Airs Next: FOX at Tuesday 8:00 PM (60 min.)
Premieres: September 9, 2008
Show Categories: Drama, Science-Fiction, Horror, Mystery
Director: Alex Graves
Writers: J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci

FBI agents Olivia Dunham and Peter Bishop are faced with a rapidly spreading unexplained phenomenon of the threatening kind. In an attempt to stop the spread, they enlist the assistance of Bishop's estranged father, the institutionalized scientist Dr. Walter Bishop.

Dawson's Creek's Joshua Jackson will play the lead role of Peter Bishop, a smart guy with many gambling debts. The Secret Life of Us's Anna Torv will play Olivia Dunham, a young, tough FBI agent who has to confront an unexplained phenomena. Also cast in the series are The Black Donnelly's Kirk Acevedo and Boston Legal's Mark Valley. They will play FBI agents. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King's John Noble and The Wire's Lance Reddick soon were added to the credits. Noble as Dr. Walter Bishop and Reddick as Phillip Broyles, a special agent for Homeland Security head of the Fringe division, that investigates terrorist and paranormal events. Alongside them are veteran actress Blair Brown and Take the Lead actress Jasika Nicole. Brown will play Nina Sharp, a 16-year veteran of Prometheus Corp., a cutting-edge research facility, while Nicole got the recurring role of Astrid, a federal assistant.

This highly anticipated sci-fi drama is created by Transformers /Star Trek/ Mission: Impossible III's J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Fringe is directed by Emmy Award-winning Alex Graves ("The West Wing") and produced by Warner Bros. Television, Bad Robot Productions and Fringe Element Films.

Fringe, the latest J.J. Abrams show, has been reviewed and opinions are mixed on the new series set to appear tomorrow night.

As reported by Hollywood.com, Abrams has been out and about promoting his new series, which focuses on an FBI agent played by Anna Torv who investigates strange occurrences of "fringe" science.

When asked how he felt about Fringe being compared to X-Files, Abrams said, "When I did 'Felicity,' it was 'Ally McBeal' in college. When I did 'Lost,' it was 'Gilligan's Island' and 'Survivor' meets 'Twilight Zone.' We're doing this, it's 'X-Files.' I'm used to that sort of thing and I'm always so grateful that they're referring to something that's great. 'X-Files,' to me, you know, was a seminal influence. And so as much as I love the 'Twilight Zone' and 'Night Stalker' and [David] Cronenberg films and [Michael] Crichton movies, all these things connect in some way and 'X-Files' is right there at the top of the list. So I would be a fool to say, 'Oh, there's no influence, there's no connection,' I mean, clearly, it's an FBI agent and weird stuff. I do think the similarities sort of end there, but I could see the comparison."

Fringe "was born out of our love of all things bizarre and kooky in media we loved growing up," explained Abrams as reported by AMCTV.com. "The 'X-Files' was definitely one of the sources of inspiration, as were things like The 'Twilight Zone' and 'Nightstalker.' We actually did an episode of 'Alias' once guest starring David Cronenberg as a mad scientist. It was something I felt could be a TV show, the idea of a Frankenstinian mad doctor, the classic cliché character, but done in a way that Cronenberg has treated a lot of his out-there protagonists, where he makes them broken people and emotional characters."

Reviewers however, were critical of the seeming derivative nature of Fringe. According to Steve West of Cinemablend.com, ""The new Fox series created by Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (who had great success with Alias and are indeed the ones behind the upcoming 'Star Trek' film) is a pure exercise in potential and major errors in judgment. The opening scene, horrific and vile in its own right, calls to mind explicitly the pilot episode of 'Lost.' It is intentional, and is possibly the biggest mistake I’ve seen made by a creative team launching a new show."

Verne Gay of Newsday agreed, calling Fringe "derivative."

Other reviewers were more positive. "Lots of good action and lots of fun to boot," said Linda Stasi of the NY Post. "If you love 'Lost' and were crazy for 'Alias,' then have I got a show for you. It's called 'Fringe,' and it's a little bit of this and a lotta bits of that."

Bij episode 3 was ik in slaap gevallen. Meestal betekent dat dat ik het saai vind. Maar nu hier staat dat 4 super is, geef ik die nog 1 kans. Dan moeten ze me overtuigen, anders is het gedaan. Genoeg anders moois.

tja om eerlijk te zijn...welke serie is nu geen dom vermaak...of is dat een ander soort topic?