TeeVee

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Acute writer's block forces me to stoop to such lowbrow topics as television.

Lord knows, I love me some idiot box. But I find it frustrating when the networks put all the big shows up against each other, and then force us to choose. Anyone who's a fan of both ABC's and NBC's Thursday night lineups knows what I'm talking about. (Note to NBC: Perhaps if you put your Thursday shows on another night, you might get more loyal Grey's Anatomy viewers to watch your shows, too. Then maybe your ratings wouldn't tank so much. Give up your game of chicken with ABC -- you're losing.)

Even if one has a DVR, the scheduling can be frustrating. Last night was a perfect case in point. Fox's 2-hour American Idol (<- I almost typed "idle" there - how strangely appropriate) season finale overlapped ABC's Lost 2-hour season finale. So I watched the first hour of Idol, taped the second, and watched all of Lost. When I went back to watch the second hour of Idol to see who had finally won, the program had run a few minutes over and the recording CUT OFF BEFORE THE WINNER WAS ANNOUNCED. Talk about frustration! Yeah, yeah, I know -- Jordan won. But it would have been nice to watch it being announced. (Not that it was a big surprise.)

In addition to the two big season finales, I also finally watched the series finale of Star Trek: Voyager. I never watched that show when it was originally on the air, so have been catching up with the syndicated episodes airing on Spike. The series finale was somewhat creative, but also somewhat anti-climatic, and they tied up things just a little too neatly. I got the sense that the writers found out late that they were cancelled, and sorta scrambled to tie up loose ends in various story arcs. I was a little disappointed that the last scene shows them in the Alpha quadrant, but they never actually reach Earth. Perhaps they'll make a Voyager movie someday.

The season-ending episode of Lost delivered its typical white-knuckled, action-packed, stomach-churning punch of a finale. I tell ya, I'm glad they only have three more seasons, because as I'm getting older, I don't know how much more anxiety my heart can take!

As with every Lost fan, I've been eagerly anticipating the season finale all week. It didn't help to have the actors that play Kate and Hurley both gush on Jimmy Kimmel this week about the huge, mind-boggling "reveal" at the end of the episode.

***SPOILER ALERT***
(Here's where I write about events from last night's episode. Proceed at your own risk.)

Jack Flash. Okay, I wasn't all that impressed with the aforementioned "big reveal". So, Jack has a flash-forward (rather than the usual flashback we've come to expect). I don't believe that future for a minute. First of all, he refers to his drunken father TWICE, as if he were still alive. Do people come back from the dead in Jack's futuristic world? I think the flash-forward was just a plot device and made for an interesting finale, but I do believe it was one big red herring. The future is uncertain.

Charlie drowns. I won't believe he's dead until they show us his cold lifeless body. He was still conscious in his last scene, (although the situation was quite dire), and he could very well swim through the porthole to the surface and survive. Desmond might even be able to swim through the porthole and pull him out. We'll see....

Hurley saves the day. How great was that? I love Hurley. I would place money on Hugo and that VW Bus eventually getting them off the island. While rockin' to Shambala on the 8-track.

Sayid is Rambo. Was anyone else as impressed as I was after he snapped that bad guy's neck with just his legs? (I suppose that makes me a little sicko.) Sheesh -- I want that guy fighting on my side any day! I didn't used to understand what other gals who swooned over him saw in him. Now I see it. Hhhhhhot.

Locke lives. I'm really not surprised he survived being shot and thrown in the pit of putridity. After all, he's a main character with three more seasons to get through. But I was really curious as to how they'd pull it off. I'm still not sure what happened, and am not interested in the various theories floating around the Lost message boards.

And that's how I feel about the rest of the unanswered questions, such as, who's on the big boat? Who is Naomi, really? (Does it matter, now that she's dead?) Are Ben & John right about the boaties being super-baddies coming to kill everyone off? Who is that freakin' Jacob-ghost? How will they explain Walt appearing to be so much older? What's the deal with the smoke monster and the polar bears? What is the temple Ben referred to? And what the hell is the significance of the numbers?

Since only a finite number of episodes remain, I'm trusting that the writers will creatively reveal all, over time, but I may have to wait three years to finally, completely understand. In the meantime, I'll eagerly anticipate Season 4, which doesn't begin until February 2008! Ack!

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