With Fox's announcement that Steven Spielberg's Terra Nova has been given a long production leash and is already a part of the the Fox lineup for 2011 (!!?), sci-fi geeks may feel comforted that science fiction and fantasy is alive and well on Network Television. The Videot however fears that ABC's now completed Lost series did a number on genre television.
At this point, the series finale of Lost has been dissected ad nausem.(Was both the island and the sideways real and part of purgatory or just the side view? If just the side view, then when did the characters die? When the plane crashed? When the island exploded? When the various characters died?) But for a show that some claim changed television or was some form of paradigm shift, the jury is still out - way out. The rush of shows trying to emulate Lost's success from prior seasons (think Surface on NBC and Invasion on ABC,) could not hold onto viewers or even a single season. A show like Heroes, which had at least episodic elements to go along with its long tangled storyline, got itself bogged down in repetition and ultimate cancellation.
With the new Fall season of 2010 coming, only a few shows appear to be attempting this type of lightning in a bottle chance: The Event, involving a government conspiracy to cover up who knows what,Undercovers, a spy drama in which one running storyline will be why a fellow agent has disappeared (also from JJ Abrams, who had a similar show with Alias) and a midseason or backup drama called The Cape, which apparently attempts to capture both the initial fervor of Heroes as well as Lost (since the hero will be trying to prove himself innocent of a framed up con job for the entirety of the series). Although TV longevity predictions are as good as fortune cookies, these three series (all on flailing NBC) do not appear to have much of a chance to catch on.
The one remaining new sci-fi show, No Ordinary Family on ABC, already appears to be positioned for an early exit, since it is slotted against Biggest Loser on NBC, Glee on Fox, and current ratings champ NCIS on CBS.
If you want to blame any one group of people, you can always blame the networks who do not have faith in their shows. Shows with long-standing mysteries that lasted four seasons or more (The X-Files comes to mind - which even lasted a few more seasons than it should have) were born first of creativity followed by network fortitude. Network patience no longer exists, and Lost only lasted because it's rating supported the show long before it made itself clear to be a science fiction program (Abrams did the same thing with less loved Alias, a spy drama that was more than tinged with sci-fi). You have to realize that had Lost been advertised as science fiction, it would not have lasted a single season. With the exception of Fringe on Fox (home of the aforementioned X-Files), and a string of shows on the highly low rated CW, science fiction and fantasy barely exists on network television.
Off network, where a Nielsen rating of 2 provides contentment, science fiction is alive and well, primarily on SyFy: Eureka, Stargate Universe, etc. Even AMC, where they are debuting the first ever zombie series, The Walking Dead in October, is willing to support the genre. BBC America has Dr. Who and Being Human, has given us the outstanding Jekyl, and is in the process of working on another season of Torchwood. HBO, which should be given credit for fantasy, as it has True Blood, and will be showing A Game of Thrones in 2011, is rumored to be developing at least two sci-fi series.
So what are the networks afraid of? Apparently an audience smart enough for the long form and sci-fi in particular. They would rather continue to crank out CSI style procedurals, knowing that their aging audience would rather not have to think too much and be informed of plot development through bad dialogue or bad puns from David Caruso.
Getting back to Lost (Ok, so I drift a bit), had the show been honest about it's sci-fi trappings, the ratings would not have been as high for sure, but in the end the audience would have been loyal and satisfied, instead of resigned to stick to a show that could not help to end in disappointment.
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