Fringe is a police procedural where the crisis-of-the-episode is always a sci-fi mystery. A murderer turns out to be a man-porcupine hybrid monster created in a lab, people are terrorized by orifice-closing flesh overgrowths, a time traveler threatens the fabric of reality in order to save someone they love. It is campy, and downright silly, most of the time. But the drama is sold by actors with exceptional straight-faces, and suspension of disbelief is easy if you try.
Besides the monster-of-the-day crises that the FBI’s Fringe Division have to solve, the show is held together by season- and series-long story arcs involving multidimensionality, large-scale time travel, and a variety of mad scientists and their crazy plans. The show does drop the ball occasionally, seemingly wrapping subplots up as soon as the writers lose interest, and often languishing in monster-of-the-day episodes long after these stop feeling relevant. But, much like Supernatural and other long-running shows, the character relationships and their amusing banter build to afford a familiarity that one is content to return to, even when an episode’s proceedings hold little interest.
The science-fiction conceits of each episode run the gamut between this-feels-surprisingly-well-researched to definitely-pulled-out-of-the-writers’-backside. If it weren’t for John Noble’s performance of Dr. Walter Bishop, resident Fringe Division mad scientist, much of the speculative science that the show relies on would be eyeroll-worthy. But Noble puts in a performance for the ages in a role that is the backbone of the entire show. He is so utterly convincing in such a wide variety of psychological and emotional states that it is easy to be drawn in, even when the character is at times contemptible in his selfish recklessness.
The protagonist is Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), a former test subject of Bishop and recipient of certain psychic powers. While a lovely character, and similarly well-cast, outside of times where it is plot-convenient, the writers seem to forget the powers exist. It feels like there were a lot of missed opportunities here, but the writers were likely concerned with Olivia becoming superheroic in a story that called for very limited power in its heroes. Why then did they give their main character a superpower at all?
The show’s main trio is rounded out by the Doctor’s son, Peter (Joshua Jackson), who helps the investigation both on-the-street and in-the-lab. He also serves as Olivia’s eventual love interest. That might be a spoiler, but you’d have seen it coming within the first few episodes as I did. The chemistry between the three central characters is what will compel you to watch the show all the way through its fifth and final season, so I suggest you watch a few episodes of the first season to see if it’s for you.
The show’s ending is appropriate, wraps up the major plot threads and, while slightly melancholic, puts a decidedly happy bow on everything. I don’t know if the show’s good, but it’s not bad.
Content warning: violence (sometimes graphic), frequent handling of cadavers, a good number of brain surgeries, child abuse, human experimentation, some sexual content
Plot: 5
Characters: 10
Themes: 5
Spectacle: 8
Overall score: Four Walters
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