No-Brainer: Astrid Still Needs Character Development on "Fringe"

Is it just me or is Fringe's Astrid Farnsworth the latest victim of Mary-Sue Syndrome?

After many episodes of limited character growth, Fringe's writers are now shoving Astrid's amazing skills down our throats with greater frequency... instead of investing time to flesh out her painfully one-dimensional character.

She speaks Latin! She majored in linguistics! And in last night's episode of Fringe ("The No-Brainer"), we learned that she minored in computer science and can take apart computers and fix crashed hard drives with ease. It now seems that when the writers need an esoteric skill that none of the other characters possess, they magically give Astrid the ability to perform miracles.

I've been bemoaning the lack of character development for Astrid for some time now. After all, we're now more than 13 episodes into the season and other than the facts that Astrid has told us, we've yet to see her grow as a character or be fleshed out into anything other than a device for regurgitating exposition.

I don't blame actor Jasika Nicole; she's clearly doing the best she can with the limited material at her disposal but the answer isn't to attempt to dazzle the audience with Astrid's diverse skills but to find a way to have her do something other than answer the phone, snoop through the garbage, or repeat everything that Olivia has just said.

"The No-Brainer" once again demonstrated that the series would be just the same were you to remove Astrid from the equation altogether. Yes, she assisted in the case at hand by cracking open those hard drives but the heavy lifting was done by Peter's contact Akim (played, one must note, by The Wire's Gbenga Akinnagbe) and, while she went into the trash to pull out that note from Jessica Warren (Dawson's Creek's Mary Beth Piel), it was Olivia who confronted Peter about her.

No, far more interesting to me were the supporting players this week, such as Jessica Warren and Brian Dempsey (The Wire's Chris Bauer). Which is a bit of a problem: when you only have maybe six leads on the series and one of them is still a complete cipher, it's not good when they're overshadowed by the guest stars.

What do you think of Astrid? What suggestions do you have for Fringe's writers in order to make her a more compelling, three-dimensional character? Discuss.

Next week on Fringe ("The Transformation"), another bizarre incident aboard an international flight prompts the Fringe Division to investigate, where they encounter some rather freakish remains at the crash site; Olivia receives a visit from an old friend who may have crucial knowledge about the event.