The end has come for “Lost,” for “24,” for “Law & Order.”
But will they be back on August 29, when the Emmy Awards are handed out?
Over the past two weeks, primetime television has been a nonstop finale-fest. And three of the biggest were not simply season finales, but the end of the line for a trio of celebrated shows.
Some confused and frustrated viewers; others went out on a high note. Some did both at the same time. (We mean you, “Lost.”)
In the process, some shows may have boosted their chances to land Emmy nominations, while others lost a little ground. So here’s a guide to the three biggest finales – who delivered, who fizzled, and who might find themselves on the stage of the Nokia Theatre in August.
“Lost”
If any show is going to get a de facto career-achievement Emmy this year, an award designed to recognize not just a television show but something with cultural impact, this’ll be the one.
“24” may have run for nine years to only six for “Lost,” but news crews weren’t doing live broadcasts from final-episode viewing parties at big theaters in downtown Los Angeles. “Law & Order” may have aired 456 episodes to 121 for “Lost,” but it didn’t get a supersized two-and-a-half hour finale, preceded by a two-hour curtain raiser to bring viewers up to speed.
And even if the ratings for the “Lost” finale showed that it is indeed a cult show rather than a mainstream phenomenon, that cult is big and bold and loud.
Plus, the Emmys already seem to be favorably disposed toward the show, since the TV academy’s board of governors voted a special exemption making the final episode eligible for the awards. (Ordinarily, its length would have disqualified it.)
The finale, long on emotional flashbacks, wasn’t universally acclaimed by critics: The New York Times called the episode “shaky on the big picture” and “largely a pleasant, nostalgic wallow for the show’s fans,” while the Los Angeles Times began this way: “Well, it could have been worse.”
On the other hand, the finale was an event in the way that other finales were not – and that, rather than the particulars of the episode, is what may give the show a shot to make a return to the Emmys, where it was named Outstanding Drama Series in its first season, and later nominated twice more.
Emmy experts at Tom O’Neil’s Gold Derby blog were divided. But after a finale that delivered emotionally if not intellectually, the show probably has a decent chance to land a nomination, as do actors Michael Emerson and Terry O’Quinn.
“24”
Of course “24” went down with its guns blazing. The final hour of Jack Bauer’s last day on TV ended the way his final hours usually do: with our victorious hero pondering the awful toll that his merciless and brutal heroism had taken on him.
The L.A. Times’ Mary MacNamara, for one, loved it: "’24’ managed to do what so many shows try and fail to do: Go out with not just a bang but its original convictions intact.”
But despite the show’s status as one of the more groundbreaking series of the past decade, and its 60-plus Emmy nominations (and 18 wins) over the years, “24” had faded in its final seasons. Coming at the end of a season that was widely considered nothing special, four lackluster years after the lauded season that gave it its Emmy win for Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actor, the “24” finale was not the kind of event likely to attract the attention of Emmy voters.
If voters want to reward a show that once gave a real shot of adrenaline to the TV landscape, they could still do so, though the folks most likely to be honored – Sutherland and supporting players Cherry Jones and Gregory Itzin in particular – already garnered nominations or wins back in 2006, when the show deserved the kudos.
I would suggest, though, that if voters are in the mood to salute the series now that it’s over, they look at Mary Lynn Rajskub’s Chloe O’Brian – who, the finale reminded us, has been Jack’s real love interest (and ours, too) all along.
“Law & Order”
You’d think that after 20 years on the air, almost 500 episodes, five spinoff series, a TV movie and a British series, “Law & Order” would attract some serious hoopla with its final episode.
But it didn’t, really. This is a show that viewers have taken for granted for years, and Emmy voters as well. Since its debut in 1990, the series has received more than 50 nominations, including 11 consecutive nods for Outstanding Drama Series. But it only won six, including once (in 1997) in the drama series category.
Its last Emmy nomination was in 2003, and its last win in 1998.
Still, New York Times critic Mike Hale called the concluding episode “the best finale of all,” and said, “its low-key last moments were more moving and honestly emotional than the endings of ‘Lost’ and ’24,’ shows whose finales received much more attention.”
Will notices like that make Emmy voters sit up, feel nostalgic and take notice? Probably not – particularly since the show hardly feels as if it’s gone, what with “Law & Order: SVU” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” still on the air and “Law & Order: Los Angeles” premiering in the fall.
One final-season story arc, though, has the potential to pay off with the TV academy. S. Epatha Merkerson has been a mainstay on the show since 1993, making her the longest-running cast member – but she’s never been nominated for her role as Lt. Anita Van Buren. (She did win an Emmy for the TV movie “Lackawanna Blues” in 2006.) Her character was diagnosed with cancer this season, a storyline that’s always appealing to awards voters, and she was a central part of the final episode.
If anybody is going to benefit from the goodwill generated by a classy show’s goodbye, it’ll be her.
