The Last Tick of the Clock

Diminished expectations led to a feeling that 24 ended its eight-year run in decent enough fashion. The season was such a mess overall that by the time the finale kicked into gear in the last hour or so, it felt like the 24 of old: Jack’s nothing-to-lose attitude was in full force, President Logan’s duplicity was on display like never before (he literally had blood on his hands this time), Chloe’s loyalty to Jack had her wringing her hands again. The best scenes, though, involved Cherry Jones’s President Allison Taylor. Her despair and self-disgust as she came clean about her role in covering up the Russian president’s part in Omar Hassan’s assassination was devastating to watch, the honesty more gut-wrenching than any of the torture Jack doled out this year.

And what of our hero? There’s something superhuman (last week’s Iron Man-esque attack on Logan’s motorcade) and primal about him at the same time. (If this season had lasted any longer, we might have seen Jack start killing people just to watch them die.) He casually treads the line between being right and being crazy. Jack is often adamant that his actions are the result of not having anything left to lose. But I would beg to differ. He’s experienced love (granted, they were doomed affairs), and he’s got a daughter and granddaughter looking to forge a deeper bond with him. And yet these seem to fade in the background when he thinks his country needs him and only him. Even after eight seasons, I’m not sure if this is a character flaw or a flaw in the writing. One thing’s for sure, though: As the CTU drone loomed overhead at the end of the finale, beaming images back to those who helped him save the day, the look in Jack’s eyes made clear that, no matter how he tries to escape, his is a fight that will never be finished.

Eulogy for Lost

The phrase “No risk, no reward” comes to mind as I attempt to digest the exquisite series finale of Lost, and it really applies to the series as a whole. Lost leapt across all genre lines, bravely encapsulating the characteristics of action-adventure, science fiction, mystery, love story, drama, even comedy. In the end, though, it was the characters and not the strange Island goings-on that carried us home, as this season’s flash-sideways stories were revealed to be an elaborate way to join these people together as they were meant to be. Faith, in humanity and each other, won out over science, as everyone gathered in a church to celebrate the connections they made, the love that developed, the everlasting friendships that would go unchanged by death, whenever that death might come.

If that explanation doesn’t quite make sense, I’m glad. Hopefully it will propel those who have avoided or abandoned the show for fear of its density to give it a whirl in its entirety and see how richly rewarded they’ll be by the experience.

The finale delivered some wonderful scenes as characters stuck in the flash-sideways were forced together (mostly by Desmond) and made to remember their lives on the island. Sun and Jin met Juliet during Sun’s sonogram; Sayid was reunited with Shannon as Boone protected her during an alleyway fight; the delivery of Claire’s baby once again connected Claire, Kate and Charlie; Jack performed spinal surgery on Locke, after which Locke was able to walk again; and the swoon worthy romance between Juliet and Sawyer was rekindled over a broken vending machine.

There were countless callbacks to events and lines of dialogue that have happened over the course of the show’s run, none more iconic than the last shot: Jack’s eye, seen many times opening in close-up, this time closing as he takes his final breath on the Island, Ajira Flight 316 ascending overhead, taking the remaining survivors (minus new Island protector Hurley and his sidekick Ben) back home.

The episode provided a payoff that, for my tastes, is unparalleled in the land of series finales, where the pressure almost always seems to get the best of even the most talented scribes. Here, Team Darlton (exec producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse) stayed true to the heart of the show. They realized that none of the Island’s mysteries would have meant anything if they didn’t have the right group of people expressing the right set of emotions.

When you think about it, six years isn’t really that much time for a show as influential, revered, and just plain popular as Lost. Kudos to Darlton for knowing how much time they needed to get to their endgame, and to ABC for listening and respecting their creative decisions rather than letting the show fester and continue long after it had worn out its welcome. Epic doesn’t even begin to describe just how grand this series was. It will undoubtedly hold up to repeat viewings and heavy scrutinizing, and go down in the annals of television as one of the greatest series ever made. One of the phrases the characters on the show are fond of saying is, "Whatever happened, happened." What happened in the case of Lost was absolute magic.

The CW: Boring Is as Boring Does

Last and very least with their upfront presentation is The CW. To be honest, I’m surprised that, after four seasons of steadily declining ratings, joint partners CBS and Warner Bros. haven’t just pulled the plug on this unnecessary network. Changes are coming to every night this fall, not that it’s likely to make much difference when all is said and done.

Moving to Monday night won’t do much for 90210, which should have been cancelled after its low-rated first year. At 9pm, The CW’s inexplicable love for Gossip Girl continues, despite the fact that few watch and the show has lost any buzz it once had.

Two bubble shows make up Tuesday night, with One Tree Hill returning for what will likely be its final season. At least Life Unexpected, which follows at 9pm, has some critical support going for it, even if viewers have yet to find it.

New show Hellcats, about a college student (Ashley Tisdale, High School Musical) who loses her scholarship and joins the cheer team, is the latest entry being asked to hold a respectable amount of its America's Next Top Model lead-in on Wednesday nights. We’ll see if it lasts longer than The Beautiful Life: TBL, High Society, and Flygirls did this season.

The network’s only real hit, The Vampire Diaries, stays on Thursdays, where it will be paired with new spy show Nikita. If Vampire can carry its success to season two, it just might provoke viewers to stick around for Nikita, which will doubtless be compared to Alias.

For the first time in its short history, CW schedules all-original scripted series on Fridays, though this particular pairing will be short-lived. It’s been announced that Smallville is entering its final season, and the same is probably true for Supernatural, which is already going a year longer than its creator initially planned.

If things don’t start looking up for the network, it might be time to admit defeat and fold. There’s nothing truly unique on their schedule, nothing that you couldn’t find being done better somewhere else.

CBS Fall: Cautiously Aggressive

CBS finds its fall schedule pretty evenly divided between shows staying in their current slots and shows being shuffled around. Three out of the five new series being introduced are directly in the network’s wheelhouse of crime dramas, leading to the question that gets asked every season: How much longer can CBS milk the popularity of a genre that should have peaked a few years ago?

Half of the Monday night schedule remains intact, with How I Met Your Mother, Rules of Engagement, and Two and a Half Men (with a richly rewarded Charlie Sheen now garnering $2mil per episode) from 8-9:30pm. Mike & Molly, a new comedy from Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre about a teacher and a cop who meet cute at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting, gets the net’s most coveted comedy lead-in. The remake of Hawaii Five-0 caps things off at 10pm. Alex O’Loughlin, having already tanked in Moonlight and Three Rivers, gives it another go here. If this one doesn’t work, perhaps CBS will admit that their love affair with the actor has been unrequited by America.

Tuesdays are a carbon copy of this year: NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, and The Good Wife. Given that this lineup finished well ahead of the competition last fall and held up reliably when American Idol entered the picture in the first quarter, keeping things status quo is a wise decision.

Survivor moves to a new night for the first time since its second edition way back in 2001. The Wednesday 8pm slot remains relatively weak in terms of competition so expect Survivor to still be able to finish first in the hour. Criminal Minds follows, then at 10pm, Jim Belushi and Jerry O’Connell are The Defenders, Las Vegas attorneys who pull out all the stops for their clients. It’s being billed as a “comedic drama,” and could be an odd fit with the gruesome Criminal Minds (not to mention that the last thing any of needs after eight years of According to Jim is another Jim Belushi show).

The Big Bang Theory moves to Thursdays at 8pm, where it will be paired with the new comedy $#*! My Dad Says. Theory has really taken off this year and will almost definitely win the time period, probably siphoning more viewers away from NBC’s comedies in the process. $#*! My Dad Says, based on a Twitter feed and starring William Shatner, should settle in nicely as well. Since CBS hasn't aired sitcoms on the night in what could be decades, leaving the rest of the night unchanged is smart, with CSI: Crime Scene Investigation leading into The Mentalist.

Medium gets bumped up an hour to kick off Fridays, followed by CSI: NY on a new night, and new police drama Blue Bloods starring Tom Selleck, whose Jesse Stone movie franchise pulls in strong total viewer counts but is decidedly older-skewing. Look for much the same with this new show, though I expect CBS will still have no trouble winning the night overall once again.

Saturdays continue with two hours of Crimetime Saturday repeats and 48 Hours Mystery, while Sundays will consist of 60 Minutes, The Amazing Race, the return of Undercover Boss, and a new time slot for CSI: Miami, a lineup that should be poised for a strong second-place finish in the fall (behind NBC’s football game).

When it comes to cancellations, CBS really cleaned house, letting go of Cold Case, Numb3rs, The New Adventures of Old Christine (which could find a new home at ABC), Gary Unmarried, Accidentally on Purpose, and Ghost Whisperer (also an ABC possibility). CBS is definitely a network that knows where its strengths lie, but you have to wonder how long it will be before the crime drama corner they’ve painted themselves into becomes a trap from which they won't be able to escape.

ABC's Fall Schedule: Ordinary but Effective

Stability is the keyword for ABC this fall as the network leaves many of its strongest performers exactly where they are right now.

Sundays will still be home to America’s Funniest Home Videos, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters. It was thought that EM:HE and B&S would find themselves in other time slots, particularly the former, which has deteriorated to a shadow of its previous dominance. And at this point in its run, the network may have thought B&S too vulnerable to shift it away from the night, the only time period its ever known.

Mondays are the same as well, with a two-hour Dancing With the Stars again paired with Castle. Given the quick failure of sitcom Romantically Challenged, ABC may finally have given up on trying to launch a comedy out of Dancing, a wise move considering the boost that the lead-in has provided Castle this year.

One of the fall’s most anticipated new shows will jump start Tuesday: No Ordinary Family, in which Michael Chiklis plays the patriarch of a family that crash lands on an island only to discover that they now have superpowers. Obviously, the network is hoping they’ve found the next Lost, but they need to be careful not to set expectations too high lest they end up with another FlashForward instead. Dancing With the Stars: The Results is next, followed by Detroit 1-8-7, which sounds almost exactly like Homicide: Life on the Street but in a different city.

ABC Comedy Wednesday returns to fill the 8-10pm block. The Middle moves up a half-hour, followed by new entry Better Together, about three couples from the same family who are in very different stages of their relationships. Modern Family and Cougar Town stay put in the 9pm hour. The Middle has grown over the course of the season, but asking it to start the night may be too much. And while Modern Family is a bona fide hit, Cougar Town hasn’t quite proven itself yet (it’s been saddled with airing opposite the second half of the American Idol results show for months). 10pm has The Whole Truth, another legal drama from Jerry Bruckheimer, this one giving an in-depth look at how both the prosecution and defense work a case. It stars Rob Morrow (Numb3rs), and could be just as forgettable as last year’s The Forgotten.

It’s all relationships all night on Thursdays as newcomer My Generation joins Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice. My Generation takes a documentary-style approach as it follows a group of former high school classmates who return ten years later to their hometown of Austin, Texas. Unless this show has some major critical support behind it, look for it to exit early. Though not the ratings powerhouse it used to be, Grey’s still gives Practice a much-needed boost and continues to bring in the important 18-49 demo. Plus, like Brothers & Sisters, it may be too long in the tooth to move to a different night.

Feel-good 2008 Fox reject Secret Millionaire got picked up by the Alphabet last year and will finally air Fridays at 8pm. New drama Body of Proof, where Dana Delany plays a neurologist cum medical examiner, follows, and stalwart 20/20 remains at 10pm. There’s no real flow here, going from reality to drama to news, but give ABC credit for keeping the lights on on a night that many feel will become the new Saturday over the next few years. Speaking of Saturday, college football will be back to fill the night in the fall.

In general, ABC doesn’t look to have the strongest crop of freshman shows. With the exception of No Ordinary Family, they all seem rather generic and nondescript. But with a trove of returning shows that should have relative sustainability, it almost doesn’t matter whether the new shows succeed or not.

Fox Fall: A Coupla Surprises

With the exception of Saturdays, which will probably be home to Cops and America’s Most Wanted until the end of time, Fox’s fall schedule is almost completely devoid of reality programming, with a trend toward a scripted renaissance that seems to be echoing throughout broadcast TV.

House kicks things off again on Mondays at 8pm, followed by Lonestar, a new drama from Party of Five exec producers Chris Keyser and Amy Lippmann (where have you guys been?) that uses Big Oil as the backdrop for the story of a man living two lives. On paper, Lonestar doesn’t sound like the kind of show that’s going to set the world on fire, but the solid lead-in and creative pedigree might turn this one into a minor sleeper hit.

Tuesdays are comedy night, with Glee shifting up an hour to give some support to new half-hour entries Raising Hope and Running Wilde. Raising Hope comes from Greg Garcia (My Name Is Earl) and centers on a ne’er-do-well whose family helps him out with his baby daughter; look for plenty of wacky old lady shenanigans courtesy of Cloris Leachman. Arrested Development alums Mitch Hurwitz, Jim Vallely, and Will Arnett (who stars along with Keri Russell) created Running Wilde, in which Arnett tries to woo childhood sweetheart Russell, with everything seen from the viewpoint of Russell’s preteen daughter. Glee may not be strong enough for Fox to launch new shows out of yet, and it’s been a long while since the network found success with a sitcom outside of Sunday night, but you have to give them credit for trying something different.

Wednesdays see the return of Lie to Me, a bit of a surprise renewal considering how long the network kept the show on hiatus this season. Hell’s Kitchen, the only other unscripted hour on the fall schedule, keeps the time period warm until midseason. This is perhaps not as aggressive as Fox should be in the middle of the week, but it’s a tandem that should fetch them a decent enough number of viewers.

Bones and Fringe remain exactly where they are on Thursdays, though Fringe had better start holding more of the Bones audience if it hopes to keep this plum time slot.

Astoundingly, Fox is taking another stab at programming scripted fare on Fridays, with returnee Human Target and summer holdover The Good Guys—which has a preview this Wednesday before moving to Mondays in June—being the recipients of this dubious honor. The network has performed better on the night with reality shows such as Kitchen Nightmares, so it will probably take a miracle for either of these to make it into 2011.

The aforementioned Saturday lineup stays the same (no word, though, on what will replace the cancelled Wanda Sykes Show in late night), as does Sunday, where NFL post-game show The OT will be followed by the Animation Domination block of The Simpsons, The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, and American Dad.

All in all, this actually could end up being a fairly solid fall season for Fox. The mass appeal of the new shows may be questionable, but the net has done its best to protect them behind some of their more established series. As per usual, the network also put out its proposed midseason schedule, which shows that American Idol will once again take its place on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. And as per usual, I won’t give the rest of that midseason schedule a second thought since so much of it is completely dependent on Fox’s assumption that their fall lineup could be anything but perfect.

Fall 2010: NBC Likes Writers Again

With NBC announcing so many of its new series pickups over the last few weeks, there wasn’t much to be decided but the actual placement of its shows on the fall schedule. The network got a head start on its official upfront presentation, which takes place tomorrow, by making said schedule public today, probably so that it doesn’t have to share as much Monday evening/Tuesday morning headline space with Fox, which also announces its fall plans tomorrow. The key observation: After last fall's Leno debacle created less real estate for scripted shows, the network has done an about face and scheduled dramas across the board, Monday through Friday at 10pm.

Monday nights continue to be anchored by Chuck, a marginal success at best, but a show that has proven reliable for the network on what has become a tough night for them to gain traction in recent years. Progressing with an action theme, NBC welcomes two new dramas, The Event (regular guy gets embroiled in the U.S.’s biggest conspiracy ever) and Chase (Jerry Bruckheimer show about U.S. marshals tracking fugitives). It’s always a risk scheduling two unproven shows back-to-back, and the network takes a chance that audiences will be just plain fatigued if they stick around for all three hours.

Tuesdays stay exactly as they were this spring, with The Biggest Loser leading into Parenthood. This is an extreme vote of confidence for the recently-introduced family drama, once again being given the benefit of one of the net’s highest-rated lead-ins.

Wednesdays see Law & Order: Special Victims Unit sandwiched between two freshman dramas: J.J. Abrams’s high-profile Undercovers and the latest entry in the L&O franchise, Law & Order: Los Angeles. SVU had a hard time in the 9pm slot last fall so it’s a bit surprising to see it moved there again, especially when it’s made some recent strides to get back on track in its current 10pm slot. As with Mondays, the network could be asking too much of audiences if they expect them to stick around for two hours of Law & Order, not to mention that another spinoff may be seem as unnecessary overkill at this point. Undercovers, about married former spies who get pulled back into the espionage game, is a question mark; Abrams’s name alone may not be quite enough to sell a series (witness Fringe), but the concept, along with what will likely be an aggressive marketing campaign, will probably ensure some healthy initial sampling.

The network sticks with a two-hour comedy block on Thursdays, with sophomore Community leading into 30 Rock, followed by The Office and newcomer Outsourced, about an American company with a call center in India. Then at 10pm, it’s Love Bites, a romantic anthology series that will feature two new stories and one ongoing story (with My Boys’ Jordana Spiro and Ugly Betty’s Becki Newton) each week. There’s nothing here that indicates NBC will suddenly see a spike in viewership for these decidedly niche comedies, and it seems like it’s been decades since an anthology series worked. (Parks and Recreation, by the way, will be held for midseason.)

This year’s midseason entry Who Do You Think You Are? returns to Fridays at 8pm, sharing the time slot with School Pride, a reality show that doubles as an outreach project as communities attempt to fix their troubled public schools. Dateline NBC continues at 9pm, and Jimmy Smits’s Outlaw has the misfortune of capping off the evening. Given NBC’s inability to launch a drama in the Friday 10pm time period of late (anyone remember Inconceivable or Medical Investigation?), look for Outlaw—which comes from Conan O’Brien’s production company and has Smits playing a former Supreme Court Justice turned private lawyer—to be one of the season’s early casualties.

Saturdays will be the wasteland they have been in recent years, with drama repeats filling the schedule. And as always, Sundays in the fall are reserved for NFL highlight/pregame show Football Night in America and Sunday Night Football.

Out at the Peacock are Heroes (which some had speculated might get a chance to wrap things up with a shortened episode order or even as a two-hour movie, the latter still apparently up for discussion); both of its medical dramas, Mercy and Trauma; and the original Law & Order, which was unceremoniously dumped last week with no notice to give producers the chance to craft an actual series finale after twenty years on the air. That last decision just goes to show that no matter what NBC tries to do to change its fate, they're never afraid to make a move destined to piss off loyal viewers.

FNL on NBC: Just Watch!

A quick reminder that NBC begins running season four of Friday Night Lights tonight at 8pm. The beautiful thing about this season is that, with Coach Taylor taking a job at East Dillon High and new characters being expertly introduced, it's a perfect fit for longtime fans and newcomers alike. Tonight's episode sets the groundwork for a season that does what FNL has always done best: mix heart, humor, controversy, and a good dollop of gridiron action into an irrestible stew of emotion. Thanks to the cost-cutting agreement between NBC and DirecTV, which has first run rights, we're already guaranteed another (likely final) season, so tune in tonight with the assurance that you won't be robbed of the show's brilliance after this current batch of thirteen episodes.

Conan the Tactitian

More than three months after prematurely signing off as host of The Tonight Show, Conan O'Brien broke his contractually mandated silence last night on 60 Minutes. Proving that just because you’re funny doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk, a subdued O’Brien refused to give in to interviewer Steve Kroft’s repeated attempts to get him to say something nasty about Jay Leno, though he did laugh at the prospect of Leno having been screwed over. (O’Brien is barred from saying anything disparaging toward NBC, but it’s unclear if that extends to Leno as well). All he would say was that he would have handled the situation differently, perhaps gone off to do something else instead of reclaiming the desk from a man he’d wished well just months earlier.

Among some of the more noteworthy quotes from the interview: On why he ultimately stepped down as host: “It started to get toxic.” On whether he was forced out: “If they wanted me to leave, it worked.” On any lingering hard feelings toward Leno: “Jay’s got The Tonight Show, I have a beard and an inflatable bat, and I’m touring city-to-city.” O’Brien says he’s happy with the decision he made, even if he disagrees wholeheartedly with NBC’s assertion that the network was losing money during his short-lived stint. This was a more serious, introspective Conan than we’re used to seeing, temporarily trading in his absurdist humility for a more down-to-earth version. He ended the interview by assuring fans that he’s doing just fine. Why wouldn’t he be? He’s captured more headlines than ever before, and in six months time, he’ll be back on the air at TBS, hosting a brand new show that will be seen Monday through Thursday at 11pm, with lower expectations (and a younger audience) than NBC could offer. That’s not to say he wouldn’t mind translating some of the respect he’s garnered into a few million more viewers.