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On the Fringes of TV



The series Fringe ran on Fox television from 2008 to 2013. It was a science fiction show about FBI agents investigating other worldly technology and events. When I tried explaining that to a friend he said, “so you mean like The X-Files?” And I am like No, it’s not like X-Files . . .  Okay I guess it does kind of sound like it. But it really was not like The X-Files. First of all it was different in tone. X-Files had a darker, atmospheric tone to it. To me it felt like Fringe was a bit more grounded in the real world. (If I can say that with a straight face about a show with parallel dimensions, teleportation, creatures who could stop or alter time, and a mad scientist who insisted a live cow reside in their Harvard laboratory . . .  but it felt more grounded to me.) Also Fringe felt like it was going somewhere. The mystery was slowly revealed and eventually resolved. With The X-Files (much as I loved the show) it always felt like we were falling down the rabbit hole each week. One mystery led to another. You just knew that Mulder was never going to find out what happened to his sister.

Fringe had a great cast with outstanding performances by John Noble, Lance Reddick, Anna Torv, and Joshua Jackson, among others (not to mention Leonard Nimoy). There was nothing trite or predictable about the show. The stories would veer into unexpected territory. In one episode, all of a sudden,  the series jumped ahead about 25 years with new characters, and I was thinking, okay, this is a one-off episode and they will eventually find a way to get back to our present day. But no, they stayed in that time frame to the end of the series, and they made it work.

Fringe was probably the last series TV show that I watched entirely on its broadcast dates. Due to the advent of streaming services and DVD’s, I now tend to watch shows whenever I want to and not on their actual air date. This allows you (after it is available) to binge-watch a show once you are hooked on it. Yeah, that is not necessarily a good thing, but the point is I don’t have to wait a week (or longer) between episodes, nor do I have to worry about missing an episode. The ability to stream shows was already becoming available during the run of Fringe, but I was hooked. I had to wait for each episode to come out.

That thing about not missing an episode is kind of a big deal. I remember when the first season of 24 came out and I watched every episode . . . except the last one. For some reason I was not able to be home that night and I missed the episode that resolved the whole season. There was no streaming back then. The only way to see a missed episode was to wait for summer reruns, or for it to come out on video (VHS probably). By the time it came out on video, the ending had been spoiled for me and I didn’t care anymore. It sort of ruined the whole season for me. The old days have their charm and sense of community (your friend might ask, “did you see what they did on Seinfeld last night?”). But I did miss at least one episode of Fringe because I wasn’t home on Friday(?) night.  I do prefer being able to watch my shows, in the proper order, and when I want to.

(My novel Star Liner, is now available as an e-book through Amazon, or the other usual online sources. For those who like to turn physical pages, the paperback will be out soon).

 Link to Star Liner

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