My thoughts on the LOST Season 5 Finale

Tonight, I found myself absolutely stunned by the conclusion to season 5 of LOST. I’ve made no secret about the fact that I enjoy this show, and I’m still reeling from what was revealed. Be warned — spoilers follow the jump.

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[Television Thursday] LOST and Religion

I’m a devoted fan of LOST, and have been since the first season. A lot of my friends think I’m nuts to have stuck with the show so long, and one of them even asked me the other day, “what’s it going to take for those people to just get rescued?”

I was taken aback by the question — do I really want to explain that the latest season is about those who were rescued trying to get back to the island? — but it led me to think about why this show continues to be so compelling to so many people despite the many twists and turns it’s taken into the realm of science fiction. And then suddenly, the answer hit me.

LOST is religion.

Don’t misunderstand me here — I’m not saying the show is a religion. I’m saying that it’s a metaphor, a thorough look at the ideas of mysticism and the supernatural, but through a lens that doesn’t require a Bible, a priest, or even a church.

I’m going to talk about things that may be spoilers if you haven’t been keeping up with the show, so if you want to continue to be surprised, don’t read the rest of this article until you’ve got yourself caught up. (But since you can watch the entire run for free on ABC.com, why not get started now?)

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[Television Thursday] Why “The Office” Has Peaked… and How the Show Can Get Its Edge Back

The Office is a great show... but it really peaked around the fourth season.

It’s a shame when a favorite show starts to go downhill, and I’ve watched more than a few good comedies go down the drain. I watched the slow decline of The Simpsons from genius to banality, and I watched Scrubs go from a sharp sense of humor to a dull set of goofy gags. (Though I will say that in its new eighth season on a different network, Scrubs has reclaimed a lot of its bite.) I watched the promising My Name is Earl go from being a quirky comedy to a ho-hum farce.

I’d always hoped that the same thing wouldn’t happen to The Office, which was one of my favorite shows when it originally aired on the BBC, and which had a wonderful transition to American TV thanks to Greg Daniels. The British version was full of snark and bite; its purpose was to build up a villanous doofus who was not so unlike a real boss and then to watch him self-destruct. At the same time, viewers were built up to expect that the only two likable characters in the show, Tim and Dawn, would wind up together, only to be slapped in the face with reality at the end. The subsequent Christmas special, which tied up all the loose ends and redeemed the characters, was produced as a means of giving the fans the happy ending that they demanded, even though it went against the spirit of the show somewhat. The BBC show has some real moments of genius, finding comedy in long pauses and awkward behavior. That’s one of the reasons it caught on so quickly and remains popular today.

The American version, on the other hand, was forced to trade a lot of its bite for goof, and the result has been a show that began on firm footing, but that’s been slipping a lot over the last few seasons. It’s not too late for the show to eschew some of its goofiness and get back to being relevant, and Scrubs has proven that you can reboot a series properly when you have  the right motivation to do so. In the case of The Office, the best thing the producers could do would be to remember what made the show so popular in the first place… and make adjustments now before the ratings start to slip and NBC sends out a cancellation notice.

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[Television Thursday] Five MORE Great Shows You’ve Probably Never Heard Of (But Should Definitely Check Out!)

If you saw my last list of five great television shows you’ve probably never heard of, but should check out, you’ve probably realized that I tend to watch shows that aren’t exactly popular or well-known. But they’re still worth watching, and today’s list will give you five more that are definitely worth checking out if you’re tired of the normal dreck on network television and cable. Read more »

[Television Thursday] 10 Things I Love and Hate About LOST

LOST is one of the best shows on television, period.

LOST is back for its fifth season, and like many people, I made a point of getting together with some other LOST fans and watching it. I’ve been keeping up with the show since the middle of the first season, which means I’m all too aware of its brilliant moments… and its slumps.

As it happened, the premiere hit on a lot of the strengths and the limitations of the show. So, while it’s fresh on my mind, here are a few observations I have about LOST overall: Read more »

[Television Thursday] – Five Great TV Shows You’ve Likely Never Heard of (But Should Track Down on DVD!)

If you’re reading my blog as of late and thinking to yourself, “Man, all Sean does is watch TV, play games, and complain about movies,” If you think that, I don’t blame you — I don’t know how I’ve come to acquire so much knowledge about so many trivial topics, but here we are. As a writer and a creative artist, I’ve always been interested in consuming entertainment media, and as a critic and a thinker, I’ve always been interested in thinking through their aesthetics and implications. That’s what I get for being such a “middle-brained” person.

As it happens, I don’t watch a lot of television anymore, because most of it is garbage. But over the last few years, with seasons of shows popping up on DVD, I’ve found myself watching a lot of television shows. Part of the appeal of watching shows is that they’re just about the right length (20-40 minutes) for me to watch while I’m eating or resting, and they don’t require me to sink the time I’d put into, say, a feature film. TV shows are also typically less demanding in terms of my attention; as long as I know the characters and the premise, I don’t have to have much more information, unless I’m watching a serialized show like Lost or Heroes.

One of the things I’ve found out in recent years is that many of the best shows produced for TV are fairly obscure titles that were either cancelled prematurely or aired on networks most people don’t watch regularly. So, I thought I’d put together a list of five really solid shows, all of which are available on DVD, but most of which you’ve probably never heard of. All I ask is that you do the right thing and buy them on DVD if they’re available, and reserve searching bittorent sites for those which are out of print or not yet available on DVD in your country.

With that said, here’s the list!

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