Abrams Finales

I don't want to call this guy the second coming of Spielberg or, in today's standards, Apatow - but it seems to me that everything that J.J. Abrams has touched of late has been turned into gold.

With Star Trek already cruising along as possibly the year's best film (to date), and ruling at the box office, Abrams' two other side projects, Fringe and Lost brought their seasons to a close this week.

There will be spoilers galore in the rest of this blog, so if you haven't seen the above finales, please stop reading now.

I will start with Lost because it appears that more people know about this show. How can a 2-hour finale not only give you tons of answers to things that have been brewing for five seasons, but also leave you with even more questions than when you went in. A 2-hour finale that desperately left you wanting more - and we don't get any more until 2010, I may just go insane.

We are finally introduced to the illusive Jacob - the one that is truly considered the leader of the 'Others'. But, we can't just be given Jacob without a whole background on him - he's been on the island forever; he seems to be using the island for some sort of sociological experiment; an unnamed friend of his wants him dead; he has visited a handful of members of the castaways (Locke, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer, Jack, Sun & Jin). But, as soon as we meet Jacob - he is killed, by Ben and Locke(?). I have a strange feeling that we will not be seeing the last of him though.

Jack got his way, and with the help of Sayid and some others was able to toss 'Jughead' down the shoot to try and stop all of this from ever happening. A few side effects, however, was Sayid getting shot and near death - and the bomb not actually going off and the hole becoming magnetized anyway. This also started sucking everything metal down the hole - including a chain that happened to get wrapped around Juliet. So, bye bye Juliet? No so fast - not without one last heroic adventure. Juliet, near death, beats 'Jughead' with a rock until it explodes - and that is where we leave Season 5.

So many questions. Did the explosion work? Is everyone at least going to be in the same time frame now? How is Locke both dead and alive? Is the new Locke the unnamed man that wants Jacob dead? Are Jacob and Ben in on everything - including bringing back everyone to the island?

Can't wait for these questions to be answered - I am expecting a memorable season six.

As for Fringe, it has slowly been plugging along on Tuesday nights on FOX. It is quite possibly the best new show on television, however, has had a few missteps along the way. The bases of the show has always pitted Olivia and her crew against William Bell's Massive Dynamic corporation. Most of the shows have had some sort of connection to the overall tension between these two organizations, however, a few times the show stepped away from that --- sure it's fine to do that every so often, but it almost feels unnecessary.

Also, the show took at least a one month hiatus during the middle of the season - which left even me a little in the dark - when the show returned I found myself trying to remember a lot of things that happened in September and October.

That said, the final episodes really picked up and the finale that aired on Tuesday was awe inspiring and a little shocking.

The episode begins where the final left off, as David Robert Jones has shot Nina Sharp - and apparently removed an energy source that was hidden in her mechanical arm. This energy source can be used, when done correctly, to open a window to a parallel universe.

Jones has finally realized that William Bell is living in this parallel universe and will stop at nothing to track him down and kill him. It's up to Olivia to stop Jones, while both Peter and Walter Bishop search for remote that is able to close the opened portal to the parallel universe.

The final scenes are very well done as well s jaw dropping. Olivia finally gets to meet and speak to William Bell, who we all know to be Leonard Nimoy (one of the worst kept secrets in tv history). But as she looks at the window of his parallel universe office - we find that they are in one of the twin towers, which are still standing in this universe. A very gripping and emotional shot.

I was torn because I loved it - but also immediately thought 'What are people going to say?" Was it too soon? I don't think so. But there are still people who are grieving and this shot could have been very emotional for them.

But, Fringe didn't stop there. In one of the final shots we see Walter Bishop standing in a cemetary - thinking of course he is visiting the grace of his wife. But as the shot shows the head stone it is the grave of his son, Peter Bishop. So the Peter Bishop that is currently being shown is that of the parallel universe.

Walter mentioned in the episode that he had lost something very dear to him and that he went to the other universe to get it back - his son.

Very great episodes - episodes that have certainly kept me interested and looking forward to next season already.