Fringe: The Complete First Season starts off with Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Tory) and her partner (and secret lover) John Scott (Mark Valley) rushing off to an investigation where everyone in a passenger plane is found dead. What Dunham doesn't realize is that the strange circumstances of this particular crime are part of a larger string of cases referred to as "The Pattern." It seems that over the past two decades, cases like Flight 627 have been turning up more and more. In each case, the cause is tied to some piece of strange fringe science (as in sciences that tend to leave their researchers ousted by the mainstream science community). In this season alone, we see telepathy, pyrokinesis, teleportation, genetic engineering and even a few interviews with the dead, each of these cases bringing "The Pattern" more into focus as Olivia and her team learn about a terrorist organization that is behind most of these attacks. However, the goal of the organization seems to be shrouded in mystery that puts one of the world's biggest companies, Massive Dynamics, in the center.
But Olivia doesn't pursue these cases with Scott; actually, her partner dies in the first episode and she finds out that he is apparently a traitor and may be behind many of these attacks. It is this realization, and her attempts to save Scott's life, that cause her to meet up with the Bishops. It seems the Flight 627 case (as well as many of the other cases seen in Fringe: The Complete First Season) are tied to the early works of Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble). Walter has been in a mental institute for many years after a lab accident killed one of his assistants, and the only way that Olivia is able to see Walter is with the help of his estranged son, Peter (Joshua Jackson), who has spent many years pulling cons and doing whatever he can to stay ahead of the game. With the two Bishops in tow, as well as Olivia's assistant, Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole), the team investigates case after case and the details of the mentally disturbed Walter Bishop's involvement in these strange areas of science becomes more and more prominent.
The interactions between these four characters are great and are a lot of the reason why the show works so well. Walter is off-balanced, hard to keep focused on the tasks at hand, and his son is forced to try and keep him in line, all the while dealing with abandonment issues. Shadows of a relationship between Olivia and Peter begin to show themselves late in the season as Olivia starts getting over the loss of her partner/lover and even Astrid, who acts as more of a lab assistant to Walter, adds a nice dynamic to the group, offering a way to explain some of the more advanced scientific theories in layman's terms.
Supporting characters like Nina Sharp (Blair Brown), who is the C.O.O. of Massive Dynamics, and Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick), who manages the Fringe Division of Homeland Security, also add a lot to the series as Olivia has to learn to deal with the red tape and politics of her job (especially when an overseer is brought into the division to make sure everything is running smoothly), as well as the bureaucracy of dealing with a high-profile company like Massive Dynamics. In the end, the show is about the strange cases, the sci-fi feel and the conspiracy involving this strange terrorist organization who seems bent on destroying the world through the advancement of technology.
The Blu-ray version of this series also comes chock full of goodies. Not only is the boxed set two discs fewer than its DVD counterpart and the visuals really pop (with the exception of some graininess in the first couple of episodes), but this version includes all of the special features found on the DVD, as well as a bonus extra called Pattern Analysis. The Pattern Analysis option takes six concepts from the season (i.e. telepathy, electromagnetic fields, genetic engineering) and examines them on a more scientific level, complete with interviews with scientists. The other special features aren't anything to sneeze at either, since every episode has a "Deciphering the Scene" making-of segment, many have deleted scenes and a few go even farther with "The Massive Undertaking" featurettes that talk about some of the bigger special effects from the show (both practical and computer-generated), including the season's final, and stunning, scene. There are also more general featurettes on the special effects, creation of the series and its casting, as well as a nice one about the team's fifth member, Gene the Cow. I was surprised to see just how many added features there were in this release, especially since most shows will throw in gag reels, deleted scenes, some commentaries and maybe a single featurette. Instead, big fans of the show will be able to continue the experience another couple of hours, at least, after the season wraps up.
I really enjoyed Fringe, both when it aired live and on disc, but I found the Blu-ray experience much better, not only because of the high definition, but the story flows a lot better when you can watch it all together instead of dealing with mid-season breaks and other television scheduling issues. Being able to re-watch all the shows back-to-back really helps to put many of the pieces together, and as fan's of other J.J. Abrams shows will know, you can get a lot out of the show by watching it multiple times. Because of that, if you like the series, then getting it on Blu-ray or DVD is well worth the price, and if you are a fan of extras, then the BD exclusive feature, Pattern Analysis, might be worth the extra dollars.
