Binge Watch: Fringe

I watch a lot of TV. When I say a lot of TV I mean that I'm the girl who is constantly recommending shows to anyone who will listen to me ramble on and on about my latest favorite. This brings me to the latest favorite binge-watch: Fringe.



I was a first-airing viewer of Fringe for a couple seasons, but then life got in the way and their time-slot changed and it just fell off of my radar. Looking back on it now it's both a good and a bad thing. I'm a serial binge-watcher and enjoy watching most shows that way more, because I need it all now. The only bad thing about waiting was that I didn't know the brilliance I was missing until I finished the series for the first time this week on Netflix.

For the uninitiated, Fringe follows FBI agent, Olivia Dunham, who teams up with institutionalized, Walter Bishop, and his son, Peter Bishop, who's a begrudged caretaker of sorts (initially), to investigate unexplained phenomena. Unexplained phenomena is just about the biggest understatement for some of the insane cases on the show, but you'll see what I mean for yourself!

Fringe takes place in Boston, so obviously I'm more inclined to love it than just your average show (even though it clearly wasn't filmed on location). Hearing all of these New England and New York based cities on a TV series is both odd and welcoming to me, personally.

One of the things I love most about Fringe is that it is clearly a sci-fi and unexplainable phenomena--explained series. Sometimes science and technical based shows like this can be a real turnoff because their language is so inaccessible. But that's not the case here at all. Fringe never talks down to the viewer, but rather clues you into what's going on...or what they think is going on. Olivia's character truly helps a lot with this accessibility as she doesn't know the scientific background for any of this stuff either. She is the average viewer and watching her and FBI agent/lab assistant Astrid deal with Walter's scientific eccentricity is one of my favorite things.

Throughout the series, Fringe always comes back to the concept of family. Who is your family? What would you do for them? How will you stick together? The changing notion of what is family, who do you choose to be your family, and living with the family you're born with are interesting ideas that pretty much never cease on the drama front. Peter is the reluctant son, but he has his reasons. Legitimate reasons. Throughout it all, Peter and Walter never stop trying to make it work even when it gets rather mind-bendingly complicated in the later seasons.

The best thing about binge-watching Fringe was the fact that the ending was absolutely, stunningly perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better, more appropriately heart-pounding (and heart-wrenching, to be honest) ending to the series. Even after a hundred episodes (yay, syndication qualification!), Fringe still managed to make me want more and to immediately watch it over again. Speaking of...



Let me know in the comments your thoughts on Fringe and/or your favorite series to binge-watch. If you haven't watched Fringe yet, what are you waiting for?!


Katherine

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