The Captivating Fringe

I have an addiction to TV shows and once I start, I just cannot stop. Recently, a friend recommended I start watching Fringe, mostly because I had run out of other things to watch. The sci-fi series portrays the FBI's “Fringe-Division,” solving unexplained, mysterious, and quite often gruesome events. With this in mind, I decided to watch the very first episode.

Well, it was gross. The episode was about a bio-terrorist attack on an in flight plane, where a self-administered shot led to an airborne epidemic causing everyones skin to fall off and turn into goo. But, if it was so gross, how was I so into it! The ideas, the concepts, the thrill, the science, it was all just so... gripping! It caused my jaw to drop just like the skin dropping off those peoples body. The idea of Fringe science just seemed so possible. So I set out on a quest to find out what exactly was it about this disgusting show that was so entertaining.

So I set out to find some testimonials, to see if I was the only one so tied into the plot. Just as I had thought, many other were just as caught up in the action as I was.
Camdpt on TV.com claimed that Fringe is the

“Best paranormal show since X Files. Great plot twists, great character development, it gets on all cylinders. Fringe has a great Sci Fi component, from the believable to the not so believable, but its all done in great fun and excitement.”

Another by Mark_Barnes420 stated

“Finally, something intelligent on television”

Barry Garon at the Hollywood Reporter said that

“Although [the] episodes are self-contained, each has a clue that points to the overall involvement of a shadowy, giant corporation, Massive Dynamics. Combine these elements with solid special effects and confident direction and you get some heavy-duty counter programming to ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

And personally, I agree. With all the TV shows out there, like Greys Anatomy, The Office, and Castle, it is about time that the sci-fi lovers got a show too! But these testimonials only showed I wasn't alone, and I was on a quest for why this show was so addicting as nasty as it was.

Many claimed that the reason the show was so interesting was due to Peter Bishop, the mad scientist who seems to be able to solve every freaky mystery. That the human addiction with fringe science, such as teleportation and reading ones thoughts after death, is something viewers often ponder about.

Could it be that viewers are so drawn into the idea of the government hiding things from its public, that we consider these things to actually happen. There is a sort of intensity in all these themes that is only reiterated in the way the series is set up itself. Since the episodes only solve what occurs within them, they slowly answer the broader question that set within the series.

On one hand this may seem like a giant risk to its producers. Yet then again, Fringe is in its third series and from what I have read it is only getting better. The show may be gripping because of its cast, its mysteries, and its speculation on government conspiracy, but the way the plot is revealed brings out the attention on these subjects.

Most TV shows seem to have two to three big issues per season. They slowly get revealed and every episode is a continuation of that problem. Often, a series will have a two-part episode that continuous the problem but that doesn't come close to J. J Abrams' Fringe. The show does the same, but it operates differently for every episode has a beginning and an end with the problem at hand, but the seasons problem is constantly in question. Rarely does the audience get answers, leaving them hooked and begging for more.

This is why I sat glued to my computer while watching the first episode, because I was yearning for a solution but none came. It wasn't the skin dripping off their bodies, which frankly, I am relieved to find out. It was the amazing way this series has chosen to define itself, that strikes everyone that watches.


Fringe uses this different and compelling set up to entice its audience, to draw them into the season. Each episode acts like a cookie crumb on Hansel and Gretel path, leading them to the final and climactic situation. I am now currently on episode 11 and from what I hear, I will only get further into it.