This post has lots of spoilers. SO. MANY. If you have not watched FRINGE, you should not read further.
Here's the tl;dr: Don't be afraid to fight for telling your story your way. Listen to the feedback that pushes you to reconsider; it's important, too.
But ultimately you must Do what serves your story.
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FRINGE has so many big ideas in play --
*again, SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS*
--alternate universes, Peter as having been stolen by Walter from the other universe, the Observers who seem to be just watching but in fact will end up invading --
But none of these things are presented in the pilot. In fact the alternate universe idea doesn't even begin to really get a hearing until around the midpoint of the season; Peter's backstory and what it means only starts to surface at the end of season one; and the Observer twist doesn't get revealed until Season Four.
It seems insane to hold off on these major story elements so long. Especially the alternate universe idea. That IS the show (or at least the first four seasons of it). It's the thing everyone is going to tell everyone else to sell them on this show. So why not put it in the pilot?
My thought? It's because that's where we would expect to find it. Every genre pilot has some big end of pilot twist that changes everything. Someone is watching Wanda's sitcom on WANDAVISION. Boomer is a Cylon on BSG.
By holding exactly that kind of major twist back, the FRINGE writers create space for that reveal to be a much bigger surprise. It's the essence of sleight of hand, and also stand up: land the punchline where we're not looking.
This withholding also enables the series to build the relationship with its audience out of the strength of its characters and their relationships. Given the Enormousness of its big twists, FRINGE could have easily become what I call a JJ, a Mystery Box series where what drives the narrative and audience interest is some central secret. But JJs tend to have big sugar rushes and also big sugar crashes, when the promise of the mystery isn't met.
By holding off on revealing even the extent to which there is a Big Crazy Mystery, FRINGE keeps the audience from thinking of the show in that way. We're going to come back week to week not because WE HAVE TO LEARN WHAT IS HAPPENING but because we like these characters and the crazy situations they're investigating.
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You don't want to be precious with your Big Ideas. Not every Major Reveal is as strong as you might initially think. The question to ask is always: What best serves my story? And ultimately you have to trust your instincts on what that is.
