In Fringe's Friday night season finale, the smartest sci-fi show on prime time dives into a crazed wormhole meltdown that pits heroes from the normal world against doppelgangers living in an alternate universe, where 9/11 never happened and dirigibles float above Manhattan.

Centered on the parallel-universe adventures of FBI investigators Olivia Dunham (played by Anna Torv), Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) and his loopy genius of a father Walter Bishop (John Noble), Fringe boasts humor, gore, weird science and deep mythology.

But ratings? Not so much, especially since the show was shifted to the "Friday night death slot." Still, Fox has renewed the series for a fourth season, and the life extension gives Fringe a chance to bolster its status as heir apparent to the champion of quantum-physics television, Lost.

In fact, the mythology-driven Fringe was dreamed up by the same creator as Lost, master of mystery J.J. Abrams. But it actually surpasses ABC's island epic in several respects. Here are four reasons Fringe is better than Lost.

1. Mad scientist is funnier than fat guy: Hurley (played by Jorge Garcia) provided invaluable reality-check wisecracks as comic relief for the plot twists that coiled through Lost storylines like a smoke monster on methamphetamines. But Noble's sugar-obsessed Dr. Bishop trumps Hurley's stoner insights with hilariously spaced-out nonsequiturs dealing with pudding, the absence of pants and dripping droplets of internal body parts.

2. Fringe makes sense to newcomers (most of the time): Recent mythology-rich episodes might bewilder Fringe first-timers. But generally, the supernatural crime drama has mastered a one-case-per-show formula that kicks off with a gruesome "cold open" in which heads explode or innards turn to jelly, and the Fringe task force solves the mystery before the hour's up.

By way of contrast, Lost rarely resolved anything without throwing an even bigger multi-arc puzzle piece into the air. Lost's "all-in" approach rewarded the faithful, but late-comers were pretty much screwed when it came to grokking the context for any single episode.

3. Fringe boasts cooler "science": Lost rode a one-trick pony all the way through seven seasons with storylines that turned on theme and variations of quantum mechanics-fueled time travel. Fringe shares a similar multiple-world premise, driven by quantum entanglement, but enriches the sci-fi stew by drawing on a much broader range of hopped-up "fringe" science.

Referencing real-world research, Fringe takes DNA manipulation, telekinetic powers, cellular mutation and mind control into surreally entertaining tangents. Whereas Lost spent an entire season playing flashback mind games, Fringe subjects its characters to LSD-induced hallucinations, which last month turned Olivia, Peter, Walter and infrequent co-star Leonard Nimoy into acid-trip cartoon characters. Surprise!

Peter (Joshua Jackson, left) connects with Olivia (Anna Torv) in “The Day We Died.”

Photos: Liane Hentscher/Fox

4).Better love triangle: Fringe lacks the bad-boy factor that the roguish Sawyer (Josh Holloway) brought to Lost's Jack-and-Kate love triangle. But Fringe compensated this year with an even-more effective soap opera device – the evil twin.

Actress Torv finally got a chance to stretch by playing naughty double "Fauxlivia" to her straitlaced Agent Dunham character. Though Torv and Joshua Jackson are not better looking than Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly – who is? – their characters bring more subtle chemistry to the alpha-couple dynamic that fuels any dramatic series.

Blowback: What's Your Take on Fringe Season 3? ————————————————

What do you think about the weird new twists Fringe took this season? Does Fringe surpass Lost in originality? Weigh in below.

The Fringe Season 3 finale, "The Day We Died," airs Friday at 9 p.m./8 p.m. Central on Fox.

See Also: - See *Fringe'*s Freaky, Animated Acid Trip