final season

This news is a few days old, but just this morning I found it buried in Ausiello's Twitter feed and I haven't seen it reported anywhere else yet.

The final season of Lost is going to be 18 hours instead of 17, meaning a double episode for the premiere and finale. So figure on an extra 45-ish minutes of head-scratching, "what the hell just happened" moments once January 2010 rolls around.

You may recall that at the end season three, ABC, Damon Lindelof, and Carlton Cuse agreed on the final three seasons of Lost being 16 hours each. But after the WGA strike cut season four back to 14 episodes, those last two hours got dispersed between seasons five and six, bumping them to 17 eps each.

I guess it just goes to show you that even the most well thought out plan can be tweaked, but it makes me wonder ... was this ABC's demand to get a longer season or Lindelof and Cuse's creative decision? I guess we'll know for sure if midway through the season we get "Stranger in a Strange Land, Part 2."

Remember this scene? It's from the season six finale of The Shield. Mackey is showing Aceveda all the dirt he's got on Cruz Pezuela and the Mexican mob. Seems like forever ago ... and it was. It's been almost a year and we're still waiting for a resolution. FX has been scant with news regarding the seventh season of its trademark show. Supposedly, it's returning in September so that its final thirteen episodes are not competing with the Olympics. It should be coming back sooner if you ask me. I don't really see too much audience intersection between fans of The Shield and fans of floor gymnastics routines.

All in the game. HBO has been running these new promos for the fifth and final season of The Wire for about a month or two now. I think I first saw them at the beginning of October. Anyway, they play pretty infrequently and I'm not sure if everyone has seen them. The first is a short promo with no scenes. Just someone typing on a monitor, making general statements about the new season. As you can see from the screenshot above, the more things change, the more they stay the same because it sounds like McNulty is hitting the Jameson again. The second video is a short behind-the-scenes featurette with interviews from David Simon and some cast members. The Wire returns with its final ten episodes on January 6, 2008. Both videos are after the jump.

I have to admit, I didn't watch NewsRadio too much when it originally aired. Sure, I'd catch an episode now and again, and always thought the show was very smart and very funny, but it wasn't until recently that I've been able to go back and catch up on the show through repeats. I do recall, however, that after Phil Hartman's death in 1998 I watched the show even less. It was hard to imagine the show without him, and while I like Jon Lovitz just fine, for me the series ended with Hartman's death.

The fifth and final season, which comes out on DVD March 20, begins with the episode "Bill Moves On" in which the team mourns the death of Bill McNeal, the arrogant radio personality portrayed by Hartman. I think many fans consider this the worst season, which is understandable. Still, if you're like me you hate to have any kind of gap in your DVDs, and you'll probably purchase it anyway. The set will retail for $39.95.

Numerous sources are reporting that HBO has decided to give The Wire a fifth and final season. The fourth season, which premiered this past Sunday, was met with great reviews from critics everywhere. However, as most expected, the ratings for the opening episode weren't so hot. No dates have been set for when the fifth season will begin shooting but it is known that the running theme for the season will be how the mass media affects all aspects of the Baltimore streets. Personally, I think this is fantastic news. It's great that HBO recognizes what this show means to the fans and now we'll get a final season to wrap it up properly. Too bad HBO wasn't willing to extend the same courtesy to Deadwood.