My Mondays are different from everyone else’s. I believe other people call this day…Friday? Life got in the way. Sorry, guys.
Shows I wish would just die already cont’d:
The problem arose when instead of scaling things down, Kring made them more complicated and blatantly derivitive. One of the great joys of Heroes was seeing familiar superpowers put into a different context. But you knew who the hell everyone was. Not so much with this volume. Good guys and bad guys changed alliances like it was nobody’s business paying attention to their business and NBC’s business sense (and senses) were getting flushed down the loony loo.
The next volume was set with the unenviable task of righting the ship, but the damage had already been done. Heroes was starting to look old. I could always count on Heroes kicking Smallville’s ass in the battle of the super hero TV series. Now I’m not so sure and it fricking kills me.
Ratings have been plummeting at danger-level rates and it’s clear that despite how much tweaking the producers do, viewers just don’t care anymore. Kring needs to be hands-off with Bryan Fuller and keep the other writers on staff and just close it out with guns blazing. Nothing wrong with letting a show die raging against the dying of the light rather than letting it linger on way past its termination date fizzling pathetically into who-cares-ville.. No one’s going to remember its past failures with a triumphant sendoff. Keeping it going in the state its in, however, and all anyone will talk abouit is where it all went wrong and just gotten worse and worse. Then the network will really pull the plug, not even granting Heroes any kind of closure. At one time, the show deserved better. I’d like to think it still does.
Shows I will miss when they end next year:
Lost
ABC EXEC: So we really like your idea of medically trained cops who moonlight as lawyers. We feel it has something different than what the other shows offer.
SHOW PITCHER: Good! Glad to hear it.
ABC EXEC: We just have some standard questions.
SHOW PITCHER: Sure. I understand. What do you need?
ABC EXEC: Will there be any instances of time travel in your show?
SHOW PITCHER: What, like, flashbacks? I mean, yeah, I guess. But what show doesn’t, right?
(cue nervous laughter. writer shifts in his seat.)
ABC EXEC: No, no. Literally, do you foresee anywhere in your show any instance of characters journeying back and forth in time or tossed liberally by….the hand of, erm, fate?
Forget just how revolutionary and ground-breaking this show will seem as more and more years pass. Make no mistake. This is a diamond in the rough. It’s a safe bet we will never see a show of its ilk again.
What inspiring writers really ought to take away from Lost is the pitch. Genius. Effing genius.
I really hope J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and Carlton Cuse write a book on the experience of Lost. Especially Lindelof and Cuse.
Lost really started at the top with ABC. They wanted a show that contained some elements of the popular reality show at the time, Survivor. So J.J. Abrams pitched a plane crash on a mysterious island. That’s it. Don’t give away the goods just enough to reel ’em in.
And then Lindelof and Cuse did an incredibly smart thing in the first season. By and large, the island had its weird, supernatural stuff but the stories emphasized the survivors of Flight 815 above all.
Lindelof actually thought–with a sense of pride–that Lost would be the latest in a long distinguished line of cult series lasting only one season. But the emphasis on character paid off hugely as Lost sustained a very impressive audience throughout, even winning for Best Drama for the Emmys.
Then the genius-type stuff happened.
Much to the chagrin of ABC to be sure, Lindelof and Cuse seemed determined to undercut expectations of mainstream acceptance and cut against the grain. The core group stayed as they realized just what kind of ride they were in for. But ratings did begin fluctuating when it became clear that the show was not going to just be about an island and seemed to indulge in a perverse determination to mind-fuck with the entire United States viewing audience. Yes, we will deal with teleporting islands, time travel, supernatural hooey, flashbacks AND flashforwards, a guy wearing eyeliner who doesn’t age, and a weaselly mastermind named Benjamin Linus. And we will do so gladly. Stop watching. We dare ya.
ABC has been looking forward to this day for a while, I’m sure. We just wanted a show about a goddamned deserted island. Gilligan never had to deal with this shit!
If memory of arcane pop culture serves, however, I think the Professor did create a coconut-powered time machine. Or maybe it was a radio?
As far as Lost’s place in pop culture, it will leave an indelible mark and will be well-missed when it wraps up. It promises for an incredibly epic finish where nothing short of the universe is at stake. As my non-fan father is wont to say “What the hell does any of this have to do with a plane crash on a deserted island?”
Final part for next week: Definitely supernatural. Arguably super. Surely, I can’t be serious. You’re darn tootin’! And stop calling me Shirley.
TallGent
ABC EXEC: Excellent. And will electromagnetic properties and the powers they exert be playing a role at any of the locations on your show?
SHOW PITCHER: So like a hangout called Electromagnetic? A place where the doc-cop-lawyers can unwind? Ally Mcbeal?
ABC EXEC: Um, as far was we know Ally McBeal never had to deal with electromagnetism in her stories. But we’ll take that as a no. And, finally, will we be seeing smoke monsters?
(Show pitcher is shuffling uneasily in his seat)
SHOW PITCHER: Don Draper?
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