TV: 24 and Lost

24

I can't believe there's only three episodes left of this season. I was really afraid Monday's episode was going to annoy the hell out of me, because I saw no reason to bring David Palmer back in the fold. And while after watching it, I still see no reason to bring Palmer back into the fold (he really added nothing to the episode) they threw so many other incredible twists and turns it didn't mess up a thing. This season, with the exception of the schizophrenic kid and Palmer's pointless return just keeps getting better and better. God, I hope it's not another letdown like frankly the first two season's were in the last few episodes. Remember when Jack had not one, but two freaking heart attacks in the last three hours of season two and yet still managed to beat up a bunch of people and save the day. I mean, I know adrenaline can do some things for you, but come on? However, they've avoided all of these kinds of missteps this year and kept the inplausabilites and inconsistencies down to a minimum, which with a show dealing with this kind of subject matter is quite amazing. This is not only turning out to be the best season of the series, but it's also on the road to be one of the best seasons of any series I've seen in the history of television, and I've seen a lot. So, for those of you that have not been following it, I urge you to pick up the Season 4 box set at the end of the summer; it will be well worth the forty dollars.

LOST

I just recently watched the first twenty hours of this show in a weekend because Meredith had missed a few here and there. We were able to obtain a friend's copy he had been making on DVD, and I can't stress how much I love this show. As there ever been a more exciting debut season for a series? And while this is good news, it could also be bad. It's coming down to the wire with only five episodes left, and these episodes could definately make or break the series. When you're dealing with a show that has this much chronology to it, it's easy for it to get derailed. You just have to hope that the show will stay consistent like say, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" or "The Prisoner" and not drift into "X-Files" and "Twin Peaks" territory. But I have to say that nothing on this show so far as not been able to keep my interest. After watching the first twenty episodes, I realized that there has not been a lame one in the bunch.

What worries me is how many mysteries the show has brought up and how few it has anwsered. I'm not saying they should give away the whole shebang; I mean, they want to keep this going for at least five seasons (syndication means big bucks), but you're asking for trouble and will lose people's patience after awhile if you only add more questions and give no answers. I read the EW article where J.J. Abrams explained many of these mysteries will be solved by the end of the season, and I hope he's telling the truth. Because even if you do anwser a lot of them there's still plenty to keep going into Season 2, and hell, after you give some anwsers you can use next season to create some new mysteries.