So am I the only one who's starting to believe that Lost doesn't refer to a bunch of people stranded on an island and is more a refernce to millions of viewers who have been yawning and scratching their heads for the last six weeks as the show became more confusing and pointless? Are we all hoping that the ghosts of ABC executives past who forced David Lynch to wrap up the Laura Palmer murder return with a vengeance and do the same in triplicate to those behind this Gilligan's Island on ecstasy?
There's a huge difference between good storytelling in a serialized show and lazy-ass storytelling in a serialized show. Babylon 5 had a direction and a goal for the 5 years it was on. Even with changes forced upon the creator by various circumstances, he had enough of the story plotted out to be able to shift things around to still have a great story. Here, it just seems as if everything's running on past ratings glories.
The show started off well enough. It set up a good mystery and had an interesting set of characters that we could get involved with (and the flashbacks to life before the crash helped a lot). Season Two expanded things nicely, but as it wore on instead of getting answers, we just kept getting more questions. And some of the off-stage antics didn't mess well with on screen stuff. Characters getting killed off because the actors were difficult behind the scenes is lazy. It ended several storylines that had barely gotten started (Libby & Ana Lucia) regardless of what the creators said. And now with the pointless and silly death of Mr. Eko at the "hands" of the clanking smoke monster, we lose the most interesting (and pretty much last) of the characters who survived in the tail section.
While I haven't decided what I'm doing when the show returns in February (my wife has...I'm pretty sure she's finished), we'll see if I actually remember that its on. I'm hoping that when the show does end it gives us a St. Elsewhere kind of ending cause that's the only thing that's gonna make any sense at this point.
Meanwhile...I find myself changing my viewing habits due to technology and its not always for the better. Take Tivo and other DVRs for example. I can now store a bunch of episodes and then spend a few hours on a weekend watching them back to back. Or I can search out torrent files for things that aren't aired in this country (fully intending to pay for them when they are available over here). And finally, I can watch things in what I consider to be the 21st Century equivalent of bad VHS bootlegs...on my laptop.
NBC had a pretty good show in Kidnapped. First rate cast, well told story. But the ratings weren't there after 3 episodes...luckily, instead of cancelling it entirely, they told the producers to wrap it up in 13 episodes. The show came back in a dead time slot (on Saturdays...anyone else remember when Love Boat & Fantasy Island killed in the ratings on Saturdays) with 2 more episodes. Now it has been banished from network TV altogether and can only be watched streaming on the internet.
I've enjoyed this show enough to want to see how it ends, but the freezing and glitching and small screen video annoys the hell out of me.
And now CBS is giving me the unaired episodes of Smith in the same way.
If this keeps up I may long for that time when a show got cancelled and you never heard from it again EVER! (Anyone know where those unaired second season episodes of What About Joan are?)
That's all for today. I hope to be back in the next few days with some catch up reviews (now that one play is ending and another's beginning I'll have some free time to write). And I will be back next Friday November 17th with a big Bond review...we've already got a babysitter lined up to catch a matinee.
Be seeing you.
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