FRINGE [TV Series, 2008-2013]

[Whill]

When Fringe first came on in the first year of my marriage, I had assumed it was just a cheap rip-off of The X-Files and didn't watch it. My wife, who watches more TV than do, probably thought that too. She must have channel surfed to The X-Files and got scared (She doesn't like horror and jump-scares). So she wasn't interested in Fringe. At some point during Fringe Season 2, she had come downstairs after putting the baby to bed one night and began to channel surf. She stopped on what we later learned was Fringe and got interested in it. I know the episode was about a parallel universe. My wife and I both said we hadn't known Fringe about that and we watched the rest of the episode. Now I'm not 100% which episode it was, but I think it may have been "Peter," the episode that flashes back to 1985 and shows the origin of a lot of the show's metaplot. I remember liking the show and began watching it every week, at the same time renting the first season to catch up on that. Then when the second season came out, I rented that until I got up to the point I had started watching it, probably not getting to that point until after Season 3 had started airing. Thanks to DVR technology, I never missed a new episode until the series ended in 2013. But my wife didn't watch it with me, probably because of the episodes with monsters and gross transmogrifications.

This year, I finished a re-watch of this entire series.

I usually watch TV while I eat lunch on work days. I only get 30 minutes for which means I get less than 30 minutes of viewing time. I sometimes watch a movie broken up into increments, which means it usually takes 4-5 days to get through one movie. That can be annoying. I often watch TV series, which is a little less annoying to be broken up. I typically can get through about 2 episodes a week for most shows. This is why it took me several years to get through 14 seasons total of Star Treks DS9 and Voyager (which I finished last year). My family had no interest in watching those two series with me.

Although I have the whole Fringe series on DVD, the convenience of the show coming to HBO Max in January inspired me to go ahead and do a series re-watch, something I have wanted to do since the show ended nine years ago. But my wife works at home a couple days a week, so she was home when I watched the series for lunches and got pulled into it because of the characters. So at some point before the end of the first season, she wanted to watch it with me and I couldn't watch it without her. But that also meant that it was no longer limited to my lunches and we could watch whole episodes during her TV time in the evenings. When I had started this re-watch I had expected it to take about a year. But it ended up being completed in about 5 months.





Fringe is a show with X-Files types of investigations involving fringe sciences, odd transhuman men in black, parallel universes, and time-travel. The characters are great. John Noble is a genius performer, but all of the actors are good. Despite seeming to have a lot of monster-of-the-week episodes, Fringe has pronounced metaplots. But unlike The X-Files series, almost all of Fringe episodes are actually part of the metaplot. I view the five seasons as three sequential stories: S1-3, S4, and S5. Also unlike The X-Files, Fringe gives you a lot more explanation and resolution. After my series re-watch this year, I can say that Fringe is still my favorite TV series of all time, even though its writing had a handful of sporadic "Abramisms" (minor plot wormholes).

Some more of the topics this show deals with: Existence, Protoscience, Hypnosis, Pandemic, Psychogenesis, Neuroscience, Transcendence, Cryptozoology, Synesthesia, Nanotechnology, Genetic Engineering, ESP, Artificial Intelligence, Psychokinesis, Teleportation, Precognition, Cybernetics, Suspended Animation, Transmogrification, Exobiology, Pyrokinesis, Hive Mind, Clairaudience, Cryonics, Multiverse, Astral Projection, Mutation, Wormholes, Singularity, Speciation, Reanimation, Neural Networks, Telepathy, Retrocognition, Biotechnology, Cellular Rejuvenation, Thought Extraction, Neural Partitioning, Brain Porting, Temporal Plasticity, Chaos Structure, Clonal Transplantation, Quantum Entanglement, Psychometry, Viral Therapy, Time Paradox, Bilocation, Psychic Surgery, Transgenics, Hope, Community, Joy, Individuality, Education, Imagination, Private Thought, Due Process, Ownership, Free Will, and Freedom. FRINGE

Did anyone else enjoy this show? Have any questions? I may be able to help since the series is relatively fresh on my mind.
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[KageRyu]

I do not remember a lot of Fringe (when compared to other media I have watched). I do remember I was initially skeptical, and very much considered it an X-Files clone for at least half of the first season. I always did like Walter though, he amused me, so I kept watching (I had loved the X-Files initially but grew jaded on it as it when on). I enjoyed Fringe a lot more when they started getting into the whole alternate universe plots, and some of the creepy things with Mr. September (which the Chronomicon in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. very much reminded me of). As I remember I was very unhappy with the final season because it did not seem to fit - the story seemed to suddenly jump positions, and things were being referenced I do not remember at all. I may have missed some episodes in the previous to last season, and since I have never felt the desire to re-watch it, I only have my initial feelings and memories. Part of my disappointment ties in directly to the fact that another show Bad Robot was behind (Lost) I felt the final season was the worst and a complete cop out, and I recall feeling Fringe was similarly a not well finished final season.
Still, there were ideas and concepts in the series I really enjoyed, and would have loved to have learned more about. I do like shows that touch on alternate worlds, though it seems there are few, and they do not last long. If you and your wife liked the alternate world Idea but wanted something without the Monsters or such I could recommend a few (though likely you are familiar with them already). Counterpart (which I feel ended too early), Dark (Very slow to start and seems like a missing person show...but really trippy once it's going - mediocre dubbing), Sysyphus: The Myth (only made it to episode 4 before it seemed to vanish off netflix, but it had some interesting ideas). There was another show from long ago whose name escapes me that involved traveling to an alternate world through a pyramid.
Maybe if I get time I will try to borrow Fringe from the Library to rewatch it... once I get this new housing crisis squared away.
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"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra

[Whill]

The parallel universe plot was completely resolved at the end of season 4. The only thing left unresolved to still address in the final season was the mystery of the Observers. Season 5 finally revealed what the real purpose of the Observers had been all along (they were an unwitting scouting team to reconnoiter history for an invasion of the early 21st century). Without seasons 5, then the Observers would have been in the first four seasons for no known reason. And their presence and purpose were absolutely vital to the series, because the whole series including the red/blue universe war never would have happened if an Observer hadn't accidentally altered history back in 1985.

Granted, the 5th season was a big left turn for the series. If the show had been an episodic one I can see the change seeming abrupt and radical. But the show's metaplot was leading to Seasons 5 the entire time. Sure, they could have devised a different premise for Season 5 that explained the Observers yet stayed closer to the previous four seasons, but I think they were trying to do something different with what they knew ahead of time would be the final season.

The episode that introduced Season 5's 2026 story was actually a part of Season 4, several episodes before the end of Season 4. I'm guessing you missed that episode. The series was in danger of being cancelled in Season 4, but the producers asked for a partial season to get the series episode total up to 100 episodes (to make it eligible for syndication) and to finish off the metaplot. So a Season 4 episode ("Letters of Transit") was made as a 'proof of concept' for Season 5. The Season 5 title sequence was made as a part of that Season 4 episode's budget, and the season's set-up was literally introduced with an opening crawl at the beginning of the episode. The gamble worked and Fox ordered 13 episodes for Season 5 to resolve the Observer metaplot.

"Letters of Transit" had nothing to do with the Season 4 story at the time aired, and it actually spoils a few things about the end of Season 4. So in my re-watch, we skipped that episode where it falls in the Season 4 sequence and finished the rest of Season 4 first so my wife wouldn't be spoiled, and then went back to that episode. The first episode of Season 5 picks up where "Letters of Transit" leaves off, and that episode opens with a flashback of the 2015 invasion talked about in the opening crawl of the "Letters of Transit."

Fringe is my favorite overall series so I like every season, but my favorite seasons were probably Seasons 2 and 3.

I've never seen a single episode of Lost, but I've heard that many were dissatisfied with the ending of the series. I'm not in the market for a new franchise and it doesn't seem that interesting to me anyway.

I liked The X-Files, but I only saw occasional episodes when the first nine seasons aired. I've still never seen it all. I did rent all of the "mythology" episodes of the first nine seasons on DVD before I ever watched Fringe. And of course I've seen the two movies. I caught Season 10 when it aired, but had never seen any of Season 11 so I just started watching that on Hulu.
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[KageRyu]

It sounds like I may have missed several episodes from season 4. I know there were problems with how the local fox affiliate ran it (the owner of the Fox Affiliate was also the owner of the local NBC affiliate and had been NBC a lot longer which led to conflicts). I was also dealing with a lot of turmoil and was not always able to watch. I know I was having trouble keeping up somewhere around where there was that Animated Episode, but I was unable to watch that whole episode even.

Even though I did really enjoyed Lost initially, I could not recommend it. I could not give specific reasons without lots of spoilers, but I would be affraid you would end up let down by it - or upset at it.
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"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra

[Whill]

[KageRyu]

It seems, somehow, I missed a lot of Season 3 and all of season 4. Not sure how that happened. So far I have not recognized any of the season 4 episodes.
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"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra

[DougRed4]

I watched (and enjoyed) Fringe when it originally aired, but have not revisited it since.

To me, both The X-Files and LOST are far superior shows, but all three are excellent and worth watching. I disagree with many about the ending of LOST (the vast majority of fan complaints I've seen completely misinterpret and misunderstand the ending).

The X-Files is a fantastic series, but was also horribly mismanaged as it went on (the series creator/showrunner insisted on no series bible) and by the time of S10 and S11 it completely contradicts itself and undoes its own canon.

I didn't know that about "Letters of Transit". That's quite fascinating.

All three main characters were played by great actors, but John Noble especially stood out with his brilliant portrayal of Walter.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[Whill]

The X-Files series, all 11 seasons, is on Hulu. The two films are on HBO Max.

[DougRed4]

Your summary is very accurate, and I for the most part concur. I did think the S9 finale was good, but it did take a lot of finagling to make it all make sense.

The undoing of the original 9 season Mytharc was a somewhat clever way of redoing the alien invasion storyline, but if CSM was using alien tech to obfuscate what was really going on, then how do we explain things like the alien we literally saw in the first movie, Fight the Future? Or the other times we actually saw alien Greys (like when the monstrous alien that went into a nuclear reactor in the S6 premiere and transformed into a Grey)?

I still love the franchise, but I can readily admit that the Mytharc (my favorite part) is a convoluted mess.

My favorite episodes of the series are the comedic ones by Darrin Morgan (so Jose Chung's, Humbug, and Lost Art of Forehead Sweat) and my #1 fave is another funny one (Bad Blood by Vince Gilligan).
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[Whill]

[DougRed4]

I think Chris Carter is more about shaking things up and doing the unexpected than he is doing what makes more narrative sense. I was just reading some stuff on an XF FB thread and even now (in a recent interview) he's kind of backtracking and suggesting that the CSM in an unreliable narrator and known liar (mostly he was talking about the stuff about CSM being the father of William, but some references were made about the alien invasion, too).

From everything I've read on various sites, most TXF fans were disappointed with much of S10 and S11. The 'shippers' didn't like the (literal) rape that is alleged to have happened to Scully by CSM, nor the inconsistencies and issues in the relationship between M&S, and the Mythology fans (like me) have all sorts of issues with the changes made to that part of the story. It's kind of like you talk about with "your" SWU, Whill; I find it even more common among TXF fandom for people to say they don't acknowledge anything after a certain period (often S7) as being 'canon' to them, personally.

That's awesome that you'll check those out. Another funny one that is often acknowledged as being one of the best episodes of the show's entire run is "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose". It's not one of my personal favorites, but it is really well done.
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[Whill]

Of course, not every fan likes later seasons and that's ok. I was just responding to the canon being "contradicted." Yes, there are a lot of unanswered questions like you said; 'If it wasn't that then what was it really?' But it isn't necessarily a contradiction by saying a new layer of conspiracy was added that the alien invasion planned for 2012 was a hoax to hide a different horrible plan for a later date. Whether fans like it or not, it is not necessarily a contradiction. Of course, each fan can determine their own personal canon like with SW.

Yes, it certainly is possible that CSM is still lying. The alien invasion never happened in 2012, but maybe what he says is the truth now is also a lie.

I had heard of the supposed "rape" outrage, but I never interpreted that CSM was even saying he had drugged Scully and 'literally' sexually violated her. I thought he was suggesting it was an artificial insemination. And I also never believed CSM. It seemed to me CSM would say that to Skinner just to make him think that he really cared about William, when he (obviously to viewers) doesn't care and only wanted William for what he was needed for.
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[DougRed4]

You make some good points. I suppose the new layer of conspiracy with the 2012 invasion being a hoax is a possibility.

But sometimes it's just the jarring inconsistencies that are frustrating to fans. For instance, Mulder was completely a pariah on the run from the FBI after the S9 finale, and yet by the second movie they offer him a pardon to solve a pretty mundane crime (and no mention of the 2012 date even comes up). The last time we had seen him the government was going out of its way to silence him with a fake trial. And what about all of the alien replicants (with the strange bumps in their spines) that S8 and S9 had focused on? These "super soldiers" were just sort of forgotten about and ignored after those seasons. But there had been all sorts of indications that they had infiltrated the highest levels of government.

I do think there were a lot of contradictions overall, but that's really just because they refused to have a series bible and the producers (especially Carter) focused more on their current story, and didn't so much worry about past continuity.
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[Whill]

A series bible may have helped the series, but it is quite pointless for the post-S9 franchise if the series creator and main metaplot contributor is the primary one contradicting the earlier franchise. The mythology wasn't contradicted by accident because of a lack of bible. It was a very intentional choice for a specific purpose.

The second film and first episode of S10 should be realistically viewed for what they are, a franchise reset to make the series more conducive to extension that we got. There was really no satisfactory place for the original story to go except for a 2012 alien invasion, and only a big budget film could really do that justice. When the gross of the second film didn't attract any investors for the invasion film, that story had to be dropped. In a post-2012 X-File universe without an invasion, there is really no place for the super soldiers in the story. The only thing left to continue the franchise were possible TV seasons, and the best option was a "return to form" by resetting things so that the X-Files were reopened, and Mulder and Scully return to the FBI to make the show somewhat similar to how it was in the first seven seasons.

Personally I was unsatisfied by the S9 finale, but I understand that without the alien invasion I will never get a fitting conclusion to that story, so I just try to enjoy what I can out of the series extension. Maybe after S9, the infiltration of super soldiers was uncovered by the FBI. It could be that a biological weakness such as a virus destroyed all the super soldiers before the second film, and that is why it was so easy for the FBI to "forgive" Mulder, because Mulder was vindicated. Would the reset paradigm of S10-11 have been any better received by X-philes if the producers had taken the time to incorporate this explanation into it? I'm doubtful.

The new metaplot of the reset is "mythology light," so the main purpose of it seems to be to allow for more classic Mulder-Scully FBI monster-of-the-week episodes without being bogged down by a commitment to an unrealized deep mythology. And the S10 mythology episodes were the worst received of that season, so S11 had an intentional choice to even further distance them from aliens and focus on William. The S11 finale doesn't reunite Mulder and Scully with William (they think he's dead), but William is now free of being hunted, CSM is dead (again), there will be no world population decimating pandemic, the X-Files are closed (again), Mulder and Scully are together as a couple, and Scully is pregnant with a new child of Mulder's. It's no alien invasion, but personally I find that it's a slightly more satisfying ending than the S9 finale.

Maybe diehard fans would be less frustrated by S10-11 if they just viewed them as taking place in a parallel universe to the original franchise? If the series hadn't been extended we never would have gotten "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat" episode! Going forward, my focus on The X-Files is going to be on the monster-of-the-week episodes. When I someday go through the first seven seasons of the series to see everything I missed, I think I will probably skip most of the mythology episodes since (1) I have already seen them all, and (2) the metaplot doesn't really have a satisfying conclusion anyway.
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[DougRed4]

I can't really disagree with any of that analysis, Whill.

The decision was clearly made to go back to basics, and that's kind of what they did. Even with Mulder and Scully being too old to be FBI Special Agents any more (it's even worse with Skinner).

I'm glad we got "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat" and there were some other good episodes, too, I thought ("Familiar", frex).
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