Questionable scheduling choices aside, The Event has all the ingredients in place to become the next must-watch-every-minute-of, endlessly-debated-in-Internet-chat-rooms, obsessively-analyzed-show in the mold of Lost. It could also end up on the infinite scrap heap of shows that promised too much, delivered too little, and confused the heck out of the viewers. After just one episode, it is too early to tell.

Really, we don’t know much yet. The pilot episode left our heads spinning with mystery piled upon mystery. Everybody knows SOMETHING, but not enough, and they aren’t sharing what they do know.

If there is a lesson that NBC can learn from the ups and downs of Lost, the show to which The Event is often compared, it is this: fans love mysteries, but we demand that some questions get answered and that the answers are credible. Early indications are that the lesson was learned. The Event Executive Producer Steve Stark has promised answers regarding the circumstances surrounding the plane (if you saw the pilot episode, you know what I’m talking about) not just in the next episode, but he stressed that we’ll know ‘early’ in the next episode.

It’s too early to anoint The Event as the successor to Lost. There is a lot of pressure on the show because of the overwhelming advertising blitz and a not-so-easy to please fan base eager for their next supernatural mystery fix. At this point, though, I can say that The Event has potential. Enough to keep us tuned in for another week, anyway.

The revelation that the ‘flash-sideways’ was a creation of the group’s collective consciousness even erased some of my qualms about the lack of coherent logic over the last season. Rather than trying to establish a logical framework, the writers cleverly eliminated the need for it. Applying what I know now retroactively to season 6, I have to take back some of my criticism over the last few months.

The final episode brought excitement, drama, and closure. It answered all my questions about the flash sideways and left me feeling satisfied. Honestly, it wasn’t until the next morning that I realized I had been hoodwinked. They answered everything I wanted to know about season 6, but left the much bigger questions unanswered. It was done so well, however, that I didn’t really care.

I don’t usually go on about acting, but the performances in the finale were just exceptional. The depth of emotion, the identifiable reality just exuded from the screen. The whole cast was fantastic, but Terry O’Quinn stood out among them all. I hope we see him again soon.

Each reunion and ‘awakening’ was more powerful than the last. My lovely wife, who has been watching with me since the very beginning, cried early and often during the final two and a half hours of the Lost saga. Every character acted consistently with the personality we’ve come to know and love/hate over the last six years.

Maybe it’s better to leave some questions unanswered. Better no answer than a weak one (like the whispering noises in the jungle). I mean, who out there wouldn’t be happier if George Lucas hadn’t used Midichlorians to explain the Force? Some things should remain a mystery.

Whatever became of Hurley and Ben on the island will forever remain a secret – although I’d love to read a novel, or series of novels, picking up where the show left off. As long as there are no Midichlorians.

1. Lost (ABC)

After six seasons, Lost is set to reveal the island’s secrets when it ends on May 23. The show has kept, lost and gained fans throughout its entire six years. Some got frustrated with all the unanswered questions and some were more curious than ever. But the true fans stayed with them even through the “boring” seasons. Find out what happens to Locke, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Jin, Sun, Sayid, Claire, Desmond and Ben.

2. The Hills (MTV)

Another show has ended after six seasons. LC, Kristin, Heidi, Audrina, Lo, Brody and Stephanie will be saying goodbye to their fans.

3. Ugly Betty (ABC)

Ugly Betty ended its four-season life on ABC last April. Betty accepted a job and moved to London. Hilda got married. Justin got a boyfriend. And Wilhelmina finally got the editor-in-chief at MODE Magazine.

4. The Cleaner (A&E)

Starring Benjamin Bratt, The Cleaner was about a recovering drug addict who helped out other people with their addictions. The series lasted two seasons and 26 episodes before ending their show on A&E.

5. Flashforward (ABC)

ABC’s supposed answer to the space Lost will be leaving a blank. The show was good (but not as good as Lost). And the most probable reason for its demise is the very long hiatus. People lost interest. The series and season ends on May 27.

6. Heroes (NBC)

After dismal ratings that never really recovered since their first season, Heroes has been cancelled. A tale of ordinary people who discover their super powers, Heroes had a great beginning. But too many characters and ludicrous stories lost a lot of viewers.

7. Jon & Kate + 8 (TLC)

After their divorce, TLC has announced that there will no longer be a Jon & Kate + 8. Instead, it will replace the show with Kate + 8.

Are your favorite shows in this list? There are still a lot of other shows that have ended, are set to end and have been cancelled during the 2009-2010 season. Are you looking forward to the new shows that will be replacing them?

So what did we get?  Answers that spawned more questions.  Incomplete answers to questions we never asked.  A new character with unexplained motives and backstory used to fill in the motives and backstory of old characters.

Jacob was a dimwitted wuss before he became, well, Jacob.  The Man in Black was a good guy, or at least a neutral guy by any measure, right up until the time his murderous liar of a fake mother beat him over the head and stole his dream away from him.  Dare I even ask why his dead real mother appeared to him and not to Jacob?  Was it his dead real mother, or was it the smoke monster disguised as his dead real mother?

Somewhere along the way, I just stopped caring.  Looking back, I think it was when the castaways who wanted to destroy the plane gave up on their plan because Hurley blew up the dynamite.  Really, they couldn’t smash all the instruments with a rock?  Wouldn’t that have achieved the same goal?  The TSA thinks I could render an airplane un-airworthy with a pair of tweezers, so I think a dozen people with GUNS, KNIVES, and ROCKS could probably get the job done without hauling 200-year-old dangerously unstable dynamite across the island.

But I digress.  Two episodes until the finale.  I was hoping against all hope that the Man in Black’s flashback episode was going to be the one, the episode that pulled me back in, that filled in the blanks and made me believe that the writers had this thing under control.

Instead, we get the answer to a minor question from Season One that was so minor I had forgotten about it.  We now know that Adam and Eve are really the Man in Black and his fake mother.  Big whoop.

Trying to find a brighter note, I guess we do now that the Man in Black isn’t really the Man in Black, but the smoke monster playing the Man in Black.  That’s something, I suppose.

Lost

ABC has got me. The show has jumped the shark for sure, but with only eight episodes left I can’t walk away now. I tune in every Tuesday with less enthusiasm than the week before. The Richard-focused episode was fairly epic, but overall the season so far has been filled with random “weird for weird’s sake” nonsense.

My biggest problem is the alternate timeline created by last season’s finale. The castaways blew up the hatch in the 1970s, therefore their plane didn’t crash in 2004. OK, got it. Their lives should be different from the moment of the plane (non)crash onward.

Kate’s life seems to be exactly the same, but now Sawyer’s a cop instead of a conman. Jack’s father’s coffin was misplaced. And oh, yeah, he has a teenage son we never heard about before. Sun and Jin aren’t married, but they are doing the nasty. Locke is married to Peg Bundy.

Even though some of their lives are now very different than before, everyone was still on the plane, except Boone’s sister Shannon, natch. Now they’re all in Los Angeles and despite the fact that there are several million people living there, our heroes can’t turn around without bumping into one of the other would-be castaways.

This week, Sun ran into a tree and bumped her head. The result: she forgot English, of course. Seriously. I’m not making this up. Wasn’t that an episode of Gilligan’s Island? Maybe next week Hurley will eat some irradiated spinach and gain super strength.

I don’t like the show anymore, but after all this time I just can’t stop watching without seeing how (if) they wrap things up. My favorite part of every episode is the end when they count down the number of episodes left until the big finale.

Lost

As much as I’m going to miss it when Jack, Sawyer, Kate and the rest sign off for good in May, I applaud the show makers for leaving on top.  This is not a show that could continue to be good for another five years.  I’m sure that ABC was willing to back dump trucks full of money up to the producers’ homes in order to keep the show on the air, but they opted to bow out with some dignity.  Good for them.

It has been nearly three quarters of a year since we last saw our heroes.  Jack and his crew had intersected recently with Sawyer and company in the 1970s.  Then Juliet blew them all up.  I think.  Man, it has been a long time.  Did Sun and Jin ever find each other?  I think he’s in the past, and she’s in the future… well, his future, our present.  Or I guess our past, too, since less time has elapsed in the show than in the real world since the series began.

Anyway, I do remember that Locke went from being cool Locke to wimpy Locke back to cool Locke, only to discover (in one of the show’s least surprising surprises) that the new cool Locke was really some immortal guy pretending to be Locke, and the real Locke who died back on the mainland stayed dead.  If that sentence made sense to you, congratulations, you’re a true Lost follower.  If not, I recommend you get the DVDs of seasons 1-4 and start watching immediately.  If you ensconce yourself in your room with a DVD player from now until Tuesday, you can be caught up in time to catch the premier of the final season this week.

Nine months is a long time.  The show is confusing enough as it is.  Add in such a long layoff and the premier promises to leave our heads spinning.  Just the way we Losties like it.

10. Modern Family
9. Lost
8. 24
7. 30 Rock
6. Mad Men
5. Damages
4. The Shield
3. Curb Your Enthusiasm
2. West Wing
1. The Sopranos

What do you think?

I don’t agree with the entire list. I’ve never liked Curb Your Enthusiasm and 24. And I believe some great shows have been omitted from the list.

My top 5 would include: (in random order)

5. Lost

Lost wasn’t quite consistent, but I guess you always gotta have the bad with the good. It was, at times, confusing, but it was meant to be confusing. The show wanted its viewers to ask questions all the time. And that’s what the viewers did. Don’t forget to tune in starting February 2010 on ABC for the last season of Lost.

4. The Office

The Office works because of its ensemble cast and its writing. It’s as zany as zany can be, but it still smacks of normalcy.

3. Glee

It’s only been on TV for a couple of months and half a season, but it’s such a great break from monotony in TV. It takes time to grow into the show, but when you have, you’ll be glad you did. It’s just so over-the-top and silly, it’s hilarious.

2. Damages

Glenn Close delivers the best performances in this show. I think Damages is truly an actors’ show because the writers have given them a lot of material to showcase their talents. But you know what I like? Their storylines border on the extreme but you never really notice.

1. Arrested Development

Come on. How can any top 10 TV show of the decade list not include Arrested Development? It was the most original, bluntest and truly absurd show on TV. It’s such a shame that a lot of people did not appreciate it and it lasted only three seasons. But we’ve got the movie to look forward to!

I don’t think I could list more than five because there are shows from this decade that are already gone that I was either not particularly fond of or never really got to watch. So, I’m passing the torch to you. What are your top 5 or top 10 shows of the decade?

Personally, I want to know so much about my favorite shows. BE CAREFUL! Major spoilers may be lurking in this area. Read at your own risk.

Gossip Girl

1. What will happen to Bass Industries?
2. What will happen to Blair and Chuck? Will they ever get together?
3. What will happen to Blair?
4. Will she still get in to Yale?
5. What else does Miss Carr have up her sleeve?
6. Will there really be a Blair-Miss Carr war?
7. Will Rufus and Lily get married this time around?
8. Are they going to find out about their son who’s actually alive?

Lost
1. Why do they have to go back to the island?
2. What is happening to the island?
3. Will they ever get out?
4. Who is Ben Linus, and why is Charles Whitmore so interested?
5. What will happen to Kate and Aaron?
6. Why did Claire leave her son to stay on the island?
7. What happened to John Locke?

Grey’s Anatomy
1. Will Derek and Meredith ever get married?
2. What will happen to Mark and Lexie?
3. Will Dr. Webber ever retire?
4. Will Dr. Bailey get it together?
5. Will George ever get another story line again?
6. Will they ever stop making ridiculous story lines for Izzie?

Ugly Betty
1. Will Betty meet another guy?
2. Is Hilda finally going to have a career of her own?
3. Will Papi get sick again?
4. Will Connor figure out about Molly and Daniel?
5. Will Daniel and Molly find out about Connor and Wilhelmina?
6. Will Mark ever get promoted?

Do you have your own questions? I’m sure you do. But the question is, will they be answered? I guess we’ll have to wait until the end of spring to find out.

Season 1 introduced us to the plane crash survivors of Oceanic flight 815. They were forced to survive on the mysterious island on which they landed and soon encountered a lot of strange events. They stumbled upon a French woman named Danielle Rousseau, who told them about the island’s mystery. They discovered a hatch, which brought more questions.

Season 2 started with the failed attempt to find rescuers through a raft the survivors made. Hope for rescue was shattered when the people they stumbled upon left them for dead and kidnapped the child of one survivor. Season 2 also showed us another side of the island, where we met more survivors of the plane crash. It also introduced us to the DHARMA Initiative when they blew up the mysterious hatch at the end of Season 1.

Season 3 started 67 days after the crash. We learned more about the survivors and the Others, the other people living on the island. The gap between the survivors and the Others widened.

Season 4 started with the arrival of the freighter Kahana, which they thought was going to rescue them, but was brought there for a different mission. The escape of the Oceanic Six became clearer.

This January, Season 5 begins and, according to creator Damon Lindelof, this season will focus on the Oceanic Six and why they need to go back.

Are you excited? I know I am.