Fringe teaser steps ominously ahead

Fox has posted a teaser trailer for the upcoming fifth and final season of Fringe.

It was a strange bit of storytelling when Fringe showed us a seemingly disconnected flash-forward near the end of the fourth season.

Essentially a huge spoiler for the conclusion of the season, Letters of Transit depicted a strange future world in which the observers will have decided to simply take over the Earth, and a small band of resistance is all that stands between them and complete domination of man.

Despite that odd bit of disjointedness, the future of Fringe looks great, even while the future of their world is foreboding. The future world depicted in Letters of Transit is the setting for the final season, which will be a half-season in length, and is slated conclude the serial.

Today’s teaser is essentially a recap of what we know about the observers. No spoilers here. All the voice-over bits are dialogue from the previous seasons.

The team will be fighting the Observer menace with the help of Olivia and Peter’s daughter. Likely this fight will not be one of violence or brawn, as these are not things the show focuses on, but perhaps we’ll be surprised.

Hopefully, the story won’t turn into one of those seemingly epic arcs that gets resolved in only one or two episodes before finding a way to bring everything back to ‘normal’. Luckily, Fringe doesn’t have a reputation for that kind of arc. Overall, It’s been a great series, and I’m really happy they’re getting the chance to give the show a proper ending.

Despite some production delays due to health issues for co-star John Nobel, Fringe is still on track to premiere the new season on September 28th, 2012.