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JJ Abrams on Fringe
By Fred Topel | Image property of Fox
Fringe
Get ready to be sucked into another J.J. Abrams mystery. Fringe even starts with another plane crash, but this time the mystery stays in the scientific world. An FBI agent (Anna Torv) joins with a scientist (John Noble) and his son (Joshua Jackson) to investigate paranormal circumstances, a la The X-Files.
JJ Abrams Sets Up Fringe
"I’ve never seen the X-Files," joked Abrams. "I’m such a fan of not just X-Files, but The Twilight Zone is one of my favorite shows of all time. The original Nightstalker was great. What I love about shows, The X-Files did so well, is they could do creepy stuff Twilight Zone style, but they would do a number of shows that had nothing to do with the overall storytelling, the overall mythology and then they would jump in and do one. That is definitely closer to the model."
That means unlike Lost or Alias, viewers won't have to see every single episode in order to follow along the latest episode of Fringe. "I would even say it’s closer to ER almost where you have these ongoing relationships, these ongoing storylines and yet week to week when the door bursts open you’re faced with the insane urgent situation of the week. A show I loved when it was on was The Practice. That’s another show that would do that well, which is they would deal with the interpersonal relationship stuff."
Abrams actually sees the weekly mysteries as a helpful crutch in dealing with the characters. "When I look back at doing Felicity, the problem with those shows is that there’s nothing to interrupt the relationship story. So while there are things here and there that you come up with, there was no franchise that would distract the main characters from their emotional storyline. So I think a show like ER is a good example of a show where if these characters were not doctors and they were just hanging out, you go through their emotional stories in a few episodes. But because of what’s happening everyday, every week on those shows, there’s stuff they have to deal with, there’re fires to put out."
Fringe will also follow Abrams' visual aesthetic, making it look more like a movie than a TV show. "I feel like obviously the standard for what TV looks like changes all the time. There’s certainly a cinematic quality to much of what you see on TV. In fact, it’s funny when you watch some movies now, they’ve gone much more rough. The Bourne films, for example, that feels almost documentary style the way Paul Greengrass does his stuff. So it’s funny how television has taken on a very sort of cinematic look, more sophisticated lighting and camera moves. A lot of movies have gone to a rougher place. So it’s interesting to think the line is so blurred now, it’s hard to know. If you just want to look at something in a vacuum, I don’t know if you’d be able to say, 'That definitely is a TV show. That’s definitely a movie.'"
Fringe premieres Sept. 9 on Fox.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Fox
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