Matt, the issue with one-off episodes, is like on the X-Files, they can easily get boring. And repetitive. And when the characters are isolated from the over-all arc they're no longer believable. At least in Fringe they'll still often make reference to the past and previously shared/disclosed/watched events. The characters need to keep growing and every episode should add to their "history" and persona. That's the saving grace and where the X-Files completely faltered. IMO, it's what started to damage it and eventually made it a complete POS (even before the larger completely dumb-ass mistakes).