What Do I Do Now?

Over the next 2 days, my 2 favorite TV shows of the year and of the last several years are coming to an end. I haven't been at such a crossroads in my life since they cancelled Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars in the same season a few years back.

Tonight Lost ends. The thing I love about Lost is that its so different. There's never really been a TV show like it. They've tried to reproduce it's success with various shows over the last few years and they always fizzle out. The beauty of the show is that they took the first year to introduce each character by devoting an entire episode to them. The characters were unique and fascinating. As they introduce them, they started weaving a complicated mythology into the show. The beauty of the mythology is that they never really give you answers. They make you think you're getting the answers because they're showing you things you've always wondered about, but they never actually reveal any truths. And if they actually do, 20 other questions pop up. They never catered to the people that stopped watching because they weren't getting answers (i.e. the dumb ones). It always stayed unique and original and that's why I love Lost.

Tomorrow night, 24 ends. While Lost changed TV 6 years ago, 24 did it 8 years ago (actually 9 including the one year it wasn't on due to the writer's strike). They made a show in real time in which each episode represents one hour in a certain crazy day. This had never been done before either. I don't know if I've ever seen a show that made my heart race as much as 24. Where I literally cheered on the hero (and Tony Almaeda when he rescued the hero). That hero is Jack Bauer, possibly the coolest character ever created. He cut off a man's head! He shot a man's wife to get information from the man (later done in the movie Taken)! This season he killed a guy with an axe to the chest! I'm sorry to see the show go, especially because it's having one of its best years ever. This season has been full of surprises and is still as exciting as it ever has been. Plus Jack in full body armor attacking a ex-president's cavalcade with a semi-automatic machine gun (one of my favorite moments ever).

So goodbye Lost. Goodbye 24. I don't know what I'll do without you.