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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.

Gotta-know Mysteries
Gotta-know Mysteries

Gotta-know Mysteries

With little argument, this is pretty much a must have for this type of show. It is definitely something LOST has mastered to frustratingly awesome degrees. Just like LOST compares to a lot of its predecessors (Twilight Zone, Twin Peaks, etc), anything that's going to claim to be stepping in LOST's foot-prints is going to have to be throwing up some twists, angles and anything else that can be branded 'perplexing', that has the audiences crying out for answers. Fringe, so far, doesn't seem to do that.

In the case of comparing the shows, this is one area where Fringe is coming out on top of its kissing cousin. Fringe's over-arching mythology of the pattern and how that may fit in with the science and experimentation run amok sub-plot is neatly compartmentalized within the one-off nature. This is, of course, assuming the pilot is model for future episodes.

We are definitely aware of that story developing a pulse beneath the skin of the episodic tale, but the 'story' of the pilot had a satisfying set of diversions and swerves that were effectively resolved. No cables in the ocean for Fringe. The formula seems to address the frustrations of LOST fans when it comes to bizarre moments that need to be cleared up: the longer you wait, the less satisfying the conclusion.

Those who relish competition are probably aware that Heroes sort of snuck up on LOST during season three and pulled a similar tactic. With Heroes, mysteries would be set up with some resolved in the same episode, but seemingly major threads were resolved as early as the second week.

For the pilot of Fringe, most of the major questions raised were answered within the same episode, but it was clear that the serialized segment of the story will take some time to unfold. The improvement over LOST and HEROES seems to be that the episodic tale is going to service that macro tale, rather than dominating the continuity of the show.

While we're here though, does Fringe have a Macro tale worth telling? Will focusing primarily on episodic stories be enough to keep the show afloat? I loved the pilot, and to be fair they are still tweaking it, but to be realistic there were some problems pointed out by the armchair critics who got their hands on the pilot that were very valid. That said, my counterpoint has always been: compared to what?

Sure, this entire exercise is about comparison. At the end of the day, though, the largest part of the audience that tunes in for Fringe isn't going to be the obsessive fan-boys and girls who are so hyperbolic about the minutiae in this whacky scene that they will have any sort of expectations. The tendency of we obsessive folk to raise eyebrows over Fringe's hiccups has, imho, a lot to do with setting the bar too high because it is, after-all, J.J.

See More: Lost | Fringe | J.J. Abrams | mysteries | Pacey