A Love Letter to My FRINGE Family
By K. Haley
As the final chapter of our beloved FRINGE is upon us, kicking off with the excellent premiere episode “Transilience Thought Unifier Model-11” and the strong character-driven second installment, “In Absentia”, I am experiencing mixed emotions. One part of me is over the moon that FRINGE is back. While the other part of me is depressed because soon, I will have to bid adieu to characters I’ve grown to love.
Of course, you always feel sad when you lose your favorite television show, so my sadness at losing FRINGE is no surprise. What has come as a surprise to me is that I will miss all of you, my fellow Fringies. A group of terrifically smart, funny and caring people who have made my FRINGE experience so much more rich.
The FRINGE online community has given me a place to hang out, socialize and share ideas. At times, I felt a bit silly because of my obsession with Fringe; after all, I’m a grown woman (over 37 years). Grown women don’t obsess over a TV show, let alone a science fiction one. But then I met you, a group people who shared my passion and obsession for FRINGE. I realized that I wasn’t alone in the world. I had discovered this amazing world where discussing a television show was the point – and the fun of it all.
How did I find this awesome community? I ran across a ‘recap’ of FRINGE on one of my favorite sites, Entertainment Weekly, which spurred me to go deeper. So, I Googled Fringe and to my utter delight, I found what would soon became my neighborhood. I found Serible.com, Fringebloggers.com, Fringetelevision.com and other television and sci-fi oriented sites. Having found these spaces, I began to leave comments that got responses, most of them positive. Encouraged by this recognition, I took to Twitter and found Fringies all over including series executive producer Joel Wyman and series actors Josh Jackson, Jasika Nicole, John Noble and the magnificent editor Ari Margolis.
I have read some incredible and thought-provoking reviews and observations, funny recaps, as well as a few mean-spirited ones during my time as part of this community. Standouts for me include Roco over at Seriable and Fringebloggers, Darko, Aimee Long, Josie Kafka over at Fringetelevision.com and most recently Mary & Louise at popculturenexus.com, as well as Marisa Roffman at givememyremote.com and Doc Jenson at EW.com (Entertainment Weekly’s site). I also listen to podcasts: “The Fringe Podcast” and “Fringe Benefits Inc. (F.B.I.)”.
I know our relationship doesn’t have to end after the 13th episode airs. There are other shows to watch and discuss. I can still check in with Roco to talk about REVOLUTION and PERSON OF INTEREST; and while I really like these shows, I’m not passionate about them. Maybe it’s because they haven’t (at least not yet) produced that sense of shared purpose, the ‘us against the world’ feeling which permeates FRINGE (and XFiles). A purpose that creates strong relationships between the characters (romantic, familial, friendly)—XFiles had Scully and Mulder and FRINGE has Olivia and Peter, Peter and Walter, Walter and Olivia and Walter and Astrid.
As both Wyman (Fringe’s executive producer and showrunner) and Jeff Pickner (former Fringe executive producer and showrunner) have said, ‘FRINGE is really a family drama disguised as science fiction’ and I agree. But the family extends beyond the one we see on television. The Fringe family includes over 3 million of us who come together on a weekly (and sometimes daily) basis to critique, praise and postulate, but most importantly, to share our love for a little television show that came into our lives almost five years ago.
As I come to the end of my FRINGE-watching journey, I’m going to savor every moment with my beloved TV show and most of all, my online community.
Thank you FRINGIES for welcoming me into this awesome family!
FRINGE Fridays Rule!!!!
Meet Cute 