The series finale of 24 had a lot of good points. Here are some my thoughts, in bullet point format:

• How great is Cherry Jones as President Allison Taylor? That woman can show emotion and the pains of being a national and global leader better than any other President that they’ve had on 24 to date. If they make a movie, I hope that she makes the cut to play the President.
• The confrontation between President Taylor and Dalia Hassan (played expertly, brilliantly even by Necar Zadegan) was one of the most emotion-packed, skillfully performed scenes on television during the entire spring season on any channel. This was the scene where President Taylor threatened to bomb the IRK into the stone age if Hassan didn’t sign the peace treaty later in the afternoon. Amazing, amazing work by these two extremely talented actresses. Brilliant.
• Oh, by the way, can anyone play the hateful, scorned woman better than Zadegan? Absolutely amazing performance. When she snapped at President Taylor that there was nothing else to say after the Russian President arrived, you could almost feel the thought of, “You filthy bitch,” ingrained in her words. That’s hatred right there!
• And what can you say about Kiefer Sutherland’s performance as Jack Bauer? Not only was be great on tonight’s series finale, but he played the most convincing anti-terrorist, patriotic American that I’ve ever seen on television. Sutherland should rest easy knowing that he has single-handedly created and dominated the anti-terrorist character that all future anti-terrorist characters will be measured up against.
• How surreal was the end of the first hour of the finale when Jack put a sleeper hold on Chloe O’Brian (performed by Mary Lynn Rajskub) and knocked her out? Of course, Chloe got her revenge by blasting Bauer in the upper chest before the CTU team came in.
• And I don’t know about you, but how great is Gregory Itzin at playing the weasel of the show, former President Charles Logan? That’s some good, scumbag acting right there!
• If I had to choose one person that made tonight’s series finale better than could have been expected, it has to be Cherry Jones. She slightly beats out the great performances put on by Necar Zadegan and Gregory Itzin. Absolutely wonderful job tonight. The way that you could see every emotion on President Taylor’s face throughout the show was a marvelous job.

Talk about a powerful final half hour of television. Between President Taylor’s withdrawal from the peace agreement, Charles Logan killing his assistant and then popping himself in the head, and Jack Bauer getting ambushed and kidnapped and then ultimately set free by President Taylor and Chloe – what more could you have asked for in an action-packed finale?! In fact, this finale was so packed full of storyline arcs and action that the two hours seemed to fly by in no time whatsoever.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that FOX deserves kudos for not piling on billions of commercials during tonight’s finale like ABC Television did with the LOST finale last night. Putting aside any differences that I have with the FOX Broadcasting Company (like the fact that they cancel shows too quickly – Family Guy or Arrested Development, anyone?), they do know how to create a good and proper send off for their shows once they’ve reached the end of their road. And part of that proper send off is not insulting the fans of the show with an inordinate amount of commercials.

Good job, FOX.

One of the last things that I want to say about this, the final season of 24, is how great of an impact the secondary characters had on this season’s show. Not only were regulars like Itzen and Rajskub excellent at their roles, but the introduction of Katee Sackhoff of Battlestar Galactica fame and Freddie Prinze, Jr. of preteen movies fame made great additions to the regular cast. And so did John Boyd as Arlo Glass. The one thing that you can always say about the folks at FOX is that when they’re looking for a computer nerd to fill in a seat at CTU, they know how to find the people with the right look for the job!

Another parting thought – as I said after last night’s LOST finale, I’m glad that this show is over because now I get an hour back in my life each week! Amen! Finally, any coincidence that 24 ended on May…twenty-fourth?! Ah, maybe that’s just the leftovers of last night’s LOST series finale! Anyway, what did you think of tonight’s series finale of 24? Good? Bad? Indifferent? Feel free to post your comments on the show!

This is what I think happened – let me know what you think…

Desmond uncorked the cork where the light was at the center of the island, thus allowing an opening for The Man in Black (Smoke Monster, Fake Locke, Evil, etc) to escape the island. Oh, and uncorking the cork also brought about the self-destruction of the island. Go figure. I think, however, that the uncorking of that cork also allowed for The Man in Black’s powers to go away and thus Kate was able to kill him and Jack was able to kick him down the side of the cliff and…splat.

Jack, Hurley, and Ben decide that they’re staying on the island while Lapidus (he’s not dead!), Sawyer, Claire, Miles, Kate, and Richard (who no longer has the gift of invincibility thanks to the uncorking) get out of Dodge on the Ajira plane, so to speak. Jack struggles to get back to the center of the island, is lowered down the hole by Hurley and Ben, hitches Desmond back to the rope to be lifted out of the hole, and recorks the island’s light hole. How weird does that sound, huh? Jack recorked the island’s light hole? It sounds like it’s a weird type of insult almost, like, “Shut up you light hole!”

But I digress…

Over in the sideways world, each of the castaways has a realization that they had an entirely different life on the island. As they each figure this out, they know that they have to go to the Church that was featured a few seasons ago when Jack was trying to go back to the island (remember the big swinging pendulum thing with Eloise Hawking?).

As everyone gathers, Jack is among the last to realize that there is a sideways world (more on that in a minute) and has to be convinced first by Kate and then, eventually, by his dead father. At this point, Jack realizes that he can see and talk to his Dad because he, too, is dead. Christian goes on to confirm to Jack that the reason why everyone was there in the Church was because they’re all dead, too. When Jack starts to talk about the timing of all of this death, Christian tells him that where they are there is no “time.” Silly thought on Jack’s part, I guess. Christian suggests that they’re all there because they all needed each other and that Jack needed them. Jack asks his father where they are going and he says that they should go into the Church and find out…so they do. Then there’s lots of hugging and remembering (albeit in a montage type of cut, so all you get to hear is music) and Christian walks to the back of the Church after everyone sits down. He opens the doors and a bright white light comes filling the room, engulfing everyone as they all begin to smile. And so we’re left with the thought that Jack and the gang must have been in some type of purgatory because they were engulfed by the white light and are now in heaven (or will eventually go to heaven when they die).

Does that make sense?

This idea is furthered by the final scenes of the series where Jack stumbles back to the place among the bamboo shoots where he woke up after Oceanic flight 815 crashed. In fact, the dog even comes back over and licks him a bit before laying down as Jack smiles and tries to force out a laugh. Then, right before he closes his eyes for the last time and dies, he sees a plane flying overhead. Is this the Ajira plane or the Oceanic 815 plane making it successfully across the island? Who the hell knows, but I have to assume that it’s the Ajira plane. Then, as the credits roll through the bottom of the screen, we see images of the Oceanic 815 flight all torn up on the beach. I’m assuming that the production people just wanted to create a nostalgia effect and sort of tip their hats to the diehard fans of the series that all began when that plane hit that beach.

I’m not entirely sure…

Other random thoughts about last night’s LOST series finale:

• Could they have put any more commercials in these two hours? Good grief! Thank God I had a book I was reading so I could mute during the commercial breaks.
• Though I was glad to see that Lapidus was still alive, I’m not satisfied with the resolution of the Charles Widmore storyline. Frankly, it was unacceptable to have him shot in the penultimate episode.
• What, exactly, did Ben have to finish up in purgatory before he went to the other side?
• I believe that the key to understanding all of this is understanding the timing of everything. The timing is everything…
• No resolution on Walt’s supposed magical powers? Anyone remember that stuff from the first season?
• Jimmy Kimmel Live was awesome. Jimmy did a great job with his interpretation of the series finale and I agree with his idea that when the sideways Jack felt the turbulence on the plane, that was when he died on the island and passed over into purgatory (to the plane). And I also agree with his idea that this series – LOST – was the story of Jack’s life, his trials and tribulations, and his eventual redemption and acceptance into heaven.
• How funny were the Target commercials that advertised smoke detectors by using the Smoke Monster? Made me laugh out loud when I saw it the first time.

A final note on the timing before I ask you guys for your impressions of the finale, if you have any. Remember that Hurley became the new protector of the island and that Ben was his second in command. Then, as Locke goes into the Church, Hurley pops out and tells Ben (who is sitting outside on a bench) that everyone is inside and he should come in. Ben declines and then says that Hurley was a great number one. Hurley thanks him and says that Ben was a great number two. There is a mutual appreciation and affection there that was not played out during this series. I think that this is the key to understanding Christian’s statement that there is no “now” and that everyone who was present at the Church was there because Jack needed them and they needed Jack.

Two final subnotes on this issue and then I’m done, really. First, Hurley and Ben clearly had a long-time together on the island for them to appreciate each other’s contributions as a number one and number two. So, while the story of LOST has come to an end, there is clearly more that goes on without us realizing it in what we saw in the last six seasons. Second, I think that Christian’s statement that everyone who was in the Church was also dead is, on its face, misleading. He could have just said that these people are here because Jack needed them and they needed Jack and that some are already dead and some have yet to die. In other words, if someone was in that Church then they’re going to be dead at some point if they’re not already (which is a bit of an annoying part of the story since, technically, anyone in the world could have been in that room if you believe that logic).

Anyway, what do you think? Did I miss anything crucial to the story? Hey, who else is excited that they get this hour of their lives back every week?!

Smallville
I’m a big Smallville fan, but I’m not a fan of how they break up the seasons each year. This year they went from January to the end of February, took off for March, and then started up again in April. What’s the point in doing that? It doesn’t make any sense? Anyway, I like the way that Smallville is trying to focus more on the actual comic book relationship to the series and less on the stupid, cheesy storylines. The more that they move in that direction, then the better and brighter this show’s ratings future becomes. Speaking of ratings, Smallville is one of those shows that gets a big bump each week thanks to people who DVR the show and watch within 7 days of the recording. Just goes to show you how new technology helps to keep good shows on the air!

Lost
I was talking to my Mom the other day and I said that the first season of Lost will probably go down as the best single season of a show in the history of television. That show had people riveted to its every move and plot twist – watching the show was actually fun! These days, though, while I like that we’re only a few episodes away from the grand finale, I’m annoyed that there is no possible way for the writers to address every single storyline and loose end before the show goes off the air.

So, while the first season of this show will probably go down in history as the best season of television ever, the last few seasons have to go down in history as a major disappointment. And how do you kill off Sun, Jin, and Sayeed? Good grief…

Fringe
I love it. This show is amazing. The idea that there is another universe that parallels our own should be enough to make any science fiction nerd happy. But showing that alternate universe and the relationship that it has with our own is what Fringe does best. Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, and John Noble are out of this world (pardon the pun) in terms of their performances. A better cast couldn’t have been assembled for this show. My only concern about the future of this show is that it was created by and is currently executive produced by J.J. Abrams. Why might this be a problem? Well, Abrams created Lost and, well, see my review above…

24
On the one hand, it’s sad to see Jack Bauer and Chloe Sullivan canceled after this season, but on the other hand I think that this is the best thing for the show. In reality, there is only so much that you can do in terms of terror plots that have to cover 24 separate episodes. If I’m not mistaken it has already been confirmed that there is a 24 movie in the works, so that’s good news.

This season, I was shocked that they showed the aftermath of the assassination of Omar Hassan (played by the guy who was the game show host in Slumdog Millionaire). That made for some shocking entertainment television. I was also surprised that they killed off Renee Walker right after she and Bauer began a romantic relationship – I didn’t see that coming. However, I was glad to see good old Kara Thrace (the character’s name in Battlestar Galactica) a.k.a. Dana Walsh (real name Katee Sackhoff) added as a member of the cast. Okay, sure, she winds up being a bad guy and a mole for the Russians, but she’s one hell of an actress.

TNA iMPACT!
Well, if you know me then you know that I’m a wrestling fan. Sure, I’m not as big of a fan as I used to be and I don’t regularly watch the shows (thank God for DVRs), but I still get some enjoyment out of the “male soap operas” that are professional wrestling shows. For a variety of reasons, I’m not really interested in watching WWE any more. Not only has the show fallen to a PG rating (and thus puts out a product a bit below my age group), but I’m sick and tired of seeing some of the same people over and over again (Triple H comes to mind).

TNA, on the other hand, is showcasing some pretty great talent in Abyss and A.J. Styles. They’re also bringing us Desmond Wolfe, D’Angelo Dinero, Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy, and any other number of great performers that are getting to rub elbows with wrestling legends Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair in on-camera appearances. For that reason alone I enjoy watching TNA’s flagship show iMPACT! However, if you actually sit down and watch the show for what it is – as a fan of sports entertainment – you really see how entertaining the overall product can be. TNA recently decided to retreat to Thursday nights after trying to take on WWE’s Monday Night RAW head-to-head. TNA is really still pretty young and the move to Monday nights was pretty ill-conceived, but I’m glad that they listened to their fans and moved the show back where they wanted it – on Thursday nights on Spike TV!

V
I like this show. In fact, sitting through Lost is made more palatable because I know that after the show is over I get to see the actress who played Juliet as one of the main characters on V. The concept behind this show is interesting – aliens that look and talk like humans have come to earth in these spaceships and they are offering all of these great technological advances in the name of peace. Sounds great, right? Meanwhile, the aliens are really these reptile creatures that have the sole intent of invading the earth and destroy its people. In fact, a fleet of enemy ships are on their way to earth and no one knows about it!

There is a certain overall feeling of hopelessness with sporadic glimmers of hope throughout this show that reminds me a lot of the Battlestar Galactica series. All of the actors on this show put out great performances and it really is a good show to watch if you’re into the science fiction stuff.

Caprica
This is another show that was stopped mid-season by the SyFy Channel for a break. Why do these channels do this to upstart shows? What’s the purpose? Caprica aired its mid-season finale on March 23rd and the word going around is that there won’t be any more new episodes until the fall. The fall?! Really? What’s the point in that?!

Other than the dumb break in the season, this show is actually pretty good. I think that it needed some time to find itself after the first few episodes and it did. The only carryover character (not counting the Cylons) from the Battlestar Galactica series is Admiral William Adama, though Adama is a young boy in Caprica. At one point, Battlestar Galactica was the best show on television, bar none. I think that if Caprica is given the right room to grow into itself, it can easily become one of the top shows on cable television and probably compete with the network stations for audience.

The story thus far is pretty compelling. A genius scientist and a rugged attorney each lose their daughters in a train explosion set off by a religious separatist group claiming that there is only one God and not many Gods as most people believe. As the first half of the season progresses, we find out that not only are one of the daughters actually involved in the separatist group, but that she (being a genius herself) created an avatar of herself and has it stored in an online world that her father created for entertainment purposes. In fact, once her father finds this out he is able to create an avatar of the other girl that died in the bombing and he shares that avatar with her father – the lawyer – who then becomes obsessed with finding his daughter in this online world.

That’s a trivial explanation of what’s going on and I’m obviously leaving out major plot points, but this is a good show and I hope SyFy gives it a chance.

The Biggest Loser
This is one of the best reality shows on television, if not the best reality show, period. What makes this show so great is that not only do you learn the back stories of each of the contestants, but you actually get to watch them transform themselves into a new person. Anyone who is watching this season has to be impressed with Sam and Koli’s transformations. The same for Michael.

Actually, Michael is an interesting case. He’s the biggest contestant in Biggest Loser history starting the show weighing in at 526 pounds. And here he is a full 16 weeks into the show and he’s lost 192 pounds and is weighing in at 334 pounds. Yet, that’s the weight that most people start at on the show! Quite frankly, Michael can still lose another 130 – 150 pounds before his weight loss journey is over. Imagine that for a moment. Here’s this guy on this weight loss show and he’s lost nearly 200 pounds and yet he’s only a little past the halfway point in his transformation.

Amazing.

For this reason alone, Michael is my pick to win the whole thing this season, although I think his stiffest competition may come from Ashley.

House
You want to talk about great shows? House is the best medical drama on television. Hugh Laurie plays the best crazy doctor that anyone could ask for and he really makes the show complete. Whenever I flip over to my DVR and see what I have stored up to watch, I’m always glad when there is an episode or two of House waiting for me. This is one of those shows that you can watch one time and wind up getting hooked. In fact, I even began watching some of the first season episodes online so I can catch up with all of the storylines.

This season has been good and I think I find myself enjoying the individual episodes and the individual patient storylines more than the overarching stories behind all of the main characters. Maybe I like medical dramas, I guess.

Anyway, there’s my report on what I think of this season’s television shows and how they’re progressing. What do you think about these shows?

From this point forward, I don’t think I’m going to do episode reviews of the shows any more. The show just isn’t worth carving out free time on my Wednesday night to watch it. I’ll just start catching the online replays.

This is getting repetitive and old.

How did Locke end up in the jungle? Why was Desmond naked? Why did Boon show Locke all of these weird images in the airport? What did he mean by “No, not that one,” when Locke pointed at Ben? Etc, etc, etc…

If they don’t start answering some of the original questions from the first and second seasons (what IS that monster anyway?), then I might just relegate this show to something that I MUST watch…when the show is posted to the internet.

Blech.

In the first episode we saw that the Others lived in a little suburban community in the middle of the jungle on the island. Well, where did that community go? The writers for Lost make you forget about that community in a number of ways in this episode. First, they re-introduce the Frenchwoman’s daughter, Alex, to us – even if she’s still supposed to be brainwashed by this mysterious cult of Others. Second, they put a not-so-bad relationship in the story between Kate and Sawyer, but this really isn’t the time to be talking about love on the island. Oh, and it’s completely unnatural given the situation (did we forget that these people were in a plane crash only a month ago?)…but then again I guess the entire situation is unnatural in itself.

Another way they make you forget about the tons and tons of questions that you probably have about the show is by throwing a random ending in there where Ben introduces himself, formally, to Jack. In one of the funniest moments that I’ve seen in Lost so far, Ben tells Jack that the Others have contact with the outside world and that since he’s been on the island, George Bush was re-elected and the Red Sox won the World Series. Jack starts cracking up at the thought of Boston winning the Series and Ben gets a little shocked because it’s the truth.

Quite frankly, I still don’t believe that the Red Sox won – especially when the Yankees had a 3 – 0 lead on them! But I digress…

Then Ben turns on a video and shows Jack what he’s missed in the outside world and Jack literally jumps up and watches the TV in amazement (as legions of Yankees fans around the world and I shook our heads in disbelief again at the fact that Boston won in 2004).

What I did like about this episode was that Alex was re-introduced as someone who seems to be working against the norms of the Others’ colony and apparently her boyfriend was the guy in the cage before Kate was in there. Ok. One question answered, I guess. I also liked that Ben said he had been on the island all of his life. That might be something that could answer the tons of questions that we all have about this show, like what the hell is going on here anyway and why are these Others after babies?

Oh, I thought I would just ask this one…anyone figure out why there are polar bears on the island yet? Ah – you all forgot about that, huh? There are polar bears on the island!

All in all, a decent episode. I wish it had a little more in terms of storytelling, but I’ll take Sun shooting some broad in the bottom of a boat any day of the week. Go download it off of iTunes if you missed it last night.

What I do know is that if this show doesn’t start giving real, concrete answers soon – I have better things to do on a Wednesday evening. Besides, why sit here and watch an hour-long show when I can just wait for it to come out on DVD or iTunes and not be bothered by go-nowhere episodes?

As for the season opener of Lost, I thought that they did a good job of explaining why the “Others” are on the island in the first place. But if they don’t tell us more about Ben and more about why Juliet had this book of Jack’s life, then there’s no reason to keep on watching the show. I mean we’re still waiting to know what the “monster” is on the island and just exactly what those numbers means (even though the word is that the meaning of those numbers was given away via an online “season” over the last few months).

The problem with Lost is that they are not answering existing questions and bringing resolution to issues; rather they are making us forget about questions by simply putting more questions in front of us that are slightly more intriguing. I will admit that opening Season 3 with the revelation that the Others lived in a quiet little suburbia in the middle of the island was intriguing, but what’s the deal with putting Jack in a shark tank and Kate and Sawyer in cages? I mean come on already – throw us a friggin bone!

In short, this was a good opening episode for Lost. It was very Lost-like in that it didn’t give you what you wanted to know but made you ask a lot more questions than you already were asking.

First of all, the random killing of Libby, Anna Lucia, and Michael was poorly, POORLY written. An entire season was spent developing these characters and the best that the writers could think of was to have a crazed Michael come back and shoot up the place? No creativity there whatsoever.

And on that point, I was almost glad to see Shannon go because she was just an annoyance as a character…like her brother Boon.

I think one of the most disappointing parts of the second season was that the story began to be predictable. When Echo finds his brother’s body in the plane, did you expect him to do anything else but become a preacher in his stead? When the guns are stolen by Sawyer and his undercover accomplice is Charlie, did you think it was anyone but Charlie who could have helped?

Did anyone really catch why Locke and Jack started to hate each other? Was it the fact that one believes in faith and one believes in science? Because that’s not good enough…another bad plot “twist.”

And the worst part about the new season is that you can see how it was written for commercial breaks and anti-climatic plot twists that change in the next episode. Just a lazy job overall on the part of the writers, I think.

Now some of the good things about the second season included the talk with the “others” in the middle of the field and the “are we in a crazy bin?” episode where Hurley and Libby are in the same nut house. That episode right there is worth the price of admission.

Since this is an iTunes Review, I guess I should note that both the first and second seasons were viewed via an iTunes download. The quality of these videos is superb on an iPod, but mediocre at best on a computer. But that’s ok with me – these things are made for iPods in the first place!

Overall, the second season is not as shocking as the first and takes too many unnecessary and uncreative plot twists. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

This is a great show. It’s intriguing in a way that makes you go, “huh?” And the usage of those numbers (which can’t come to my mind right now) as “evil numbers” is fantastic. I don’t know if there is any historical perspective behind that storyline, but I like the concept a lot. What’s great is that the more you watch the show and the more observant you get, the more you see those numbers all over the place! Like when Hurley is running through the airport and the girl’s soccer team is sitting there waiting for their flight – you only briefly notice their numbers, but when you play it back their numbers are those cursed numbers.

And the interrelation of the characters is amazing. If you go back and watch the episode where Jin is supposed to teach his Father-in-Law’s associate “a lesson,” you’ll notice that when he enters the associate’s house – the guy’s daughter is watching Hurley talking about the lottery on TV! I just find it all amazing – really some great writing.

I think Boon’s death was probably premature and could have most likely been avoided. The whole idea that Locke is pushing about the island needing a sacrafice – eh, that might have been a blip in the otherwise awesome storylines of the first season. Maybe it’ll play out better in the second season.

And Charlie is just an excellent character. He did such an amazing job as a hobbit in the Lord of the Rings that I thought he might have run the risk of being type-casted as a children’s actor. But he’s shattered that notion and done an amazing job at it as well. The whole heroin addiction and the discovery of heroin on the island is an interesting storyline that I hope they play out in the second season. By the way, I should mention that I’ve already begun watching the second season and that there is some really great stuff going on so far!

The casting of Terry O’Quinn as John Locke is just perfect. Someone should get an award for putting him in that spot…and he should get an award for playing that role absolutely perfectly. And to whoever came up with the name John Locke – beautiful historical references – I love it! We just need to find someone named Thomas Hobbes for him to be against now…

All in all, I was completely enthralled by the first season. I watched the entire thing in about 4 days during my free time after work. I am now a big fan of the show and like I said earlier, I’m actively engaged in the second season, so I’ll have that review up as soon as possible. And remember, folks – Season 3 starts on ABC Wednesday, October 4th!