Cinefantastique Online

Well, if nothing else, you have to give J.J. Abrams and company credit for using a title that sounds intentionally designed to invite reviewer ridicule. In fact, it seems almost too obvious - like a head feint designed to get you to drop your guard so you don’t see the left hook coming to knock you out. In spite of that concern, I’ll take the bait and say that, yes, the second episode of FRINGE offers the same old story that you’ve seen many times before. The plot - about a serial killer who removes pituitary glands from his victims - actually works up a decent amount of queasy thrills in the manner of a conventional TV cop show, but, as with the pilot episode, the story is just a hook on which to hang questions that will not be answered until later. For example, was there some ulterior motive for Agent Dunham’s boss to assign her to the special unit investigating fringe science? The question was raised in Episode 1. It is asked here, but only in a scene that, predicably, turns out to be a dream (Dunham begins to feel the effects of an accelerated pregnancy, like the one that kills the first victim in the episode’s teaser).

We find out that Dunham’s boss is part of some kind of committee that includes non-FBI agents. Is it really a good idea for him to be spilling agency secrets to outsiders? That’s not the real question of course; we’re supposed to wonder about the nature of this committee, details of which will no doubt be teasingly sprinkled throughout the season.

We hear suggestions that the oft-mentioned but still unexplained “Pattern” of preternatural events all link back to the research project of mad Dr. Walter Bishop, which doesn’t sound very promising. Since Dunham has Bishop at her disposal, along with his old lab and all his research, unraveling the “Pattern” should be just a matter of reading his old notes to see what he is up to.

And if you expect the solution to be so simple, you haven’t been paying attention - revelation and resolution is the last thing this show wants; even when it would be better to do so, the scripts reflexively reach for open endings. In “Same Old Story,” this takes the form of a very minor league villain who escapes, presumably to be resurrected in some future episode. It is safe to say that few viewers will be eagerly awaiting his return.

The sad thing is that, if it would simply jettison the accumulating unanswered questions being deliberately carried from episode to episode like old junk that a pack-rat refuse to discard, FRINGE could be a decent series of stand-alone episodes, unburdened by a contrived continuity arc. Each of the first two episodes began with teasers that sucked you into watching the rest of the story. The plots are weird enough to be interesting without being so outlandish as to be completely unbelievable. The interaction of the three leads is strong enough to carry the episodes. And there are enough clever little moments to make you wish the show would concentrate on entertaining you week by week, instead of charting a course to keep you guessing for an entire season. (For example, “Same Old Story” contains is a MACGYVER like sequence in which Peter improvises a defibrillator from equipment at hand. It’s not exactly EMMY-quality stuff, but it’s something more than the usual chase-scenes and shoot-outs.)

For all the vague hints and non-answers, the biggest question regards Dr. Bishop and his son Peter. The father is a convict sprung from prison by Dunham. The son is a civilian dragged into the team because the prison would only release the doctor to a family member. So are these two guys not on the government payroll? Have they been sworn in as agents or are they independent contractors, or just what are they? And does the FBI really feel secure in handing over a super-secret assignment like this to a team that consists of one trained agent and two loose cannons?

We eagerly await the answers. But we are not holding our breath.

FRINGE: “Same Old Story” (September 16, 2008). Directed by Paul A. Edwards. Written by Jeff Pinkner & J. J. Abrams & Alex Kurtzman & Robert Orci.