January 18, 2013 marked the day the final episode of Fringe aired. For five years, this, the little sci-fi show that could, as I like to refer to it, was the best thing about television. It was an imaginative drama populated with deeply relatable and likeable characters and inventive, daring, and exciting stories not seen since the days of Mulder and Scully. In fact, some critics of the show have written it off as a mere ‘wannabe’ X-Files. While I have great affection for X-Files, in actuality, Fringe went places they never did. Fringe was groundbreaking.



I remember how excited and intrigued I was with Fringe before it debuted in the fall of 2008. I had seen trailers for it online and on Fox, been sucked into the viral marketing campaign, and fallen in love with JJ Abrams and co. previously when I went through the same cycle in anticipation for the 2008 monster film Cloverfield.

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When it debuted, I sat by the TV, free of all distractions, and took in the 2-hour pilot. And maybe I’m setting myself up to sound like a ‘noob’, like some no-nothing kid who just doesn’t realize how good things used to be (whatever that means), but I had never seen anything like this before in my life, and I was hooked. With every subsequent episode, Fringe outdid itself, managing to always push to boundaries of science fiction television (which hadn’t been pushed in years) and capture my imagination.



What was most fascinating about Fringe was its mythology. Yes, there were many standalone “monster-of-the-week” episodes, but the driving force behind the program was this arc that lasted over the course of many seasons, consistently being expanded upon and grown into a rich plethora of continuity and mystery.



I find it hard to pick a single episode or moment that I could call my favorite. I find it hard to even narrow the list down to a top 5, 10, or even 20. Fringe is very special to me. It is a shining example of what creativity unbound can spawn. During its five-year existence, it has pushed me to become a better author, so that I might also create something even half as extraordinary.



Fringe has ended now. The finale was a satisfying one. It tied up the dangling loose ends of the season and show overall, but, most importantly, completed its characters’ journeys. I, of course, have thought up at least 4 or 5 different directions a sixth season could go, but this is better. Fringe had a definite ending and fully realized its potential, which is something nearly no other program on television can claim to have done. From 2008 to 2013, it was the greatest show on American TV.