Fringe - Season 1 [DVD]

From J.J. Abrams (Lost), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman - the team that brought you Star Trek, Mission Impossible: III and Alias - and executive producers Jeff Pinkner and Bryan Burk comes a new drama that will thrill, terrify and explore the blurring line between science fiction and reality.

When an international flight lands at Boston's Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham is called in to investigate. When the search nearly kills her partner, Special Agent John Scott, a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to Dr. Walter Bishop, our generation's Einstein. There's only one catch: He's been institutionalized for the last 20 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son, Peter (Joshua Jackson), in to help. Under Special Agent Phillip Broyles, our trio will discover that what happened on that fatal flight is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth.

• Actors

Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, Kirk Acevedo, Lance Reddick, Blair Brown, Jasika Nicole, Mark Valley, John Noble & Michael Cerveris

• Certificate

15 years and over

• Year

2008

• Screen

Widescreen 1.85:1

• Languages

English

• Subtitles

English ; Danish ; Finnish ; Norwegian ; Swedish

• Duration

13 hours and 50 minutes (approx)

• Region

Region 2 - Will only play on European Region 2 or multi-region DVD players.

The central concept is actually quite similar to The X-Files, with a core of three main characters investigating what they call ‘fringe science’. This manifests itself with a series of unusual situations and happenings, that the team proceed to investigate and try and get to the bottom of.

The Fringe crew consists of FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham, Peter Bishop and the quite brilliant creation that is his father, Walter Bishop. Walter, played expertly by John Noble, is like every mad scientist in the world wrapped into one wonderful character, and Fringe is often at its strongest when he’s is stage centre.

This first season of Fringe runs for 20 episodes, all of which are included on this set, and it does occasionally struggle to find its feet. That’s no surprise given the show’s infancy, but it also hits some spectacularly good highs, including a marvellous cameo in the season finale that’d be remiss to spoil here. It also throws in a smart underlying narrative, and leaves things finally poised for the already-commissioned second season. In short, a strong show, and one with real potential to get even better. --Jon Foster