Britt's On

Last night I started watching the fifth and final season of Friday Night Lights. Can I first of all point out it's really nifty that they have it out on DVD simultaneously with the TV series premiering on NBC next week? As someone who owns (and lends out) the DVD series to everyone, I jumped on buying it instead of waiting week-to-week. Of course, this means I will get through the show faster, which is depressing after last night's heart-tugging opener.

I reflected that FNL had one of the best series premieres ever...and it got me thinking to the best series premieres of all time, and I realized that generally speaking, the shows with the best series premieres end up having the best first seasons. A show with a fantastic premiere (at least in its first season) rarely fails to live up to said standard. After the first season, it's a crapshoot. So instead of creating two separate lists of best premieres and best first seasons, I present my list of the best first seasons (and generally speaking, premieres) ever.


The OC - Remember when Mischa Barton was a fashion icon? And Rachel Bilson had curves? And Seth Cohen was charmingly self-conscious? And Luke had a gay dad? And Julie was a 'Real Housewife'-in-training? And Ryan's brooding desire to save people was sweet? And Oliver was a total psychopath? And the show was actually funny and shocking in equal parts? Sigh. Few shows, in particular teen shows, will top the glory that is the first season of The OC.


Lost - I was a latecomer to Lost, catching up on the first four seasons in quick succession literally days before the fifth one began. I'm kind of glad I did watch it on DVD so I could (somewhat) solve the confounded mysteries instead of being stumped for weeks. Few shows had as strong a premiere or first season as Lost - where characters were in constant peril, mysteries were piling on top of one another (but not to the hysterical levels they were in future seasons), and insight into each character's life was something to be savoured...and tied in very nicely with what was happening with their on-island selves. In retrospect, the first season is a little tedious compared to future ones (after all, they only thing they discover is the hatch and a whole lot of WTFuckery?) but I constantly hear complaints about s2's "Tailies" and s3's venture into the "Others" territory, so S1 really is a holy bastion of wonderfulness.


Friday Night Lights - I put up a serious fuss about watching FNL. I thought the actors looked smug on the cover. I didn't like the movie very much. I'd seen a clip on TV of Tyra's mom in the middle of a drinking binge and thought it looked lame. Alas, one day we popped season 1 in the DVD player and I was INSTANTLY hooked. The premiere is one of the most captivating ever, and the glorious full length of the first season allowed you to see many different facets of these humanly flawed characters. True, the series felt a little long compared to the length of an actual high school football season, but have 20+ episodes to play around with allowed for so much more than the protracted seasons we now have.


Desperate Housewives - I no longer watch DH because of this first season, and all that it stood for. A hilarious satire of soap operas, the show was whip smart, hilariously funny, and ooey gooey twisty turny. The women were a lot more entrenched in their archetypes - a good and bad thing - and we had some characters that added a lot of flavour to the show...Martha Huber, Edie, Paul, Rex (!), John to name a few. Plus it made sense for Mary-Alice to actually make guest appearances. Part of me thinks they blew their load (sorry, graphic) too early by giving up Mary-Alice's secret, and then following that same format year-after-year. The show was just so fresh, and the supposed cattiness of the stars (particularly come awards season) was entertaining fodder as well. Shame they've now become exactly what they were mocking in the first place - a big, stinky, soap.


Survivor - Talk about The Real World however much you want, this is when reality TV became part of the popular zeitgeist. I started watching about a third of the way through, I think on the episode when Gretchen was eliminated. My family and I quickly became hooked (and played reverse catch-up before the finale) and were surfing the wave of popular culture along with the rest of North America when Richard and Kelly went head-to-head in the much-watched finale. Watching the first season of Survivor now seems a little laughable. The naivete of the castaways is nearly infuriating, the props and challenges look amateurish, and even little details like the cheesy graphics or the fact Jeff doesn't have this catchphrases quite nailed down make for a charmingly docile entry for one of the genre's most resilient franchises.

Solid Contenders:

Pretty Little Liars - the first season just wrapped up and golly was it good...the show lacks (male) character development and one of their best actresses is, unfortunately, dead but the constant guessing game has made it into the teeny bopper version of Lost. Only with blind flute players instead of rampant polar bears.

The Walking Dead - in six little episodes this show blew me away. Again, it could use some work on character development, but you can only expect so much from a half-dozen episodes. Incidentally, if I were to make a 'best premieres evahhh' list, this show would easily end up on it. The fact it was like watching a little movie every week made for a completely enthralling tv-watching experience.

Mad Men - There was lots to like in Season 1. The near-weekly ad pitches (that were sadly absent for much of S2 & S3). Don's lothario ways weren't tired, and Rachel Menken was his most lovely dalliance to date. Betty's desperate housewife act earned equal parts raised eyebrows and empathy. Admittedly however, the pacing was a little slow (although it crawled in S2) compared to the punchier, zippier feeling of S3 & S4, where the show took that initial foundation and skyrocketed our characters to new levels before slamming them back down to earth.

Modern Family - Everyone keeps telling me that this current season isn't as funny as last season (I just caught up on them both over the last three months). I agree getting to know the characters and their funny little quirks - Cameron's a jock! - was funnier the first time around, as opposed to somewhat rehashing elements of their personality this season, but I'm not totally convinced that Season 1 is the best this show has to offer...Season 2 has still shocked and delighted me, and the first few episodes of S1 has some weirdness they've since dropped, so I won't peg their first season as the best ever...but I will say it's definitely one of THE best first seasons for a 30-minute sitcom.

- Britt's On

I feel like I may have keyed into one of the things that makes a good scripted show better, or one might say, great. Part of this ‘secret’ is actually represented in the increasingly popular trend of having an expansive cast right off the hop – consider Lost’s sprawling survivors, The Office’s dysfunctional crew, Mad Men’s interweaving professional and personal lives, or the extended families of Parenthood and Modern Family. Namely, I’m talking about the ability to go outside your core cast and be comfortable with adding new members, something a LOT of shows are fa-reaked out about.

Having a large cast off the hop allows you to do many things. It extends your storylines by allowing you to create new pairings that previously haven’t interacted. It makes it easier to kill people off on an action-based show. If a cast member wants to move onto greener pastures, it’s less of an impact to the overall show. That being said, the argument could be made that having a large cast makes it hard to add new talent because you’ve already got so many characters…admittedly I still find myself losing track of the uber-generic names of the Braverman clan on Parenthood.

Lost is a great example of both sides of the coin. On the one hand, they responded to the acting talents and audience response to later-in-the-game additions Desmond, Ben, and Juliet, who by the series’ end, were some of the show’s biggest fan faves. On the flip side, they were less successful with Season 2’s ‘Tailies’ or the infamous introduction of Nikki & Paolo, two ‘extras’ that were slowly worked into the plot and quickly eviscerated thereafter.

But Lost had the advantage of a big cast to begin with, one that was quite dispensable (although generally for emotional and plot reasons) compared to most shows, so perhaps they aren’t the perfect case study. What I can do is point to two big, bad examples of the problems that occur when you don’t allow for new characters to become a regular part of the cast.

The first is Gossip Girl. After four seasons of fluff, I feel like I’ve finally singled out why the show feels so frivolous. It’s the casting. Also the sheer template of the show (issue-scheme-event-resolution) combined with the rapid-fire pace of relationships beginnings and endings, but a big chunk of it is the casting. We’ve been with our core five – Serena, Blair, Chuck, Nate, and Dan – since early days, with Lily, Rufus, Jenny, Vanessa, and Eric playing consistent supporting roles. The only change over four seasons is dropping Jenny, and phasing the supporting characters in and out to various degrees. Serena is stuck in a never-ending love cycle with Nate and Dan, while taking on occasional romantic hot flash pursuits, Vanessa has hooked up with everyone, while Blair is on the precipice of following suit.

The incestual pairings are reminiscent of The OC, another Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage-helmed program, which ultimately met its demise by trying to replace a core cast member with two half-wits – Taylor and Katelin. Gossip Girl fares slightly better than the OC in that they are willing to phase out the B-listers instead of trying to fit them in yet again, but the main issue with both shows has always been that ‘new’ characters will NEVER stick around, and that the end game in sight is likely a Blair/Chuck and Serena/Dan match-up. The closest we have is the recurring presence of Carter Baison, Georgina Sparks, and Damian Dalgard. It’d be nice to have a romantic interest actually stick around and become part of the top-billed cast, instead of guessing they’re contracted for a 6-8 episode run before being turfed. You could argue that perhaps they haven’t found an actor that piques audience interest / actor chemistry yet, but it's been four bloody years.

On the same note, I feel Parenthood, despite having a massive core cast given relatively equal weight, is struggling with adding new characters. Sarah’s love interests have been passing crazes to date, despite Lauren Graham’s incredible ability to create on-screen chemistry. Hattie’s relationship with Alex has provided a solid recurring storyline throughout the season, and given the crux of the conflict I understand the reluctance to make him a regular – especially since you want the will they / won’t they tension to exist that is somewhat ruined when a boyfriend is added to the cast – but if every romantic lead introduced for Sarah, Hattie, Drew, and Amber turns out to be a guest spot, I’ll be a little tired of it in no time. Particularly in the Sarah department.

For as much as I dislike Desperate Housewives and One Tree Hill these days, I will give them a tip of the hat in how they are good students of adding new characters. Kind of. OTH generally shoves new characters down your throat (hello Quinn and Clay), although they’re decent at rotating the b-listers in and out of play, and have cut characters that just weren’t cutting it (hello every romantic lead in Brooke’s life, prior to Julian). DH is also not doing too badly. They added ‘mystery-of-the-year’ housewife Katherine to the crew instead of turfing her the second her dark secret was revealed, and let Bree find new love in Orson and actually add him to the cast for a couple of seasons. In both cases they phased out the characters when it felt right (more or less…I would have preferred Carl to Orson last year) and literally killed others for sheer drama. They’re kind of guilty of shoving newbies down your throat (a la Vanessa Williams) but they’re also a show that isn’t afraid to give someone the boot if they’re just not working out.

The best success story? The Office. They’ve added three newbies over the years – Andy, Erin, and Gabe – plus made warehouse warrior Darryl into a regular, and it’s hard to imagine the cast without them (especially the magnificent Ed Helms, who has earned a coveted spot in the show’s twenty-second opening).

- Britt’s On

It's funny that two of the best shows on television right now air in the summer, at least on network television for one of them (some might argue True Blood also stands strong as another summer entry, although Emmy voters may disagree). I'm talking about two programs that are inherently, dramatically different, yet find ties in their collective strengths.

The first just ended over the weekend, DirecTV's / NBC's brilliant Friday Night Lights. To be fair, the show is the more flawed of the two, often sacrificing realism for my most hated plot technique, 'slate wiping', but it's still one of the best things on the small screen these days. I honestly don't get why it doesn't have more of a following, particularly in the US of A - it's a show about football with plenty of hot dudes and dudettes to drool over! Regardless, FNL remains one of my most-looked-forward to programs on a weekly basis, and this last season still delivered with another tally in the 'W' column.

The other show is the much more publicly lauded Mad Men, which airs on AMC in the summertime and fall. Set in the 1960s world of advertising, the show plays out like a film, sometimes at an oppressively tedious and dense pace, although it still manages to provide plenty of watercooler chat every Monday. I've found the people that are the most fervent supporters of the show are the ones that watched early on - I caught up with Season 1 in a very short period of time so I could start watching Season 2 immediately. I've noticed many of the people who joined up for Season 3 (or afterwards, due to the hysteria around it) are less enthusiastic about Matthew Weiner's attention to minutiae, and how the show is really about more than just some pretty faces acting out dramatic scenes.

There are flaws to both shows to be sure, but they are ultimately two of the best written, best paced shows on television (I only wish they had a few more episodes each per season). But what does a show about present-day small town Americana have to do with a show that is diligently obsessed with 1960s culture set in the Big Apple? Plenty:

Ensemble Casting - this is a 21st century trend, to be sure. Over the last decade we've seen a plethora of shows flourish with the stream of thought that there is safety in numbers, a big turnaround from the earlier decades where stars named shows after themselves (translation: if a show aired called The Mel Gibon Hour, you probably wouldn't watch it). A few of the more famous examples include Degrassi: The Next Generation (a format they piloted in the 80s), Gilmore Girls, and Lost, and the failed drama FlashForward that was cited as 'too broad' of an ensemble. Both FNL & MM have thoroughly embraced the ensemble cast, or in the case of Gilmore Girls, the 'community' cast wonderfully.

On FNL, we have a core couple - Coach Taylor and his wife Tami Taylor - played with brilliance by Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, both finally earning Emmy nods this year. From there the tendrils spiral outwards: football players on Coach Taylor's multiple teams and their families and their girlfriends and their friends, members of the cheerleading squad, pushy booster club members, school administrators, and even the city's mayor are all part of the narrative here, even if they don't all have major storylines. The show does an excellent job at providing you with a familiar cast of faces that populate the town of Dillon beyond a core cast, and make it seem more wholly realized (something Gilmore Girls 'Stars Hollow' did perfectly).

On Mad Men, we have the natural office setting for a range of core, mid-level, and fringe characters. Although Bert Cooper (one of the founders of the show's agency) has never had a standalone storyline, the show wouldn't make sense without him. Beyond the office we also get glimpses into the personal lives of the office workers (and even further beyond that through the eyes of leading female Betty Draper's relationships with friends, family, and various men). Matthew Weiner is smart though, as the majority of his storylines outside of the office still tie into what's going on in the office: Don Draper's constructed lifestyle is enabled by the very fact he is in advertising. Weiner demands you remember characters that may have only appeared once in the last few seasons when they randomly pop up again years later (as Anna, Don's pseudo-wife / sister did in this last episode).

Either way, both shows are fantastic at creating a pyramid of characters that don't hog the spotlight - they each get their times to shine while quietly developing their major moments with small moments episode to episode. FNL this past season struggled a little with letting their increasingly diverse cast have equal playing time, but overall I still felt a connection with the new characters while satisfied with the resolution of the old ones.

Moving Forward, Moving On - Another major hallmark of both of these series is their ability to let characters move on with their lives (and leave the narrow nexus of the show's focus).

Friday Night Lights stumbled with this a bit by having some of their early regulars stick around a year or two past when they should have presumably graduated high school, but for the most part, when you leave Dillon, they give you a nice swan song and goodbye. It's very much like real life - there are reasons why someone might come back to their small hometown, just as there are reasons we might not have seen the last of Smash, Jason, Lyla, Julie, Tyra, Matt, Tim, and Landry (the original cast of teens that have since moved on). Although the show strained against letting go of its stars early on, I give it kudos for working hard this transitional year to introduce new faces while saying a long goodbye to old favourites.

Mad Men is perhaps a more jarring version of this rarely seen phenomenon. When Sterling Cooper dissolved itself into Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, a slew of beloved second-tier characters were caught in the crossfires. Smug accounts man Kenny Cosgrove, second-rate creative guy Paul Kinsey, and closeted graphic designer Sal (among a few even more minor characters) were on the chopping block. In some ways, it's been a creative coup for Weiner - instead of chipping away and stringing out Sal's homosexuality, he was able to write him off the show with ease and relative legitimacy, while still providing a bookend to his primary storyline. Rather than ride out the tensions between an increasingly bitter Pete and chockful of goodness Kenny, the writers sagely let Pete prevail...for a day or two anyway.

Going back to my earlier point about Mad Men's community cast, some might argue it has a smaller cast of leads than FNL, and I would agree to a certain point - at the end of the day Don Draper takes way more prevalence over anyone else (unlike Coach Taylor, who is always present, but doesn't always have a lot to do). Weiner will let his regulars lapse (see: Joan in Season 3, who, as expected of her, quit her job when she got married only to find she really actually needed the money and disappeared for about half the season) for episodes at a time, because the real true focus is Don, and to a degree Betty, but even she can disappear, as she has so far in this season. The amount we see a character largely has to do with their orbit around Don Draper.

I could go on and on about the strengths and similarities between these two seemingly different shows - great casting, fantastic writing, authenticity - but at the end of the day, the two reasons above are what makes each show really special. They are willing to break the television rules - and while I doubt we'll ever see Don Draper leave and the show continue on (ahem, The Office), or that Tim Riggins will be a non-entity on next year's FNL, I don't doubt the creators will continue to entertain us by making surprising, sometimes hard choices and deftly deleting people from the lives of our stars...just like in real life.

Orbiting around,

- Britt's On

I don’t want to talk about Lost anymore. I have alternating feelings of contentment and furious frustration…I guess I’m not as invested in the show in some ways because I really only invested a year and a half of guessing and wanting answers, unlike the poor saps that first started watching the series in 2004. I also generally enjoyed the series enough that although the ending was far from satisfying, it didn’t totally ruin the show for me…until I start taking what’s revealed (or not) in the finale and applying it to my unanswered questions from the entire series and coming up short. Way short.

What was that about being done talking about Lost? Oh right. Well my PVR is blissfully nearly empty, other than the last run of Parenthood episodes (I’m about 5 or 6 behind), a few of TSN’s great 30 for 30 documentaries for the boyfriend, and a few more installments of the incredible ‘Life’ series currently airing on Discovery. A few of my perennial summer shows are starting next week – Little Couple! Toddlers & Tiaras! – to keep me entertained between my movie project and finally finishing Arrested Development…but I can’t help but think of next fall.

So far, none of the prospects for fall 2010 are enticing to me. I’m sure Entertainment Weekly will have an excellent fall TV preview issue that may make me reconsider, but as someone feeling more tapped into the biz these days (I blame it on the aforementioned subscription) I watched the fall scheduling carefully and was mostly disappointed. If anything, I want to shed a few shows off my weekly viewing. In some cases the decision has been made for me – bye Lost & Flashforward! - In others, the decline of some long-time favourites has led me to seriously contemplate deleting them off my PVR.


Namely, Desperate Housewives. I lamented the death of Edie a year ago, and the show has continued to spiral down. Whenever they so much as mention season 1, whether through Rex Van de Kamp’s illegitimate devil spawn or the obligatory Mary Alice Young flashback, I wince at how far the show has fallen. Season 1 of DH was an inspired, satirical take on suburbia. They eschewed the term ‘soap opera’ saying it reminded them of bad lighting and serial drama (especially for daytime soap starlet Eva Longoria). After a stumble in season 2 the series came back around, but it never fully rebounded from the Applewhite horror. Now the show is a parody of itself, with words like ‘madcap hijinks’ springing to mind when I describe the current plotlines.

The over the top drama of the last couple of years in particular (take this season’s horrid ‘mysterious new resident’ yarn re: Angie the eco-terrorist as a key example) has even seemed to take its toll on the actors that once made this show what it was. Felicity Huffman’s strangled delivery of lines while her newborn baby was being strangled by an umbilical cord in the midst of being held hostage by the season’s serial neighbourhood strangler pretty much made me want to throw a book at Felicity’s head and tell her to ask to get written off the show. Career suicide!

While Teri Hatcher moving off the lane because she couldn’t pay her bills was an inspired (however randomly handled – where is Susan’s strip club money???) reflection of the real issues in suburbia these days, the show is notorious for wiping the slate clean and I don’t anticipate this will be a particularly permanent set-up.

The final nail in the coffin for me with the finale was the big cliffhanger – someone’s child isn’t really their child. Oh the possibilities with that one…none of which I care about. This is a classic soap opera gag, and not one I care to see on my weekly primetime supposed sharp-eyed satire on suburban living. Between plane crashes, tornadoes, bombs, and stranglers…I’ve had it with Desperate Housewives and will be deleting the program from my PVR. I threatened to do it at the start of this season, and nothing that happened this year convinced me to do otherwise.


The other big red alert for me when it comes to ‘Should I stay or should I go?’ is how much I anticipate watching the show. Reality series obviously have the best advantage here because the potential for spoilers is dramatically higher. But there are a number of scripted shows I watch that also demanded my attention this year – Lost of course, and also (surprisingly) Life Unexpected. While I would let episodes of Gossip Girl (still amusing enough to keep watching), One Tree Hill (if it doesn’t end this season I might delete it for a follow-up season), and Saturday Night Live pile up, I couldn’t get enough of LUX. I tend to champion one series each year (Mad Men! FNL!) and I think I may purchase S1 of Life Unexpected just to convert more people to my cause.



Another show that’s on the bubble? Parenthood. I picked it up to watch my beloved Lauren Graham in action once again, and I’ve been meaning to blog on it for about a month now but um, I’m pretty behind as mentioned. I’ll give the point form version of that entry. Watching Parenthood is like watching the Cameron Crowe movie ‘Elizabethtown’. Not a whole lot happens, you find most of the characters mildly annoying, there’s a guy who works at a shoe company but it doesn’t really factor into his everyday life, and there’s a sweet enough soundtrack and interesting enough character interactions that you actually kind of dig it. Particularly when you have the option to watch episodes in a mini-marathon, as I’ve been doing in chunks over the season.

Here’s my thoughts – I do enjoy the show and crave watching more once I pop an episode in. Peter Krause and Monica Potter drive me batshit crazy with their helicopter parenting and weird suburbanite obsession with their sex lives. Lauren Graham is still adorable but I pine for the days of Gilmore Girls, when her daughter was much cuter. I want Erika Christensen’s husband to have more of a personality and life, and I enjoy the drama related to the slutty zen mom. Craig T’s wife is also a zero on the personality scale, and has zero connection with her children. I surprisingly love Dax Shephard’s storyline with Jabar, although I wonder whether Reed from the OC will ever return.

My conclusion? I will watch the backlog of episodes I have on my PVR before I come to a decision. Parenthood might be too sleepy to compete with my PVR’s 60 gig download limit during peak television season, but I’m not totally sold either way yet.


Another bubble show? Dancing with the Stars. I watched it for the first time this season out of casting curiosity more than anything and generally enjoyed it. Kudos for finally giving Nicole Scherzinger a vibrant, sweet personality compared to her typical vacant demeanour! The show is cheesy, drawn out, anti-climactic, and I fast forward about 45% of each episode, and 95% of each results show…but if the casting is as good as it was this year I will probably tune in again next year. After all, I’m only watching 60% of three stupidly overdrawn hours of weekly programming! Plus, at least the right person won (although many have speculated this is the first season that didn't feel like a high school popularity contest).


One final show in contention for elimination. ANTM. I’m sort of sick of it. I don’t really care about whether the models succeed after the show…I’m just kind of done with the format of the show in general, I feel like it reached its creative peak a long, long time ago and doesn’t really have anything to offer me. Someone I’ve really liked from the beginning hasn’t won in something like 7 or 8 cycles…that’s probably a sign. Also the fact that I can't for the LIFE of me figure out what this cycle's winner was named and therefore can't post a photo of them...KRISTA! That's her name. Well too damn bad, I just uploaded a generic ol skool photo of Tyra with a sign.

Till then, I’m off to ride into the blissful summer scheduling of one or two shows per week.

Ciao,

B

Well last night was the Lost series finale, and I imagine the blogosphere and the internet blew up after it. I ended up having to watch it till 2 in the morning because my PVR decided the ONE time it really wanted to f*** up my recording was for the Lost finale. Thank god for what we call 'timeshifting', owing to the fact I actually have ABC on two different channels. I resolved myself to not look at anything online until I got my thoughts out about the finale.

Obviously if someone didn't want to spoiled, they should stop reading NOW.

I am a sucker for cast reunions (see: the Gilmore Girls series finale), and on a show where nearly everyone has died, it was a great moment to have the majority of the cast together at the end, while still having an explanation for why not *everyone* was there ('Not ready' / 'Not enlightened').

My theory is that the moments of island enlightenment happened when our castaways encountered the person (or a memory of the person) that made them feel like they were no longer alone. I was surprised that Kate triggered Jack, as my theory was Christian would trigger it, and was happy that the creators acknowledged this by letting the full weight of the island hit Jack once he touched his father's coffin. Also that they put the couples together that should have been together at long last, which was a nice little shipper shoutout.

In fact in general, I was satisfied with the resolution of the sideways storyline, although I certainly have some questions...more on that in a moment. I sensed for a long time now that whatever was happening in Sideways world was a bittersweet means to an end, especially as the romantic relationship enlightenment moments piled up on top of each other. Sawyer and Juliet's little crossover moment was particularly nice, and I was surprised at how happy I was for Sayid and Shannon to be reunited. I did make the wry comment that the creators basically took the ending of Titanic - where Rose ended up with the people she spent the most important moments of her life with, preserved at the age she was most...happy?...at.

On the flip side, I'm not as jazzed about the resolution of the island world. I felt like we skipped about thirty chapters in the story from Hurley's reign to Hurley's death (alongside Ben). I wasn't surprised that Hurley ended up taking over, and I was delighted that Ben finally got a place of leadership that he rightfully deserved. It was a wonderful redemption arc to see him as Hurley's #2.

The whole MIB thing kind of fell flat in this final episode. I felt like things were so obscured about what the giant cork / well thing would do, that it was sort of meaningless to discover it would make the MIB human. Desmond's involvement in this whole thing was kind of pointless, and let's face it, the cork looked like a giant carrot. The fight scene and ninja punch between Locke and Jack was sort of cool and dramatic, but I sort of felt like I knew the outcome before it began. Of course Locke/MIB would perish, and of course someone would die in the process.

Jack's death was more or less expected in some ways, the moment he took on island guardianship with the caveat that he should do it 'as long as he can', but it still broke my heart a little that the creators did what they wanted to do from the beginning and killed Jack. It was a touching moment intermingled with Vincent and the cast reunion in the Sideways world.

I'm not sure how I feel about the characters that got off the island. Again, the jump from that moment when Jack sees their plane to the reveal in the Sideways world, I felt like we'd missed so much in their lives. I wondered if maybe they'd all died because Lapidus couldn't get the plane to safety, but I sincerely doubt it. I moreso wonder what life was like for our survivors back on earth, knowing this time there really wasn't a way or a reason to go back to the island.

Finally I think the thing I'm most disappointed in was the lack of resolution regarding: what is the island? That question encompasses so much re: mystical properties, what is the light, how are some people aware of it, etc. and I felt like they sort of left that by the wayside to have a plot-centric arc play out (they are finally free to LEAVE the island) instead of letting the mythology play out after the haphazard episode 'Across the Sea' laid out so much for us.

Two final notes about the Sideways world. The creators always insisted the island wasn't purgatory. It was neat that they sort of flipped that idea on its head and gave us a vision of what purgatory would be like for our castaways.

Second, I like that the Sideways world represented the two elements that have always been key to the show (even if under different guises) - free will and destiny. The castaways apparently *chose* to build the Sideways world, but it was their *destiny* to find one another within it, but their *choice* to let go and move on.

I said to my boyfriend last night that in general I'm delighted I watched the show all the way through. I only started watching Lost at the end of 2008, at a welcome time in my life when I had no money (just bought my house!) and needed something to do. I powered through the first four seasons in a matter of months before S5 started. Although S4 & S5, and to a degree S6, somewhat disappointed me, I still appreciate all the moments this show gave me, all the characters I've grown to love, and 120+ hours of pure, mind-bending entertainment...it's over. But it STILL ain't over. Beyond that, I loved being part of this momentous occasion in pop culture history.

Now...for my list of questions. Some of these are directly related to last night's finale, some of them are just general unresolved questions I'd like solved:

SIDEWAYS
- What *is* the Sideways world exactly? We glimpsed it for such a short period of time that I wonder how long these characters had been living in it, mindless of their pasts. I considered it was perhaps some sort of wish fulfillment paradise, but yet not all of our characters were exactly that much better off from their island selves.

- Some of our castaways and some various other characters encountered mortal peril in the Sideways world. What happens if you die in purgatory?

- Everyone was at the same age as we saw them when they first arrived on the island, yet Christian explained that everyone was dead, some long before him, some long after him. How did they all converge on this specific moment in the Sideways world at the same time? For example, if Hurley actually lived for 500 years or something ridiculous, did all the other characters stay stuck in some sort of unconscious loop until he died also? Or does time not really exist over there? I guess thinking back to Juliet's death and the moment she had with Sawyer, perhaps in your real time death you get to your island enlightenment moment in the Sideways world...regardless of what time you get there, that moment will always be waiting for you to happen.

- How did Boone find island enlightenment?

- What happened to Richard? He seemed to finally be aging (Just as MIB was mortal) by the end of the series, but we never saw him in the Sideways world. Is it because he wasn't an integral part of these character's lives?

- Was Miles at the castaway reunion? He was definitely *in* the Sideways world but we never saw a moment of island enlightenment. Ditto to Lapidus, minus seeing him in the Sideways world. Then again, Lapidus was a total joke of a character...

- Where were Michael and Walt? We were promised a glimpse of Walt at some point in last night's episode, but, I didn't save it because I don't to rewatch that damn reunion and actually cry one of these times to see if he's there. Is Michael not there because he's stuck on the island?

- Kids: What will happen to Jack's faux son as Jack moves onwards? Where was Des & Penny's baby? Will Sun & Jin have their baby? Do people age in this world???

- How did these castaways 'construct' this place?

- Is there a reason we've never been re-associated with Mr. Eko? Even Ana Lucia and Pierre Chang showed up!

- I presume Eloise Hawking was island enlightened at some point, although it's curious that she was since we're told this place was constructed by *Our* castaways so they could find the people they spent the most important parts of their lives with. The majority of castaways never encountered Eloise, and those that did saw her briefly in the 1950s or back on the mainland. So characters like Eloise, Richard, Charles weren't in the church, but Ben and Penny curiously were.

THE ISLAND
- What is the island and who created it? We've finally been told it was in fact a construct of reality (which it certainly should have been for the people who were able to 'find it' and 'leave it'), but yet we still know nothing about it.

- What was the true nature of the light? Where did the light go when Desmond pulled the cork? What was the effect (beyond the island being destroyed) of the light disappearing? How did Jack recork the empty vessel and have the light regenerate?

- Why did MIB and Richard feel mortal repercussions for the light disappearing? Was the light the fountain of youth or something?

- Did Jack and Hurley inherit any sort of mystical island powers? If so, why did they still seem so mortal next to Jacob & his magic touch?

- How long did Hurley's tenure last, and what did he do with the island? Who did he pass it onto (future series sequel)?

- Will someone ever not need to guard the island now that MIB is no longer threatening it?

- Was Charles Widmore really a bad guy / was he trying to get to the light?

- Did Hurley get candidates of his own?

- What happened to Rose, Bernard, and Vincent? Did they merely live out their days to island enlightenment?

- What happened to the castaways that escaped once and for all? What kinds of lives did they lead?

- Where is the island now and can it ever be found again?

- Did Hurley and Ben die on the island?

I could go on, but my main questions have been laid out above. As for the general unresolved issues I'm most curious about that I think everyone is curious about:

UNRESOLVED (pre-finale)

- What made Walt so special (other than the fact he was going through puberty and had to be jettisoned off the show)?

- Why were three of the castaways sent to 1977 while Sun was left behind? (Probable theory: Sun was never a candidate, nor were Lapidus or Ben obviously)

- Was the hatch / button pressing linked to the glowing light? Ditto to time travel?

- Dharma food drop in S2. Not really a big issue of mine, but it's pressing enough that I imagine an answer would be nice.

- What's up with the Hurley bird? Another throwaway reference...perhaps it was just a clue that the island had always identified Hurley as its future leader.

- Pregnancy issues...I like Jeff Jensen's take on this, that Jacob giveth & Jacob taketh away. Ben was never supposed to be leader of the Others (and gateway to Jacob as island leader), and the fertility issues began around the time of his tenure. Since he deemed this group of people who believed in Ben to be unworthy, he took away their ability to procreate so their society would end.

- Horace Goodspeed's cabin. Just everything related to this. The theory is the eye belonged to the MIB.

- The MIB's name. Mothereffer I'm ticked they never revealed that. Did he really not have a name? If so, fine, tell me, but if he has a name and you concealed it for no reason, gah! Then again, finding out Big's name was pretty disappointing on SATC.

- Room 23. Why?

- What were the rules Widmore and Ben referred to?

- How much awareness was their off-island about on-island activities. Between Ilana's bodyguard crew, Sayid's assassinations, and the freighter crew, what does the world know about the island and why do they want to go there / why do they NEVER tell us why they want to go there?

Well folks. That all she wrote. Again, I'm grateful to have been a part of this momentous series. I'm feeling better about the ending today than I did last night (after I hesitantly turned off the TV and said "But...but...I don't get it"), although still a little disappointed that the major series-long arc regarding the island was downplayed in favour for resolution of the Sideways storyline in bittersweet happily ever afters for everyone.

There are still many questions to be answered (clearly), but I'm glad no new ones will be added to the mix. Sigh. Another show like this will never exist. Not really.

- Britt's On

I haven’t written about Lost in a long while, and I suspect I’ll have much to write about it over the next while. Season 6 has been a bit of a mixed bag. The flash sideways were a welcome change / mystery next to the flashforwards of season 4 and the time jumping of season 5.

That being said, two things are disconcerting about this final season. First, that they’ve introduced this new mysterious plot device this late in the game without answering some pretty big questions (did the bomb actually go off, for example). Second, that the creators have gone on record saying they feel their only obligation at the end of the series is to explain how the two timelines converge. I’m not alone in saying, um, no.

Lost is a tricky show in that the reveals kind of demystify the thing, and not in a good way. Just as the infamous episode ‘The Man Behind the Curtain’ showed, seeing the true nature of Ben’s lack of power kind of castrated the character from being as delectably diabolical as he had been up to that point.

So I get the executive producers’ fear of revealing too much, because then you’ll just kind of be like…well that was lame. At the same time, I don’t like the idea that the creators feel like all they have to do is resolve this season. I guess they have answered a bit already – that Jacob drew the castaways to the island by touching them in order for them to potentially replace him as guardian of the…what exactly? The smoke monster? The goodness of humanity? The island itself (why)?

I am ambivalent about so much of the series at this point, as are many people. While the mystery is still a thrill, it’s also a frustration. I recently read the Wired Lost package of information, including an interview with Lindelof & Cuse, and they commented that a show about people living on regular ol’ deserted island would have gotten very old, very fast.

I agree, but only to a point. The science fiction elements of the series are what make it so compelling – but so are the characters and their stories that hooked us in the first place. To that end, the concept of survival is kind of non-existent at this point. When was the last time we saw the castaways actively involved in the process of looking for food, building shelter, or even resting for godsakes! These things just kind of happen now, in the cracks between the action-driven sequences we’re consistently exposed to.

I also feel like it’s a bit late in the game to be introducing the elements of on-island suspense that we’ve been seeing lately. Almost every cliffhanger to date has been wrapped up neatly within the first quarter of the next episode. The castaways were marched away at gunpoint in the last episode, and easily freed within minutes in this week’s “The Candidate” episode. I suppose it was a plot device to get Jack and co. on the Hydra island with the sub, but it still feels like we’re being cheated with faux dramatic endings rather than resolutions.

So far I’m not disappointed at the time I’ve invested in the series. It’s still wildly entertaining and puzzling, but I feel like there will be a collective whooshing of deflated air if the series ends as weakly as people are anticipating it to at this point. That being said, Lost does have the best finales in town…I imagine this season will be no different! It’s just got to be a little better than best.

Here’s hoping!
- Britt’s On

As we wind down to the final days of Lost, I am thinking about the possibility of purchasing the entire series on DVD. The boyf and I recently spotted an insanely overpackaged special edition of season 5. It wasn’t even that good of a season, in fact, I’d tentatively say it was the worst season ever (I even liked the freighter s4 debacle better).

But I’ll admit, my Lostalgia (coined!) has already kicked in and we’re not even done. I held the fancy Dharma-themed packaging in my hands and drooled at the possibilities the final collection will hold. I’m sure it’ll be an exorbitantly priced, ridiculously unnecessary collector’s item. Yet, despite being late in joining the wild game that is watching Lost (I watched the first four seasons in six weeks at the end of 2008 / beginning of 2009 literally up until the night before the S5 premiere), I have fully embraced this show as a generational experience. Provided the ending isn’t too widely reported on, I also imagine I have a wide circle of friends that would benefit from borrowing the series.

Anyway today a thought occurred to me. I think it’d be a cool side project, even if it was just a card inside this magical collector’s set. When Sex & The City was well over, fans who weren’t ready to splurge on the very breakable translucent cases, or the very pricy luxury collector’s box, could pick up a little sampling of the series tailored to a certain theme. Being an owner of the series, I saw this to be kind of stupid, but I did buy two of these little snack packs (I believe they had 2-4 episodes each, I can’t remember) for a friend of mine as part of a birthday gift. I have to admit, it was fun to throw the disc in and watch a smattering of episodes in a series that’s relatively unconnected.

Lost is the complete opposite of Sex & The City when it comes to connectivity. It’s easily the most richly woven series of all time. Seriously. But I have lately found myself craving continuity between the back stories of the core characters (i.e. the ones who aren’t dead right now). How cool would it be to come out with standalone DVDs that group together all the Hurley-centric episodes? I just think for a show that’s so self-referential it’d be helpful to track the characters progress through the series.

Granted, someone could easily argue that much of the character development and ‘reveals’ don’t necessarily come from the character’s centric episodes, but I still think it’d be awesome to have a Desmond DVD that has all of his flashbacks / sideways life in one place.

I imagine the Desmond, Kate, and Jack DVDs would be among the most interesting. Or at least the ones I’d want for my collection (I find off-island Kate more interesting than annoying on-island Kate).

Just sayin’

Britt’s On

I am in love with Lost again. I mean…yes the show isn’t as good as the first three (in particular the first two) mega seasons of mystery, but it’s come back from the fourth and fifth season slumps in just a few short episodes. The flash sideways feature is a nice twist on the flash forward, and allows us to somewhat envision what we never envisioned before – life after Flight 815, with a twist of course.

Is there still way too much shiz going on and way too many answers resulting in more questions? Sure! Is Josh Holloway still an overdramatic sour puss of an actor? Sadly yes! Is the return of familiar faces in unfamiliar ways awesome? Definitely! I’m giddy with excitement at obsessing over Lostpedia again and sharing theories (although right now I have few, compared to last season’s dead giveways re: Ellie and Daniel, Miles and Pierre, etc.). I also had a fun time checking out Lost gear available on the interwebs, and I’m more than a little tempted to purchase a piece of Dharma clothing (perhaps the lab coat for a warm Halloween costume) for myself.

Meanwhile though, I still find myself harkening back to just over a year ago when the boyfriend and I took on the very ambitious task of watching the first four seasons in about a month and a half prior to the fifth season debut. Overall, Lost is a better show to watch on DVD, plain and simple. While getting wrapped up in the theories while watching it in present time is great, frustrating, fun, it’s also very hard to follow the show from week to week – especially as they take us back through five long seasons of mythology (don’t forget, the show premiered in 2003…it’s been awhile). For example, this last episode, the woman interviewing Locke played a ‘fake’ psychic in an earlier flashback…I can’t even remember who the psychic was working with, but like…who catches that?

On the flip side, I can see that with the show ending, the conclusion of what is the island will be revealed and thus – much like with The Sopranos – people won’t jump at watching it. Still, I’m interested in purchasing the DVD set for myself down the road so I can relive the magic and pick up the clues and try to puzzle out the answers to things that aren’t answered this year. I’m hoping the creators consider putting some almanac out when all is said and done, much like how Harry Potter fans are eagerly awaiting the Harry Potter encyclopaedia, to answer the final questions.

Here’s the thing though, I’m not holding my breath for some amazing finish that wraps things up fully. There is no logical explanation for Lost, as the show continued to expound upon as the seasons went on. The leaders aren’t the leaders. There is a blurry line between good and bad. Destiny is both real and imagined.

Ultimately I think the creators maybe bit off more than they could chew, particularly with the JJ effect of his vision being distorted upon leaving for his next project. It’s impossible to keep up the level of mystery the first two seasons presented us with, so they tried to do it by bringing in more mysteries and groups of people with their own mystery (the tailies, the boat people, the others, Dharma, the Ajira folks, the temple others, etc.). What we have is a too wide cast when we really care about the core and fringe (like Rose and Bernard) 815 characters.

But I’m still happy to be on the Lost train. For now anyway.

Till later,

Britt’s On

Let me just say this: The Olympics are one of the greatest reality shows of all time. I’ve loved watching days 1 through 4, and I’m generally proud of Canada’s effort (and colour scheme) for this event…aside from the weather and luge incident. Every event is breathtaking, every medal is up for grabs, favourites will fall, twists will happen, conspirators will oust others. It’s great. It’s equally great that CTV has gone bananas for the Olympics and is airing every event in one way or another...although it makes catching up on my regular programming tough.
Moving on, I have had time to watch a few things in the last week, including the always addictively horrible Toddlers & Tiaras, the always addictive frustrating Lost, and the perennial favourites The Amazing Race and Survivor, both of which kicked off new seasons this week.

Survivor’s 20th instalment, Heroes vs. Villains promises to be one of the best seasons, perhaps the best all star season ever – at least by premise. There are a few notable faces missing and two questionable female choices in terms of bringing back ‘characters’, but the first episode so far has lived up to its hype. There were tons of great sound bytes and interactions, and the 1 to 1 victories for the heroes and the villains made for a great swing of power. I’m not in the minority when I say the villains tribe is more interesting (and sort of who I’m rooting for), but there are a few heroes I’ve got my fingers crossed for (I have a major love for James and JT…the two of them in one season is almost too much). I’m also not in the minority when I say Russell’s boasting fell a little flat next to the other competitors past history and prowess, and Parvati’s immediate assessment of his character (although she did seem a tad too informed).

Moving on to TAR. I’m very disappointed that the ads pitched this season as a high-def one, based on the high-def ads – why can’t we do hi-def TAR? How can this billion-time-emmy-award-winning show not broadcast in hi-def? Seriously! I’m a big fan of the bitchy network of blogs (although I long ago gave up on Big Brother after Janelle failed to win two seasons), and that link will take you to her assessment of the first ep of TAR. I didn’t watch BB but the two BB contestants seem like morons, and her assessment that they cast the biggest idiots on the planet to join them was awesome. The boyfriend has the single/gay brother duo as his team so by default we’re sort of cheering for the lost paintbrush boys, and I am secretly cheering for team miss teen ‘such as the Iraq’ to show the calibre of education it takes to win this show is very low indeed. I don’t have high hopes for them, and I’m pretty certain team BB won’t take it based on rumblings.

Anyway, I am excited to watch the moron parade play out, am uber excited to watch Survivor evolve among the first episode character refresher, and am hoping Lost will finally answer some of my damn questions. Oh yeah, and let the Olympic torch shine for another week and a half!

Till next time,

Britt’s On

So tonight marks the second episode of ABC's new Lost-ish drama (despite the HILARIOUS Entertainment Weekly article to the contrary), FlashForward, and the boyfriend and I have been looking forward to it all week. We were actually apart all day Saturday and when we regrouped on Sunday morning, we both commented we'd spent that entire day thinking of the show. I'm crossing my fingers it a) doesn't get lame and b) doesn't get canceled as it's the first time in a long time I've liked a show this much off the hop (okay not a long time - I picked up Friday Night Lights and Mad Men in the summer of 2008).

Regardless...many people are wary of FlashForward because of its ties to Lost, and the slightly disappointing (there, I said it) way the show has turned out. As a Slate commentator pointed out in regards to the wholly different Mad Men's Don Draper, the more you shroud something in mystique, the more of a letdown the ending is bound to be.

The FlashForward is a relatively new technique being used increasingly enthusiastically by various television programs - but it's not always successful. Here's a quick breakdown of a few of the most famous examples, and my thoughts on each.

Lost - the show is VERY much centered on flashes forwards and backwards, and has been from day one. The backwards flashes were more successful in the sense they were wholly character driven vignettes that explained who this person was, how they ended up on the island, and why they were the way they were. The forwards were merely plot-driven, plodding scenes that focused almost entirely on returning TO that same island. That being said, the 'true' flash here occurs in the Season 3 finale, when it's revealed that several of the castaways make it back to their homeland, and manage to live there for three whole years before they get the itch to come back. This shock value made for possibly the best finale of Lost in a very shrouded, tricky episode (aside from S5's finale that made up for the rest of a very crummy season), but the execution was less than awesome, as mentioned.
Grade: B - great introduction, horrible execution. Bonus points for sticking to a human timeline (i.e. plane crash in 2004, flash forwards in 2004 - 2007).

Alias - JJ Abrams' first delve into the Flash Forward - keeping in mind I watched Alias after Lost, and was surprised to see him re-use this plot device in the latter show. At the end of a rather gripping S2 finale, Sydney wakes up in Hong Kong (or some equally busy, confounding city) and discovers she's been missing for two years, with no memory of her whereabouts - her father is in prison, her mother is in hiding again, and her former boyfriend is married - making for a very dark, very delicious Season 3 of the series. I wasn't that into Alias up until this point. JJ Abrams finally shocked the viewer in an unpredictable way (and this was having seen him do a flash forward in Lost dammit!) and didn't let things go as lightly as he tends to with other Alias plot lines - Sydney's two-year mind gap is the major focus for the first half of the season. It actually could have made for a season-long stretch (perhaps the argument made for why the flash-forwards in Lost were stretched out over two goddam seasons), especially after it was wrapped up so brusquely by none other than Terry O'Quinn's (Locke on Lost) character on Alias, and swapped in for a rather irritating double agent storyline with Vaughn's new wife.
Grade: B+ - The flash forward was used effectively here as a game changer. The world Sydney returns to is wholly different, and dark, and it was nice to see her on uneven footing for a change. As much as it was killing me to figure out wtf happened to her, it was also fascinating and awesome. I just wish the episode where they reveal all at once didn't happen - it was WAY too convenient and easy.

One Tree Hill - Say what you will, I think One Tree Hill made some very smart decisions when it came to the way they structured the show. The only downfall being the actors continually aging and looking increasingly distant from their fictional ages. The first four seasons were set in high school, and, realizing their fans would probably balk for four more 'school age' years with the characters split up at college & various career opportunities, they fast forwarded the show four years and a bit to all kinds of changes - Lucas engaged (but not to any major character)! Peyton living alone in LA working in the music biz (but not how you'd expect)! Brooke on top of the world in NYC (and feeling incredibly lonely)! Nathan's NBA dreams dashed (wheelchair)! And well, Hayley's a teacher with a normal, adorable child. The downside to this particular flash is the lack of acknowledgment of time. In one of the first episodes of S5, Luke is using an iPhone. Which makes you wonder...okay, when were the high school years set? What year did these kids graduate (I can't remember, nor do I remember any major signage indicating what year it was during their graduation episodes)? Did they actually graduate in 02 or 03 and the new season is set in 06 or 07? Now they've used the device again, jumping forward 14 months mostly to get past the awkward 'Lucas & Peyton are off the show but we can't write them out properly' debacle. Jury's out on how effective it is so far, other than I'm happy I didn't have to suffer through endless "Nathan reaches for his dreams!" episodes and Brooke / Julian continued 'You're never around' episodes. I've had enough of that in the first few this season.
Grade: A- If you can get past the time crunch, the fast forward was a welcome relief from the typically unsuccessful college years, and the resulting situations we find our heroes in have taken two seasons to resolve, if not longer in some cases.

Mad Men - Here's a show that uses a fast forward with care. It helps that it's a period piece that can actually use specific dates and times and historical events - and know the outcome - to mine their storylines from. Admittedly it's always a bit jarring to find yourself fast forwarded several weeks, months, years down the line at the start of each season, but Mad Men's timeline per episode is much wider than any other TV show I've ever watched. It really only helps add to the show's realism as characters move forward with their lives and careers independently of a typical television program.
Grade: A This is how fast forwards can be done - but keeping in mind that Mad Men has an unfair advantage of their show rigidly adhering to a timeline fifty years in the making.

Desperate Housewives - At the end of Season 5, perhaps to spice things up from waning viewers, the show fast forwarded five years in a OTH-style twist, completely unbent from time considerations, and even more annoyingly, age. The OTH characters benefited from the forward motion, looking more their fictional ages, but the DH ladies are now in cougar/menopause town, and it's hardly been acknowledged. Unlike OTH, which used the FF to avoid tedious storylines, DH wasn't really in that position, other than perhaps us getting to skip a ton of "Gabby's a stressed out horrible mom!" stories. When you consider the approximate ages of each character, they're all damn close to the 50 mark, but often comments on the show suggest the opposite. Plus the fun new developments - Gabby has two chubby kids, Lynnette's kids are finally teens, Edie has a new husband and is moving back to town - were severely underused. Last season fell flat, among the worst of the series in my opinion (along with S2's horrible Applewhite mystery), mostly because the untangling of the storylines from episode 1's fast forward didn't feel fresh, as Mark Cherry's likely intention, they felt tired and tried - and strained given the fact these ladies are five years older and still behaving like they're the spring blossoms that attracted sexy shirtless gardeners *NINE* "show years" (the first four seasons + the five-year fast forward).
Grade: C- Why bother with a flash if you're only going to give us a peek as to how it affects your characters lives?

That's all for now...cross your fingers with me the ultimate "forward" show holds true and keeps me thinking this week.

- Britt's On

Oh Lost. Oh how sad you make me. I'm not a diehard Lost fan - I only jumped on the bandwagon this year, but jump I did. My friend lent me the first 3 seasons in December-ish and the boyfriend and I decided to power through all of them (+ rent the 4th on Blu-Ray) before the series returned at the end of January. Needless to say, many, many evenings were spent eating dinner in front of the TV and many mini-marathons were had - 3 or 4 episodes a night. And we loved it!

Let me tell you though, watching that show on DVD is *so* the way to go...if you can avoid spoilers when the series ends next year, wait until it's all said & done and watch it. You'll be able to pick up on details more and won't forget all the drama and mysteries. Watching it week by week - as I've since discovered - is painstaking, even moreso by the fact the series has taken a sharp nosedive over the past two seasons.

In the vaguest of terms, let me recap how the show has gone up to this point - a plane crashes on an island, but it's not just any island. It's an island of mysteries and mayhem and magic of sorts. Each week the survivors of the plane crash grapple with some sort of issue - whether moral, rescue-related, or just trying to live on the island in peace - and usually one character has a 'flashback' that reveals insight about their character.

If you haven't watched the show at all, stop reading now. That little description above doesn't reveal much about where the show is at today, but what I'm writing next will.

Basically the final seasons of the show are supposed to finally answer all the questions that have been unraveled since the beginning. Who is really evil - Ben or Charles? What's with the time travel? Who are The Others? What's the future for the 815 / Oceanic Six / Ajira Airways people? What is the island? What's the smoke monster? And so on & on & on...

But instead, the show is painstakingly trying to make progress, and it's not enjoyable anymore. While before the fun came from a relatively plausible situation - a group of survivors on an island - being continually turned on its head, today there are just TOO MANY questions, and their so-called way of answering them has just brought up more aggravating questions, in an increasingly impluasible manner.

Additionally, the format of the show has changed considerably. While it might be conducive to (supposedly) moving the plot forward, the writers really haven't made much with the extra time they've been given. And that's another problem - the writers. Something's rotten in the state of Abramsland, perhaps because JJ has gone off to work on the Star Trek movie for the last while, but the writing stinks lately. Even this week's episode, which finally had a return to form with flashbacks, felt like it was poorly handled. The writing - and subsequent acting, since they're all written very 'off-character' - is just balls.



Lately all I've been saying about the show is I just want it to be over, so I can just know everything once and for all.

To the writer's credit - they somewhat seem to recognize the state of unrest us viewers must be in. In this last episode, Sayid mentioned that his return to the island felt like it had no purpose - just as the audience feels. Why are the gang of them back? What is the motivation of the show now, since leaving doesn't seem to be the greatest option.

I'm hoping there's some grand plan for the series as it does its swan song over the next season and a half, but it's been a serious downgrade from the amazing potential the beginning of the show had (which ps, I've heard is the case for other JJ Abrams vehicles...Alias anyone?)

So I'm a bit Lost on Lost, but like a good portion of the fans (although ratings have sharply dropped for the series) I'll stick it out till the end.

- Britt's On