The Lost finale

Just made it through tonight's episode of Lost on Tivo. I've been watching since the premiere. Every week I'm nervous that a show so delicately balanced will trip on itself, the way 24 does once a season. Goddamn, they've pulled it off perfectly. Somehow, the cast and writers have managed to hold together the delicate, risky premise without descending into camp or self-parody. Not since Twin Peaks has a network series managed such sustained tension and a dark, complicated narrative.

Tonight's show produced blow after blow of creepy, credible story lines and climaxes -- the baby theft, Locke's near-fatal plunge, the bit character inevitably blowing himself up, the lost rudder, the smoke apparitions in the woods, Charlie's apparent heroin relapse, the radar blips, Walt's kidnapping and the raft's immolation, Hurley notice the fatal numbers followed by the explosion at the hatch. If there was an anticlimax, it was the final shot of the broken ladder descending into the ground, but with a show like Lost, much like with Twin Peaks, the pleasure isn't in the answers but the riddles. Meanwhile, it manages to keep its characters believable and interesting. Doesn't miss a beat. This show's writers must have the toughest job in TV, but manage to score almost every time.