There's More Than One of Everything (12 May 2009)

David Robert Jones comes out of hiding following an attempt on Nina Sharp's life while Walter leaves accompanied by the mysterious Observer.

Director:

Brad Anderson

Writers:

J.J. Abrams (creator), Alex Kurtzman (creator),

Stars:

Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, Lance Reddick

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Anna Torv	...	Olivia Dunham
Joshua Jackson	...	Peter Bishop
Lance Reddick	...	Phillip Broyles
Kirk Acevedo	...	Charlie Francis
Blair Brown	...	Nina Sharp
Jasika Nicole	...	Astrid Farnsworth
John Noble	...	Dr. Walter Bishop
Jared Harris	...	David Robert Jones
Michael Cerveris	...	The Observer
Leonard Nimoy	...	William Bell
Victoria Barabas	...	MD Woman
Victor Cruz	...	EMT
Xanthe Elbrick	...	Woman
Jim Ford	...	Tech #3
Jared Grimes	...	Teenager

Storyline

David Robert Jones comes out of hiding following an attempt on Nina Sharp's life while Walter leaves accompanied by the mysterious Observer.

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Plot Keywords:

wheelchair | syphilis | tear on cheek | hostage | spinal tap | 

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 May 2009 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bad Robot, Warner Bros. Television, Fringe Element Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

45 min 60 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

The Bishops' ocean beach house is said to be in Grafton, MA near East Douglas. East Douglas and Grafton are not near each other and neither is on the ocean. When Olivia is looking at the map of Southern Worcester County and Northern Rhode Island the towns are not where they should be and many of them are missing.

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Quotes

Agent Olivia Dunham: What are you doing here?
Dr. Walter Bishop: We're trying to plug a hole in the universe... What are *you* doing here?
Agent Olivia Dunham: Apparently the same thing.

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Connections

References The Wizard of Oz (1939)

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Soundtracks

"Fringe Main Title Theme"
(uncredited)
Written by J.J. Abrams

User Reviews

Season 1: Plenty of contrivances but generally a good 'build' to an engaging plot with strong delivery of an enjoyable blend

My first contact with Fringe was seeing my girlfriend watching an episode some years ago now; to my basic glance it felt like a knockoff of the X-Files but made more basic and accessible for network TV and just going for the "case per week" approach of your CSIs etc. Recently someone suggested I give the show a go and told me not to just go on that first impression from a half-watched episode. As a result I sat to watch the first season to see what I thought.

Very quickly I was enjoying the show a lot as each episode opens with an "episode-specific" hook to get you in the door, but it is what follows that really had me watching the episodes faster than I would have liked. For the majority of the episodes, Fringe captured the aspect of X-Files that I always enjoyed the most – the conspiracy, the sense that shadowy powerful men were almost as great a threat as the "unknown" forces behind them; I always liked this and with Fringe it is a feeling that is in place from the start and throughout. At times it is pushed too quickly though, with characters being revealed and developments being made faster than the writers are happy for them to happy; this manifests itself in how quickly any character with information is killed or removed, so that we get a little bit more to hold the interest, without ever having too much confirmed or happening too fast. I liked not really knowing who was working for the "good" or indeed ever really being sure if there was a "good" side. There are "filler" episodes that don't connect into the bigger picture and some of them are a little weaker than the norm, but they do still have the same general standards of the rest of the episodes.

These standards include a generous budget for effects and a very nice mix of pop-science nonsense, conspiracy drama, action and comedy – all blended together so that none of them really undermine the other. This is best seen in the central character of Walter; his ability to be an expert about every possible fantastical subject might wear on me in the future, but so far it worked because of how well delivered it is and how it fits the overall show. Similarly he can be hilariously odd one minute while able to be tragically amoral the next – but with both working as well as the other. This is how the show works generally and although it has weakness, it generally rides them because of how well the blend works. The plotting does contain plenty of contrivances where we make jumps or have things happens simply to make the writing easier; some of this did bother me because at times I did take it seriously and I felt a little betrayed by the writers when they seemed to do things without seeming to care that it would be obvious or lazy – but this wasn't often. The conclusion will bring me back for the second season – although if I'm honest the big cameo at the end didn't do much for me (not least because the protracted reveal seemed pointless considering his name was in the opening credits as a special guest!).

Speaking of the cast, I must confess that having so many faces from HBO (in particular The Wire and Oz) gave me great delight – even down to tiny roles it felt like the casting director watched a lot of the same shows as I do. The main star for me is Noble; his performance is spot-on for achieving the blend needed and he does it very well indeed, making it all look easy when it is nothing of the sort. Torv is better than I expected despite not being as good as I would like; she never overdoes the glamour or shirks the darker side of the show, but I always had the feel that she might not have the range in her if the script demanded much more. Jackson is in a comfort zone and really didn't do too much for me, much like Nicole – filling a role well enough but not the focus. Supporting turns from Reddick, Acevedo are good while smaller roles from people like Harris and Kelly have impact and probably deserved more than they were ultimately given.

Fringe is a network sci-fi show and as such it is accessible and a little bit of everything; however the blend mostly works well and for me it worked across the many things it tried to do – even if all of them have weaknesses inherent in being a blend. Cheers for the recommendation Rich – I'll be following you into season 2 soon.