"...I hear you call my name..."

I am getting increasingly annoyed at US TV shows getting the axe, and ending on a whopping cliffhanger. This year it happened to both V and The Event, last year FlashForward and to a lesser extent, Heroes.

[Incidentally; spoilers for said shows follow.]

American TV has always been ready to chop shows with little mercy, and in the days when each show was always a self contained story, this was much less of an issue. However, now many shows have epic, overarching storylines, and when a show like this gets the axe, it mostly never gets an ending to the story. Instead we are left dangling.

V ended with Anna giving her Bliss to the world, a trio of key deaths, another character in peril, and the introduction of a whole new aspect to the show in the shape of Project Aries. Its axing meant that Marc Singer's character, instead of being the important person he was destined to be is now a mere footnote to proceedings; little more than a fan-pleasing cameo.

The Event ended with the plan to unleash the virus thwarted, the array rather than just brining Sophia's people to Earth bringing the entire frickin' planet; and even with that brief last exchange between the president's wife and her son; "What is it mommy?", "Home" just made you ache for more.

FlashForward ended just as we actually got to the point of the first flash forward, with tantalising hints of the end of the world in a few years time.

And Heroes... although the main points of the season had been wrapped up - the carnival storyline, there was that tantalising moment at the end where Claire announces the existence of those with powers to the world...

You see, the trouble is that by the time a show gets word it's getting the axe, it's too late to give a conclusion. Both V and Heroes had already aired when they got the axe, with the other two getting the chop after filming had finished with just a couple of episodes to screen. This meant there was no way that any of the shows could have an ending. They just had to put up with what they had already got in the can. Moments intended as cliffhangers had to serve as cliffhangers.

In the case of all of these, they were pretty much gamechanging moments; however, in the end, they're now only gamechangers in the same way that Eric Cartman picking up his ball and hissing "Screw you guys, I'm going home" is to the kids' ball game.

I really can't help but wish that they'd all got the word of the axing earlier; that way last episodes could have been changed so that they were able to fashion an ending, even if a rushed one. That's not an unreasonable demand, is it?

I remember Quantum Leap ending; that last ever episode was just meant to be an end of season episode. But, with a small amount of overdubbing, and a couple of captions (which still manage to make me wonderfully happy, and depressingly sad at the same time) the show got an ending. But, that was an episodic, rather than a serial, show, and thus much easier to tweak at the last moment.

Lost spoilt us, I think; from the end of Season 3 we knew that there would definitely be just three more, shorter, seasons and then it would be The End. That meant they had the space to give the show the ending they wanted, and they wouldn't have to to either stretch out or unduly compress the ending.

And it really makes you wary of investing time in a new show, as you'll have it in the back of your mind that there'll be a chance that it won't last beyond 24-ish episodes, and be unresolved. Of next year's crop I'm looking forward to Alcatraz (with Jorge Garcia; there's a trailer already. It's great), and Person of Interest (with Michael Emerson). But part of me thinks I should wait until the end of the season to see if they get picked up at least for a second season. I just don't want the disappointment should one or the other get the axe with a whopping cliffhanger.

Of course, there is one inherent irony here; my favourite show remains Twin Peaks. A show that got axed after 30 episodes. And ends on a whopper of a cliffhanger. And they knew they were getting the axe in time to give the show an ending. But Lynch and Frost chose to end on that cliffhanger.

"...random shoes..."

It's been a while since I updated this ol' blog, and this in some ways is normal for me, but in other ways, not so. Especially since there's been so much I really need to be writing about. So, this post will cover most of the things I wanted to cover. And probably in a much briefer manner than I really should. There's one thing that I really want to cover in much more detail, and that will be the subject of another post, entitled "...you start missing everybody..." If you can't work out what it's going to be about, please hang your head in shame.

Okay. So. Things.

Heroes

So, Season 4 of Heroes is now ended, and it's been almost a return to form. It was a much better season than 2 and 3, and whilst not reaching the heights of season 1, it's certainly been damn good. There have been patchy moments, and I'm unsure with the direction they're taking Sylar in... but, I do hope that there's a season 5. I'll not say what the end of season cliffhanger is, as it's not aired in the UK yet, but it offers up intriguing possibilities.

Oh, and there's a scene in the finale which, if it does not make a tear flow from your eye... well, you have no soul. It's beautiful.

Lost

We're in the home straight now. 15 to go, and the ending approaches. The parallel timeline is most intriguing. It is obvious that this is not a mere frippery; a "what if?", but rather something integral to the plot. How it is integral is another matter... it'll be interesting to see how.

I'll blog properly on each new episode from now on. But here's some comments I posted elsewhere on the latest episode;

The whole business with Sayid potentially being "claimed", like Jack's sister... that does raise some interesting possibilities. I do not think it was any coincidence that when we see Claire in the woods at the end of the episode, her pose and manner is very much that of Rousseau... Think back to the last time we saw Claire even pick up a gun, let alone shoot one, let alone as expertly as this...

Imagine if, for example, the "sickness" that Rousseau described in prior seasons wasn't in her colleagues, but in her? And that it was some kind of "possession"/"claiming"... And with Rousseau's obvious death, it had to find another consciousness to inhabit... and found Claire.

'Cos there was something not right with Claire since the attack on Dharmaville in The Shape of Things to Come. Even if the entity that "claimed" them could reanimate the dead, it would probably be too conspicuous to bring Rousseau back to life. But Claire... trapped under the debris, not see to be dead. Well, there's an obvious candidate. I dunno, it may be a mile off of what's really the case...

The "not-crash" timeline is getting more and more intriguing; the sudden thought of the name "Aaron" is interesting. There's talk that there's some bleed through in the time lines, and this is one of those occasions. Also, remember that there's no way this "not-crash" timeline is a mere interesting diversion. It's fundamentally important to the story is some way that's yet to be revealed.

Fanzines

I will have something interesting to say about fanzines soon. Both about the old, and the new... Two hints;

1 - it makes me want to shout.

2 - September's not so far away.

Ah... cryptic. : )

Anyhow, must get back to playing Desktop Defender. I tell you, it's like crack...

"...it only ends once; anything that happens before that is just progress..."

In my last post, I commented on how Heroes really doesn't know how to do end of season episodes... they could do well to take a few hints from Lost which, conversely, does end of season episodes brilliantly. The Incident, the two part finale to Season 5, does not disappoint. 

Oh, where to begin, though... 

...the beginning. And at long last we get our first, genuine, look at the elusive Jacob. Here he engages in a conversation with another, un-named, chap, who appears to be his rival, and we learn that all the people who come to the island are there because of Jacob. He brings them there. In the specific case at the start of tthe episode, we see a boat - presumably The Black Rock - appraoch the island. In an echo of the Ben/Widmore conversation from season 4, it seems that the other chap - already dubbed MaybEsau on the interweb (Biblical reference...) - can't kill Jacob unless he finds a "loophole"... 

Intriguing is that Jacob is another ageless character (the first being Richard who says "I'm this way because of Jacob") who essentially looks the same in the Black Rock times, as the 70s, and through on in to 2007. He visits (and in each visit touches) various of the castaways. Kate, whilst shoplifting; Sawyer at his parents' funeral; Jack just after the operation on his wife; Sun and Jin at their wedding (the only time this season we see the two characters together); Sayid just before Nadia dies; Hurley, to get him on A316; and most  intriguingly Locke just after his plunge from 8 floors up... he is unconscious to start with, and when he gets Jacob's touch he wakes up. There has been much talk in the past of how someone or something had been manipulating the 815ers in order to get them on the island, and now it seems that we have this person. How exactly all this works... well, that remains to be seen.

Anyhow... as per recent times we have two parallel story thread; 1977 and 2007. 2007 concerns Locke's plan to meet, and get Ben to kill, Jacob. As well as this Ilana and Bram have a mysterious box with something interesting in it. "Terrific" says Frank as he is shown in it... As ever, we're kept waiting for the answer...

... which comes quite quickly. As Ben and Locke enter the room under what's left of the statue, we get probably the biggest shock of the episode. In the box is Locke's corpse. Now, it's a skill that a show can pull the same trick in two consecutive finales and still make it work... and work it does... 'cos if that's Locke in the box, who exactly has been walking around the island since the A316 crash...? We soon learn when Ben and notLocke meet Jacob. He talks of a loophole, and is clearly, somehow, the same person Jacob was talking to in the opening scene of the episode. But, again, how does it work? If we take it there are these two forces on the Island, Jacob and MaybEsau, which is for good and which for evil? And how are they connected? We've seen various other dead people appear on the island - Christian, Yemi, Alex, etc - are they all some manifestation of MaybEsau? When notAlex told Ben to do everything notLocke commanded was this because they were one and the same entity? Is this other entity the smoke monster?

Still, whatever, Ben does exactly as notLocke commands and kills Jacob. Or does he? They make a great play of the stabbing, and how when he's down he's kicked on to the fire, and catches fire. As if to somehow intend to be saying "he's not only merely dead, he's really most sincerely dead". So, I think we'll be seeing Jacob again next season...

Meanwhile in 1977 things are going as expected. Faraday's previous dictum, "whatever happened, happened" is once more evident. Whatever the 815ers do, the Incident will happen, and indeed it does. We get to see how Pierre Chang loses his arm. There's huge wodges of electromagnetism, the bomb is dropped... and doesn't go off. All sorts of metal things go rushing in to the drill pit... including some chains which wrap around Juliet who plunges down to what looks like certain death. There have been some comments that the way how Juliet is pulled down the hole is similar to how Smokey pulled Locke down a hole in Season 1. There's even a school of though that suggests that this incident is what leads to the creation of Smokey, and that Juliet is somehow turned in to it. Still. I think it's a load of baloney... 

And then we get to see Juliet, down in the pit. Still clinging to life. She bashes the bomb with a rock. It goes off and we fade to white. Black text "lost" on a white background. And we scream "NO YOU UTTER SWINES, YOU CANNOT END IT THERE!!!" at the television. This is the mark of a wonderful finale. It built the tension up wonderfully throughout to a - literally - explosive ending. And all the events occurring followed logically on from each other (unlike the Sylar/Nathan thing in Heroes), which makes it ever more satisfying. That we also got to see some key moments in the characters' hirstories - Sawyer starting to write his letter, Jack counting to five to let the fear out for the first time - was the icing on the cake. Just wonderful.

We now have an agonising wait until February next year for the final season. Those last 17 episodes. It's going to be a long wait, and I kind of want to be even more spoiler-phobic about these episodes. I've long since disliked spoilers, but haven't minded teasers, but I think for the final season coming to not even look at casting lists. As soon as they announce the regulars for the next season, and early guest casts it'll be obvious if Jacob, or Juliet, are actually dead or not. And, really, I don't want to accidentally find out the final ending before I see it on the telly. I may, for the duration of Season 6, go to almost complete internet exile. We'll see.

Still, if the accuracy of some of the "spoilers" for this finale are anything to go by, it won't matter as they'll pretty much all be baloney. Such as:

• Sawyer sacrificing himself for the greater good at some point during the incident. (Can you imagine the outrage if ol' shirtless were killed off and not be in Season 6?)
• A scene some time in the future whereby we see Aaron and Ji Yeon in their twenties getting married. (Which actually turned out to be a flachback to Sun & Jin's wedding...)
• An aged Jin, 30 years older, emerging from beneath the statue and being reunited with Sun. (Total tottenham...!!!)

I could list more, but... 

Still, it's going to be very interesting to see where they go from here. It's very hard to see what's going to happen next. According to Damon Lindelof, once you've seen the season 5 finale and the season 6 opener you will have enough information to hypothesise how the show will end. This is again another reason why I'm kind of wanting to avoid, at least Lost places on, the internet in the approach to Season 6. 'Cos someone will work it out, and whilst it will be mere speculation, I just don't want to know it. I want to work things out myself. Maybe the only Lost place I'll go is Lostpedia as they are very good about ensuring spoilers are not shown. We'll see. 

So, 17 to go. The last season. Let's just hope it doesn't go all Babylon 5...

As a coda to this post; one of the finest moments in the whole episode is the Rose & Bernard scene. The world and his lobster has wanted to see them again since they were last seen just before the time jumps started. It's a truly touching moment; the pair of them are clearly at peace with themselves, and are living a great life on the island. "We just care about being together; that's all that matters in the end" Bernard says. They're clearly unbothered by the hostiles; I can't imagine they do not know they are there. Maybe the hostiles realised that the pair of them want to live in harmony with the island, not exploit it, and are happy to leave them alone. It only ever appears to be those who wish to harm, or exploit, the island that the hostiles are... er... hostile to. The way the scene is played, I can't help but think this may be the last time we see the pair of them.

"...that hurt..."

Strewth. Heroes really can't do Season finales properly, can it? The end of Season 3 is really only the second "proper" season finale they've had (let's not forget that the "end" of Season 2 was only meant to be the mid-point of the season; and, ironically, ended up being the best "finale"). Season 1 had it's somewhat anticlimactic fight at the Kirby Plaza; blink and you almost missed it. Which was a shame, as everything up until that point was pretty much superb. But, in terms of massive suckiness, it pales in comparison to the guff that is the Season 3 finale...

...oh, and I suppose I should interject here and state the blimmin' obvious; from this point on there are massive spoilers. Oh, and later on I'll be talking Lost episode 100, The Variable, and there will be massive spoilers there, too...

...so, of you've not seen them, don't read on...

...again, to start with it was going so well. Ever since Bryan Fuller came back, the show has really got back on track (even if that did mean one of the better characters, Daphne, being killed off in order that Janice could make a comeback). So, high hopes for the finale. And it started off so well; a great deal of tension being built up, with a great sense of danger that someone would be killed. Sadly, the lack of budget showed in a couple of places, most notably the Peter & Nathan vs Sylar fight which consisted of a bit of blue light shining through a door. Hmm... but we'll forgive them this one. Clearly the big Peter vs Sylar fight we've been leading up to since Season 1 is still to come.

Then we get the episodes big shock moment; Sylar slitting Nathan's throat and killing him dead. I mean, proper dead. Ange even says he's dead. Dead is dead is dead. And suddenly you think Sylar's going to win; he's going to get to the President and bosh...

...and there he is in the car with the Pres. But we get the biggest "YES!" punch-the-air moment as he turns in to Peter who injects Sylar with a trank. Beaten by his own game, with the powers Peter presumably took from him in the fight earlier. But before you know it... here comes the utter wank moment. The bit where, after crafting a wonderful work of art you think that the best thing you can do with it is to put it on the floor, drop your trousers and do a big shit on it. They turn Sylar in to Nathan...

...somehow, Matt is able to force Sylar to change his appearance in to Nathan (well, he did have the shape shifting powers), supress all Sylar's memories, and keep only the memories of Nathan that Sylar acquired by using the "touch an object and get memories" power... So, Sylar - to all intents and purposes - becomes Nathan. *sigh* Bunch of utter wank. And why didn't they inject Nathan's corpse with Claire's blood? It cured him before. It cured Noah when he'd been shot in the brain. Surely rather than go through all that bollocks with Sylar, that should have been the first thing they tried. It's not as if she'd have said "no". I mean, the guy's her bio-dad and all... 

Anyhow, this Nathan/Sylar malarkey is, of course, going to lead to a most predictable plot (and one which any buffoon could see coming even before the teaser with Nathan and the clock) whereby Sylar will internally fight Nathan for control of the body. A Jekyll and Hyde kind of plot...

Far more interesting is whatever will happen to Hiro now? And how come Tracy can now turn in to water...? Also, it's a shame Greg Beeman's no longer on the show; his blog, with all sorts of behind the scenes chat, and photos and so on was an essential visit every week... 

Much better this week was episode 100 of Lost, entitled The Variable. At last we got to see Daniel again, who had been absent since the first episode since they on-island Losties ended up in 1974. There was another unsurprising reveal that his mum is Eloise Hawking, also that she was the "Ellie" in the Jughead episode, also that his dad is Charles Widmore. All things that had been guessed quite some time ago. Still, it was good to see them confirmed. 

In his time off island, Daniel's clearly come to think that his previous hypothesis that "whatever happened, happened" may be flawed; he thinks that the Losties can change the past as they are the variables in the equation. The people that are not constants... now it does seem to me that this new hypothesis is the flawed one. They were always clearly meant to be there. Whatever things they do in 1977 have already happened (from the perspective of the time frame of the crash and Oceanic 6 etc), so whatever they do to try to change things is doomed to failure as everything will happen as it always did. 

This is best illustrated by the episodes big shock moment. Daniel getting a bullet in the chest and dying. Killed by his own mother (though, before she ever conceived him... time travel, don't you just love it...). Every action Eloise has made subsequent to shooting him was made with the knowledge that at some day in the future she would have a son, that he would do certain things, that he would be a scientist, go to the island, go back in time, and one day in 1977 be shot dead. There was nothing she, or even Charles, could do to stop this. It has happened. It will happen again. "All this has happened before and will happen again" was a phrase that cropped up again in Battlestar Galactica, but really it's far more appropriate for Lost. As the show moves towards the season finale, and the Incident it's clear that whatever Jack et al do in 1977 to stop the Incident occurring, it will happen. Their actions or inactions will cause it. 

One thing comes to mind though; there's the video of Dr Chang recording a message in 1977 (age of the baby Miles means it can't be any earlier), and the camerman of this is thought to be Daniel (his voice is heard). So, when was this recorded? 

What's left of the Season is going to be very interesting. It's still hard to see exactly how those on the Ajira flight will connect with the 1977 characters, or indeed what they're doing there. Ilana and Bram are the most intriguing as they are clearly there for a reason, but what is that reason? And will we get that Sun and Jin reunion this season? 

"...and a happy new year; let's hope it's a good one..."

I guess it's a tradition, or an old charter, or something that everyone doing a blog should do a post reviewing the previous year. So this be mine.

The year started with the US writers' strike in full flow. This had a massive impact on pretty much every TV show, and meant truncated seasons, postponed episodes, and even in some cases shows being axed. My initial assessment that Heroes would be the show that suffered least proved somewhat wrong. The theory went that as Volume 2 was going to be the first 11 episodes of Season 2, and these 11 episodes were completed that this would merely mean Volume 3 was delayed. However, when they made V2 Ep11, they completely reshot the ending, ensuring the Volume 3 we had was completely different from that which was initally intended. Then, when Volume 3 did arrive, as good as it was there were some rather strong feelings of deja-vu with many re-treads of previously well worn ground. On top of that, there was some really quite bad continuity flubs (most notably the Sylar & Elle flashback). 

Lost probably suffered least in that its fourth season was truncated by just 2 episodes, from 16 to 14, and these removed episodes will be added to Seasons 5 & 6. It also happened that Season 4 of Lost was the best telly all year. This season managed to answer questions, and heap on more layers of mystery, and managed to do both seamlessly and without appearing forced. The new characters - the freighter folk - slotted in really well, and now it's as if they've been there all along. Michael Emerson deserves special mention for his performance as Ben. He's really been through the wringer this season, and he always makes for compelling watching. The scene where Keamy is holding Alex, Ben's adoptive daughter, hostage with a gun to her head is on the face of it a typical "Ben in a problem" scene. You know he'll find a way out of the predicament, save Alex and whup Keamy's arse... It's what he does. As he later says to Locke; "Don't you ever learn, John, I always have a plan." But then it all goes wrong, and Keamy shoots her, at point blank range, in the head... We then cut to a shot of Ben, shocked, stunned, thinking. The expression on his face... oh, it says more than any line of dialogue ever could. 

BSG had only ten episodes of its final, fourth, season shown, and really it wasn't that great for the most part. Early episodes trundled on by, and frankly had I been watching Season 1 of a show, rather than its last, I would have stopped watching. This is the main trouble with BSG; it's a show of extremes. Episodes like 33, and the New Caprica episodes, and Pegasus are wonderful slices of telly. But there are also depths like most of Season 4 thus far. It just seemed to meander along, and it wasn't until the last three episodes where it finally kicked in to gear... leading to one of the biggest surprises, the arrival on Earth. Now, everyone thought that would be in the very last episode. But, no, ten more to go. Question is, will these last ten be a high or a low...? And who is the twelfth Cylon? It's either someone dead, or someone on that Cylon ship right near the end of the last run...

Doctor Who had another great run of episodes. The new Davros was performed really well (although he does make my three year old daughter fall to the floor in spasms of laughter every time she sees him), and the big finale this year was essentially a celebration of Russell T Davies' Greatest Hits. But the best episode this year was Midnight, which was more or less a ghost story set in a single room. It was spooky, atmospheric, and kept you guessing until the very end. And even then it didn't really explain what the monster was... just wonderful. 

Other random TV bits:

• Diana should clearly have won the X-Factor. Cloth eared buffoons.
• Knight Rider came back, and it was as cheesy as ever.
• John Sergeant shouldn't have quit Strictly Come Dancing, and Rachel should have won.
• Stefan Dennis remains the best thing in Neighbours. 

Possibly the most surprising thing to happen this year was Guns 'n' Roses releasing their much awaited album, Chinese Democracy. The only other thing that was possibly so surprising was that it turned out to be a damn good album. It had been something like 14-15 years in the making so should have been a complete mess, but in the end it turned out really well, and is probably the second best of the four proper GNR albums. It started with a siren, a warning almost; and the first time we hear Axl's voice he is literally screaming. It's great. It's a damn fine collection of songs, with a couple more potential singles on there. It's really much better than anyone could have hoped for. If rumours are true there is a chance of a GNR tour next year... but with most of the original line up together again. Including Slash. But I'll believe it when I see them walk out on stage.

Another band returning after a long absence was Even As We Speak who performed a one-off gig earlier in the year. To see them was a truly great sight to behold. They even had Shelley/Orlando's Tim Chipping filling in for absent members. One of the very best performances I have ever seen was at the start of the gig when Mary did a few songs on her own, accompanied only by her guitar. The performance she did of Bizarre Love Triangle was so perfectly judged, with an eerie haunting voice... just bliss, sheer bliss. 

More tomorrow...