
Okay, I admit it. When I saw the Fringe series premiere, I wasn't wowed. The pilot featured a commercial flight from Germany lands at Boston's Logan Airport without a single passenger or crew member on board alive—a very X-Files-type plot. Then the show introduced FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Toriv) and her partner/lover John Scott (Mark Valley). From their brief intro, it appeared that she was a Skully skeptic and he was a Mulder true believer. Scott gets hurt by a mysterious chemical and Dunham is forced to get help from the only experts in the field, Dr. Walter Bishop (expertly played by John Noble), a one-time Harvard professor who spent the last 17 years in an institution after murdering his research aid and Walter's son Peter (Joshua Jackson), a nomadic con man who appears to be the only person who can understand his father. The information they gather leads to a company named Massive Dynamics, a huge multinational corporation, founded by William Bell (played by a surprise guest), Dr. Bishop's old lab assistant. We are also introduced to "The Pattern," a series of experiments that occur all over the world. For those trivia people, I should point out that although Dr. Bishop's office is supposed to be at Harvard University, it is actually filmed at their rival, Yale University. Typically depicted are scenes of Phelps Hall and Branford College. The show was also filmed at The University of Toronto's University College and Bahen Centre for Information Technology. Now you know. Yo Joe!
The review with video continues after the jump.
I was not. Over the season, not only did the show explore fringe science (rare diseases, chimeras, psychic abilities, shapeshifters, teleportation, and alternate universes), but we also learned more about Dunham's connection to mad scientist Walter Bishop, and how Peter Bishop fit into the "the Pattern" as well as the role of Massive Dynamic and William Bell. By the end of the season, most of these mysteries are answered with an ending you won’t see coming (unless of course you read Noble Causes by xxxx, which has some uncanny plot similarities). Luckily, these season finale answers lead to great potential for the second season. I should also note that Fringe also has the best location captions I have ever seen anywhere. Check out this Harvard University lettering .

I should also mention that Fringe was part of Fox's "Remote-Free TV." That means that the show aired with half the commercials, adding about six minutes to the show's run time, which made Fringe episodes longer than standard dramas on current network television.

DVD features:
- Evolution: The Genesis of Fringe featurette - The creators of the show discuss how the series unfolded and the qualities that make it so unique

- Behind the Real Science of Fringe featurette - From teleportation to re-animation, Fringe incorporates recent discoveries in science. Consulting experts and scientists who are the authorities in their field address the areas of science which are the inspiration for the show.
- A Massive Undertaking: The Making of Fringe (on select episodes) - An in-depth exploration of how select episodes came to be made: from the frozen far reaches of shooting the pilot in Toronto, to the weekly challenges of bringing episodes to air
- The Casting of Fringe- The story, as told by producers and cast, of how Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, John Noble and others came to be cast in the series.
- Fringe Visual Effects featurette - Goes deep into the creation of the shared dream state with some of the biggest VFX shots of the show.
- Dissected Files: Unaired Scenes
- Unusual Side Effects: Gag Reel
- Fringe: Deciphering the Scene
- Roberto Orci Production Diary
- Gene the Cow montage
- Three Full-Length Commentaries from writers/producers, including J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtman, J.R. Orci, David Goodman, Bryan Burk, Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner

- Pattern Analysis" – featuring expert commentary on selected scenes
- BD-Live enabled with exclusive commentary by JJ Abrams

Don't say I didn't warn you.

