TV Report

Lost is slipping the ratings – it’s in no danger of being canceled but it’s no longer the king of Wednesday (that’s now Criminal Minds, one of those shows like NCIS and the Unit that get good ratings, but I don’t know anyone who watches them).

I’m guessing people are fed up with all the mysteries and precious few answers. I can sympathize, really. But Lost is really a victim of its own success. Things will never be as good as the first season where we initially learned about the characters through initial flashbacks (Hurley was a millionaire, Sawyer a con man, Kate was a criminal). In Locke’s first two episodes we learned he was in a wheelchair and his dad stole his kidney (more or less). This year we learn he was a pot farmer and almost shot Billie Joe from Green Day. I kinda wish they’d limit the flashbacks and just stick to advancing the plot.

Speaking of TV hits now one watches, I caught an episode of Close to Home last Saturday night. For those don’t know, CTH is a lawyer show (featuring the vacant Jennifer Branigan as Annabeth Chase (groan)) set in Indianapolis that I guess deals with shocking crimes (you know, that hit close to home). They episode I watched concerned the murder of a woman who was about to get married. She and her husband had agreed to remain virgins until marriage, but she was actually married years before, and her ex-husband was in town. Apparently they had sex and he strangled her. He said it was consensual and she liked it rough, and the woman’s future husband shot him in court before he could testify. Then we learned the future husband actually hired the ex-husband to kill his future wife because he found out she wasn’t a virgin. It was like Law and Order: SVU without the interesting characters or compelling plot (by the way, my favorite SVU plot from last year involved a woman who drugged men with GHB, then stuck a cattle prod up their ass to harvest and sell their sperm. Wholesome!).

I had to laugh at the DA, who was a total rip off of Fred Dalton from Law and Order. I guess they kicked him off and replaced him with the dude from JAG to attract younger viewers. Sheesh. Why am I talking about this show?

Criminal Intent has been pretty solid the past few weeks. They’ve made changes (CSI-like camera effects, no more “chung chung” noise, more graphic violence), none of which are for the better, but it’s not like it’s killing the show. I don’t mind Julianne Nicholson either, and I’m warming up to Eric Bogosian. Ratings are up too, but that may change when House returns.