TV Series Review: FRINGE – Season 2 (2009)

Goddamn!! The best (my opinion) sci-fi show on television right now kicks some serious ass in almost every way. Created by the veteran of genre shows and movies, J. J. Abrams brings us the totally awesome FRINGE.

A division of the FBI that investigates cases of paranormal activity and scientific concepts that seem impossible, is what FRINGE is about. A trio of unlikely heroes that save the world, repeatedly.

Season 1 saw implications of a parallel universe and how the world was being used as experiments by a group of people whose motives remain unknown. The finale of Season 1  has our lead Olivia Dunham being taken into the alternate reality by the infamous William Bell, creator and maybe perpetrator of all the weird in the world, along with Walter Bishop. Awesomest surprise was Leonard Nimoy as the infamous Bell.

Given a message by Bell, Dunham returns to our reality with a mission, one that she is unaware of in the beginning. There is a threat looming this season that threatens both realities and that’s what everyone has to figure out.

Season 2 also focuses a lot on Walter and Peter’s relationship as estranged father/son. There’s a LOT of info about Walters guilt about something to do with Peter and how it ties into everything happening in the world. A lot of hints have been dropped in Season 1 that something happened to Peter in the past, however what it is, and what Walter did about it remains a major mystery.

Olivia Dunham’s importance to all the chaos in the world is also featured as well her deep past with Walter himself. Becoming singled out by the bad guys seems to be another point of concern for all involved. Even the ‘Observers’ play a huge role in the FRINGE universe, one that is explained (somewhat) this season.

The supporting cast continues to be awesome. Both the actors playing Nina Sharp and Philip Broyles become a helluva lot more involved, which just rounds out the entire show that much more. Not to mention the reference to the X-FILES in the season opener.

This season is delves a lot more into the inner workings of the FRINGE universe. There are holes in the world between both realities and there are hostile agents at work trying to open these holes, for ulterior purposes. However the risk is the destruction of both realities.

Season 2 becomes more series story based, but the cool thing is that it’s still able to maintain its procedural format, making the show still accessible to a new audience.

Sometimes though, that runs to its detriment, as even nearing the end of the season we didn’t get any of the important continuing episodes, but more one shots that tied to the season story at the end in a small way. It’s a small thing, but I single it out just because for a show like FRINGE continuing the story in each episode is important, or fans like me freak out! But from an objective perspective, it’s a better way of storytelling that involves an audience from any point in the season.

FRINGE continues to be a great show, as the science fiction elements of the show truly deal with what sci-fi is known for. The success of this series goes to show how a completely genre series can survive among mainstream audience on broadcast television.

Get Season 2 on Blu ray