'Fringe' to return for shorter fifth and final season?
Published Wednesday, Feb 22 2012, 12:23pm EST
By Morgan Jeffery
Fringe could be renewed for a fifth and final season, reports suggest.
It is possible that the sci-fi drama will return to Fox for a shorter run, composed of just 15 episodes, according to TVLine.
The current fourth season of Fringe has seen the show struggle in the ratings, with midseason premiere 'Back to Where You've Never Been' pulling in just 2.87m viewers.
Last week's (February 17) installment 'A Better Human Being' rose slightly to 3m.
Series star Joshua Jackson (Peter Bishop) recently hinted that the series could continue "off network" if Fox declines to recommission it.
"I think there's a possibility that if people just watched the show on the day and date, and if the numbers came back, [renewal] is a possibility [on Fox]," he said. "[But] the TV landscape is a different place than it used to be, so [cancellation on Fox] might not be death."
Fringe continues on Fridays at 9/8c on Fox. Sky1 airs the show on Wednesdays at 10pm in the UK.
Read the Digital Spy article here.
The TVLine article Morgan references contains spoilers, and is linked here.
'Fringe' to return for shorter fifth and final season?
By fringeobsessed Email Post 2/22/2012 10:53:00 PM Categories: Fringe, Season 5
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Although I'd love to see Fringe go 10 seasons, this would make me very happy. Fringe for two seasons has always been about worrying about the ratings. Maybe if we know next season is the final season we can all enjoy the final season and not worry about the ratings.
I hope that fringe never ends beacuse it is by far the best show I've ever seen
Filippo; a lover of fringe
If you love Fringe and want to see it renewed for a well deserved 5th Season, please read this:
We have created a Facebook Page dedicated exclusively to Fringe being renewed for a 5th Season. We need all Fringies from across The Globe to unite by 'liking' the page so that we can draw some seriously needed attention to this amazing show and ensure that we get HEARD! That We:THE FANS don't want this genius 4th Season to be the shows last! Fringe is a Television Masterpiece in a league of it's own and there won't be another show like it. The way things stand right now is very uncertain. Our beloved show is definitely needs more time to ensure that the writers can wrap the story up the way they INTENDED to. We stress the word intended because if Season 4 ends up being the shows last, we will NOT see the intended conclusion to this amazing Series. We will get a Season Finale (meaning of course "cliffhanger") that the writers said they won't change or tweak even if they know that that'll be the end of the show. Understandably so. The incredible team of writers behind Fringe and the shows executive producers Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman have stuck to their intended storyline from the start and they obviously can't be expected to come up with a quick fix Series Finale, thus changing not only the intended ending for Season 4 but more importantly compromising their intended conclusion to the Series by re-writing an ending of a Season to serve as an ending to the whole Series. Fringe writers are exceptionally talented and thorough with their form of story telling and have worked incredibly hard at making sure that this story is told in the way that they had always planned to tell it. Our Pages goal is to present "our/the fans' case" to Fox and WB and make them aware that Fringe is loved not only in The US, but World Wide and In All Universes! Fringies Are Everywhere and prove to be among some of the most loyal dedicated fans of all time!
We are just beginning to get the answers and dig deep into the overall storyline of Fringe and we have only 8 episodes left until the pre-planned, already written (without cancellation in mind) ending of Season 4. The writers have said that in the "worst case scenario" the S4 finale can serve as a satisfying Series finale, but that's what they told us about The Season 3 finale too and I can't imagine any Fringie being "satisfied" with last years Season Finale being the Series Finale. Hello??? Where did Peter go??? That certainly wouldn't have been a "satisfying ending" to Fringe in anybodies opinion. It would've driven us crazy for the next 20 years!!! Wondering just why or how Peter disappeared and why the hell NOONE remembers him???!!! I mean, we are 13 episodes past last Seasons ending and we still don't know the answers to those questions. Just imagining that "The Day We Died" was the last episode of Fringe makes me wanna cry and scream at the same time.
What we are saying with our Facebook Page, appropriately titled:
"The Fringies Page: We Want a 5th Season of Fringe"
is that Fringe needs more time, in other words: Season 5. The writers need to be aware that they are writing the final season and they need to be given enough time to conclude the absolutely amazing story that Fringe continues to be. So Please 'like' our page and let's all unite as Fringies and rally for Season 5.
We, the Fringe fans are "The Multiversal Army of Fringies" and the resistance begins with us!
Here's the link for the page:
link
I keep going back and forth with being content with a short 5th season. But I think I would like it to be a full season. I also would like to know ahead of time that this is the last season so I can prepare myself:(
I will settle for a partial, but I rather have a full season as more of our questions will be answered.
I just got a notice in the mail that I'll get to do the Nielsen's tv survey soon, but I wouldn't be surprised if the time frame is when Fringe is on break. oh irony, you s*ck.
My opinion is this: Fringe is a masterpiece of science fiction, differentiated, which must be displayed in its entirety, uncut and abbreviations, which can compromise the whole. If this work is presented in its entirety, the Fox network, all right. If not, Fringe, will certainly have another house producer, to be displayed to give a sense, to finalize the stories so far are being told.
That exclusive contract with Dish doesn't help Fringe's ratings... since those of us who don't subscribe have to wait a really long time before we can see those episodes. Even though I watch it the night it airs, I used to be able to rewatch on Hulu to catch all of those little tidbits in the background I usually miss.
I'd be thrilled with a 15 episode season. Of course, I'd rather have a full season, but 15 episodes is roughly 2/3 of a regular season. Surely that would be enough time to finish the story the way they originally intended? As long as the writers knew at the beginning that they only had 15 episodes left, it seems to me as if they could work within those constraints. They've certainly demonstrated their talent time and time again!
A shortened final season might make Fringe a better show. It would change the show in that more emphasis would be given to mythology themes, and less to the case of the week. If you like that change of emphasis a shortie would be a good thing.
I have mixed feelings. Early in the show (most of S01) the cases of the week were given more emphasis than the mythology because they had to set the tone for the new series, and take the time to slowly develop the characters and their relationships, something the TV series format is great at, and having one case of the week after another was a good backdrop for that. At that early point the myth stuff was just dropped in as hints of something on the horizon. A lot of COTW and a dash of myth was a nice balance then that I enjoyed.
Season 2 had mostly strong COTWs and increasing emphasis on the mythology. The new balance was closer to 50/50 and I enjoyed that too. It was the beginning of return on investment from all the earlier development, something else TV is good at.
The last of S02 and the first half of S03 saw the COTW and myth fully blended together, and for me was the best of all. Even "Northwest Passage", a "pure" COTW, was really what I call a "jack in the box" myth episode, with Walternate suddenly appearing at the end. That kind of story would be gone in a shortened final season. So would a "Brown Betty". There just wouldn't be time for it. I would miss that.
In the last half of S03 and S04 the emphasis wavered between myth and COTW. In some eps they were balanced, and in some the COTW was mostly a metaphor or even a fifth wheel.
So I'm thinking that the case of the week may be an endangered species in a short final season. Maybe they are no longer needed with all the development set. But I would miss strong guest characters and stars, and watching the mains working together to solve a specific case. With a full fifth season we would see more eps like "Northwest Passage" and "Brown Betty". And we would have more time to prepare for hitting the brick wall of no more Fringe at all.
Oh, and there's another thing. Fringe, as previous reports of showrunners, supported plot to about eight or nine seasons. It would make us be now more or less in the middle of the whole story of Fringe. I honestly can not content myself with possible reductions, for presentations, right there, complete with Fringe, a possible fifth season as a final standard, which would be further reduced! If it was ingeniously created a fantastic science fiction story, which was until now, we have been given at least the first half, these wonderful stories, and now, due to numerous factors, simply want to first reduce and then finish with everything! I respectfully disagree, and do not accept that. Sorry, but the show must go on, until its true end. Fringe is too big, to become in the end, an incomplete work.
Anyone know what watching live does to help if you're not a Neilsen's family? Do they keep track somehow in another way? (And if so, what's the point of Neilsen's?
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