Fringe is a series that didn’t get much of a chance on Channel 9 in Australia before it wandered on to parts unknown. This isn’t entirely surprising, because the first few episodes of Fringe aren’t really very good. They feel slow, which is a cardinal sin of ad-interrupted programming. (When you notice it when watching without ads, it is worse!)

It takes until episode 7 (“In which we meet Mr Jones”) for the series to really get underway, and then we get the usual run of arc and non-arc episodes, with more arc episodes later on. The well-cast Jared Harris as “Mr Jones” really nails the primary antagonist of the first series.

The strength – and weakness – of the show comes from its overarching mythology and plot, though. It’s a great premise that slowly gets unfolded in the second half of the season. Thanks to our favourite mad scientist’s fractured memory, some of the revelations are truly surprising, although flagged earlier on. The final episode of season 1 has got some truly remarkable revelations.

Unfortunately, all of this makes it very much not a show for the casual viewer, and probably much, much less a show for the non sci-fi fan. It’d make a great RPG; and a great series of novels. It makes a great TV show, but I’m dreadfully afraid that we won’t see its conclusion, as the second series has been hit in the ratings. It’s currently attracting about 6 million viewers in the US compared to 9-10 million last season. Of course, a lot of that has to do with Fox deciding to move it to Thursday night where there is a lot of competition.

I’m very glad that my favourite show, Doctor Who, sits with the BBC and is greatly loved in England. At least that show should survive for the foreseeable future.

(Just for Nathaniel: visit this site for the cast list of A Game of Thrones with photos.)