mattwalters.net

While I talk a lot specifically about Lost in this post, I am speaking more broadly about a certain series format on TV, and the problems with that format.

Close to a year ago now, I started watching Lost. It was already into its second season, but my roomie had bought the first season on DVD, so I decided to watch it to see what everyone was talking about. I was almost instantly hooked and within a week or less, I had finished watching the entire season. I think they were 13-14 episodes into season 2 by the time I finished season 1. I decided to buy those episodes from iTunes, quickly caught up, and was then watching it as the episodes aired on TV. We’re now 6 episodes into season 3, and I haven’t missed a single episode for the entire series.

Near the end of season 2, I started to lose my love (or perhaps infatuation) for the series. So little was being revealed, and I’ve grown to loathe the flashback mechanism that they use in EVERY episode, taking up half of the episode pretty much and doing nearly nothing to move the main plot lines forward. So little has actually been revealed, and what worries me is that some of the things I consider still unanswered, the writers have said they consider to be wrapped up. Without giving anything away in case you like watching the show and aren’t up to date, those ‘answers,’ as the writers call them, are anything but answers.

There are other series now following this general format (not really the flashbacks thank goodness, but the killer levels of suspense in every episode) and that worries me somewhat, at least with the current way things are done. Some examples being Heroes, Jericho, etc.

So what’s the point of my post you ask?

Well, what I’d really like to see the networks do is contract these series, and then hold to it. I don’t mean contracts for seasons like they have now, I mean the whole series. In other words, they should say, “Ok, Lost writers, we think this could be successful for 5 seasons, so work out all of your story arch’s, realizations, etc within that time.” After 5 seasons, the series is ended, and all is well. The folks watching the series should feel at least most of the questions asked in the series were answered, and feel some closure after the series finale. Think of it as a real long mini-series, with a definitive beginning and ending. The problem I see with the current way things are done is that the writers never know when they’re going to need to finish things up, so they either end up doing it quickly and poorly, or they never get the chance to do it at all.

I forget where I heard it, or if it’s even true, but I remember at some point being told that many times, series are not given true endings because the networks never know if they might want to come back and make a made for TV movie later or whatever, but really, that’s just silly. What’s the last TV series you can think of where after it was all over, someone went back and made a movie for it (and the movie wasn’t a mistake to make). One point to make here, because I know some of my friends, but Serenity doesn’t count for Firefly, what Fox did to that show was just wrong.

I really wish an idea like this could take hold. I think we’d start seeing some great TV series show up on TV, and I’d venture a guess that DVD sales for series based on this format would at least meet if not exceed DVD sales for current/past series.