[Televisionary]

Fringe might not be airing an episode this week (it returns next week with "Os"), but that doesn't mean we can't take a sneak peek at what's to come as the universes continue to collide on FOX's addictive sci-fi series. FOX has today released a new promo, which I'll call "Balance and Imbalance," which contains not only clues for what lies ahead for Olivia, Peter, and Walter, but also a shot of Lost 's Jorge Garcia, and a quote from yours truly and some other critics about this extraordinary series, which wraps up its season on May 6th. (Mark your calendars now.) You can view the promo in full below and you'll like want to watch more than once because the stuff at the end? Cryptic and quick, it has flurry of images from throughout the series, along with shots of Sam Weiss, William Bell, a mention of a "demon" and a bunch of on-screen text, Jorge Garcia, a young Observer, and the doomsday device that could signal the end of one o...

Is it just me or was that the only possible outcome for this week's episode? With the final five delving deep into their ancestral pasts for the latest challenge, this week's episode ("Give Me Your Huddled Masses") actually made me so nervous that one of my favorites would be going home that I was physically nauseous watching the judges' table deliberations. But I also had a suspicion that there would be some sort of chicanery involved as the judges seemed to have no real criticisms of any of the dishes on offer, which told me that this would either be (A) the most tense and prolonged judges' panel to date or (b) an opportunity for the judges to send through all five contestants to the final rounds. Given the strength of all five remarkable dishes--each of which was not only in keeping with the individual chefs' culinary aesthetics and ethos but also paid due to their family trees--it really was the only possible outcome after such strong performances. Whe...

The Charlie Sheen media frenzy continues onwards, it seems, with no end in sight. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, a strongly-worded essay entitled "Charlie Sheen: Stop Putting Him on TV!" As the dek reads, "It’s not strange that people want to see Sheen’s crazed rants wherever they can... but it sure is disgusting that mainstream media outlets are giving him a platform." What's your take on the media's role in this feeding frenzy? When it is time to say enough?

Do we do things for the right or wrong reasons? When you cut beneath the surface, are all the "right" reasons really wrong? I've been raving about CBS' gripping and intelligent series The Good Wife all season long, and hopefully the praise has rubbed off on those who wouldn't normally tune into a legal drama. But The Good Wife is no mere episodic courtroom potboiler: it's a canny and critical arbiter of society and technology, a stirring and often emotional exploration of family and morals in the media age, a portrait of working women, and a romance- and intrigue-laden drama that manages to stir both your heart and your mind on a weekly basis. Tonight's episode of The Good Wife ("Great Firewall"), written by creators Robert King and Michelle King (with a story by Leonard Dick) and directed by Nelson McCormick, ranks up there with some of the very best installments the series has produced to date, an exceptionally crafted installment that juxta...

If there's one thing that Chuck has dealt with on an ongoing basis, it's matters of trust and fidelity in the spy world, where such things are seen as potential weaknesses to be exploited rather than strengths. Over the course of the last four seasons, Chuck Bartowski has been transformed from a naive asset into a full-blown spy of his own and I don't mean thanks to the Intersect (which still manages to flash and give him information or enable him to engage in some kick-ass Kung Fu), but rather his demeanor and way of handling himself in the field has changed significantly. Whereas he and Sarah were once on separate trajectories (he wants to be extraordinary! she wants to be normal!), they've now settled somewhere in the middle together, a spy couple whose missions are backdrops for their romantic endeavors. This week's episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the First Bank of Evil") found the one-time spy wannabe engaging with his own asset, Vivian MacArthur Vo...