Head to Head:
What's the most addictive show on television? That's directly related to what show shows the most full-frontal nudity.
Ryan Peters:
My first inclination in answering this question was to pick "House Hunters International," damn the consequences. Don't laugh; I can hear you laughing. "House Hunters International" is incredibly addictive, because nothing satisfies me quite like watching uppity white people from Utah complain about the lack of granite kitchen countertops while looking for a vacation home in Malta. YOU'RE IN MALTA, JUST DEAL WITH IT. Moreover, I get a sense of personal superiority as I ridicule the prospective properties that people visit as I watch the show in my underwear from my Roger's Park, Chicago, apartment.
But "House Hunters" is always on in the background for me, and I can pick it up at any point in a given episode without missing much. So, if we're talking about something you really have to invest yourself in, then my choice is "Damages," a series that I'm dug into like a tick. "Damages" eeks out "Mad Men" because the entire point of the series is to make sure that at any point in any given episode, you have no idea what's happening. Not in the slightly-annoying "Lost" fashion, where you're not sure if palms trees are eating people and shit, but in the sense that the things you are most certain about are exactly the plot points that get turned on their ear.
Season one opens with a woman walking down a busy street in New York covered in blood. It then flashes back six months and we learn, bit by bit, how we reach the opening scene. The episodes bounce back-and-forth between the past and the present, offering hints (sometimes deceptive ones) about which character is responsible for the multitude of murders, deceptions, and infidelities with which the show is rife. Oh, and as all this is happening, there's an incredibly complex plot involving a lawsuit against a billionaire who sold his stock in the hours before his company went bankrupt. Seasons two and three only get more batshit crazy. Along with "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad," "Damages" is the most intelligent serial on television.
Dominick Mayer:
Hi, my name is Dominick and I have a huge fucking problem. Despite the
best efforts of friends, family, God and country, I'm an incurable Lost fanboy.
The bigger problem is that this Sunday, when the show airs its last
episode, I don't know what I'm going to do with my time. By nature I'm
not a hobbyist; my attempts at ventriloquism, learning the drums
and mastering the art of Persian clubs have all failed miserably. I
can't pick another show, because not only does it feel like infidelity,
but no show will ever again be allowed to get away with what Lost has done.
On top of that, though, no other show can really compare, to me. Breaking Bad is
probably the best candidate, but that show is so emotionally wrenching
that gearing up for another episode is my 21-year-old version of
putting my hand on a hot stove over and over without learning. I tried
taking up Mad Men, but I found myself watching it on mute,
and only the scenes where Christina Hendricks is onscreen. Or Jon Hamm.
Nothing on HBO right now is doing much for me, and from what I heard,
ABC's own Flash Forward is not only just a sad attempt to recapture the magic of Lost, but it's dead now.
So why has Lost captured
the imagination in the way it has? I could rant for hours about how its
time travel logistics are as airtight as I've ever seen, or how it's
all a big allegory for nothing less than the foundation of humanity,
but this is able to be read on a public forum, by people who may want
to do things like hire me for a salaried job, or go on a date, or not
want to slap me if we ever meet in person. The central truth is that Lost works
because it never forgets that the humanity of the characters is the
real crux of the entire show. By creating investment in every
storyline, however auxilary, Cuse and Lindelhof (we're boys, I got them
on last name basis at this point) gave themselves an out to explore
however many strange themes they wanted, because the audience cares too
much about these characters to not follow them.
Posted by Dominick Mayer, Dominick Mayer on May 21, 2010 @ 12:00 am
