Unless you were living in some alternate dimension, awaiting to go to your final reward inside some Unitarian church in Hollywood, you might have noticed that Lost had their final episode on Sunday. After six years of riddles wrapped in enigmas and smoke monsters, that for some reason sounded a NYC taxi cab receipt printer, the story wrapped itself in a nice little bow; they all died. All questions finally answered and now we can go on with our lives, except what about Walt, Dharma, Hanso, the various temples and statues on the island, not to mention the weird ass stone cork keeping the island afloat, I mean WTF?
Don't get me wrong, I loved the scenes with everyone in limbo or whatever finding each other and accepting that their lives, maybe even careers, are over. It was a nice send off for the characters, but what about the overall mythology of the series. I understand the concept of Hitchcock's Mcguffin, you know the item that only exists to propel the plot forward, but the island wasn't some throw away item that only existed in the background to drive the motivations of the characters. Over the course of six years it became an important character that deserved the same amount of closure that the main characters got. Don't leave key questions unanswered. Then again maybe the show was nothing but a prequel to Fantasy Island, with Hurley as Mr. Roarke and Ben as Tattoo. Who knows, maybe the Simpsons were right and it was just the dog's dream, he was in the final shot with Jack.
This brings me to another series finale that intentionally leads to a potential movie in the future, 24. Was it unbelievable at times and constantly use the same plot points over and over? Yes. But, it had the most awesome character created in the last ten years, Jack Bauer. Here was a show that no matter how unbelievable it got, managed to maintain its watch ability, because you truly care about Jack Bauer. You knew when you watched it, that eventually Jack would right every wrong and save the world yet again. Every season of 24 ended with the world being safe, except for this last season, in which the world is even more messed up then it was when the season started. It truly is a good segue into a movie and Mr. Bauer is a character that will hopefully be on our movie screens for years to come. Maybe they'll make a Bond vs. Bauer movie. That'd be sweet.
By the way, here is the best series finale ever, followed by some cats, enjoy:
Keep watching this space until the next hot new show debuts.
Keep watching this space and not Leno.