Fringe Season 4 Review

20th Sep 2012

If you’ve never seen Fringe how could I describe it to you in brief? The lazy way I suppose is to say it is the modern X-Files with paranormal activity instead of aliens. You have your two male/female protagonists, Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) with the evolving romantic entanglement as the seasons progress. There is Peter’s father, Walter Bishop (played delightfully by John Noble, a highlight of the show) and other constant supporting characters. The set-up from the beginning was strange, paranormal activity happens, the team investigate and a complimentary over-arching plot around a parallel world develops.

Season 3 was a true highlight for me with the other parallel universe being explored, character relationships being tested, particularly with the other Olivia impersonating our worlds Olivia. Watching John Noble switch between Walter and his other universe self Walternate is a beautiful example of acting and whilst it is traditional to throw a spanner in the works of built up relationships the Olivia/Peter/Other Olivia was executed very well.

This however brings us to season 4. We start the season with the “what the fuck?” situation of Peter being removed from all timelines. No explanation and no immediate return to that story line, which I admire as a way to start the season. However it does drag a little in these first few episode, we know Peter is coming back it’s just how and when. My other fault with this season is the reactionary result of a show that is expecting to be cancelled, attempting to wrap certain things up and then switching and setting things up for a final season. This season focuses more on the long running stories rather than returning to what, I believe, is done best in Fringe, the weekly mystery. The new case of each episode in the early seasons was what made this show as good as it was and like the X-Files it has become too weighed down in its own wider universe creation. A shame but does not detract from earlier seasons.

This is not to say that season 4 does not have merit and some stand out episodes. John Noble, as I mention earlier, remains a pleasure to watch (keep an eye out for his Obi-Wan attempt later in the season). Astrid (Jasika Nicole) finally gets to take centre stage as her other self and our world version engage in an episode. The show returns to its earlier form with the episode Nothing As It Seems, revisiting a storyline which occurred in season 1 but which now has a different timeline due to the removal of Peter.

The main talking point of this season comes towards its end with Letters of Transit. This episode has been praised and critiqued with the view that it has done just as Joss Whedon did with Dollhouse; discover your show is being cancelled, jump far into the future and just throw the shit to the fan. It is 2036 and those bald blokes who’ve been showing up throughout the show mostly observing but then screwing things up by intervening, have decided to take over the world and life generally seems to suck. Who can save the day? Well the Fringe team of course (and that bloke from Lost). As Whedon did with Dollhouse this opens up a whole can of “what-the-fucks” and now that Fringe has a final and 5^th season to explore some of the questions raised the outcomes could go either way.

Season 4 overall though is still good television even though it has that slightly panicked messy coming to an end feeling. The earlier seasons were better but that doesn’t mean this one isn’t worth seeing. Let’s see what my view of season 5 is though, I have concerns. An interesting topic point I have come across, and please keep it in mind when you watch or re-watch the show, is that it’s all really about Walter. Everything comes back to him.

As far as extras go, there are the standard DVD bits, a couple of documentaries, a digital copy (coded against iTunes…nice middle finger there) and some comic book excerpts. The Blu-ray extras look better with a focus on Walter. One thing I will note is that Anna Torv and John Noble switching back to their Australian accents is just weird.