September’s Notebook Is The Perfect Fringe Companion Piece
Just because Fringe is dead and buried doesn’t mean that fans will forget about it anytime soon. Even decades later, this is still a show folks love to dissect and pick apart. To further this end, Insight Editions released a companion book called September’s Notebook in 2013 that helps fans continue on with the series even if the show itself is over.
In true Fringe form, September’s Notebook isn’t your typical coffee table book full of fun facts about the show, behind-the-scenes photos, and all that jazz. This is a direct tie-in to the mythology of the show. As the title suggests, this volume is the personal journal of the Observer known as September (Michael Cerveris), who later, in the fifth and final season, we meet as a human named Donald.
Fans of Fox’s sci-fi police procedural know that September fixated on the duo of Walter (John Noble) and Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), compulsively watching their lives over the decades, even occasionally interfering with drastic consequences.
September’s Notebook is his scrapbook of observations of their lives, adventures, cases, and relationship with Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv).
The pages of this tome are journal entries, photographs, and recaps of Fringe events the team investigated. Through September’s point of view, you explore the multiple universes and timelines of the series, learn background information on Massive Dynamic, and track character arcs.
Written by Terra Bennett and Paul Terry—though showrunner J.H. Wyman was also deeply involved in the project—Fringe’s September’s Notebook is a piece of merchandise that exists within the series’ fictional framework.
It includes exclusive material like classified FBI documents, photographs, and other artifacts related to the Fringe universe. Fringe’s September’s Notebook delves into the plot points and alternate realities featured in the show, providing a somewhat deeper understanding of the events from September’s unique vantage point as an Observer.
Terry Bennett said about Fringe’s September’s Notebook, “It definitely adds to what the fans experienced on the show. It reveals just how much September observed and how he felt about those observations. It covers the events of the entire series, and there are many exclusives that the Fringe Vancouver production department blessed us with.”
Beyond digging into the mythology you see on the screen, September’s Notebook also elaborates on peripheral events not dealt with directly. For instance, you learn more about the original 12 Observers and their time-traveling missions.
So again, though Fringe is long gone there are still ways to enjoy this universe and September’s Notebook is definitely one of them
