Fringe Benefits

Saw the first episode of Fringe last night which has been fast-tracked to Australia from the USA. WARNING: semi-spoilers ahead!

Anna Torv is fabulous! Gorgeous and thoroughly believable. I love her in close-up. Although she's Australian she was not on my radar and I can't remember the McLeod's Daughters episode in which she appeared.  I really like her and I really like her character Olivia Dunham who I am ready and willing and able to follow through the greater story as it unfolds. 

Great to see the gnarled character actor John Noble back on the screen after his riveting performance as the crazy and cruel Denethor in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King who was quite prepared to condemn his unfavoured son Farimir into the flames of a funeral pyre in a murder-suicide bid. This time John plays crazy as well, but a benevolent kind of crazy who might just save the world after being locked up in a psychiatric institution for 17 years.

I was a devoted viewer of Dawson's Creek while it was on, although I missed the last season because it was buried away at some god-awful late hour and even in a lunchtime slot on Channel 10 after the show had been cancelled in the US. Have no idea who ended up with who but was told the other day that Joey got together with Pacey. Don't know if it is true or not but will eventually have to rent the DVDs and find out for sure. Here is the segue into Fringe ... nice to see Joshua Jackson back on the small screen. Liked him as Pacey and like him as the darker brooding genius Peter Bishop in this one. He looks great in his long tailored coat.

I don't know much about Lance Reddick except for his appearances in the brilliant Lost. He is very striking and just commands the screen. His character is intimidating. I would have crumbled from his glare, but then I'm not a heroine in any other story except my own.

Intriguing pilot episode about a virus that brings down a plane and dissolves all its occupants into gelatine and bones. It has an X-Files sensibility with its master conspiracies, and the FBI and Homeland Security called into to investigate a mysterious and spooky corporation. Undoubtedly we'll see more science experiments gone awry in what looks to be like a possible bid for world domination within the realms of  "the Pattern". I am also interested in the almost sci-fi exploration of the human mind and its potential. Hated seeing animals in cages and cows in the lab but at least we were given impressions rather than full on stomach churning and emotionally upsetting scenes (although I have to give the director credit for that one amusing shot of the human characters sitting down with Jean the cow poking her head through as part of the coterie). I won't comment much on the story. You'll have to find out for yourselves. But I will say that JJ Abrams is up to his old tricks and if Lost is anything to go by then I'll be hooked on this one too. Here's the trailer for those of you who missed it.