Lost

[poliphilo]

The problem with American TV is that successful shows are allowed (no, required) to run and run until every last drop of vital existence has been squeezed out of them. Until there's nothing left but rind and pips. It's a terrible shame.

Most of the shows I have loved in recent years have died the death long before they were finally put out of their misery.

Deep Space Nine
The X Files
Xena
Buffy.

I fear for the Simpsons. There have been some really ropey, unfunny episodes recently. And then there's Deadwood- which is showing alarming signs of being all washed up after a single season.

And here comes Lost, which seems expressly designed to be so open ended it can run forever. I watched the first double episode and fidgeted. The whole point of it is delay- deferred gratification. Do I have the stamina to stick with it for seven, eight years until all becomes clear? I doubt it. I know from sad experience that by the time we get there the whole concept will have become so jaded, the plotlines so tangled and far-fetched, that I will long since have ceased to care.

Comments

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

I love the Simpsons, especially the 1st 10 seasons or so, but there are now countless episodes from recent seasons I haven't seen because I stopped watching it in any capacity but DVD and syndication. It's a shame it has to decline but for as many years as it's been on the air I don't begrudge it too much. As for recent TV fodder - nothing. Zilch. Zero. Reality TV makes my teeth grind, I've never seen a single episode of Friends, only 3 of Seinfeld, and I couldn't even tell you what's currently running. This is more from boredom than any sense of intellectual snobbery. It just feels like every show I come across is just a rehash of plots, characters, and jokes from Three's Company, Hill Street Blues, or LA Law.

I think Ally McBeal was the last prime time show I watched consistently. And I do miss X Files, although I never watched it religiously.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The last American import I watched religiously was Deadwood. I loved the way Season 1 breathed new life into the western. But Season 2 has been a huge disappointment. It seems to have turned from a Western into a slow moving soap about uniformly unpleasant people.