Fringe Season one

Fringe Season one

Alright so initially this was just going to be a review of the pilot episode of Fringe but I found that I was compelled to watch the whole season and upon its conclusion I determined that the pilot would do you the reader justice.
The show follows a fairly monster of the week formula after the pilot, even if episodes heavy in mythology. Typically you can miss a week and still be fine when it comes to the mythos of the series, you'll feel like you missed a little bit but its not like say Lost or Supernatural where the characters will end up in a completely different place an episode later than they were.
I don't suggest missing an episode, I'm just saying you can survive the first season that way. a handful(maybe 6-8) of the stand alone episodes(I'd estimate around 14 of the 20 episodes are true stand alones) aren't really worth much of your time, but they certainly try to keep you interested. There are therefore around 8 episodes of the series that are good standalones and they will give you hope for the rest of the series.
There are about 5 episodes that are Mythos episodes, and these are where this show Truly sparkles. If they focus in more on their mythology and less on the standalones(hopefully replacing half the meh stand alones with good ones and the other half with more mythology) and this show would rock.
There is also the pilot which is a beast on its own. It is worth a watch, but if it doesn't lock you in, watch the second episode for a better idea about how the fringe team will work each week and for a not horrible episode.
The basic idea of the show is that a team of an FBI agent whose past in deeply rooted in this world, a father whose basically the Tesla of our generation(along with his never seen but often talked about former partner, William Bell) and the scientists genius son as they(along with a lab assistant who becomes more and more prominent as the show goes on) and slowly you get your monster of the week, X-files clone. The problem is there if you don't like X-files, this might not do it for you. But it does use it's mythos to show it will be better than X-files at making the Mythology cool.
The real treat in the casting is Joshua Jackson as the son, along with the man Who plays the mad scientist, Walter. the other characters, especially the supporting cast of Fringe division are fantastic as well. The woman who plays Olivia isn't bad, but I wasn't ever able to care about her in the series. In fact, many of the guest stars of the week are more likable or at the very least sympathetic.
One of the biggest problems is that a great special guest appearance at the end of the season finale is ruined by A) hype and B) on screen credit. I won't ruin it for those of you who don't know, but suffice to say it is alot of awesome and to be fair was the only reason I chose to give fringe a second chance after being unimpressed with the pilot initially.
so I'll say this, its fun Scifi and its worth a peek. They go to places I wasn't expecting and the focus on these places in season 2 could turn this series around into being a new generations X-files(and hope for the greats like Dollhouse).