From The Trenches: Live Together, Die Alone

Can I take a segue into TV for a while? Well, it's my blog and as far as I can tell, no one's reading it, so yes, I can. We're days away from the series finale of LOST and the end of a TV era for me - let's call it the J.J. Abrams decade. My all-time favorite show is Alias, which began in 2001; just as that show was petering out, J.J. (I feel like we're on first-name terms) directed the LOST pilot in 2004. That episode ranks high in my list of best episodes ever - maybe just behind the Twin Peaks pilot at the top.

I've heard people describe the LOST pilot as "cinematic," which is true, if a little trite. For one thing, it cost $13 million - that could pay for a pretty solid movie, although it probably wouldn't have the big cast or special effects the pilot had. But I think it's more about the scope and vision of the episode. When Jack walks onto the beach and we see the crash site for the first time, it's kind of mind-blowing; there's so much going on and so many people. I had never seen anything on that scale on TV before, and I think the show has provided many more trailblazing moments through its run, thematically and visually. As for being "cinematic," I can name lots of episodes that played like mini-movies: this season's "Ab Aeterno"; "The Constant," an epic, time-traveling romance; even the lame "Expose," a twisty action/crime episode with a neat ending. But really, don't get me started on the nitpicky details of LOST. I might never stop.

Oh, Richard, I'll miss you most of all.

What I was really intending to write about was the actors, but I seem to have got a little off-track. For most of the cast, this show put them on the map 6 years ago, and the question is where to go next? There are some brilliant actors on LOST and I would be happy to watch them in anything, but it seems like the next logical step for many of them is movies. Of course, some of the later additions to the cast (Daniel, Lapidus) are established movie actors, but I can't wait to see what some of the original cast will do. It would be sad if my favorites (too many to name, but particularly Sawyer, Desmond, Richard, Locke and Ben) kind of faded into obscurity, but I'm confident that I'll be writing about them again in the near future. And yes, I will still be using their character names. I think that's something they're going to have to live with for a while.