Finale Episodes For "Lost" and "24": The End of a TV Era
Over the course of the last two nights, I've taken in the lengthy finale episodes of two television series that were among the most groundbreaking of the past decade, each helping to turn around a medium that in the previous decade was drowning in a seemingly irredeemable cesspool of low-budget comedy and infotainment. Watching these series take their final bows was bittersweet in a number of ways. It was definitely time for both of them to go, but at the same time, I'll be losing two of the most consistently entertaining programs that have been fixtures on my viewing schedule for years now.
"Lost" wrapped up on Sunday night. I had limited expectations going into this series back in 2004 and even though the first couple episodes were entertaining, I wasn't fully taken in for a few weeks when I realized there was gonna be a steady diet of first-rate storytelling unfolding here. There were ebbs and flows to the series' creative juices, but every time I thought the show had gone stale, the writers found another mind-blowingly clever gimmick to hang their hats on and keep the show fresh. Science fiction has never been my genre of choice, but "Lost" made it accessible even to skeptics.
Unfortunately, the finale disappointed. The series' last two seasons, while still imaginative, seemed like they were trying to hard and I lost some enthusiasm for the show. Still, I was expecting that with both the intense hype and the series' track record for epic revelations that there would be a satisfying, overarching resolution. There wasn't....not even close. It actually seemed downright lazy, effectively negating the narratives of entire seasons during the middle of the series' run. All that said, it was a great ride getting there and "Lost" deserves several spots in the TV history books for some of the most compelling hours the medium has ever delivered....even though the finale was definitely not one of them.
"24" bowed out tonight. Unlike "Lost" which still seemed fairly vibrant in season six even though its narrative direction lost some appeal for me, "24" definitely died of old age, a burned-out husk of a once-brilliant show that leaned on its rigid formula for a couple seasons too long. There was a disappointing dearth of action on tonight's two-hour finale, but the political drama was nonetheless pretty captivating, even if it had a "been there, done that" air to it. I didn't figure there'd be much of a resolution given that they're planning a theatrical "24" film...and there wasn't. The absence of a tidy ending did leave me a little unsatisfied, but when we all know Jack will be back, what's the point? It almost made me wish there wasn't a movie in the pipeline so that I could have seen how "24" would have ended in the context of a stand-alone series.
The high-intensity action-adventure format of "24" is more of a natural fit for me than the science fiction of "Lost", so the series was an easier sell for me from the get-go when it premiered in the fall of 2001. With a nudge from "CSI" which premiered the year earlier, "24" helped usher in a desperately needed higher standard of production and creativity for network television at the turn of the last decade. In its first five seasons, "24" was far and away my favorite show on television, operating masterfully within its real-time format and producing an action thriller for television unlike anything that had ever been made before. I'm actually impressed that they were able to make the formula work for five strong seasons given how quickly they raised the stakes of imminent national threat by means of weapons of mass destruction in season two, but they nonetheless finessed five great seasons before the format got the better of the writers by a bleak sixth season. I actually enjoyed the writers strike-delayed seventh season, but series' weariness was hard to ignore and this final season has been pretty mediocre.
I was pleasantly surprised by the entries on this fall's TV lineup. My fear was the exodus of "Lost" and "24" would come at the worst time, with TV programmers no long keen on the prospects of intelligent, big-budget scripted shows, but several new entries look compelling from early indicators. If even one of them matches the creative flourishes of "Lost" or "24" in their prime seasons, then the fall of 2010 will give viewers something worth tuning in for.
"Lost" wrapped up on Sunday night. I had limited expectations going into this series back in 2004 and even though the first couple episodes were entertaining, I wasn't fully taken in for a few weeks when I realized there was gonna be a steady diet of first-rate storytelling unfolding here. There were ebbs and flows to the series' creative juices, but every time I thought the show had gone stale, the writers found another mind-blowingly clever gimmick to hang their hats on and keep the show fresh. Science fiction has never been my genre of choice, but "Lost" made it accessible even to skeptics.
Unfortunately, the finale disappointed. The series' last two seasons, while still imaginative, seemed like they were trying to hard and I lost some enthusiasm for the show. Still, I was expecting that with both the intense hype and the series' track record for epic revelations that there would be a satisfying, overarching resolution. There wasn't....not even close. It actually seemed downright lazy, effectively negating the narratives of entire seasons during the middle of the series' run. All that said, it was a great ride getting there and "Lost" deserves several spots in the TV history books for some of the most compelling hours the medium has ever delivered....even though the finale was definitely not one of them.
"24" bowed out tonight. Unlike "Lost" which still seemed fairly vibrant in season six even though its narrative direction lost some appeal for me, "24" definitely died of old age, a burned-out husk of a once-brilliant show that leaned on its rigid formula for a couple seasons too long. There was a disappointing dearth of action on tonight's two-hour finale, but the political drama was nonetheless pretty captivating, even if it had a "been there, done that" air to it. I didn't figure there'd be much of a resolution given that they're planning a theatrical "24" film...and there wasn't. The absence of a tidy ending did leave me a little unsatisfied, but when we all know Jack will be back, what's the point? It almost made me wish there wasn't a movie in the pipeline so that I could have seen how "24" would have ended in the context of a stand-alone series.
The high-intensity action-adventure format of "24" is more of a natural fit for me than the science fiction of "Lost", so the series was an easier sell for me from the get-go when it premiered in the fall of 2001. With a nudge from "CSI" which premiered the year earlier, "24" helped usher in a desperately needed higher standard of production and creativity for network television at the turn of the last decade. In its first five seasons, "24" was far and away my favorite show on television, operating masterfully within its real-time format and producing an action thriller for television unlike anything that had ever been made before. I'm actually impressed that they were able to make the formula work for five strong seasons given how quickly they raised the stakes of imminent national threat by means of weapons of mass destruction in season two, but they nonetheless finessed five great seasons before the format got the better of the writers by a bleak sixth season. I actually enjoyed the writers strike-delayed seventh season, but series' weariness was hard to ignore and this final season has been pretty mediocre.
I was pleasantly surprised by the entries on this fall's TV lineup. My fear was the exodus of "Lost" and "24" would come at the worst time, with TV programmers no long keen on the prospects of intelligent, big-budget scripted shows, but several new entries look compelling from early indicators. If even one of them matches the creative flourishes of "Lost" or "24" in their prime seasons, then the fall of 2010 will give viewers something worth tuning in for.
posted by Mark at 7:34 PM
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