I have no idea why I never watched Fringe. Seriously. Weird science, government conspiracies, melting people, shadowy corporations, and an institutionalized scientist who asks for a cow and casually announces that he pissed himself.
This is exactly my jam.
For whatever reason, the FOX series completely passed me by when it originally aired in 2008. Then I found it sitting on Pluto TV, staring me in the face, taunting me. Challenge taken. I put Fringe S1E1, “Pilot,” on trial. Thirteen minutes — that’s all it had to earn more of my time.
That plan went to hell almost immediately.
Well, That’s One Way to Open a Show
Fringe doesn’t politely introduce itself. We’re aboard an international flight from Hamburg when a passenger starts acting strange. He injects himself with something — and then his skin starts melting off. Not metaphorically, either. The man’s face literally starts dissolving.
By the time the plane lands at Boston Logan on autopilot, everyone is dead and the interior looks like somebody turned an anatomy textbook into a horror movie. Hello, Fringe. You have my attention.
FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) gets pulled into the mess, though DHS Agent Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick) isn’t exactly rolling out the welcome mat for her. Her fellow agent and secret lover, John Scott (Mark Valley), is already on the case, while Olivia has to push her way in.
I liked Olivia immediately. She’s smart, resourceful, stubborn as hell, and a total badass without the show constantly reminding us she’s a badass. When bureaucracy gets in her way, she doesn’t stand around complaining about it; she figures out another route.
Hello Walter
After John is badly injured in an explosion and exposed to the same flesh-dissolving nightmare that killed everyone on Flight 627, Olivia goes into overdrive looking for a way to save him. Her search leads her to Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble), a brilliant scientist who has spent 17 years in a mental institution. To get to Walter, she needs his estranged son, Peter (Joshua Jackson).
She tracks Peter to Baghdad and pulls a total “Bitch Move” — convincing him she has secret dirt on him to force his cooperation. Later, we find out she was bluffing. Beautiful. That sold me on Olivia. She isn’t an invincible super-agent; she just has the balls to push the right buttons.
Then we meet Walter. The first time Olivia sees him, he’s a wild-haired, twitchy man who looks vaguely like Charles Manson. But underneath the Manson-sheen, you realize he knows exactly what he’s talking about. After returning to his Harvard lab, he casually admits he’s pissed himself.
“Just a squirt.”
The looks on Olivia and Peter’s faces were golden (no pun intended). John Noble, where have you been all my life? He can go from brilliant scientist to confused old man to inappropriate dad in thirty seconds. He also requires a cow. Of course.
Climbing Into a Dying Boyfriend’s Brain
Walter’s solution to saving John, involve drugs, electrodes, LSD, and a sensory-deprivation tank. Fringe looked at ordinary FBI procedure and said, “Nah, f*ck that.”
So, Olivia gets in the tank to synchronize with John’s memories. It’s creepy, emotional, and completely ridiculous if you explain it out loud, but I bought every second of it.
Then Fringe Pulls the Rug Out
Just when you think you’ve got the show figured out, it introduces “The Pattern” and the shadowy corporation Massive Dynamic. The pilot also flashes strange “Glyphs” before commercial breaks — a butterfly, a frog, an apple. I started trying to decode them while watching.
I know I could have the entire thing explained to me by a Google search in twelve seconds. I’m not doing it. Half the fun is trying to figure it all out yourself.
And then — as if things couldn’t get any worse (or better) — Fringe pulls the rug out from under Olivia. After everything she risks to save John, the case takes a turn that shows us another side of her. Yes, she’s a badass who doesn’t hesitate to hold people accountable for their actions. But she’s also a woman who loved this man, and watching that armor crack gives Olivia a vulnerability I wasn’t expecting.
The Verdict
The obvious comparison is The X-Files. Conspiracies, government agencies, and unexplained phenomena. There’s even a little Millennium (one of my Top 3) floating around in the DNA.
But after one episode, Fringe already feels like its own thing. The Olivia-Walter-Peter trinity has chemistry that is impossible to manufacture. The pilot never felt like homework. It moves through planes, explosions, Baghdad, and brain experiments without ever hovering near the River of Molasses.
In fact, my biggest problem on the Free TV Frontier was the commercials. Normally, I don’t care — that’s the deal with Pluto and the rest of the FAST Fab Five. But Fringe makes you resent the interruption. You want the next scene right f*cking now.
I’ve got five seasons sitting there on Pluto, a pile of questions, and zero intention of looking up the answers. The full breakdown can come later. Right now, I’ve got episodes to watch.
🔥 Final Verdict: WATCHABLE. Forget 13 minutes. Fringe got four hours out of me on the first night. That’s not just Fire. That’s a five-alarm binge warning
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