Fringe-Complete 1st Season

"...smart and stylish.  Alessandra Stanley, The New York Times
"...might be a worthy successor--finally--to The X-Files.  Gillian Flynn, Entertainment Weekly
"Lots of good action and lots of fun to boot.  Linda Stasi, New York Post

Editor's Note The lines between science-fiction and reality blur as J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman--the team behind STAR TREK and ALIAS--regroup to craft this mind-bending series that begins as an international flight lands at Boston's Logan Airport with every one of the passengers and crew members brutally murdered. When FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and her partner, Special Agent John Scott (Mark Valley), are called in to investigate, a mysterious, near-fatal mishap prompts Special Agent Dunham to seek out the assistance of famed genius Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble). Dr. Bishop has a reputation as the next Einstein, but due to the fact that he's been institutionalized for the past 20 years, the only way of contacting him is by going through his estranged son, Peter (Joshua Jackson). Later, Special Agent Dunham's investigation leads her into the lair of unscrupulous corporate schemer Nina Sharp (Blair Brown), who may hold the key that reveals the incident on Flight 627 as a small piece in a much larger, and frighteningly sinister, conspiracy. Only with the assistance of fellow FBI agents Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick), Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo), and Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole) will Agent Dunham and her partner have any hope of uncovering the twisted truth behind the crime that seemed too strange to be true. This release includes the complete first season of the series.

	Joshua Jackson
	John Noble
	Anna Torv
	Mark Valley
	Blair Brown
	Lance Reddick
	Kirk Acevedo
	Jasika Nicole
	Jeffrey Abrams - Creator
	Roberto Orci - Creator
	Alex Kurtzman - Creator

USA Today 8 of 10
When you're off to the fringe, it pays to have a great guide...That's exactly what you get in J.J. Abrams, the TV auteur who reinvigorated the action/adventure drama with Alias and Lost and now adds the best new show of the fall, Fringe. And this time, our guide promises he'll be easier to follow...What Abrams brings to Fringe is a director's eye for plot and pace, a fan's love of sci-fi excitement, and a story-teller's gift for investing absurd events with real emotions and relatable characters. But more than anything, he's an entertainer; what permeates his shows is the joy he takes in the medium, in contorting conventions and genres into something new...Abrams also knows people watch shows, not producers, which is why his series are impeccably cast. In Fringe, that means teaming Anna Torv, an Australian star soon to be an American one, with two more familiar faces: Dawson's Creek's Joshua Jackson and Lord of the Rings' John Noble. Add Mark Valley, Lance Reddick and Blair Brown, and you have a great ensemble...Despite the X-Files influences, in essence, Fringe is a crime show with a different science-based mystery to be solved each week. In the 95-minute opener, that crime melts a plane-load of passengers, sparking an investigation from FBI agents Olivia Dunham (Torv) and John Scott (Valley)...When tragedy strikes again, Dunham turns to a master of fringe science, Walter Bishop (Noble). But Bishop is insane and institutionalized, and the only person who can get him out is his estranged son, Peter (Jackson)...Strange doings abound in a plot that links cows with LSD and flashes clues to a bigger conspiracy. But wisely, tonight's premiere is dedicated to establishing the relationships among the three main characters, who are linked by both damage and desire...Fringe's premiere lacks the beauty and resonance of Lost, but it provides a solid framework for a series, which is what a pilot is supposed to do. You can see where it's going, and assuming Abrams doesn't let it get lost in its conspiracy, it should be fun to ride along. - Robert Bianco

San Francisco Chronicle 8 of 10
Given that there are so few real auteurs in television, J.J. Abrams deserves any benefit of the doubt when he makes a TV series. The Lost creator turned film director (Mission: Impossible III, the Star Trek reboot) has a real knack for constructing dense but enjoyable entertainment (see: Alias - until it became so confusing even he couldn't figure it out) that attracts legions of devoted fans...His latest venture, the sci-fi thriller on Fox called Fringe (because it dabbles in "fringe" science and theories) went into production with a brewing buzz, got leaked on the Internet before editing changes, was screened late for TV critics and then shown to the geek squad devotees of Comic-Con. Instead of sending Fringe into the stratosphere of hype, this preseason tour of sorts let most of the electricity out of the buzz as fans (and many critics) seemed lukewarm on the nearly two-hour pilot...Fringe is a visual treat, from the opening sequence to the floating, cloud-like information graphics onscreen to the X-Files-like makeup effects. The series is desperate to get noticed and the near-film-quality pilot should accomplish just that. But the romance angle is more corny than contrived, and more episodes will be needed to discover if Dr. Bishop, fresh from the institution, is too campy by half...Fans of Abrams probably wanted Fringe to levitate on first viewing. It tries but touches down periodically in the two-hour opening. If that hurts the buzz, so be it. But the bet here is that most people will come back eagerly for the second episode in hopes that one of television's most creative producers strikes again. - Tim Goodman