How to Watch Fringe Online
If you're looking for a smart sci-fi series that you won't want to miss, fringe should be your next pick. It's also a show that you may need to binge-watch to fully appreciate.
Fringe takes the crime procedural format and combines it with science fiction, pseudo-mythological and fantasy elements. It follows FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), mad scientist Walter Bishop and his son Peter as they investigate cases of so-called "Fringe" science - events that can't be explained by typical scientific methods.
1. Start with The Arrival
Fringe – created by J.J. Abrams, the same guy who brought us Lost – is a sci-fi mystery that mixes high-concept sci-fi concepts with popcorn drama and familiar TV tropes to create a series that never feels too impossibly complex for regular viewers. Featuring an exceptional cast and a cult following, Fringe is one of the most intriguing shows ever to air on television.
It’s based on the fictional Fringe division of the FBI, a specialized investigative unit that deals with cases involving unexplained phenomena. In this case, that means a whole lot of shapeshifters and parallel universes. But there’s also a lot of awe-inspiring technology, and some scheming antagonistic forces.
Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Mindhunter star Anna Torv) is tasked with investigating these bizarre crimes alongside her father, Walter Bishop (Lord of the Rings supporting player John Noble), and Peter (Dawson’s Creek alum Joshua Jackson). And when the Fringe team discovers connections to their own past and a mysterious race of beings known as Observers, it’s no wonder this show has become so popular.
To make the most of this show, you’ll want to watch it in chronological order. This will give you a better understanding of the overall story arc and the development of each character’s relationships to one another.
In addition, watching Fringe in this way will allow you to catch those tiny moments of character development that aren’t quite a big deal the first time around but grow more significant on later episodes. This is a huge part of what makes Fringe such an engaging and compelling show, so don’t miss out on any of it!
However, there are many other fantastic episodes that don’t feature the core arc plot. And while you can definitely get away with skipping some of them if you’re not bothered about spoilers, there are a few that we think are worth checking out.
2. Watch Those We’ve Left Behind
If you’re looking for a way to watch fringe without having to watch the whole thing, there are some simple tricks you can use. The show’s serialized nature makes it a bit difficult to watch in one sitting, but if you can commit to watching only a handful of episodes each season, you should have no problem navigating the mythology that drives Fringe.
One of the most underrated parts of the show is how it handles its love story between Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) and Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv). Unlike many science fiction series, which go to great lengths to keep their relationships platonic, Fringe lets viewers root for Peter and Olivia’s relationship with all they have.
As a result, the love story between Peter and Olivia is the closest most sci-fi geeks will ever get to true romance. This is thanks to Joshua Jackson and Anna Torv’s chemistry, as well as the show’s talented writers.
The Fringe mythology is a complex one, and if you’re new to the show, it can be a little overwhelming. But if you’re willing to invest the time and effort, you’ll be rewarded with some of the best science fiction television on TV.
To that end, I’ve created a list of episodes that are good places to start if you’re a newbie to Fringe. These episodes will help you understand the series’s mythology and characters, but they’re also stand-alone stories that can be watched independently of the main arc.
If you’re looking for a more dramatic episode to watch, consider the season 4 episode “And Those We’ve Left Behind.” This is one of the most emotional episodes of Fringe, and it features some very heartwarming moments between Olivia and Peter. It also reintroduces Walter, who has been living a lonely life in his lab, unable to interact with Peter.
3. Forced Perspective
The Fringe team has been doing a great job of crafting episodes this season that are self-contained and easy to follow without becoming convoluted. This is particularly true of this week’s episode, Forced Perspective. The main plot is a strong story all on its own, with some extra goodies tucked away for long-term fans of the series.
It’s also one of the better examples of how to use an old chestnut (precognitive people swimming in guilt over what they can’t do to prevent future events) to bring something fresh and emotional to the table. That’s what makes it so compelling.
When Olivia hears a warning from an Observer (also known as September) that she’ll die, she thinks of her own mortality and the way it has affected her. She decides to keep doing her work despite Broyles’ (Lance Reddick) caution.
Meanwhile, the team tracks down a girl with mysterious powers to see death. When she gives a co-worker her drawing of a man who is about to be killed, the co-worker is found dead in the same way her drawing depicted him. The team quickly determines that the girl’s ability to see death is tied to a genetic disorder.
While I liked this episode, it wasn’t quite as great as the rest of the season so far. It was a little slow, and the death prediction narrative didn’t progress as much as I expected it to.
However, this episode still managed to convey some clues that will eventually lead to the series’ endgame. The episode was written by executive story editor Ethan Gross and directed by David Solomon, who was also the director of last year’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer film.
4. Making Angels
Fringe is one of the most popular shows on Fox, and now it’s available to stream online. The series was a staple of the network’s case-of-the-week format, and its dense mythology made it a favorite for fans of sci-fi.
Seasons 1 through 4 are all available to watch on IMDb TV, HBO Max, Google Play, Vudu, Amazon, and iTunes. You can also rent episodes for a small fee via Google Play or Vudu.
All of Fringe’s episodes connect to other episodes in some way – sometimes in dialogue, themes, objects, or characters, and often in the form of visual references or connections through glyphs (Fringe’s in-episode glyph code). These links can appear on both pages for the episode you’re watching and the pages for the next one you’ll be viewing, so it’s important to keep an eye out for them!
Astrid’s arc plot takes centre stage in Making Angels. It’s a monster of the week story, but the involvement of alternate Astrid trying to solve her issues is fascinating and definitely worth the effort of watching.
Meanwhile, the prime universe’s Fringe team are alerted to a man who died from an aerosol spray that left him with bloody tears and the appearance of the “Tears of Ra”. It’s a bizarre story, and this is a good episode for those who like their stories to be as complex as possible.
There are plenty of other stand-alone Fringe stories to watch as well, but these are some of the best. These are the episodes that have a large amount of focus on a single arc plot, but they also feature great short stories and interesting character relationships.
5. Black Blotter
As a bonus, every Fringe episode has a blackblotter page, containing Easter eggs, production notes, character notes, references, and other interesting stuff that links episodes together in more ways than you may realize. This can include objects, dialogue, themes, characters, plot points, and visual references.
This is a great way to make sure you’re not missing anything important from the show. Just be careful not to read too much into it, since if you’re watching for the first time, these pages can be filled with spoilers.
The Observers are threatening the world, and the Fringe team is working feverishly to find a way to defeat them before it’s too late. Meanwhile, Walter takes an LSD trip to remember his past life.
It’s a brave move for the show to go there, but it does work well as a way to flesh out Walter’s fractured psyche. His hallucinations of Carla and his attempts to destroy the notebook he’s holding are all very powerful, and it’s nice to see him relive events from his past in such a vivid way.
But the most remarkable thing about ’Black Blotter’ is that it really does give us a chance to see Walter as his drug-addled self. He’s spiralling into a delirium, reliving his past as the evil Walter that was and it’s all so visually stunning.
It’s also a great opportunity to see John Noble at his peak, and it really is a pleasure to watch him in the role. There’s also a neat twist in the episode that makes it tie up a big plot thread from the very beginning of Fringe, which is an excellent touch.
