Fringe

Very seldom does a television show rise to the level where I want to recommend it to all my friends. Alias was such a show, although it kinda lost its way toward the end of its run. Probably The West Wing. And my all time favorite show (which will probably never be surpassed), LOST.

Two of these shows are from the Bad Robot production company, creations of JJ Abrams. And so it, in my opinion, no coincidence that by far my favorite show currently on TV is Fringe.

(Note: I blogged a couple of months ago about this - I do remember that. But the show is just getting better and better so I thought it deserved a more detailed post on why it rocks. I will probably post on individual episodes in the future.)

Fringe was created three years ago by Abrams among others. It's smart, thought-provoking, centered on extremely interesting characters, and even funny. The acting is superb, led by a previously relatively unknown actress named Anna Torv (Olivia Dunham). Because of the plot, Anna has played at least 5 different shades of characters, and makes each one come alive - amazing. John Noble (Walter Bishop) is an awesome actor, and the most well known actor, Joshua Jackson (first known from Dawson's Creek) has created a deep, flawed character (Peter Bishop) that it's impossible not to care about.

The show uses a science fiction background to tell wonderful stories about a group of people who are eternally interconnected, and whose actions have enormous consequences. It's a story about choices, and how all our choices are important and affect people in waves we can't even begin to understand. It's not just science fiction - it's people.

It is a serial story and if you start watching on Fridays you'll kinda be in catch-up mode. But I almost guarantee that if you give it chance, you will want to go back and catchup on previous seasons.

Here is a fan-made trailer for the current season:



Fridays, 8 pm CDT. Give it a shot.