Some Fringe benefits, but...

I was so looking forward to watching Fringe after reading about it in the glossies that for the first 10 minutes I didn’t notice the Mistake Number 1 that was trying to catch my attention. Alas, not for long. But it was such a great opening scene: An airliner hits turbulence, a man injects himself with either insulin or anti-anxiety meds and as he makes his way to the bathroom with an airhostess trying to rush at him, telling him to get back to his seat, he turns and screams rend the air. His face seems to be melting, a horror that catches up with every other passenger as the camera moves backward. Then, it pulls away and all we hear is silence 40,000 feet in the air. This is the X-Files delightfully updated, Joshua Jackson and new face Anna Torv providing the eye candy. It should be a great show, paced, interesting characters and a running darkness of plot that keeps you coming back for more. The paranormal is the point of entry here, with FBI Agent Olivia Dunham bringing a fresh-faced optimism to the hard-edged world of human experimentation and other oddities. Well, that’s the problem, you see, Anna Torv as Olivia. She is effortlessly gorgeous and oddly annoying, not because of but despite this. She must speak in a monotone and an accent that cannot be placed, ending with a pursing of the mouth no matter what mood she is trying to convey. The accent seems eastern European until Google tells you she’s Aussie (with Estonian blood, ahh...). As for the moue, maybe someone should just tell her that it’s not sexy? It’s difficult to watch the show now, but one must try because there is a saving grace: John Noble as Dr Walter Bishop who has been sprung from a mental institution and whose verbal meanderings are hilarious; he keeps you on your toes as he is liable to spew viciously when you least expect it. Joshua Jackson (best known, unfortunately, for Dawson’s Creek and as Diane Kruger’s BF) plays his son Peter Bishop, not consistently. Jackson has his good days (you believe him) and his bad (he seems to think he’s in a play where he has to throw his voice to the back rows). The token black actor comes in the form of the highly expendable Lance Reddick as bossman Agent Phillip Broyles. There is one other point of interest: Mark Valley (from Boston Legal) who plays rogue agent John Scott, (dead rogue agent whom I suspect will not be dead for very long) and who plays it well. He has also upped and married Anna Torv and little things like that always raises my interest level.