FRINGE: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (2008-2009, Blu-ray released September 8, 2009 – MSRP $79.98)
Okay, I love this show. It may have taken damn-near the whole season to win me over completely, but they’ve got me now. I had been following it casually, checking out episodes whenever it was convenient. But now, having seen it all to the end, I have to admit that I won’t be waiting until next September to see season 2 on Blu-ray. I’ll be watching new episodes on TV every week. I’m now a Fringe-aholic.
On the surface, Fringe really feels like a new version of the X-Files. But it’s not. It’s SO not. It’s SOOO much better! It’s a healthy combination of David Cronenberg, Rod Serling and Warren Ellis with a heaping helping of Ken Russell thrown in for good measure. The series sets itself up as a weekly episodic procedural – a special F.B.I. task-force investigates a series of bizarre deaths and disasters known as “the pattern” with the help of a seemingly mad-scientist. But once the over-arching narrative gets a chance to heat up and find its footing, things really get interesting. This whole first season just reeks of potential. It plays like a grand set-up for what creators JJ Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (the team responsible for TV shows Alias and Lost and this years brilliant big-screen re-imagining of Star Trek) have in mind for future seasons.
Fringe looks outstanding on Blu-ray! If I had my wish, Warner would deliver the season 2 set to my house tomorrow, instead of making me wait until next year for it. As much as I need to see new episodes as soon as possible, it will pain me to watch them in their broadcast versions after being spoiled by the video quality on this Blu-ray set. The audio, while still quite stunning, is sadly only presented in a compressed Dolby DIgital 5.1 stream. There may be good reason for this however. It’s possible that there isn’t much room left on the discs for lossless tracks, after cramming on 4 episodes and a bunch of extras. On the other hand, it might simply be the case that the studio only prepares compressed soundtracks for broadcast and would have to go to great pains to recreate each episodes audio in the lossless format. Either way, you’re not going to end up being too disappointed with the audio here. It’s quite dynamic and very expressive for DD 5.1 and more cinematic than most television shows tend to be.
The bonus features are a bit of a mixed bag. While there are a metric ton of them (for a full run-down of everything on the disc, read our previous article here) few seem to hit a home run in terms of dishing out the goods you want. There’s a lot of neat stuff here, lots to be learned about the production itself and the science behind the stories, but very, very little about the mythology of Fringe! We want a few secrets here! Or some clues! I need to know more! Sigh…Of all the bonus features in the set, the most engaging is the commentary track on the pilot episode. Creators Abrams, Orci and Kurtzman are engaging and entertaining as they fly by the seat of their pants in an improvised chat about the episode and the show in general. Great stuff here.
[...] Studios are starting to get wise to the notion that a lot of us would buy our favourite TV shows on Blu-ray if given the opportunity. And, from the looks of things, we’re going to have a lot more choice this coming fall. I’m particularly excited to get my hands on the Human Target Blu-ray set, as it was easily the best new show of last season. I’m also looking forward to the second season of Fringe on Blu. Aside from being the best new show of the previous season, the first Blu-ray disc set looked like a million bucks in high-def! [...]