How not to do a season finale

[sigma7]

I have to admit, there was such rampant stupidity in that episode I was wondering if the creative forces behind Grey's Anatomy were working overtime. And not even in the "physics don't work like that" way but the "inexplicably inconsistent characterization from what we saw 30 minutes ago" way or the "no, seriously, none of you thought of that?" way.

Sadly, Lost is a show that works best when it's audacious both in questions and answers, not coy ("Oooh, what's in the crate? Make sure nobody refers to what it really is until the dramatic reveal"). But the idea that despite traveling back in time the Losties only manage to create the circumstances under which they were trapped? Done to death. Terminally uninteresting. Worse than a nuclear device that tumbles down a million-mile deep shaft without a hiccup and is still somehow primed to detonate when a kitten leans on it.

I was holding out for another game-changer, or at least an interesting reveal, a hook to keep interest up 'til next year. I don't know about you all, but I don't think I can sit through another episode of that, much less a season.

Edit: Does this mean the last season of Lost is going to be the last season of Buffy with the First Evil? If so, oh, God, count me so out. Bad enough the Lockebox reveal conjured memories of the BSG finalé (___ has been dead all this time) and the bomb the first season cliffhanger of Sledge Hammer!

Comments

[foenix.livejournal.com]

I like that we pretty much end up with the same thoughts on the final moments, but the journey was different. ;)

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

I think the most telling aspect is that the last season then becomes an exercise in futility, to end up right where they started again.

And I'm sad that Jacob's copy of the script apparently stopped three pages before Ben's, because that's the only excuse I can come up with for being so frustratingly silent. (Yes, by this point we know it's Esau since Locke's in the Lockebox, and obviously Jacob knows this...but it smacks of contrivance that Jacob doesn't say one thing until Ben goes all one-man-show-of-Julius-Caesar again. Ben's got quite the body count goin' on.)

There were moments, but tiny moments amid a sea of quadrangle-nonsense and "yes, we get it" flashbacks. This is one of the few episodes I sat down and watched. That'll teach me.

[beagle1971.livejournal.com]

Have you tried Fringe? It's like X-Files, only there's a wacky scientist helping them, and every episode connects to the mythology.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

I've been reading Scott's recaps, initially very wary of getting sucked in because (a) it looked exceedingly insane and (b) coming from FOX, if it wasn't reality or insipid it'd probably get Fireflied right out of the schedule (and that's the main reason I never tried Dollhouse). But Scott's reviews have been more positive and it's coming back next season, so this might be a summer project....

[kansel01.livejournal.com]

I admit when I first saw "finale" and "Grey's Anatomy" above the cut (I'm apparently attracted to italics) I thought you were talking about the House finale. Seriously - seeing dead people was done - this season - on Grey's (Izzy's hallucination turned out to be caused by brain cancer).

Dollhouse is OK. Not great but not really bad either. It's got BSG's Helo, and in the last two episodes we've found out Firefly's Wash is the bad guy! (not a huge spoiler) Though the episode with Patton Oswalt as a client was a big let down- he hired a doll to pretend his dead wife was still alive so he could surprise her with a house - every year.

And speaking of Firefly, ABC's Castle isn't terrible either. It's good to see Mal back on the screen after Drive got Fireflied. God I watch too much TV.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Well, if it's done on Grey's, I'm not sure it counts as being done. (I was more concerned that House's conceit in the finale had been done in the same series three seasons ago, albeit to a much larger degree.) I wouldn't mind if Amber was added to the main cast, actually, and was a recurring presence a la Virtual Six/Baltar; Anne Dudek's too awesome to let slip away, if it didn't mean House losing his license....

And I enjoy Castle -- it gets by on Fillion's capacity for rakishness, but I'm somewhat enthralled by Stana Katic's head. (And that she's like an off-brand Mariska Hargitay helps, I'm sure.) Anything that gets Fillion more work I'm all for.

[samson-of-5.livejournal.com]

Frankly I would just as soon see Amber go byebye asap. I think I can see what Wilson saw in her, but she rubs me the wrong way on so many levels. What would have made more sense, and probably made for more humor, was if he was hallucinating Kutner. But the commute from the White House might have been problematic.

[samson-of-5.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on Patton Oswalt, fortunately though that was just a plot device for that episode and not its main theme. I can see him wanted to recreate it once just for old time's sake, but to do it every year? The guy needs therapy, not a doll. I'm digging Tahmoh Peniket more and more, and with him now actively looking for Alpha is only a promise of more good times. And if anyone's not sold on Alan Tudyk's breadth of character....where have you been hiding?

[aardy.livejournal.com]

It's a new show on Fox, with a name that starts with "F"?

Don't show developers ever learn?

[samson-of-5.livejournal.com]

I've been digging Fringe from day 1. All the characters contribute a bit of insanity which rocks in my book, Walter Bishop being the high end of the meter and Astrid being the most apparently sane. Although I'm betting come next season we might see a bit more into Astrid, and whether she might be playing a bigger role than is being let on. As long as they manage to throw in more questions without them being felt 'just-thrown-in,' then I'm there all the way.

[erica-roo.livejournal.com]

Hehehe, I am amused by the vast difference between your opinion and another lj friend who's name shall not be mentioned. ;-)

When I'm predicting everything that's about to happen, "Oh, Locke's in that box... must be that other dude that was with Jacob at the beginning acting as him..." then you know that it's not that great. (Hmm... kinda like Grey's.) However, my prediction that the bomb wouldn't detonate until they somehow set it up to be done with a key and Desmond did not come to pass. At which point, I called shenanigans. But I still want to see the final season. Then again, I liked the final season on Buffy. *ducks to avoid thrown objects.*

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

I think Buffy should've ended a season or two early -- too much of the seventh season was spinning of the wheels, running out the clock. Which I think is a great deal of what I didn't like about last night's episode, either -- a lot of walking, a lot of gabbing about things we already knew, had explored in detail. (Last season's Lockebox was eerily similar; everyone obligingly referring to Locke as "Jeremy Bentham" was just too precious in an attempt to string the viewer along.)

I think the high water mark of the series is going to be the season three finale -- the "it was a flashforward all along" reveal was unexpected and opened so many doors and so much raw possibility that it's just too hard to follow up. Given that the Losties have had three years to ponder the intricacies of time travel and causality, has it honestly occurred to none of them (except Miles, last survivor of a doomed freighter) in all that time that they could have been enabling the incident all along? I could buy that only if they were all Kate, who seems to have fallen out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down.

I think what I was hoping for was at least a smidgen of a clue as to where the endgame was taking us instead of just a fade to white. Jacob's been killed (?), Esau (can we call him anything else?) wins, the loss of Chang's arm and Radinsky's convenient escape makes it pretty clear the timeline's still intact.... And that's about all I got. Not even a dramatic turn for not!Locke. I'll be interested in seeing what they do in 2010, but I'm not on the edge of my seat by any means.

[wenchamok.livejournal.com]

I'm so utterly lost when watching "Lost" that I'm pretty much down to "Oooh, Sawyer shiny......" I think once this season comes out on DVD I need to get 'em all from Netflix and rewatch them. And possibly take notes. I swear, "The X-Files" mythology is less confusing than this.