It seems every year we go through a “will they or won’t they?” renewal question regarding the TV show Fringe. Those who have read my previous comments regarding the show know that I generally like the series…sometimes quite a bit. Nonetheless, the show frustrates me at times for various reasons (I thought, for example, the start of this season dragged the whole “Where is Peter” concept a little too much). Further, I’ve noted that the show’s first season bears little resemblance to what/where the series eventually went, a sure fire sign of the networks rushing it to air before it was at least a little more fully thought through (Btw, I expect there to be evolutions of story concepts in all and any series. However, if you look at the Fringe’s evolution, you see things like the Fringe division tasked to “scientific” crimes/terrorism -the whole scientific terrorist angle pretty much disappeared after season one-, where the lead character has her boyfriend’s mind within hers, no hint at all that Walter and Olivia share some history, and Olivia’s sister and sister’s daughter, who were there a while with hints of an abusive ex-husband lurking in the bushes…all of which were eventually discarded).
Anyway, the renewal game has begun again, in public, as noted in this posting on Entertainment Weekly:
http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/01/08/fox-on-fringe-renewal/?hpt=hp_t3
Reading between the lines, it strikes me Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly is starting the process of negotiating for the show’s next season. His statement is pretty simple: Allow us to purchase the show for less money and it will have another season. Don’t and the show is done.
Like many things, we’ll see what happens…