Ranking and Grading the Seasons of #fringe, plus the series finale

Last night’s finale was about all we could hope for. It trafficked in the series trademark emotion (which separated it from other sci-fi shows and made it feel more like an intimate drama than anything that would ever be on the SyFy channel), had plenty of touching moments for the core characters, contained a trip to the other universe (which we haven’t seen this season), and a final action sequence that provided plenty of nods to the monster-of-the-week story lines from past seasons. AND a touching, excellent final five minutes that saw Olivia (who’s been mostly useless this season) once and for all defeat the vile Captain Widmark and Walter and Peter…….sniff, sniff……say goodbye to each other. The final image of a white tulip harkened back to, arguably, the series best standalone episode, season 2’s “White Tulip” that featured a time-traveling Peter Weller (but more about that below). And if the finale seemed a little slow in parts, well, it wouldn’t be Fringe without some downtime between grab-you moments. Grade for finale: A

And now for the seasons…(from “worst” to best)

5. Season 4…It isn’t that season 4 is bad, it’s just that it featured a timeline reboot that (while admirably ambitious) really just went over the same ground from past seasons. It was the only season that didn’t feel like it was hurtling the series forward, and the decision to bring back David Robert Jones (the great first season villain) never wound up delivering. The first quarter of the season———-before Peter shows up———-feels beyond slow-moving. [And who really gives a shit about Lincoln Lee? This character never felt right mixing it up with the core group.] Although I will say that even the most frustrating season of Fringe is better than any other sci-fi show currently on the air. Best Episode: A tie between the series’s most romantic episode “A Short Story About Love” (episode 15 of season 4) which finally saw Peter and Olivia reconcile, and “Letters of Transit” (episode 19 of season 4) the episode that introduced the dystopian, Observer-ruled world of season 5, an ep that finally felt like forward-movement into something we haven’t seen before. Grade for the season as a whole: B+

4. Season 1…Season 1 had some growing pains early on. And the first half struggled to find its footing as it reveled in too many monster-of-the-week story lines (The Pattern was a cool idea that never really delivered) and not enough mythology. Also, we were asked to care way too much about Olivia’s relationship with Mark Valley’s dead FBI agent (played by, interestingly, Anna Torv’s real life husband…who became her ex-husband after his time on Fringe). Still, by the end of the season, the show was really hitting its stride, and introduced us to an alternate reality plot line that felt a lot juicier. Best Episode: Without question it was the 1st season finale “There’s More Than One of Everything,” (season 1, episode 20). This was the moment Fringe went from a good show struggling to find its footing, into a great show really delivering every week. The final scene (of Olivia meeting William Bell…in the other dimension where the twin towers were still standing) is a classic. Grade for the season: B+

3. Season 2…This season was very, very strong. We began meeting the other-side world, and the show fully set up the mythology between a bitter, revenge-seeking “Walternate” (the Walter on the other side) and our own, goofier version. It was interesting to see how one event can so radically alter the life of someone, and the case-of-the-week plot lines were also stronger than the first season’s. Best Episode: A tie between the most important (mythology wise) episode of the series “Peter” (season 2, episode 16) which finally revealed the backstory of Walter breaking across the universes to save Peter, and accidentally abducting him in the process, and also “White Tulip” (season 2, episode 18) inarguably the most important stand alone episode in the series, as the final shot of even the series finale harkened back to this episode. Grade for the season: A-

2. Season 5…Some fans didn’t like that this final season takes place in an Observer-ruled future that finds the Fringe team fighting a resistance effort against them, but those fans are wrong. It was beyond clever to flip the usual dynamic (the Fringe team working for the government, trying to stop rogue scientists and rebels) on its head and have the Fringe team actually create Fringe events to fight against the Observers. It was also a good way to get the series back in the forward-movement position after a frustrating season 4 that mostly covered old ground. I especially loved Peter’s arc where he inserted the Observer’s chip into his head, and went all Matrix on us. [And got more than a little mad when Olivia forced him to take out the chip before he killed Captain Widmark.] My one real complaint: that the Fringe team was too soft to really wage battle against the Observers, and they often felt more ready for a Lifetime movie than a resistance effort. A lot of their “struggles” (like Peter sacrificing emotion to defeat the Observers, or Walter turning into a sourpuss to defeat them) felt maddeningly small-scale compared to what was at stake. Best Episode: I can’t really call this one, as I loved the episodes that featured Peter becoming an observer, but also thought the season (and series) finale was just about perfect. Grade for the season: A-

1. Season 3…This season is sensational, and easily the best. It starts off with Olivia being trapped on the other side and solving crimes, while “Bolivia” (what they called the other side Olivia at the time) was impersonating the real Olivia and sleeping with Peter. The first third of the season kept splitting the focus between over-there episodes and over-here episodes, which was brilliant. And the whole war between the alternate dimensions climaxed in what might be my favorite Fringe episode ever, the third season finale. Best Episode: You could realistically pick any of a dozen episodes, that’s what makes this season so spectacular. “Subject 13” is important because it tells when Peter very first met Olivia as children, and “The Plateau” (where a killer who can do permutations sets intricate traps to kill people) is a great episode that first showed Olivia something was wrong with her other-side life. But I have to go with “The Day We Died,” (season 3, episode 22) the 3rd season finale that first took Fringe into the future, and introduced a memorable foe in the reality-destroying terrorist Moreau (who should have been the 4th season’s villain instead of bringing back Jones) but he was really working for a very bitter Walternate (the other side Walter gone fully villainous). By the end of the episode, Olivia was dead, and the only way Peter could right that wrong was to change destiny, but doing so at the expense of himself. Grade for the season: A

End Note: So, that’s all there is for Fringe. For any readers who don’t watch the show (which is probably most of you), maybe you’ll find it on DVD or syndication. Needless to say, I would recommend it.