User reviews

Fringe was such a solid sci-fi series that was ahead of its time. It is clearly underrated as it's turned into a cult classic since it went off the air. I recently started rewatching it and didn't realize just how good it was when it was originally on. I'm not saying it's among my favorite sci-fi series ever but I understand it when I see other people say it's among theirs. Every episode is exciting and keeps the story moving forward. There will be times where you might be confused but don't worry because it will work itself out. You can tell these writers didn't just write season to season like most do. They had an end plan and had an answer for every mystery they brought up. Fringe is a must watch for any sci-fi fan.

Fringe is one of the better sci-fi series that I've ever seen. I'm a huge fan of this genre and have a lot of favorites so to say this is one of them is a huge compliment from someone that's seen a lot of them. It's about FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) as she's assigned to the bureau's Fringe Division, which investigates unusual crimes and occurrences. Assisting her is scientist Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble), his son Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) and FBI Junior Agent Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole). They go on to discover connections to their own past and to a parallel universe. Fringe is always entertaining and never boring. That's the most you can ask from a good series. I can't recommend this show enough.

Watched the show as it came out, and have fond memories.

Watched the trailer with my teenagers, to see if we wanted to watch it as a family - Worst Trailer Ever!! I wouldn't watch the show after watching the trailer.

Trailer is more like a music video than a TV trailer.

Watch the first 4 minutes of the first episode, or better yet watch the whole first episode and know they are going to solve similar mysteries. Enjoy the show.

------repeat----- Watched the show as it came out, and have fond memories.

Watched the trailer with my teenagers, to see if we wanted to watch it as a family - Worst Trailer Ever!! I wouldn't watch the show after watching the trailer.

Trailer is more like a music video than a TV trailer.

Watch the first 4 minutes of the first episode, or better yet watch the whole first episode and know they are going to solve similar mysteries. Enjoy the show.

There's an abundance of great writing, incredible performances and excellent execution on this show, but John Noble (playing the (to put it mildly) eccentric scientist Walter Bishop) steals every scene he's in. His performance is one for the ages, and it's up there with Christopher Lloyd's Dr. Emmett Brown and Terry O'Quinn's John Locke. A pure joy!

I Saw this on TV when it first aired. Must have been at least 15 years ago. Loved it, like I loved all Canadian Scifi in that time period but would only have rated it 7 stars. Now I have watched some episods every day and I'm into half the third season. Unlike a lot of "older" tv-shows this one still hold its ground and it keeps getting better for every new season. Unlike my 15 years younger self I actually love Anna Torvs acting. She is great. (I used to think she was stiff, but she was just before her time haha). What hasn't changed is the superb acting of John Noble who play doctor Bishop!!. Joshua Jackson (Bishop Jr) & Jasika Nicole (Astrid) are also solid actors. The plot is very thought trough and the episodes are (mostly) stand alone but with a thick red line going through everything. If u committed, that Red line will give you a fantastic insight in the shows character, so for your own good.. Watch the entire show within a few months... Then it will be a ten star experience!

I cannot understand why this is not in the top 100 of IMDB series. It's a stunning series from beginning to (magnificent) end. Great acting and great direction. JJ Abrams at his very best. John Noble is a revelation. The series feels as though each series has a direction, building to a totally plausible and hugely uplifting ending. If you love sci-fi, you'll love this.

FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) is forced to work with unstable scientist Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble). She recruits his estranged son Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) to help understand him. Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole) is a junior FBI agent. As the strange cases are investigated, they may be connected to a global company called Massive Dynamic run by Nina Sharp (Blair Brown).

This is yet another JJ Abrams TV show. It is starting to become like opening another Starbucks. This starts like a copy of the X-files. Slowly the X-files retread story lines morphed into an incredible multi-verse, apocalyptic, time traveling story-web. I'm glad that they were able to stay on the air for 5 seasons to fully flesh out the story.

I was hooked when this show was active, and started watching Season 1 again a few days ago.

It is far superior to most of the sci fi we're tortured with, today.

Just sci fi, no distractions. Season 5 brings it all home, even bringing in items from the previous four seasons to be used as weapons!

EDIT/ADDED: =====================>>>>>>

I just finished a marathon watch of all five seasons, and considering that this series ended a mere 5,6 years ago, I am in awe at it's ahead-of-its-time brilliance, and in shock to realise how absolutely awful most current sci fi series have become in comparison!

Today, social agendas, special interest group pandering, and identity politics are the central focus of plots, driving towards the proverbial ex cathedra morality chastising of the audience, and a big group hug for the cherry.

Fringe is just sci fi, timeless and I'll be re-watching every five or six years.

The only other "10" rating I've ever given here at IMDb is "The Expanse".

I'm about a decade or more late into watching the show. This show has everything you could need, comedy, sorrow, action and ideas that are just extraordinary I don't think I've watched an episode yet that I truly disliked. The cast works so well with each other and their personalities are so different and defined that I'm so grateful that I stumbled across this true gem of a show it's unfortunate that there aren't more of these types of shows out there anymore. Admittedly I had a hard time when we went to the alternate universe at first but then even that started growing on me I'm very grateful to this show for giving me hours of entertainment.

Incomprehensibly negative reviews here: what heights of TV brilliance were all these disappointed people expecting? Seriously, this is just 'mad science' packaged beautifully for mid-evening TV (after work, brain no longer required), and it does, I think, exactly what it says on the tin. I understand that creator J J Abrams was behind "Alias" and "Lost". OK, yes, pretty good. But...er...the soaring expectations were based on what, exactly? (And no, I'm not counting his wonderful "Star Trek" - different medium, different ball game.)

The formula is familiar to us all from countless scientific exploration/forensic/detective shows, so to me there was no great leap to understand the setup, and definitely no questioning of it. It's not deep – add one part crime detection, two parts quirky "work family", one part dysfunctional father-son relationship, and four parts pseudo-science, conspiracy government plot science. Do we actually mind that it's "X Files" for a new generation? Or that the detecting conclusions leapt to through impossible scientific bounds are tenuous in the extreme? Who cares?! Does it actually need to make sense if it's addictive and well made?

I don't spend my mid-evening TV time worrying about continuity and logic, especially not for shows like this which make throwing logic out of the window sort of a point of honour. Provided - as in this case - it loosely ties together, the characters are not cardboard cut-outs and have interesting inter-relationships, and it looks pretty good and keeps the low-IQ part (of course it's only a part!) of my brain entertained, I pretty much got what I came for. I like Agent Olivia's fearless stares; I like Peter Bishop's murky past (a little at odds with his boyish face under the beard); I like the supporting cast, especially Broyles (forever Lt. Daniels in my mind!) and, crowning glory, I adore Dr Walter Bishop, bless his delightfully unhinged self-medicating cotton socks. I love it. And now despise me if you dare.

I had hopes for this show. I watched about 6 or 7 episodes so far, the rest are Tivoed and I'll probably catch up with them. I love the intro's, and the concepts are very cool, but how they deal with them are so lame it is amazing. For instance, the "Frankenstein" doctor, ALWAYS has the answer, he always gives it about 40 minutes in, and it ALWAYS has to do with either some project he worked on 20 years ago- and someone he worked with taking it over. This is bad enough, but he always pulls all the answers out of his butt, and it makes for lousy television. The only reason for the 2 stars is that his character IS funny, and the laughs he brings are one of the only things in the show to make me smile. The actress just seems off. I don't think she's necessarily bad, but just not good for this show.

I love Lost, and although it took about 8 episodes of Alias to get good, that show turned good. I am looking forward to this show turning around, and getting a bit less predictable. You damn sure couldn't get more predictable.

I started watching the show just when the first season was heading towards its end, and frankly I was taken aback. It was the perfect show for me, a heavenly combination of drama, action, thrills, science, fiction and characters that you can so easily relate to. You don't even notice how fond you grow of them. I've stuck with the show until the very end, and yes, there are some twists here and there that could've been dealt differently but the show ha maintained it's quality. It's not easy to watch and it's definitely not that easy to keep track of all the cases or events that come to happening but the complex nature of the show is very unique. And in a way beautiful.

VERY LIGHT SPOILERS BUT NOT REALLY. I love sci-fi, time travel and great characters. A coworker suggested that I watch this, she bought the DVD set just in case it doesn't stream anymore an now that I've finished it, i understand why. I've already watched it twice and I long for the characters. They came to be like family. When first starting the show I was put off by the body horror, but that calms down and the storyline just is so lush and flowing with mind bending plots. I LOVE FRINGE! Im 12 years late but it's never to late to start this show. If you haven't seen it, you are truly missing out.

I was rewatching Fringe and I really loved watching it again. Very much so.

Despite some sins, such as the emotional fragility in the interpretation of Joshua Jackson and Anna Torv, in scenes where emotion was mandatory, especially on Torv's part. His mannerisms, even his gait, were also quite uncomfortable. This later improved a little, but in the 5th season the coldness and apparent disinterest appeared in full force. Still, overall, the level of the plot, very well stitched, the safe direction, with few holes, and, mainly, the prodigious interpretation of John Noble, simply magnificent, Lance Reddick and Blair Brown, kept the series always balanced and a high level of interest.

Another point of great interest for me, I don't deny it, was the father-son relationship with Noble and Jackson, especially thanks to the emotional charge offered by Noble's talent. This moved me at times, reminding me a lot of my own relationship with my son.

In the end, I thought the show was very good. Lots of interesting, if superficial, scientific information and reminiscent of The X-Files, but without the incredible charisma and chemistry of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson.

Too bad it only lasted 5 seasons. Good SciFi series are rare. This one really won me over.

I appreciate JJ Abrams inventive and character development type shows. This I think is one of his best works. It is absolutely marvelous and I have watched this series at least three times through and continue to watch it because it is absolutely sci-fi at it's best.

John Noble Is a genius and Anna Torv is marvelous. These are two of my favorite characters in television. Definitely worth multiple watches.

What is amazing is the fact that they continue to push the boundaries of science and make it believable. Also to get Leonard Nimoy to join the cast is absolutely amazing. There are very few sci-fi shows that truly depict science that could actually happen and yet this show makes it believable with characters that you come to know and Love because their development is complete.

I would recommend this to anybody who truly enjoys science and also sci-fi.

Been watching the reviews for the show for some time now and I have to say that most people are confused. Confused on how a series is reviewed. When we speak about a sitcom comedy, by just watching one or two episodes it is fairly easy to judge the quality. But when trying to analyze a series like X-Files, Lost, Fringe and so many other, one has to watch the whole bunch of arc episodes in order to have an objective opinion. yes the science portrayed every week may be a little too much but... X-Files (which I also loved) was about aliens.... So....we believe in aliens but cannot comprehend that there may be science beyond our imagination???? As for the characters, and especially for Anna Torv.......her acting (the way see looks in the first episodes - like cold and aloof) it's just the way things should be in the beginning......then she is a cold-hearted FBI agent and that is what she shows us.......everyone who cared enough to watch all the episodes till now will see how she has changed as a character (and how well acted that character is by Anna Torv - I had never seen her before). Most of the reviews here are based on the first 3 or 4 episodes.....well.....it's a whole story that has to be said.....go through the first season and see then what your reactions will be... Yet the series is not without problems, but it will get better and better. Most of the arc episodes are thrilling and most of the rest episodes are full of mad science (got to love it). The production values are sky-high...

So always keep in mind what you're judging and give it the appropriate time...

This series should be watched for 2 reasons: 1st, It has pretty good story, episodes are like in Outer Limits (1995-2002), most episodes (S1-4) have very open endings.

2nd and the main reason: for the exceptional John Nobles performances.

All actors/actresses in this show are very good.

The show has X-Files and Outer Limits vibe, yet it is very much different.

The true star of this show IMO, is the great John Noble.

Without him, this show most definitely would not be this great !

There is no LGBT crap or same sex interactions like nowadays !

Also this show has one of the best Pilot episodes, no useless chatter or origin story !

I had started watching Fringe when it aired in my country, and at first, I didn't really find it particularly interesting. However, I decided to persevere with it, and I'm very glad I did. This show is not perfect, but it's definitely not as bad as all these reviews tend to make out. With each episode (so far), I find myself more deeply immersed in the plot, more involved with the characters, and I can't wait until the next one airs. A lot of these other reviews say it's worse than 'Lost' - which isn't true. I tried watching Lost, for the entire first season, but I found myself completely bored, with no real plot line to follow. The opposite is true with Fringe. Each episode has two plots - One, the overall plot of the series, and two, the plot of the individual episode, such as the investigation. This is common practice, but Fringe makes it.. fresher.

All in all, don't make any decisions on whether to watch this or not based off reviews on here. There's a lot of controversy - some hate it, some love it - just watch it for a while and judge it for yourself. I personally don't like the first 10 or so episodes, so I recommend you at least for a bit after that. They honestly do get better. 9/10