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One of the more popular new mythology shows of the last season has returned this season to far weaker ratings. In today's fragmented television landscape, this drastic drop is no longer the television death knell it once was; yet, it's nevertheless a troubling development for a show that really hasn't developed quite the passionate following that genre shows usually enjoy. What's more, the creator is JJ Abrams, a name almost synonymous with passionate fan bases. I know I haven't developed a passion for Fringe like I have for Lost or Alias.

There are quite a few problems with Fringe, which could contribute to its dwindling ratings. Certainly living in Lost and Alias's shadow doesn't help. Yet, it's The X-Files to which most folks most compare it. It's mostly a supernatural procedural, there's a female and a male lead, they work for the FBI, and there's some sort of mysterious mythological conspiracy evolving within the weekly adventures. Hollywood is no stranger to repeating success, but often such recycling yields lesser and lesser returns.

For that matter, Joshua Jackson and Anna Torv are no David Duchovney and Gillian Anderson. To be fair, Jackson has come a long way since Dawson's Creek. He's developed a gravitas not evident in the WB hit. Now you could possibly even detect a potential for some Jack Bauer style badassery from him in a decade or so. However, on Fringe, he's pretty much relegated to being an everyman Scully. Lacking her scientific genius, he just makes wisecracks in response to all of the wackiness around him, and mediocre wisecracks at that.

You'd think that would make Torv the show's Mulder then, but no such luck. To be honest with you, I'm not really sure what her character is. Does she even have a point of view? It's a particularly disturbing weakness when you consider the strong female shoes she's filling. I don't just mean Scully, though I do include her in the legacy of the character. Abrams has had quite the knack for discovering new female faces - Jennifer Garner, Evangeline Lilly, Keri Russell - so how did he drop the ball on this one? It's not that Torv is bad, it's that she's dull. To be fair, the character's missing point of view is as much a writing flaw as it is an acting one, but she really brings nothing compelling to the table. I think I was about six episodes in before I could even recognize her from a line-up.

Also like X-Files, the show is a combination of serial and episodic. While X-Files alternates between monster-of-the-week and mythology, Fringe has a somewhat different structure. The weekly monsters of Fringe all contribute to the show's big conspiracy, known as the Pattern. As we follow our heroes' weekly adventures, we start to see connections between them, which pay off a couple of times a season in some pretty strong episodes where all of the threads start to intertwine. Like X-Files, and Lost for that matter, we get some answers, which lead to further questions. Then we go off on another run of stand-alones that later connect. There are also some running B plots to keep continuity nerds like myself from getting too bored. And I do get bored, because, while much of the pseudo-science is fun and original, the execution isn't. The week-to-week stories are pretty conventional: we get some funky supernatural occurrence, Jackson's Peter rolls his eyes, Torv's Olivia gets down to business, they piece it together, and have an action climax. You know, like most procedurals on TV.

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