5 simple reasons to love Fringe
5) Mad science
Melting faces! People with translucent skin! Giant old man-babies! Exploding heads! Imaginary killer butterflies! Computer programs that melt your brain! Giant slugs that suffocate you! Business men transforming into bloodthirsty porcupines! And not only that: there's also transportation, cloning cultivated soldiers, downloading the memories of dead people and synaptic transfer (granting one person access to another person's mind), among many others.
If you've never seen Fringe, you're most likely going "lol, wut" right now. But trust me, somehow the writers make all this outlandish shit seem not crazy. All the incidents I mentioned in the first paragraph are part of this global phenomenon called "The Pattern". The underlying mythology (see below) is what keeps this show interesting and out of the "Victim of the Week" category. Everything is connected, and it's up to the people below to find out who's behind it all.
4) Pretty people
The first one is Pacey, all grown-up Peter. He's pretty awesome. The gorgeous blonde is Olivia Dunham, the main character. The blonde dude is John, Olivia's secret lover who isn't who he pretends to be. The brown haired guy's name is Charlie, Olivia's fellow agent and friend. And the one with the curls is Astrid, the lab assistent. JUST LOOK AT THEM! HOW DO YOU NOT WANT TO WATCH A SHOW WITH PEOPLE LIKE THAT?
3) Mythology
I'm suspecting that Fringe will eventually be more confusing than Lost. If that's not your thing, you can still watch the show for the Weekly Mysteries. If you do dig loads of mythology, get ready. See that bald dude? He's called The Observer, and he's in every episode, just lurking. People on the internet pretty much hold contests to see who catches him first. He's still a mystery and it's unknown why he's present at any occurence of The Pattern. All we know about him really is that he likes tabasco sauce, a lot.
These things are called the Fringe Symbols. They've either been on the show, the internet, or on posters.
The apple has embryos instead of seeds.
The hand has six fingers instead of five.
The smoke forms a woman's face.
The leaf has the symbol for delta in it.
The frog has the uppercase letter phi on it.
The butterfly doesn't have wings, but bones.
In the flower, some petals are dragonfly wings.
The horn has the shape of a Fibonacci spiral and has the number for phi inscribed (1.6180...).
The Seahorse has the Fibonacci spiral on its side. Its tail is also a Fibonacci spiral.
What do they mean? Um, I think the jury's still out on that one...
Another major part of the Fringe mythology are red and green dots and massive (evil?) corporations. Yeah.
2) Walter Bishop
Walter is Peter's father. At first sight, he seems like a nice old man. A little distracted maybe, calling his lab assistent Astrid "Asteroid", and definitely a little more than eccentric, but not harmful. But after a few episodes, you'll realize that this dude? IS INSANE. When the show starts, he has been locked up in a prison for the criminally insane for 17 years. He used to be a brilliant biochemist conducting experiments in Harvard's basement, together with his lab partner William Bell, who coincidentally happens to be the founder of one of the (evil?) mega-corporations on the show. Their groundbreaking research caught the attention of the US government. He headed a bunch of ethically questionable experiments for the government, but after an accident in his lab and accusations of using humans as guinea pigs, he was admitted to a psychiatric institution.
Walter's an important part of the show. His old research is somehow all connected with The Pattern, and that doesn't upset him quite as much as you think it would. He suffers from amnesia, and is generally the most unpredictable person the show.
1) Mr. Papaya
And finally, Mr. Papaya, for he is the friendliest of all fruits! (Seriously, watch Fringe. Mr. Papaya is awesome.)
The only thing I really don't like about Fringe is that it's got NO fandom. Seriously, none. The Television Without Pity boards are pretty much dead and the LiveJournal community (fringe_tv) isn't exactly active. There are several forums dedicating to Fringe's mythology, but in terms of fandom it's definitely no Lost or Battlestar Galactica. BUT! IF ENOUGH PEOPLE WATCH IT, THIS COULD CHANGE. So do yourself and me a favor and start watching bbs!