Out With VERONICA MARS, in with FARMER WANTS A WIFE?!?! Plus - LOST reviewed!

Today is a sad day for people with good taste.

As of this morning, it appears pretty clear that VERONICA MARS is done. While there was no official announcement and no great fanfare, it appears that the CW has unceremoniously dumped one of the very best TV shows of the last 5 years, as it retools its network lineup for next fall. Now it may be that in a few weeks there will be some surprise announcement about a retooled version of the show or whatever, but the chances of that happening now seem slim to none. In fact, I could barely contain my frustration this morning as I kept hitting "refresh" on TV Guide's website, reading Michael Ausiello's breathless quest to get to the bottom of what was up with VM's future. The worst part is that CW prez Dawn Ostroff kept sending mixed messages. She all but declared VM dead, yet at the same time kept hinting that there was some ambiguous plan in the works to bring back the show in a new form. So Ausiello forwarded a quote from Ostroff to VM showrunner Rob Thomas, to get his take on the idea that he, Ostroff, and series star Kristen Bell were all working on something together. Thomas replied, saying that he had never had ANY conversations with Dawn, and that at this point most of the show's writers and actors had already resigned themselves to accepting that the show was over and done with, and had begun the process of moving on to new projects (for her part, Kristin Bell is already provifing narration for CW's Gossip Girl). So barring a miracle, Veronica Mars, perhaps the best drama on television, is being kicked to the curb with none of the class or respect it deserves.

I mean, if talking to Thomas and Bell is such a low priority for Ostroff, then that certainly does not bode well for an eleventh hour miracle. Mid-June is still, apparently, the absolute cut-off date for an announcement either way. But the damage has been done. People are angry, and it's these same people who are the same passionate, hardcore fans who can make or break a fledgling network like the CW. I mean, talk about a show with prominent fans. People like Joss Whedon and Kevin Smith were so passionate about Mars that they volunteered to guest star and help attract some new fans to the show. Go online, read any news report about today's CW upfront - the headline news isn't the new fall shows, no, CNN and Yahoo and TV Guide's headlines are about the future of Veronica Mars!

Ostroff needs to get on the ball here and level with the fans. She committed another blunder today when she quickly menitoned that she was sad to see Gilmore Girls go, only to quickly rave about how Beauty and the Geek did even better than Gilmore in the ratings when it came to attracting young adults! Is that any way to show respect for a show that helped launch your network and had a critically-acclaimed and beloved seven year run? Look, I applaud the CW for some of the pilots it picked up. ALIENS IN AMERICA is a comedy that has the potential to be great. REAPER is a fun, lighthearted show that reminded me of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure with its goofy sci-fi comedy. But can these shows replace two of the best dramas of the decade? The truly depressing thing, though, is that yes, CW has a few promising new shows on tap for the fall. But it also has crap on a stick in the form of "Pussycat Dolls Present," "Crowned: The Mother of all Pageants," and here's the kicker - "Farmer Wants a Wife." Yep, it's out with Veronica Mars and in with FARMER WANTS A WIFE. And we descend ever closer to the seventh level of hell ...

All I know is, Gilmore, amazingly, was able to go out with a great finale despite so much uncertainty about its future. I can only hope that Veronica Mars will be able to pull off the same trick this Tuesday - if any show deserves to get the royal sendoff - this is it.

LOST:

- This week's LOST featured no disembodied voices, no shocking revelations about the identity of "Jacob," and no great mysteries about who was on who's side. With most of its cards laid on the table, Lost this week instead delivered a 100% solid episode that told a great story and was filled with fun moments, top-notch characterization, and a cool ending that left me dying for next Wednesday to get here already. This was good stuff.

Really, there's not much to critique here. This was essentially a Charlie story, a fairly personal one, about our favorite former hobbit coming to terms with his seemingly impending death as foretold by the prophetic visions of Desmond. As usual, Lost did it's typically amazing job of buiding up tension throughout the ep - once again, they had me hanging at the edge of my seat to see Charlie's ultimate fate. But since this was a personal ep with clearly defined storytelling, there was no room for one of Lost's typical underwhelming endings - the show's hand was forced, and it delivered with a great final sequence, in which Desmond offers to take Charlie's place as underwater scout on a potential suicide mission, only for Charlie to clock him with a paddle and take the dive (literally). We then got a tension-filled scene straight out of Tomb Raider, with Charlie desperately diving beneath the Other's sunken hatch, scrambling to hold his breath as he searched for an entrance into the compound. The build up and emotion of this episode had me all but convinced that Charlie was a deadman, so I was surprised that he surfaced and seemed to make it into the hatch unscathed. Next thing you know, the lead singer of Drive Shaft is cornered by two heat-packing femme fatales, cut to black, and business has just picked up. Nice.

There were also a lot of fun threads picked up on here. Rose and Bernard made a welcome return. Jack and Sayid had some nice exchanges that sounded like real, actual dialogue rather than riddles answered with mysteries. I got a kick out of Karl's scenes with Alex Rousseau and his subsequent arrival on the castaways' beach, screaming "they're coming NOW!" like some crazed kid out of a vintage Twilight Zone episode from the 60's.

On a quick tangent, it's funny that two recurring characters from Malcolm in the Middle, each of them quirky, funny teen girls on that show, are now costarring in two of the biggest scifi dramas on TV in Lost and Heroes.

But yeah, there was a lot to like here, and I found all the Charlie stuff to be well-handled and well-acted. Claire had some of the best scenes she's had in a long while, which was nice to see, and Desmond has quietly become Lost's coolest character over the last several episodes. Might Henry Ian Cusick's haunting performance as Desmond Hume put him in line for an Emmy nom, brother?

So yeah, great stuff from Lost last night. Can't wait for next week's finale.

My Grade: A

- Alright, I am out. I'm upset about the SUNS' loss last night to the Spurs - what a devastating loss. I hope Amare comes back tommorow with a vengeance. And yes, I watched the Price Is Right Special on CBS last night, and yes, I hope to catch their Bob Barker tribute tonight before The Office's season ender. What can I say, I really like Plinko.