Score One For Fandom

Fringe Renewed For A Fourth Season!


Coming off of a week full of personal hardships and frustrating distractions, there was one bright spot that shone through all the bullshit and cut a very promising light through the dark. I am talking of course, about the fact that FOX gave an early 4th season renewal (and a full 22 episodes at that) to it's ratings challenged science fiction-cum-horror-batshit-crazy-fantasia, Fringe. Elsewhere on The October Country, we had urged you dear readers, to get your (read: anybody with a television set) heads out of your collective asses and start paying this amazing, challenging show some attention. Did that happen? I'm thinking no. After moving to it's new night and time on Fridays (a move that spelled certain death for the series), it premiered strongly (well, for a Friday night) but as February became March, it's ratings continued to slide deeper into numbers that even the most diehard fan struggled to excuse as acceptable and the writing was seemingly on the wall; Fringe was most certainly a goner. Every Saturday morning at The October Country headquarters was mess of anxiety and apprehension as we reluctantly crawled out of bed and made researching Fringe's numbers from the previous evening our first order of business. At first, we were elated with those numbers. Show runners Jeff Pinker and J.H. Wyman (in addition to FOX president Kevin Reilly) had previously stated that if Fringe retained it's previous Thursday night audience (direly low already) after it's migration, then it would be considered a win for the network, as they would have not seen numbers like that on a Friday in ages. Of course this argument was always dismissed as public relations BS (as was any hopeful notions of the show's renewal) and countered by some "ratings expert" that in no way could this be considered a "win" as Fringe is insanely expensive to produce, and with numbers in that region, FOX would be losing money on this show, not gaining it or even breaking even. Every argument for the show was curtailed by these "experts" in one way or the other. It usually went something like this:

Fan: "But Fringe has a very high DVR audience!"
Expert: "It matters not you silly sod" would come their rebuttal "Advertisers don't care about your DVR numbers."
Fan: "But it sells well on DVD as do all the other profitable merchandise related to it's name."
Expert: "It matters not you fetus. They can milk more money out of you nerdy twits by throwing conventions for the show and hosting cast reunions for years down the line."
Fan: "But it's two years away from being able to be bought up for syndication!"
Expert: "It matters not you nunce, two years is two years too long for your geeky show to stay on the air. Plus it's hard to follow.
Fan: "But it's spring! All shows across the board slip in their ratings this time of year. People want to go outside and watch it later at their convenience."
Expert: "It matters not you titted idiot. Your show sucks and it is still hard to follow." And so on.



However, at first it did retain it's Thursday audience, despite the nay-saying and negativity that it couldn't (hence our elation). Then those ratings begin to slip and we the fans, began to sweat. Then those ratings slipped even further (culminating two weeks ago in it's lowest audience share in it's entire history, though it has since rebounded) and we the fans resorted to outright panic and nail biting and in many cases, delusional outpourings arguing for a continuation of our beloved show. The prospect of waiting until the end of May, to hear that FOX was officially cancelling Fringe (up until last week, a certain foregone conclusion) was more than most of us faithful viewers could bear. Then just a few days ago, the unexpected (understatement of the highest order) happened. FOX surprised everyone but coming out two months ahead of the time they had to deliberate on Fringe's fate and announced that indeed, they were picking it up for another full season. Say what?

I've certainly been too busy counting my blessings to spend an inordinate amount of time sitting around wondering why Fringe experienced this unlikely turn of luck. If I think on it too hard, it boggles my mind into nonsensical oblivion really (like three toke's from Walter's special blend of Brown Betty). Taking into account it's ratings, which 99.9% of the time are the only thing that matters to a network, this shouldn't have been it's fate. This despite the rabid fans. This despite the near-universal critical acclaim. It should have been kapoot. Done. Gone. Finito. Yet, here we are closing in on season 3's conclusion and happily (second understatement of the highest order) anticipating it's 4th. Whatever the reason is that Fringe will be returning to us is the fall, I'm too busy still celebrating to get too caught up in the speculation. But lets not yet put our fears aside and rest. When dealing with a show this dense and complex, we're very likely to be right back here again next year; second guessing it's future and bemoaning the fact that most people would rather watch Jersey Shore than devote 40 minutes of their time to having their brain flexed. But until that time does or does not arrive, I would like to take a moment to thank the writers, the producers, the amazingly talented cast (some of whom have been playing no less than three characters this season) and crew for delivering what has been not only my favorite season yet, full of colliding universes at war, vortexes swallowing American cities whole, inexplicably floating corpses, evil shape-shifters, an awesome shout-out to Twin Peaks' Doctor Lawrence Jacoby (not to mention casting Twin Peak's Joan Chen as Walternate's mistress, kudos), the most moving character development to date and more weirdness than I have the time to detail in this sentence, but for also delivering what has become one of my all time favorite genre serials to grace the small screen, ever. Congrats you guys! For once, it appears as though substance and quality triumphed over the all mighty dollar and rating's shares.



Herein lies FOX's official press release for Fringe's 4th season renewal and Fringe's executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman reactions to said announcement.

FOX RENEWS “FRINGE” FOR FOURTH SEASON – IN BOTH UNIVERSES

FOX has renewed critically acclaimed thrilling drama Fringe for a fourth season, it was announced today by Kevin Reilly, President, Entertainment for FOX Broadcasting Company.

“Fringe has truly hit a creative stride and has distinguished itself as one of television’s most original programs. The series’ ingenious producers, amazingly talented cast and crew, as well as some of the most passionate and loyal fans on the planet, made this fourth-season pickup possible,” said Reilly. “When we moved the show to Fridays, we asked the fans to follow and they did. We’re thrilled to bring it back for another full season and keep it part of the FOX family.”

Fringe co-creator and executive producer J.J. Abrams said, “We could not be happier that the fans of Fringe (and our most excellent partners at FOX) have allowed us to continue telling stories from the fringe for another season!”

“This early pickup comes at a perfect time as we start production on the Season Three finale,” added Fringe showrunners and executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman. “We join the cast and crew in thanking our loyal fans and FOX for allowing us to have this much fun telling stories we love.”

Since moving to Fridays (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) in January, Fringe is averaging a 2.2/7 among Adults 18-49 and has established itself as Friday’s No. 1 series in the core adult demographic.

Created by J.J. Abrams & Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci, Fringe is produced by Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Jeff Pinkner, J.H. Wyman and Joe Chappelle serve as executive producers, while Kurtzman, Orci and Akiva Goldsman are consulting producers. Additionally, Pinkner and Wyman serve as the series’ showrunners. Become a fan of the series on Facebook at www.facebook.com/fringe and follow the series on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fringeonfox (@fringeonfox).

The best bits of Jeff Pinkner's and J.H. Wyman's reactions via The Hollywood Reporter:

The Hollywood Reporter: How surprised were you by the renewal?

Jeff Pinkner: We might be foolish but no, we were not surprised. [Laughs] FOX has been supportive throughout this process, from the beginning and certainly this season, wall-to-wall. They told us they were thrilled with the show creatively, the number wasn’t exactly what they would’ve hoped for but they know the audience is deep and loyal and returns, and that’s valuable to them. The critics have been so supportive and they were up front when they were moving us to Friday night that it wasn’t one step closer to the door, it was actually a, “Hey, if the audience follows us to Friday night, we’re in great shape.” And the audience did.

We started to hear word back and forth between FOX and Warner Bros. What would the show look like next year over the past couple of weeks? So when a literal call came in yesterday, we were thrilled, but not necessarily surprised.

THR: How did the cast react when they were told?

Pinkner: The cast, they were thrilled. Ecstatic.

J.H. Wyman: When you get to this point, so many people have been saying since we moved [from Tuesdays] to Thursdays — the initial move — “That’s the end. That’s it. They’re done. It’s over.” FOX kept saying, “Well wait a minute, we’re trying some stuff out here. We believe in this show.” So every single step along the way, people have been killing the show before it was dead and I think that [the cast] became a little bit immune to those types of things and realized, “OK, we believe in what we’re doing and we’re going to just consistently do the best work we can and the chips will fall where they may.” They’re saying, “I would love to not have to give up these characters, but I’m living for today.” They were very appreciative.

Pinkner: No matter what, you create a role for a moment in time. That moment in time could be 10 years or it could be three episodes or it could be a stage play or a movie that lasts; the character lives on but the role doesn’t. No one was mourning the patient. Everybody had the highest expectation that they were coming back. Yet, the call is still thrilling.

THR: It helps that [Fox entertainment chief] Kevin Reilly is a big supporter of the show …

Pinkner: It’s the Sally Field moment: “They like me!”

Wyman: Kevin has been a supporter and a believer in the program since the get-go. Like Jeff said, they’ve been completely up front and straight the entire time about what their plans are strategically, what they’re trying to do. It’s not an easy place to be in their positions. A lot of fans have supported this program, the press has been so incredibly kind. Without that, who knows? I don’t think that we wouldn’t be here, but the truth is, they did exactly as they said they were going to do and kept us informed the entire way. I’m sure they get tons of phone calls all the time about, “Hey man, you know you did the wrong thing this one time but we believe you did the right thing.” People should call them and say, “Nice job!”

THR: Can you talk about the big DVR numbers that the show gets?

Wyman: Jeff and I both felt at the beginning, when we start to see what was happening on Thursday nights, we realized a lot of people want to watch Fringe, they just don’t want to watch on Thursday nights. We start to talk about conceptually what does Thursday night mean to the viewer. We landed sort of on, well, it’s sort of a romantic comedy night. People are watching Bones and then they’re going over to Grey's [Anatomy]. It’s sort of a heavy pill to sit down and watch a science-fiction show in the middle of that. They were watching, they just told us when they wanted to watch it so we were confident that the fans would follow us to Friday.

The DVRs now, we’re in a weird evolution when it comes to how are we tracking shows and who’s watching them and advertisers, I’m sure they’re also asking, “How do we track this? How do we sell now? What does this look like?” I know for sure that the DVRs were definitely a part of the decision, they would have to be.

THR: Now that the season is wrapping up, what can viewers be expecting leading up to the finale?

Wyman: Consistently, we’ve tried to have a new chapter begin at the end of the seasons. The first season was the Twin Towers and the second season was Olivia over there. This one will have the same effect that, sort of the beginning of a new understanding of the program.

THR: Has there been a plan in place story-wise for Season 4?

Pinkner: We don’t have all the episodes written but we have the framework of a plan for the next series.

THR: Can you tell us anything about what you see happening in Season 4?

Pinkner: [Laughs] We can’t, sorry. We have to let Season 3 finish first.

You can read the full article at THR.

Fringe airs Fridays on FOX AT 9PM.

Fringe - Tune In Or Else

Tonight is the night. The night of course being when arguably televisions greatest genre serial currently on the air, resumes on it's new night and time. That show obviously, is Fringe (whaddya think I was gonna say, Supernatural? Come now.). I'm currently kicking myself that since the inception of The October Country, we haven't utilized more of our space on here to support this amazingly twisty show. It is after all, being marched to Fox's Friday night guillotine, that eerie black hole of a time slot where all of the network's best and brightest of science fiction and horror goes to vanish into oblivion (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Firefly and Dollhouse just to name a few). It needs every fan's support (new and old alike) for tonight is certainly one of the show's last chances to prove it's viability to Fox. An ironic, and certainly hair pulling twist of fate, if tonight's ratings spell it's cancellation, as Fringe has been both a creative and critical juggernaut this (it's third) season. You see, the show has been on a steady ratings decline over the past two years (and it was never a strong performer at that). It's not that it doesn't pull numbers, its does. It's just that apparently, for one reason or another, it's pulls a hefty amount of it's numbers through DVR, which sadly is not something that justifies it's existence to a network's business model. They want live ratings, and that's about it. Eventually, the Nielsens are going to go the way of the dinosaur, this is obvious. They are either going to have to adapt to this new age of media (and how people view it) or become irrelevant. Unfortunately, Fringe is on the verge of becoming a victim to this model of antiquated ratings number crunching before that glorious new dawn reaches us. Though none of this should come as a surprise to anyone who has ever invested their time in fantastic, strange shows like Twin Peaks, Carnivàle or Lost. Certainly I'm not the only one who notices that as their byzantine, weird, surreal plots get more and more bizarre and challenging, the casual and more mainstream viewership begins to fall off, inevitably placing our shows in cancellation's way. It's enough to make you curse having a hankering for heady, high brow genre storytelling all together. However, we thinking folks really should be rewarding these shows who dare to be different, dare to be genuinely great and god forbid, dare to treat their viewership with intelligence, with our time (if we're going to give it to a show at all). Fringe moving to Friday nights is certainly a reason to be worried, it's true that many shows are sent there to perish. Alas all hope is not lost though. Some shows move to Friday nights and against all odds, thrive (X-Files, Ghost Whisperer, Smallville, Supernatural, etc.). Moving it away from Thursday's highly competitive night where it was getting routinely hammered, and onto Fridays, could be just the ticket. If viewers show up.



Now, what of you dear readers who have yet to watch a single episode of Fringe, what's in it for you you ask? Well, I shall tell you. There is the rather involved, rewarding mythology about parallel worlds (ours and theirs) going to war with one another, shape-shifters, unethical drug trials performed on children (turning them into super soldiers of sorts, for the aforementioned war), the mysterious, follicly challenged Observers, naturally, but truly it's not so involved that a new viewer won't be able to penetrate it. A few "previously ons" and number of episodes, and you'll most likely have the gist of the goings on down. Plus, in this day and age of marathoning entire seasons on DVD (with a 2 liter of soda and a box of cookies, you know you do it) or streaming previous episodes online (you know you do that too), there really is no excuse for not catching ones self up if you are even the slightest bit intrigued.



Have I mentioned the horror yet? Oh, the horror. Seriously though, Fringe just isn't all sci-fi (and even when it is, it's bent is usually to present it as terrifying). It's actually, for my money, the most unnerving, disgusting creepy, gross, disturbing, scary show on television (network or otherwise) in ages. Ages I tell you and consistently at that (and I keep up on these things). Though Fringe never strays into the territory of say, standard vampires, werewolves, aliens and ghosts (as the show's basis is rooted in earthly scientific horrors) it does present us with a rogues gallery of similarly monstrous abominations and always with that Fringe twist that will no doubt have you eliciting a "WTF" at your television screen. Fringe's mysteries never start where you think they will and they certainly never end up where you'd expect. Bravo, for keeping us on our toes.



Then there's the cast which I couldn't commend enough for their tirelessly amazing work. Notable among them, John Noble's (for the love of god WHERE is his Emmy?) portrayal as Dr. Walter Bishop, who is certainly going to go down in the annals of television history as one of the most memorable, flat-out-awesome characters ever committed to the small screen. Bishop's tripping (literally, on varying cocktails of psychedelic drugs and a personally developed hybrid of cannibis), unbalanced, ex-mental patient / mad genius is a an entertainment unto itself. Prone to ill timed erections, pudding pops, and baking his cookies alongside samples of human flesh, there is certainly never a dull moment when he is on screen. Joshua Jackson finally appears to have shaken of the shackles of his teen dream image that has haunted him for the better part of a decade, portraying Dr. Bishop's troubled yet dependable son, Peter. Coming into his own on Fringe, I can't help but think "Pacey who?". Anna Torv is our emotionally guarded, no nonsense FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham whom anchors all of this madness, as her horrifying journey becomes ours. She also slightly resembles Cate Blanchett, and honestly, I could gaze upon Cate Blanchett or anyone approximating her likeness for days, so that's enough for me dear readers. Lance Reddick, Jasika Nicole and Blair Brown (of Altered States fame, which also served as inspiration for Fringe's Cronenbergian terrors) round out the cast, respectively.

So seriously, what are all of you horror fans waiting for (not to mention fans of smartly written storytelling, regardless of genre)? Don't let Fringe become another show that finally finds it's audience years down the line after a unnecessary cancellation, only to have it's posthumous new fans cry "Why? Whyyyyyyy was this show put out to pasture?". The answer, because you weren't watching it. The time is now. Television's currently greatest hour of horror needs your attention, viewership, and help tonight. Tune in.

Fringe airs tonight on Fox at 9pm.


If you still need sold on it, I present here two trailers for you to feast your eyes and imagination upon. The first trailer is an official promo for Fringe's move to it's new time slot, which is tonight. The second trailer, is fan made, and incredibly SPOILERISH. However, it is excellently done, showcasing some of the plot twists from the show's current season, so be warned. However, if it's enough to get you to tune in this evening, I say watch it.

Promo for Fringe's move to Fridays:


Fan made trailer: