Not only is Fringe, one of my favorite dramas on television, coming back for a ratehr unexpected fourth season to FOX this fall, it's doing so with
a new character. Emily Meade, who was most recently on HBO's
The Wire, will play a rookie FBI agent on the sci-fi drama in the show's season finale this May in what will likely be a recurring role.
The big one-two punch of a new possible lead character for
Fringe coupled with the show getting a full fourth season order is surprising.
Fringe has never been much in the way of a ratings blockbuster. It's been shuffled around the schedule by FOX and recently landed in the 8 PM C/T Friday night time slot. That's faily hideous treatment for a well produced drama that seems to be a dying breed on network television.
With police and medical procedurals being the norm, I didn't think that a lowly rated sci-fi drama about strange happenings and an alternate universe much like our own had a chance. With TV viewers far more interested in watching average schmucks be jackasses (
Jersey Shore) and glorified karaoke contests like
American Idol bringing in huge ratings and advertising dollars, I was beginning to doubt whether quality television which requires you to pay attention and think -- opening your mind to things that might possibly be real somewher ein the future -- had a place on the airwaves.
FOX has proven me wrong today. Let's hope that they follow through with the full season (22 episodes) in 2011-2012
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