Fringe - Great Show, Below Average Lead Actress

I spent the past month rejoining Fringe because A. several people assured me that the show had grown far beyond its subpar pilot (it has), B. lots of free time and C. constant pestering by one Irish tool. Even with my dedication to becoming invested in another JJ Abrams show, it still took several episodes for me to get hooked. It wasn’t until the Observer character (see picture) was introduced in the show’s 4^th episode “The Arrival” that I finally gave JJ the props he deserved. Until that point I just wasn’t invested in the show for two reasons.

The first, like most JJ Abrahams shows, Fringe took several episodes to fully explain the connections between the series of strange events and introduce the complicated characters. It was moving at a slow pace that relied heavily on the 3 central characters’ interactions to keep you invested. And that lead to problem number 2, the lead actress kind of sucks. Anna Torv is suppose to be a tough, smart and emotionally driven FBI Agent who is supposedly so good at her job that she was picked to lead the Fringe team with little oversight AND is being aggressively pursued by one the largest production companies in the world, Massive Dynamics. Unfortunately for us the viewers, she’s not convincing as tough or confident. Say what you want about Jennifer Garner’s post Alias career, but when she played Sidney Bristow on ‘Alias’ she was always believable as a secret agent week to week. She pulled off threatening badass, conflicted double agent, and widower to a murdered fiancé. I’m not sure Anna Torv would make a convincing accountant. Too often the show calls for the character to be emotionally troubled by the Earth threatening events happening around her and too often Anna appears disturbed that somebody didn’t turn off their cell phone in a meeting.

The only time she’s managed to show any personality throughout the season was the scene when Torv and Joshua Jackson were drinking together in a bar. Suddenly free from the seriousness forced pon her and her character, Torv was able to exert a personality. Unfortunately those scenes will be few and far between because that’s not who her character is. Maybe if the writers take advantage of the recent revelation that she was tested on as a child, they could allow both Torv and the character to be infected with some personality. This could possibly lead Torv to emerge as a serviceable lead character. And if not, the show will have to rely even more so on Walter Bishop. A character that is fantastic in small doses but cannot sustain a show on his own.