This week in television the big buzz was all about Lost having it's triumphant return and whether or not the show would be able to answer any of the questions we've all been dying to know for the last 4 seasons.  Wtf, where is the Island?  Why is that dude not aging?! Will Hurley ever lose weight?  Like, maybe after the show is over?  Fringe also returned this week.  Did you notice?  That show is still on the air?  Yes, it's just been on hiatus.  

Fringe isn't a great show.  It's an ok show, but nothing special.  Not yet anyways.  However, what's more annoying than sticking with a show you keep hoping and praying will finally get cool is that it's almost February and we're only 11 episodes into a series that started in September.  We should be 20 episodes deep as of Tuesday night.  What the creators and executive producers of Fringe, JJ Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, fail to realize is that their show isn't good enough to warrant this much down time.  Fringe really didn't have all that positive of a response at it's release and that - to me - seems like all the more reason to crank out season one as fast as possible.  Your show is nowhere near as good as shows like Lost or Battlestar Galactica, where you can take a break during the middle of a season.  With those shows we crave, with Fringe we fall asleep.

Let's get real shall we?  The series' star, Anna Torv, is the weakest aspect of the series which is huge problem considering she's the star and all.  Joshua Jackson really is an experienced TV actor (128 freakin' episodes of Dawson's Creek) and he knows how to play on the small screen.  If you look above to the picture I've posted of Anna Torv, you'll see the face she makes EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF EVERY SINGLE EPISODE!!!  It isn't a cute face!  She always has a sort-of-hurt and sort-of-concerned look across her pale mug.  It's not entirely her fault either, the character is underwritten and has next to no personality that makes us identify with her.  If they could just write her character a little snappier and give her something to smile about I think we'd all be much better off.  Buffy is bubbly, cute, strong, torn, and funny all at the same time.  Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace is masculine, feminine, intimidating and naive in every single moment.  Fringe is kind of like if Kate from LOST had her own spin-off series.  She's nothing without a smooth talking southern grifter to make her smile.

A year or so back, Marvel comics had an incredibly unpopular Amazing Spider-Man story arc that went back in Marvel's continuity and wrote out Mary Jane and her marriage to Peter Parker.  None of it ever happened.  It was Joe Quesada's, editor in chief of Marvel comics, way of wiping the slate clean and bringing Spidey back to his unmarried youth.  Marvel fanboys everywhere, flipped their shit, and talked of how Spider-Man was ruined forever.  (I say fanboys with the most love and affection possible.  I'm a Marvel zombie.)  However, Joe Quesada did something brilliant which was the relaunch of Spider-Man, called Brand New Day, would now be released 3 times a month as opposed to once.  That means in this past year, we got as much Spider-Man as we would've in 3 years, making the Mary Jane withdrawal seem like years ago.

Fringe is doing the opposite of what Marvel did.  Instead of getting through the awful rough times as quickly as possible, JJ Abrams is prodding us over and over in the ribcage with a dinner fork reminding us how hungry we are.  We're wading through mud when we should already be showered off and drinking hot chocolate.  First seasons are rough, I get that.  I sympathize.  It's just hard to stick with something this long when it was never that good to begin with.

I'm writing this as a fan.  I want Fringe to be good.  I believe in the power of science fiction and it's ability to tell enthralling and thought provoking stories.  I'm an X-Phile to the core.  I consider myself a Browncoat.  I honestly had a Roslin for President 08' bumper sticker all through the election.  I once cried watching Rose Tyler be sent to another dimension never to be seen from again.  (We saw her again.)  Fringe, you could totally be on that list!  I believe there is an amazing story to be told somewhere in this doe of a series and it's only a matter of time until it finds it's footing.  We want to want you.  Now give us some suga'.

So say we all.