Crazy Connections

I watched my first episode of Fringe tonight, which was the second in the series. In case you hadn't heard about it yet, Fringe is the newest brainchild of Lost creator J.J. Abrams. Essentially, It looks to be a series about a mad U.S. government scientist, his offspring (intentionally vague word choice here), and the Agent assigned to investigate their shit. Wikipedia describes it as a cross between the X-Files, the Twilight Zone and one of my favorite movies, Altered States. My roommate Brian said it was more like CSI combined with Lost and the X-Files.
I used to be a devout viewer of Abrams earlier sexy-spy series Alias, where Jennifer Garner faced up against some imaginative, increasingly paranormal adversaries (like clones and ancient inventions). And cf course, Lost is all about the sci-fi. Fringe recycles central elements of both shows, both plot wise (dangerous, futuristic science experiments, sinister megacorporations, questionable government intervention etc. etc.) and structurally (lots of serious-sounding psychobabble for dialogue, tense music, frequent cliffhangers) to tell a pretty interesting new story. Besides, let's face it, the world could always use some more Weird Science. I'll probably watch it fairly regularly, for a while.
What struck me initially in tonight's episode was a character with a rapidly accelerated, out of control aging process that caused him to grow from a fetus to an old, dead corpse in less than a day or so. It seemed loosely similar to Brad Pitt's character's reversed-aging process (he's born as an old man) in the forthcoming film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It is directed by David Fincher, who directed Pitt in Se7en and Fight Club. As such, it looks cool.
But I subsequently recalled a potentially awesome George Clooney project called Men Who Stare at Goats, which is based on a book about a U.S. army division that tried to make things explode using their minds, among other things.
Of course, Clooney and Pitt are butt-buddies from their Ocean's 11 days, and from the new, sadistically humorous blackmailfail comedy Burn After Reading.
Do I smell a trend? Hollywood tackles issues of mortality and corporate responsibility via pulpy sci-fi? A comment on all the Hurricane Ike, global-warming business that's been going in real life? Are the designer pharmaceutical ads that accompany the telecast intentional? For now, you decide. Stay tuned for more clues...