Fringe: Complete Third Season [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Before I begin, I'd like to state that: no, I can't offer a review of the DVD, but you can expect the usual behind-the-scenes featurettes, commentaries, trivia, and interviews with cast & crew, as were present on the DVDs of the first two seasons.

Like many have already said, this third season of the hit sci-fi drama eclipses both the first and second seasons by a country mile. The producers have wisely taken note of past criticisms, and acted upon them. The standalone episodes always seemed to slow things down in the past. Now they've been restructured, in the vein of 'White Tulip', so that each self-contained episode adds a little something to the mythology and/or the overall narrative. Every episode has a part to play, whilst still allowing people to jump into the show with no prior knowledge whatsoever. It's accessible to newcomers, but rewarding for the long-term addicted Fringey.

Fringe is also a show that remembers its mythology and frequently connects with it, whether through subtle things like little visual cues, or through snippets of dialogue, or the stories themselves. It's great, and it makes you want to rewatch the entire backlog of episodes again, to see what and how much you missed the first time round. The producers have categorically stated that clues for future seasons have been planted as far back as the first few episodes, so you can understand how some become obsessed with discovering said hints.

It's hard to really pick out any 'bad' episodes from the third season. Certainly some were slower than others, but gladly the majority have been Fringe at its usual best. A few of my own favourites include 'Lysergic Acid Diethylamide', 'Entrada', 'The Firefly' (nice reference there), 'Olivia', and 'Subject 13', but, like any fan will tell you, it's hard to pick one definitive favourite or one genuinely 'bad' episode.

Onto the show itself: well, what can I say that hasn't already been said? It's intelligent, witty, freaky, twisted, and exciting. 'Fringe', among others, represents a revival of great, modern science-fiction, and shows just how popular this much-maligned genre can be when handled correctly and delicately. It's a shame, then, that this show does indeed live up to its name when it comes to ratings. To say it has millions of fans is an understatement, but it's a show that doesn't get nearly enough recognition, and for a long time its fourth-series-renewal/cancellation was up in the air. There are still concerns over whether it will survive to a fifth season, as Fox tends to have a habit of ruthlessly cancelling fans' favourites.

It isn't often that a TV show can keep me constantly entertained, thinking, amused, baffled and intrigued from one week to another. With each episode Fringe alters your expectations and delivers on them, whilst opening up whole new avenues of thought and raising dozens of questions to keep you hooked. I used the term 'mind-blowing' in the title of this review because it is exactly that - it's a show that forces you to think and to use your head, and shows that do this are not something that are in great supply at the moment. I also use the term 'mind-blowing' because Fringe regularly flips what you know upside-down and shows you things from different angles, and this is part of why the show works so well. It keeps things interesting, and fresh, but above all it means Fringe is always unpredictable. That's part of the fun.

Updated 09/05/11: With the finale just aired, all I can say is that this third season of Fringe is some of the most phenomenal TV I've ever seen. It takes ideas from the first two seasons, and explores them with more depth and precision, often ending up in some dark and twisted places, not enough to make you uncomfortable but just enough to thrill and excite.
I'm not going to actually talk about the finale, because that would be giving away a heck of a lot, but it might make you see the show in a different light, and it may prove to be very divisive if the writers cannot adequately explain it away next season. They've certainly got their work cut out. It's bold, brave, wildly entertaining, and it's guaranteed to make you want Season 4 as soon as you've seen it.

If you're a fan, you're already going to buy this. If you aren't, I hope I've sparked your interest. Thank you for your time, and we'll see you on the Other Side ;)

Although the third season of "Fringe" had some weak episodes the show, on the whole, was even more challenging than the first two; the series brought the two universes of "Fringe" closer together than ever before.

SPOILERS:
When we last left Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv)she was trapped in the OTHER universe replaced in our universe by Fauxlivia (Anna Torv)with Peter(Joshua Jackson), Walter (John Noble) and Astrid (Jasika Nichole) completely clueless that they were being manipulated as part of Walternate's plan to eliminate US.

Walternate has Olivia infused with something that makes her believe she is Fauxlivia so she'll agree to a series of dangerous experiments while Fauxilivia tries to prevent the Fringe team from discovering what Walternate's ultimate goal is.

END OF SPOILERS:

The third season of "Fringe" looks exceptionally good on Blu-ray with a crisp, sharp looking presentation. Skin tones and textures look quite nice without the overuse of digital noise reduction.

Keep in mind that the episode "Subject 13" looks deliberately soft (they used the effect to soften the wrinkles on actor John Noble since this episode takes place in 1985)but, on the whole, the episodes look sharp and exceptionally good.

Audio is exceptional as well with a nice DTS HD Master Audio mix that's very active during action sequences.

The special features are exceptionally good--we get audio commentary on "The Plateau" (disc one), "OS" where we get a commentary in "Maximum Episode Mode", i.e., a pop up visual commentary allowing us to experience the genesis of the story as it unfolded in the writer's room and through production and a conventional audio commentary on disc 4's episode "Lysergic Acid Diethyalmide" (the episode that's partially animated).

We get a featurette on the production of "Lysergic Acid Diethylamide" where we discover for example that the original thought was to animate the episode like "Yellow Submarine" (they instead went for a "Johnny Quest" style animation using, of course, computer animation). One featurette has an amazingly long title--"Duality of Worlds: The Psychology of Duality, The Other You, Visualizing an Alternate World and A Machine of Destiny" (wow). "Constructing an Extra-Sensory Soundscape" takes you behind-the-scenes into the creation of the sound effects. "Secrets of Fringe: The First People" features consulting producers Jeff Pinker and J.H. Wyman discussing these mysterious people who created the machine. They don't exactly let loose with any spoilers.

Finally we get a gag reel for the season as well as network promos.

The third season continues to advance the series story arc in unexpected directions. Recommended.

The Third Season of Fringe, sees it firmly establish itself as much more than X-Files lite, the first two seasons were some of the best shows on television, with great standalone stories and a coherent overall story arc, that you actually get answers too.

The actors are great, especially John Noble as Walter but all the other actors have great chemistry and their individual stories have developed nicely over the seasons.

The third season sees the show transferring from one perspective to another (I will not say anything more specific as I don't want to give anything away) and at first I thought this change of perspective would annoy me but in the end, if anything I preferred the storyline I thought would become the most annoying and I liked these characters as much as the main ones and this is confirmation of how well this show is written.

Fringe is smart, fun and really worth watching, also look out for a fun and inventive cameo from a certain Star Trek veteran and an amazingly WTF moment in the finale, brilliant and brave writing.