JJ Abrams.Fringe on Hulu, rated TV-14, 2008, Crime / Drama / Sci-Fi. An FBI team investigates cases of science gone awry.
I'm in the middle of Season 1 and am intrigued by the creativity they put into the plot. I'd say the graphic imagery is not for the faint of heart. This series won several awards. I like it.
Fringe is classic. It starts slow - kind of like an X Files knock off. But the characters develop. And so does the plot. We've discussed it on the "TV shows to watch again" thread.
I'd like to tell you my favourite line from the show which comes in the 4th (or 5th) season. By a historian. But that would risk giving away the punchline, so I will not. But it was one of those incredibly satisfying moments in a TV episode, a bit like some of the best Star Trek or Twilight Zone episodes, where you suddenly understand the point that was trying to be made.
The beginning of the series (the plane) is highly reminiscent of a John Varley short story ("Air Raid") which became a novel ("Millennium") and was made into an (apparently quite bad) movie. Varley clearly did quite a bit of research into how the NTSB investigates crashes (see also William Langewische's incomparable magazine pieces on the fate of TWA Flight 800 and the Egyptair crash)
I'd give you a link to the book on FantasticFiction, but the description of the book spills at least one important plot point. Ideally, find a way to read "Air Raid" which has a gut slamming impact.
Michael Crichton also wrote "Airframe" which is a well-regarded novel about the investigation of an airliner crash.
Statistics: Posted by Valuethinker — Sun Feb 15, 2026 4:03 pm — Replies 8462 — Views 1359339