Fringe, one of my favorite current TV shows, is starting to cross over into the danger zone. This zone consists of TV producers who try to use some kind of tech, fancy or not, as a crutch to carry a weak episode.

The most glaring example is the Simpsons 3D episode. Without the 3D, it would be a fairly boring episode. With the 3D, it's a fairly boring episode made even worse by the distracting graphical effects. Even though the Simpsons is still on, episodes like the 3D one marked a downfall of the quality of the show.

Poor Fringe. They decided to have half of the show as an animated comic, which is just annoying and distracting to a viewer. It did nothing to advance the story, which was a less than stellar Inception ripoff. If you haven't seen it yet I won't spoil it for you, but it does extend the storyline of William Bell inhabiting Olivia's consciousness.

I wouldn't mind this use of tech if the stories behind them were strong. It seems like content creators see the tech and slack off on the actual content that the tech is applied to. Preferably, they would draft the story first as usual, and then add the tech later. The story should stand alone.