Wednesday, May 12, 2010

I Am Beginning To Hate Quirky TV Shows.


I read a lot of articles about 'Lost' today and in most of them they quote the series creator and writers with saying that the 'relationships' between the characters was the most important thing over the run of the show. All that extra strange goofiness they threw us was just to advance the story. It has always been about how the survivors deal with the bizarre situations they have found themselves in rather than the situations themselves.

That is such a load of horseshit. They always sold 'Lost' to us as a mystery where everything from the hatch to the mysterious numbers to the polar bear all had significance to the story as a whole. Online you ENCOURAGED us to search posters for story clues. Then you blame us if your hidden agenda was not clearly obvious to us or if we found the wrong clues.

That is all well and good. There is nothing I enjoy more than good changing and developing relationship. I absolutely love the interaction between Oliver and Peter and Walter and Astrid and Agent Broules on 'Fringe'. They too are surrounded by the bizarre on a weekly basis but have found a way to work around it.

I am less interested in what the hell 'Massive Dynamic' is all about because it would only pigeonhole the story. You don't need to know anything about THE PATTERN to still enjoy the program. 'Massive Dynamic' is just a plot device to focus the characters upon.

'Lost' on the other hand gave us 'The Darhma Initiatives' but told us by their writing that this was very important to their story and for years we tried to figure out how Dharma fit into everything. If it was so important then why was it dumped for all this good angel vs bad angel crap? As audience members we are owed more than to just be abandoned with our questions.

You may think that the way you did things make you great writers but it doesn't. Plot holes need to be plugged up and questions need to be answered if you want me to totally accpet your premise and lessons. To many things these days are left half finished and I, for one, am sick of it.

When writers have to downplay expectations for a finale that is only three episodes away, then they clearly are worried about how the end of the series will be viewed of by the fans. They have no confidence that what they created is any good at all.

It's the height of douchbaggery to tell viewings that we should never have been paying attention to all the quirkiness of the situations because the relationships are what is really what we should have been giving our attention to. Couldn't we do both? Didn't you promise both?

To blame a viewer like me for not watching your show 'properly' smacks of hubris and smugness. Two things I have absolutely no use for. How dare you even make statements likes that.

The day after the finale you will have to deal with fans who feel cheated once again. But don't worry, you are not going to be alone.

'Happy Town' is going that same route. Just another case of 'Twin Peaks' lite. We all know how that experience ended, don't we? 'Flashforward' and 'V' get the same criticism.

So stop asking for a pat on the back for a job well done, 'Lost'. Despite your great ideas and great cast and great individual moments - it's how you end the series that is important. If you screw the pooch then that is all we will remember. You need only to look at the X-files for proff of this. We all remember the great series but you cannot enter into a conversation with anyone and avoid talking about the crappy way that show ended. For a time I was even ashamed to admit I liked the 'X-Files' because that would mean admitting that I got hosed at the end.

I know that creating all this venom in a fan like me is not what you wanted at all and you can never go back to fix that. But who am I anyways? I am just some slug who likes his TV. You, yourselves, invited me to play along. It's my own fault for believing that was what you really wanted.

9 comments:

SamuraiFrog said...

I just read that Happy Town got canceled. After last night's episode, they're not showing anymore until June, when they're going to show the last five episodes and then have done with it.

I can't say I'm not a little pleased. But I was a big Ugly Betty fan, so I was going to root against whatever ended up there...

WV: catests. Close to Catists, which sounds like a philosophical school you might subscribe to. But cats are really more zen... Zen Catists?

Rod Barnett said...

I think you would have been among the host of folks that wanted to lynch Patrick MacGoohan when the final episode of THE PRISONER aired. No matter what the LOST creators came up with they weren't going to make everyone happy. Its their story- let them conclude it in their own way. Not that we have much choice!

Chase March said...

Hi Calvin,

I think the creators of lost have been trying to prove that they are smarter than the audience by deliberately trying to make things confusing. But like you said, we want answers and it seems that we have been promised them.

I don't like the way this season has gone at all. I was hoping for so much more. I don't think it had to be all about Jacob and his nameless brother.

Hopefully they do pull off a nice ending that ties things together.

Wandering Coyote said...

Do not get me started on the whole dropping of the Dharma Initiative crap. Un-effing-believable, that is.

Wings1295 said...

Well, whatever they are gonna do, they are gonna do. We can like it, we can hate it. Just gonna watch as I have all these years and let it be whatever it is.

I already gave up on V. FlashForward feels like its dying. And I deleted the latest Happy Town. What's the point of getting involved if ABC is canning it already?

Ricky Shambles said...

I've been cheerleading Lost since it began and Mrs. Shambles said "It better not be a dinosaur island show." It was not. She waned but stuck about a season ago, more and more frustrated. While I give it the benefit of the doubt, I'm horribly disappointed in what seems to have turned "let's make this amazing experience with Alternate Reality and super mystery and never-before seen depth in social media" into "we should wrap this; happy hour ends at 10."

I read the last interview with Wired and when he said they were done with mentioning or explaining the numbers, I was like "Fuck you - give me the last episodes and I'm done."

Ooh, and Fringe is teh shiz!

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

Great analysis here people. Glad that I am not the only one who feels ripped off. I could just let it be but when have I ever done that with anything?

I could just leave the octopus to the oceans and me to the land but where is the fun in THAT.

Testing the human capacity to bitch is what the online experience is all about.

That being said, Fringe IS the shiz because the relationships are very strong. John Noble is amazing when he is either high or sober. That show can just chugg along for the next couple years on his talent alone.

But jj gots a reputation for losing his focus a couple of years into a series so lets hope he has good people to pick up the ball when he moves on to his next series.

Rod Barnett said...

FRINGE is a good little show but I have to admit it almost lost me mid-way through this season. There several episodes when they were not moving the 'alternate world' storyline forward and I was getting bored with the 'threat of the week' stuff.

With LOST- no matter what they did a large number of folks would hate the outcome. I'm loving it and have enjoyed the ride for 6 full years.

Strangely I'm still enjoying FLASHFORWARD- a lot. Its not perfect (I can't buy how some of the characters are being used in the main storyline) but it has a lot of momentum and keeps springing surprises.

And with V- I'm about to lose interest myself. I think I'm hanging on just to stare at the hot chicks at this point.

Jason said...

LOST = Meh!