Channel Surfing: Syfy Standing Behind "Caprica," David Tennant to Star in BBC One Drama, Maggie Q Suits Up for CW's "Nikita," "Bones," and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

Syfy's latest original series Caprica isn't going anywhere any time soon, according to the cabler's EVP of original programming Mark Stern in an interview with Airlock Alpha's Michael Hinman. "We're definitely with Caprica for the long haul," said Stern. "There's no question about it. We knew exactly what it was not going to be, that is an easily adopted show. It's not Battlestar Galactica, it's its own animal. And we definitely recognize that it's going to find its audience and it's going to grow its audience... We're certainly not sharpening the axe by any stretch of the imagination. We all really believe in the show, and it has a lot of potential." Set to air its fourth episode tonight, Caprica will air the first half of its freshman season (10 episodes) before taking a breather and returning in late summer, where it will be paired with another original series as a lead-in. [Editor: my best guess? Look for Caprica to be paired with Haven, the adaptation of Stephen King's "The Colorado Kid."] (Airlock Alpha)

David Tennant has been cast as the lead in Single Father, a four-part drama series for BBC One that is written by Mick Ford (Ashes to Ashes). Production is slated to begin next month on the BBC Scotland-produced drama, which revolves around a photographer and single dad who must raise his four children on his own and who falls in love with his wife's best friend. "I feel very lucky to have been sent this script," said Tennant in a statement. "When I read what Mick Ford had written I was desperate to be part of this project. And to be working with Red Production Company again makes me very happy indeed." (BBC)

Maggie Q (Mission: Impossible III) has been cast as the title character in the CW's Nikita, from executive producers McG and Craig Silverstein. In this version (itself one in a long line of remakes and updates since Luc Besson's 1990 La Femme Nikita), Maggie Q will play "a new Nikita being trained to replace the original one after she goes rogue." Casting marks the highest-profile minority casting at the netlet in its four-year history. Elsewhere, Roselyn Sanchez (Without a Trace) has landed the lead in Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters' ABC drama pilot Cutthroat, where she will play Nina Cabrera, a Beverly Hills widow who runs a drug cartel. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks to Bones executive producer Stephen Nathan about what's coming up for Booth and Brennan on the FOX procedural drama series before the end of the season. "The season finale is taking shape now and it’s going to be quite a surprise," Nathan told Ausiello. "We literally are in the process of working it out. We’ve had this in our minds for quite a while, and it’s gelling now. It’s going to be a pretty big episode for us in terms of what happens to Booth and Brennan.... This one will be as big [as the Season Four ender] in emotional terms." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Former Wonderfalls star Caroline Dhavernas has landed one of the three lead roles in Shonda Rhimes' ABC medical drama pilot Off the Map. She'll play Lily, described as "a young doctor who deals with tragedy by moving to a jungle in South America to work in a free clinic." (TVGuide.com)

Rachelle Lefevre (Twilight) has been cast as one of the leads in CBS' untitled Hannah Shakespeare drama pilot, which is being executive produced by John Wells (ER). Lefevre, most recently seen on ABC's The Deep End, will play "a confident young doctor more comfortable in the field than in the office" in the drama, which revolves around a mobile medical team that travels the country helping those less fortunate who need extreme medical attention. Elsewhere, Meanwhile, Carrie Wiita (Reno 911!) and Andrea Savage (Dinner for Schmucks) have joined the cast of NBC comedy pilot The Strip, which stars Tom Lennon. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Harold Perrineau (Lost) will guest star on CBS' CSI: NY in April, in an episode where he will play a death row inmate who is trapped inside the prison during a riot and who has a major bombshell to deliver to Hawkes (Hill Harper). (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Pilot director update: Simon West (Human Target) will direct the pilot for NBC's vigilante drama pilot The Cape; Jace Alexander (Burn Notice) will direct ABC drama pilot Edgar Floats; Bronwen Hughes (White Collar) will direct ABC dramedy pilot Cutthroat; David Semel (Heroes) will direct the pilot for ABC superhero family drama No Ordinary Family; Yves Simoneau (V) will direct ABC drama pilot Matadors, Peter Horton (Grey's Anatomy) will direct ABC cop drama True Blue; Gary Fleder will direct ABC's untitled Richard Hatem crime drama; Bill D'Elia (Boston Legal) will direct David E. Kelley's NBC pilot Kindreds; Terry George (Hotel Rwanda) will direct NBC's untitled John Eisendrath legal drama (aka Rough Justice); and Ken Fink (CSI) will direct CBS drama pilot The Odds. (Hollywood Reporter)

Looks like Glee will be continuing into the summer. Or at least until June 8th, when it will wrap up its freshman season. FOX confirmed the finale date, along with those for Fringe and Bones (May 20th), House (May 17th), Human Target (May 5th), and several others. (Futon Critic)

SPOILER! TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck has some details about what's in store for Season Seven of HBO's Entourage, which is about to begin production. "Vince will be working on a new big-budget film with lots of stunts and pyro techniques, requiring a stunt coordinator to help Vince (Adrian Grenier) through some dangerous scenes," writes Keck. "Meanwhile, Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) will be starting up a new business venture, hiring three sexy girls named Sarah, Rachel and Abby to chauffeur the rich and famous around L.A. Of course, the girls would rather be working as actresses in Vince's new film." (TV Guide Magazine)

Rufus Sewell (The Eleventh Hour) will star as Italian detective Aurelio Zen in a three feature-length dramas for BBC One based on Michael Didbin's novels. (BBC)

In other UK news, Season Two of five-part mystery drama Five Days will launch on BBC One in March. It will star Suranne Jones, David Morrissey, Anne Reid, Hugo Speer, Bernard Hill, Derek Riddell, Nina Sosanya, Steve Evets, Ashley Walters, Shaun Dooley, Matthew McNulty, Navin Chowdhry, Shivani Ghai, Sacha Dhawan, Cornell John, Aaron Neil, Philip Arditti, Kerry Condon, and Chris Fountain. According to the press materials: "Five Days 2 is an atmospheric ensemble drama – a mystery which unfolds over the five most significant days of the police investigation into these two mysteries. It is set in the heart of urban Yorkshire – a melting pot of tensions and relationships within a multicultural landscape." (BBC)

HBO has already renewed its 12-episode freshman comedy series Funny or Die, which premieres tonight, for a second season of 10 episodes. (Variety)

Allison Janey (The West Wing) will guest star on USA's In Plain Sight in a two-episode story arc in which she'll play "a newly-appointed US Marshal for the district who butts heads with Mary (Mary McCormack)." Janey is especially in demand this season, with the actor scoring a co-starring role opposite Matthew Perry in ABC comedy pilot Mr. Sunshine and a recurring role in Showtime drama pilot Shameless. (Hollywood Reporter)

TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that former Charlie's Angels star Jaclyn Smith will guest star in an upcoming episode of NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where she will play a former police officer. (TV Guide Magazine)

A&E has ordered a second season of docudrama Steven Seagal: Lawman, with 16 episodes set on tap. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Universes Collide: The Truth Will Out on the Winter Finale of "Fringe"

Now that's a cliffhanger to tide us over until April.

Last night's winter finale of Fringe ("Jacksonville"), written by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz and directed by Charles Beeson, may have pushed the members of the Fringe Division to their breaking point.

Several hard truths emerged as Olivia came face to face with a terror from her childhood... and a situation in the present that will likely have dire consequences for their little dysfunctional family unit.

This season of Fringe in particular has done a superb job of keeping the character dynamics moving along while juggling both a complex overarching mythology plot and compelling mysteries of the week. But every now and then an episode comes long (like last season's superlative "Ability") that changes up the delicate balance established among the characters.

You had the chance to read my advance review of last night's winter finale, but now that the episode has aired, we can talk more specifically about the plot.

"Jacksonville" worked on a number of levels. On its most shallow level, it was a horror-tinged adventure story about what happens when two worlds literally collide as molecules intermingle and blisteringly join with horrific results. The gripping opening sequence, depicting an architect (The Wire's Jim True-Frost) literally fusing together with his other-dimensional counterpart, was a gruesome and vivid way to raise the stakes for this week's installment. I thought that the writers did a brilliant job at keeping us guessing just what was going on (and, in fact, where we were) until the very last second. And seeing the head of poor Ted Pratchett (True-Frost) stuck in his chest? Utterly macabre and jaw-dropping.

But it was, once again, the personal stakes for Olivia, Peter, and Walter that made this episode just as compelling as it was. The team headed to Jacksonville, Florida, so that Walter could recreate the experiment he performed on Olivia as a child. By retracing her steps, Olivia was forced to confront not just what happened to her as an innocent but the true nature of Walter Bishop himself, a man so convinced that the ends justify the means that he and William Bell were willing to abuse the children in their care and force them to undergo horrific and terrifying experiences in the name of saving the world.

The look of horror as Olivia came out of her subconscious journey was as palpable as the disgust towards Walter that so clearly registered on her face. Olivia has come to understand Walter these past two seasons and perhaps even regard him as something approaching a father-figure but with the knowledge that he forced her and dozens of other children to visit a nightmarish dream landscape in an effort to tap into their latent abilities and drugged them with cortexiphan is more than Olivia can handle. And I can't say that I blame her. What Walter did to her--mercifully forgotten by Olivia until now--is horrific. That he flipped a switch inside of her and caused her to lash out using pyrokinetic abilities, all for the sake of a mission she knew nothing about, is a truth that's hard to swallow.

It's perhaps only because the clock was ticking that Olivia allowed Walter to create the cortexiphan experiment in the first place. And, luckily for all of them, it does--thanks to some fear (more on that in a bit)--reawaken Olivia's gifts, allowing her to see the location of a building in our Manhattan that is going to be pulled over to the other side to balance the mass equation. Lives are saved, crisis averted. But there's an unexpected side effect of the cortexiphan that enabled Olivia to continue to see that tell-tale shimmer of objects from the alternate universe.

But, first, the elephant in the room. Yes, Peter and Olivia nearly kissed last night and it was only averted because Olivia suddenly experienced a twinge of fear, a terror of intimacy that has marked her entire adult life. With the possibility of a romance developing between her and Peter, she felt fear again, a fear that enabled her to catalyze her ability once more. I have to say that while I'm glad that the series went there after two seasons, I am hoping that this is the closest we get to a full-blown romance between Peter and Olivia.

Personally, I much prefer this duo as something akin to spiritual siblings rather than lovers. The familial aspect of Fringe has always made it particularly appealing to me because these three damaged individuals were able to craft something resembling a family unit out of the terror and horror of their professional lives. In other words: I'm more than happy to see Peter and Olivia remain as friends and partners rather than hopping into bed together.

It's unlikely, anyway, that the latter will happen after Olivia discovered--thanks to her nifty new ability--that Peter himself is from "over there." Witnessing the shimmer cascading over Peter's body, Olivia knew instantly that he had been taken removed from the alternate universe. It's a shocking discovery that will likely break her from any possible intimacy with Peter Bishop.

But the truly heartbreaking moment came after that as Walter begged Olivia not to tell Peter. Will she be able to keep this a secret? Can she ever look at Walter the same way again? All of his crimes have been motivated by keeping the world safe. But this--the kidnapping of a child, the theft of someone else's son, decades of lies--might be more burden than Olivia Dunham can handle.

Just what will happen to our troika of pattern-pursuing crusaders? Will Walter's secret eat at Olivia, just as it has Walter? Will Peter find out sooner rather than later? And how are we expected to wait until April for more Fringe? Discuss.

Fringe returns with all-new episodes on April 1st on FOX.

Hard Choices: An Advance Review of Tonight's Winter Finale of "Fringe"

"There are times when the only choices you have left are bad ones." -Phillip Broyles

Throughout the season and a half run thus far on Fringe, the Fringe Division has managed to contain several deadly threats against this world. Mad scientists, alternate universe soldiers, and bizarre phenomena are just par for the course for the loose collection of associates-turned-dysfunctional family members witnessed on the series. Season Two of Fringe has done a sensational job at crafting taut and often terrifying mysteries of the week while also focusing week to week on the evolution of the relationships between the core characters of Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and Peter and Walter Bishop (Joshua Jackson and John Noble).

Tonight's fantastic winter finale of Fringe ("Jacksonville") finds the team grappling with their toughest and most dangerous case yet as the walls between the two worlds are seemingly becoming thinner and thinner when two buildings--one from "our" world and the other from the alternate universe--collide with deadly consequences.

A race against the clock to prevent this tragedy from unfolding again forces Olivia to come to terms with a dark period in her childhood that she has seemed to block from her memory and comes face to face with the truth behind Walter Bishop's experiments.

I don't want to say too much about the plot of tonight's truly amazing installment because half of the fun of the winter finale is in seeing the plot twists unfold. But I will say that after tonight's episode some relationships will be changed in unexpected ways and others may be fractured forever.

The cozy and familial atmosphere developed between our core troika of characters is built on a bed of lies. Olivia might see Walter as a bit of a doddering father figure but that perception is severely tested when Walter takes Olivia back to the Jacksonville of the title, the small Florida town where, as a helpless child, Olivia was experimented on by Walter and his then-partner William Bell and treated with a drug called cortexiphan.

This period in Olivia's childhood was dealt with in two previous episodes ("Ability" and "Bad Dreams") but the subplot is brought into sharp focus in tonight's episode as both Olivia's abilities, cortexiphan, and the childhood incident alluded to in "Bad Dreams" is dealt with head on.

For the members of the Fringe Division, there have never been easy choices. After all, they've been tasked with safeguarding the country--if not the entire world--against any number of threats to reality itself. Nearly every choice is a hard one and that's never more clearly felt than in tonight's episode, which pushes several of the characters to their breaking point.

The result is easily one of Fringe's best episodes to date, a gripping and engaging thrillride that takes us deep into the characters' backstories but also points towards the future of the series, once it returns in April. In other words: miss this crucial episode at your peril.

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

The Seahorse: Fathers and Sons on "Fringe"

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: won't somebody please give John Noble an Emmy nomination?

Noble's work on Fringe as the addled Dr. Walter Bishop has been absolutely superlative these past two seasons. As the action mounts to next week's winter finale of Fringe, Noble has rendered Walter as a truly tragic figure, one whose seeming innocence and scientific curiosity belies a true pragmatist, a man willing to make the tough decisions that no one else wants to make.

Never was this more true than in last night's compelling episode of Fringe ("The Bishop Revival"), which found the team dealing with a chemical weapon capable of targeting specific gene groups or individuals and unearthing a connection between the deadly technology and the Bishop family itself.

Despite its format as a procedural series, Fringe has done a smashing job this season at keeping the character development moving along swiftly and wisely placing the emphasis on the relationships between the three core characters. Over the past few weeks, we've learned a great deal about Walter's relationship to and obsessive love for his son Peter. This week, he looked to draw Olivia even closer into his family, urging Peter to marry Olivia.

It was a small moment but spoke volumes about the love that Walter has for Olivia. Despite what may have been done to her as a child by Walter and his former partner William Bell, it's clear that Walter has a paternal love for Agent Dunham. He cares for her deeply and wants to see her happy and he wants Peter to be happy. Therefore, the only logical solution is to put the two of them together.

I'm glad that Peter shot down this line of romantic inquiry straightaway. There's been a nice tension between Peter and Olivia since the start of the series but I've been extremely pleased to see that the writers haven't pushed the two of them into a full-blown flirtation or paired them off into will-they-or-won't-they couplehood. I think that Peter and Olivia work best as friends or emotional siblings; it gives their relationship some nice heft while also making Fringe different in this respect: the team isn't just colleagues, but a rather dysfunctional family.

Last night's episode once more mined the former estrangement between Walter and Peter for dramatic purposes, revealing that Peter had sold Walter's prize possessions--a series of German novels owned by his own father Dr. Bishoff--while he was in St. Clare's as an act of revenge. What Peter didn't know was that these novels were in fact repositories of secret Nazi science and that his grandfather was a Allied spy working to sabotage the scientific aims of the Third Reich.

I'm glad that it wasn't Peter's foolhardy sale of those books that brought about the killer airborne weapon that the mysterious German was developing but rather an unexpected coincidence. That the German was in fact over 100 years old and had known Walter's father was a more interesting twist, one that was left tantalizingly unsolved at the end of the episode. (Though it had been mentioned earlier that the Nazis were investigating a fountain of youth.)

(Interesting aside: I loved that Bishoff's signature was the seahorse--supposedly, he was a good swimmer--but given that we've so far only learned about the male side of the Bishop family tree, a fitting motif, given that male seahorses carry the eggs of their offspring.)

Walter's own attack by this individual placed his life in jeopardy (though, interestingly, the weapon was synthesized to only attack Walter and not his whole gene line) and Walter was able to turn the tables on the German and attack him using his own tools of destruction, murdering the man in front of an assembly of hundreds at the charity event. I had a feeling that Walter would strike back but didn't think that he would so calmly murder this man nor that he would tell Broyles that he knew what he had done and would face the consequences.

In the end, as Walter said, family is the most important thing to him. The act of murder he commits not only saves the world from this maniac's twisted ideals but also reclaims his father's work and safeguards them from once more falling into the wrong hands. If there's one thing that motivates Walter Bishop it is the protection of those he loves as evidenced by the lengths he went--wrongly--to bring his son back from the dead by replacing him with his alternate reality counterpart. It's an action that could end up destroying their world, even if it was based in a father's grief.

What did you think of this week's episode? Should Noble finally get some recognition for his amazing turn as Walter Bishop? Discuss.

Next week on the winter finale of Fringe ("Jacksonville"), a violent tremor at a Manhattan office building leaves only one survivor who leads the team to believe he is not from this reality; Walter surmises that what shook the building was not geologic, but rather something discovered by him and William Bell many years ago; the team races to Jacksonville, the site of Walter and William's experiments, forcing Olivia to face her mysterious past and save hundreds of people from certain death.

Why John Noble of FOX's "Fringe" Deserves an Emmy

While Emmy nominations are a long way off, I'd like to draw attention to the stunning performance of Fringe's John Noble. (Yes, it's a long way off but keep it under your hats, Emmy voters.)

FOX thriller Fringe is a series that I always watch on Thursday nights (so as not to be spoiled) but, as I was out on Thursday evening, I've only now caught up. Last week's absolutely sensational installment of Fringe ("Grey Matters") offered up not only an advancement of the series' overarching mythology plot but also placed the focus squarely on John Noble's Walter Bishop.

Throughout my coverage of Fringe's outstanding second season, I've often drawn attention to Noble's nuanced and compelling portrayal of Walter Bishop in his chief roles as mad scientist, drug-addled theorist, culinary devotee, father, and, well, father substitute and it pains me that he's gone overlooked for an award nomination as long as he has.

Over the course of the last two seasons, Noble has given a bravura performance as Walter, alternating between periods of madness, loss, and keening pain. This week's episode allowed him to come face to face with the cause of his memory loss and forced him to come to terms with the possible path of his own destruction and that of the entire planet.

Motivated by the loss of his child, Walter opened a door between the worlds and kidnapped an alternate universe Peter and brought him back from the other side to our world, where he raised him as his own. Whereas before Walter was moved by loss, he is now crippled by fear: fear that he will lose Peter all over again, either by someone's hand or by dint of Peter learning the horrible fact of what was done to him.

Was it a father's love? Or the horrific hubris of a man used to playing god? Thanks to Noble's deeply moving performance, it's both. There's a somber sadness to Walter, a man obsessed with culinary cravings who both lives in the past and is determined to forget it. This week's episode got to the root of those memory losses, introducing a plot in which the knowledge of how Walter moved between the worlds was literally cut out of his brain and forcibly implanted within the brain tissue of three unsuspecting civilians, each of whom went insane.

That we learn that the man responsible for literally ripping out the memories from Walter's head is none other than his former partner William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) is all the more shocking. Did Walter willingly submit to the procedure in order to safeguard an invasion from "over there"? Or did Bell betray his partner and force him to undergo the surgery?

It's unclear. But what we do know is that much of what Walter has suffered--his madness, his memory loss, the loss of seventeen years of his life--is all down to that one fateful decision, a choice that now affects the lives of everyone in his world.

Noble brings this onus to life vividly--the drooping of his body, the sadness of his eyes, the fear in his stuttering words--that the Atlas-like weight of his burden is clearly felt. (Look at the scene where he admits to unsuccessfully searching for a cure for his madness.) It's in the smallest of nuance that Noble imbues Walter with a tremendous sense of being a tragic figure in the most Shakespearean of terms. His fatal flaw was that he disregarded the natural order of things, played God, wreaked untold havoc in order to restore his son. A son that he could very well lose once the truth is revealed. And, lest we forget, the truth always comes out in the end.

This week's episode moved the possibility of revelation along quite nicely. The heartbreak with which Walter saw an image representing Peter's coffin (after a shot of custard) was powerfully affecting as was the transformation of Walter once the disparate parts of his brain were finally reconnected. In those moments, we saw not the fragile shell of a man that Walter is now, but a shadow of his former self: arrogant, forceful, and domineering. A man willing to do the unthinkable, to break the laws of the universe, to make a Faustian bargain that will inevitably undo everything he strove to create.

"Grey Matters" demonstrated Noble's fantastic range and his penchant for making Walter tantalizing flawed. There are few actors that could pull off the subtle transformation and the compelling mix of emotions that Noble conveys each and every week, much less make it as gut-wrenching as Noble does on Fringe each and every week.

Fringe returns with new episodes on Thursday, January 14th at 9 pm ET/PT on FOX.

The Lost Man: Independence Day on "Fringe"

Fringe definitely has a formula week to week.

There's nice symmetry to seeing Anna Torv's Olivia Dunham and Josh Jackson's Peter Bishop in the field, chasing down leads and suspects, while John Noble's Walter Bishop and Jasika Nicole's Astrid Farnsworth perform various experiments at the lab. This dynamic not only works to further the procedural elements of the show but there's a cozy predictability to just where each of the characters will spend the hour.

This week's episode of Fringe ("Snakehead") subverted that dynamic. While Olivia and Peter's investigation still provided the crux of the episode's mystery of the week, the most interesting elements of this week's installment was the fact that both Walter and Astrid ended up out in the field, a move that placed both of them in serious jeopardy.

But rather than have the duo there just for the sake of being there, the writers cannily used this opportunity to further Walter's character, in particular his quest for independence and his reliance on Peter and the others.

Determined to prove that he's an adult capable of handling himself on his own, Walter headed to Chinatown to follow a lead on his own. Already fuming that Peter allegedly followed his taxi to the crime scene, Walter had something to prove, both to his son and to himself. He isn't a child who needs to be coddled and managed but a grown man.

Of course, Walter isn't quite ready to cut the apron strings just yet. He was irate to discover that Astrid had followed him to Chinatown to keep an eye on him but the two soon started having fun on their little excursion... until Walter wandered off in search of some lacquered cricket cages.

The heart of the episode for me was in the moment where Walter realized that he was lost and didn't know how to get home. The mix of horror, frustration, and shame that cascaded over Noble's face as he attempted to remember his son's telephone number was an astonishing thing to see. And utterly heartbreaking as Walter used his bus fare to dial seven wrong numbers before he started crying on a bus bench.

Walter is an adult, yes, but he's still a broken one. A man who is slowly regaining his independence but who still inherently needs the support of those around him to get through the world. Take him out of his routine, remove him from the order of his life (as we saw when Peter wanted to move) and he regresses. The most indelibly sad part of Walter's encounter in Chinatown is that he had Peter's number written on a card in his pocket... but forgot it was there.

Astrid, meanwhile, led the Triad baddies right back to the lab and the four-foot parasitic worm in its tank. She was attacked and knocked unconscious. It's the first time that Astrid has really been in any serious danger on Fringe and it was clear from her reaction later that the encounter rattled her, as it should. But the incident doesn't really give us any better understanding of Astrid as a character, unfortunately. While I love Jasika Nicole, the writers (as I've frequently complained since day one) have kept Astrid more or less a cipher, an expositional tool to further the plot or a generic nursemaid/lab assistant for Walter.

Yet, one can't argue with the poignancy of the scene between Walter and Astrid as he finally gets back to the lab and sees her injuries. Fringe isn't a workplace thriller but rather a family drama, with Walter Bishop acting the role of the absent-minded pater familias. Walter's extreme sadness upon seeing Astrid and the tenderness which with he held her in his arms spoke volumes about Walter's role within the Fringe Division.

It was entirely fitting then that he should offer to make a compromise with Peter (though it would have been nice had he consulted him first), having implanted himself with a tracking device. Peter now has the ability to find Walter anywhere and Walter doesn't have to worry about not being found. Hmmm... Something tells me that this tracking device is going to play a large role in a an upcoming storyline.

What did you think of this week's episode? Is Walter growing as a character? Will his independent streak prove to be short-lived? Am I right about that tracking device being a plant to be paid off later? Discuss.

Next week on Fringe ("Grey Matters"), the Fringe Division investigates a mental institution after a patient has brain surgery and begins to show an improvement despite having his brain exposed; Olivia sees a familiar face after she views footage from the surveillance tapes.

Channel Surfing: "Fringe" to Go on Hiatus in February, FOX Announces Midseason Schedule, "Lie to Me" Gets Full Season, "Burn Notice" Renewed, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Just a few headlines to get through today as the Hollywood PR machine begins its annual shutdown for Thanksgiving.

Futon Critic yesterday broke the story that Fringe will go on a seven-week hiatus beginning February 11th in order to accommodate the seven-week run of reincarnation drama Past Life. Fringe will return for the remainder of its run on April 1st and will air all-new episodes for the rest of the season. Sadly, FOX has opted to keep Fringe in its Thursday night berth rather than move it out of the line of fire. (Futon Critic)

FOX announced its full midseason schedule yesterday afternoon, which included news that Glee will be returning with new episodes in April after wrapping up its initial thirteen-episode commitment in December. (Televisionary)

In other FOX-related news, the network has given sophomore drama series Lie to Me a full season order, bringing the episodic total this season to 22 installments. News comes after FOX ordered three additional scripts for the Shawn Ryan-produced series but there's no indication as of yet when Lie to Me will return to the schedule or in what timeslot. (Hollywood Reporter)

USA has renewed Burn Notice for a fourth season, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, who is reporting that despite press reports in July about a renewal, a deal for Season Four only came together on Monday. Burn Notice's fourth season would likely launch in summer 2010. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Lea Thompson has been cast in ABC Family's Greek, where she will play April, the free-spirited mother of Scott Michael Foster's Cappie. (24's Jim Abele will play his father Tobias.) Thompson and Abele are set to appear in the latter half of Greek's next ten-episode cycle, which kicks off on January 25th. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Carolina Lightcap has been named president of Disney Channels Worldwide effective immediately. Lightcap replaces Rich Ross, who left the division last month to become become chairman of Walt Disney Studios. (Hollywood Reporter)

TiVo has signed a deal with Virgin Media in the UK to roll out a set-top box that will be co-branded and allow broadband delivery. "TiVo’s proven track record of innovation, strength of its patented technology and experience in developing best in class user environments, make it an ideal strategic partner for Virgin Media as we move aggressively to bring our next generation TV service to market," said Virgin's CEO Neil Berkett. "The superiority of our fibre optic network combined with TiVo’s capabilities, will allow us to offer consumers the most significantly advanced and compelling TV service available in the UK, and we believe will do to the TV market what Virgin Media has done to the high speed broadband market." (Broadcast)

CMT has ordered Posse: The Young Guns of PBR, a one-hour special that follows eight pro bull riders as they travel across the US looking to become the next Professional Bull Rider champion. Special will air on December 12th. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Reincarnation Sleuths, Child Geniuses, and Show Choristers: FOX Announces Midseason Schedule

FOX today announced their midseason plans for 2009-2010, unveiling a lineup that includes giving reincarnation drama Past Life the post-Bones slot on Thursday evenings (current occupant Fringe will be going on a prolonged hiatus for seven weeks), bringing Kitchen Nightmares back (on Friday nights this time around) and giving the post-American Idol slot to new reality series Our Little Genius.

MONDAYS: The network announced that it had given a full season pickup to drama series Lie to Me, though the Shawn Ryan-produced series will take a breather on Mondays, which will be taken over by House and 24 come January. There's no return date yet for Lie to Me but the pickup ensures that the series will eventually return to the schedule at some point during the season.

TUESDAYS: Which brings us to Glee. We all knew that the musical comedy would go on hiatus after its initial thirteen-episode commitment and that there would need to be some time for scripting and production and that it would get a post-Idol slot. Glee will shift to Tuesday nights beginning April 13th (following the conclusion of Our Little Genius), where it will do battle with ABC's Lost, entering its sixth and final season. (As I mentioned on Twitter, if I am forced to choose between the two, Lost wins with no contest.)

WEDNESDAYS: The Idol juggernaut continues on Wednesdays, where it will lead into new unscripted series Our Little Genius beginning January 13th for a week before moving to Tuesdays and giving the timeslot to new action drama Human Target. (I wasn't crazy at all about the pilot for Human Target and, unless the producers have completely altered the format and structure of the series, I won't be tuning in.)

THURSDAYS: The biggest headscratcher is why FOX wouldn't move the struggling sophomore drama series Fringe off of Thursdays. Fringe will instead have its "winter finale" on February 4th and will return seven weeks later with new episodes on April 1st. In between those dates, FOX will give over the timeslot to Past Life. Having seen the pilot for the reincarnation drama, I would be amazed if FOX kept it around for all eight episodes. (FOX will launch the series with a two-hour premiere on February 11th.)

FRIDAYS: Kitchen Nightmares returns in midseason and lands the Friday night at 9 pm timeslot, taking over for the cancelled Dollhouse, which wraps up its run on January 22nd. However, it's likely a good thing that FOX is choosing to rest Hell's Kitchen for the time being. I assume they'll wait to bring the format back until summertime and I hear that they have two cycles of the reality competition cycle already in the can.

SUNDAYS: Sunday nights remain more or less intact after the start of 24's two-night launch on January 17th, with The Simpsons, The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, and American Dad remaining as is from the current schedule. Come March 14th, new live-action comedy Sons of Tucson will take over the 8:30 pm slot and The Cleveland Show will shift to 9:30 pm for the remainder of the season.

And, oh, FOX was generous enough to make sure we all knew that unkillable comedy 'Til Death would return to the schedule at "a later date."

The full press release from FOX announcing their midseason lineup and the night-by-night schedule (with launch dates) can be found below.

FOX ANNOUNCES 2009-2010 MIDSEASON SCHEDULE

“AMERICAN IDOL” RETURNS WITH TWO-NIGHT SEASON PREMIERE
TUESDAY, JAN. 12 AND WEDNESDAY, JAN. 13

NEW UNSCRIPTED SERIES “OUR LITTLE GENIUS” DEBUTS
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 13

NEW ACTION DRAMA “HUMAN TARGET” PREVIEWS
DURING EXTENDED PRIMETIME SUNDAY, JAN. 17 AND
MAKES ITS SERIES PREMIERE WEDNESDAY, JAN. 20

“24” STARTS THE CLOCK DURING TWO-NIGHT, FOUR-HOUR EVENT
SUNDAY, JAN. 17 AND MONDAY, JAN. 18

CELEBRATE THE “BEST. 20 YEARS. EVER.” OF “THE SIMPSONS”
WITH “THE SIMPSONS 20TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: IN 3-D! ON ICE!”
AND MILESTONE 450TH EPISODE SUNDAY, JAN. 10

GORDON RAMSAY’S “KITCHEN NIGHTMARES” TURNS UP THE HEAT
FRIDAY, JAN. 29

NEW THRILLER “PAST LIFE” EMERGES THURSDAY, FEB. 11
AND NEW COMEDY “SONS OF TUCSON” DEBUTS SUNDAY, MARCH 14

“GLEE” ROCKS ITS FALL FINALE WEDNESDAY, DEC. 9
AND RETURNS WITH ALL-NEW EPISODES TUESDAY, APRIL 13

“FRINGE” AIRS WINTER FINALE THURSDAY, FEB. 4
AND RESURFACES WITH ALL-NEW EPISODES THURSDAY, APRIL 1

“LIE TO ME” PICKED UP FOR THE BACK NINE EPISODES BRINGING
THE ORDER TO A FULL SEASON

FOX is announcing premiere dates of new and returning series as well as revisions to its 2009-2010 midseason schedule. FOX also has ordered a full season of the sophomore drama LIE TO ME.

January starts off on a high note when the ninth season of AMERICAN IDOL, television’s No. 1 series, begins with a two-night premiere Tuesday, Jan. 12 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) and Wednesday, Jan. 13 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT). Immediately following AMERICAN IDOL on Jan. 13 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT), FOX unveils the not-to-be-missed series debut of OUR LITTLE GENIUS, a new unscripted series that features America’s most gifted kids as they are tested with some of the most challenging and difficult questions that only a remarkable little genius could answer.

A special extended primetime event on Sunday, Jan. 17 kicks off with the NFC DIVISIONAL PLAYOFF (4:00 PM-CC ET live/1:00 PM-CC PT live), which leads into the explosive series preview of HUMAN TARGET (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT), the new full-throttle, action-packed drama about a unique private contractor (Mark Valley) who will stop at nothing – even if it means becoming a human target – to save his clients. The special primetime event concludes with the first installment of the pulse-pounding two-night, four-hour premiere of 24 (9:00-11:00 PM ET/PT). The season premiere of 24 clocks in for two more hours of action Monday, Jan. 18 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT), and the season premiere of HUMAN TARGET airs Wednesday, Jan. 20 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) following AMERICAN IDOL (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT).

On Sunday, Jan. 10, FOX presents a special SIMPSONS event beginning with the animated series’ milestone 450th episode, “Once Upon a Time in Springfield” (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT), in which BART (Nancy Cartwright) and MILHOUSE (Pamela Hayden) try to help KRUSTY (Dan Castellaneta) regain his popularity after network executives force him to restructure the format of his television show by hiring a female sidekick, PRINCESS PENELOPE (guest voice Anne Hathaway). Then, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (“Super Size Me,” “30 Days”) will present THE SIMPSONS 20TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: IN 3-D! ON ICE! (8:30-9:30 PM ET/PT). The documentary special examines the global phenomenon that is THE SIMPSONS and serves as the momentous conclusion to the “Best. 20 Years. Ever.,” a year-long global celebration of THE SIMPSONS that launched in January 2009.

Chef Gordon Ramsay steps out of his own kitchen to serve up a new season of KITCHEN NIGHTMARES on Friday, Jan. 29 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT). Each week, Chef Ramsay will try to help turn around some of the most unsanitary and unsuccessful restaurants in New York, New Jersey, Florida and California on the verge of closing their doors forever.

PAST LIFE, a new drama series inspired by the book “The Reincarnationist” about detectives who investigate the world of the unexplained, will bow with a two-hour series premiere Thursday, Feb. 11 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) and will make its time period premiere Thursday, Feb. 18 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT).

SONS OF TUCSON, the new family comedy from Emmy Award winner Todd Holland (“Wonderfalls”) about three young brothers who hire a charming, wayward schemer to stand in as their father when their real one goes to prison, debuts Sunday, March 14 (8:30-9:00 PM ET/PT).

AMERICAN IDOL sings on Tuesdays (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) when it makes its time period premiere Jan. 19 followed by the time period premiere of OUR LITTLE GENIUS (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT), and 24 syncs up for its time period premiere Monday, Jan. 25 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT).

After its fall finale Wednesday, Dec. 9 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT), GLEE returns from its interlude with a score of all-new episodes on a new night beginning Tuesday, April 13 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT). FRINGE delves into its winter finale Thursday, Feb. 4 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) and then resurfaces with new cases beginning Thursday, April 1 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT). Joss Whedon’s DOLLHOUSE goes out with a bang with its series finale Friday, Jan. 22 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT).

RECAP – FOX 2009-2010 MIDSEASON SCHEDULE
(All times ET/PT except as noted)

MONDAY
Monday, Jan. 4:
7:30 PM-CC ET TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL (LIVE)

Monday, Jan. 18:
8:00-10:00 PM 24 (2-Night / 4-Hour Season Premiere, Part 2)

Mondays, beginning Jan. 25:
8:00-9:00 PM HOUSE
9:00-10:00 PM 24 (Time Period Premiere)

****************************

TUESDAY
Tuesday, Jan. 5:
7:30 PM-CC ET FEDEX ORANGE BOWL (LIVE)

Tuesday, Jan. 12:
8:00-10:00 PM AMERICAN IDOL (Season Premiere, Part 1)

Tuesdays, beginning Jan. 19:
8:00-9:00 PM AMERICAN IDOL (Time Period Premiere)
9:00-10:00 PM OUR LITTLE GENIUS (Time Period Premiere)

Tuesdays, beginning April 13:
8:00-9:00 PM AMERICAN IDOL
9:00-10:00 PM GLEE (Time Period Premiere)

***************************

WEDNESDAY
Wednesday, Jan. 13:
8:00-9:00 PM AMERICAN IDOL (Season Premiere, Part 2)
9:00-10:00 PM OUR LITTLE GENIUS (Series Premiere)


Wednesdays, beginning Jan. 20:
8:00-9:00 PM AMERICAN IDOL
9:00-10:00 PM HUMAN TARGET (Series Premiere)

***************************

THURSDAY
Thursdays, beginning Jan. 14 (no change to lineup):
8:00-9:00 PM BONES (All-New Episodes)
9:00-10:00 PM FRINGE (All-New Episodes)

Thursday, Feb. 4:
8:00-9:00 PM BONES
9:00-10:00 PM FRINGE (Winter Finale)

Thursday, Feb. 11:
8:00-10:00 PM PAST LIFE (Two-Hour Series Premiere)

Thursdays, beginning Feb. 18:
8:00-9:00 PM BONES
9:00-10:00 PM PAST LIFE (Time Period Premiere)

Thursdays, beginning April 1:
8:00-9:00 PM BONES
9:00-10:00 PM FRINGE (Time Period Premiere)

***************************

FRIDAY
Friday, Jan. 1:
8:00 PM-CC ET ALLSTATE SUGAR BOWL (LIVE)

Fridays, beginning Jan. 8:
8:00-9:00 PM BONES (Encore Episodes)
9:00-10:00 PM DOLLHOUSE (All-New Episodes)

Friday, Jan. 22:
8:00-9:00 PM BONES (Encore Episode)
9:00-10:00 PM DOLLHOUSE (Series Finale)

Fridays, beginning Jan. 29:
8:00-9:00 PM HOUSE (Encore Episodes)
9:00-10:00 PM KITCHEN NIGHTMARES (Season Premiere)

**************************

SATURDAY
Saturdays (no change to lineup):
8:00-8:30 PM COPS
8:30-9:00 PM COPS
9:00-10:00 PM AMERICA’S MOST WANTED
11:00 PM-Midnight THE WANDA SYKES SHOW
Midnight-12:30 AM SIT DOWN, SHUT UP

***************************

SUNDAY
Sunday, Jan. 10:
8:00-8:30 PM THE SIMPSONS (450th Milestone Episode)
8:30-9:30 PM THE SIMPSONS 20TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: IN 3-D! ON ICE!
9:30-10:00 PM THE CLEVELAND SHOW

Sunday, Jan. 17:
4:00 PM-CC ET NFC DIVISIONAL PLAYOFF (LIVE)
8:00-9:00 PM HUMAN TARGET (Series Preview)
9:00-11:00 PM 24 (2-Night / 4-Hour Season Premiere, Part 1)

Sunday, Jan. 24:
6:00 PM-CC ET NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (LIVE)

Sundays, beginning Jan. 31 (no change to lineup):
8:00-8:30 PM THE SIMPSONS (All-New Episodes)
8:30-9:00 PM THE CLEVELAND SHOW (All-New Episodes)
9:00-9:30 PM FAMILY GUY (All-New Episodes)
9:30-10:00 PM AMERICAN DAD (All-New Episodes)

Sunday, March 14:
8:00-8:30 PM THE SIMPSONS
8:30-9:00 PM SONS OF TUCSON (Series Premiere)
9:00-9:30 PM FAMILY GUY
9:30-10:00 PM THE CLEVELAND SHOW (Time Period Premiere)

[EDITOR’S NOTE 1: LIE TO ME will return to the schedule in the late spring, and ‘TIL DEATH will return to the schedule at a later date.]

[EDITOR’S NOTE 2: THE CLEVELAND SHOW takes over the timeslot previously held by AMERICAN DAD, which will return to the schedule at a later date.]

[EDITOR’S NOTE 3: THE SIMPSONS milestone 450th episode and THE SIMPSONS 20TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: IN 3-D! ON ICE! special, which were previously announced to air Thursday, Jan. 14, are now scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 10.]

Channel Surfing: Taylor Kitsch May Miss "Friday Night Lights," Oprah's Harpo Films Lands HBO Pilot, Production Shut Down on "Cougar Town," and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Bad news for Tim Riggins fans. Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Friday Night Lights executive producer Jason Katims has confirmed that Taylor Kitsch will "will miss part" of the production of Season Five of Friday Night Lights, due to his role in Disney's feature film adaptation of Edgar Rice Burrough's "John Carter of Mars." But there's still hope that they can work around Kitsch's schedule. "We are communicating with the [John Carter] production to work out the schedule so that Taylor can be in as much of season 5 as possible," said Katims. Production begins on the fifth season in March. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

HBO has given a pilot order to Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Films for an untitled drama about a woman who walks out on her perfect marriage and children in order to fulfill her secret fantasies in the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles. Pilot will be written/executive produced by Erin Cressida Wilson (Secretary) and will be executive produced by Winfrey and Kate Forte. "It is unsentimental and pretty shocking, and there is something complicated and destructive driving her," Forte told Variety. "It is literally a day at the pool, where she gets up, in sarong and flip-flops, and walks out of her life, leaving everyone behind so abruptly that her husband and kids initially think she's been kidnapped or murdered." (Variety)

The Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that production has been shut down on ABC comedy Cougar Town in order to allow Courteney Cox "to deal with a private family matter," according to ABC. There's been no indication as of yet when shooting will resume on the series, which had been scheduled to go on hiatus this week for the Thanksgiving holiday. (Hollywood Reporter)

Fringe's executive producers have indicated that the FOX sci-fi series could go on for as many as six seasons. "If we're lucky enough, we have six seasons that we're really excited about," said Jeff Pinkner during a recent press call. "It's such a great show to work on, because we're only limited by our own imaginations. Once you start to get into this wonderful framework of the characters and stuff, it's so much fun. We're constantly saying, 'Oh, what about this?' and then all of a sudden, we're like, 'Well, that will be a season three thing, yeah'." (via Digital Spy)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Brian Austin Green will reprise his role as John "Metallo" Corben on the CW's Smallville this season. He's slated to appear in the series' 18th episode, which will air in the spring. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Joshua Jackson (Fringe) is set to star in a feature film remake of 1970s cult British television series UFO, that is slated to be directed by Matthew Gratzner. Jackson will play Paul Foster, "a test pilot who joins S.H.A.D.O. (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defense Organization), a covert org built under a Hollywood studio that defends Earth against a race of aliens who have been abducting humans and using the body parts." (Variety)

TVGuide.com's Joyce Eng catches up with Big Bang Theory's Simon Helberg to talk about tonight's episode of the CBS comedy, which features an appearance by former Battlestar Galactica star Katee Sackhoff (soon to be seen in FOX's 24), who stops by as Howard Wolowitz's conscience. "There's definitely a possibility that she could continue to be his conscience," said Helberg of Sackhoff. "I don't know how much they plan for, say, the entire arc of the season. Who knows? Maybe next time they'll be in a Jacuzzi, maybe even the shower. I don't know if I have to be wet and naked. Maybe he always has to be in a compromising position. It is his fantasy!" (TVGuide.com)

TLC has ordered eight episodes of culinary series Craving Comfort, in which chef Art Smith will "travel the country exploring variations of simple, popular dishes -- from fried chicken to apple pie." Series, from True Entertainment, is slated to air next year. (Hollywood Reporter)

Elsewhere at TLC, the cabler has given a series order for docusoap Mall Cops: Mall of America, which will air in first quarter 2010 and follow the mall cops at the largest mall in the US, and ordered four episodes of docuseries Ghost Intervention, about "a group of women with psychic abilities who help families dealing with paranormal activity in their homes." The latter series, from Pilgrim Films and Television, will launch on December 12th. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Calendar Man: Observations on Last Night's Phenomenal Episode of "Fringe"

Oh, Fringe, I've missed you.

Last night's episode of Fringe ("August"), written by J.H. Wyman and Jeff Pinkner and directed by Brad Anderson, was to me the absolute ideal installment of the sci-fi procedural series. Despite being a close-ended plot about the disappearance of a young woman, it provided answers to some of Fringe's most enduring mysteries so far and broadened out the mythology of the series and the character's inner lives to boot.

Plus, the series was firing on all cylinders, using each of its characters to their best effect: placing Olivia and Peter in the field in pursuit of the suspect, Walter and Astrid in the lab, and Broyles in an advisory capacity (and good to see they realized he'd still be injured after last week's events; nice continuity!).

So what did I think about the episode? Let's discuss.

As I mentioned earlier, I was head over heels in love with this week's installment, which showed that the series, which had struggled in its first season to find a working balance between the serialized and the procedural, can make the format work for them and not against them. While the plot was nominally about the kidnapping of an art student by the mysterious Observer, it quickly became a story about the choices we make, the bonds we have, and the emotional core of our beings, whether we're a determined FBI agent, a grieving father, or an otherworldly creature.

Playing of a comment made earlier in the series about there being "more than one of everything," the series introduces a novel conceit: there's more than one of the Observer. (We also previously saw a child-like version of one them living underground.) While The Observer has been traditionally played in the series by Michael Cerveris, this episode reveals that there would appear to be at least a coven of them in Boston alone. Like Marvel's omnipresent (and follicularly challenged) Uatu The Watcher, these Observers are instructed (by whom? for what purpose?) to keep a watch over events and never interfere; as a result, they exist outside of time, unfettered by constructs about the past, present, and future that we take for granted.

That directive to observe and not to interfere has been broken before and is broken again with this episode. The Observer known only as August (veteran British actor Peter Woodward) kidnaps a Christine Hollis (Jennifer Missoni) but not everything is as it appears: he doesn't want to kill her but is trying to save her. His effort means that Christine doesn't board a plan bound for Rome, a plane that goes down in the ocean, killing everyone aboard. So why does he save her? That's where things get really interesting.

August's actions put him in direct conflict with the other Observers, who know that Christine was marked for death. Given August's involvement has created an anomaly in the timeline, they move swiftly to "correct" it, drawing in grizzled assassin Donald Long (Paul Rae) to eliminate Christine and push events back into place. (Loved that Donald carries a portable dot matrix printer with him; nice touch.)

But August knows that the Observers have gotten involved before: our Observer moved to save Peter and Walter Bishop when their car went off the road into the frozen lake. But the coven admits that this was only to correct a mistake that they had made. So just what was that mistake? Allowing Walter to take Peter from "over there"? Or was there something else that made both of them "important" enough to intervene and keep them alive? Just what happened on that road? And what mistake did the Observers make that forced them to push the timeline back into place? Hmmm....

So it's not surprising then that August would leave a series of clues for Walter Bishop to find, clues that propel him to rendezvous with August, who asks Walter for his help. Knowing that the Observers will kill Christine, he needs to make her "important" so that they will spare her life. Finding loopholes is Walter's specialty after all; he wasn't limited by the confines of physics when he, grief-stricken, made the decision to steal someone else's child, a choice that haunts him to this day. (It's why he believes the Observer wants to see him, so terrified is he of losing Peter.)

And August does make a noble sacrifice in order to preserve Christine's life, after he twice crosses paths with her, the first time after the Oakland earthquake that kills Christine's parents. In the moments after the quake, the young Christine leaves an indelible mark on August's soul and he keeps her childhood teddy bear safe for her until he can return it. He makes a trade: his life for hers. Olivia and Peter are unable to stop Donald Long from shooting August (or rather he allows it to happen this time) and August knows that his death will secure Christine's life.

As he bleeds to death in the car, August tells his fellow Observer that the reason he wanted to save Christine was that he was in love with her. It's a nice twist as the Observers are meant to be inherently emotionless, detached from humanity, unable to process feelings and having no need for them. But love awakened something in August, a need to protect the thing he felt for, no matter what the consequence. In allowing himself to die, he made Christine "important." As the other Observer says (almost sadly), Christine was responsible for the death of one of them. She is and will forever be important.

There are always consequences. Walter advises August of that in the diner and he knows inherently that it's true. Even if you don't pay the price now, the cost of your actions will always catch up to you in the end. The sadness with which Walter touches Peter's face on the staircase at the end speak volumes about the fear with which Walter lives. He knows that Peter will get his answers, will find out the truth about who he really is, and the thought of losing his son for a second time terrifies him to no end.

Those answers are coming. Broyles believes that Peter was able to fire the last charge in the Observer's otherworldly gun but that's not the case; Peter was able to use it because he is from "over there," a fact that August is all too aware of when he hands him his weapon. It's only a matter of time before Peter learns the truth of where he came from and the lengths to which Walter went to reclaim his son from death itself.

Olivia, for her part, does get her day off with Ella at the amusement park and she challenges herself to overcome her fears and ride the rollercoaster with her niece. It's a moment of lightness and innocence, the last rays of sunshine before the darkness falls. They are observed. Two of the Observers watch Olivia without a hint of emotion. Things are going to get bad for Olivia Dunham; they already see this and these moments of levity and joy may be the last she experiences.

I'm intrigued with just where this plot is going. We know that Walter, Peter, and Olivia are key players in the coming war and that the Observers are there to watch as these events unfold. Just what parts they'll play as the battle begins remains to be seen. But things are definitely going to get very bleak for our Fringe Division stalwarts and I can't wait to see just where Fringe's writers take the plot next. I'm along for the ride, no matter what twist lies ahead.

In two weeks on Fringe ("Snakehead"), the Fringe team investigates incidents involving bodies with unnatural creatures attached to it; Olivia, Peter and Broyles discover that the case is linked to a dangerous organization involved in drug smuggling.

Channel Surfing: Alyssa Milano Moves into "Castle", Kevin Murphy Bumped to Showrunner on "Caprica," Wilde Talks "House," "Fringe" Sneak Peek, and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Alyssa Milano has been cast as a guest star on ABC's Castle, where she will play a former love interest of Nathan Fillion's Richard Castle with whom he reconnects on her wedding day. "Castle reconnects with Kyra (Milano) on her wedding day and sparks fly," writes Ausiello. "Beckett (Stana Katic) picks up on the obvious connection between the two of them, setting up a fun little love triangle." Milano's episode is slated to air in early 2010. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Kevin Murphy (Desperate Housewives) has been promoted to executive producer/showrunner of Syfy's Caprica, where he joins fellow executive producers Jane Espenson, Ron Moore, and David Eick. Murphy was originally hired as a co-executive producer on the Battlestar Galactica prequel series and will now serve as the day-to-day showrunner on the series. (Hollywood Reporter)

TVGuide.com's Gina DiNunno talks to House star Olivia Wilde about the medical drama's current season, which some shakeups at Princeton-Plainsboro. "This season, the writers have been all about taking risks," said Wilde. "It's Season 6, which means you really have license to try things. They're doing these unpredictable things, and one was having House bring back the old team. It was a result of House being in a mental institution and coming back, so I think if we went back to business as usual immediately, viewers would get frustrated. So I think it's cool they're shaking things up. And it's great because I got to take a little break!" (TVGuide.com)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has a sneak peek at the first three minutes from this week's Observer-centric episode of FOX's Fringe. Meanwhile, FOX is pulling out of the stops for a viral campaign this week based around the Warner Bros. Television-produced series. In other words: keep your eyes peeled for Observers everywhere. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files, Variety)

NBC has given a pilot presentation order to an untitled comedy from writer/director/executive producer Larry Charles and executive producer McG, which studio Warner Bros. Television is calling a "prototype" for what the actual series would be. Project revolves around a group of small town sci-fi-obsessed fanboys who convene to shoot their own episode of a cancelled series. (Variety)

George Segal (Entourage, Just Shoot Me) has been cast in TV Land's multi-camera comedy pilot Retired at 35, where he will play the retired insurance executive father of a Manhattanite who moves to the Florida retirement community where his father lives. (Hollywood Reporter)

BBC One has commissioned comedy Big Top, starring Amanda Holden (Wild At Heart), John Thomson (Cold Feet), Sophie Thompson (A Room With A View), Ruth Madoc (Little Britain), Bruce Mackinnon (The Catherine Tate Show), and Tony Robinson (Blackadder). Series, created by Daniel Peak, follows the performers and managers of a traveling circus. (BBC)

Adult Swim fans will be able to create their own DVDs via an online initiative at AdultSwimShop.com, where fans can select 110 minutes of episodic television as well as the disc's menu and artwork and be shipped the created-on-demand disc for just $20. The Custom DVD scheme launches with 100 episodes of such series as Robot Chicken, Lucy, Daughter of the Devil, and others. (Hollywood Reporter)

Hasbro Studios has landed its first project as is developing a My Little Pony series for the nascent joint venture cable channel launched by Hasbro and Discovery. (Hollywood Reporter)

Tyler Perry's comedy series Meet the Browns, which airs on TBS, has already cleared 70 percent of the country for a September syndicated launch following a similar pattern established by House of Payne. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

The Shadow Knows: Ashes to Ashes on "Fringe"

Now that's what I call a fantastic episode of Fringe.

While I've been pushing the series' producers to shift towards a sleeker serialized format for the series since its inception, last night's episode of Fringe ("Earthling"), written by J.H. Wyman and Jeff Vlaming and directed by Jon Cassar, was the perfect compromise: a self-contained mystery of the week that also served to deepen the characters.

Or one character in particular, the enigmatic head of Fringe Division, Phillip Broyles (The Wire's Lance Reddick). I've been on a tirade since the very first episode of the first season that we still know next to nothing about both Broyles and lab assistant Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole) so I'm glad that the writers are finally giving some layering to both of them, who have served more or less the thankless roles of exposition dumps until now.

Last night's mystery had the Fringe Division attempting to capture a shadowy organism that may or may not be extraterrestrial in origin but which managed, during a space walk, to attach itself to the body of a Russian cosmonaut, who brought it back to Earth where it began killing people in an effort to obtain their radiation while its host body was trapped in a comatose state. Weird? Youbetcha. Scary? Hells yeah.

But while the central mystery may have been quite the perfect sci-fi thriller (loved the opening scene and the ash effect the creature's victims exhibited), it was the fact that it was such a personal case for Broyles that made the episode truly sing. We haven't known much about Broyles until this point. We know that he has or had some sort of romantic entanglement with Blair Brown's Nina Sharp in the past and that he wasn't a fan of military investigator Olivia Dunham, after she went on a crusade against his best friend following charges of rape. There have been shadowy instances of Broyles knowing more than he has let on and he's clearly passionate about the Fringe Division and its purpose.

And that's really been it. Until fairly recently, Broyles' main purpose within the series was to tell Olivia that the strange and bizarre phenomena they are witnessing has happened before and is part and parcel of a larger Pattern, yada, yada. But last night's installment took a huge step towards adding some much needed layering to Broyle's character. After all, when you have an actor as amazing and awe-inspiring as Lance Reddick, you better use him to full effect, no?

The shadow killer case is one that's close to Broyles' heart, not only because it wasn't ever solved but because it also played a huge role in the disintegration (heh) of his marriage. I'm glad that the writers didn't pull a cliche and have Broyles' wife one of the last victims of the unknown killer; instead Broyles' dogged determination to catch the killer and end his murder spree result in his wife leaving him and taking his kids.

Four years later, he's still haunted by the case and still saddened by what he lost in pursuit of justice. The scene in which Broyles finally tells his wife that he closed the case was both triumphant and bittersweet. He knows that he did what his conscience told him he had to but at the same time he feeling a keening sense of loss for what it cost him. The effect not only deepens our appreciation of Broyles but fleshes him out into a three-dimensional character, one with a tragic backstory that speaks volumes about the commitment he has to the Fringe Division. He's willing to put everything--his family, his career, his reputation--on the line in order to do some good in the world.

It's a path that puts him at opposition with the CIA, as seen in that final scene between Broyles and the shadowy agent who warns him against filing a report about the case. Could it be that the Fringe Division is about to become even more embattled from all sides? And why did the Senator disobey orders and send Broyles that file? Hmmm...

All in all, a fantastic installment in a series that proves once again that it's hitting its stride with flair and creativity and wisely focusing its efforts on exploring the relationships between our leads while also delivering some first-rate thrills and chills. Now if only we could get some development for Astrid...

Next week on Fringe ("Of Human Action"), a kidnapping quickly escalates into a hostage situation in New York at the hands of a mysterious man with mind control abilities; the Fringe Division connects a link between the kidnapping and Massive Dynamic.

Channel Surfing: "Dollhouse" Benched for Sweeps, Perrineau Would Like to Return to "Lost," David Fincher, Sarah Shahi "Facing Kate" at USA, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Loads of television-related headlines to get through today!

Futon Critic is reporting that FOX has pulled Dollhouse from its November sweeps lineup. The Joss Whedon-created series will air its episode this Friday, after which the Friday lineup will be filled with repeats of House and Bones. ('Til Death and Brothers will also go on hiatus after this week.) Dollhouse will then return in December where it will air back-to-back episodes on December 4th, 11th, and 18th. It's unclear when FOX will air the remaining three episodes from Dollhouse's thirteen-episode commitment. No return dates for 'Til Death or Brothers were indicated. (Futon Critic)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos talks to former Lost star Harold Perrineau about the recent rumors that he wouldn't be returning to the ABC drama series this season along with the other original cast members of Lost. The reason, says Perrineau, is not that he's holding out but because he hasn't been asked by producers. "Honestly, no one has asked," Perrineau told Dos Santos. "But if I was asked to come back to Lost, indeed I would say yes. We all started that journey together, and I would love to be able to end it with everybody. It would be a great thing to do, to get to say goodbye to them all at the same time. I would love to go back and hang out a little bit." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Media Rights Capital and David Fincher are developing a US adaptation of British miniseries House of Cards, which will be reimagined as a one-hour drama series about "political ambition and blackmail." Fincher is on board to executive produce with Eric Roth, Andrew Davies, original novel author Michael Dobbs, and Josh Donen. Project will be taken out to networks soon. (Hollywood Reporter)

Former Life star Sarah Shahi has booked the lead in USA drama pilot Facing Kate, about a divorced lawyer in San Francisco who begins a careers as a mediator. Shahi's casting lifts the contingency on the pilot, which was written by Michael Sardo, who will executive produce with Steve Stark. (Hollywood Reporter)

The CW has given a full season order to supernatural drama series The Vampire Diaries, picking up the series for a full 22-episode run this season. The netlet also ordered five additional episodes of struggling soap Melrose Place, clearly looking to see what effect will be of the return of Heather Locklear to the franchise. (Variety)

Sebastian Roche (The Beautiful Life) has replaced Thomas Kretschmann on FOX's Fringe, following the latter's departure from the series due to a scheduling conflict. Kretschmann had appeared in the series' October 8th episode as a super-soldier from another world. Roche will recur as the same character, described by the Hollywood Reporter's Nellie Andreeva as "a soldier from another dimension who is not quite human/not quite machine, trying to gather information for opening a stable door to the other side." (Hollywood Reporter)

E! Online's Jennifer Goodwin teases upcoming developments on Dollhouse, particularly a reunion between former Buffy and Angel co-star Alexis Denisof and Eliza Dushku, writing that "Dushku and Denisof reunite for scenes centered around industrial espionage, counterintelligence and just a smidgen of existentialism." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Trent Reznor has teamed up with Fringe for a new promo featuring Nine Inch Nails song "Zero-Sum" and Reznor reciting lines of dialogue spoken on the series by Leonard Nimoy's William Bell. The promo can be viewed below:


(Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan is reporting that former Battlestar Galactica star Katee Sackhoff, now a series regular on FOX's 24, will guest star as herself on CBS' The Big Bang Theory, in the series' November 23rd episode. (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

Jamie Denbo (Weeds) has been promoted to series regular on FX drama series Terriers, where she will play an attorney who is frequently consulted by the unlicensed private investigators played by Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James. Elsewhere at FX, Joelie Carter (Wonderland) has been bumped up to series regular on drama series Lawman, where she will play a former girlfriend of Marshal Givens (Timothy Olyphant) after guest starring in the pilot. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Dan Snierson gets Friday Night Lights executive producer Jason Katims to issue some teasers for the fourth season of the drama series, which kicks off on October 28th on DirecTV. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

Showtime is developing comedy Rapture, based on Craig Chester's memoir "Why the Long Face?: The Adventures of a Truly Independent Actor," that will dramatize his experiences as the 9-year-old gay son of a "devout mom who has visions of Christ and a rock 'n' roll guitar player dad who fears his wife is losing her mind." Lisa Kudrow and Dan Bucatinsky are executive producing via their Is or Isn't Entertainment shingle, along with Paul Miller and Kimber Rickabaugh. Don Roos is additionally attached to direct, should the project be ordered to pilot. (Variety)

Jerry O'Connell has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on ABC's Eastwick opposite his real-life wife Rebecca Romijn. O'Connell, set to appear in the final two episodes of Eastwick's thirteen-episode commitment, will play Colin, whom Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello describes as "a hot new neighbor of Kat’s (Jaime Ray Newman) who is hiding a dark and magical secret." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Warner Bros. Television has signed an overall deal with Rob Corrdry, under which the former Daily Show staffer will create, star, and executive produce a comedy pilot presentation for the studio, said to be an "unconventional family comedy" parody set in a "an off-kilter world." Peter Principato and Paul Young will executive produce the project along with Corrdry, with production slated for this December. (Variety)

Bravo has renewed culinary competition series Top Chef Masters for a second season, slated to air in 2010. Kelly Choi will return as the series' host, along with judges Gael Greene, James Oseland, and Jay Rayner. (Los Angeles Times' Show Tracker)

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will release the first thirteen episodes of Glee on DVD on December 29th. Entitled Glee Season One: Road to the Sectionals, the box set will include the director's cut of the pilot episode and behind-the-scene materials as well as a voucher for the Season One box set, which will be released sometime in 2010. (via press release)

In other Glee-related news, Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Madonna has given the FOX musical comedy the rights to her entire catalog, with co-creator Ryan Murphy said to be very keen to do an all-Madonna-music episode for Glee's back nine. (Entertainment Weekly)

NCIS' Pauley Perrette will guest star on NCIS: LA's November 24th episode. "While Abby has talked to the Left Coast expansion team on the phone, this will be her first time touching down at LAX," writes Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. "Sadly, it looks like it won’t be much of a vacation, as she finds out not everybody in the City of Angels sports a halo. Someone’s going to abduct our dear Abby!" (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Adult Swim has given a pilot order to live-action comedy Eagleheart, about "the fate of a fading TV action icon, and begins when a low-level TV exec is sent to Texas to produce an action series (Eagleheart) with the star. Instead, he winds up in a power struggle with the temperamental thesp." Project, from Conaco and Dakota Films, will be written by Michael Koman and Andrew Weinberg, who will executive produce alongside David Kissinger and Troy Miller. (Variety)

Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives) will star in Hallmark Channel telepic Fairfield Road, written by Tracy Rosen and directed by David Weaver. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Demons and Messages From the Beyond: Dream Logic on "Fringe"

"I hope you like red."

This week's episode of Fringe ("Dream Logic"), written by Josh Singer and directed by Paul A. Edwards, was a step back in the right direction after last week's off-the-rails installment that had me screaming at my television with frustration.

Not so this week, which offered a rather X-Files-esque one-off investigation while also continuing to develop some rather juicy subplots for our troika of paranormal investigators, Olivia and the Bishops. This week saw the return of Kevin Corrigan's Sam Weiss, a very welcome addition to the series, as he continued to help Olivia deal with the consequences from her travels "over there," and a shocking glimpse into Peter's backstory that had me gasping for air even as I noticed that Challenger poster over Peter's dresser. (Nice Easter egg that.)

While the case this week focused on a form of addictive dream theft by a sleep researcher with a dual personality, it was definitely the individual character beats that were the most rewarding aspects of this installment. It was the little moments, from Walter's fear about the wet smell in the air of a Seattle hospital (which reminded him of the mental hospital where he was incarcerated) to Astrid bringing the Bishops a loaf of ciabatta a token of good luck for their new home, that furthered the relationships between the characters and kept certain subplots chugging along.

I love the burgeoning relationship between Anna Torv's Olivia and Kevin Corrigan's Sam; I don't think it will ever go into romantic territory but their quirky dynamic adds another winning layer to the mix here. His homework for Oliva--to ask for business cards from people she encounters wearing red--is intended to be a cathartic one for the grieving FBI agent. Following Charlie's death, she can't let go of her guilt over his murder, even though the thing she killed wasn't Charlie but an imposter. In giving Olivia the tools to find a meaning out of chaos, she is able to tell herself the thing she needs to hear: "You're gonna be fine," which just happens to be the very same thing that Charlie said to her the day they met. Is it a message from beyond the grave? Or just Olivia's subconscious at work, giving her the ability to move on and let go of her guilt?

And we got another reference to Olivia's alcoholic and abusive step-father, whom we haven't heard anything about since early on in Season One. Longtime viewers will remember that he creepily sends Olivia a birthday card every year after nine-year-old Olivia shot him several times in an effort to protect her mother. Could it be that we might actually meet this less-than-charming individual at some point in the future? Why else bring it up after all of this time? Hmmm....

I'm happy that we haven't seen much of Meghan Markle's newbie FBI agent in recent weeks, but I did think that Agent Keschner (guest star Travis Schuldt) was a nice addition to this week's procedural element. I loved the fact that Walter drugged him and he hit the floor after uttering "raspberry." Glad that Walter didn't cut his head open but merely used him as a conduit to his dreams, thus learning what what was really going on with the dream-like murders in Seattle. If Keschner took over Amy Jessup's role as Fringe Division liaison, I'd be more than okay with that.

But it was Peter's nightmare... or, more accurately, Peter's buried memory that gave me the biggest thrills as we catch a glimpse at the moment that Walter Bishop kidnapped the alternate universe's Peter and dragged him right out of his bedroom and into our reality. Loved the Challenger poster, which pointed not only to the location of this memory but also to yet another way the alternate universe is different from our own. Every moment where something different occurred produces a host of new possibilities, spreading outwards like the ripples caused by a rock hitting the water.

The sadness with which Walter asks if Peter remembers his nightmare displays his guilt and anguish over what he did to bring his dead son back to life. It's a knowledge that's clearly a powder keg within Walter and a looming timebomb within Peter. Just when it will explode, likely with disastrous consequences for them both, remains to be seen but I can't help but wonder if the countdown is getting even closer to zero.

What did you think of this week's episode? Did you enjoy the overarching mystery of the week and having Olivia and Peter together again in the field (which I quite enjoy)? Did you find Walter's erratic behaviors coming together into a concrete explanation? Were you shocked by Peter's dream? Discuss.

Fringe returns with new episodes in November.

Physics is a Bitch: Momentum Deferred on "Fringe"

"Momentum can be deferred, but it must always be paid back in full."

Perhaps it was because I had such high expectations for this week's episode of Fringe ("Momentum Deferred") that I was so brutally disappointed.

After all, this week's installment, written by Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz and directed by Joe Chappelle, promised to reveal just went on between Olivia and the enigmatic William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) over there in the space between the first two seasons. It should have been a corker of an episode yet I found myself growing increasingly impatient with some lazy plotting and some head-scratching plot holes. In other words: I felt like we lost the momentum we had established in the past few episodes amid some bizarro narrative leaps.

I was glad to see Walter's former lab guinea pig Rebecca (played in the present day by Theresa Russell) turn back up but I felt that they squandered the potential for some meaningful use of her character. Yes, there were some nice emotional beats between her and Walter (especially the sadness with which he refused to come into her house) and that moment of clarity when she looked at Peter.

But I still am a little confused why they needed her... or rather needed to drug her, considering how dangerous it was, when they had a Massive Dynamic crack staffer rendering an image of the shapeshifter within the next few hours. If it was going to only take three hours until they knew the identity of the shapeshifter, why bother drugging Rebecca and putting her through a potentially life-threatening situation instead of just waiting for the render to finish?

That whole rendering subplot also had me groaning. As soon as the tech guy said that he could send it to Olivia's phone, I knew that she was coincidentally receive the image of the shapeshifter just as she was standing there with Charlie. And lo and behold, that's exactly what happened, though we were also treated to Olivia telling Astrid to be sure to send the rendering to her phone just in case we dozed off earlier.

I'm glad that the Faux Charlie storyline didn't go on endlessly, but it also ended rather anticlimactically, I thought. No, there wasn't a coffee ice cream-related slip-up from Charlie Francis here but I'm also scratching my head wondering how the shapeshifter was so convincingly able to appropriate Charlie's life without anyone--not his friend, his wife, his colleagues--noticing that he had no knowledge of Charlie, his likes/dislikes, history, etc.

I also assumed that the story that the real Charlie told Olivia back in the second season premiere--which he hadn't told anyone before--would come into play, it being something that only the true Charlie Francis would know. But it was dropped completely in favor of Olivia getting a text message that showed her that Charlie wasn't actually Charlie. Yawn.

Sure, she had to kill someone who looked like Charlie but Olivia also fell for his ruse that Nina Sharp was the shapeshifter (though why?) and then gave away the location of the cryogenically preserved head of the baddies' leader who would open the door between the two dimensions. Even after Nina had given her some information that would serve to help her. Had she believed Nina even for a split second, Olivia could have avoided giving their enemies their greatest asset yet.

After all, even Olivia admitted that William Bell pulled her out of her world and into another dimension in order to deliver a message of crucial importance. He gave her the location of the head and the marking. And Olivia failed to use this to stop the shapeshifters from acquiring the head themselves and now the marked man--was that Thomas Kretschmann?--is awakened, having been connected to a body via mercury.

Which brings me to another oddity. Bell and others keep talking about how Olivia was pulled out of the timestream from her moving vehicle but I don't remember it playing out that way at all. What I do remember is that Nina Sharp summoned Olivia to Manhattan and then made her wait at her hotel and that Olivia journeyed to "over there" in the elevator. I don't remember anything about her vanishing from her car until that plot point was picked up in the season opener. Anyone have a possible solution? Was Olivia just disoriented from the timeslips as we saw her in the flashback in this week's episode? Hmmm...

What did you think of this week's episode? Were you as disappointed as I was? Have any possible explanations for some of the inconsistencies? Discuss.

Next week on Fringe ("Dream Logic"), the team travels to Seattle to investigate a mysterious incident involving a man who attacked his boss because he believed he was an evil ram-horned creature; Agent Broyles has a disconcerting meeting with Nina Sharp that leads the investigation in an unthinkable direction.

To All That's Weird: Tin Men, Red Russians, and Buried Memories on "Fringe"

While the second episode of FlashForward disappointed me, I have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying Season Two of Fringe, which continued last night.

This week's episode ("Fracture"), written by David Wilcox and directed by Bryan Spicer, once again nicely positioned the team and furthered the characters as well as the overarching plot while also servicing the case of the week. It's been a treat to see the team running like a well-oiled machine, with Olivia and Peter out in the field (as it should be), going so far as to make a rather impromptu trip to Iraq, while Walter and Astrid deal with matters back in the lab.

It was also the first episode so far where I really felt like Astrid had a purpose. Given the fact that she's now spending more time with Walter alone in the lab, their scenes not only provide some off-kilter humor but also enable the duo to bond. Which in turn makes Astrid's character a hell of a lot more interesting.

It also gives the lovely Jasika Nicole something to do for a change as Peter's absence has pushed her into the role of nursemaid/lab assistant/muse/purveyor of foodstuffs. I've been complaining about Astrid's lack of three-dimensionality since the pilot episode of Fringe, so it's gratifying to see the writers making some efforts to imbue Astrid with some additional depth, other than her otherworldly ability to know a host of esoteric knowledge off the top of her head. The scene in last night's episode between Astrid and Walter, in which they talked about their shared role as creatures of habit, was small but touching. I loved the way that Walter admitted that he didn't want to move but Astrid reminded him that he only discovered the apple fritters because he walked down the wrong street. In other words: any place can yield unexpected pleasures and it's only by breaking our patterns that we can make new discoveries.

Which is exactly what Fringe has been doing so far this season: breaking its pattern. Once again, this week's episode had the team taking the lead on another fringe science-related case and proactively pursuing an investigation without waiting for a briefing from Broyles. With Charlie slightly out of frame, Lance Reddick has significantly more to do here this season as Broyles offers a senior FBI presence in the field and is spending more time with Olivia and Peter as a result. And it's a good thing too as Reddick is too fine an actor to be saddled with little more than exposition as he was for much of the first season.

This week also delved a little deeper into Peter's enigmatic backstory and his involvement as a private contractor in Iraq. While nothing concrete was spelled out, we distinctly got the notion that Peter has done some Bad Things whilst in Iraq, possibly leading to the disfigurement of his Iraqi contact who is none too pleased to see him back in the country. I'm glad that his time in Iraq isn't being spelled out for us and that we're instead teased with little bits of knowledge here and there, adding up to a layered portrait of a man on the side of the angels now who may have made some very bad decisions in his past.

Likewise, I felt that the series' writers did a wonderful job at covering Olivia's recovery after her head injury. I was glad to see her using her cane again this week and that her recovery process has been an arduous one as the headaches intensified, bits of forgotten memories seeped into her consciousness, and Olivia had to deal with a lack of fine motor function, unable to tie her shoelaces. While she was indeed frustrated by the seeming lack of progress she was making with Sam (the fantastic Kevin Corrigan), I loved the reveal at the end that she had drawn her gun and walked up to Sam without the use of her cane. It was a powerful moment for Olivia, one that perfectly captured how far she's come without resorting to an emotional scene, which would have been totally out of character for our tough-as-nails agent.

While the human bomb storyline was a nice procedural, it also allowed the writers to use it as a lever to get back into the overarching invasion/war storyline, with that suitcase glimpsed at the beginning a means of communication between the forces from "over there," including our recently-unseen Observer. The nefarious colonel is well aware that the invasion is underway and that the war is coming and sought to not only demonstrate this reality's abilities to strike out at its enemies but also to dismantle their means of communication.

But the suitcase does reach its destination: the Observer. The Colonel believes whatever is inside will bring about destruction and it might just do that as we see surveillance photos of Walter Bishop. Just what does the Observer want from Walter? Why save him all of those years ago? Why remind him of Peter's kidnapping? And what part will he play in the coming battle?

All in all, another fantastic installment of a series that has definitely found its footing this season and looks to only get better and better as its sophomore season wears on.

Next week on Fringe ("Momentum Deferred"), Olivia drinks a powerful concoction that Walter prescribes to stimulate her memory; the Fringe Division investigates a series of robbery cases that are tied to shape-shifting; Olivia remembers more about her visit to the other side.

Lures and Traps: Night of Desirable Objects on "Fringe"

Don't ever turn your back on a hole in the ground when there's a psychotic mutant killer on the loose.

Last night's episode of Fringe ("Night of Desirable Objects") offered the sort of X-Files tinged suspense that's been missing from FOX for quite some time, even as the solution to the central mystery itself--the truth behind the disappearance of several people in a small Pennsylvania town--was obvious about two seconds in.

This week's installment, written by Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman, had the team leaving the relative comforts of their lab to trek over to Pennsylvania to investigate the aforementioned disappearances. While this is nothing new for a series that has its characters embarking on various investigations on a weekly basis, it was perhaps the first time that newly appointed team leader Peter Bishop took up the reins and sent the team out without getting a dossier or briefing from Broyles.

Yes, proactiveness is the word du jour for the Fringe Division this season and it's nice to see the gang breaking their own pattern and being less reactive in the face of bizarre phenomenon. It's a nice change of pace and one that gives both Peter and Broyles much more to do than stand around and wait for something awful to happen.

While the procedural plot itself was extremely predictable--as soon as Andre Hughes appeared underground, I knew that he was covering up for a family member and as soon as it was mentioned that his wife and baby died during childbirth, I knew it was the son--the episode itself had some nice moments (the police car dropping through the earth, the creepy scarecrow scene in the cold open) and a few emotional beats that were distinct from the overarching plot.

Meghan Markles' Agent Jessup still doesn't nothing for me and I feel like we're supposed to find her possibly spiritual quest for answers enthralling but it instead bores me to tears. I don't even believe she had any dialogue this week but her character has remained even more of a nonentity that Astrid so far.

As for Evil Charlie, I'm concerned about the direction that this is going. After all, the shapeshifter from "over there" didn't know anything about Charlie Francis before he assumed Charlie's shape, so I'm not quite sure how he's pulling off slipping into Charlie's life quite so easily. Surely, Charlie's wife (whom we saw in the first season) is suspicious about her husband and why he doesn't seem to know anything about his life, no? Or am I quibbling? I do love the typewriter scenes between here and over there as the injured shapeshifter continues to receive his instructions but I'm not sure why he didn't just kill Olivia and get it over with before she remembers? But, given the episode's ending, now his employers seem to want Olivia to know just what William Bell told her. Hmmm...

There were some genuinely beautiful moments between Walter and Peter this week. As they investigate a case of a father protecting his son at all costs, it stirred up all sort of unresolved feelings between the Bishops. And seeing that lure--the night of desirable objects--in Sheriff Golightly's office reminded Peter of that fishing trip they never took and how he had bought that lure for that purpose. (Loved Walter's reply asking if "the young man" had given Peter the lure.) Given the slow reconciliation that's going on between the two, I have to wonder about when the truth about Peter's identity will emerge as it's likely to shatter any hope of a renewed relationship between Bishop pere et fils.

Likewise, Olivia is tormented by the fact that she can't remember just what happened to her or where she went but wonders--to Evil Charlie, no less--that maybe her mind doesn't want her to know and is intentionally suppressing those memories in order to keep her safe. (As in safe from him, perhaps.) But she also must come to grips with the fact that she's returned from over there a changed woman. She's seemingly enhanced--with super-sonic hearing--but we all know from experience that these gifts likely come at a cost.

A cost which Nina Sharp is hoping that Olivia can avoid by consulting an associate of hers, a "specialist" named Sam Weiss (Kevin Corrigan), who helped her through some rocky times of her own. Just who is Weiss? That's a mystery for another day but he works at a bowling alley and is expecting Olivia. Something tells me Weiss is no mere bowling alley clerk but an important figure who could hold the answers to unlocking Olivia's memory.

What did you think of this week's episode? Was it as strong as the season opener? How long will it be before Evil Charlie makes his "coffee ice cream" slip-up? Discuss.

Next week on Fringe ("Fracture"), Peter, Walter, Olivia, and Broyles investigate an incident in Philadelphia where a bomb blew up inside a train station but left no trace of any explosive device; uncovering links to a classified military project, Olivia and Peter head to Iraq.

Same Old Scene: A Tear in the Veil on the Season Premiere of FOX's "Fringe"

Oh, Fringe, I've missed you.

I've had a sometimes thwarted love affair with FOX's sci-fi drama Fringe over the course of its bumpy first season but last night's second season premiere ("A New Day in the Old Town"), written by J.J. Abrams and Akiva Goldsman and directed by Akiva Goldsman, points to a new direction for the series and a better use of some of its underutilized characters. (You can read my advance review of the second season opener here.)

While some of the twists were somewhat predictable and one in particular extremely far-fetched (more on that in a bit), the episode did feature one of the very best cold opens on the series to date and tantalizingly set up a new story arc for Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) while keeping the exact nature of her discussion with the shadowy William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) a mystery for another day.

Now that the episode has aired, we can discuss specifics about the plot, so let's get to it.

Loved the opening sequence with the idling car and Olivia suddenly getting propelled out of nowhere through the windshield. Very suspenseful and unexpected, given the last time we saw her she was standing with William Bell in the parallel world's version of the Twin Towers. Exactly the sort of way I want to start the season of Fringe.

Nice bait-and-switch with Olivia as well. I began to think for a few minutes that this wasn't our Olivia Dunham at all but the one from the parallel world and that she would actually die right in front of us and the Fringe Division would be forced to mourn her death, even as she's actually alive in the other world. (It could have been a nice parallel to Walter kidnapping that world's Peter.)

But instead, just as Olivia's life support is about to be switched off, she regains consciousness, chanting in Greek and speaking about the mission that "He" gave her. But the details are hazy and unclear. Just what did William Bell tell Olivia in their meeting? Hmmm...

I'm thrilled that the writers have wisely given Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) more to do. For far too long and despite the ability of Jackson, Peter has remained more or less one-dimensional, the go-to guy for clandestine hook-ups and calming down Walter (John Noble) during his tantrums but little else. No more. In just a few minutes, Peter has shifted from lone wolf to team leader, saving Broyles' skin during a sub-committee investigation of the Fringe Division and possibly saving all of them with a last-ditch effort to prove that their methods have yielded results.

But he's also quick to point out (thankfully) that the team has been way too reactive, has sat back and watched The Pattern unfold and responded to phenomena, rather than getting out there and trying to prevent these horrific occurrences from happening in the first place. Yes, there's a place for investigation and research, but I too want to see Olivia and Co. being more aggressive and dogged. There's a time and place to sit by and let things happen around you and a time for action. I'm glad that the writers opted to give this charge to Peter, enabling him to take a leap of maturity and leadership and landing him with a new responsibility among the group. "From now on, we’re calling the shots," says Peter. "We’re done reacting." Well done.

Likewise, we've finally gotten some further characterization for Broyles (the uber-talented Lance Reddick) who had been reduced in Season One to being the group's exposition dump, informing the team (and the audience) about the Pattern's latest case in a way that was clunky and frustrating for long-time viewers. (Sadly, however, we still have to contend with being hit over the head with exposition in the season opener with the subtlety of an anvil by Meghan Markle's newbie Agent Jessup.)

I'm extremely intrigued by the kiss that passes between Broyles and Blair Brown's Nina Sharp. It clearly points to some romantic entanglement between the two in the past and I hope that it's a subplot that crops up more and more throughout the season. Broyles and Sharp have been two of the more mysterious characters but they've also been largely tangential to the plot, existing only to further the action at the expense of characterization. Let's hope that the writers see the need to deepen their respective roles and give Reddick and Brown a real chance to shine.

Speaking of Markle's Jessup, I'm not in love with the character. She comes across as a little too eager and gifted and the writers still haven't fleshed out Jasika Nicole's Astrid Farnsworth enough to give us yet another supremely gifted junior agent. Not sure what to make of her use of the Bible, either.

The shapeshifter this week was extremely creepy, given the way that he was able (with a nightmare device) to smoosh his face into that of another person. Loved the typewriter scene where our shifter was able to send and receive messages to the other world. It was exactly the type of scene that we should see more of on Fringe, expressing a heightened sense of dread and horrific possibility. (Kudos to Goldsman for staging it so deftly.)

Still, one of the real head-scratchers of the episode was the reveal that the shifter had, amid the chaos of Olivia's attempted assassination, taken the place of Agent Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo). I get that this guy is a quick-witted hit man with an array of skills and abilities from a dangerous world but I couldn't buy that he just happened to have stashed the murdered nurse's body in the same room as where he jumps Charlie and was able to (A) kill Charlie, (B) remove his clothes, (C) put on Charlie's clothes, and (D) conceal Charlie's corpse in the amount of time it took Peter to run down that hallway. I'm all for a willing suspension of disbelief but this was way too jagged a pill to swallow, even for Fringe. (Shades of Alias' Freplicate, no?)

I'm going to miss Charlie. Acevedo had precious little to do in the role but I did like the camaraderie he shared with Olivia. It is pretty obvious that the story he recounts to Olivia--about his near-death experience with a lunatic assault victim that resulted in the death of his partner--will come into play as Olivia slowly realizes that the person claiming to be Charlie Francis isn't her old friend but a stranger.

While the subplot about Walter making custard for Peter's birthday could have been a throwaway one, Noble imbues the action with a real poignancy for what's been lost, forgetting that this Peter never grew up liking custard at all. It's a series of small moments that pay off in that final understanding going on inside Walter's head as he "remembers" just what he's done and the price he's had to pay. I'm glad that we are seeing more of this storyline come to fruition.

And that Greek phrase Olivia chanted earlier? Well, it turns out that it's something that Peter's mother used to say to him when he was younger ("Be a better man than your father"). The identity of Peter's mother has been shrouded in mystery since the beginning of the series and this plot twist points to something very interesting developing between the Bishops. Could it be that Bell knows about Walter's sin and that this message is intended for Peter? We'll have to wait and see...

What did you think of last night's season premiere? Were you impressed by Fringe's new direction and an infusion of proactive energy into the plot? Will you miss Acevedo's Charlie? Just what does Bell want from Olivia? And how far will his enemies go to prevent Olivia from recounting this information? Discuss.

Next week on Fringe ("Night of Desirable Objects"), a highway construction worker in rural Pennsylvania goes missing when he is mysteriously drawn into an underground tunnel filled with human remains; Walter explores the possibility of simulating travel between realities on frogs; the team travels to the crime scene to unearth evidence when it becomes clear this is not an isolated incident.

Channel Surfing: Vinnie Jones Spies "Chuck," Lip-Lock Causes Sparks on "Fringe," Showtime Could Unleash "The Borgias," and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

British actor and former footballer Vinnie Jones (Loaded) will guest star on an upcoming installment of NBC's action-comedy series Chuck, which returns with its third season next year. Jones will play Karl Stromberg, "an expert hit man with a soft side," on the Warner Bros. Television-produced series. Jones has also been attached to an untitled new series based on a comic book by Howard Chaykin about an "international spy who teams with his long-lost daughters he never knew existed." That project hails from Elevate Entertainment and Prodigy Pictures, the Canadian production company behind NBC mini-series XIII. (Hollywood Reporter)

TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams has the scoop behind "that kiss" in the second season premiere of FOX's Fringe last night. According to Abrams, the lip-lock didn't come as a surprise to the two stars of the FOX drama, as they claim that a romantic past between the two characters was part of the subtext between the two over the last season. (Yes, I'm being pretty vague here but I don't want to spoil the show for anyone who didn't see it last night.) (TVGuide.com)

Showtime is said to be circling Neil Jordan's period drama The Borgias, which revolves around the scandals and vendettas of the murderous Italian Renaissance family. Project, from DreamWorks Television and ImageMovers, is written and executive produced by Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) and executive produced by Justin Flavey, Darryl Frank, Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke, and Steve Starkey; it's being viewed as a likely successor to The Tudors, which will wrap its fourth and final season this spring. (Variety)

ABC has ordered a pilot script for an untitled one-hour comedy about the lives of Las Vegas magicians Penn Jillette and Teller that will star the duo as versions of themselves who are magicians at night and "reluctant detectives" by day. Project, from Warner Bros. Television, will be written and executive produced by Leonard Dick (House) and Jillette and Teller. The network also ordered a pilot for an untitled multi-camera relationship comedy, from former Friends scribe Shana Goldberg-Meehan and Warner Bros. Television, about two sisters, one of whom is in a long-term relationship but unwed, the other who becomes pregnant and quickly marries her boyfriend. They also gave out a script order to another untitled multi-camera comedy, this time from ABC Studios and writers Brett Paesel and Marsh McCall, about a recent divorcee who attempts to rebuild her life by taking an unusual job. (Variety)

Elsewhere at ABC, the Alphabet has released the first seventeen minutes of its new drama series FlashForward, which is available for streaming viewing on Hulu. Coincidence that the network opted to release such a lengthy look just after the entire pilot leaked on Bit Torrent? Hmmm... (Hulu)

USA is said to be overhauling drama series In Plain Sight, hiring John McNamara (Jericho) as the series' new showrunner. McNamara, who signed an overall deal with studio Universal Cable Prods., will replace former showrunner and series creator David Maples, who will now step into the role of consultant, as will executive producer Paul Stupin. According to Variety's Michael Schneider, "the show will probably add a few new characters to the mix as viewers get to know more of McCormack's backstory and more of the other marshals in the office," and "more of the Witness Protection Program participants' stories may also be examined, and Wachtel said the show will likely take more advantage of the stark, desert New Mexico landscape." (Variety)

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan investigates the weakness of will-they-or-won't-they television couples, discussing "whether shows should constantly tease a couple possibly getting together and never actually do it," after expressing her frustration with the Booth/Brennan non-coupling on FOX's Bones. (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

Thora Birch (Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story) and Nancy Travis (The Bill Engvall Show) have been cast in Lifetime telepic Pregnancy Pact, which is inspired by actual events involving a teen pregnancy boom at a Massachusetts high school. Project, which will air next year, is written by Pamela Davis and Teena Booth and will be directed by Rosemary Rodriguez. (Hollywood Reporter)

In other MOW news, Billy Ray Cyrus has been cast in Hallmark Channel telepic Christmas in Canaan, about the unlikely friendship that develops in 1960s Texas between DJ (Zak Ludwig), who is white, and Rodney (Jaishon Fisher), who is black. Cyrus will play DJ's father in the telepic, which is based on a novel written by Kenny Rogers and Donald Davenport and is slated to air in December. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Tune-In Reminder: Thursday Night Premiere Bonanza

Just a quick reminder that there's a ton of new television launching tonight, between series premieres, season premieres, and a secret advance peek at a new FX comedy series kicking off next year.

So what should you be sure to set your DVR for tonight? Here goes?

Season Five of Bones kicks off tonight at 8 pm ET/PT with a premiere ("Harbingers in a Fountain"), in which Brennan returns from a dig in Guatemala; Angela's psychic, Avalon Harmonia (Cyndi Lauper) reveals while reading Angela's tarot cards that there are multiple bodies buried under a Washington, DC fountain; Sweets certifies Booth mentally fit to return to duty after his brain surgery, but Booth is still experiencing some side effects from his coma. (You can read my advance review of the season premiere here.)

At 8:30 pm, it's the start of Season Two of comedy Parks and Recreation on NBC. (You can read my advance review of the first two episodes of the season here.)

Fringe returns to FOX at 9 pm tonight with a second season premiere ("A New Day in the Old Town") in which Peter unknowingly races against time to gain information about Olivia's visit to the parallel world and Walter reenters the lab to cook up a bit of fringe science, and some custard for Peter's birthday. (You can read my advance review of the season opener here.

Wait, there's more...

The Office kicks off its new season at 9 pm with "Rumors," in which Michael spreads some rumors around the office, including one rumor that just happens to be true.

At 9:30 pm, NBC launches its newest comedy, Community, about a lawyer (Joel McHale) whose degree has been revoked forms a study group at a community college where he has enrolled in order to obtain a legitimate bachelor's degree. (You can read my advance review of the pilot episode here.)

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia returns to FX at 10 pm with the start of its fifth season ("The Gang Exploits the Mortgage Crisis") as Frank, Mac and Dennis try their hand at real estate; Dee arranges to be a surrogate mother for a rich couple; Charlie squares off with a lawyer. (You can read my review of the first four episodes here.)

Cap off the evening with a sneak peek of FX's animated comedy series Archer, about an international man of mystery and his eccentric co-workers, which launches early next year.