Few titles could be more apropos than Fringe when it comes to describing how I first felt about a series. I was on the edge of liking it; I was on the edge of hating it. In short, I was on the fringe. But now, after three episodes, I'm on the fringe no more. I'm just hooked. I simply have to know whether Blair Brown and her creepy robotic arm are good or bad.

As one of the most hyped shows of the new season, the new J.J. Abrams series premiered with a 90-minute pilot that set up its X-Files-meets-Dr. Frankenstein sprinkled with the Bourne franchise (minus the amnesia thing) premise. Each week, FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv, who could be Cate Blanchett's younger sister); the formerly mad scientist, Dr. Walter Bishop (John Nobel); and his genius grifter son Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) track down a series of what can only be described as attacks of weird science that are part of a global conspiracy of weird science called The Pattern.

Are you still with me? Do you need a sip of water? Shall we proceed?

The Pattern is the show's biggest selling point. As much as I like seeing Anna in her FBI pantsuits each week, it's the conspiracy that gets former X-Philes like myself really excited. Who is behind all these bizarre acts? Why are they doing it? And how does Massive Dynamic and Blair's robotic arm fit into everything? These are the kind of questions that can propel a series for seasons. … continue reading

Yesterday morning I arrived in Los Angeles for the Television Critics Association summer press tour, an annual rite of passage for TV critics nationwide. Basically, we gather together at the Beverly Hilton for two to three weeks of nonstop press conferences for pretty much every TV show currently on the air. I wasn't able to make it to the first week of press conferences, but I'm here for the next eight days to cover the networks and their affiliated cable channels, and as long as I don't pass out from too much off-the-cuff interviewing of random TV celebs, I'll be reporting my findings here every day. (To catch up on last week's gay-related TCA news, check out Michael Jensen's stellar blog posts at AfterElton.com.)

What happened on Monday? Here's the short version: Mia Michaels, Anna Torv, Lena Headey, Summer Glau, Olivia Wilde, Eliza Dushku and Joss Whedon, oh my! For the long(er) version, read on.

Left to right: Cat Deeley, Mia Michaels, Mary Murphy and Nigel Lythgoe

Today was the first of two days devoted to the Fox television network, and the morning kicked off with a press conference for the unscripted dance competition So You Think You Can Dance. Mia "hot damn she looks like a lesbian (too bad she ain't)" Michaels got grilled on why she's "being so mean" on the show these days. Here's what she said:

I don't think I'm being mean. I'm just being very honest, and we're in the fourth season, and I think as we go, we become more — our true selves come out, and we're comfortable. ... I'm not any different if I'm in a rehearsal studio with my dancers, and if they're not pulling up, they're going to know, and it's very much about tough love. ... I'm Mamma Mia, and they look to me for that tough love actually. So when I say it, America might go, "Oh, my God, that's so harsh.” They're cool with it. They know. They know I only want them to be brilliant.

I have always been an on-again, off-again viewer of SYTYCD, because it seems to repeatedly hammer home traditional gender norms through the judges' commentary that typically derides male dancers who are not macho (not to mention only having opposite-sex dance partners). This is particularly the case with judge Nigel Lythgoe, who always puts down men when he senses the least bit of "effeminacy" in them, while (excessively) praising women who are feminine and submissive. AfterElton.com talked with him after the panel, and Lythgoe essentially confirmed that he's stuck in the dark ages in terms of gender norms. Wake up, Nigel! It's 2008! Seriously, the guy kinda gives me the creeps.

Anyway, after SYTYCD was a panel devoted to the new series from creator J. J. Abrams (Alias), which is called Fringe. It stars Australian actor Anna Torv, whom British readers may remember from her stint playing a lesbian on the BBC's Mistresses. Torv unfortunately was in New York and therefore had to join the conference by satellite, so the stage was populated entirely with men — a theme that quickly came to define the day.

Anna Torv as Agent Olivia Dunham in Fringe

Photo credit: Michael Lavine/FOX

I caught a screening of most of the 90-minute pilot during lunch, and though it started off very promisingly with a mysterious plane full of dead people (think Lost meets The X-Files), around the 40-minute mark it started going off onto a seriously sci-fi tangent. Now, I'm a big sci-fi fan, but this just seemed odd. Like, things didn't connect up. I'm hoping that the pilot will be retooled before it hits prime time this fall to smooth out the rough spots.

On the plus side, Torv delivered what might be the best line of the day when asked to elaborate on her ass-kicking role as Agent Dunham: "I came to the kicking ass naturally." … continue reading

The summer TV schedule has barely gotten off the ground, and the networks are already rolling out the big trailers for fall. This means you’ll probably be sick of most shows before they even premiere — which is usually the case for me. But I have a confession to make: I’ve been sucked in by the Fox hype machine. After watching a promo the other night, I’m now totally psyched for the new J.J. Abrams joint, Fringe, starring Anna Torv and Pacey Joshua Jackson.

If Fringe is half as good as Abrams’ other shows (Felicity, Alias, Lost), we’re in for lots of smart, ass-kicking fun. And by the looks of the new trailer, we’ve got nothing to worry about. Check it out and let me know what you think.

OK, how cool was that? It reminds me of a cross between Alias and The X-Files — with a Lost-style plane crash thrown in for good measure. And it doesn’t hurt that Torv is smokin’ hot either. Her FBI character, Olivia Dunham, could be the next Sydney Bristow (minus the awesome wigs, unfortunately). … continue reading

J.J. Abrams recently announced the cast of his upcoming sci-fi pilot, Fringe. To most fans, I suppose the big news is that Mr. “I Discovered Keri Russell and Jennifer Garner” has chosen the beautiful-but-unknown-in-the-States actress Anna Torv to play the lead.

But the casting bit that caught my eye was the news that one of my most beloved ’80s TV stars, Blair Brown, will play “the brilliant Nina Cord, a 16-year veteran at Prometheus Corp., a cutting-edge research facility.”

Cutting-edge, indeed. The Divine Ms. B was, of course, the star of The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, a laugh-track-less dramedy that ran, starting in 1987, for two years on NBC before being picked up for another three seasons on then-nascent Lifetime. A year before Murphy Brown began its epic run redefining what it was to be a complicated woman in the 1980s, Blair Brown’s Molly Dodd was a quick-witted, complex, vaguely employed, literate libertine who captured the essence of New York womanhood at the time. She was a charmingly neurotic cross between Mary Richards and Annie Hall. And along with Woody Allen’s 1989 Crimes and Misdemeanors, 1988’s Crossing Delancey and the following year’s When Harry Met Sally, it informed my opinion of New York as a cultural, multiethnic, funny, intelligent place that I someday wanted to live. … continue reading