The news that Fringe has been renewed for a fourth season came as a shock: When was the last time a network saved a quality cult show it had heretofore shown little sign of even understanding, let alone promoting? But then, the renewal is in keeping with the spirit of the series itself, with its themes of life everlasting and hope springing eternal.
Whatever the combination of factors that went into this Fox decision (my guesses are, in order: the devil we know may be at least as good as Terra Nova; we can’t only renew just our 20th Century Fox-produced shows, can we?; those pesky critics and more people than those who watch Smallville and Supernatural seem to like this damn thing; why not generate some publicity as kindly, benevolent suits instead of clueless, heartless ones for once?), the bottom line is, a glorious mindf— of a family drama got the nod, and I wonder what the admirable Shawn Ryan is thinking now about the chances for his interesting The Chicago Code, given Fox’s limited prime-time space?
So what can we expect from the producers’ opportunity to play out toward Fringe‘s endgame? Beats me, I say happily, with qualifications. What I mean by that is, I’m not invested in the games of “here’s what the show needs to do” or “here’s where the show is headed” for my pleasure. I like to let a show I love wash over me every week, like a piece of new music or the next chapter in a novel I’m enjoying. In those last two examples, I don’t sit around with my finger hovering over my latest iPod song download or fretting in the midst of reading a long piece of fiction, pondering what I want the musician or the author to do, trying to second-guess the creators — I just get on with it, and enjoy the critical thinking afterward, not measuring whether the show/music/book has lived up to my predictions/wishes/dreams for it. Like the best pop culture, Fringe compels all of us, not just me and my colleagues, to respond as critics in the broadest sense — as discriminating consumers who like to tease out the meanings of what gives us pleasure (or frustrates us) in the show.
With this in mind, I feel as though, as an Observer has said, “it has begun” — that is, I’ve no doubt Fringe is well on its way to doing what few other TV shows have done. It deals in common realities and fantasies in a form that provides immediate pleasure; it is vital aesthetically, as a work that rewards both casual viewing and repeated investigation.
We each like Fringe for different reasons. You might be invested in the Peter-Olivia relationship, while others are happy just to tune in and see how eccentrically amusing Walter is going to be this week. Some fans want their Fringe more hardcore sci-fi, and to place it in the context of the history of speculative fiction, both literary and pop-culturally. (There are, for sure, papers to be written about Fringe as the inverse of the Robert Heinlein approach to sci-fi, or the layering of its Philip K. Dick/Samuel R. Delany/Cyberpunk synthesis.)
Me, I’m in it for the show’s persistent fascination with real history — with its overarching metaphors for the ways that the baby-boomer, counterculture-leaning generation as embodied most assiduously by Walter Bishop altered America’s thinking, and the rewards it gave, and traps it set, for future generations (i.e., Peter and Olivia’s, and perhaps their child’s).
Any way you look at it, however, Fringe has 22 fresh chances to make us think differently, not just about its own characters and its own stories, but our own characters, and our own lives.
Oh, and not to seem ungrateful or churlish, but one more thing: Fox, if you’re going to leave the show on Fridays next fall, will you please give it a more compatible lead-in than Gordon-bloody-Ramsay?
Agree? Disagree?
For more: ‘Fringe’ renewed for a fourth season
Twitter: @kentucker
What is excellent to me is that I now can watch the first two seasons and the first half of this seasons and wade through the first three episodes of the show (which I did not like and turned my attention elsewhere) knowing it does get better as Friday night might be one of my more favorite nights of TV (I record both Fringe and Supernatural, just alter which I watch, occupy myself until 9:15, then manage to watch both without commercials and then I get to watch Merlin after that and my brain which would have stopped working about three hours earlier can let me pass out so I actually have a productive weekend.
Kate: The first 8-9 episodes of Season 1 were a little rough around the edges. However, they are important to watch because only just now in the (Season 3) storyline are we getting insight on significant things buried in those very early Season 1 episodes. Stick with it – you will be rewarded with fine television.
Its true the first half of season 1 is pretty forgettable, but after that the show has been pure awesome. Now all Fox has to do is make Human Target like it was during season 1 by getting rid of Ilsa Pucci, and then renew Firefly and Arrested Development and they will become the greatest network on tv
I want to go back now and rewatch the entire series from start to current to see what bits escaped me the first time. LOST was a show that only got better with repeat viewings too.
I disagree – I felt like the first half of the second season was the weakest for the series. While it is true that the first half of season one kept coming back to Olivia’s boyfriend, that was preferable than the directionless Season 2 start. The show has been phenomenal since the episode “Peter” onwwards.
I agree with ObserveTHIS – the first half of Season 2 was a little meh. But the last half, and Season 3? What a treat! I’m glad I’ve kept my seatbelt fully strapped on for this ride. I love Fringe!
http://thelittlestwinslow.com
Blair Brown’s talent is wasted on this show. Her comedy yr’s ago was the original Sex In The City.
What? Her character is one of the most interesting and enigmatic on the show.
Agreed, she is amazing on the show! I haven’t seen someone as cryptic and mysterious since certain LOST characters (and that’s a good thing!)
I’m sure Fox loves that you skip the commercials. How do you think these shows are paid for?
By you watching the commercials for the rest of us?
You’re awesome! Thanks!
How about if we download the episodes to our Xboxs and IPads for two or three bucks a pop. Is it okay if we skip the commercials then?
Watching the commercials doesn’t really help…actually BUYING the products is what ultimately PAYS for the shows.
Thought this was obvious.
OMG. You are a scyfy fan. I do watch Fringe, hold on Supernatural till the following week and continue on to watch Merlin. I am very happy about Fringe’s renewal.
Yippee!!! Fringe is renewed!! Hooray!! Yahoo!!
Very happy about the renewal! But please please move it away from Friday nights!
I actually think Fringe’s numbers may look better on Friday nights than on any other night, given that that’s always been a ratings-challenged night for Fox. Or at least since The X-Files ended. I thought I read that, even with weak numbers, it’s still more watched than anything in that time slot recently. But on another night, those same numbers might look much worse. But this may all be wishful thinking on my part. I hope Ken explains it at some point.
I would love to see Human Target as a lead in for Fringe on Friday nights. Thanks Fox for renewing Fringe now please just renew Human Target & you will be my favorite network as those are the only 2 dramas I watch. Actually the only shows I watch.
The most shockingly good TV news in a long time!!!!!!!!!
Shocking yes, good not so much. I stopped watching a season ago. Struggling on fridays? What was FOX thinking?????
Why do you care?
I just started watching this season and I’m so excited it’s coming back. Fridays aren’t a great night, but you can always 1. Record 2. Hulu 3. iTunes
Exactly. Give it a better lead in, or change it back to Tuesdays like when it began years ago. There’s nothing good to watch on Tuesdays anyway. Even if “V” comes back (doubtful), Fringe would kick its ass.
It would be a mistake for Fox to take on the “NCIS” juggernaut. No, just return “Fringe” to Thursday at 9. The competition would only be very long running shows that are losing steam.
then we would suffer from A.I. going long all the time.
I think Human Target would be great with Fringe on Fridays.
Do not mess with tuesday night. NCIS,LA, and then The Good Wife. Best show on TV along with Fringe.
Please not Tuesday! I just ranted about ABC’s idiotic decision to air Dana Delany’s new show opposite Parenthood and The Good Wife. Since fans are already invested in those shows, anything else dropped in will lose (as well as their fans, like me of Dana Delany), and we can’t have that for Fringe, even if it did start there three years ago. The landscape is different now.
P.S. Not to mention that good primetime drama is often jettisoned in favor of cheap reality, leaving an awful (awful) lot of time-slot real estate that COULD be used for these shows, used instead for lower-quality programming. (That’s my nice way of saying junk, although to be fair, not all reality programming is junk. Only about 90 percent of it.)
I’m as surprised as anyone that Fringe was renewed. Scifi and fantasy have often had difficulty finding support from network execs. Whatever happened here, I’m gratified.
“given Fox’s limited prime-time space?”
Prime-time space littered with 3 hours of cartoons on Sundays and garbage reality shows (I see you Gordon Ramsey). While the latter may be produced on the cheap, it certainly doesn’t entertain me on a cerebral level.
The procedurals on FOX (Bones, 24, and now Fringe) have been among some of my all-time favorite programs. Yep, I enjoy American Idol, but why do I have to waste an hour of my time to learn “the results” that could take at the most 30 minutes? Pair that up with a sitcom like Raising Hope and voila!
BTW: Fox isn’t the only network guilty of killing good drama. But bless TNT for saving “Southland” after NBC continues to butcher the genre.
I have to agree with you…as a TV nerd I can’t say I’m big on procedurals, but Fox is the exception, especially the three shows you mentioned. Maybe it has to do with Fox’s mantra of being “the edgy network” and trying more quirky concepts.
That’s the thing we always forget about Fox. We vilify them for canceling so many good shows, but Fox greenlights about three times as many risky premises as any of the other networks. Canceled Arrested Development? They renewed it twice and let it have a series finale. Dollhouse? A whole 13 episodes to wrap up the show. Wonderfalls? Well, at least they ordered it in the first place. And Firefly? Well, we lived in a different time back then, and I imagine someone regrets canceling it for its now-not-that-bad numbers as much as I regret not watching “that stupid space show that’s distracting Joss from Buffy and Angel”.
All this to say: good one, Fox.
Oh, and before anyone comments, I now LOVE Firefly. That’s why I regret missing out on it. Humble pie.
I agree too. Although I still miss Terminator: SCC. That said, they gave it two seasons, and the showrunners ended it in a clever way that doesn’t interfere with the mythology. (IMHO.) Likewise, 24, it didn’t end on the highest note, but that was the fault of the showrunners, not FOX. I’ll take FOX’s programming decisions over the “Big Three” any day, as the latter continue to demonstrate utter stupidity far too often. (See my other comments about this elsewhere here.)
Fringe is one of the hardest shows to unilaterally explain why I like, but I think that breadth of interest is what makes it unique. I love the characters, but they don’t seem shoved at me, even Walter’s eccentricity. I love the humor, which mostly happens in quick little background beats. The “case of the week” is usually something I have a genuine curiosity of about the explanation and solution. And then there’s the over-arching story, which was developed in a great, slow-burn kind of way that you don’t get from serial shows anymore. (In this post-Lost world, people seem to think that mythology episodes have to be ALL PLOT. Remember Buffy? Season 1 of Lost? Seasons 1 and 2 of Alias? Sometimes the background is the strongest place for the big story.)
wow. May I just say ditto?
I agree with Mia, nicely said.
Really nice column, Ken. You put it very well. I too like to let Fringe wash over me. I have had a few criticisms, but they are drowned out by the general waves of delight every week.
I second that. This article was amazingly written and exemplifies why I love watching Fringe and thinking about it after the show is over.
Not because of my expectations, but because it just is so articulately looking at our current state of life through fantasy and sci-fi.
Why not pair it with “Alcatraz”? It’s another J.J. Abrams show, Fox has already picked it up for 12 episodes, and it’s got the same target audience.
Now that Fringe has been renewed, I will be giving Alcatraz a try.
Jorge and the Fringe team on the same night? As a devoted Lostaway, I think my head would explode. (If I had only known JJ Abrams & Co. was in my future after being horrifed by Scanners as a kid.)
The problem with Fringe is that it is not the type of show that you just drop in, in the middle of the season. NCIS and Bones has had a rise in viewership by playing reruns on cable channels. Fringe would benefit from this too as it would allow people to catch up with the shows story line.
I think Fringe would also benefit from it, but for reruns to play in syndication, there has to be some minimum number of episodes that exist already. I think they’re usually around 100, though I’ve heard it can be a little less in some cases (~90). But considering Fringe is only completing its third season now, it probably doesn’t have enough episodes to do this.
I started watching in the second episode of the third season, and while there was a lot of confusion (some of which has been lessened after I started watching the first season online), I got into it pretty much right away. There’s just something about the characters and the pacing that makes the story really compelling.
For me, the confusion, I prefer to think of them as mysteries to be solved, were a big part of the attraction of Fringe and they hooked me the first time I stumbled on an early Season 3 epi. Next day I was on ebay ordering Seasons 1 & 2. Fringe has a great premise, a fantastic cast, and thought provoking plots that always leave you wanting more. Thank You Fox for Season 4!
I suspect you’re right, and the Saturday late-night FOX “encore” (which is sometimes an encore, sometimes a re-run of another key eppy) is helping. I really think the nets would benefit from doing more encores, and not just of the “crime time” procedural stuff, but of all the primetime programming, like they do on cable and overseas.
I think Fringe has got a deep hold on the people who watch it because the sci fi tropes are in the service of truths resonant and deep. The scene with Walter and Nina smoking pot in Harvard Yard was cute, sure, but what Walter was saying about his generation was not just the reminiscences of a moldy old man glorifying his cooler generation. We ARE in an era now when too many young people tragically care little for learning and imagination, and care only for being at college to pursue material goals. Although I’m in my 30s, I found myself identifying a great deal with Walter here.
I love the viewpoints found between the generations of characters. Walter, Nina Broyles; Boomers. People my mother’s age. Peter, Olivia, Astrid; people my own age. Their interactions on that level hit close to home. The Boomers dreamed of a better world, but did they push too far, too fast? The GenXers fell into distrust and immersed themselves in trying to find a place in a changing world. Only to be called to action to protect their world(s.) God, I love Fringe.
Aimee, I agree. The boomers did push too far, too fast, but how did we know? We were fighting against the seriously buttoned-down world of the 1950′s and never saw what would come of actually changing the climate. Sometimes I feel we went too far. And then I see John Noble on a Paley Center discussion panel with Fringe creators & other actors. In the midst of talking about Fringe, he talked about what it was like to feel the heady possibilities the 60′s gave him. He was talking for so many of my generation (I’m probably your mother’s age), and it reminds me of the hope so many of us felt that we could change the world for the better. I have a daughter who is carrying on that tradition (peace, green, feminism) and I couldn’t be prouder! I love this show!
@ Aimee, Annie and hana,
YOUR disccussions are exactly what makes Fringe so amazing.
It really is mythological in the sense that it allows us a new lens with which to interpret our current society.
I’m sorry, that sounds so pretentious, but it’s true.
The writers and actors of Fringe are using the show as a way to make sense of things.
Yeah!!!! It’s so nice to have an intelligent show to follow. I watch it when it’s first broadcast, and then save a bunch of them to watch again in marathons. There’s nothing like a Fringe marathon!!!
A FRINGE BINGE…LOL !
Hey, I’ve done that! Now it has a name, thanks!
This is a gift! I am almost ready to forgive Fox for cancelling “Firefly” and “Andy Richter Controls the Universe”….almost
Great article, Ken! I love the way you describe your viewing of a favourite show as letting it “wash over you”. I’m the same way–enjoy the experience and debate it (if you want to) later. I think that’s why I didn’t mind the way Lost ended; I was all about the journey instead of the destination.
So glad to see Fringe renewed. Another season also means another chance for John Noble to get the Emmy he deserves!
I agree about Lost. I just put my trust in the show-runners, and it paid off. I feel like they could have done almost anything and I would have loved it. The characters were so well-developed and relatable, and the show was generally really well-done.
Amy said: “…they could have done almost anything and I would have loved it.”
Well, some of us wanted a final season of Lost that didn’t render irrelevant most of the plot lines from the previous five seasons. We wanted an ending to Lost that made sense in the overall context of the show.
I put my trust in Lost’s show-runners that they weren’t making the story up as they went along. I wanted to believe they knew what they were doing. They didn’t, and they lied to viewers about it. I felt cheated, and I will never watch another show created by either of those 2 doufuses.
…I still think Lost had a great soundtrack, though.
(Oh, and, yay for Fringe!)
Fringe appears to have different goals for storytelling than LOST. Hence we had a bit of a roller-coaster on LOST b/c it was meant to led up to the epic psychodramatic conclusion (love it or hate it, I thought *most* of it was great myself), whereas Fringe unfolds itself more subtley, like the references back to S1 cases without flashbacks, flashforwards or sideways (except maybe in Walter’s mind). I’m not advocating for one or the other, just suggesting they’re different, and different, innovative forms of storytelling are always welcome, as far as I’m concerned. Oh, and I’m sure when it comes (years from now, I hope), Fringe will have quite the finale too, but it’s unfolding in a way that might make those threads tie together more organically than in other stories. And it has mini-resolutions throughout too, which add to the satisfaction factor. IMHO.
P.S. Michael Giacchino’s scoring work on LOST and Fringe is stellar, I just wish he was available to do more on Fringe. Occasionally they slip in a bit of his scoring (I’m not sure if he’s composing anything for this season, or I’m just hearing snips of what he did on S1), and you can really hear it, it always works so well. The music supervisor for the show does a nice job too, but MG’s score for LOST was incomparable to anything on TV before or since. Unless he comes back to Fringe, of course.
Time for the “Noble for the Emmy” campaign.
(Huge sigh of relief)