The Bloated Penguin

Trust me, you want to know what they just found.

I hate mid-season finales. They’ve done it with Smallville, They’re doing it with Glee, and last night saw the mid season finale of Fringe. And the kicker is that Jacksonville (the title of last night’s episode) was the best of season 2 so far. Agreed, the second season of Fringe has been a bit slow in terms of the overall arc of the stories set up in the first season, but in defense of the brilliant Rob Orci and Alex Kurtzman, this was needed to gain more fans. Last night’s episode was like a “Thanks for sticking with us, here’s what you’ve been waiting for,” episode.

Without giving too much away, Jacksonville was about Olivia’s powers, the parallel universe and Peter – basically everything devoted Fringe fans have been waiting for. Now, I’m going to make a claim here, and you can argue it if you want. Jacksonville was a better hour of television that the premier of Lost on Tuesday.

NOT IN THE FACE!!!

Maybe it’s because I really like Fringe, or maybe it’s because I get that home-sick feeling when I watch the Vancouver-filmed sci-fi show, but I really do believe that Jacksonville was the best entertainment on television this week – so far considering Absolute Justice is on tonight.

But here’s my beef – Why hasn’t Fringe been picked up for a third season? I just read that Bones has been renewed for two more seasons along with Glee, 24 and Lie to Me. But what about Fringe? If Fox screws this up, I’ll plead to Sy-Fi to pick this up. I’ve already read some comments from Akiva about a third season arc involving Astrid and a possible six season run for the entire show. I can live with that. Really, I can – If Fringe gets to run for the hopeful six seasons, I’ll be content (pending the writing doesn’t get stale).

Please Fox – you’ve screwed me by changing The OC in the passed. You canceled Dollhouse, Firefly and the Sarah Conner Chronicles. You’ve destroyed television with American Idol. But please, for the love of Walter Bishop – renew Fringe!!!!!

Please share in my excitement when I remind you that the season premier of Fringe is a mere 10 days away!!!!

As a HUGE fan of the series and its creator, this is probably one of the most anticipated days of the year for me. The off season provided some big news in that the series would be moving to Vancouver for production so I’m really excited to see how my home town will be featured on one of the best shows on television right now. Couple that with all of the hints the series has been dropping of late and you can bet that Thursday September 17th is going to be a great TV day. When the series left off (and I hope I’m not spoiling it for anyone out there), Olivia just met Dr. Bell played by Spock (Leonard Nemoy) and Peter just found out that he was in fact taken from another dimension. It sounds crazy right now, but Fringe provided viewers with one of the best season finales I’d ever seen. With all of the changes coming to the show, I’m mostly excited to see where JJ Abrams and his crew of writers and creators can take the series in its sophomore season. I’ve done my best to avoid Fringe rumors up to this point so I don’t know a whole lot about what to expect – which is a good thing. Anyways, now you all know what I’ll be doing next Thursday evening.

Check out the season 2 promo that Fox has been airing as well as an interview with JJ Abrams about the upcoming season.