You are indeed a smartass and have probably offended any number of people with that post!

But having to watch Lost for eternity would be the definition of Hell.

I think comparing The Fall to the utterly contrived and deliberately infuriating Lost is like comparing apples to oranges.

I am one who likes a 'closed' ending in most shows/films but there are some 'open' endings, like The Sopranos, which I think are genius and are NOT examples of laziness on the part of the writers although I do know that ending infuriated a lot of fans.

...but back to Gillian Anderson. I remember the first time I met her, one of only two occasions I have been truly starstruck. I love the personalised photos I have from her even more than her X-Files auto card I pulled from a single box.

quote:

Originally posted by X:

the utterly contrived and deliberately infuriating Lost

er, I actually liked Lost although I freely admit I only saw the first 3 series.

quote:

Originally posted by X:

...but back to Gillian Anderson. I remember the first time I met her, one of only two occasions I have been truly starstruck.

The other time was when he met me.

Do tell, "X", if it wasn't Wolfie, who was the 2nd starstriker?

I remember meeting Stephen King after a lecture he gave as a favor for a friend who ran a very small library in a VERY small town in New Mexico, where I grew up. I lived about 50 miles away, and my small town was a metropolis compared to the tiny city where the event was being held. As the esteemed Grandmaster of Horror Fiction signed my ticket to the event and a copy of the "Creepshow" comic book, and shook my hand, I remember thinking, "uh, this is going to be a pretty good memory". Thirty years later, it has been proven to be so.

I haven't seen "The Fall", so while I really wanted to read the comments above about it closely, I could only kind of skim the discussion since I do intend to see it, and with as blank a slate as possible. Same goes for "Lost", the conclusion of which I've been able to stay in the dark about somehow even now, although at this point, if I find out the end, that's really on me. There should absolutely be a statute of limitations on having to be careful with giving spoilers for shows that ended years ago. I've had time to marathon "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad", I could've watched "Lost" instead of one of those. I do have the first three seasons on DVD, so I've moved a little in the right direction on it. One of these days, haha...

I haven't seen a lot of early X-Files episodes, but I did see the last season or two and the movie, and perhaps what plagues it (and Twin Peaks and so many other mystery/conspiracy type shows) is that it's really hard to come up with a "truth" (in the case of the X-Files) that is at once meaningful and substantial AND satisfying to the longtime audiences. With any of these shrouded-in-mystery-shows that achieve a certain level of popularity, the increasing demand and anticipation of an earth-shattering "reveal" pretty much assures that when it finally comes, pretty much anything the creators have come up with will fall short of expectations that have often simply reached unreasonable levels. A perfect ending to any kind of ongoing TV series is pretty rare, but I'd say even more so for shows like "Lost" and "X-Files" where the of building, maintenance, and expansion of the mystery without revealing it are at the very heart of the show.

Sopranos I did watch religiously as it aired (no DVR or Netflix back then, at least not for me), and I always thought the ending was extremely cut-and-dried, about as clear as it could be. To me, the theme of the show echoed that of the "Godfather" movies for the entire series (which I considered an amalgam of the mythic side of "Godfather" and the humor of "Goodfellas") and that was: what good is all the power in the world if the thing you love the most, your family (either one), is always at great risk, and specifically because of your own actions? Whether there was a "hit" on Tony and/or his family that day in the diner was totally immaterial for what I think they were trying to say. What mattered was that 'dis guy can't even eat a plate o' freakin' onion rings with his wife and kids without having to worry about some or all of them being murdered pretty much every time a door opens. Some life that would be. What good is there in ruling the entire world if you lose your soul to get there (metaphorically speaking)?

I still think a prequel series to the "Sopranos" could be made. It would've been a younger actor playing Tony in that anyway, even had Gandolfini lived (may he rest in peace), or it could even focus on Tony's father, which I believe was the original discussion when the creators were in talks to do it.

Just to clarify, I'm not comparing LOST to The Fall because I haven't seen The Fall ( yet... maybe next Fall.) And I also liked LOST, but I started to feel "played" by the writers so I reserved my Wednesday nights for something less exploitive. I didn't want to spend season after season waiting to get a straight answer when it became apparent that there wasn't going to be any. They have every right to keep milking the cow for more and more, but that doesn't mean I have to keep buying it. What it all boils down to is balance, and not taking it too far just out of greed. But try telling that to Hollywood.

The trouble with posting like this is that sometimes free wheeling comments get interpreted the wrong way just because of the written word and preconceived views. Neither I nor monsterwax were comparing The Fall to Lost.

As I already discussed with X, I liked The Fall, I just felt cheated when they did not wrap it up in the first season as we expected. Hence the conversation about open-ended endings. On the other hand I loathed Lost as soon as I realized that I had been watching gibberish, thankfully not very far into season 2. I did watch the final episode and was gratified to confirm that it really was all gibberish. Sorry, but that's MHO.

To throw another BBC show into this conversation, Gracepoint a/k/a the American version of Broadchurch also ended last night. I both saw and liked Broadchurch, but Gracepoint was a failure on our TV and I only watched the first 2 episodes and last episode. The reason why, for those that didn't see it, was that first episodes were a shot by shot remake of the original series. I just felt that there was no point in seeing it again if it was not made any better for it.

Now here are the SPOILERS for those that don't want to know. Gracepoint was supposed to have a different ending. Since I wasn't that crazy about the original ending, too out of the blue and kind of simple in a stupid way, I thought a different killer might improve the story. So the motive for the killing of the child turned out to be pretty much the same, but the actual killer this time was not the father, but the young son. The father still took the blame, but it was again left open-ended, because both detectives now know it was the son, but we are left not knowing what if anything they intended to do about it. Based on the lack of a decent audience, this show will probably not return, while Broadchurch is scheduled for a second season over at the BBC.

So it was again another series with good acting and a fairly interesting plot that managed, at least for me, to blow it at the end. I'm interested to hear what others have to say about this one, both as Broadchurch and Gracepoint.

I didn't see Broadchurch so I cannot alienate readers with my obnoxious opinions about it, but don't panic-- I can come up with a feeble substitute comment, I'm sure. Your description of this series ending reminds me of the ending of Twin Peaks. After two long seasons, they never answered who killed Laura Palmer, trying to drag it to a third season. When it was cancelled, they resolved the mystery with a movie, which answered that question nicely but none of the other more important questions. What about the aliens, the order of the owl, the backwards talking dwarf, and WTF was Killer Bob? If you try to tell a joke and it goes on and on and on, and I patiently and politely wait for the punch line, the least you can do is deliver it... even if it isn't that funny. I did my part, now you do yours! The same applies to mysteries-- you OWE the audience an answer. Don't just keep the limo running in the alley and tear out of town once the audience starts shuffling their feet.

But maybe that's just me. I admit, I'm old school, e.g. I actually bothered to attend it.

As far as a scene for scene remake of a BBC series for an American audience, what's THAT all about? Are they afraid we can't understand English? If so, use subtitles! I'm sure glad that marketing genius wasn't in the room when they decided to air British shows like Danger Man and The Prisoner on CBS. Can you imagine? Maybe instead of Patrick Magoohan, we might have gotten William Shatner as the lead. Jeesy-wheezy! (Or should I say cheesy-wheezy?)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: monsterwax,

And how's this for a radical thought: Instead of reshooting the entire series with a different cast and a different ending, why not reassemble the SAME cast and just reshoot the last episode to air in the USA?

WOW-- What a concept! I know, I know, you'all thinking I'm a genius and you're wondering why you didn't think of that. Go easy on yourself, because I had specialized training that allows me certain knowledge of insider trade secrets. You see, I attended a fancy pants Film School and for my tens of thousands of dollars investment, I not only received an impressive looking deploma/ certificate with the Dean's autograph on it, but I found out stuff the industry doesn't want laypeople to ever realize. Like the fact that the murder victim and the murderer are actually just actors-- they aren't really dead or in prison. They are still available to reshoot various scenes because they were just PRETENDING to kill and die the first time around. (SPOILER ALERT: They use blanks instead of actual bullets, and the blood is fake, too.) So there's no real reason to have to hire a new cast and start all over from scratch, not unless they're just trying to pee away investor money and hire their friends for a new shoot or perhaps bed a few actresses on the casting couch.

But what do I know? I collect trading cards for fun.

quote:

Originally posted by monsterwax:
And how's this for a radical thought: Instead of reshooting the entire series with a different cast and a different ending, why not reassemble the SAME cast and just reshoot the last episode to air in the USA?

SPOILERS
You didn't follow these shows, so you don't know that FOX kind of took your idea. David Tennant played the lead in Broadchurch and was brought in to play the same character in Gracepoint. He did it with an American accent, as this was supposed to be in a American small town.

Tennant was very good as usual, but for the rest, I preferred the British cast and the locale seemed better suited to the storyline. I think that's why it didn't play that well on FOX TV, it didn't feel like rural American living and it sure wasn't supposed to be the UK. Yet the first two episodes that I did see, and from what I read every episode thru number seven, was a direct copy of the original right down to camera angles. Then they added a couple of new characters that didn't figure into the ending either.

As I said that ending, which I thought was contrived in the first place, only got worse in this version. It was the same set up, but now not only the father but also the son, accidently killed Danny. I can't imagine how someone who was just watching Gracepoint without any knowledge of Broadchurch felt about that resolution, or the way Tennant's detective having finally realized it was the boy, than just faded out to black. Talk about an anti-climax.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Raven,

I gathered as much. What a colossal waste of time, talent, and resources. I pity the fools with the 91210 zip code.

On the other hand, I thought they did a great job improving Battlestar Gallactica with the remake. The original sucked, IMHO, I thought that even as a tiny kid. But the remake was quite good. Some threads were a little much, like Starbucks ghost thing, but no show is perfect. I admire the fact they took a bad series and actually improved it, rather than a great show (like Nightstalker) and ruin it with the remake. They usually only remake classics that have a built in audience. So that took guts on their part. I also liked The Prisoner remake, but only after I was able to erase all connections with the original, which was far better. The remake really had little to do with it, and should have had a completely different title.