Found: Looking back on Lost

This was the original version that I sent into Press Plus 1. Obviously I prefer my version better, but feel free to compare it to the edited version over at http://www.pressplus1.com/television/found-looking-back-on-lost.html  This may be one of my favourite posts. I put a lot into it, and I hope it shows. Enjoy!

Lost is over. If that hasn’t hit you yet, it will. More than anything, this finale left us with a large amount of intentional ambiguity. People are still debating about the ending, and will hopefully continue to do so. Unless the high creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse give us a set interpretation of what happened, they’ve left it up to us to understand the finale for ourselves. Lost was a journey of discovery, and now it’s our turn to discover what it all meant to us.

There were two main events the finale hinged on, Jack’s death and the revelation of just what the flash sideways universe was. Jack’s death and the closing of his eye were incredibly important to the show. 6 years ago the show started with his eye opening to a strange world and our own eyes opened to this strange world as well. A mysterious island with an unseen monster that could knock down trees in the jungle, and a distress message left by a woman 16 years ago who seemed to have never been rescued. Jack was our proxy and in the end, after all was said and done, Jack’s eye closed. His journey on the show was done, he had seen all that was to be seen, so had we. There will be no more Lost after this, the story of what happened to these survivors on the island is done.

The story of Lost was the story of Jack’s redemption. Jacob brought him to the island because he was flawed, and this island represented a chance to work on his flaws, to better himself, and ultimately to fix himself. His final act was to defeat the Man in Black from destroying the island and returning to the real world. The season was building to this climax of someone needing to kill the Man in Black. Jacob could never do it because he always felt responsible, so Jack needed to stop him to avenge the death of his friends and do what Jacob couldn’t. In the end Jack accomplished his mission but not without physical cost. He sacrificed himself to let his friends escape. Jack spent so much of his life focused on him, and in the end he recognized that it’s not about him, it’s about everyone else; an idea that carried itself into the flash sideways universe.

It is still tough to try and fully understand just what the sideways universe was. It might be what happens to everyone after they die. It may be only one of many planes the survivors of Oceanic 815 will visit when they pass. It may have been a creation by Hurley with his new powers, for everyone to see each other one last time before the move on. Some have theorized that they all died in the initial crash and the island was the first place they visited and those that died moved onto this flash sideways universe. Others think this flash sideways universe was created with the detonation of Jughead. Perhaps the greatest gift Lost can give us is that each and every on of these are all valid theories. Everyone has their own personal view and understanding of what happened, of what they’ve just seen. There are no wrong answers as to how the flash sideways was created - every theory is equally right.

Was this the ending we were looking for from Lost? If there’s one thing the show has taught us, it’s that we are not in control of this show. This show is not about pleasing everybody all the time. Just ask anyone who’s still waiting to know who built the statue of Tawaret or why women on the island can’t have babies or any of the other mysteries left unsolved. That was never what this show was about. Those were simply distractions or situations designed to push the characters. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have always said that this show was about the characters. Think back to season one of the show, as much as you wanted to know what the monster was or why Jack was seeing visions of his dead father, what also drove the story was just who these people were. Every episode gave us a flashback of who these characters were, and we were desperate to learn the history of all our survivors. We wanted to know the lives they lived before this crash and how who they were in the past was a direct correlation to who they were now. Over the next five seasons the show always retained this but it started to get crowded with all the mysteries surrounding what was happening on this mysterious island. Season six was written to remind us of the characters once again. The flash sideways gave us an opportunity to look at where these characters started their journey in many cases. We got to see just how they had changed over the course of their life on the island. Hopefully by the end many of us recognized and understood that the finale wasn’t about understanding all the mysterious goings on, but to make sure these characters left the island changed.

So ultimately, looking back on the show as a whole, what is it that we all just watched? We watched a show about people who were flawed trying to redeem themselves. In the first episode, when they crashed they all had issues. They were all haunted by their pasts, each and every character. As we met new characters like Ben, Desmond, Juliet, Richard and Jacob we learned that even they had made mistakes in the past that they couldn’t let go of. For some characters they needed to confront their demons head on to pass through it. Sawyer killing Cooper in the brig or Miles getting to meet his father in the Dharma Initiative. Others had to make the journeys on their own, to dwell on who they were and consciously forge a different path. Think of Jack being completely shaken when he learned Locke had died, how he took a step back and no longer tried to be the leader, or Ben who dug his grave acknowledging all the evil he had done. He saw no hope but to continue down his path, but when he was given the chance to start to redeem himself by Ilana he took it. All those characters are ourselves. We are all haunted by our past. We have all made mistakes and we are trying to make up for them. Some of us need to let go of some things, and some of us need to own up to some things, but it is never too late for us to change. That’s what Lost wants to remind us, everyone is flawed, but everyone can also be fixed. More than anything, it’s personal; only you can make yourself feel redeemed.

So now that it’s over how will we cope? Damon Lindelof said it best last night. He summed up the entire show, and our own lives with this “Remember. Let go. Move on. I will miss it more than I can ever say.” 

The Penultimate: Part 2

I hope I've wrapped things up sufficiently regarding the penultimate episode of 24. Today I will be looking at the penultimate episode of Lost (as you can tell by now, penultimate may be my favourite word).  The point of this post is really to assess how What They Died For ties into the past, present and future of Lost.

It's a little tough to gauge the history of the show based on the most recent episode. I've commented previously that seasons 1 and 2 of Lost feel very different from the rest of the series. Perhaps it was due to the fact that in season 3, the end date for the show was announced so it started to feel like the show finally had a direction it could pull in, rather than just deal with things season by season. I'll be honest, I haven't been a huge fan of the flash sideways world and it's still a little tough to compare it to the previous versions we've seen of our favourite characters. My understanding was that part of the reason the sideways world was introduced was to remind us of who these characters were but that's not an entirely accurate assessment. It works for characters like Jack and Locke, but take a character like Sawyer who's life revolved around lying. Without his lying he is now a very different person. Or take Desmond, I don't know if over the course of the show I would say that Desmond's character changed much. He was a different character in his flashbacks for sure, but since we've seen him on the island, his motivation has always been to return to Penny. His character's change was crashing on this island to learn what he'd been missing all along. We didn't see this change, it had already happened when we first met Desmond. It's also exceedingly hard to look at his current role as opening the door for the others in the sideways universe against who who was.
 
The original timeline however presents a much better window into the past. One of the fundamental questions this show posed was what's so special about these people? It was something that developed over the course of the show and especially when we saw the importance of Jacob's touch in season 5. I was never pleased with the fact that we started the show with 48 survivors and then thinned the ranks with the attack at the barracks and the flaming arrow attack. To me it represented a fundamental shift away from this show being about survival, to being about these main characters. However for our main characters we learned that they were all brought to this island because they were flawed. The point of this island then was to heal them of those flaws. To allow them to seek redemption. And that idea of redemption has permeated the arc of every character since Day 1. Sawyer got to kill the man who killed his parents, Jack learned not to try and fix everything, Jin became a loving husband. This is what the show was about. Despite the insanity of the island, the goal of this show was always to take these characters and make them into better people. Now I understand what Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse mean when they say that for them the show is about the characters, not the mysteries. We can also compare the role of the Man In Black since the pilot. Since the pilot episode the smoke monster has terrorized our heroes, and even now at the end, it still does. The first mystery on Lost will also be what ends it. Kate mentioned they need to kill the Man in Black now; they need to kill the smoke monster. It all comes full circle.

Furthermore, this is what the entire sixth season of Lost has been ramping up towards. Finding a replacement for Jacob. Last season we learned that the Man in Black has been trying to kill Jacob for centuries and at the start of this season we learned via the cave of numerology that Jacob was preparing for it, and readying replacements for himself. Perhaps most importantly, it was necessary for Jack to see why he was important. The scene in Lighthouse where Jacob tells Hurley that sometimes you have to stare out into the ocean for a while to figure out what you have to do may have been one of the most pivotal scenes in the history of the show. Jack learned who he was, he learned why he was important, and he reflected on everything that had happened in his life, and his life on the island. Is Jack taking on Jacob's role to be the fixer once again? Perhaps, but has his arc been that he needs to stop fixing things or that who he really is, is a fixer? Was it about changing who he is, or discovering what he always was?  Or was it about striking a balance in between?

So looking forward now what can we expect from the finale? Well we know the Man in Black must die. I refuse to believe that Lost would lead us to this point, remind us that it only ends once, and then leave us in a loop. For a long time I've suspected that the ending might be a renewal of the scene with Jacob and the Man in Black on the beach from season 5, but now I no longer think so. It feels too expected almost, and not a real ending, only a continuation - Lost must end. I think the greatest question is how do you kill the Man in Black? Bullets and knives don't work, the only thing shown to have some effectiveness is a sonic fence. Perhaps all you can do is trap him in an ash circle like in the cabin. I think there's also a very decent chance that in the finale the entire island will be destroyed; it's incredibly poetic you must admit. Desmond was Widmore's failsafe, and I readily believe that by simply mentioning Desmond's potential, it won't be shunted away, something will happen involving him. This ties in to my new feeling about the flash sideways. Obviously the purpose of the flash sideways needs to be resolved. The epilogue theory is starting to look good to me again. That this is the future created from whatever happens to the island. These memories that the flash sideways characters are having are memories of their past life, their real one. But perhaps I'm reading far too much into this penultimate episode. A good penultimate episode should remind us of the past, and set things up for the finale. I won't say Lost has done exceptionally well setting up the past, but they are doing a superb job preparing us for the finale.

The Lost finale airs in less than 24 hours. Soon enough we will all know just what this show has been leading up to. And the only question left to ask is, are we satisfied? Because like it or not, it's the only finale we get.

The Penultimate: Part 1

We have a tale of two stories today. Both stories are on the verge of completion. There is one more episode left for both. One final outing to wrap up their stories, to craft their endings that will hopefully be gratifying to all the characters involved as well as us the viewers. I am speaking today about the impending finales of Lost and 24. But it's not the finales that I'm speaking about, rather I'm speaking about their penultimate episodes. The second to last episodes that serve as the build-up to their last hurrah. Both shows aired their penultimate episodes earlier this week, and as I contemplate the ending of my two favourite shows, I look back now on their penultimate episodes to see where the show started and and where it will end. Today's post will discuss 24 primarily, while the second part of this topic that'll be put up later in the week will be about Lost.

Lost and 24 are two fundamentally different shows. 24 encapsulates it's season as stand-alones for the most part. 24 lives in the perpetual now and the show takes very few opportunities to look back at past seasons. Consider the death of Bill Buchannan last season. At no point did Jack or Chloe make any references to informing his wife Karen Hayes of her husband's death. Not only did we see the start of their relationship in season 5, but we also had the good fortune to learn of their marriage and watch that dynamic during season 6. By season 7 this was completely ignored. Lost on the other hand is obsessed with the past. The show has spent 6 years building mysteries and expects us as the viewers to have been watching along so that any references to the past can be readily added to the overarching mythos of the show. Comparing their penultimate episodes therefore is really an exercise in comparing a season of 24 against the entire series of Lost.

 I'll start with the penultimate episode of 24 since it will be easier to look back on. 24 started this season preparing against the assassination of President Omar Hassan. It's intriguing to realize that they both succeeded and failed. They succeeded in stopping the initial threat on his life, but failed to stop the secondary threat later in the season. So as we ramp up to the finale, what is happening in the 24 universe? Jack is on the warpath, still killing anyone involved in the death of Renee while at the same time, exposing how far up the chain the Russian cover-up goes. Jack seeking vengeance for Renee's death has been a great storyline, and quite convenient in also exposing the Russian's involvement in the death of President Hassan. Looking at this episode I am reminded of how shortsighted 24 can feel at times. I am reasonably confident that you could have started this season from the episode where Hassan dies. The whole arcs involving the initial assassination attempt, and the nuclear rods storyline could be completely ignored and we would still be at this point in the narrative.

I also can't say I appreciate where the show is heading with the finale. If Renee's death goes all the way up the chain to the Russian president I feel it becomes too much of a suspension of disbelief to kill him. Jack can kill the middle management as much as he wants, because for us as the viewers we see them as middle management, ultimately replaceable and unimportant. Dealing with heads of state becomes too real for us and it starts to cross-over into the political territory of the show. Jack came close to killing President Logan at the end of season 5 you may remember, but he didn't, because the writers and the viewers know that there's a line that gets crossed if you do. It's the same reason why the death of President Palmer at the start of the season was so monumental beyond the role he's had in the show. I find it intriguing that in the same stroke, Jack didn't kill ex-president Logan in the penultimate episode of season 8 though he had the chance. Though it will be the Russian president I still don't know if Jack could or should do it. However, we shouldn't forget that this will be the series finale. The great thing about the finale is that afterwards there will be no in-world consequences, it frees the writers up a little bit, however that noose is tightened again considering the continuation into a 24 film franchise.

What's most important to me however is the question of what ending Jack Bauer will get. At the start of this season we were promised a happy ending for Jack. He would move back to LA, get to be with his daughter and granddaughter and live happily ever after. His motives changed when Renee came back into his life. Now he no longer wanted to go to LA alone, he wanted to do it with this woman, and bring her back from the brink as he once was. The creator Joel Surnow has commented that Renee was the one love interest of Jack who truly understood his life. Reading the books and listening to the backstory on season 1 showed that Teri was always behind this wall in Jack's life, never fully understanding what his job entailed, and their marriage suffered for it. When she was finally able to see her husband and what he had to do for his job, before she could accept him, she was killed. As important as it was seeing Kate Warner bring Jack back from the beyond in season 2, she understood less of him than Teri did. Jack's fling with Claudia in season 3 was simply that, a fling. It only happened because he was undercover, in the real world they would never be capable of staying together. Audrey Raines was the best chance Jack had of finding love again. However Audrey's interest always felt like what she saw in Jack was a younger version of her father. I always felt that Audrey would push Jack to become a man different than who he was. She loved him but expected him to change. Her exit from the show was heart-wrenching though. And it always makes me feel guilty to see Jack with Renee after leaving Audrey, his influence indirectly causing her to become so psychologically damaged. Diane Huxley was a nice reminder of what Jack lost in season 1, but her and the absolute mess that was Marilyn Bauer were ultimately forgettable. Renee always felt like a female version of Jack, and maybe that's why we always liked them together. With her death, the question is what ending will Jack get? For many years now I've felt that he should die. It's the only way to put this show to any justice. For all Jack's done for the series, he should die as a patriot. Given the move to make a 24 feature film however that seems unlikely. For the most part 24 finales are usually bittersweet, emphasis on the bitter. Teri dying, President Palmer's attempted assassination, Jack faking his death, being sent to China and going into a coma don't always have the happy endings we want. Given that there will be a movie after this, I think this ending may be more bitter than we would like.

How well has the penultimate episode set us up for the finale? Well we know Jack's motivation, to presumably kill or at least take down President Suvarov and possibly President Logan while he's at it. The political storyline is a little hazy for me however. President Taylor is trying to get this peace agreement signed, but if Jack succeeds in his mission, there is no way Dalia Hassan and the IRK will stay at the table. The two goals are fundamentally at odds, and it's been an undercurrent so far regarding the government trying to stop Jack to keep this peace process alive, but it's my hope that for the finale, we'll see the government pull out all the stops to stop Jack. There's just 2 hours left for Jack Bauer and now I think it's time for each side to put their cards on the table and let the chips fall where they may.

Keep an eye out for my next post that will be up before the end of the week regarding the penultimate episode of Lost.

S.O.S. - Part 2 (The hindsight)

Well, I never intended for this to become a two-part post but given the events of the last week it felt appropriate. I certainly wrote the first part of this post at the right moment, because on Wednesday Human Target was renewed for a second season and Law & Order was cancelled. Friday was the day when the axe fell on Flashforward which wasn't a surprise at all. 1 out of 3 isn't too bad. I've spent some time scouring the web looking at the reactions regarding these cancellations/renewal. I've decided to mention them below and incorporate my own personal feelings regarding them.

As I've mentioned in the first part of this post, Flashforward got knocked very early on for poor characterization, and it's tough to deny this. To this day I still feel the only character they ever spent a good amount of time investing in was Mark Benford, and this was very quickly thrown away by Joseph Fiennes stilted acting. This improved over the course of the season for the other characters, but it was never quite enough. I agree wholeheartedly with Entertainment Weekly's article on the subject that Flashforward tried to cram too much in. I would have gotten rid of most of the non-FBI characters. As much as I understand the attempt was made to humanize the blackout, and show real people dealing with it, it got wrapped up in trying to give them compelling storylines instead of focusing solely on the cause of the blackout. I will truly miss Flashforward more than any other show on this list. Despite its flaws it did a great job of using a unique time travel medium and juggled the question of fate versus free will as well as it could. The mysteries were compelling if at times borderline cheesy, and it's just a shame that it never had the viewers to sustain what would have been an arguably better second season.

When I wrote my post on Monday I never realized that my least favourite show on the list out of 3 would in the end be the one to survive to next season. I would like to trade. I spent a lot of time analyzing the debate between renewing either Lie to Me versus Human Target (in the end both shows were renewed) and it's quite a hefty one. Do you choose a show that has had 2 seasons to build up an arguably weak audience or choose the one that's only had 12 episodes and worse ratings but is still finding its audience? Do you base it on which does better in the important 18-49 demographic the advertisers seek? Do you choose the show that's cheaper to make every week? All valid questions, and truthfully, when given the choice it's tough to see why FOX would choose to renew Human Target at all. Perhaps it is because they recognize that it's a different show than the rest that are out there. I would wager that FOX is hoping that Human Target builds up it's audience in the 2nd season. I would advocate that to improve the ratings FOX should start playing up the comic book connection the show has. I think that comic books are still hot right now, and that angle has been underplayed in the marketing. Understandably this isn't the common, cape and mask comic book, but that needn't be a knock against it. I think the show needs to skew younger as well. I don't know what market FOX has in mind for the show but I'm assuming it's people like me, young males. I can therefore see why having an action show starring 3 middle aged guys might not be the best tactic. Every team needs a hot chick, get on it Human Target. Will it be jarring, yes, but if it puts people in seats then who's complaining?

I think I was actually hurt when I heard the rumours that Law & Order would be canceled. I thought it was safe. It's got to be humiliating to come so close to breaking the record and then be canceled. I don't know why either. NBC could have promoted the crap out of the fact that Law & Order would be the new longest running primetime show. I'm sure that would have added at least a few viewers, if not it would definitely remind some old ones. Fill the commercials with some nostalgia showing all the old partners, some classic Jerry Orbach quotes, I can see it now. Entertainment Weekly makes a decent argument that the show is going out while it still has some fire in it. It's given us new dynamics from these characters, and as old as the show is, it feels like it hasn't been all played out. While I agree with that, in the same respect how many people would say they haven't felt played out by Law & Order? When Anthony Anderson first joined the show those episodes were boring. Even during the end of the Jesse L. Martin/Jeremy Sisto run the episodes were starting to lose their lustre. Procedurals aren't like serials where a whole season can be written off. There are ebbs and flows in quality. Currently, and for a good part of this most recent season Law & Order has been doing good. Sooner or later it would start to decline again, and later after that it would return to that quality. I'll be sad to see Law & Order go. I know there are all the spin-offs: SVU, CI, UK and the new LA but it just won't be the same without the original. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the upcoming LA spin-off will involve all our favourite NY detectives and prosecutors getting in a van and traveling cross-country to work in LA. Perhaps that's why the original got axed, to pave the way for a reboot with LA. It's a shrewd move on NBC's part, 4 nights of Law and Order would never survive of course, but should they have killed the parent to save the child? I don't think so at all.

S. O. S. - Save Our Shows

It is my understanding that in about a week the TV networks announce their upcoming shows for the 2010-2011 Fall TV season. I'm as giddy as a kid on Christmas. This is also a time to reflect on what shows currently on the bubble will be getting another season or not. Without any further ado, here are my favourite shows that may not see the light of day after May, and why they should be renewed.

Flashforward
This is probably my favourite show of the most recent TV season and I don't understand all the hate directed towards the show by critics. The show's been laying down some pretty solid mysteries and are delivering answers at a decent rate. I understand critics complain about the character depth on the show, and I'll agree to them up to a point. The winter hiatus was a major godsend for the show. The creators really paid attention and did their best to try to minimize the story. Their sprawling epic was flavoured with too much "What did you see?" and not enough focus on character reactions (apart from Mark Benford). So why should this show be saved? Because it's gotten a lot better than it started. I've been a fan since the start but I can understand that the grandiose scale it started with can be offputting for some fans. Since the winter hiatus the show has worked hard to minimize it's plot in the storyline. They've chosen to work at one mystery a week and just hint at the other mysteries. They've improved the depth of their characters and frankly, more than any other show out there, this show feels the most like the spiritual successor to Lost.

Human Target
I know Human Target isn't the best show on TV right now. It might not even be a good show, but it is a decent show. More importantly, there is no show out there like it on TV right now. Watching Human Target is a throwback to shows in the 80s like Macgyver or The A-Team. It's escapist television. I don't watch Human Target to be challenged intellectually, I watch to see what trouble Christopher Chance is going to wind up in this week, and how he's going to escape it. If there's one thing the show needs to lay off of, is their attempt to graft an ongoing plot into the story with that FBI agent. It gives the show too much gravitas, something the show doesn't need. As well, it already has that storyline going on with Christopher Chance's backstory, we don't need 2 of them at once. Human Target is a fun show to watch and just turn your brain off to enjoy. As I understand it, FOX will decide between renewing either this show or Lie to Me. I say that Lie to Me has already had 2 seasons to establish it's base and it's struggled. It's tough to carve a market in an already crowded marketplace, especially with more flashy shows like CSI or broader shows like Criminal Minds. Human Target deserves their chance.

Law and Order

So this is cheating a little bit since it's more than likely that Law and Order will be renewed for a 21st season. However in the same respect I would say that most people don't watch Law and Order anymore and that should change. Law and Order is finally starting to tap into it's history in a way it should. Benjamin Bratt was on earlier this season, and they recently mentioned Arthur Branch in one episode. The Law and Order franchise is huge, and it's about time they started to have more crossovers and callbacks. The writers are also starting to turn the episode into a constant commentary on the real world. The show has stopped living in a vacuum and now starts to feel more and more integrated into modern life. Every episode seems centred around something a writer read in a newspaper the other week, apart from the even more obvious 'Ripped from the Headlines' episodes. I realize the cast isn't what it used to be, I think giving us Anthony Anderson instead of the Old Cop was a bad trade, but I am becoming big fans of Jeremy Sisto's Lupo and Linus Roache's Michael Cutter. Lupo is rough around the edges but is always the cop I want in my corner. Cutter always has the gears turning in his mind. He feels like a con artist, always trying to find some way to outwit the defendant or the jury. Perhaps instead of looking at the cast as losing some of their old stereotypes, we should see it as them trying something new and pushing the show. With S. Epatha Merkerson leaving the show at the end of this season, I look forward to seeing what new character they are going to come up with next.

Where Glee could have gone wrong

The success of Glee puzzles me to some extent. I feel that it's become almost too popular for its own good, but I still greatly enjoy the show. I think however that it would have been very easy for a show like this to go wrong, here are 3 ways it could have happened:

1. Bad Singers
I recently commented that if Lea Michele sang the phone booth, I would pay to hear that. The creators of Glee really found some great singers. I'm most recently reminded of Michele's renditions of Defying Gravity and Like a Prayer as testament to her singing abilities. And it's not just her, Cory Monteith is definitely holding his own and Matthew Morrison may be the only white singer we should allow to do black raps. I'll air a small gripe over the autotuning that gets used occasionally, especially for Monteith (also, he needs to stop stamping his foot when he sings) but for the most part these singers can truly deliver a song, not just sing it. I think it would have been very easy for this to crumble, but instead it's become a pillar.

2. Song Choice
Now no one's ever called me a Broadway buff (though I don't know why not) but I think Glee has done a pretty stellar job of mixing broadway and common choir songs with contemporary hits. I think the only real competitor in terms of style is the High School Musical series. It's interesting of course to note Glee's choice in using other people's music rather than their own. I feel though that songs in musicals feel very specific to the character and to the moment. I don't think they have the same mass appeal as contemporary songs do. Glee finds a way to tap into the song, into the emotion and the meaning behind it, rather than create their own songs to explicitly state the character's emotion. Of course part of what makes this important is picking good songs that reflect what's going on and as I would say Glee's done pretty well in that regard. If I take issue with one thing in their music selection, it feels like there are some episodes where the songs they choose aren't ones that fit my preference and it's easy as the viewer to lose appeal for that particular episode. I can understand if it's just one song, even if it's an important song in terms of the episode as long as I can understand the choice of song and the reason behind it. However when there are other songs in the episode that I'm not feeling it's easy for me to become totally disenchanted.

3. Sue Sylvestor

I remember the first time I watched House. I realized how exceptionally great this character was, and how original he was. I feel the same way about Sue. Jane Lynch plays Sue perfectly. Think of any other actress playing Sue Sylvestor. You can't can you? She just so fully inhabits the role. Whoever conceived of Sue in the writer's room was a smart cookie, but Lynch just takes the performance to a whole 'nother level. Even if an episode is going badly I can always count on at least a few good Sue Sylvestor jokes. She is a great foil to Morrison's character, it's actually a little sad that he can't keep up with her. Rather than witty repartee we are left with a vicious mauling. I'm sure over time the writer's will be able to balance that out, but nonetheless, without Sue, Glee would be half the show it currently is.

Where 24's Going Wrong (and Right)

I love 24. Let me emphasize the word 'love'. It is my favourite show. It may be the best show to exist that doesn't start with the words Mighty Morphin. So it pains me to see some of the troubles going on with this season as of late.

There were some definite struggles at the start of this season. 24 could always be counted on to have a great premiere but this year the premiere felt decidedly bland. It started to pick up some steam at the halfway point and it reached it's zenith after they killed off both President Hassan and Renee. All of a sudden we saw where this season was heading. Jack had failed both publicly and personally. He had lost the love of his life and he was out for revenge. I had thoughts of the finale of Season 1. Jack with a gun in both hands starting his one man assault on the Drazen compound. I got excited. And then 24 stopped dead in it's tracks. The last 2 episodes (excluding today's) may have been 2 of the most boring hours of 24's history. I understand that 24 is packaged as drama, but it's really not to some extent. It's an action show. The episode on April 19th may have been the low point. Not a single bullet was fired. The entire episode was dialogue. There was only one scene of action. Jack Bauer stealing a helicopter. It wasn't enough though. That's one thing 24 needs to fix and keep in mind. Focus on the action.

I would also greatly appreciate things if 24 knew what they planned to do with their characters. What do you know about Arlo? He's been around since the premiere and all I can remember is the time he commented on Chloe's ass and the camera took a nice lingering shot of it. That's about the extent of his personality I know. That actor must enjoy cashing his checks every week with his one line per episode. I also don't buy Dana's descent into mole territory. I feel like that was a knee-jerk reaction by the writers when they discovered that people really didn't like her character's arc at the beginning of the season. Everytime I see her shoot someone in cold blood I'm reminded of her weak will as she dealt with her whole ex-boyfriend situation and had to call Cole. Something just doesn't line up. Once we found out she was a mole her personality changed entirely. That's just bad scripting. I understand they had to do something with the character but it just felt shoddy. How about the re-inclusion of President Logan? He is doing some great work on the show this season. Playing things close to the vest and not tipping his hand. But it all feels like a ploy to me. In Season 6 this was a man who was sorry for his crimes and was seeking redemption. Only now we learn he wasn't, he's still the same snake he always was. This isn't challenging the character, you're just sticking him in a new situation. My final complaint is with Miss Chloe O'Brien. Clearly the writers have been planning for her to take the head of CTU role for a while. So why is it that as soon as she gets the power she turns on Jack? For 6 seasons now we've seen Chloe be Jack's one ray of hope when he goes rogue. She's always the one who believes in him and has his back. I don't believe that she would betray him for the job. It's not her character. They just fell into their old dynamic of Jack going rogue and the boss trying to catch him instead of pushing themselves and the show to somewhere new.

So now let me tell you why today's episode was good. Not only did it feel like 24 is building the action but it also felt gratifying at the same time. Dana just came out and explicitly stated Jack's goal. He's making a list and executing everyone on it. I would've liked it to be more subtly showed to us that once Jack gets this list he kills everyone, but let's be real, 24 needed to just throw this at us to get us back in the game. But finally there was some action. Some action and some important dialogue. They understood the importance of the Cole-Dana situation that hadn't been addressed and they talked about it. That's the kind of dialogue and drama I need to see. They've danced around how Cole's felt finding out his fiancee was really a mole. Thankfully they at least spoke to each other today.That opening speech by Dalia Hassan was pitch perfect. I think I would've liked that to have ended the episode last week. Rather than just seeing her put on stage. It set the tone for her character. Last week I didn't care about the whole peace process situation, but now I'm at least a little invested in how she is going to unite her country. The finale of the episode was done quite well too. I needed a reminder of just who Jack Bauer was. Seeing him disarm a cop, shoot another in the foot, then disassemble the gun and throw it away before chasing after Dana was a reminder of who this man is and why he's so damn cool. That final scene with Jack confronting Dana in the construction building was so important. I would like to mention that it was staged quite well but more than that, I finally got to see Jack's plan in action. I knew Dana wouldn't be surviving the episode but I needed to see Jack shoot her. I needed to see her name crossed from that list. I was reminded of Season 3 and the killing of Nina Myers. It felt very similar. Maybe it's a little befitting that this is 24's last season. Nina killed Teri and Dana was at least partly responsible for Renee's death. It all comes full circle.

TV All The Time!

 Hi! Welcome to this magical corner of the internet known as my blog. Here you will get to read articles covering a wide range of topics. All of them related to the greatest invention of the modern era - the Television. What posts can you expect to see? Well some of them will be about certain episodes of a show in particular. They may be covering a certain arc in a TV series, or they might be about the state of the shows I watch in general, or even larger. This blog is a mental output of everything that comes into it through the magic of TV. So come, settle in, relax. Sit down on your couch and read a post or two. It's just like your favourite TV shows but with 76% less violence and swearing. Who knows, you just might look at a show you watch in an entirely new light.