Fantastic finishes (and some not so much)

NOTE: Since I'm jotting down some thoughts on season finales below, mouse over the following paragraphs to reveal the text as there will be spoilers.

Alias
I started watching Alias midway through season 1 and got hooked by the unique premise - a double agent trying to lead multiple lives as a fake bad guy actually working for the good guys, a nondescript banker to her friends, and a troubled daughter dealing with her own family issues (exemplified in her touchy relationship with her father). The missions were fun, the gadgets were cool, and there was some nice acting in the parts of Sydney and Sloane. As well, there was some puzzling and intriguing mythology on the part of an ancient fictitious scientist named Rambaldi (what with the recent fascination with Da Vinci, I figure it's only a matter of time before the legacy of the next famous artist/scientist becomes corrupted by the next writer looking to inject "history" into their story). In season 2, the emphasis on espionage lessened andmore focus was put on the family relationship between Sydney, Jack Bristow (one of three heroic Jacks in TV drama, along with Bauer and Shephard) and her long-lost mother, Irina (who was played quite well as an ambiguously evil-or-is-she-just-selfish quasi-villain). From there though, the writers seemed to realize that there was indeed no coherent, complete story arc to flesh out, and the last 3 seasons became a mishmash of new mysteries, international conspiracies, and a lot of other things that didn't make sense. We were hoping that the series finale would answer some long-standing questions and mysteries, but instead we just got to see a whole bunch of characters die and a happy ending on a beach. I guess that's the real danger of writing an ongoing TV drama - if it does well, you have to come up with fresh material, but a good story needs to have a beginning, middle, and end - if you keep on coming up with stuff on the fly, eventually things will become ludicrous. Ah well. Farewell "Alias" - it was kinda fun while it lasted, but even when the quality of the show was going down the tubes, I just couldn't quit. At least now, I've freed up another hour of my week.


Lost
Pretty good season finale. Answered some mysteries (why did the plane crash?), pretty good story and flashbacks centered around the relatively minor character of Desmond, advanced the dichotomy of Locke/Eko (they better not be dead), showed Henry as the leader of the Others, and introduced a few more clues for psycho fans to speculate on. Incidentally, at last report the Lost folks were planning to begin season 3 in January and run straight through, similar to "24", so it'll be a long wait to find out what Penelope Widmore (nice reference to Greek mythology and "The Odyssey" there) is going to do to find the island.

I wouldn't have expected "Lost" to be as popular as it is. Usually, intelligently written dramas with hints of sci-fi, mythology, and religion would just be the realm of a small cult-like fan following. Here's holding out hope that the show's popularity will enable it to retain better writers who can keep a coherent, overarching story arc over the entire lifespan of the show, without having it all fall apart like Alias did or like I understand "X-Files" did.


24
Solid finale to a solid season. While this season did quite a bit of stretching disbelief and didn't make good use of the real-time concept as much as season 1 did, I think there are currently two factors that might make this my second-favorite after season 1. First, a more streamlined story arc, with only 2 primary characters to follow (Jack/Logan) and whose stories were directly antagonistic to each other, rather than the 3-4 often unrelated lines of previous seasons (typically Jack, Palmer, Kim, villain). Second, some solid-to-great acting performances, in particular by President Logan and Martha, gave the entire season some great dramatic weight. At the very least, Itzin should garner an Emmy for his performance. I'm glad that the superweapon-o'-the-season (nerve gas) didn't occupy top billing as the great threat of the season for that many episodes - the human element made it much more interesting.

Edited to mention: I am somewhat disappointed that Henderson got killed off. He was a compelling villain, as opposed to the run-of-the-mill ones possessing various superweapons from previous seasons. The fact that he and Jack have a significant history (trained him, knows his tactics and moves) upped the ante on their interactions - Jack was no longer the most competent guy on screen by default anymore.

Now, Jack's all beat up and on his way to China. I'm thinking me, and most of my friends who are fans (who are all Asian anyway) should go try and become extras next season on "24:Prison Break:China". I could be a Chinese guard that gets his throat slit by a scared submarine engineer who's being coached by Jack.

I came across the following quotes on the message boards regarding the finale that I found hilarious:
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Next season will be like the first part of "Return of the Jedi." Chloe will arrive in Tiananmen Square in disguise, holding Aaron Pierce on a chain, holding a tiny fancy computer bomb saying "Ya-to, Ya-to..." And then Curtis will come into the Chinese premier's chambers saying, "You will bring Agent Bauer and the wookie to me..."

This would also make for a perfect opportunity to bring Chase back into the fold in the Luke Skywalker part. After all, he did get his hand chopped off.
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JACK BAUER HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED BY NINJAS
ARE YOU A BAD ENOUGH DUDE TO RESCUE JACK BAUER?
(Yes, I know Ninjas are not Chinese. But the Chinese dressed like Ninjas, so shush)
Note from Bob: this is a reference to "Bad Dudes", an old school arcade game.
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"...And poor Audrey. The typical boy-meets-girl, boy-kills-girl's-ex-husband, boy-fakes-death, boy-resurfaces-for-a-day, girl-gets-stabbed-by-boy's-mentor, boy-gets-kidnapped-by-the-Chinese story. If I've heard it once, I've heard it a million times."
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