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List Price: $59.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 60
Released: September 8, 2009 |
| Our Price: $19.99 |
| Used Price: $21.71 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Teleportation. Mind control. Invisibility. Astral projection. Mutation. Reanimation. Phenomena that exist on the Fringe of science unleash their strange powers in this thrilling series, co-created by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias), combining the grit of the police procedural with the excitement of the unknown. The story revolves around three unlikely colleagues – a beautiful young FBI agent, a brilliant scientist who’s spent the last 17 years in a mental institution and the scientist’s sardonic son – who investigate a series of bizarre deaths and disasters known as “the pattern.” Someone is using our world as an experimental lab. And all clues lead to Massive Dynamic, a shadowy global corporation that may be more powerful than any nation.
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
Description of Fringe: The Complete First Season:
Teleportation, mind control, astral projection, invisibility, precognition, spontaneous combustion, reanimation: these are among the peripheral sciences--or "pseudo-sciences," as one skeptic puts it--examined during the first season of Fringe, a Fox network TV drama debuting on DVD with the full first season (twenty episodes) offered on seven extras-laden discs. The notion that those phenomena could have a genuine scientific basis is intriguing enough. But co-creator J.J. Abrams (whose bulging resume as a director, writer, and producer includes Lost, Alias, and the 2009 Star Trek feature film) has even more on his mind. Along with the weird science, the series features a multi-agency task force investigating related acts of terrorism that may very well add up to a threat of unimaginable global proportions; people who are exactly what they appear to be (i.e., insane) and others who are anything but; plot twists galore; family drama, interpersonal relationships, corporate evil, cop chases... There's a lot in play here, and while it doesn't always hold together (and like any new series, it takes a while to hit its stride), Fringe is rarely boring, and never less than impressively ambitious.
The pilot introduces us to the main characters, principally FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv, good but not great in the show's central role) and others on the task force brought in to investigate some gross goings-on aboard a jumbo jet (a "self-eradicating, airborne toxin" reduced everyone to blood and bones). Seems this is but one part of "The Pattern," a series of synchronous, similarly shocking events that unfold as the show progresses; in subsequent episodes, lots of people are killed in graphic fashion by all manner of horrors, including scary monsters (slugs as big as a football, teethed parasites that can crush your heart), a gas that freezes a busload of passengers "like insects trapped in amber," people so radioactive they can literally make your brain boil… it goes on. Helping Dunham and the rest of the force figure it all out are scientist Dr. Walter Bishop (an appealing John Noble), who's spent the past 17 years locked up in the loony bin and whose research may be responsible for some of the crimes we witness, and his son-babysitter Peter (Joshua Jackson). As for the "fringe" element, Dr. Bishop and other, less benign geniuses jump-start a dead man's brain, photograph another victim's cornea in order to access the last thing she saw before death, connect Dunham to her boyfriend so she can experience his memories of the incident that left him comatose, use high-frequency vibrations to enable bank robbers to pass through a solid vault wall, and much, much more. As for where and how all of this ends up, let's just that enquiring minds will have to hang in for the long, complicated run.
Bonus features are many and varied; among the best are "Deciphering the Scene" (brief explications of key scenes in every episode) and "The Massive Undertaking" (detailing how certain special effects sequences were pulled off). --Sam Graham
Fringe: The Complete First Season Reviews:
Stick with it. It gets so much better as it goes along. 
2009-12-25 - Like so many others, when I started watching this show, I thought it was kind of cool but boring. However, as I stuck with it, the story began to unfold, the characters began to develop, and it quickly became quite enthralling. There are endless possibilities with a story like this. The first season may start off slow, but if you keep watching you will become engrossed and will thoroughly enjoy the end of the season. Also, the second season starts off with quite the bang and makes you want to know what happens next. Walter Bishop is really starting to become one of my favorite characters on television right now. So, give it a chance. Unlike so many other shows, this show begins taking chances and acting in the interests of the characters and the story rather than the interests of the viewer. That makes it its own world and sets it apart from those shows that try and do nothing but appease the masses.
A Total Thrill Ride!!
2009-12-16 - Every episode totally blows my mind - not just once, but three or more per episode! I had seen the pilot air, then missed the next three episodes before I re-engaged with the program. I've been looking forward to getting this set for a long time. The writing is superb. The extras on the DVDs add so much; deleted scenes, producer's commentaries, etc. Spotting the Observer in the opening minutes of episode 3. I must give a special tip of the hat to the superb performance John Noble gives as Dr. Walter Bishop. I didn't recognize him until a friend pointed out that he had played Denethor, the Ruler of Gondor in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. And Anna Torv gets a nod for her down-to-earth, focused, all business portrayal of FBI Agent Olivia Dunham.
Caught Up With Fringe
2009-12-15 - Started watching this series after missing several episodes. Now more events and conversations make sense.
Show is great, product not so great 
2009-12-13 - We really like the show and because of this, and so I am giving it three stars. But we are not happy at all with the product we received. As with other reviews the menu is next to impossible to navigate. There is definitely a problem with the menuing on these discs. We personally think they simply forgot to include a top menu. We are using a Sony Blu-Ray and each disc starts playing automatically (like every other Warner show we own), but nothing allows us to select the episode. When we select top menu, the episode name is displayed, along with any special features and we can select the special features, but we cannot select the episode to watch. Only tabbing through the chapters gets us to the next episode.
It's OK
2009-12-09 - I love shows about either supernatural or paranormal activities, so why do I give this show only 3 stars? Well I think it has a lot to do with the actual actors. The actress who play's Olivia I find to be way too wooden, especially in the first episodes. I tend not to believe she has any real feelings for anyone let alone her boyfriend who plays a major part in the pilot. Then there's the "mad doctor" as the creators call him in the special features, I find that there are times when the shtick gets a little old. As for Joshua Jackson, well he's not that bad but his smart-aleck responses also tend to get a bit old.
But what really bothers me is the amount of disbelief the characters portray even after seeing all the s___t they see. They talk to dead people, combat beasts that are part tiger/snake/bird, teleportation, etc. yet whenever the Mad Doctor has a theory about something it's always, "That's not possible!", "That's insane!", "There's no way that could happen!", "That's not possible!" (They say that one a lot). Well after seeing all you've seen and the doctor says it's probably so and so, why not just accept it and move on?
In the pilot there's a scene where the police, FBI and SWAT are surrounding a suspect's house yet no one except Peter (Joshua Jackson's character) sees' the guy come out the back? Obviously a scene just there to show that Peter can be an important part of the team.
Now I'm not saying it doesn't have it's interesting episodes, especially towards the end and really you can start watching from I believe disc 5 and it's actually more exciting. The first episode of disc 5 actually has an overview of everything that happened before, go figure.
I will say this the last shot of the last episode is a shocker, if you have half a brain you will know the big secret before the last episode but you will not expect the last shot, it was genius.
All in all I would rent the DVD's and not buy them.
