Okay, so this post is long overdue as Fringe is nearing its final season to close out the series that has mostly stayed in the bubble and fought tooth and nail to stay alive for the better part of its run.

I’ve always meant to watch the series since the first season but it always got away from me. Either its television airing is conflicting with my personal schedule or I miss an episode or two, but I’ve never really focused on the series as I have now that I have most of the entire four seasons on my TBW pile. I’m currently finishing up the second season and boy, this show is awesome and I’m completely hooked.

Its kind of sad that the studio execs have deemed this show too expensive to produce for the benefit of only a core audience that has stood behind the show and lobbied every season to get a fresh one. But for me, there are loads of reasons why the show is totally worth it.

1. The air of infinite possibility. It is based on science, fringe or pseudo science that is and despite the fact that it is fiction, the writers and creators of the show thought long and hard and researched every episode so that viewers will really think about the possibibilities well after the show is over. It attempts to explain the unexplainable and dares go to the deep end with science at the front and center.

2. The Whodunit angle with theFeds trying to figure out each event of the pattern with every case, seeming to form a major jugsaw puzzle that will lead to the great reveal. The air of suspense is heavy with every episode and once viewers get past the gruesome cause of deaths, its amazing.

3. Leonard Nimoy. Throughout the first season, they made plenty of mention of Dr. Walter Bishop’s friend Dr. William Bell and one would think that all the suspense must lead to something. When it was revealed that the infamous William Bell was played by Mr. Spock himself, I was beside myself and it was like: DR. SPOCK IS BELLY! DR. SPOCK IS BELLY! I mean, who names their major character Belly anyway?

4. Okay, now that I have sufficiently calmed down, one of my favorite elements of the show is Peter Bishop and they could’nt have gotten a better actor to play him. Joshua Jackson is perfect for the part of a wisecracking genius in denial who takes every weird event that they encounter in stride. I love how he takes care of his father and the way he holds back his emotions and his relief each time they get out of an incident alive. I loved Josh as Pacey Witter in Dawson’s Creek and I still love him now as Peter Bishop.

5. At the other end of the coin, I am totally in awe of John Noble as Walter Bishop, and the way his character changes from a scientific genius who loses parts of his brain tissue to protect the secret of opening the door to a parallel universe, an earnest father who wants to protect his son while keeping a deep dark secret, and a man obsessed with cutting up corpses to unravel the mysteries behind their uncanny deaths and eating while doing it.

6. The Gore. Of course, how better to illustrate the unexplainable than by gory death, deformities and aberrations. This show means business and serves up corpses by the bucket. I would understand why some would shy away from it.

There are plenty of other things that I like about the series and frankly, it strikes me as weird why a show this good would have to fight each year to stay on. Perhaps, the science gets too deep or too weird that regular folks lose interest and only the hard core sci fi geeks stay on board? Maybe. But one has to admit that Fringe has a bit of something for everybody. It has great family drama between Walter and Peter, it has a love story between Peter and Olivia, it has action (car chases, shooting) and the mystery angle, it has Sci Fi icons in major roles, and the science and how they piece together the story to form a whole, is absolutely mind blowing (not Fringe style. hopefully).

While I wish that the show could stay on longer, the suits have spoken and decreed that the fifth season will be the final one. I’m glad that the team would still get a chance to close out their stories with a bang, and hopefully more people will support intelligent and well crafted shows like this one. There have been too many good shows that got canned because of poor ratings and its just a shame. I will miss Fringe long before the final season is over. I think its just the type of show that would stand the test of time, and would still be cool, 10 to 20 years from now.