What we'll miss most about Fox's "Fringe"

* Anna Torv's ponytail.
* The gruff professionalism of Agent Broyles.
* The dirigibles of Earth-2.
* Red licorice.
* The creepy, dead-eyed soullessness of the Observers, though we did always appreciate their retro attire and the slow, careful way they put on and took off their fedoras.
* The hubris of Walter Bishop and how his decision to steal his son's double almost destroyed not one, but two, universes.  We're pretty sure that qualifies as an "unintended consequence."
* The feeling of being in an exclusive club of passionate fans.  There was simply no way for someone unfamiliar with the show to drop in and sample an episode or two once the series got rolling, not with parallel universes and time-reboots.  You'd sound like a crazy person just trying to explain all of the twists and turns.  If you watched it, you got it.  You were one of the few.
* The genius of John Noble.  It's a great role and Noble knew it.  Knocked it out of the park time and again.  But Emmy would rather consider the overrated Hugh Laurie every year and that guy who plays Dexter.
* The perky patience of Astrid Farnsworth.
* Those giant floating words.
* The fearsome bad-assery of telekinetic Olivia Dunham.
* Repeated references to the wonder drug cortexiphan.  We'll have to find ways to keep using the word in our everyday life.  Won't be easy.
* Enjoying the thoughtful, literate episode recaps by Entertainment Weekly's Jeff Jensen.
* The whole alternate-universe season (number 3, if you're keeping track) that played so skillfully with the doubling of the series characters.  This is a show that explored every angle of its gimmick premises.
* The white tulip postcard.
* Massive Dynamic.  How scary-sounding does that company sound?  What don't we do?
* The whole concept of amber as a tool not only to stop time-space fractures, but also to facilitate suspended animation.  So clever.  And so visual.
* The villainy of actor Michael Copsa.
* The patience of a major television network that could have easily pulled the plug on this show years ago.  You can see the viewer numbers dwindle season by season, episode by episode.  We'd like to think this is a sign of things to come as audiences become more fragmented and acclaimed-but-low-rated cable shows like "Breaking Bad" and "Justified" change the business model.  But it's probably too soon to tell.
* The weird "glyphs" that closed each act and supposedly spelled a word linked to the episode plot.
* Season 5's gonzo decision to set every single episode in a distant dystopian future run by far-future-invaders.  Audacious.  But then, this was a show remaking itself every season.  Sort of the same way "Lost" did, although we refuse to compare the two because of the disappointing, time-wasting fizzle that was "Lost's" final season.
* The way the show did science fiction the way it's supposed to be done, by using outlandish situations and crazy technology to ask big, weighty questions about what makes us who we are and what it means to be human.
* All those clever variations on the opening title sequence.

 

Entertainment Weekly counts down the show's best 19 episodes.

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