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Fringe: The Complete First Season [7 Discs] DVD 883929075126 Front

Fringe: The Complete First Season [7 Discs] [Widescreen Dubbed Subtitle] - DVD

SKU: 9460576 Release Date: 9/8/2009

Rating: NR

Customer Reviews:

4.9 of 5 (35 reviews)

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What Parents Need to Know

Common Sense Media Says:

Moody conspiracy drama is creepy, complex, and masterful.

Read the full review

Synopsis

Includes:

Fringe: The Dreamscape (2008)

Fringe: The Arrival (2008)

Fringe: The Same Old Story (2008)

Fringe: Safe (2008)

Fringe: The Equation (2008)

Fringe: Pilot (2008)

Fringe: In Which We Meet Mr. Jones (2008)

Fringe: The Ghost Network (2008)

Fringe: Power Hungry (2008)

Fringe: The Cure (2008)

Fringe: There's More Than One of Everything (2009)

Fringe: The Road Not Taken (2009)

Fringe: Midnight (2009)

Fringe: Bad Dreams (2009)

Fringe: Unleashed (2009)

Fringe: Inner Child (2009)

Fringe: The No-Brainer (2009)

Fringe: The Transformation (2009)

Fringe: Ability (2009)

Fringe: Bound (2009)

Fringe: The Dreamscape
The investigation of a bizarre tragedy at Massive Dynamic spawns Olivia's desire to erase her memories of John Scott, while Peter's whereabouts are revealed to some unsavory players from his murky past. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: The Arrival
The only thing found intact after an explosion rocks a New York City construction project is a mysterious cylinder, so Broyles enlists the trio of Olivia, Dr. Bishop and Peter to investigate the significance of the object, which seems to be related to a string of inexplicable behavior and events. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: The Same Old Story
The bizarre death of a woman who gave birth to a rapidly aging baby after an hours-long pregnancy challenges the nascent partnership between Dr. Bishop, Peter and Olivia, who reaches out to Massive Dynamic's Nina Sharp for answers. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: Safe
A series of bank robberies are investigated by Olivia, Peter and Dr. Bishop, whose discovery o a personal link to the tech-savvy thieves' ambition ultimately puts one of the trio in grave danger. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: The Equation
The circumstances surrounding a music prodigy's kidnapping cause Dr. Bishop to be reminded of a fellow inmate at St. Claire's, but Olivia's suggestion that he return to the hospital draws criticism from Peter. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: Pilot
In the pilot episode, an FBI agent recruits a brilliant but incarcerated scientist (John Noble) and his estranged, sharp-witted son (Joshua Jackson) to investigate an airborne tragedy that may harbinger a trend of increasingly unsettling phenomena. The executive producers include J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: In Which We Meet Mr. Jones
The appearance of a strange parasite inside the body of an ailing FBI agent prompts a hurried trip to Germany for Olivia, who learns even more unpleasant news from a man imprisoned there. Meanwhile, Dr. Bishop and Peter try to read a dead man's brain waves. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: The Ghost Network
During the investigation of the bizarre deaths of a bus full of commuters, Olivia, Peter and Dr. Bishop reach out to a troubled man with prognosticative powers of Pattern-related catastrophes who might be able to help them prevent another tragedy. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: Power Hungry
Dangerous consequences of a man's peculiar ability to harness electricity draw the attention of Olivia, Peter and Dr. Bishop, whose unorthodox methods extend to including the use of homing pigeons to aid their investigation. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: The Cure
The reappearance of a missing woman with a rare disease puts everyone she meets in jeopardy and coincides with detections of dangerous radiation levels, raising suspicions of a link to illegal drug trials involving humans. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: There's More Than One of Everything
The first-season finale includes an appearance by the much-discussed, but never seen, Massive Dynamics founder, William Bell (Leonard Nimoy), the return of David Robert Jones and a mysterious vanishing act by Walter. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: The Road Not Taken
The investigation of a suspected case of spontaneous combustion coincides with Olivia's detailed but inexplicable visions, Walter's focus on the ZFT manifesto and a potentially pivotal revelation from Peter. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: Midnight
When a serial killer is draining victims of spinal fluid, the investigation by Olivia, Peter and Walter leads to a scientist who may be linked to a ZFT cell of bioterrorists. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: Bad Dreams
An actual suicide at New York City's Grand Central station is witnessed by Olivia -- in Boston -- in a dream, kicking off a baffling series of nightmares that may be linked to the ZFT manifesto, the drug Cortexiphan and her own childhood. Written and directed by Oscar-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind). ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: Unleashed
An animal-rights organization's rescue mission at a laboratory backfires when it releases a vicious beast, almost mythological in appearance with a lion's body and eagle's talons, and Charlie is in danger of being its latest victim. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: Inner Child
Olivia establishes a silent bond with a mute child who has been living under a building targeted for demolition, and their connection coincides with the reappearance of a serial killer who is known for macabre public displays of his deadly deeds. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: The No-Brainer
A series of particularly gruesome murders across the country lead Walter to determine that the killer is turning the victims' brains into liquid, but solving the case has a special urgency for Olivia, who fears for the welfare of a loved one. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: The Transformation
The investigation of another airborne disaster yields evidence of a strange virus, but Olivia and Peter must go undercover to determine the scope of danger presented by this new threat. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: Ability
While the Division is flummoxed by a mysterious toxin that is killing people by making their facial features disappear, German authorities want to know all about Olivia's contact with escaped convict David Robert Jones, who has relocated to the U.S. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Fringe: Bound
A visit from Olivia's sister (Ari Graynor) and a formal review of the Fringe Division coincide with the investigation of the murder of a famous scientist, which may have something to do with Olivia's recent abduction. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Customer Reviews

(35 out of 35)

A terrific series

Posted by: JD522 from Florida on 02/03/2011"Fringe" is the series that "X-Files" always wanted to be but never quite was. Alternating between "creature of the week" and "mythology" episodes, the first season introduces the main characters and establishes the series universe(s) and history. FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham finds herself on loan to a special division of the Department of Homeland Security devoted to investigating strange cases involving "fringe" science in general and a series of apparently related events dubbed "The Pattern". Dunham is teamed with Dr. Walter Bishop, a pioneer in fringe science who has been confined to a mental hospital for the past 17 years. Because Bishop's research seems to connect to some of the Pattern events, Dunham blackmails Walter's estranged son Peter, a rogue genius with a shady past, to sign Walter out of the hospital and act as his babysitter and assistant. Together this unlikely team plunges into the on-going mystery of The Pattern, which ultimately leads to the discovery of an alternate universe populated by other versions of ouselves and where history is slightly different. (President Martin Luther King, Jr. appears on the $20 bill, Richard Nixon on the quarter, and nobody knows who Andrew Jackson is.) They also discover long-buried secrets from their own pasts and odd connections to other people and institutions - most notably Walter's former lab partner William Bell, who while Walter was locked up founded Massive Dynamic, a cutting-edge megacorp that is in everything from computers to aviation and defense contracting . (Their motto: "What do we do? What DON'T we do?") Bell is s kind of cross between Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Howard Hughes, a reclusive billionaire with fiercely loyal associates protecting him. Fringe cases often lead back to the doors of Massive Dynamic, but Dunham and her team rarely get a glimpse behind the curtain. Despite operating under the burden of establishing a whole ficitonal universe and all its elaborate backstory, "Fringe" season 1 is hugely entertaining and terrific on almost every level. Rewatching S1 from the mid-point of season three it is very clear that the show's mythology is much better thought-out and planned than was the case with "Lost", to say nothing of a show like "The X-Files" which was clearly making stuff up as it went. Although the "Fringe" producers have left themselves breathing room to pursue new ideas and characters as they arise, they obviously have a basic roadmap and an ultimately goal in mind, and the characters and their backgrounds are designed to support a coherent narrative. 1) The writing is top-notch. There's suspense, humor, scares and intrigue. 2) The acting is terrific. It is a crime that John Noble has never received an Emmy for his portrayal of Dr. Walter Bishop, the brilliant but often confused genius at the heart of both the cases and much of the mystery of "Fringe". By turns funny, heartbreaking and scary, Noble shines in the role. Joshua Jackson is the Han Solo figure of the group, rougish Peter Bishop who inherited Walter's brains, but not his ambition. A sometime conman, arms dealer, mercenary and possibly criminal, Peter once faked his way into MIT and earned an engineering degree because he didn't have the patience to go through the normal channels. Initially forced into dealing with Walter, whom he never visited in the hospital and whom he blames for a family tragedy, Peter gradually comes to find the home he never had with the Fringe team. Jackson does a very good job with the role, playing both Peter's obvious charm and the menance and mystery just below the surface. Anna Torv tends to get overshadowed by her flashier co-stars, who often get the scenery chewing stuff while she is the solid, stable heart of the show. (I compare her to Mary Tyler Moore in her series - the calm center around which the madness flows, but without which the madness would be too much.) Torv is not a conventional Hollywood beauty, but she is an attractive woman and more believable as an FBI agent than some other actresses might be. The video and audio quality are both quite good. Upconverted on my 56" HDTV the DVDs look nearly as good as the current season HD broadcasts. (This is notably NOT the case with the second season set, where the video is often overcompressed and pixelated.) The extras are good, although I would have like commentaries on a couple of episodes that lack them. A story with a complicated mythology like "Fringe" really repays repeat viewings, and thus is a good candidate for owning on DVD. (I rewatched the entire first and second seasons before the show returned for the 2nd half of S3, and discovered a lot of details I had either forgotten or never noticed before. That's another rewarding aspect of a show like this - you can see the foreshadowing and repeated themes that will become important later. Several early episodes from the first season hint at secrets that will only be revealed in S2 or S3, and a number of cases show us situations in the lives of guest characters that parallel those of the regulars - although we generally don't know that on first viewing.) All in all my favorite current TV series.

3 out of 3 found this review helpful.

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i love this Show!

Posted by: ACT23 from Houston, Tx on 10/14/2010I havent had time to fallow this on tv with my busy sched. but now that i bought this i will buy the rest of the seasons until i am caught up.