Fringe diary #1

In which I write about a TV series which is five years old

I've been watching a lot of Fringe recently. It is – in case you pay as little attention as I do – an American science-fiction/police procedural/slightly updated version of The X-Files, which finished its five-season run earlier this year. It's one of those shows that I'd heard became good, if you were prepared to put up with a slightly shaky first series. Although I remain unconvinced that JJ Abrams, for yes it is he who is behind it, can't just mostly be characterised by going 'ooh isn't this mysterious?' and then scampering off before he has to explain himself, and much against some people's advice, I gave it a go.

I'm now seven episodes into the second season. I... like it. Yes, the first season is a bit too repetitive for its own good, and some of the themes (mysterious things happen on aeroplanes! Sons have issues with their fathers!) are ones that I think are getting a little tired on TV dramas now. And, coming off the back of Breaking Bad, which I pretty much watched straight through over a five-month period last year, it's a little offputting how light everything is. This is very different storytelling. If Breaking Bad is one of those little pots of incredibly strong drinking chocolate that you get 'on the continent', then this is an iced bun, IF YOU'LL EXCUSE THE MISGUIDED FOOD METAPHOR. Which, honestly, you shouldn't have to, and I am so sorry.

But. But aside from people named Walter getting over-excited about laboratories, what links the two shows is the engagingness* of the regular characters, and that goes a long way to holding things together. Even if some of the episodes are essentially remakes of old X Files episodes, with a third-act humans-meet-technology switcheroo, I'm happy to give up 45 minutes because Walter will be endearing, or Olivia will be an actually strong female character, or there will be a bit when one of the members of Bros turns out to be a shape-shifter after all. 

And the overarching plot is, I take it, still to properly get going, and each boxset only costs just over a tenner. So, dear readers, I shall keep you updated. It may all crumble distressingly, and I'll be updating you with sad tales of how, as with Lost, it turns out that the authors were making things up as they went on. I watch in hope, though. Until Breaking Bad comes back I need a regular TV series, and non-hateable sci-fi shows are a very rare thing indeed.

* I originally wrote 'likeability' here, but – as well as that being an impossible word to spell correctly – I'm not sure that it's correct for Breaking Bad, particularly in the later seasons.