“Fringe” and “Dollhouse” were two of the most eagerly awaited shows of the 2008-09 TV season, but both have struggled to reach their potential.
“Fringe” (8 p.m. Tuesday, Fox) needed to dial down its frantic intensity and focus on its characters while supplying intriguing mysteries, while “Dollhouse” (8 p.m. Friday, Fox) needed to make us feel that its characters were more than chess pieces to be moved around a board. Both shows share plausibility problems, but when they’re telling emotionally charged, well-paced stories, it’s easier to shove those concerns aside.
More Top Picks Best Edc Flashlights
It does a critic’s heart good to say that both Fox dramas have improved quite a bit.
The last couple of episodes of the Joss Whedon drama “Dollhouse,” which concerns operatives whose minds are frequently imprinted with new personalities, have moved the show firmly into must-see category. If the poignant and engrossing April 3 episode, “Needs,” is indicative of what the show is capable of, then I really hope “Dollhouse” gets a second season.
In the show’s early going, the soundtrack of “Fringe,” a show about a trio of mismatched investigators who take on bizarre cases, could be overwhelming: Though composer Michael Giacchino (who also does great work for “Lost”) is undoubtedly one of the best in the business, the show’s score was used to beat the viewer into submission rather than subtly heighten the dramatic stakes.
Not just musically, Tuesday’s “Fringe” is a song in a different key. A mystery is supplied in the opening minutes, but the questions about what is going on build slowly. Nothing is oversold, either with overheated action or bombastic music, and the low-key tension allows the viewer to focus more on the mismatched trio at the heart of the show. If the characters of Peter (Joshua Jackson) and Olivia (Anna Torv) still aren’t quite as fleshed out as I might like, they’re growing on me. And John Noble is so consistently wonderful as Walter that his performance is often reason enough to tune in.
Sure, the premise of the episode is a bit out there and there are still some formulaic elements (hey, what are the odds that mad scientist Walter will have something in his lab that will help solve the case?), but creatively, “Fringe” appears to be headed in a positive direction.
In a recent interview, “Fringe” executive producer Jeff Pinkner indicated that there would soon be more revelations about the show’s ongoing mythology, which involves elements of Olivia’s past as well as freakily compelling characters named Mr. Jones and the Observer. If “Fringe” stays consistently compelling and starts piling on juicy ongoing stories reminiscent of the early seasons of “The X-Files,” count me in as a regular viewer.
———-