Lost: 100 Episodes of Blessed Confusion

It’s hard to write a critical analysis of Lost because so much of the show is left unexplained from one episode to the next. I know I’m watching great television, but it isn’t always easy to put into words exactly why it’s so good. As Lost hurtles toward the close of its penultimate season, last night’s terrific 100th episode was a perfect example of just how difficult it can be to discuss the show. It was loaded with information, posed a few more questions, and, as the best episodes of the show often do, promised to take the show in another direction.

So, what did we learn last night? I’m sure I missed a few things, but here’s what I got out of it (Lost always rewards multiple viewings, if only I had more time). In flashbacks, we see that, before going to the Island, Daniel Faraday suffered some kind of mental disorder. His father (!) Charles Widmore tells him about the fake Oceanic wreckage Widmore planted, images of which Daniel has an especially emotional reaction to. Widmore offers Daniel the chance to go to the Island as part of the freighter crew, with the promise that Daniel’s mind can be healed there.

Meanwhile, back on the Island, where it's 1977, Faraday arrives in the Dharma sub and thinks that he can debunk his own “whatever happened, happened” theory and change the history of the Island. He wants to detonate an H-bomb to take care of the Island’s electromagnetic energy, which energy leads to the creation of the hatch and causes the crash of Flight 815. Barging into the Others’ camp to speak to his mother, Eloise Hawking (where did Faraday’s last name come from?), Daniel is shot by Eloise before getting the chance to tell her who he is. After an earlier, ominous warning to Jack that “any of us can die,” it appears that Faraday has uttered his last hypothesis.

I’m not sure I even understand everything I just wrote—and I don’t care! I’ll admit to being confused about what good it would do to keep the plane from crashing. Won’t the survivors eventually return to their lives in 2007, three years after the crash would have happened? Won’t they still have all the memories and have experienced all the trauma that came with that event the first time around? Or will all of their memories be erased if they’re able to change the course of history? I have no idea, but I’m along for the ride, whether it makes sense or not.

On the Bubble

In just three weeks time, all the pieces of the networks’ fall puzzles will be in place. While some no-brainer renewals have already been issued (The Biggest Loser, Law & Order: SVU, The Office, and 30 Rock on NBC; multi-season pickups for CBS’s The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men; a dozen early renewals on ABC, including its entire Sunday lineup, Grey’s Anatomy, and Ugly Betty; Gossip Girl and 90210 on The CW; 24, The Simpsons, and Family Guy on Fox), many shows are still awaiting word on their fates. What follows are my predictions for which on-the-fence shows will be sticking around for another year and which ones are going to that great TV resting place in the sky.

ABC
Surviving Suburbia—The highest-rated comedy on the network (thanks to the Dancing with the Stars lead-in), it should be a lock for renewal, but the fact that ABC is planning to air original episodes during the summer instead of saving them for next year may be a bad sign. I still think it’ll be back.

Better Off Ted—The network is said to be pleased with the creative direction of the show, but viewers simply haven’t shown up. Still, ABC needs a prestige comedy and, even though it doesn’t have the numbers, this is the best they’ve got right now.

Cupid/Castle/The Unusuals—Of the three one-hour shows launched in the last month, only one will likely make it to the fall. ABC gave an extra push to The Unusuals this week and saw the show underperform again. Cupid was pretty much dead on arrival. That leaves the mediocre Castle as the beneficiary of overall viewer disinterest.

CBS
Cold Case/Without a Trace—Both of these crime dramas are still decent performers, but expenses—and an older skew—will likely lead to one of them being shown the door. The victim may be Trace, giving CBS the chance to launch a new show out of The Mentalist.

The New Adventures of Old Christine/Gary Unmarried—It’s one or the other here as well. Perennial bubble-sitter Old Christine may be out of chances on CBS (ABC, for the second year in a row, has expressed interest in picking it up if CBS passes). Gary has the edge, as it could turn into a hit if paired with Two and a Half Men.

Flashpoint—Ratings wise, the best 9pm show the network has had on Friday in some time, and the fact that it comes from Canada helps keep things on the cheap. My guess is it’ll be back at midseason.

The Unit—Another show that always seems to be on the bubble. I think this is the year that bubble finally bursts.

NBC
Chuck—With fewer time slots available on NBC next fall thanks to Jay Leno, Chuck may have to be sacrificed. The network loves the show, but after two seasons it just hasn’t caught on in a major way. A last-ditch save-our-show campaign has fans planning to buy Subway sandwiches on April 27, the day of the season finale (Subway was featured in a recent episode). Too little, too late.

Life—Same story as Chuck. Life had several chances to draw an audience and couldn’t succeed. Say goodbye.

My Name Is Earl—Not strong enough to continue leading off NBC’s Thursday comedy block. Talk that Fox (whose studio produces the show) could pick it up might lead NBC to keep it around for another year, but if the network ever wants to regain its sitcom dominance, they should cut ties with Earl.

Fox
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles—Didn’t work on Monday or Friday. Won’t be able to ride any kind of wave the new movie might create. This one’s dead.

Dollhouse—Reports say the network wants to stay in Joss Whedon’s good graces. If all he can deliver is 3.5 million viewers, what’s the point? Fox got better numbers in the Friday 9pm time slot from the low-cost Don’t Forget the Lyrics. Look for Dollhouse to close its doors.

Lie to Me—Early on (when it followed American Idol), this show seemed like a sure bet for renewal. Since moving to the 8pm hour, though, it’s lost a good chunk of its audience. But with no 24 or Idol on Fox in the fall, Lie still looks good enough for another season.

The CW
Reaper—Exec producers Michelle Fazekas and Tara Butters just signed a two-year deal with 20th Century Fox. Since Reaper is produced by ABC Studios, that doesn’t bode well for the show’s future. While The CW certainly has holes to fill, this show doesn’t exactly fit the network’s target demo of women 18-34. By the end of May, Reaper will be pushing up daisies.

Everybody Hates Chris/The Game—The network, which no longer has a comedy development department, will probably bid adieu to both of these shows. There are enough episodes of Chris to sell into syndication, so another low-rated season is unnecessary. Producers are pitching the next season of The Game as a one-hour dramedy; I don’t think it’ll be enough to save it.

Any show I left off that you want to know about? Let me know. And come back in the weeks ahead to see if my predictions are correct. As the networks roll out their fall lineups, I’ll be analyzing their decisions and providing even more prognostication on what to expect next season.

It All Comes Down to This

It’s the beginning of the end today as the May sweep gets underway (it runs until May 20). That means plenty of guest stars, plus a healthy helping of deaths, births, weddings, break-ups, and cliffhangers as shows draw to their season/series finales. Among the highlights:

· King of the Hill celebrates 250 episodes on April 26
· Lost (April 29), Grey’s Anatomy (May 7), and The Office (May 14) all hit the 100-episode mark
· Michael J. Fox takes on the topic of hope in the ABC special “Adventures of an Incurable Optimist” (May 7)
· The Amazing Race (May 10) and Survivor (May 17) bring their entertaining seasons to a close
· 30 Rock’s season finale delivers a host of musical guests, including Sheryl Crow, Mary J. Blige, and Elvis Costello (May 14)
· Fox says goodbye to Prison Break (May 15) and MADtv (May 16)
· Set to premiere in the fall, Fox’s new musical comedy Glee gets a preview following part one of American Idol’s finale (May 19)
· 24 ends Day 7 with a two-hour finale on May 18

Of course, there simply isn’t time to cover everything the networks have planned as they wind down the 2008-09 regular season and ramp up for what looks to be another aggressive push to get viewers to stick around during the summer months (more on that in the weeks to come).

But May isn’t just about sweeps. It’s also about the upfronts, one of my favorite times of the year, when the TV gods take the stage in New York to announce their fall schedules. NBC goes first on May 4, while CBS, ABC, Fox and The CW make their presentations the week of May 18. There are still a lot of shows on the bubble for renewal so I thought I’d offer my two cents about which shows I think will be back in the fall and which will get the boot. Look for that tomorrow.

From the Streets to the Parks

In his new show Southland (NBC, Thursdays), executive producer John Wells attempts to do for the police drama what he did for the medical drama with ER. Unfortunately, much of Southland has already been done before. Most noticeably, the show borrows a page from NYPD Blue's dirty language book, though this time around the words are bleeped, making it feel as though the show was produced for, then rejected by, HBO or Showtime. In tone, Southland is reminiscent of another '90s police drama, High Incident. Like Incident, Southland spends much of its time on the streets, following beat cops as they respond to calls. With gritty realism, we see the impact crime has on both sides of the badge. In the first two episodes, we've seen a gang shooting, a young girl kidnapped and murdered, a robbery, a guy whose dogs ate him, and a baby found crawling on the street. All of this provides the opportunity for a cop's-eye view of Los Angeles, and the show does use location to its benefit, though not as well as CBS's short-lived Robbery Homicide Division did back in 2002. (Should the show be renewed, it will be interesting to see if the network tones it down for the 9pm hour, as it will lose the 10pm time slot to Jay Leno in the fall.)

All this is not to say that Southland is a bad show. In fact, it's far from it. While in these early stages the show doesn't quite have a unique voice, there is a great deal of potential here that, over time, could develop into a terrific blending of the procedural and the personal. As it stands, the characters, mostly archetypes, are a bit elusive. The only real standouts are a detective played by the always welcome Regina King and a rookie cop (The O.C.'s Ben McKenzie) who doesn't appreciate being razzed by his hard-nosed partner (Michael Cudlitz). Once these characters are fleshed out and given identities that are less familiar, Southland could indeed become the kind of must-see TV that ER was in its prime.

Also new on NBC Thursday is Parks and Recreation, from The Office's Greg Daniels and Michael Schur. Amy Poehler, finally showing that she can do something less broad than sketch comedy, is Leslie Knope, a muckety-muck for the titular department who makes it her goal to turn a dirt pit into a park. Comparisons to The Office are inevitable and deserved. Leslie is written almost exactly like Steve Carell's Michael Scott: she's impulsive, thinks she's more popular and/or powerful than she is, and acts like an adolescent when talking about sex. Whereas Carell embodies these qualities with an undercurrent of sadness, Poehler maintains a sense of wide-eyed enthusiasm, coming across as more clueless than anything else (the second episode did present some mother issues, so there could be more to Leslie than we've seen so far). Parks and Recreation does separate itself from The Office with its supporting players; unlike Jim, Pam, Phyllis, and Creed, Leslie's coworkers simply aren't funny. With the exception of Aziz Ansari (MTV's Human Giant), who plays a character much like the obnoxious and overused Dwight Schrute, most everybody comes off as agitated and they act as though they'd rather be anywhere but here. If the show continues in this vein rather than branching out and becoming its own entity, I just might start feeling the same way.

Suburbia: A Cookie Cutter Sitcom

Bob Saget returns to ABC playing a sitcom dad markedly different from Full House’s Danny Tanner. In Surviving Suburbia, Saget is Steve Patterson, a fallible father of two who learns from his mistakes and spends much of his time bemoaning his bourgeois surroundings. And he's apparently got a lot of time on his hands; after two episodes, there’s been no hint that either Steve or his wife Anne (Cynthia Stevenson, Men in Trees) have jobs. The setups are exactly what you’d expect from this kind of comedy: Steve is racked with guilt after being proclaimed a hero for extinguishing a fire he himself started, Steve sends an angry e-mail to his daughter’s third-grade teacher over a school project. There are no surprises here, and more chuckles than laughs (to be honest, even the chuckles are in short supply as most of the jokes are generic). Saget is fine, and Stevenson does her usual half-uptight, half-crazy bit. If you're looking for originality, look elsewhere. That said, there’s something comforting about having a family sitcom on the air that could easily have found a spot in the TGIF lineup fifteen years ago, though this one is a bit more randy than, say, Family Matters. The show is actually lucky to have made it on the air at all. Originally set to be part of The CW’s failed Sunday-night deal with Media Rights Capital, it was in limbo until ABC picked it up. Resting somewhere between ‘Til Death and Gary Unmarried, Suburbia could certainly be funnier, but there are worse ways to spend a half-hour.

Consider Me Rescued

How great is it to have FX's Rescue Me back on the air after a year-and-a-half hiatus, save for some minisodes last summer? Last night’s fifth-season premiere didn’t have much in the way of an actual plot, but it did introduce a number of story lines that are ripe for drama in the coming weeks. Tommy (the wholly underappreciated Denis Leary) is dealing with issues arising from his father’s death. Mike, Sean, and Franco plan to open a bar. Black Sean is in the burgeoning stages of a relationship with Tommy’s daughter, Colleen. Mickey, who has always appeared to be the most stable of the Gavin brood, falls off the wagon. And Janet is dating again; this time the guy is a paraplegic played by Michael J. Fox (go ahead and hand him the Emmy now). With all of this set to play out over Rescue Me’s longest season ever—a full 22 episodes airing consecutively, except for the last week in May—this is poised to be one helluva ride.

The show’s team of writers, including co-creators and exec producers Leary and Peter Tolan, rival Aaron Sorkin when it comes to how dexterously they handle banter. The firehouse exchanges between this group of rough-and-tumble bad boys straddles the line between offensive and insightful, and is often downright uproarious. (The debate last night: would you rather lose a testicle or an eye in a fireworks accident?) With Rescue Me, you’re guaranteed to be surprised at least once per episode, whether by a single line of dialogue or a major plot maneuver. Those twists often come at the expense of a character’s life as so much of the show revolves around death; it surrounds and consumes Tommy Gavin almost constantly. For a guy who makes his living as a hero, he has certainly experienced his share of tragedy, having lost his cousin, his brother, his son, and his father in a matter of years. And he gets away with a lot because of it. Who else could launch a venomous diatribe in a room filled with mourning relatives, then leave with the sendoff, “Goodbye, assholes”?

If there’s one complaint about the show it’s that too many episodes end with music montages, a device that can lose its impact if done too often (it almost feels like self-parody when Cold Case does it every week). But it’s certainly easy to overlook this when so much of Rescue Me is done so well. It’s visceral, it’s heartfelt, it’s funny, it’s crude, and absolutely nothing is off limits. Political correctness has no place here, and that is wonderfully, blessedly welcome.

A Tribute to ER

When ER premiered on NBC in 1994 it joined a TV landscape that was just starting to make the transition from being loaded with bad sitcoms to being heavy on scintillating drama. NYPD Blue, The X-Files, Picket Fences, My So-Called Life, Homicide: Life on the Street, Party of Five, Chicago Hope—all of these great shows shared the airwaves with ER. But what set ER apart was a cinema verité style that did more than let viewers see what it was like in an emergency room; it practically turned us into doctors, giving us the feeling that we were helping deliver that baby or stitch up that wound, and having us all yelling for chest tubes, CBCs, and chem panels, STAT!

I must confess I checked out of ER back in 2002, not too long after Anthony Edwards left. His Mark Greene was always the show’s moral and emotional center for me, and his death created a hole that no replacement (and there were many) could fill. In its heyday, ER made for amazing, innovative television, something I was reminded of last night as I watched the retrospective that aired prior to the series finale. Seeing all those clips—Dr. Greene in the classic episode “Love’s Labor Lost,” Dr. Ross saving the boy caught in the storm drain, Carter’s eagerness, Romano’s brashness, Benton’s arrogance, Sally Field’s guest turn as Abby’s bipolar mom—brought me back to a time when I couldn’t wait to see what these characters would do next, what kind of emotions I would feel right alongside them.

Mercifully, the finale was business as usual. Where most shows try to wrap things up by attempting to do something extraordinary, ER remained true to itself to the very end. There was nothing overly special about the cases (a boy swallows a rosary, a teenage girl with alcohol poisoning, an AIDS patient diagnosed with cancer). But then ER was never really about the cases; they just served as ways to get at the heart of the hospital, the people who worked there and how much they cared for each other. It was as nice to revisit old friends (Benton, Corday, Lewis, and Weaver all made appearances to support the opening Carter’s new low-income medical facility) as it was to see that the newer faces in the ER will continue to provide the kind of service County General is known for.

The series ended with one last trauma being brought in, a caravan of ambulances carrying victims of an explosion. Dr. Greene’s daughter Rachel, at the hospital for an interview, stood nearby, Carter inviting her in for a glimpse at what her future holds. In that moment, we realized that when it comes to ER, the adage wholeheartedly applies—the more things change (and, boy, did they ever in these 15 years), the more they stay the same.

Farewell to an old reliable.