TVSquad

You could make a case for Fringe being the biggest premiere of the fall season. Through the involvement of J.J. Abrams, and a boatload of promotion from the network, the show has generated an incredible amount of buzz. The thing about buzz though, is that it's often fleeting. At some point the show will have to back it up. There are still many weeks to go before we'll have a good idea of the result of the Fringe experiment, but where's the fun in waiting for the numbers? I ask you, TV Squad readers, to put on your ratings analysis caps and make the call. How will Fringe fare?

It's a complicated question. The biggest sticking point for me is the "serialized drama" question. The producers seem to be going out of their way to make sure everyone knows that this isn't like Lost. The LA Times quotes Abrams as saying that Fringe will be "a show that people can watch as frequently and as infrequently as they want to." That's all well and good to say, but in the same article he refers to "a larger mythology." In addition, lead actress Anna Torv says that what she loves about the show is the conspiracy. That's not the stuff of easily accessible procedurals.