Fringe Reviews

This page includes links to reviews on the FOX television series Fringe. A general consensus in the media is that the series pilot shows a striking resemblance to the The X-Files.SCI FI Weekly: Fringe: Movie and TV Reviews (September 8, 2008)

Fringe follows Anna Torv and Joshua Jackson as Olivia Dunham and Peter Bishop, two characters who are brought together to investigate the paranormal for the FBI.New York Magazine: Pilot Preview (June 10, 2008)

"Though the pilot has some flaws in it--mostly from a clash of tones--it still overdelivers on creativity, creepiness, fine acting and burgeoning character development."—SFGateSFGate: Fringe Review

"I'm on the bubble with Fringe. The characters are all interesting and the acting is top notch, but the plot is essentially an update of "The X-Files" with the addition of terrorism and the office of Homeland Security."—Chicago SunTimesChicago SunTimes: Fringe Review

• USATODAY: Fringe Review
  • "You can see where it's going, and assuming Abrams doesn't let it get lost in its conspiracy, it should be fun to ride along."

• The New York Times: Fringe Review
  • "Fringe invokes some of the sillier forms of television devices-- teleportation, psychokinesis, transmogrification and even bionic prostheses--but still manages to seem smart and stylish."

• Daily News: Fringe Review
  • "It has good characters and plenty of action. It keeps its science fiction accessible, not abstract. Maybe best of all, it has a great sense of humor."
• The Hollywood Reporter: Fringe Review
  • "Although episodes are self-contained, each has a clue that points to the overall involvement of a shadowy, giant corporation, Massive Dynamics. Combine these elements with solid special effects and confident direction and you get some heavy-duty counterprogramming to ABC's 'Dancing With the Stars.'"
• MiamiHerald.com: Fringe Review
  • "Mixing paranoia, bleak humor and post-9/11 exhaustion in a potent story-telling brew, it's one of the new television season's most promising dramas."

• ChicagoTribune.com: Fringe
  • "The last half-hour of the pilot is by far the best part of Fringe; it’s full of twists, turns, action and suspense. And the first 20 minutes or so, in which a team of federal agents investigate a mysterious occurrence on a commercial airliner, is brisk and efficient, if (like much of Fringe) a little bombastic and overdirected."

• Variety: Fringe Review **"Nothing here really pops, even with Torv holding her own as the tough femme protagonist, the welcome presence of "The Wire's" Lance Reddick as her hostile boss and Noble exhibiting alternating strains of brilliance and psychosis."

• Salon.com: "Fringe" Review
  • "Abrams, the quintessential American dreamer and overindulger, the ultimate boyish idiot-savant imaginator, just can't control himself. He can't exercise a little self-restraint."

• Philadelphia Inquirer: Fringe Review
  • "Fringe has the feel of a chemistry-lab concoction, the forced amalgam of preexisting elements. It may not be hydrogen sulfide, which gives rotten eggs their smell, but it's mediocre science."