Why you should be watching Fringe.

I've complained about the movie Star Trek (2009) as being shallow especially when you look at the pedigree of the Trek TV series. Star Trek should be intelligent science fiction. Well, three of the people behind the movie, director J. J. Abrams, writers Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci created the television series Fringe three years ago. This series is smart and deep whereas Star Trek was shallow.

Tonight's episode "Wallflower" is why you should be watching Fringe. The Fringe team of the FBI must investigate the murders of men who lose all their pigmentation when they die. The force behind it is an invisible man that resembles the cloak you saw in Predator. (1987) It's reminiscent of The X Files. And for good reason. Fringe was inspired by that show.

But the reason why you should watch this show was demonstrated in this episode. Interesting science fiction. Emotional moments. Three dimensional characters. Great acting, especially by John Noble. (Walter) He's a one man acting class. The surprising denouement of this show will leave you with a warm feeling. The only problem with the show is the serial nature of the episode. While the mystery of the episode is resolved, the show ends with a cliff hanger. I know that today's modern television wants to hook you but the difficulties of serial television are that episodes don't end and if the plot arc stinks, it wrecks the separate episodes and maybe the whole series. See Lost. The good thing is that Bob Orci, and Alex Kurtzman didn't work on Lost.

But if you love good science fiction and are looking for it on television, check out Fringe. It's one of the best television series, science fiction or not.