What to watch besides football: Fringe

Thanks to the writer’s strike, Hollywood has been unable to give us new shows or continue existing shows like 24 which provide us with countless hours of entertainment. This paucity of shows really sucks. Instead we’re resigned to Seinfeld reruns or Ultimate Fighting to keep us satisfied during the work week.

But now we have Fringe, Fox’s new show from the producer of Lost, which really kicks a lot of ass. You can watch a rerun of the pilot episode on Sunday night and watch the second episode Tuesday night at 9:00.

Fringe is one of those shows that will appeal to you if you like 24, the X-Files, Terminator 2, or even Lost. In other words, if you have a pulse, you will like this show.

The show is relevant because we’re fighting two wars overseas while the specter of 9/11 still haunts our psyche. The show plays off our fears of terrorism and more insidiously, our fear of big government conspiracies within the military-industrial complex.

Similar to Lost, the show builds up a mystery which needs to be solved in order to understand the actions of the characters. Without ruining anything, the main character stumbles out of bed and learns that a foreign flight has been afflicted with a nasty disease that kills everyone onboard. After doing some detective work, the heroine finds out that the disease has ties to a mega-defense contractor which did ‘Fringe science: during the 80s. "Fringe science" means human experiments for the Department of Defense, telepathy applications in battle, cybernetic limbs for soldiers, and other creepy things you learn about in Terminator Two.

All I can say about that is, “Awesome.”

The premise of the show is that while some forces in government can be good, other forces can be bad when they’re teamed up with big business. Fringe sketches grey lines among the forces of government and it always leaves you thinking about the current state of affairs. Not only does the show present us with a battle between big business and justice, but it also gives us a battle between good and evil within government. And to figure out who is good or who is bad, you have to watch the full season.

(Since the creator of the show is the creator of Lost, you obviously expect a plot-line which keep you guessing: Why is all this stuff going on? Who is really the bad guy? From where does all the evil come from in the end?)

The cast of characters is excellent – it has the Lieutenant from the Wire (the black guy who is awesome), a really hot chick, and a crazy scientist who figures out to read people’s minds. The bad guys are a mega-corporation which is doing some pretty kick-ass research into stuff like cybernetics and plagues. Again, all I can say is “awesome.”

The overarching theme is that technology and science are combining in new ways to push the limits of what we think is possible. And of all this research is being done in the name of "keeping us safe" or "fighting the war on terror." This type of thinking insinuates that machines through science are becoming, or could become, more powerful than man. And this scares the shit of me, just like the corporation in Terminator 2.

(And frankly think about what's going on right now: we have a huge increase in military spending, we're fighting two wars, and these massive companies are doing a lot of work "to keep us safe." The show plays of these types of fears without a doubt)

Ok, obviously I’ve seen Terminator Two a few too many times, and yes, I will admit that’s probably one of my favorite movies of all time. But if you like this type of stuff, you like T1 and T2, and maybe you were a fan of the X-Files…this show is for you.

Watch it!