Ok, the last three seasons of the X-FIles were all but unwatchable, every single episode.

Chris Carter not knowing where the show was going is exactly my point. The over-all arc was shot. He kept changing his mind. The characters would grow and then backtrack in every way.

I don't want to see that happen to Fringe. BUt if you think anyone plans out a series years in advance... Well that simple doesn't happen. Any showrunner/creator that claims that is just blowing smoke up our asses. A show has to have some headroom and be dynamic enough to adapt to external pressures, so it can't all be carved in stone. I can live with that. But what the X-FIles did was inexcusable.

With Fringe, the most useless and boring episodes have always been the stand-alone ones. Not necessarily all of them mind you, but the only ones I've felt dissatisfied with have aways been stand-alone. I don't mind and actually appreciate side-cases, but they have to keep advancing the larger story arc. The whole Fringe division is supposed to be in place because of "The Pattern." This isn't the X-Files and frankly some of the cases they get brought in on, including the last one, are irrelevant enough that they should never have been called in the first place.

That said, I did like the last episode however.

Anyway, pushing the overall storyline isn't what necessarily makes a show good, so don't assume that's what I'm advocating blindly. If your overall story sucks or you have no clue how to actually develop a story, like say Kring from Heroes, then the show is going to suck crap even if every episode is directly linked to the previous. That guy might have a lot going for him, but TV is not one of those things. Seriously, he needs to find another line of work.