Fringe is very good television. That is to say that it is a very entertaining show not without its flaws but well worth the time it takes to invest in watching it in its entirety. I wasn't able to catch Fringe when it was initially on, but I kept hearing the same thing over and over again from friends: that they liked it but not enough to keep tuning in every week, and they all lost track of what was going on. Well, now Fringe is available in a nicely packaged season one box set ready to be digested, debated, and enjoyed.

The attraction to Fringe is easy to understand. It's the X-Files ... if the X-Files were overseen by a genius like J.J. Abrams rather than someone who always purported to know where he was going with the show but never really did -- like Chris Carter. The basic premise involves an intrepid FBI agent, played by relative newcomer Anna Torv, who finds herself caught up in a strange investigation involving a downed plane. When her investigations lead her to a mad scientist locked up in an insane asylum, she is forced to bring in the patient's son, played by Joshua Jackson, to get him a furlough from the asylum to be properly questioned. But even stranger circumstances bring them together as a unit and they become an odd X-Files-like unit within the FBI known as FRINGE.

Every week is different, often devolving into the "monster of the week" tedium that the X-Files suffered from, and this is the show's one major flaw. But to its credit, each episode exposes a little bit more of the strange and wondrous plot brewing beneath the surface -- which, once properly exposed, proves to be incredible science fiction. But like the tasty candy center in the middle of a Tootsie Pop, it takes some time to get there. Some episodes are great, others just so-so, but every episode that revolves around developing the real plot of the show almost manages to reach Lost levels of goodness. The final two episodes, in fact, make it well worth watching the first 19 (or 18, depending on how you count them.) And if the last 10 or so minutes are any indication, the second season may look nothing at all like the first ... just as creator Abrams did with Lost.

Now, that's not to say that Fringe isn't without other minor flaws. The show gets a little repetitive. Introduction of menace, discovery that the mad scientist (John Noble) once worked on a similar scientific premise, a tie-in to the main storyline, then a last-minute save by the mad doctor that seems never to fail. Lather, rinse repeat. If the storyline that everything tied into weren't so enthralling, it would be a worthy but forgettable show with no need to watch it in order. But it is enthralling, so sci-fi fans owe it to themselves to give the series a look.

The Blu-ray comes equipped with a bunch of making-of special features that highlight how some of the stunning visual effects in the show were achieved. In addition, there are the occasional deleted scenes, each bundled with the show they would have aired with. The most interesting feature by far is on the last disc: interviews with scientists about the science of certain episodes. Been debating whether or not pigeons could really track down a person? They'll talk about the science behind it and the plausibility of what occurs onscreen.

All told, Fringe is a DVD set well worth picking up. It is available now on both DVD and Blu-ray from Warner Home Entertainment.

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