Network television has potentially found its X-Files replacement. The keyword is "potentially," since that is what Fringe is mostly comprised of for the most part, with more emphasis on the Scully science side of things than the paranormal Mulder one. It featured some slick presentation, interesting characters, and a decent bigger picture for the series to delve upon.

Much like the last J.J. Abrams series, Fringe begins with an airplane disaster, where suddenly everyone's skin starts peeling away, leaving nothing more than bone and organ cadavers sitting where the passengers once stood. What type of disease could've possibly instigated such an attack? Was it even a disease? Could it have been terrorists?

The central star of the series is Olivia Dunham – an FBI "liaison" who is part of the team sent to investigate the mystery surrounding the flight. For Dunham it starts out as a regular enough case, but soon events are put in motion that links Dunham to the mystery, making the stakes of finding a solution even greater. Early investigative results lead to a Dr. Walter Bishop, who was arrested for his Frankenstein-esque crimes, but yet he could be the answer to Dunham's problem. The problem, however, is that Bishop is quite insane, and she needs immediate family in order to contact him. The only person she knows of is Bishop's son, a young man by the name of Peter, who is almost as brilliant as he is.

As the series' trio is finally assembled, it's time to find some answers, which will take them across the spectrum of so-called "fringe" sciences.

Fringe Trio

The cast is solid and really is ably cast. Anna Torv manages to embody all the emotions needed to portray her conflicted character, plus she isn't bad on the eyes either. Joshua Jackson – who I've been a fan of since his Dawson's Creek days – adds the charm and humor, standing out as my personal favorite of the main three. John Noble, however, does do a great job at playing crazy, being able to be perfectly rational one moment and then a blithering idiot pissing himself soon after. Jackson as Peter is the most relatable, mostly because he bridges the gap between regular layman's terms and complicated scientific mumbo jumbo, making it so the viewer is never talked down to and actually feels fairly intelligent.

The story of the pilot episode is solid, but nothing terribly groundbreaking or automatically hook inducing. Watching Lost's first episode, for example, I knew I needed to see this show every week. Fringe, on the other hand, is good, but not quite as phenomenal as it has the potential to be one day. The story does have a few excellent twists and turns, but overall, the episode was pretty linear, so you always had a good idea as to what the narrative sequence must follow next.

Ultimately, the question that matters is whether Fringe is a show worthy of your time, especially when there is so much quality content on television today. While I'm not building a shrine to Fringe quite yet, I will be turning my television to the show next week, and seeing what happens next. Fringe does just enough things right to make me warrant a second viewing, without doing anything overtly terrible.

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