I try to give a show a few episodes before making a decision on it. A bad pilot can morph into a good show and visa versa. When I head the plot surrounding FRINGE something in the back of mind said, “This isn’t going to turn out well.”

I know, it’s from JJ Abrams, the savior of television with FELICITY, ALIAS and LOST, so I’m sure the people who grenlighted the project were expecting the JJ magic. You would figure they would actually watch some of his shows on DVD just to see if the reputation he has is deserved.

The toughest thing on creating a series is making sure the mythos is believable and stays on track. ALIAS had a great mythos but as time when on (translation: it became a hit) the mythos took a side turn and the stories became weak. There are many factors why this can occur in a series, not just because of being a hit, but ALIAS is a good example of a recent TV series starting off great then losing steam. LOST is the same thing for me. I have to be honest and say I didn’t make it past the first episode and from what I hear from fans, the show kind of isn’t living up to it’s potential.

That brings us the FRINGE.

FRINGE wasn’t working for me early on in the pilot, but it hit a brick wall for me when the FBI agent goes the big, super secret but out in the open science center and talks to this woman. The woman, to show off, casually takes the skin off her arm to reveal a cybernetic arm. First of all, this is supposed to be a modern show, taking place now, so having this woman remove the skin to reveal a fully functional cybernetic arm is a pretty big leap in science. Second, if this was something true to this ‘modern’ timeline, then why haven’t they marketed the cybernetics? By the ominous music and the staging, this was supposed to be a shocking event, showing how far this company has gone in research, yet they give this arm to an executive? Excuse me, but if the company, as had been established, was out to make money on science, wouldn’t a lot pf people pay good money to have limbs replaced? The third thing is if you’re able to build this arm, why in heaven’s name would you want peel off skin? I know it’s been a staple in SF shows (let’s show we are a cyborg, not by strength, not by jumping over a building, but let’s rip the skin off our arms) but that reveal is so 1999.

There were so many plot holes in the beginning that it was a chore going through the pilot, and nothing has gotten better in subsequent episodes. They’re five episodes into the series and I don’t care one bit for any of the main characters. To me, watching the show is like watching Star Trek: The Next Generation but it’s an episode filled with technobabble that doesn’t fit for the show. It wants to be like CSI meets The X-Files but doesn’t use the best from those shows. It’s cobbled together in a mash that doesn’t make sense from the geek end and it doesn’t have characters I care about from the drama end. All in all it’s an interesting show on paper but terrible in execution.