It's been a hell of a week for TV drama. The last ever episodes of all three shows i've been watching this "fall season" aired over the course of the last seven days.
First LOST, then 24, then Flash Forward. I think 24 actually aired first but I only got to it yesterday.
24 also did the best job at putting together a conclusive finale, but they had a probable movie to set up. This is why the only likely ending was Jack Bauer going underground ready to resurface when the time arrives. It's certainly the only reason Logan's suicide was only an attempted suicide. On that, it's a shame that there's no real consistency of character between his three stints. 1 and 3 were somewhat similar, but 2 could have been someone else entirely. If they do opt to utilise a brain damaged Logan in the movie, it'll be interesting to see if he reverts to the more bearded peaceful Logan we last saw pretending to die after being stabbed by his ex.
I've said my piece on LOST, and so have many others.
Flashforward had the misfortune to be canned having already filmed a season, but not series finale. The unexplained element of FF is similar in nature to LOST's, but FF has a better excuse for their inconclusive finale. FF hasn't been the best acted or scripted show, but i'd swap the last two seasons of Heroes for more of this any day. Of course, Heroes was also canned without a conclusion a few weeks ago, months after the finale which left plenty of room for a new season focussed on the world discovering the big secret as if somehow all that government and military stuff from the previous season wasn't clearly happening in full view of the public. Please, if i'm wrong about that, someone explain it to me. I'm not watching season 3 again, ever.
There's a lot of space for new shows later in the year. I remember starting to watch LOST around the time I decided that I watched too much TV and planned not to take on any new shows. Although I took on LOST, that was all. To read this you'd think I watch a lot of shows, but to date i've never seen a moment of The Sopranos, The Wire, Prison Break, The West Wing and quite a few other bigger names
So, here it is. A definite opportunity to not replace these finished shows with new shows. A chance to claw back some time. I have no knowledge of any new TV on the horizon. Will I stick to this? Maybe. Time will tell.
There are people that will tell you that all TV is crap at best and mind control at worst. Provided you're relatively enlightened, the mind control is very easy to spot and ignore/point out/laugh at. Some of it is definitely crap, but as far as what I as a human find entertaining goes, i'll take these long-form dramas every time over any reality TV, soap or the majority of new sitcoms from the UK or the US over the past few years.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Lost: The End
Okay. I'm going to try not to shit all over the last episode of LOST.
To some the question would be why not shit all over it? The answer is very simply that I thoroughly enjoyed watching it!
It's definitely a big "fuck you" for the hardcore fans, although I think the writers would prefer to phrase it as "you're missing the point". How well thought through the point was though, and whether it was the point until season 6, is debatable.
We're not allowed to care about what happened after the Candidates left 1977. We're not allowed to care about the maze of tunnels and carvings on the walls. Not supposed to think about why the Oceanic 6 really in fact had to return to the island to stop a lot of bad things that never seemed to materialise. Not allowed to care about the fact that there was a smoke monster, by what process he took on the appearence of Locke/Christian, or indeed what the hell he was doing the whole time. Nothing to gain from trying to understand why Christian appeared in so many places he couldn't be, even after it was supposedly explained. These are just some of the things that until tonight we weren't allowed to care about. Now there's more. What was the true aim of the Man in Black? How did Jack end up back outside the cave before he died? Are we sure a new Jack based smoke monster didn't also rise? Why didn't the plane rigged with Widmore's explosives explode? Jump back again - what was Widmore's motivation at any point ever? What was the sickness and the vaccine? Did it relate to being claimed? What did it mean to be claimed? Did it actually have anything to do with the Man in Black? How did circles of ash, sonar fences and japanese men repel a smoke monster? This was a long paragraph but I'm confident I could make it ten times this length, but however long I made it, the ending would always have to be, what was the island?
I'll be the first to admit that the ending confused me. After a bit of reading the best answer I can gel with is that everything that happened before and after the original plane crash was real, but of no consequence whatsoever to the viewer, or indeed the central characters. You know - the stuff we spent 6 years watching! We'll be told we were only supposed to care about how the characters related to each other, even though we spent just as much time being introduced to the inconsequential mysteries. They all died - Christian first, then Jack, then perhaps much later everyone else. Those that weren't in the church weren't ready, exemplified by Ana Lucia last week and Ben this week. Scott, Steve and all the other no names weren't there because they never made it into the in crowd on the Island. It wasn't important to them. They will need to make peace with the most important times and people in their own lives. Given that most of them died much earlier on, maybe they already did it before ths church gathering.
I like this as an explanation for the finale I can't change and did enjoy, but it's an explanation I would expect of a show informed of cancellation several episodes before it's 4th season finale (looking at you, Heroes - you should have wrapped things up a little), not from two head writers who spent the past three years repeating over and over again how lucky they were to have an end date.
I guess we'll just have to finish this story ourselves in our heads. Most of us have been doing it most of the way through anyway. What i'd like now is to hear Damon L and Carlton C's take on their finale and opinions such as mine, but they made it very clear some time ago that that wasn't going to happen. Had I been thinking, I would have realised this was a a red flag. They'll talk eventually, but by then we'll have moved on to whatever's next.
After all.., It only ends once.
To some the question would be why not shit all over it? The answer is very simply that I thoroughly enjoyed watching it!
It's definitely a big "fuck you" for the hardcore fans, although I think the writers would prefer to phrase it as "you're missing the point". How well thought through the point was though, and whether it was the point until season 6, is debatable.
We're not allowed to care about what happened after the Candidates left 1977. We're not allowed to care about the maze of tunnels and carvings on the walls. Not supposed to think about why the Oceanic 6 really in fact had to return to the island to stop a lot of bad things that never seemed to materialise. Not allowed to care about the fact that there was a smoke monster, by what process he took on the appearence of Locke/Christian, or indeed what the hell he was doing the whole time. Nothing to gain from trying to understand why Christian appeared in so many places he couldn't be, even after it was supposedly explained. These are just some of the things that until tonight we weren't allowed to care about. Now there's more. What was the true aim of the Man in Black? How did Jack end up back outside the cave before he died? Are we sure a new Jack based smoke monster didn't also rise? Why didn't the plane rigged with Widmore's explosives explode? Jump back again - what was Widmore's motivation at any point ever? What was the sickness and the vaccine? Did it relate to being claimed? What did it mean to be claimed? Did it actually have anything to do with the Man in Black? How did circles of ash, sonar fences and japanese men repel a smoke monster? This was a long paragraph but I'm confident I could make it ten times this length, but however long I made it, the ending would always have to be, what was the island?
I'll be the first to admit that the ending confused me. After a bit of reading the best answer I can gel with is that everything that happened before and after the original plane crash was real, but of no consequence whatsoever to the viewer, or indeed the central characters. You know - the stuff we spent 6 years watching! We'll be told we were only supposed to care about how the characters related to each other, even though we spent just as much time being introduced to the inconsequential mysteries. They all died - Christian first, then Jack, then perhaps much later everyone else. Those that weren't in the church weren't ready, exemplified by Ana Lucia last week and Ben this week. Scott, Steve and all the other no names weren't there because they never made it into the in crowd on the Island. It wasn't important to them. They will need to make peace with the most important times and people in their own lives. Given that most of them died much earlier on, maybe they already did it before ths church gathering.
I like this as an explanation for the finale I can't change and did enjoy, but it's an explanation I would expect of a show informed of cancellation several episodes before it's 4th season finale (looking at you, Heroes - you should have wrapped things up a little), not from two head writers who spent the past three years repeating over and over again how lucky they were to have an end date.
I guess we'll just have to finish this story ourselves in our heads. Most of us have been doing it most of the way through anyway. What i'd like now is to hear Damon L and Carlton C's take on their finale and opinions such as mine, but they made it very clear some time ago that that wasn't going to happen. Had I been thinking, I would have realised this was a a red flag. They'll talk eventually, but by then we'll have moved on to whatever's next.
After all.., It only ends once.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Last Lost
Damn Sky One. In a good way.
What they've managed to organise for the LOST finale is unprecedented, but they've now given me a stupid choice I stupid didn't want.
The plan was quite simple - download it during Monday and watch it on Monday night. Find something outdoorsy and away from networks to do all day long then enjoy the last piece of my favourite TV show of all time come evening.
Now I have been handed the choice of watching it on TV at 5am that same morning, with adverts mind.
Thing is, I have watched most of the season in 720p mkv files, and i'm not a Sky HD subscriber, so technically i've been watching the higher quality version, but when I felt like a second look on Friday nights, I couldn't help noticing that something just seems to look better in the standard definition picture. It feels more vibrant, and the frame rate seems steadier. To make the decision based on that though, would surely be overthinking it.
Then there's the timing. Big dramatic pieces always work better at night. They actually work best when it's dark outside, but at this time of year that's near impossible if you have a job to get up for. Whether you stay up, wake up or temporarily shift your sleep pattern to be awake and in front of a TV at 5am on Monday morning, is it really going to feel like the "TV event of the decade"? I'll be scared i'm waking the neighbours and then have to face a full day post-LOST abyss in the aftermath. That seems like a slightly better reason to make the decision on.
There's also being a part of the synchronicity. Impossible to be spoilt. Reading what others thought in the immediate aftermath, but then again, I barely manage to avoid spoilers due to my cake and eat it nature. Still, it's something.
It's 10pm on Friday. I have things to do during Saturday and have already agreed to be out that night. If I stay up all night Saturday, it feels like the appropriate sleep in between just might land me in the right state of wake, but who knows. I've never tried it before.
Can't decide. I'm even somewhat swayed by the idea that casual fans getting off the night shift will be seeing it before me, and care so much less. That's a little annoying, but who really cares?
One thing's for almost certain. By the end of Monday, i'll be temporarily but genuinely depressed that a large portion of things I thought would eventually make sense never will. I resigned myself to that midway through the season when it became clear that the writers had no intention of upping the pace. This final season seems to have been written with a few milestone episodes and the final piece in mind. That at least does bode well for said final piece, but i'd never be able to state season 6 as preferable to any of the others. All that, and yet I'm still very impressed with it. It's a big contradiction sitting somewhere in my brain which will most likely rectify itself after the thing's over.
First thing I write in months is this? That's a little sad.