Just take another look at Fringe, OK?

Fringe. It's just the X files with a mad professor, right? You gave up, after watching a few episodes in the first series, didn't you?

Well, you'd be a fool and a communist if you had, because it's got a whole lot better since then...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qfjMraEE7o

Youtube won't let me embed it here on the blog, so click and watch, then read below.

I won't even put spoiler alert here, because that was a whole year ago...but that ending to series 1 was mind-blowing, no? Where is Olivia Denham? Did she go back in time? No, because the Obamas are in the White house. But..but..what's she doing in one of the twin towers? Just where the hell is she? The pretty broad hints were there all along. Fringe is really a show about parallel worlds. Not only that, but parallel worlds at war. And all of it was caused by the original mad scientist himself, Walter Bishop.

You wouldn't have thought it from the first half of the first series...because JJ Abrams was messing with you! He did the same with Lost. I gave up after 5 episodes, thinking "this is a bit samey - so they're on a bloody island, so what?", but my in-law's mentioned to me that it got a lot better in the second half of the season (and they were right: I was hooked right up to the end).

He hid Fringe's light under a bushel in exactly the same way. Rotten sod.

The delicious part of Fringe now is comparing the parallel Earths: Earth B has airships, a Grand Hotel in New York built by Gaudi, 9/11 never happened, and JFK was never assassinated. On the other hand, the whole world's falling to pieces thanks to Walter. And Walternate wants to kick his arse.

And so we start season 3, with Olivia imprisoned on Earth B, and her auburn-haired, tattooed alternate (BOlivia) over here, spying on us.

If you're not a fan, you've got a bit of time to catch-up before it starts again on Oct 5th on Sky 1. It's got the makings of a classic.



Oh, and if you like wars between parallel worlds, you love this:

http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Luther-Arkwright-Bryan-Talbot/dp/1593077254

The Adventures of Luther Arkwright. One of the finest comics ever written. but that's another story...