As fans of sci-fi television, we must perpetually worry that our favorite stories are going to end suddenly and nonsensically. Any time a season comes to an end, there is a very good chance that it won’t come back, and especially if there have recently been changes to the writing staff, management, timeslot, network executive whim, or astral positioning.
We’ve got confirmation, however that Fringe, on of the best sci-fi television shows of the last few years will be coming back for a fourth season at least, and that the pattern of creating a major dynamics shift at the end of each season will continue.
Fringe started out a bit slow, however.
For most of its first season, it seemed simply like another weird-thing-a-week show with a pretty protagonist, but the dynamic of the retired mad scientist working with the FBI on fringe-science cases was interesting enough to keep the show going through to the end of the first season, when the audience was introduced to the real secret behind what they call “The Pattern.”
The audience discovers that one of the major characters is from another dimension, a parallel universe where almost everything is the same, with the exception of certain technological differences.
The second season dealt mostly with exploring the effects of this parallel world on our, and on the show’s major characters, culminating in another major development, as the protagonist was maliciously switched with her double in the other world.
This season, of course, has been dealing with the ramifications of this dramatic shift, and as the end of this season draws closer, we know that another major turning point is forthcoming.
With each season, the show, and its mythology get deeper and more interesting, but also less accessible for new audience members, which, especially because it changed time-slots, is a dangerous point for a sci-fi show to be sitting on.
We know that the drive of the fans has been enough to get it renewed for at least one more season. We can only hope the show is allowed to run to its natural end, whatever that may be.
