View From the Phlipside – "Lost" finale

My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media.  TV, Radio, the movies and more.  I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this The View From thePhlipside

Once upon a time in television a TV show just ended.  The reason for that was simply because the cast and crew didn’t know when they filmed the last episode that it was going to be the last episode.  Would they get picked up for another season?  So many, many shows simply have a final episode that’s not especially different from any other episode.  Some more popular shows would know that the star was leaving or whatever and be given the chance to wrap up their story lines with a nice neat little final episode.  But that was pretty much it when it came to any fancy “end of the series” kind of thing.

I think the change really happened February 28, 1983 when the finale of M*A*S*H became the most watched television broadcast of all time.  The two and a half hour special event episode brought the 11 year run of the program to a fitting close.  When the numbers came in and the industry saw that over 121 million people watched, more than the Super Bowl, more than the legendary TV series “Roots” they decided that maybe they were onto something.  Could it happen again?  With the final season of “Lost” now under way I begin to wonder.  I don’t really believe that “Lost” will bump off “M*A*S*H” but it is raising the series finale to a whole new level.

I’ve watched “Lost” from the beginning.  Like most “Losties” (that apparently is the current name for fans of the show.  It’s deemed preferable to the other candidate which is “Losers”.  Seriously) I’ve been trying to guess where the show is going and just what exactly is going on.  I can’t say my track record is very good but let’s take a shot.

I’m fairly comfortable saying that we WON’T get a nice neat little wrap up of the story lines.  The Island just won’t permit it.  I do think most of the characters will end up going home -Sayeed, Sun and Jin , Sawyer and Kate.  I’m not so sure about Hurley or Benjamin Linus.  I think they could go either way and there’s a fair chance that Ben is going to end up dead.  What about Jack?  I think Jack will stay on the island.  Just a gut feeling.  In the end what I really think is going to happen is that in about two years we’ll see a Lost movie.  And the island is the only character we need for that.

Call that The View From the Phlipside