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Fringe: Fandom Overview
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wendelah1, driving the van for small fandoms, which this month is featuring the American television series Fringe. Since this is the first time the show has been featured, the honor and the responsibility of doing the fandom overview has fallen to me. So here it is!
Now in its fourth season, Fringe follows the career of FBI agent Olivia Dunham, who finds herself assigned to a joint federal task force administered by the Office of Homeland Security, known as Fringe Division, which investigates a series of paranormal events, cases known as the Pattern.
Agent Olivia Dunham is played by Anna Torv.
John Noble plays the brilliant scientist Dr. Walter Bishop, whose release from a mental institution Olivia secures in a futile attempt to save her partner and lover, John Scott, from succumbing to a mysterious flesh-eating illness, which is part of the Pattern. To obtain Dr. Bishop's release, she blackmails his estranged son, Peter Bishop, played by Joshua Jackson, forcing him to take guardianship of his father.
Walter and Peter Bishop
Rounding out the stellar cast is Lance Reddick as the head of Fringe Division, Philip Broyles, and Jasika Nicole as Astrid Farnsworth, the junior agent assigned to the new Fringe Science Team.
Phillip Broyles, Senior Agent-in-Charge, head of Fringe Division
Agent Astrid Farnsworth
Like Bad Robot's earlier hit series, Lost, Fringe has a convoluted plotline, a lengthy list of characters, and multiple universes, which in the interest of getting this posted during my lifetime, I have abandoned trying to summarize for you. There is the Blue Universe, which most resembles our own, and an alternative Red Universe, where the World Trade Center is still standing and zeppelins are a form of mass transit. Now, beginning in season four, we have a new time line, known as the Amber!verse, which has some significant differences, including some formerly dead characters who are now back among the living.
There is more than one of everything.
Unsurprisingly, J.J. Abrahms was a huge fan of The X-Files back in the day, and Fringe bears more than a passing resemblance to that seminal series. There is the same combination of stand-alone monsters of the week and episodes related to an over-arching mythology. But unlike The X-Files, there is no real attempt to connect any of the science to reality; this is "fringe science," so the skeptics among us can just relax and enjoy the show. What's most refreshing is, unlike 1013, Abrahms and company seem to have a plan for where they are headed and a memory for where they have come from. Continuity is not a dirty word. Even the MOW episodes seem to tie into the bigger picture.
There are some other important differences. Instead of little green men, Fringe has Observers, who are not supposed to interfere, but just observe. This doesn't always work out as planned. They come from Planet Brooks Brothers and like diner food drenched in hot sauce.
We come in peace and like hats.
Instead of Mulder's basement at the FBI and his slide shows of dead cows, the Fringe Science Division has its own basement laboratory at Harvard and its own very live cow, named Gene.
Gene likes to watch SpongeBob SquarePants.
Most important of all, on Fringe people who work together at the FBI have sex, and not just in fanfiction. It's canon! And they don't have to wait for seven seasons to do it either.
If you are interested in finding out if this show is for you, and why wouldn't you be,![[personal profile]](https://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
newredshoes has written an excellent review, with suggestions for episodes to watch, How to Get Hooked On Fringe in About Ten Hours (the link is posted with her permission). I don't agree with every choice—I can't stand "Brown Betty" and it's not necessary to the series as a whole—but otherwise, she's got it nailed. Heh. She's way smarter than me. She advises new viewers to avoid being spoiled while you're catching up, as it will dilute the emotional impact of the plot trajectory. I happen to agree, which is another good reason not to post a lengthy summary here.
There are some active Fringe communities on LiveJournal, some of general interest and some devoted to interests like fanfiction or graphics, and specific pairings. I'm focusing only on the English language communities.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
fringe_tv is one place to post stories, icons, other fanworks. There are links there to The Fox Network's official site, and various wikis. fringeonfox has graphics and screencaps, announcements, and so on.
fringeverse is a challenge community where you join a team and play games for points.
There iscortexifans for discussion.
ontdfringe puts up two discussion posts for each episode when it airs and spoilers posts, too. I think. I'm a member-lurker of this one; I should know better what they do!
fringefiction is where people post fanfiction. There are some pairing specific communities, including op_ficathon, oliviaandpeter, olivia_astrid, charlie_olivia, even a little used walter_astrid. The newest addition is lincoln_olivia. Why not olivia_lincoln? Or olivia_charlie for that matter? Anyone?
Graphics communities includefringe_lims, the well-named fringe_graphics, fringe20in20, and fringe_epic.
There are many dormant communities, too, includingfringe_rewatch, which I wish would come back to life now that I own the dvds.
Some brave soul is trying again to get a Fringe Big Bang off the ground,fringeficbangs. I hope it succeeds. The fandom is short of long stories.
On Dreamwidth there is the multipurpose![[community profile]](https://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fringetv_at_dw for fic, icons, whatever. But DW is also host to the fringe_kinkmeme. "You just may be familiar with the concept." As kink memes go, it's not hardcore, but I love it to pieces. Go post some prompts and read the fills!
I'm sure there a virtual plethora of fringe-related tumblrs, but since I'm not on tumblr, you'll have to find them on your own. The only one I've stumbled into is![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
cortexiphancaps, which gets the credit for the caps I've posted that aren't from Fox. There is also an active community at TWP, but someone there hates Alt!Olivia so I don't go there anymore. I don't like haters.
If I have inadvertently left off your favorite Fringe hangout, please forgive me and set me straight about it in comments.
I hope this has been worth the wait. I return you now to your regularly scheduled programming.
Peter/Lincoln? Wow. I wish I'd thought of that.
wendelah1, driving the van for small fandoms, which this month is featuring the American television series Fringe. Since this is the first time the show has been featured, the honor and the responsibility of doing the fandom overview has fallen to me. So here it is!
Now in its fourth season, Fringe follows the career of FBI agent Olivia Dunham, who finds herself assigned to a joint federal task force administered by the Office of Homeland Security, known as Fringe Division, which investigates a series of paranormal events, cases known as the Pattern.
Agent Olivia Dunham is played by Anna Torv.
John Noble plays the brilliant scientist Dr. Walter Bishop, whose release from a mental institution Olivia secures in a futile attempt to save her partner and lover, John Scott, from succumbing to a mysterious flesh-eating illness, which is part of the Pattern. To obtain Dr. Bishop's release, she blackmails his estranged son, Peter Bishop, played by Joshua Jackson, forcing him to take guardianship of his father.
Walter and Peter Bishop
Rounding out the stellar cast is Lance Reddick as the head of Fringe Division, Philip Broyles, and Jasika Nicole as Astrid Farnsworth, the junior agent assigned to the new Fringe Science Team.
Phillip Broyles, Senior Agent-in-Charge, head of Fringe Division
Agent Astrid Farnsworth
Like Bad Robot's earlier hit series, Lost, Fringe has a convoluted plotline, a lengthy list of characters, and multiple universes, which in the interest of getting this posted during my lifetime, I have abandoned trying to summarize for you. There is the Blue Universe, which most resembles our own, and an alternative Red Universe, where the World Trade Center is still standing and zeppelins are a form of mass transit. Now, beginning in season four, we have a new time line, known as the Amber!verse, which has some significant differences, including some formerly dead characters who are now back among the living.
There is more than one of everything.
Unsurprisingly, J.J. Abrahms was a huge fan of The X-Files back in the day, and Fringe bears more than a passing resemblance to that seminal series. There is the same combination of stand-alone monsters of the week and episodes related to an over-arching mythology. But unlike The X-Files, there is no real attempt to connect any of the science to reality; this is "fringe science," so the skeptics among us can just relax and enjoy the show. What's most refreshing is, unlike 1013, Abrahms and company seem to have a plan for where they are headed and a memory for where they have come from. Continuity is not a dirty word. Even the MOW episodes seem to tie into the bigger picture.
There are some other important differences. Instead of little green men, Fringe has Observers, who are not supposed to interfere, but just observe. This doesn't always work out as planned. They come from Planet Brooks Brothers and like diner food drenched in hot sauce.
We come in peace and like hats.
Instead of Mulder's basement at the FBI and his slide shows of dead cows, the Fringe Science Division has its own basement laboratory at Harvard and its own very live cow, named Gene.
Gene likes to watch SpongeBob SquarePants.
Most important of all, on Fringe people who work together at the FBI have sex, and not just in fanfiction. It's canon! And they don't have to wait for seven seasons to do it either.
If you are interested in finding out if this show is for you, and why wouldn't you be,
newredshoes has written an excellent review, with suggestions for episodes to watch, How to Get Hooked On Fringe in About Ten Hours (the link is posted with her permission). I don't agree with every choice—I can't stand "Brown Betty" and it's not necessary to the series as a whole—but otherwise, she's got it nailed. Heh. She's way smarter than me. She advises new viewers to avoid being spoiled while you're catching up, as it will dilute the emotional impact of the plot trajectory. I happen to agree, which is another good reason not to post a lengthy summary here.There are some active Fringe communities on LiveJournal, some of general interest and some devoted to interests like fanfiction or graphics, and specific pairings. I'm focusing only on the English language communities.
fringe_tv is one place to post stories, icons, other fanworks. There are links there to The Fox Network's official site, and various wikis. fringeonfox has graphics and screencaps, announcements, and so on.fringeverse is a challenge community where you join a team and play games for points. There is
cortexifans for discussion.ontdfringe puts up two discussion posts for each episode when it airs and spoilers posts, too. I think. I'm a member-lurker of this one; I should know better what they do!fringefiction is where people post fanfiction. There are some pairing specific communities, including op_ficathon, oliviaandpeter, olivia_astrid, charlie_olivia, even a little used walter_astrid. The newest addition is lincoln_olivia. Why not olivia_lincoln? Or olivia_charlie for that matter? Anyone?Graphics communities include
fringe_lims, the well-named fringe_graphics, fringe20in20, and fringe_epic. There are many dormant communities, too, including
fringe_rewatch, which I wish would come back to life now that I own the dvds. Some brave soul is trying again to get a Fringe Big Bang off the ground,
fringeficbangs. I hope it succeeds. The fandom is short of long stories.On Dreamwidth there is the multipurpose
fringetv_at_dw for fic, icons, whatever. But DW is also host to the fringe_kinkmeme. "You just may be familiar with the concept." As kink memes go, it's not hardcore, but I love it to pieces. Go post some prompts and read the fills!I'm sure there a virtual plethora of fringe-related tumblrs, but since I'm not on tumblr, you'll have to find them on your own. The only one I've stumbled into is
If I have inadvertently left off your favorite Fringe hangout, please forgive me and set me straight about it in comments.
I hope this has been worth the wait. I return you now to your regularly scheduled programming.
Peter/Lincoln? Wow. I wish I'd thought of that.
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I love alternative universes so I feel like it only got better in season three.
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But unlike The X-Files, there is no real attempt to connect any of the science to reality; this is "fringe science," so the skeptics among us can just relax and enjoy the show
I made the decision to not try to analyse the science at all and it really helped me enjoy the show!
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I love Dana Scully. She's my favorite character of all time. But when I watch The X-Files, I find myself rooting for science and rational thought and getting mad that she's always made wrong when you know--she's actually right. Vampires don't exist. There should have been a better balance.
I made the decision to not try to analyse the science at all and it really helped me enjoy the show!
Well, yeah, there is no real science, right? It's absurd, pure fantasy, really but it works on that level. The X-Files wanted to have it both ways.
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My work here is done!
I know the observers are supposed to be all mysterious and what-all but they just seem like comic relief to me.