Fringe gets infinitely better in season 2, and season 3 is one of my favorite seasons of TV in general (and nails the hybrid procedural/serialized format in a way few shows have). Season 4 is divisive, but I enjoyed it and it has my favorite episode of the series in it. Season 5 feels like a finale movie that got stretched out to 13 episodes, but I enjoyed it overall, and the ending is good.

If you more or less enjoyed season 1, I’d say you owe it to yourself to keep going. And some of the “filler” episodes in season 1 turn out not to be filler after all as the show continues.