So I know that it seems to be fashionable to crap on JJ Abrams, but I think he’s an amazing writer. My evidence? Fringe. This sci-fi series ran in the late 2000s, and my wife and I absolutely loved it. How much? One of my daughters IS NAMED OLIVIA (and yes, she’s the feisty one who questions everything). This spiritual successor to the 1990s “X-Files” revolves around the Fringe Division, who investigate the bizarre science experiments plaguing the city and the possibility that a second mirror dimension is slowly crashing into ours.
The show’s main trio consists of Agent Olivia Dunham, who is brave, capable and overly brash; Dr Walter Bishop, an addled, brilliant scientist suffering from amnesia, and his son Peter Bishop, a smart, funny engineer who is still dealing with a childhood trauma he doesn’t understand. While there are plenty of fantastic supporting characters (I always loved Astrid, Dr Bishop’s long-suffering lab assistant), and some great “monster of the week” episodes, the main bulk of the plot comes down to these three relationships.
Why? Because Good Writing Matters. Fringe is a show that encompasses time-travelling altered races, transhumanism, and a nefarious plot by a scientific terrorist group bent on literally smashing the walls between alternate dimensions, but these gargantuan, epic plot points are ALWAYS framed within the character development of Olivia, Walter and Peter.
(side note: a textbook-perfect example of this kind of writing in a video game is Fire Emblem: Three Houses, which I only stopped playing after 300+ hours…)
As the show progresses, each character becomes more nuanced, revealing how the wide scale events cause – or have been caused – by their own fears and insecurities. The romance plotline is a beautiful slow-burn that Mulder and Scully would be proud of (to be fair I’m always a sucker for a righteous female lead pairing with a loveable rogue), and the Walter-Peter plotline is a masterclass in itself on how to write a complex Father-Son relationship.
Most importantly, each major plot shift, while grounded in the larger multi-dimensional story, is always driven by character choice, by one of the relationships between the main three; a conflict, a bond, or a revelation. It’s very rare that any event in this series cannot in some way be traced back to the main trio. And because of this we become invested in them. We want to see Olivia, Walter and Peter succeed, and the emotional payoff for their successes and failures is all the sweeter.
If you haven’t already checked this series out, do yourself a favour and grab a copy – then get back to me on who your favorite character was!
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