Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
In a great many ways the world disappoints me. Virtually every day I find a new way in which I’m thoroughly disheartened by what I witness. Be it Jack Bauer crying, Laura Spencer disappearing, or Kidnapped being prematurely cancelled, the world of television is often severely upsetting. Next thing you know, CBS is going to take Barney Stinson away from me.
A very wise frog once said that life is a series of meetings and partings, that is the way of it. I think this is nowhere more true than in television. Everyone’s favorite show one season is gone the next. The producers of Lost are talking with ABC about how long the show will run so they can figure out how to wrap the story. Everyone is still very careful to say that the show will still be on for a while (after all, they have to hit that magic number of episodes in order to live forever in syndication), but it’s still seems likely that it’s going to end sooner rather than later (2 or 3 years as opposed to 7 or 8). ER of course has been on its way out for years. And, very soon, The O.C. will be done.
But, I’d rather not be a complete downer, so here’s the upside of this whole thing. If ER is taken off the air that bad taste left in your mouth after each episode will disappear. And, very importantly, The O.C. will be done.
Seriously though, that’s really all just the partings bit and I try not to look at it all that way, otherwise the disappointment would be too great. Wonderfully, and wondrously, TV is also a series of meetings and those first episodes, those first seasons, and those original characters will stay with me forever. From the first moment of John Carter’s tailored short white coat I knew that I was going to watch ER for years to come, and ever since that plane exploded in the first episode of 24 I’ve waited anxiously for Jack Bauer to save the world… again.
Old shows end up making way for new ones, and there’s always a chance that the new kid on the block will be better than the former time period occupant. There’s a great hope in the future. You naysayers out there would argue that the hope is always there, but that the reality never quite matches up to what we’d have it be.
Wow, are you a negative person, you naysayer. As an incredibly wise man once told me (okay, he told me several times): an optimist only has to be right once. Trust me on this one: the next great TV show is just around the corner. So, if you already fretting that Lost will be gone in another 3 years, or that Idol only has a few months left until it disappears for another 8 months, take this thought with you: television always has something up its sleeve. The next great TV show is just around the corner.
