The Lost Effect

I'm still having a hard time accounting for my waning interest in television. My tv love affair began at a very young age and has run full steam until just recently. I'm not sure if my loss of interest reflects on poor programming, me growing up or a little of both. What I do know is that I'm not the only one not tuning in. Of all returning series this fall, with a few exceptions, almost all have seen significant drops in their viewership since previous seasons. 

Over the last few weeks I have been hacking away at my DVR season pass list, eliminating shows I no longer find worthy and I thought I was done trimming down, but suddenly I find myself wondering if Heroes is another show on the bubble. And I can't help thinking that if more dramas in this vein would take after the example of Lost and set an end date for the series, I wouldn't be having this dilemma. 

When I first read about Lost's creators setting an end date for the series I was disappointed at the idea that the series was now limited to a certain timeframe, but in hindsight I think it's the best thing they could have possibly done for that show. Setting a time table creates structure and inevitably determines that every moment has a purpose in moving the overall story forward and when every moment counts then every moment better be good. The problem with Heroes is that they have nothing but time on their hands. Without a set ending, the story is left meandering and running wild. All I keep thinking is where is this going? Will all of this time traveling nonsense really be worth the payoff? At this rate, I may not stick around long enough to find out.