Film on TV: 24, Scrubs, American Idol, and the End of an Era

Allow me to emote.


It’s taken me a little while to digest last week’s 1-2 double whammy of Sayonara Jack – with all the buzz and backlash surrounding the end of LOST, the pseudo-demise of 24 went almost entirely overlooked. But it did indeed happen – 24’s clock clicked its final television tick last Monday, announcing the end of a decade long drama. And in its absence, I feel an intense and foreboding communal loss.

WWDMCD: LOST's Final Countdown

LOST has been limping towards the finish line these last couple weeks, speeding along in a bizarre three-legged race of island mythology, castaway survival games and Sideways World drama. Its final season has been intriguing, invigorating and occasionally frustrating, and no two-episode span better captured that than this latest one-two punch of “Across the Sea” and “What They Died For”.

As the penultimate episode in a historic series, “What They Died For” gave us some serious answers and did some serious setup. But I’d also argue they made some serious mistakes. As LOST winds down, I can’t help but feel that the great and formidable minds behind it are moving to the wrong beats. There isn’t enough time. There isn’t enough pull in the story. And when we DO get the motivated drama the final countdown calls for, it just doesn’t seem to hit right.

Film on TV: 24's Final Days

By now you’ve surely heard that the clock for Fox’s long running 24 will finally strike zero when its series finale airs, appropriately, on May 24th. But really this groundbreaking show has been dying a slow death for years, joining the likes of Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a franchise continuing to produce mediocre entertainment long past its prime.


It’s easy to forget when watching 24 in its current Season 8 form just how great this show really was. But a quick scan through EW.com’s “24 Timeless Moments from ‘24’” reminds you what made the adventures of Jack Bauer so special…not timeless, per se, but timely historical....