I didn't disagree with those points you made. I'm not arguing with anyone, what I was expressing was that I believed that this lack of direction and continuity in the X-Files is what made the show start to stink. I was a fan from day one of that show. Not too many later fans actually started watching the night of the original pilot broadcast. I even participated in usenet groups about the show, including a fan-fiction group.



That's not what I claimed never happens. What I claimed was that more than that doesn't happen, despite the claims of many creators/producers/showrunners. And not to say that anyone specific in this thread thought otherwise, but that a great many people (in general) do. Many times they have only an idea of the start, a couple of elements in the middle and how it should end. That's not even an overall story arc, but as you've noted, some people can make that work very well. IMO, this is what the creators of Lost had at most.



I didn't believe Kring. That's what I've been trying to say, is that generally speaking I don't put much faith in what the creators say. BUt what I did like about the show was that in the beginning it did seem quite well planned out and well serialized. I haven't really felt terribly happy since the last episode of season 1, however there have been a couple of highlights here and there.

I believe this whole sub-thread started with my desire to NOT see Fringe follow in the footsteps of the X-Files. Like Chris Carter, I don't have this whole thread planed out in advance, so it's not something I think would be very entertaining to someone catching up and re-reading at some point in the future.

Fringe has managed to do what X-Files couldn't do even within the first half dozen episodes of its first season. Develop and maintain a character arc that helps hold the series together. The characters are constantly being built up and don't generally (for lack of any apparent reason, such as a memory wipe) forget past events. I would like to see some additional back-references where appropriate as sometimes I think they're a little light on this. They're always referencing Walter's old work, but they also need to keep referencing facts/discoveries and elements of past episodes that can help with current cases, etc.

A counter example, of a show that I don't think has done this terribly well in some respects, but that I still quite enjoy, is Medium. How many times are Allison's friends going to doubt her and treat her like a pariah when she comes to them with a wacky dream? Really, this woman is *always* right, time to start putting some faith in her.