Lost and Alias left us something to think about over the summer.

Sweeps have come to an end for the networks and they ended with mystery, a surprise, and a bang. Lost continued its formula for gripping television by just giving us enough to keep us interested. We saw a continuation of flashbacks of the main characters and what they were doing prior to take off and how many of them came into contact with each other with most of them not remembering such events. The only question I have about these flashbacks are where is Michelle Rodriguez? Did she come on a for a one time cameo and a paycheck or will we see her on the island next fall?

The boys on the raft left us with the more satisfying cliffhanger when they encountered “the others.” Walt was taken and the rest were left to die. I am going to assume they all will survive and next season’s big plotline will be the search for Walt. The less satisfying cliffhanger was the blowing of “the hatch.” The hatch turned out to be a hole. Where does the ladder lead? To Hell? To “the others?” To China? We may never find out. That is what scares me most about Lost. All shows no matter how good they are, no matter how many viewers it brings in, all show come to an end. It would be a shame to have all these plotlines and questions out there and have Lost cancelled. I know they are definitely back for next season, but what about 5 years from now? Can they keep this up or will they have a run like The Sopranos or the BBC’s The Office? Does J.J. Abrams have a set number of seasons he wants to complete to wrap up everything and then ride off into the sunset? Only time will tell. All in all, I thought Lost was an excellent show. I understand the slow buildup, the flashbacks to give us a sense of who these people are and a reason to care about what happens to them. I can take a slow burn as long as it leads to a good payoff and I thought Lost did that this season. We know these people and next season should be less about their backgrounds and more about the island. One more thing, how cool was Art’s exit from the show? Brilliant.

American Idol wrapped up last night with an upset, as Carrie Underwood beat Bo Bice (frankly, it sounds made up). I was somewhat surprised, but we all know that both of them will get their own deal and last night’s final was a formality. In the future this may ruin the show. Why should people watch or vote if both of the finalists get the prize? Besides, the best shows are with the morons who come on and make asses of themselves.

On to my favorite of the shows last night and possibly my favorite finale this TV season (although Medium’s finale was pretty good). Alias was an action packed hour, as usual, and ended with a bang. What did we learn? Well, finally a Derevco sister is really dead (or so we think). We found out that during an end of the world crisis we can still find time to discuss future wedding plans and accept a proposal. We also found out that next season should be as good as this past season. Alias ended with Vaughn disclosing to Sydney that he had to tell her something and that it may make him a bad guy. Then the crash happened. I have to admit all four of us nearly shat ourselves and we all agreed that it was a very satisfying cliffhanger that left us wanting more, even more so than Lost. I hope it pays off because the lead up was excellent.

It was a good night for ABC and I can’t wait for Lost and Alias to come back next season. The biggest question for both shows are can they continue to draw good ratings at different time slots next season? Can Alias beat Joey and The O.C. in the ratings? Because we know that it can’t beat Survivor. I hope it will do well and continue on for many seasons. TV is over for a few months and ABC left us something to think about until fall.