TVSquad

(S02E05) "Whether you admit it or not, your life is something of a nightmare." - Bowling Alley Guy to Olivia

For a minute there, I thought maybe we were in a True Blood crossover with the horned guy in the first few minutes of this episode. But no, it was the usual twisty-turny Fringe-isms involving mind control, computer chips and dream states.

And it appears that something many of us assumed had happened to Peter actually did happen -- though with this show, you can never be sure until it all plays out. It wouldn't surprise me if it's something completely different from what I'm assuming it is. All this, and Mysterious Bowling Alley Guy after the jump ...

(S02E04) "Momentum can be deferred, but it must always be paid back in full. As I always said to Walter, physics is a bitch." - William Bell to Olivia, on the dangers of jumping universes

Cryonics, frozen heads, worm juice, mercury blood, shapeshifters, and Leonard Nimoy were all featured in this episode, and I loved it all.

Let's start with the worm juice. Olivia must have been seriously craving her William Bell memories to drink that awful stuff. And what a trooper that she was able to keep it down, too. I guess it must have worked. She got some of her memories back, along with some help from the bell -- both the bell they chimed during Rebecca's psychedelic adventure and William Bell. Or Willem, as Olivia used to call him.

Is she right not to trust him? Could he have started the war? It's certainly possible, given his mysteriousness. He said for reasons she might understand later, he couldn't come back to this universe right now, possibly never. Why? What's he doing over there? Is he the one building the army? Is he being forced to? Will he and Walter face off eventually?

(S02E03) "Get my portable chemistry set ... this means bodies!" - Walter to Astrid

This episode of Fringe sort of went along without too many shocker moments -- until the last few minutes, that is. I wasn't all that surprised about the serum that turned people into human explosives, or even that it might be part of a top-secret military experiment. But I was wondering when our friend The Observer would turn up again in a big way and dump something spicy all over his plate of food.

(S02E02) "We're all victims of our own gene pool. Someone must have peed in yours." - Walter to Sheriff Golightly

Creature feature? Or relevant to the alternate universe storyline? Those were the questions running through my head as I watched this episode of Fringe.

What I believe -- at the moment -- is that all of the creature features we had during season one are somehow relevant to the overall storyline. Since things are slightly different in the alternate universe, perhaps there are creatures there who've evolved or avoided extinction that have somehow made their way back to this universe. Of course, it appears that this episode's creature was created right here.

Read my Fringe theories, and follow me after the jump for commentary on tonight's episode.

(S02E01) "I went somewhere." - Olivia to Peter

I can hardly contain my giddiness that Fringe is back, so ... yay! ... Fringe is back! More mystery! More intrigue! More Walter Bishop! More Jean! More jump-out-of-your-seat moments!

It's been a long summer since we last left the crew with Olivia in another dimension, Walter visiting Peter's grave, and the mysterious William Bell played by the mysterious Leonard Nimoy. Follow me after the jump to explore how the season is shaping up so far ...

I liked that super expensive, two-hour-long Fringe series premiere, but I found it hard to stay awake throughout the following episodes. My love for Pacey Witter aside, I haven't felt compelled to watch the series in a while, but this news might get me to tune in.

Star Trek's Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, will join the show as the mysterious William Bell, the founder of sci-tech creep house Massive Dynamic, in Fringe's May 12 season finale.

Looks like Mr. Nimoy enjoyed his recent collaboration on the Star Trek movie with Fringe producers J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.

Orci recently talked about what viewers can expect from the character of William Bell when he finally appears on the show.

Yesterday, Latino Review got our nerd hearts aflutterin' with a report about some possible Star Trek: The Next Generation cameos in J.J. Abram's upcoming Trek film. It would be great to see Picard, Data or even Riker rubbing elbows with Spock in the new flick, but sadly it's not happening says TrekMovie.com.

Here's how the confusion apparently started: There's currently an IDW Star Trek movie prequel comic series out called Star Trek: Countdown that mostly takes place in the Next Generation era. That comic is billed as a direct prequel to Abrams' film and it features TNG favorites like Picard and Data interacting with Bana's character, Nero, and Nimoy's Spock. Apparently, the new movie will start out with Spock and Nero living in the TNG era and time traveling back to the era of Kirk, Scotty and young Spock. But, according to TrekMovie's sources, no TNG cast members will show up in the film.

Anyone who watched last night's episode of Fringe can see that all the pieces of the puzzle that is The Pattern are coming together. Dunham is starting to merge John Scott's memories with her own, right as the evil Nina Sharp at Massive Dynamic decided she needs them to help her nefarious plans. Dunham's actually starting to show some personality; the chemistry between her and Peter and between Peter and Walter is getting fun. And the ending to last night's episode set up a nice cliffhanger that will take us through the holidays.

It's starting to reach a lot of the potential that fans had for it, given its J.J. Abrams pedigree. So why am I not more engrossed with the show?

By the time the Fringe panel started, I wasn't the only one who was exhausted. This was one of the final television panels of the day, with the exception, I believe, of MythBusters -- a panel I regret having to miss but, since I literally hadn't eaten anything but two Clif Bars all day, I had no choice. Otherwise you would have heard about the guy who passed out in Room 6B.

Since I'd already seen the Fringe pilot, I considered not attending the panel. I think a lot of people felt the same way, as Ballroom 20 wasn't even full for it. I'm glad I did attend, however, because it was interesting to hear what people wanted to ask of J. J. Abrams.

Right before a Kitchen Nightmares-themed lunch, FOX held the press conference for the new J.J. Abrams show, Fringe. On the panel were Abrams and fellow executive producers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orici, Jeff Pinkner, and Bryan Burk, with stars Joshua Jackson, Anna Torv, and John Noble appearing via satellite from New York.

The name The X-Files was brought up a number of times during the session, mainly because the show aims to tell a continuing story with a mythology, using scientific investigation methods and other plot points based in scientific fact. But, Abrams and company took pains to tell the gathered critics that, while the story of FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Torv) investigates the operations of the Massive Dynamic corporation will have an overall arc, there will be a "mystery of the week" to keep people who've just tuned in for the first time interested.

He realized that some of his previous shows (Alias, Lost) are a bit more complicated than that, which was brought home one day at Greg Grunberg's house.

Imagine this. If The X-Files and CSI had a baby and that baby's godfather was Heroes, then that would be Fringe. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, after attending a screening of J.J. Abrams' new show at Fox studios in Century City, I can vouch that it is indeed pretty good. One might even say it's more than pretty good; it's great in fact.

I watched the two-hour season premiere on Thursday evening. The pilot I saw was unfinished, but according to the publicist for Fox, the network is so psyched about Fringe, they couldn't wait to show the press. He referred to it as Fox's "tent pole series for the fall."

After the jump, I tell you about the pilot and the characters. Consider yourself warned though, there will be a few spoilers.

Ok, it is after midnight here in the Jet City, and as I sit down to bang this post out on my beloved Model M it would appear that my tasty glass of juice is half empty. Maybe I'm just not in the right frame of mind to spin this news in a positive direction that will lead to a 2009 full of Dollhouse win.

Tucked away in a report on various network goings on over at Hollywood Reporter is a little line that says "Dollhouse is expected to launch mid-season." This is me shaking my fist in the general direction of Fox and screaming "Khaaaaan!" Just, because. Doesn't this seem like a road that has been traveled before? It's one that usually leads to a pretty disappointing destination. We haven't seen the finished fall schedule yet, but I would wager that most of us could easily find three or four hours where the network would be better served by inserting Dollhouse. Highlights of what the networks have planned are available after the jump.

From the "Things that make you go, hmmmm?" department... Just let this one roll around in your noggin for a bit. According to reports, after 2 1/2 years of negotiations, Mr. MacFarlane has a new deal with 20th Century Fox TV that could be worth more than $100 million. The deal will keep him with the studio through 2012. To put it in some perspective, J.J. Abrams signed a five year feature/TV deal with Paramount and Warner Bros that was valued at $60 million.

Now, I don't mean to slight Seth or his accomplishments, but doesn't that strike you as just a bit odd? I mean, I'm a fan of his work. I've never missed an episode of Family Guy or American Dad. Hell, I sat through The War At Home to catch his guest spot. Still, I also follow ratings rather closely, and while Family Guy is certainly a success, I wouldn't have expected it to garner him highest paid status. Maybe The Cleveland Show is just that much better than any of us are giving it credit for.

Kate Flannery, who most of you will know as Meredith from The Office, has updated her TV Guide blog with some tidbits about the big J.J. Abrams directed episode, "Cocktails." There are a couple spoilers, so save it for tomorrow if you dodge that kind of stuff. The entry also includes some more trivia on last week's Whedon episode, "Business School." For instance, Rainn Wilson named the bat, and it was a live bat, Gary.

The thing I found interesting was her story of her past with Abrams. It seems that previous to her Office gig, Kate spent some time working as a waitress. Abrams would come in to write and ask how her acting was going. When the two met again on the set he remembered her, and was very excited for her success. Abrams catches a lot of crap for his role in the whole Lost deal, so it's worth pointing out the positive stories now and again too.

Various sources are reporting that Stephen King's seven-volume opus The Dark Tower could be making it to the screen. The question is: will it be the TV screen or the movie screen? As an unapologetic fan of King's work, and especially his Dark Tower series (a narrative that expands into his other books as well) I really don't care how they do it, as long as they don't screw it up. The Dark Tower, the tale of a gunslinger named Roland who seeks out the titular tower that is the center of all existence, is an engaging, if sometimes overwrought amalgam of fantasy, sci-fi, horror and a bit of King's own existentialism tossed in for good measure: he himself becomes a character in the latter part of the series. Much like Lord of the Rings, the series begs to be developed in a visual medium, but one hopes whoever tackles this project can do it justice.

Right now, J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias) is the name attached to the rumored project, and the belief seems to be that it will be developed as a miniseries, given the length of time needed to tell the whole story. My only suggestion would be to shorten the part of the story told in The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass; I loved The Dark Tower as a whole, but Wizard and Glass bored me to tears -- too much romance, not enough action.