Fringe Beats the Friday Night Death Slot!

by Amy Yen

Nicely done, Fringe nation! Our little sci-fi show that could has beaten the Friday Night Death Slot into submission & has been picked for a full 22-episode fourth season.

[Pause for collective exhale. Seriously, thank God.]

To the rest of you — and here, I am aware I am speaking to the majority of the American television viewing public — I just want to re-emphasize that you are missing a great show. I might even call it the best drama on TV right now. It certainly has some of the best acting. Its mythology is as richly developed & possibly better executed than even Lost at its best. And most impressively of all, all the parallel universes & doomsday machine shenanigans is just a very clever disguise for what is actually a very simple, very human story.

I know it’s kind of unrealistic to expect anyone to jump on board now…I imagine it might be slightly confusing to tune in to find two parallel universes about to go to war with one another if you don’t have some backstory. Luckily, now that the fourth season has been secured, you have all summer to catch up. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

Also, all those people who won’t stop saying that Fox doesn’t support genre programming? I think you can let that go now. First Terminator gets a full two seasons, then Dollhouse somehow gets a second year, now Fringe is getting a fourth? It really doesn’t get more supportive.

Anyway, time to start getting psyched for the finale (PS: how amazing are those episode titles??) & thinking about wish lists for season 4 (Prime-verse Lincoln Lee joining the Fringe team, more Astrid & of course, another 80′s flashback episode, so we can see the awesome opening sequence again)…

PS: Community, Parks & Recreation AND Fringe all renewed? That’s three of my four top shows on TV right now (#4 is Justified, which is looking good for renewal on FX also). Hooray for the continuation of quality television!