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Is Fringe the New LOST?

We break down the potential of J.J. Abrahm's newest offering, Fringe.

July 9, 2008

Is Fringe the next LOST? It's the sort of question that would usually emerge from the creative shallow end of the pop-culture press. Anytime Bad Robot Productions or JJ Abrams blinks there is going to be some insinuation of the island-mystery phenom. None-the-less, the question in this particular instance, with this particular show, is entirely worth considering. Why?

As we pointed out in our review of the pilot of LOST, Fringe is a thinly veiled attempt to harness some of LOST's most successful story telling devices in a more forced and refined way. This isn't a criticism, and it definitely isn't anything new for Abrams and crew; nor did it begin with LOST per se, as any Alias fan would be happy to tell you.

Fringe is, of course, not an attempt to purposefully carbon copy the LOST formula, at least not blatantly. Coming from the same crew that created LOST, minus a Lindelof, it's just as fair to assume that it is a matter of style. Nobody even bothers to ask if the next Red Hot Chili Peppers song is going to sound like the rest, but we all secretly hope there will be another 'Give it away', 'Breaking the Girl', or 'Californication' in there somewhere.

So it is a very fair question: Is Fringe the next LOST? Or, does it at least wear the same brand of musk that drives the LOST crowd so crazy... that irresistible mixture of high-concept and high-art pheromones that will have audiences on the edge of their sofas when the game is on, and combing through freeze frames and wikis before the credits role. Here is a run-down of five areas that Fringe needs to score on and how it's making it so far.

Hawt Cast
Hawt Cast

Hawt Cast

Before it premiered, the most common pre-criticism of LOST was that it was going to be a soul-less scripted 'Survivor' with a skin-deep cast. It wasn't long before the Hurley's were stealing the show from the Boones, and the 'face' factor of Matthew Fox, Josh Holloway and Evangeline lilly, were proving they packed some major acting chops behind those tightened cores and rugged facades.

No difference with Fringe. Anna Torv is a more-than-capable actress for her lead spot, and looks quite nice stripped down to her undies for the pilot's infamous sensory deprivation tank sequence. The hasty strip show was a welcome surprise, and one gets the feeling that Torv will be showing a fair amount of flesh in Fringe. The good news is Torv is just as interesting with her clothes on. She emotes well.

Fringe definitely has the human eye-candy covered, but appears even more intent on filling the Hurley and John Locke factors out. For each Anna Torv and Josh Jackson, there is character-building savant like Lance Reddick, Blair Brown or John Noble.

This could be more evidence that Fringe is a refinement of the LOST formula, or again just a step outside of that box. LOST has dropped more eye-candy from the cast then it has retained, some consider that a direct correlation with the audiences fondness for well done characters over a 'pretty boy/girl' of the week.

Fringe is completely devoid of air-heads. There are a couple of ancillary characters, Kirk Acevedo as Agent Charlie Francis and Jaskia Nicole as Astrid, who are largely underused in the early cuts of the pilot that 'could' be considered window dressing, but nothing that qualifies as the infamous Pablo and Nikki offense that made LOST fan's blood boil.

As far as any attempts to channel any characters of LOST directly, Josh Jackson's Peter Bishop comes across as an interesting amalgamation of both Dr. Jack Shepherd and wise cracking con-man Sawyer. Whether this is a purposeful attempt to blend the most likeable chromosomes of those characters or not, Jackson squeaks out enough originality in his presentation of Bishop to prevent himself looking like the token hunk while at the same time lacquering the character with suitable nuances effective enough to dash any serious notion that the younger Bishop could be called Dr. Sawyer Shepherd-Ford.

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