A Plea for Fringe

March 24th, 2011

I’m a big Fringe fan.  It’s a real science fiction tv series, based on a deep science fiction premise, with a plot and character arcs developed over multiple seasons.  Sometimes the science is a little flaky, but it’s there, and it’s fun.  There’s a real budget, good acting, cool ideas, and Walter Bishop is one of the best scientist characters ever, even if he is a mad scientist, literally.

Fringe is the X-Files meets DC comics Crisis on Infinite Earths.  Throw in some of Roger Zelazny’s Amber series (there is a building in one episode called the Zelazny building — the creators know where the shows roots are).

And Fringe is now on Friday nights, television’s scheduling death slot.

I came across this plea at Entertainment Weekly:

The bonds of family, the ecstasy of romance, the exhilaration of intellectual inquiry, and a secret government agency working to protect you from all kinds of crazy, weird stuff. If I told you there was a TV series featuring all of that, plus great acting and superb action sequences, wouldn’t you want to watch that?

Sure you would. And people who are watching Fringe now know it’s doing something rare. It’s a TV show working on all levels, characters with which anyone can identify, imaginative scripts, crackling dialogue, and a positive message (boiled-down: All you need is love). It’s the kind of show that, every time you finish watching the latest installment, you want to see its next episode right now.

But if you’re not watching Fringe — and in case you haven’t figured it out yet, this is a passionate please-save-Fringe plea to you and to the dear, intelligent, how-much-flattery-do-you-need folks at Fox — here’s what I suggest: Forget everything you’ve heard about Fringe. Banish the notion that you’ll be confused by the serialized nature of its storytelling, that it’s too deep into its mythology for you to catch up. It’s not.

There’s more there, a nice introduction to the show and the characters. It’s a really good show, and some of the best science fiction I’ve seen on tv ever, even if it deals with alternate universes rather than outer space.

Please watch and encourage your friends to watch. The show isn’t canceled yet, but neither is it greenlit for it’s fourth season.

I usually do go in for the rabid save (or bring back) the show fandom antics, but it’s justified here.

Anyone else like Fringe?

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