrived dialog and there were some predictable situations. But it was a satisfactory story and conclusion. The characters are all quirky, but not to the point of annoyance. Olivia could maybe stand to have a little bit more personality. Maybe a characteristic other than just "determined" would be good. But Anna Torv is charming enough that it's not too much of a problem. I think I'd be perfectly content to watch these characters regularly without having a tangled and confusing plot that I had to watch every episode just to have a mild grasp of.

The "science" is insane. (And how many times can Pacey...uh, I mean Peter, exclaim that something is "INSANE"?) It's a little annoying that they even refer to it as science. Well, maybe it's not. I guess if I consider the show science fiction, which I should, then it's fine for them to refer to the fictional science. Because it isn't quite fantasy. Or if the abilities and situations are, the tone of the show isn't. And that's what's actually important.

A couple more things. The person I was watching it with and I were discussing from the very beginning whether Olivia's boyfriend/fellow FBI agent was going to turn out to be evil or dead by the end of the episode. And he was both. So that was fun. Also, it's really annoying that the show isn't shot in Boston. For some reason there were shots of Yale that were being used for Harvard. And I think I'd read that some combination of Toronto and either Montreal or New York were being used for Boston. Not cool.

Okay, that's all. I'm not going to get into "The Pattern" and what that means and what the overarching storyline might be like. As I said, the characters are entertaining enough so far. I'll be watching again next week. Score 1 for Fall 2008.