It's interesting, having now re-watched the first season of Fringe, that my opinion of the show has grown in the revisiting. I had always recalled the show's first season, which uses the oft-successful formula of mostly episodic stories peppered with hints at the overall arc plot, to be the show's weakest. If that remains my assessment upon watching subsequent seasons, it must be a fine show indeed.
In fact, I think it's only the first few episodes, where the show wrestles with establishing its characters and tone, that feel weak in that same way.
One thing in particular I remember feeling when watching it originally was that I thought Anna Torv's performance in the first season (maybe first season and a half) was strangely wooden, only to realize later that this was a choice to reflect the conditioning that Olivia did not remember receiving in childhood. By the time I finished the series, I was convinced that Torv is actually a really gifted actor, but I remember that it took a season or two for me to feel that way. Strangely, upon a revisit, I don't actually know why early 20's-Dan felt so critical of her performance. Seems fine to me now.
The show also was the first in which I saw Jared Harris play a brilliantly intelligent recurring villain - an archetype he has played in a number of other shows, The Expanse being the one that comes to mind most.
Knowing the eventual trajectory of the show, I do wonder how much the creators really had mapped out - for example, I know what the Observer is (and I do love the reveal at the end of Inner Child, where what seemed to be a pure standalone episode suddenly links into one of the grander mysteries).
The show's case-of-the-week stories are a bit hit-or-miss, and to be certain, this is not sci-fi for people who know much about science (I didn't study any real science in college, but being the son of a science professor, admittedly one of computer science, I've caught several things that feel very much like the kind of sci-fi a screenwriting major would come up with and not pass it by any kind of scientist consultant).
It's also notable that some of the secondary characters - like Broyles, Astrid, and Charlie - don't get a whole ton of development. I think that's probably a reasonable choice just in terms of giving the show the chance to focus on its core trio (though even Peter feels a little underexposed) though it also feels notable that this means focusing on three white characters.
Actually, I think this might have been the show that first exposed me to Lance Reddick (I also watched the Wire. Fun fact, his characters' last names in these two shows are, together, the name of my oldest friend). Reddick is more or less just tasked with being the classic bald black chief character, but I always like seeing him and am still sad that he died last year.
The show uses a lot of body horror to demonstrate the stakes of its crises, but I find myself most intrigued by plots that are more conceptually unusual than simply gruesome. Luckily, the arc-plots tend more toward that direction, as each of the characters slowly peels back the mysteries of their past, the unknown connection Olivia shares with Walter. Indeed, a really interesting reveal involving the letter Y on a typewriter is then doubly subverted (though I wonder if it'll turn out that my initial interpretation of that twist is actually true - the joys of watching a show you mostly remember but not all of. Weirdly similar to Walter and his relationship with the experiments he was doing in the 70s.)
Anyway, especially during a time when disappearing into a long narrative feels like a necessary break from a frightening reality, it's been really good to come back to this show.
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