The Daily Beast: "TiVo’s 20 Most Time Shifted TV Shows of 2011-12: Mad Men, Fringe & More"

Is anyone watching Mad Men live?

At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "TiVo’s 20 Most Time Shifted TV Shows of 2011-12: Mad Men, Fringe, and More," in which I examine TiVo's Top 20 TV shows with the highest percentage of time-shifting, from Showtime's Nurse Jackie and AMC's Mad Men to Fox's Fringe and ABC Family's Switched at Birth.

TiVo singlehandedly changed the way that many viewers watch television, allowing consumers to record their favorite shows and time-shift their viewing altogether.

Increasingly, time-shifted viewing is having an enormous impact on television ratings, and the networks have begun to consider the uptick in DVR-viewing when calculating their overall ratings. According to the data provided by TiVo to The Daily Beast, the shows with the highest aggregated rating of time-shifted viewing during the 2011–12 season are the usual suspects: Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory, Glee, and NCIS, to name a few. In other words: popular shows become even more popular once TiVo examines the overall time-shifted viewing. This is not a surprise.

What is interesting, however, is TiVo's data that illustrates the percentage of the total viewing of a given show that was time-shifted. (TiVo calls this measurement "Percentage Time-Shifted Viewing.") For instance: Showtime’s dark comedy Nurse Jackie has the highest percentage of time-shifted viewing out of any primetime show on television. Shows as varied as Mad Men, Fringe, and Switched at Birth are also on the list. (Community, meanwhile, ranks at No. 164, just behind An Idiot Abroad and Survivor.)

A few caveats before we dive in: The data provided comes from TiVo’s Stop||Watch ratings service, which “passively and anonymously” collects DVR viewing data from a sample group of 350,000 nationally distributed TiVo DVR subscribers. (That sample group represents roughly 17.5 percent of TiVo’s overall subscriber base of approximately 2 million customers.) Additionally, TiVo considers any viewing that takes place five seconds after the live broadcast as being “time-shifted.” As for the Percentage Time-Shifted Viewing figures we’re looking at: higher percentage time-shifted scores indicates preference on the part of viewers to watch the specific show time-shifted than live, independent of the overall popularity of the show.

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

An Indelible Mark: A Review of Season Four of Fox's Fringe

Try as you might, there are some marks that can never be scrubbed out entirely. There are some people who leave an indelible impression on our souls which remains long after they've gone, an afterimage burned onto our retinas, an echo of a cry for help, a sigh, a plaintive wail, or a whispered declaration of love.

Within the world of Fringe, Peter Bishop no longer exists. We saw him blink out of existence at the end of the third season finale, flickering before our eyes as two universes forgot all about him. Nature, of course, abhors a vacuum, so time and space rush to fill the void left behind when an item is plucked out of the timestream.

What does all of this have to do with Season Four of Fringe? I'm glad you asked. (PLEASE DO NOT REPRODUCE THIS REVIEW IN FULL ON ANY WEBSITES, BLOGS, MESSAGE BOARDS, OR SIMILAR.) The season opener ("Neither Here Nor There") contains a rather ordinary procedural plot, but it also reintroduces us to the two universes, and to changes that have occurred as a result of Peter's non-existence. Some of these changes are slight, and some are rather large. The dead walk again as the living, memories are altered, personalities shifted as a result of Peter not being in the mix since the series began.

Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) is colder, more distance, less prone to smiling, and still grieving over the boyfriend she lost in the first Fringe case in the pilot. Walter Bishop (John Noble) is emotionally and psychologically untethered, lacking a connection that can anchor his fractured mind; he's now a virtual recluse, a man scared of his own shadow who can't leave the lab, much less venture out into the world. (Peter did more than take Walter out of St. Clare's; he gave Walter a purpose and acted as a life preserver in more ways than one, allowing Walter to explore the outside world anew.) Astrid (Jasika Nicole) is now in the field alongside Olivia, not forced to serve as Walter's primary caregiver and nursemaid in the lab setting. (Look for a particularly hilarious anatomical reference in the first episode back.)

And then there's Lincoln Lee (Seth Gabel).

Lincoln is still the nerdy FBI agent that we met previously on this side of the universal divide, but he doesn't remember the team nor their previous interaction. When a bizarre Fringe investigation drags him into their world, he acts as the audience's introduction (or, for veterans, reintroduction) to the backstory and thrust of the series. The case itself, as I suggested before, feels a bit been-there-done-that within the immense possibility of the show, connecting to an earlier conceit within the series and taking it into a new direction. (Yes, I'm being deliberately vague here.)

But it's the second episode of the season ("One Night in October") that brilliantly showcases what Fringe is capable of: emotionally resonant stories with sci-fi trappings that are intensely character-driven explorations of the human heart. This is very much the case with the largely Over There-set installment which finds the Fringe Division attempting to entrap a vicious serial killer (John Pyper-Ferguson, in a fantastic and gripping dual role) whose methods for spreading death are rather unique, yet also connect to the wider philosophical issues at play here. Are we the sum of our experiences? Do our choices define us? Can we remember when those memories are cruelly ripped away from us?

Peter Bishop does not exist.

We know this to be true, just as we know that the Observers feel that he has served his purpose and the timeline has been corrected. Yet, there is no Fringe without the younger Bishop, and Peter lingers in the, well, fringes beween here and not-here. But his interaction with the makeshift family that comprises the team had long-lasting ramifications for all of them. If they can't remember him, if he never truly existed, how have their lives changed? And why do all of them feel an emptiness where there shouldn't be one? There's a Peter-sized hole in the world, and no amount of gumdrops or creepy cases will change that, even if Walter and the others can't recall just why they feel quite so sad.

What follows in "One Day in October" is a beautiful exploration of memory, loss, choices, and divergent paths in the woods, one that informs not only the case at hand (an intensely creepy and profoundly unsettling one) but also the characters of Olivia and Walter, and their dark counterparts. Olivia and Fauxlivia have an intriguing moment of exchange that reveals just how much the universe has changed without Peter in it... and all of the actors do a phenomenal job creating new iterations of the characters we've come to know and love thus far.

Watch Torv's body language as Fauxlivia, slouched and loose, the timbre of her voice altered, and then see how rigid and unbending she is as Olivia. Noble does a staggering job (how has this man not been nominated for an Emmy already?) as the even more broken Walter Bishop, bringing a scared petulance to his routine, a terror that his fragile grasp on reality is slipping away further still. (There's also a hell of an homage to a certain 1980s commercial that is quite clever.) Gabel is great as the two versions of Lincoln; one sheltered and naive, the other headstrong and edgy. And it's great to see Nicole's Astrid in the field for a change; for far too long, she's been stuck in the lab. (I am curious to see just what happened to Blair Brown's Nina, but she's not in either episode, sadly.)

The installment also shows the uneasy alliance between Over Here and Over There, and how this dynamic will play out throughout the season. An opportunity for cooperation presents its own dangers. To catch a thief, it often takes a thief, it's said. And to catch a killer, it might require the same. Or at the very least, the killer's dimensional twin, who is a mild-mannered psychology professor. Do they share the same dark impulses? Why did their lives go in such opposite trajectories? And what will their crossing paths do to one another?

All in all, it's a fantastic start to the season for Fringe, in particular that second episode, which utilizes a real alchemy which which to test our characters in unexpected and tantalizing ways. While Peter Bishop may not exist (at least not in the sense that we've come to understand thus far), his presence is felt in intriguing and powerful ways. And so too is this season's first few episodes, which will linger with you well beyond the closing credits.



Season Four of Fringe launches this Friday evening at 9 pm ET/PT on Fox.

The Daily Beast: "The Fall TV Season Begins!"

Time to head back to the couch, America. The fall TV season is here and all of your favorite shows—from The Walking Dead and The Good Wife to Dexter and Boardwalk Empire—and a slew of new ones are soon heading to a TV set near you. Will you find Ringer to be the second coming of Sarah Michelle Gellar… or is it the second coming of Silk Stalkings? Time will tell, but at least your TV favorites are back with brand new seasons, and lots of plot twists.

To refresh your memory after the long summer, over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, entitled "The Fall TV Season Begins!," in which Maria Elena Fernandez and I round up a guide to the good and bad times of last season--or in this case, 23 cliffhangers--and offer a peek into what’s coming next this fall.

Bridge to Nowhere: Quick Thoughts on the Third Season Finale of Fringe

It's no secret that I love Fringe. I've written numerous features and posts celebrating the way in which it blends science fiction with nuanced emotional drama, positioning the fractured characters of the Bishops and Olivia Dunham as a makeshift family studying the mysteries of the universe... and the human heart.

Which might be why I was so monumentally disappointed with the Season Three finale ("The Day We Died"), which aired on Friday evening. After a season that was so tremendously emotional, which delivered a series of staggering performances from John Noble, Anna Torv, and Joshua Jackson in two separate, parallel universes, my expectations were extremely high indeed. But what I found with the future-set finale was that I didn't care about "these" versions of Olivia, Walter, and Peter and that the drama here felt entirely manufactured and without emotional weight, destroying the intense momentum established within the last few episodes.

It was clear from the start that the future timeline of 2016 Fringe was a mere detour on the road to the season finale (I had anticipated the Days of Future Past-style storyline earlier in the week), which erased all sense of narrative stakes from the story unfolding here: End of Dayers, the "death" of Olivia Dunham, the grief of Peter Bishop, all of it would be wiped clean before the final credits rolled.

And it's true: they were. While I didn't anticipate that Peter himself would be erased from the timeline (more on that in a second), the future-set storyline attempted to set up some tantalizing storylines (just what happened to Broyles' eye? Ella is now a Fringe agent! Astrid has a kick-ass new hairstyle), but it paled in comparison to the depth and scope of Over There's characters, which we had a real sense of from the beginning. In the hands of Noble and Co., those performances were incredibly nuanced, using more than wigs or funny-colored contact lenses to give us a sense of the underlying differences between the versions of these now-familiar characters.

In the future, there was a lot of shorthand going on: things that we weren't privy to happened off-screen in between the last episode and the 15 years that have gone by. But whereas the subtle differences within the characters was explored organically Over There, in the future world of Fringe, we're not given much depth, but rather just a hell of a lot of exposition. (Heck, Walter Bishop was more or less the Exposition Fairy throughout this episode.) Olivia and Peter are married; Olivia wants a kid but is unsure (her internal dilemma summed up by a refrigerator drawing of an unknown and unseen child neighbor) of whether or not they should, given the crazy world they live in; Ella has grown up and followed her aunt into the Fringe Division; Walternate somehow crossed over from his world before his universe was wiped out by Peter Bishop; and Walter is in jail, imprisoned for his vast crimes against humanity. (Interestingly, Astrid still doesn't have much of a storyline, even 15 years down the line.)

The Walter bits got under my skin in a major way. We saw in the pilot episode, clearly intended to be referenced here, what the effects were of his incarceration at St. Clare's. But here, there's no real sense of what the difference was between those two imprisonments or how his mental state further deteriorated. Or if it did. If you're going to attempt to come full circle and use that scene in St. Clare's as a callback of sorts, it needs to pay off better than it did here.

(Broyles' bionic eye grated in a way I didn't expect. Surely, if William Bell could create a bionic arm for Nina that looked extremely real, surely way in the future, a bionic eye could match Broyles' natural eye color? As for Nina, she got reduced to being a funeral guest in the future. A major missed opportunity for story there.)

We're shown scenes that are clearly meant to tug at the audience's heartstrings--Peter brings Walter licorice and calls him dad, Walter embraces Olivia as he might a daughter, Olivia is shot to death before our eyes--but these moments don't carry much weight because (A) the Peter/Walter dynamic has already played out far more convincingly within the main narrative where that same moment ("dad") had a lot more impact than it did here and (B) because these characters and situations would likely not exist by the time the final credits rolled... as Fringe would not suddenly jump ahead 15 years within its main narrative. (Sorry, but even for a show as unpredictable as this one, aging up the actors is just not going to happen on a weekly basis.)

I thought it was interesting that the producers would opt for a sort of Days of Future Past storyline here in order to undo Peter's decision at the end of the last episode by sending Peter's consciousness to inhabit his future self and see the error of his ways. But I also think that Joel Wyman and Jeff Pinkner missed a trick here by having Peter's subconscious subsume his "younger" self. Other than a throwaway line of dialogue from Ella about Peter rambling about the machine, it was 2026's Peter Bishop who was running things, rather than vice-versa.

While it meant that Peter didn't have to play catch-up within this new "reality," it also meant that the narrative stakes were eliminated for him as well. No longer on a mission, having conveniently "forgotten" that he had come forward in time, it was the status quo for Peter Bishop, able to remember what he cooked for Olivia for breakfast and containing the sum of his experiences from the last 15 years. He wasn't a fish-out-of-water, he wasn't his younger self traveling to the future; he was just a middle-aged guy that looked like our Peter Bishop who had inexplicably become a government agent and who wore a wedding band.

So much of Season Three has focused on the familial tensions between Peter and Walter and the romantic ones between Peter and Olivia, so it suddenly felt incredibly trite to see them as a married couple for a little bit here, albeit a marriage that comes to an end with Olivia's sudden (and very predictable) death. Given how much I love the character, I was shocked how little I cared about her demise here, as I knew instantly that it wouldn't "stick" and that the producers would not be getting rid of Torv (or of Jackson) any time soon.

The lack of real emotion carried through to Peter's eulogy at Olivia's watery funeral ceremony, where the cameras pulled back from Peter's speech to offer a musical montage set to Michael Giacchino's score. Lost pulled this trick before (we don't need to hear the words to get the sense of the scene and its tone), but that device only works when there is genuine emotion underneath and I didn't feel that for a second here. Rather, it felt lazy, a shorthand way of getting around having to write the eulogy without it seeming hokey or cliche.

The episode got bogged down first in a dull case of the week (End of Dayers, who weren't given any real development, and despite using Brad Dourif as their putative leader, he was an incredibly flat character) and then in a discussion of paradox, explained rather clunkily by Noble's Walter, that ends up bogging down science fiction-based time-travel dramas. The machine wasn't created by the First People but by Walter himself, sent back to prehistoric times by a wormhole that was created by the machine that they assembled. The First People were, in fact, our Fringe team: Walter, Ella, and possibly Astrid, traveling through the wormhole to hide the pieces of the machine so that they could one day assemble it and Peter could one day use it. But while Walter couldn't not build the machine (it had already been built), Peter could change his decision within the machine. He could opt to create, rather than destroy, to save, rather than damn.

And so he does, his subconscious drifting back to his body in 2011, encased within the machine, which he uses to create a bridge between the two universes, bringing Walter and Olivia face-to-face with Walternate and Fauxlivia, two halves of the same people mirroring one another within Liberty Island, two universes folding over each other at this point in time and space.

And then just when Peter declares that both sides will have to work together, to coexist (to live together or die alone, to quote another show) and that he had created in this space a bridge between the two worlds, he blinks out of existence and we're told by the Observers that, having served his purpose, Peter Bishop never existed.

It's this final moment that gives the episode some heft, a brain puzzle of a reveal that changes the status quo of the show because it means that everything has changed as a result of Peter not existing. We've still gotten to this point--to the two Walters and Olivias staring across a room at each other--but the events that lead them here have been different. Walter had to have crossed Over There but not to save his son, because he NEVER had a son, never suffered the loss of a child, never lost his mind or his moral compass because he acted out of love. Was Walter ever in St Clare's? Was his mind ever compromised? Did Olivia ever step outside the armor she'd constructed for herself? Did they skate out of some tough cases because Peter "knew a guy" that could help them? (Nope.) Did she ever love? Did Walter ever lose his wife, his family?

Peter's disappearance from reality not only changes the status quo of the two universes, but it closes the door to the 2026 divergent reality we saw in "The Day We Died." Because Peter never existed, that world never existed because Walter and Walternate never fought over a stolen son; Olivia never married Peter; Olivia never died. There's a sense of course-correction here, of the facts being true but in slightly different ways, of Walter and Olivia's lives changing as a result of the absence of Peter Bishop from them. Which is definitely interesting and thought-provoking. I just wish we could have gotten to that moment without the hokum and water-treading of the majority of this installment.

I'm still a Fringe fan and I'm sticking with the show when it returns in the fall, but it doesn't diminish the head-scratching, disappointing qualities of the season finale... and of my frustration that a show that has so consistently gotten it right lately had gotten it so terribly wrong.

What did you make of the season finale? Did you love it or hate it or did you fall somewhere in between? Agree with my assessment or disagree. Head to the comments section to discuss "The Day We Died."

Season Four of Fringe will begin this fall on FOX.

Days of Future Past: Thoughts as the Season Finale of Fringe Approaches

First off, I haven't seen the third season finale of Fringe ("The Day We Died"), airing this Friday, so anything I say here is based purely on conjecture rather than inside information, spoilers, or pre-knowledge of the episode.

Personally, I'm feverish with anticipation for this episode. (And, no, it's not just the flu-like symptoms I've come down with at the moment.) After pulling the rug out from underneath the viewer in the last episode--the doomsday machine seemingly sends Peter 15 years into the future (more on that in a bit)--this season finale arrives with a huge amount of momentum from this season's strong forward movement. The fates of two universes hang in the balance as Peter entered the machine--with Olivia's cortexiphan-derived help--at the end of last week's sensational episode, and seemingly chose "our" world to survive rather than the one "Over There."

The promo shown at the end of last week's episode (as well as in the longer, feature trailer-style one, which can be found below) would seem to indicate that Peter was successful in saving our world and destroying the parallel world that he originated from, dooming his father and his (unknown) child to a certain death. So what is Walternate doing walking around in the future then? Just what happened when Peter entered the machine? Just what did the quantum entanglement between the two devices mean for our world and theirs?

I'm sure we'll get some answers to all of these questions and more with this week's finale, which seems to offer a new direction for Fringe and the members of the Fringe Division itself, jumping to dystopic future 15 years down the line. But while it appears as though Fringe has made a huge time jump, I'm also skeptical that it will hold into Season Four, though it would be a daring and inventive twist for an ongoing serialized drama. (Though I can't imagine the actors--or hair and makeup--would be too happy with the thought of getting aged for each episode.)

My immediate first thought, upon seeing Peter wake up in the future, was to remember the now classic X-Men storyline, "The Days of Future Past," in which young Kitty Pryde's consciousness was projected into a grim future timeline that was even more terrifying than that glimpsed in the final seconds of last week's episode. In the X-Men plot, Kitty's consciousness is housed in the body of her older self, allowing her to glimpse a possible future and then return to her own timeline in order to alter it.

Which brings us to now and this week's finale ("The Day We Died"), as the outcome of Peter's action comes back to face him head on. He seemingly destroyed the world Over There, dooming a universe to destruction in order to save his own. And he's forced to face down Walter--back in a mental hospital, if you believe the scenes shown in the promo--and his true father, Walternate, who seemingly crossed over in time to avoid all-out negation.

So why is the focus on a timeline 15 years in the future? Curious, that. We know that time is a fluid construct that is always in flux (thanks to Doctor Who and the presence of the Observers in the Fringe mythology), which means that the future can be changed. It's not a constant that is written in stone but can be altered. If the plot of the season finale does echo that of "Days of Future Past," then Peter will be given knowledge of the outcome of his choice... and witness that the future of their world isn't safe, not by a longshot as members of a cult attempt to dissolve the barriers of the universe. Is it the End of Days? Is it the day that we die? Or is it an opportunity to course-correct?

If it is indeed Peter's consciousness that is inhabiting the older Peter Bishop, then perhaps he will have the opportunity to change his decision, or make a decision that's based in fact and foresight. Is there a way to permanently seal off the two universes, to untangle them on a quantum level? Is there a way for both to survive? And will the finale come down to Peter deciding once more the fate of two worlds? How does one go on with the destruction of a universe weighing on their shoulders?

Of course, I could be completely wrong and the comparison to "Days of Future Past" might not be particularly apt at all. But, regardless of my conjecture and theorizing, I know that Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman--and the entire Fringe writing staff--have more than a few aces up their sleeves. I can't wait to see how this game plays out and just what the universe(s) have in store for Olivia Dunham and the Bishops.

What are your thoughts on what the endgame of the season truly is? Buy into the "Days of Future Past" comparisons or no? And just what is that voice whispering at the very end of the promo (below)? Head to the comments section to discuss.



The season finale of Fringe airs this Friday evening at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX.

Fringe Promo: "Where Will You Be?"

Hot off the heels of the announcement that Fringe will be returning for a fourth season, FOX has unveiled a new promo for the science-fiction drama that seemingly offers a clue to the coming danger facing the Fringe Divisions of both universes.

You can review this new promo--which I am referring to as "Where Will You Be?"--in full below, but I'm extremely curious to know just what everyone makes of the odd 6:02 am that appears at the end of the promo?

Is that when the doomsday device is triggered? Is that when the universe(s) could come to an end? The time they bleed together? Just what does the time code mean and what conclusions are the producers pushing us towards?

Head to the comments to share your thoughts, theories, and conjectures...



Fringe returns with new episodes on Friday, April 15th (with an episode entitled, naturally, "Lysergic Acid Diethylamide") on FOX.

It's Official: Fringe Renewed for Fourth Season

The impossible is indeed possible where Fringe is concerned: the sci-fi drama has been picked up by FOX for a fourth season.

Executive producer Joel Wyman broke news of the renewal via Twitter, writing, "Fringe was picked up!!!! Thanks Fringedom!"

A FOX spokesperson confirmed the renewal to me via email, which means we can officially take Fringe off the endangered series list, as it's officially been renewed for the 2011-12 season. No word on how many episodes will be ordered for next season (though several sources seem to indicate that it will be a full 22-episode season) or on the timeslot, so stay tuned.

UPDATE: Fox has now also confirmed to me that Season Four will consist of 22 episodes!

How happy are you about Fringe renewal? Surprised? Elated? Discuss!

UPDATE #2 (March 25th): Fox has now issued a press release with quotes from Kevin Reilly and the executive producers, which can be read below...

FOX RENEWS “FRINGE” FOR FOURTH SEASON – IN BOTH UNIVERSES
 
FOX has renewed critically acclaimed thrilling drama FRINGE for a fourth season, it was announced today by Kevin Reilly, President, Entertainment for Fox Broadcasting Company.
 
“FRINGE has truly hit a creative stride and has distinguished itself as one of television’s most original programs. The series’ ingenious producers, amazingly talented cast and crew, as well as some of the most passionate and loyal fans on the planet, made this fourth-season pickup possible,” said Reilly. “When we moved the show to Fridays, we asked the fans to follow and they did. We’re thrilled to bring it back for another full season and keep it part of the FOX family.”
 
FRINGE co-creator and executive producer J.J. Abrams said, “We could not be happier that the fans of FRINGE (and our most excellent partners at FOX) have allowed us to continue telling stories from the fringe for another season!”
 
“This early pickup comes at a perfect time as we start production on the Season Three finale,” added FRINGE showrunners and executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman. “We join the cast and crew in thanking our loyal fans and FOX for allowing us to have this much fun telling stories we love.”
 
Since moving to Fridays (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) in January, FRINGE is averaging a 2.2/7 among Adults 18-49 and has established itself as Friday’s No. 1 series in the core adult demographic.
 
The compelling third season continues tonight, Friday, March 25 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT), on FOX. In the “Bloodline” episode, the intensity of life “over there” accelerates as a pregnant OLIVIA (Anna Torv) is kidnapped and finds herself in mortal danger. As the Fringe Division races against time to find her, agent LINCOLN LEE (guest star Seth Gabel) receives some heartbreaking news as WALTER (John Noble) stops at nothing to preserve the new branch of the Bishop family tree.
 
Created by J.J. Abrams & Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci, FRINGE is produced by Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Jeff Pinkner, J.H. Wyman and Joe Chappelle serve as executive producers, while Kurtzman, Orci and Akiva Goldsman are consulting producers. Additionally, Pinkner and Wyman serve as the series’ showrunners. Become a fan of the series on Facebook at www.facebook.com/fringe and follow the series on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fringeonfox (@fringeonfox).

Nothing Is Written In Stone: An Advance Review of Fringe's "Bloodline"

What's done is done, but what has yet to happen is far from certain.

This is especially true within the world of Fringe, where anything is possible and where the actions of characters have ripple effects that have impact on not only their lives but on entire universes. A father's love can doom a world or two. A child can become a lifeline to another universe. An ancient device could destroy the future. But the future, for all of its infinite possibilities, is a blank slate yet to be written. We can choose, we can fall, we can fail. But tomorrow is forever in front of us. Nothing, we're told, is written in stone.

This week's sensational and gripping episode of Fringe ("Bloodline"), written by Monica Owusu-Breen and Alison Schapker, is set Over There and it's with a certain amount of relish that we dive through the veil to see the after-effects of Fauxlivia's return to her own world: how she's coping with her pregnancy and the fact that the father of her unborn child is on the other side of that dimensional divide.

If Peter Bishop will truly be forced to choose between two worlds, how can condemn a world without destroying something he holds dear? Over Here, he's finally been reunited with Olivia and they've embarked on a romantic relationship, just as her body has been co-opted by William Bell; but Over There is the child he doesn't yet know about, the continuation of his bloodline, his offspring, and his child's mother. There is no opportunity to choose again, nor possibly to choose both. One choice can save, but it can also destroy...

Matters of the blood loom large over this episode, as Over There's Olivia contends with the possibility that she could be a carrier for VPE, the same virus that killed her sister Rachel during childbirth. As with Peter Bishop, Olivia could be faced with a moral dilemma: her choice can both save or kill. Terminate her pregnancy and live... or carry this baby to term and likely die. But there's no guarantee that Olivia even has VPE, though there's an 80 percent chance she does. But does that mean that her mind has been made up? Are her actions to be dictated by what happened to Rachel? Is her fate already sealed?

I don't want to spoil too much about this fantastic episode, but I will say that there are other factions at play here, conspiratorial forces who might want to force Olivia's hand. This child was conceived between two worlds, the offspring of Peter Bishop and Olivia Dunham, and who knows just what abilities this child could have as a result of this pairing. When I say that there are multiple eyes on Olivia, I mean just that: while her pregnancy may be a secret to just about everyone other than Olivia and Walternate, there are those who have their own agenda for this unborn child. And the results are pretty gruesome and upsetting.

(What else would you expect? It's Fringe, after all!)

The tension surrounding Olivia's kidnapping here casts a wide net around the other characters of the series, as we see the lengths Walternate will go to to get his grandchild back and the depth of feelings Lincoln Lee has for Olivia, as he races to try and save her from whoever grabbed her from her apartment. Look for Lincoln and Charlie to come to an understanding about what they face in the days ahead, and for the very welcome return of Andre Royo's Henry.

It's this latter one that's quite interesting. In saving our world's Olivia earlier this season and getting her to safety on multiple occasions, cab driver Henry seemed to be in the right place at the right time. But his involvement with Olivia--and now Fauxlivia--ask certain questions about destiny. Is his fate inexorable tied up with both Olivias? It calls to mind a certain Chinese proverb: "If you save someone's life, you must care for them forever."

It's Henry, in fact, who might be the savior of both worlds' versions of Olivia Dunham, a man who has crossed paths with her so many times that he's now fated to look after her for the rest of her life. A cabbie who transported a woman who can move through worlds. A father who must care for a mother. What's especially interesting here is that he doesn't know this world's Olivia and she doesn't know him, so something bigger than both of them--call it divine intervention, fate, destiny, what have you--has engineered their meetings towards some end. And, given that proverb, it's only fitting that one such meeting should occur within the heart of Chinatown.

The ending of this episode is sure to be controversial in more ways than one, but it presents some interesting ethical and moral dilemmas as well as a better understanding about how each of these characters' inner lives function: the choices they make, the sacrifices they endure, the way they compromise for self-fulfillment or the greater good. And, no, I won't be spoiling it here for you.

What I will say is that I was on the edge of my seat throughout this week's episode, which also presents some further fun differences between this world and ours (pay attention to mentions/sightings of The West Wing and Taxi Driver, among others) and gives some depth and insight into Over There's characters. With the possible end of one of these universes approaching, the writers are making it difficult not to sympathize with both sides of this war, especially with the understanding that one world could be erased by the time this season comes to a close.

Of course, nothing, after all, is written in stone.

Fringe airs Friday night at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX.

Falling or Floating: The Bell Tolls for Thee on Fringe

Hmmm, it appears that a father's love will drive men to do some horrific things in order to save their sons.

On this week's episode of Fringe ("Os"), written by Josh Singer and Graham Roland and directed by Brad Anderson, I couldn't help but notice the parallels between Walter Bishop and Alan Ruck's Dr. Crick (itself a likely shout-out to DNA visionaries Watson and Crick), who was experimenting on wheelchair-bound subjects in order to find a way to help his son walk again.

We've seen the consequences of Walter Bishop's actions and, as we're often told on Fringe, that long road to hell is paved with the best of intentions. Walter passed through the veil separating two universes in order to save Peter's life, but in that case, his love for his son, may have inadvertently destroyed two worlds as a result.

And, like Walter, Crick crossed a number of moral (and legal) boundaries in order to save his son, to transform his life for the better. But in this case, his son didn't need fixing because he never saw himself as broken. The sacrifices Crick made--and the deaths of his subjects/victims--along the way only made the inevitable discovery of what he was doing all the more worse in his son's eyes. All he ever wanted was his father's love and support.

While there were some nice thematic parallels going on in this week's episode, the case itself wasn't all that interesting (I predicted from the first second that muscle atrophy was mentioned that the thieves were wheelchair-bound) and felt lifted from Season One in a way. A little predictable and pat, but the science behind it--bonding the heaviest element on earth to lutetium created something lighter than air, an impossibility brought on by Walter's tampering with the laws of physics--was intriguing and Ruck gave a great performance as a father doing whatever possible to take care of his son.

But it was the other plots in "Os" that made the episode shine for me: the cameo appearance of Lost's Jorge Garcia as a Massive Dynamics security watchman who enjoyed a bong with Walter at the beginning of the episode; Olivia and Peter's uneasy courtship (and the game of truths); and the revelation at the very end of the episode that Walter was right about William Bell's "soul magnets."

I will say that while I've praised Anna Torv in the past (particularly during her breakdown scene after returning to the prime reality), I thought she was outstanding this week, particularly in her impression of Leonard Nimoy, which was spot-on. Walter was correct that Bell had engineered a way to contact him from beyond the grave and that the bell he bequeathed to Nina upon his death was the instrument that would activate his soul magnets and send Bell to them.

What no one predicted, I think, was that Olivia would be the vessel for such contact, though the connections between Olivia, Bell, and that bell have been established throughout the series. I didn't see that twist coming and it managed to be both eerie and surprising at the same time, a spooky reveal that occurred just as Peter was finally opening up to Olivia about the secret work he was doing in the lab. (Can't these two ever catch a break, I ask?)

While Olivia and Peter seem to be doing okay in their nascent relationship, I'm concerned that those secrets--the ones Peter was finally confessing to Olivia--will get between them in the end. And with William Bell currently inhabiting the body of Olivia Dunham, it's safe to say that their courtship is currently on hold for the time being.

(I also loved the mention of licorice in this week's episode. If you read my feature on Fringe over at The Daily Beast, you know what I mean.)

What did you think of this week's episode? Head to the comments section to discuss.

On the next episode of Fringe ("Stowaway"), the investigation of an apparent suicide reveals another set of fingerprints that lead to a woman with unique abilities.

The Daily Beast: "Fringe Under Fire" (And 8 Burning Questions Answered!)

It's Friday, which means a brand-new episode of FOX's Fringe is heading to your screens tonight.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Fringe Under Fire," in which I talk to executive producers Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman about Fringe, its renewal prospects, why science fiction dramas have proven tricky at the broadcast networks of late, lessons learned from Lost and Alias, and the show's innate philosophical leanings (something I've written a great deal about at this site).

Also, Pinkner and Wyman answer eight burning questions about Fringe--from Olivia's powers and stepfather to the Observers, Sam Weiss, and Peter's doomsday device, and more--in the gallery-based sidebar.

Fringe airs tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX.

Balance and Imbalance: New Fringe Promo Features Lost's Hurley, Mysterious Text, Quote from Me

Fringe might not be airing an episode this week (it returns next week with "Os"), but that doesn't mean we can't take a sneak peek at what's to come as the universes continue to collide on FOX's addictive sci-fi series.

FOX has today released a new promo, which I'll call "Balance and Imbalance," which contains not only clues for what lies ahead for Olivia, Peter, and Walter, but also a shot of Lost's Jorge Garcia, and a quote from yours truly and some other critics about this extraordinary series, which wraps up its season on May 6th. (Mark your calendars now.)

You can view the promo in full below and you'll like want to watch more than once because the stuff at the end? Cryptic and quick, it has flurry of images from throughout the series, along with shots of Sam Weiss, William Bell, a mention of a "demon" and a bunch of on-screen text, Jorge Garcia, a young Observer, and the doomsday device that could signal the end of one or both worlds...



What do you think? Any theories for the battle ahead? I personally love the split-screen opening emphasizing the chasm between Over There and Over Here's versions of Olivia, Peter, Astrid, Walter, and Broyles. Nicely played, Fringe promo-makers!

Fringe airs Fridays at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX.

Going Home: An Advance Review of Tonight's Episode of Fringe ("Subject 13")

Home is forever the place we're running to or running from. Or, sometimes, it's both.

On tonight's heartbreaking episode of Fringe ("Subject 13"), the writers have once again peeled away the veil of time to offer the audience another look into the past, a sequel to last season's "Peter," set six months after the events of that episode.

While that episode, set in the heart of the 1980s, depicted the good intentions of Walter Bishop (the always sensational John Noble) in saving the life of another world's Peter after the death of his own son, tonight's episode shows the poignant consequences of his actions, focusing not on the global aftermath of his actions (those damaging soft spots in the universe's structure) but on the emotional toll that his decision makes on both sides of the dimensional divide.

Six months after kidnapping Peter and nursing him back to health, things are anything but stable in the Bishop household. Walter is rarely around, focusing on his research in Jacksonville, Florida, while Elisabeth (Orla Brady) is left to hold down the homefront on her own. But things aren't easy nor are they necessarily better since Walter traveled to the other side and brought back someone who looks like their son... but who isn't him, not really.

[Note: As always, please do not reproduce this review in full on any web sites, message boards, or similar.]

I don't want to spoil too many details about this fantastic and poignant episode, but I will say that it delves into the chance childhood meeting between Peter and Olivia Dunham, here played by two superb child actors gifted with the oldest of souls. There's a grace to the scene they share together, surrounded by a field of white tulips, that took my breath away.

While there's an emotional hook to their crossing of paths, there are also dire consequences to their meeting, unlocking a chain of causality that brings us to the present day. A confession, a drawing, a discovery, each plays its part in the drama unfolding around these children, as the bravest of actions might seemingly damn each of them in turn.

Am I being coy? You bet, but I also don't want to spoil this sensational bookend to "Peter," one that dives into the chasm forming between both world's Walter and Elisabeth Bishop, as they struggle to come to terms with what's been taken from them and the second chances that propel them to make decisions with horrific consequences.

So too do we see the formative years of young Olivia "Olive" Dunham, as the writers offer the first glimpse of someone we've only heard mention of prior, someone who shaped Olivia into the person she is today. We've known for some time what her unique "trigger" is for her powers to activate, but we see here the root causes, the impetus that drives that emotional response. And we see the hubris inside of Walter Bishop that compels him to experiment on this innocent, seeing in her the possibility for Peter's return. But the road to hell is always paved with good intentions, and the path that Walter embarked upon six months earlier is leading him closer and closer to the flames.

As for Walter himself, special praise goes out once again to the magnificent John Noble, here again playing variations on the Walter Bishop of the current story arc. In Noble's performance, we see a dazzling range: Over Here's gifted scientist struggling to do the right thing when faced with a multitude of moral quandaries, and Over There's grief-stricken father struggling to come to terms with the disappearance of his only son. It's a staggering portrayal that only further underlines the lack of awards recognition for Noble.

Reprising her role as Elisabeth Bishop, Orla Brady is once again brilliantly brittle, a woman coming apart at the seams who nonetheless tries to keep her family together... and keep them alive. Her willingness to dive into the icy depths of love after losing her child shows her strength of character. The battle between Elisabeth and Peter raises questions of trust and fidelity, as Peter pleads with her for the truth. Will she break and reveal all? Will she lie and hold onto her son for a little while longer? Will she be able to let him go all over again when the time comes?

"Subject 13" doesn't pull any punches, not with the portrayal of the daily agony faced by the two Bishop couples and by the child caught in the web between them. Emerging from his illness, young Peter is trapped between two worlds, between the childhood he remembers and the one he doesn't, between the small differences between his world and the next. A scene in a toy store between Peter and Elisabeth serves to depict the wide chasm between the two individuals, as Peter browses your typical array of 1980s children's toys (look for a BSG shout-out here) before settling on something simple. I can't shake the feeling that there is something deeply profound about his choice, given that it's a mode of transportation that he chooses here, seeing everywhere the possibility for escape.

Focusing on both realities, the episode shows the cracks forming in the Bishop family, all the more haunting because we know the eventual outcome of these marriages. But just what is Over There's Walter doing in Florida? That you'll have to wait to see, but I will say that you'd do best to remember your 1980s American history and that Walternate's current position makes a hell of a lot more sense now after this mini-revelation.

All in all, "Subject 13" is another heartbreaking and poignant installment, one that will linger with you long after the closing credits have run. Despite the fact that most of our major characters don't even appear in the episode, you'll walk away feeling as though you've gotten an even deeper understanding of just what makes Walter, Olivia, and Peter tick. And it might make you all the more sorrowful as a result.

Fringe airs tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX.

The Scarab: An Advance Review of Tonight's Fringe

In Ancient Egypt, the scarab beetle was a sacred insect.

The daily behaviors of the Scarabaeus sacer were viewed as symbolic of greater issues of immortality; among them, rebirth, resurrection, and renewal. They were believed to be created out of death itself, given that the parasitic insects would lay their eggs in the bodies of hosts.

Keep that in mind when watching tonight's stellar episode of Fringe("Immortality"), written by David Wilcox and Ethan Gross and directed by Brad Anderson, which is set entirely "Over There," as we learn that fallout that has occurred in the life of their Olivia Dunham after her escape from "our" world.

Revolving around a deranged scientist's quest for glory and the use of those beetles, here just as sacred to him as they were to the Egyptians, the episode raises questions of immortality. How, as humans, we're ever aware of the fragility of the mortal coil, and how we're so desperate to find a way to escape the limitations of the body, to strive for immortality, not in the literal sense, but the figurative.

Do we choose to believe that we live on in our offspring, our genetic line continuing after we're gone, or do we strive to create something permanent that outlives us all? Just as the names Watson and Crick and Jonas Salk are so etched onto our collective memories for their contributions to science and the way we view the world, this scientist is attempting to outrun his own inexorable demise by leaving a mark on the world.

(As always, please do not post this review in full on any web sites, message boards, or similar. What follows are minor spoilers for "Immortality.")

How he is attempting to do just that is connected to the case being investigated by Over There's Fringe Division, a case that involves scores of beetles erupting out of human hosts, so if you're at all squeamish about bugs, you might not want to watch this episode while you're eating. Or right after, for that matter.

(As for the bugs themselves, keep your ears open for what I believe to be a Charles Manson reference as the Fringe Division discusses the genus and species of this particular beetle. Helter Skelter, anyone?)

As our scientist goes about his work, viewing his research as something analogous to a holy crusade in an attempt to reverse extinction, his efforts at resurrection put him on a collision course with the Fringe team, which has been greatly changed in the wake of the Olivia switch-up. Colonel Broyles is missing and the search for his body near the amber zone of Boston has been called off (of course, we witnessed his demise in "our" world when Fauxlivia jumped back to her reality) and Lincoln has been placed in charge of the team.

But things that look alike aren't always the same. We're acutely aware of this from Olivia's struggles to come to terms with Peter's infidelity with Fauxlivia. The two women might look alike, they might share some characteristics beyond their appearances, but these two people aren't the same. We're naturally shaped by our experiences and the two dimensional twins haven't shared the same sense of loss, the same love, the same life. Peter's inability to tell the difference between them nags on Olivia's conscience. Surely, if we were to go missing, our loved ones would know that the person who replaced us wasn't us?

Likewise, there are differences being displayed between our Walter Bishop and Walternate this week. While Walter attempts to redress the balance between them by making himself "smarter," we're privy to a scene Over There in which we learn that their Walter is bound by moral restrictions that never plagued Walter Bishop. There are some things, we learn, that remain sacred, even when hope is lost.

We're also seeing more damage caused by Faulivia's treachery in stealing Olivia's life and engaging in a love affair with Peter Bishop. As her boyfriend Frank Stanton (Philip Winchester) returns to New York, he brings with him reminders of the time she spent in another woman's life. Just as Olivia has been shaken by what happened during her absence, so too does Fauxlivia feel the weight of the decisions she made, the lies she told, the lines she crossed in pursuit of her objectives.

Frank's return brings up a host of unresolved issues for Fauxlivia as well as questions about their future together. I don't want to say too much here, but I will say that we're seeing another instance of harmonic vibration here. Just as Fauxlivia's presence in Peter's life changed him, so too did Peter's presence change Fauxlivia. The ease she had with Frank in their life together has put off-kilter by the relationship she had with Peter. We often can't change something without risking being changed by it ourselves. Perhaps Fauxlivia wasn't lying to Peter when she said that it started out an assignment but became something else.

The reappearance of Frank on the scene is fraught with personal complication for Fauxlivia and her struggle to come to terms with her feelings and how much to open up to Frank are juxtaposed with this week's investigation. Is there any hope for Frank and this Olivia? Or was their relationship doomed to fail once she returned to this world? And is there any hope for this Olivia to regain her equilibrium? (Cue squirm-inducing bug scene.)

The fantastically crafted episode also features Twin Peaks alum Joan Chen, who here plays Reiko, a woman with a connection to Walter Bishop. I don't want to say too much about who Riko is and the relationship she has to Walter, but I will say that it allows John Noble to offer a side to Walter/Walternate that we haven't yet really seen throughout the series. And it's great to see Chen, who memorably played Twin Peaks' Josie Packard, back on television. (Let's just say that the years have been kind to her.)

I can't shake the feeling that a certain license plate glimpsed in this episode is a clue for next week's episode (entitled "6B"). I wasn't aware of the title when I first watched "Immortality," but I found the letters on the plate to be suspicious enough to ponder. While I'm not sure of its significance yet, there's a similarity between that and the title that's too coincidental to let go of just yet.

(Some other thoughts: I'm curious just when we'll see our world's version of Lincoln Lee, who, on the other side, has stepped up as the insecure leader of the team now that Broyles is gone. Just where is Lincoln "over here," and what is he like? It would be interesting to see. Additionally: I can't shake the feeling that duality we're seeing--the red "Over There" universe and the blue "Over Here"--may be erased somehow by the end of the season. If it's not a case of only one universe surviving, then I wonder whether there wouldn't be the creation of, say, a yellow-colored third universe, perhaps one that combines the two somehow. Hmmm...)

All in all, "Immortality" is a fantastic installment that fuses together the personal with the professional, with a creepy mystery of the week and perhaps a turning point for the season itself, whose effects will be felt long after the closing credits.

Once again, this season has proven that Fringe is in pursuit of not just the mysteries of science but that of the soul itself. No small feat for a sci-fi drama but here the series' writers make it look effortless.

Fringe airs tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX.

Knowing: Two Hearts, Two Worlds on Fringe

We were never meant to know exactly what other people are thinking.

It's a given fact that our own egos, not to mention our hearts, are saved a great deal of grief by not being able to peer into the mind of the person sitting across from us at the dinner table, or the girl at the coffee shop, or the estranged lover whose mixed signals you're desperately trying to parse. Sometimes, it's better not to know what secrets lurk inside that mind, what true thoughts they're concealing from you, and perhaps just what feelings they're struggling with.

For Olivia, the opportunity to peek into Peter Bishop's mind would be a gift, to be able to separate the feelings that he claims to have for Olivia from the experiences he shared with Fauxlivia. To be able to know, in no uncertain terms, just which version of herself he cares for: the one that's quick to smile, easy with a laugh, or the real her, the one who dresses in blacks and greys, who doesn't often wear a dress, who keeps her heart shielded to the world at all time.

But knowing is a very dangerous thing.

On this week's episode of Fringe ("Concentrate and Ask Again"), written by Graham Roland and Matthew Pitts and directed by Dennis Smith, Olivia gets the chance to know just what Peter is thinking, towards which Olivia is heart is being pulled, and the answer cuts her right to the core. It's not that Peter is in love with someone else; it's that he's still in love with a better version of herself.

The truth, as Oscar Wilde once said, "is rarely pure and never simple."

Fringe has, over the course of the last few seasons, become a series that revolves around some very damaged people and, as members of the Fringe Division have learned more about themselves, that damage has only increased. Peter Bishop is in fact the kidnapped son of Walter Bishop from another dimension; Walter's mental deterioration and memory gaps are the result of actions taken by William Bell; Olivia Dunham is haunted by childhood experiments performed on her by Walter. They're bound together by shared trauma, by mutual damage, by dysfunctional family bonds, even as they learn the truth about themselves. And the truth hurts.

Olivia has realized his keenly of late, still finding echoes of the time she spent "over there" while her doppelganger enjoyed the life she ought to be living, one in romantic embrace with Peter, a scene of domestic bliss and easy casualness with one other. The heartbreak she experienced when she learned of this life was gutting and beautifully portrayed by Anna Torv, delivering some of the best emotionally-laced scenes of the series to date.

Peter maintains that he noticed changes in Olivia, he ascribed them to changes that he was provoking; that the sudden happiness she was existing in was due to their relationship, that her easy laugh was due to being in love. As I said last year, in my piece on "Marionette," the heart sees what it wants to see. Here, we see the flip side of that, as Olivia's rational brain attempts to come to terms with how deep Peter's feelings were for Fauxlivia, with how much he still cares for her, and for which version of her he's pining for.

Freud would say that there is no such thing as a mistake. Peter brings Olivia coffee with milk rather than her usual (black with one sugar), not because he's confused but because that's how the "other" Olivia drinks her coffee. It's a tell of the highest order, a sign that Fauxlivia is still on his mind, that the life he led with her hasn't been erased on any level.

But while Olivia would be left to try to talk to Peter about his feelings, to try to find the truth in his words, she's given the instrument of her emotional destruction in Simon Phillips, a Cortexiphan trial patient those file Walter had scrubbed from the program way back way. Simon has the ability to read people's minds, but he can't control his ability, leaving him withdrawn and isolated, living far away from everyone in a world of silence.

While Simon helps Olivia and the group stop an assassination plot tied to Project Jellyfish and a chemical weapon, Simon represents a two-fold purpose to Olivia. For one, he's an example of how her life could have turned out; for her emotional coldness, she still is of the world, whereas Simon has become a virtual recluse, unable to talk to the girl he has a crush on, unable to control his telepathic abilities, unable to walk through the world because he would be privy to everyone's thoughts. Second, he's able to offer Olivia the thing she can't: the ability to know what Peter is really thinking.

Simon's ability walks the line between blessing and curse. Some might see his gift as the most incredible opportunity, but the episode paints it as the curse that it is, leaving Simon a walking basketcase prone to migraines and nausea, unable to shut down the voices that permeate his every step.

But Simon, in the end, allows Olivia to make that determination for herself, to choose whether to remain ignorant or to open herself up to the truth, not matter how damaging it may be. Rather than tell her just what Peter is thinking, he writes in down and gives it to Olivia in an envelope.

The choice is Olivia's then: open the envelope and know, or burn it and remain in the dark about Peter's heart. But Olivia's job and her character demands that she knows the truth, no matter how painful. And in opening that white envelope and reading the single line written within, she has potentially destroyed any chance of happiness that may have existed between her and Peter when she sees that he still has feelings for Fauxlivia.

Knowing is dangerous. But there's something even darker at play here, as Nina Sharp learns when she deciphers the identity of the individual who wrote the First People books, none other than Sam Weiss himself.

Which is extremely interesting. Just who is Sam? Where does he come from? And how old is he, really? These books seemed to have been written quite some time ago, each in a different language, each written by him, the authors' different names a puzzle to be unlocked, opening a path directly towards him.

It was only a matter of time before Nina unscrambled those words and learned that it was Sam who had authored those books. Sam, to whom Nina had sent Olivia after her return to this world. Curious, that. He now appears to be a much more significant character than we had initially realized, here assuming a much more knowing presence than any of our central characters. He's aware of the First People and of the doomsday device, that sword of Damocles dangling over two worlds.

The machine can be used to create or destroy, which is an interesting duality to set up with two worlds in the balance. Good versus evil, life versus death, creation versus destruction. The outcome depends on which Peter chooses, by what harmonic frequency he's vibrating at. Just as the Peter and the machine seem to have awakened each other, vibrating in harmony, so too will each affect the other. Will Peter walk the path of the hero or of the villain? Will he choose to love Olivia or her lookalike? Which world will he save and which will he damn?

It's only fitting that the fates of two universe will be dictated by one man's heart. But, by knowing just what Peter is thinking, by breaking the bond of trust between these two separate people, Olivia may have just unwittingly tipped the balance. One can only hope that she can change his mind. And his heart.

Next week on Fringe ("Immortality"), in the alternate universe, the Fringe team is forced to adjust to Colonel Broyles' absence during an investigation of a bioterrorist who unleashes a flesh-eating insect; Fauxlivia is reunited with her boyfriend; despite remaining determined to save his world, Walternate discovers there are lines he won't cross.

Fringe Fridays: 140-Character Testimonials

I asked, you answered.

To celebrate the arrival of another Fringe Friday, I took to Twitter to ask you to sum up why you loved FOX's Fringe in 140 characters or less. No small feat, given the rampant love for this mind-bending sci-fi drama, which recently moved to Friday evenings during its fantastic third season.

The responses I got were not surprisingly impassioned and intelligent, and demonstrated why Fringe has struck a chord with its devoted viewers. (Among whom, I count myself as a member.)

Curious to see just what Fringe-philes had to say about why they love the show? You can check out the responses below, which I will continue to update throughout the day. And don't forget: there's an all-new Fringe tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX!

Fringe in 140 Characters or Less:

mtoddcohen: "I love #FRINGE b/c it's dynamic, intelligent, and perfectly blended with unexpected humor. In short, it's science with charm."

SterlingCooper1: "I love Fringe b/c it continues where the XFiles stopped, it shows us what real love is about and that nothing is as it seems."

TorreyHam: "Fringe is a prime example of how TV can excel far beyond film in terms of connecting with viewers. We are lucky to have it."

SnapTheJap: "aside from the terms 'Walternate' and 'Fauxlivia" it's self-contained sci-fi that SEEMS feasible. Next-Files."

Kaelity: "#Fringe is thrilling, creepy, funny, romantic, smart, beautiful, heartbreaking and a tweet is not enough to say everything."

Cortexifans: "Love #Fringe 'cause it makes us feel, think, imagine. Has amazing cast and crew work and makes a Fringe Family with the fans."

brandollars: "Sci-fi amazingness with plenty of mystery & more importantly, real characters with believable drama."

DamianLovesTV: "because it is 50% scary, 50% science-y, and 100% awesome. plus it was my first cover story!"

CathTerrierette: "I can tell you why I love #Fringe in just ONE word: Walter!!!"

r1pvanw1nkl3: "john 'effing noble"

LostBoneyBoot: "It is intelligent, engaging, intriguing television, with strong characters whose stories are developed authentically/honestly."

scriptgrrl: "doppelganger love triangle"

_Dani_79: "I love #Fringe cause it's the g8est series ever.I adore Anna Torv.She is the best actress on TV@themoment.She totally rocks!"

manissag: "b/c there's nothing else like it. It's a mix of sci-fi, drama, action, & comedy. #Fringe is TV brought to the next level ;)"

Starbuck7121: "Two words: Anna Torv. She melts my brain. Plus, #Fringe is beyond brilliant. It pretty much blows my mind on a regular basis."

paperplanesca: "I love Fringe for it has such a smart way to show 'impossible' events look scientifically possible!"

ActiveDoll: "unusually successful mainstream SF, fringe's strength lies in subtle casting, & constant reimagining of the underlyng arc."

EnergyTanks: "Fringe embodies the best elements of sci-fi TV of the past 30 years. Also, the cast is incredible."

HouseBonesLove: "I love Fringe because the cases are mind blowing and every episode just keeps getting better! Yay for Fringe Friday!"

spcebaby: "I <3 Fringe b/c it puts the 'Science' in 'Science Fiction'!"

kyrssy: "John Noble, nuff said."

dianadavis76: "I love #Fringe because it's innovative, thought provoking, well written, well acted and exciting! I can't wait for each week!"

witharmsakimbo: "I love #Fringe b/c it underlines the human core in a world dominated by science. Plus I get a weekly dose of Joshua Jackson!"

aimeeinchains: "Most heart-felt, thought-provoking, well-written, best-acted show. Action, Science, family, love; speaks to the soul."

BIGANDER: "for its delicious strawberry flavored death."

truffle_shuffle: "You thought the X-Files was good? Not as good as #Fringe."

JudeLaBarre: "Walter and his relationship with his son. Also how the writers resolve the intricacies of having parallel universes."

On tonight's episode of Fringe ("Reciprocity"), the doomsday device is assembled at Massive Dynamic, but a worried Walter asks Nina for help in understanding Peter's relationship to the weapon.

Don't Forget: New Fringe Tonight on Fox!

Attention, Fringe faithful!

Beginning tonight, FOX's Fringe makes the move to its new home on Friday evenings at 9 pm ET/PT. Given this move and the, uh, traditions of this timeslot, it's safe to say that FOX will be paying particular attention to the ratings and how much of Fringe's audience followed the shift in scheduling and stuck with the show.

To this end, please tune in.

And please remind everyone you know who loves the show to do the same. DVR numbers will definitely play a role here, just as they did on Thursday evenings, but it's essential that you watch this week's episode ("The Firefly") as soon as you possibly can. (Live ratings, after all, are still hugely important.)

In the meantime, you can read my spoiler-light advance review of Fringe's "The Firefly" here. It's truly a fantastic and emotional episode and sets up the back end of the season.

Fringe airs tonight at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX.

The Firefly: An Advance Review of This Week's Episode of Fringe

Many viewers and critics--myself included--had a lot to say when FOX announced that it was moving its fantastic sci-fi drama Fringe to Fridays.

After all, the series had hit new creative highs both last season and in the current third season, amid a storyline involving human nature, doppelgangers, alternate universes, and the consequences of a father's love. The series had successfully transformed itself from a science fiction-laden monster-of-the-week procedural into something more enduring and heartfelt, a drama that at its center was about a collection of very damaged individuals who had carved out something resembling a family even when facing down some fiendish plot to destroy the universe or science run amok on a weekly basis.

At TCA's winter press tour last week, FOX entertainment president Kevin Reilly publicly declared his support for Fringe, amid increasing worry that the series was being put out to pasture on Friday evenings. Those concerned about the move should at least take comfort in this fact: When Fringe moves to Fridays this week, it does so with its core mission and its brilliance very much intact.

I had the chance to see this week's wondrous new episode of Fringe ("The Firefly"), written by Jeff Pinkner and J. H. Wyman, which managed to be brilliant and heartbreaking in equal measure.

Fringe soars when it explores not only the mysteries of science but also the mysteries of the soul. Here, it does so with expert precision, examining the consequences of our actions, both seen and unseen. The road to hell, as they say, is paved with good intentions. When Walter Bishop (John Noble) cut through the curtain between dimensions in order to save the life of another world's Peter Bishop after losing his own son, he set in motion a chain of events that damned two universes in the process. A father's grief, his love, his devotion destroyed countless lives in the process. But what are two worlds when weighed against a child's life?

(Note: Very minor spoilers follow. As always, please do not post this review in full on any message boards, websites, or fan sites without written permission.)

Chaos theory at its most elementary posits that every action has an outward ripple effect. In essence, a butterfly beating its wings can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world. Imagine then what the consequences would be if one were to actually punch a hole through dimensions, to replace a dead child for a living one, to throw the natural order out of balance altogether. We've seen the result of Walter's actions Over There, the widespread destruction, the amber, the shocking devastation.

But Peter being alive Over Here must also have consequences then as well. Something as simple as a firefly, a little phosphorescent insect caught in the hand of a child, can itself have a ripple effect, setting in motion a chain of events that's breathtaking in its brutality. The firefly then becomes emblematic of the unseen, its light at odds with the veil of ignorance surrounding Walter Bishop. In saving this boy's life, he has altered the outcomes of several futures because Peter wasn't supposed to live. In stealing this child from his world, Walter's actions are both noble and foolhardy, the short-term benefits paling in comparison to the long-term damage.

But Walter hasn't seen just what consequences his good intentions have wrought. Until now.

I don't want to give too much away about this extraordinary episode, but I will say that "The Firefly" dramatizes the results of Walter's great experiment, showing the audience the web of consequence stemming from that fateful night. But the chain of events that he unleashed upon the world tautly circle back onto him. There's always a price to pay in any Faustian arrangement, and Walter sees here first-hand just how high that tariff is.

The great Christopher Lloyd guest stars in the episode as Roscoe Joyce, the keyboardist of Walter's favorite band, Violet Sedan Chair (previously mentioned on-air), now a lonely old soul living in a nursing facility, his memory at odds with his intelligence. If that reminds you of someone else, you're on the right track. These two strangers are intrinsically bound together by threads of fate. Thrown together, each has a part to play in the other's life, as that chain of events constricts ever tighter. There's a simpatico spirit to these two brilliant men, their minds both shattered, their lives eerily similar in a way. Both have endured great losses, and in coming together, each offers the other a way to make amends.

Lloyd's performance as Roscoe is staggering here and, in a more just world, he would nab an Emmy nomination for his depiction of the haunted keyboardist who reawakens to the possibilities of the world when he crosses paths with Walter Bishop. (Noble, as I've argued for years now, is supremely deserving of a nomination, yet is continually and criminally overlooked by the Academy voters.)

It's worth noting that "The Firefly" features a procedural element, as always, but the case that the Fringe Division faces ties into the overarching narrative this season and features The Observer. But just what is The Observer doing and what exactly is he trying to course-correct here? Interesting....

Likewise, the episode also continues the gut-wrenching plotline involving Olivia (Anna Torv) and Peter (Joshua Jackson) as they grapple with the fallout from the realization that Peter was romantically involved with Olivia's alternate dimension look-alike. Comparing herself to Rip Van Winkle, Olivia feels like a sleepwalker in her own life, waking up to discover that the world has moved on without her.

A package received in the mail--a copy of "If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him!"--becomes symbolic of what she's lost and what she's missed out on. But, if this episode proves anything, it's that you don't often get second chances at life. Sometimes, you have to seize the moment, put aside the baggage, and start over. And sometimes, that's not possible at all outside of our dreams.

(Quick aside: Twin Peaks fans, look for a throwaway shout-out to David Lynch and Mark Frost's seminal series within the episode--both a visual and dialogue cue, in fact--that seems to establish that Fringe and Twin Peaks are, in fact, taking place within a shared narrative universe. A both terrifying and tantalizing proposition, really.)

Ultimately, "The Firefly" asks thought-provoking questions about culpability. Can we be held accountable for the unseen consequences of our actions? Is guilt for such fallout misplaced or deserved? When faced with making the same decision again, do we alter our course? Can any of us truly change? And what will we do when faced with the possibility of sacrifice? The dominoes are beginning to fall into place for Olivia and the Bishops, and this viewer is waiting with baited breath to see which way the pieces fall.

Fringe moves to its new timeslot this Friday evening at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX.

TCA Diary: FOX Executive Session

"I'd be heartbroken if it went away."

That's FOX President of Entertainment Kevin Reilly talking about sci-fi drama Fringe as the TCA Winter Press Tour rolls on, with FOX's Kevin Reilly and Peter Rice addressing the press.

One topic widely expected to be discussed was the fate of FOX's Fringe, which will move from Thursdays to Fridays later this month.

Among the other topics raised at the low-key (a change for FOX, given the previous years', uh, traditional hubbub) executive session: the future of Lie to Me, House, and Bones, Terra Nova, Lone Star, and more.

So what did the two have to say? Let's take a look.

Fringe: "I beg you not to write the eulogy prematurely," said Reilly. "It's been in a four-way scripted race. I want that audience to transfer to Fridays."

And just like many of us, Reilly seems to really like Fringe: "I'd be heartbroken if it went away."

Reilly said that, with the move to the Friday night slot, Fringe is now more free to play to its fans, rather than try to bring in new viewers on a weekly basis.

"If we just transfer the ratings we have to Friday nights, we have significantly increased our audience in terms of number and quality," he said. If they can keep up the numbers--and the DVR numbers as well--Fringe could stick around "for many years to come."

So... if you watched Fringe when it aired on Thursdays, please watch it on Fringe

Lie to Me: "[Lie to Me] has developed a very loyal audience, where ever we put it." While its fate is still undecided, it doesn't depend on just whether The Chicago Code succeeds or fails, but all of the other midseason shows as well.

House and Bones: Reilly said that he anticipates that both House and Bones will return next season. Some contract negotiations going on behind the scenes but both shows are creatively strong.

Locke & Key: Reilly said supernatural drama pilot Locke & Key was originally intended for summer but it's now being looked at for elsewhere. "It's in the hopper for May and we'll see."

Lone Star: "We could talk a long time about it. We made a show that we really loved... Not enough people showed up to watch it," said Rice. "The truth is it failed. It failed to meet expectations we had... I'd much rather fail w/a show that we're creatively proud of."

Reilly said that the remaining six episodes of Lone Star could still air, but... "I can get you a discount on the box set," said Reilly.

Terra Nova: Rice said that Terra Nova is "on budget" and denies there are budget overruns, while Reilly said that director Alex Graves came in "right on budget" whilst shooting the two-hour pilot in the Australian rainforest.

Running Wilde: "I think I watered down Mitch's vision," said Reilly, joking. "I think the show was struggling to find its legs." He went on to say that it was a case of too little, too late when the show found its feet.

Glee Redux: Reilly on competitors' efforts to replicate Glee: "It will just make #Glee look that much better."

Development: "There is a long-term focus on what our schedule should be," said Rice. Same amount of money was spent on development this year, maybe even more, he said.

And that's a wrap for the executive session.

Year in TV: The 10 Best (and 5 Worst) TV Shows of 2010

It's that time of year when we bid farewell to the last twelve months and start looking toward the future, but it's also a chance to reflect, to catalogue, and to reminisce as well.

My selections for the Ten Best (and, cough, five worst) TV shows of 2010 have now gone live over at The Daily Beast.

The series selected represent the very best that television had to offer the past twelve months and include such shows as Mad Men, Community, Terriers, Parks and Recreation, The Good Wife, Fringe, Justified, Boardwalk Empire, Friday Night Lights, and Modern Family.

It wasn't easy to whittle down the competition to just ten shows as, despite the overall drain in creativity this calendar year, there were quite a lot of fantastic series. (In fact, one of the very best of the year didn't even air on American television at all: Season Three of BBC One's Ashes to Ashes--including its breathtaking and gut-wrenching series finale--would have made this list if it had been open to overseas programming that hadn't aired within the US during 2010. Additionally, Downton Abbey would have made the list but it's set to air in January on PBS, so will be held until the 2011 list.)

As for other runners-up, that category would include (but wouldn't be limited to) such series as Damages, Party Down, Nurse Jackie, Sherlock, Bored to Death, Better Off Ted, Doctor Who, True Blood, Treme, Big Love, Archer, The Choir, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The IT Crowd, The Life and Times of Tim, Luther, and 30 Rock (for the current season, at least).

But now that the list is (finally) live, I'm curious to hear what you had to say:

What's your take on the best of 2010? Do you agree with my picks for the best of the year and the worst? Head to the comments section to discuss, debate, and analyze, as well as share your own best-of list for 2010.

VIDEO: Friday Night Re-animation with Fringe

Looks like FOX is being more than a little tongue-in-cheek with this new video, touting the move to the traditional Friday night death-slot for Fringe:



Fringe moves to Fridays beginning January 21st at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX.