Mon 19 Sep 2011
FRINGE, THE TV SERIES: A PRIMER, by Michael Shonk
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[9] Comments
by Michael Shonk
FRINGE. Fox-TV. Bad Robot Production / Warner Brothers. September 9, 2008 through present. Created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci. CAST: Anna Torv as Agent Olivia Dunham, John Noble as Dr. Walter Bishop, and Joshua Jackson as Peter Bishop.
“Neither Here Nor There.” (Fourth Season premiere. September 23, 2011. Friday at 9E/8C.) The teams on the two worlds work together to solve the case of a shapeshifter, and Agent Lincoln Lee (Seth Gabel) joins his world’s team when no one remembers the existence of Peter Bishop. (Summary from TV.com.)
Fringe is a science fiction police procedural series too often ignored by mystery fans. While it is an arc series with occasional stand-alone episodes, the fourth season turns the arc into a circle and offers new viewers the best chance to jump in as everything changes.
The series is focused on three characters, FBI agent Olivia Dunham, Mad Scientist Walter Bishop, and Walter’s genius son Peter. Fringe is a special unit of the FBI that examines mysteries involving strange science.
This means dealing with strange crimes that would test Banacek, such as everyone on board an airborne passenger plane dissolving. While dealing with the strange and gross, Fringe discovered the parallel universe and that the other side was here and for an unknown reason causing trouble.
Only Walter had already been to the other universe and has a secret: both Peters were dying. Our universe Peter died, but the other Peter remained alive but with little time left. The other universe Walter (Walternate) discovered a cure but was unaware of it because of the actions of a baldheaded man called an Observer.
Little is known about the Observers except they show up at every important moment of time and have a way of being in Fringe episodes like Hitchcock did in his movies. Walter had been watching, entered the parallel universe, took dying Peter to our universe, saved young boy’s life and kept him.
Well, now Walter had really done it. Both universes began to bump into each other causing death and destruction, with the other side getting the worse of it. The other universe then sent shapeshifters over here to find the mysterious device that would save their universe. Meanwhile, our Fringe division solved the weekly mystery, tracked down the bad guys, and fought off the invasion from the other universe.
The third season alternated episodes between the two universes where we met our characters alternate universe counterpart (except for now grown up Peter who was from there). We learned the other universe was not evil and only a few had goatees. They, like us, just want to survive.
Things remained strange but our Fringe finally found the final piece of the device to save the universe by taking out the other. The machine would only work with Peter in it, forcing him to chose between the universes.
He then was sent into the future and learned the only way one universe would survive was if both survived, So Peter connected the two universes. Our Fringe and theirs must now work together to save both universes. Peter disappeared and no one noticed. Cut to a group of Observers where we learned Peter was not just gone, he had never existed.
So, got that? Well, don’t worry about it. If Peter never existed, he never died in our universe, he and Olivia never fell in love, he and Fauxlivia (other universe’s Olivia) never had a baby, and Walter never stole Peter from the other universe and the reason for the universes problems change.
All the characters who had evolved due to Peter’s influence will change to who they would have become if they had never met Peter. Shades of It’s a Wonderful Life without Clarence! This means the writers have a whole lot of explaining to do, and that means you newbies can learn what is going on along with us longtime viewers
If all this is sounding a little Lost to you, there is one major difference. Lost made it up as they went along; Fringe, from the beginning, has had an ending all ready planned. The clues, the strange twists, the answers all will be revealed and make sense (we hope) when the series stops.
If you enjoy mixed genre television, with some science fiction and horror tossed in with your FBI police procedural story, give the series a try. Besides Fringe offers viewers twice the universes of forensics than CBS’s CSI:NY.
September 20th, 2011 at 8:59 am
I may have to give this series a try. I haven’t so far, since I’ve been burned too many times with open-ended series before (a list starting but not ending with, as you say, Michael, LOST).
It does sound complicated! But if it’s starting its fourth season, and people are still following it, I can’t imagine it’s all that difficult to get into the story and stay with it. (I wonder how many straight mystery fans would fare, however!)
I will probably begin with season one, though, even though the previous report I had about it was from my son, who told me, “You won’t like it, Dad.”
September 20th, 2011 at 9:19 am
I hated the first season. Walter was just too much for me to take and they were too gross death of the week.
I recently saw the pilot on iTunes and loved it because I knew where these characters were going.
Steve, the reason the series has survived this long has not been ratings, those have been terrible, but because the head of Fox programming likes shows such as FRINGE. The network is so successful with other shows, and Friday is a dead night for ratings anyway, so why not put on something good but with limited appeal that has a loyal passionate group of fans?
If I was going to spend money I would not buy the first season DVD, I’d download the pilot from iTunes or Amazon or Netflix first.
And since I know what is going on without seeing nearly all the first season, I don’t think it is worth the money.
The producers have said this twist is to let new viewers catch up. Watch Friday’s free episode. If you have any questions, ask me or visit the many websites devoted to the show. The Wikipedia post is very informative.
September 20th, 2011 at 9:39 am
Good suggestions!
I like the idea of doing an episode that allows new viewers to catch up. If they don’t, ratings have nowhere to go but down.
September 20th, 2011 at 11:44 am
The recent film THE ASSIGNMENT BUREAU played somewhat like an extended episode of the series FRINGE. The “Bureau” and the Obseervers of FRINGE seem awfully similar.
September 20th, 2011 at 12:05 pm
I would like to watch this but just reading your synopsis suggests it is too much work. A shame when writers make a series this complicated.
September 20th, 2011 at 12:33 pm
Nice post, Michael. “Fringe” of course has that JJ Abrams connection to “Lost,” though in the beginning at least a lot of people were comparing it to “The X-Files” because each involved FBI agents investigating paranormal phenomena, and of course the Peter-Olivia/Mulder-Sculder analogy, though “Fringe” has wound up going in a whole different direction, as Michael points out, with parallel universes, etc. — more like a comic book, really, despite developing fully dimensional characters. Ironically, in the initial stories about “Fringe,” Abrams made a big point of saying that he was going to avoid the dense mythology and continuing story lines that characterized “Lost,” and of course the show has gone in exactly the opposite direction. All of that said, I love “Fringe” and highly recommend it, as you can tell from this blog post: (forgive my shameless self-promotion here): http://www.paleycenter.org/bushman-fringe-benefits
September 20th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Ray: It is those neat hats. When I first saw the trailer for “The Assignment Bureau” I wonder if the shopped for clothes at the same place as the Observers.
Patti: If you want simple then “CSI:NY” is more likely to entertain you. But I know you love books, I suspect you expect more from your books than your TV. That is fine, as long as you are pushing yourself somewhere, you need a place to relax.
David: Thanks for the nice words and link. The major reason I decided to join the “Fringe” journey is it is apparent they have an ending, and Fox has said they will give the writers notice in time for the writers to do the ending.
September 24th, 2011 at 3:33 pm
Early ratings show little growth or interest from new viewers. I suspect this could be the last season for FRINGE. Not so much from the ratings as it was no worse than last year’s, but Fox has TERRA NOVA and in January ALCATRAZ that both appeal to the core audience watching FRINGE that Fox wants to keep happy. With fewer time slots to fill, there may not be room for FRINGE.
I suspect a repeat of the way Fox handled DOLLHOUSE, with early warning of cancellation to give FRINGE time enough to set up their ending.
November 5th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
Thank you. That was definitely helpful. I’ve just rediscovered Fringe by watching it on dishonline(dot)com, and am really enjoying it. I’ll have to start watching for that. I’m actually really thankful my employer (DISH Network) put the site up. There’s all kinds of great programming available for streaming on there. A lot of it is even available to non-subscribers too. I definitely recommend checking it out.