Comic-Con ’08: TV on the “Fringe”

Posted by SH

J.J. Abrams brought a sneak peek of his new offering, “Fringe,” which bows on FOX Sept. 9. The first scene is a plane in distress, but no worries, there is no deserted island on the horizons. Smoke monsters, maybe, but none was visible in the pilot. The plane manages to land, but not until everyone on board is turned into goo so that all that’s left is skeletons. It’s a harrowing sequence, assuring that the effects will be feature-film quality. Newcomer Anna Torv is among the FBI agents called to investigate, and things quickly become personal when her partner both in and out of uniform is infected with the same mysterious ailment that killed the passengers. To save him, she needs to dig up an old fossil of a scientist who’s been holed up in the loony bin for almost two decades. The only way to get access to him is through his son, a troubled genius in his own right played by Joshua Jackson. Abrams has admitted he’s going for an “Altered States” vibe here, and that’s driven home further by the presence of Blair Brown, who starred in the trippy 1980 shocker and shows up here as a corporate exec whose motives are not yet clear. There’s definitely a larger conspiracy afoot, but Abrams promises not to lay it on so thick that a casual viewer will be, ahem, lost.