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It seemed like everything J.J. Abrams touched turns to gold. Lost became the biggest network television show of the 2000s. “Star Trek” was a stylish, sleek reboot that reinvigorated the franchise. Alias garnered leading heroine Jennifer Garner a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award while the show itself won a slew of Saturn awards and was nominated for over a dozen others. The super producer/director could do no wrong, right?
Fox’s Fringe, another Abrams brainchild, was originally poised to be the next big thing. But it never happened. Now, the show’s mere existence is on the fringe, with Fox’s President of Entertainment acknowledging in an interview with TV Line that “[Fox loses] a lot of money on the show” and stating rather pointedly that “we’re not in the business of losing money.”
Why then, should former fans unite to save the show from almost-certain demise? Fringe is a unique show in its own right, and combines the best elements of Abrams’ work – it’s mind-boggling, sharply acted and well-written. In short, it’s a show you need to be watching.
The show centers on Olivia Dunham (Aussie actress Anna Torv), an FBI agent who investigates “fringe science” experiments with the help of eccentric mad scientist Walter Bishop (the stellar John Noble) and his jack-of-all-trades son, Peter (Dawson’s Creek alum Joshua Jackson). The show built itself up on its freak-of-the-week episodes, but finally introduced us to the alternate universe it had been hinting at in the Season 1 finale. That’s when Fringe really found its groove.
Hopefully this little tease will leave you wanting more: Walter once tampered with the laws of time and space, to disastrous results; Peter is not who he appears to be; and Olivia has a strange connection to Walter’s past.
Why all the heavy campaigning for a show you may never have even heard of? Because for all the derivative Jersey Shores out there, there are true innovators like Fringe which get passed over in the Nielsen ratings.
Fringe has never been one of Fox’s ratings behemoths like American Idol or Glee; when the show started in 2008, it was drawing in about 10 million viewers. Now, the show’s rating number has dwindled to 3 million since its move to the Friday night “death slot,” leaving Fringe fans seriously questioning whether their favorite show will return for a fifth season.
What can you do to keep this great show around? Catch up with Fringe on Hulu or DVR, or borrow a friend’s DVDs. This sci-fi drama may sound high-concept, and it is, but with a strong cast and dashes of romance and humor, it’s the gold standard for television.
