Meant to make my comment below a reply to you Jei . . . .

Just read an article on LOST in my local paper, the St. Petersburg Times, and it did an excellent job of reviewing the show as a whole, describing why we loved it, and putting it in its place in television/entertainment history.

Regarding the latter, it basically said, as we have also, that LOST is the last of its kind. In its wake many shows tried to use time travel and science fiction in their plots, but they all have fallen to the wayside. LOST showed that after The X-Files and Buffy that there was still demand for serialized, if not series long at least season long mysteries. Now a show like LOST can no longer be supported as people are not willing to invest the time it takes. Hence the illness that is the current prime time TV lineup.

A six year long story? Unfortunately, I really do not think we will see it again on network television. Certainly at least not on the scale of LOST, with its budget and network support. Maybe something underground. Maybe something on HBO, but six years?

What will we have to look forward to after tonight? It will be the first time in the genre fan’s life nothing major to look forward to, at least for me.

That said, I could not be more stoked for the finale of LOST tonight. That article has gotten me into the mindset. The writer also mentioned how important “choice” will come into play, as the show has always been about choice, and we saw how large it was just last episode, with Jacob giving the core characters something he was never given, a choice to take on his role or not.

No doubt choice will play a huge role in the finale.

So I wonder, whose choice will it all ultimately come down to? It was already Locke’s choice to not push the button that caused the first real on island disaster at the end of season 2. Followed immediately by Desmond’s choice to turn on the failsafe. Jack’s choice to leave the island. Jack’s choice to return to the island. Ben’s choice to kill Jacob.

I see the ultimate decision that will govern the fate of all coming down to either Jack, Desmond or Ben. Ben will be to kill the smoke monster. Jack perhaps has already made his just by taking Jacob’s role. Desmond’s choice may mean never seeing Penny again but by being the failsafe he’ll save her and everyone else in the process. Getting all emotional just thinking about the possibilities.

I am going into this as the last great genre event of my life.

I played the LOST numbers in last night’s lottery, not a single one came up!

Whatever comes next, I will miss this particular interaction, especially since it’s hard to see a lot of you guys because of our schedules/locations etc.

Anyway — whether the ending is 5 stars or 2, I’ve enjoyed the run so here’s to a satisfying conclusion and to seeing you on the other side.

I’m not as pessimistic about the future of big fan events, in fact I’ve no doubt there’ll be more. Twilight is one, though just not for our demographic. LOST came into being in a matter of weeks- so totally came out of the woodwork. Possibly the coming Avengers movie- combo-ing all the Marvel comic heroes from Hulk, Iron Man, etc…

As to whether there is the setup for it or not, I think there’s more set up for it than ever. Ideas may get carefully scrutinized more closely before being greenlit, but you’d have a hard time arguing there are fewer ideas around today.

Something will come to the top, and soon. One thought is- perhaps there’s only room for one big event at any one time. The current one is LOST. The fanbase will find something else to latch onto after it’s done.