Discovery

Such is the news/rumor that was posted on OhNoTheyDidn’t / Ask Ausellio.

If you’ve been living in a cave, then you’ve not heard the news that the Writer’s Guild of America has chosen to strike. As of Monday, there are no writers working on television or movie scripts.

I’ll say it now: I wholeheartedly support this strike. I also support BulletProofHeeb’s proposal that writers should stop turning to networks to distribute their work. (Are we to see a cataclysmic shift in the way shows and movies are presented to us? I can only hope.)

Now, I must admit that I don’t watch television. At all. I don’t have cable in my apartment and, as long as I’m breathing and my heart’s pumping, I have no plans to give a single dime to TimeWarner or Comcast or whatever robotic empire cable company is currently forcing their monopoly on the good people of America. Television doesn’t interest me. Yet, at the same time, I do follow two shows: The Office and LOST. I always see The Office after the fact; with LOST, I usually head over to my brother’s place in West LA and watch it with him and his fiance.

I haven’t forgotten about the show since it last aired in May and I’m eagerly awaiting the premiere in February. If it happens, that is:

• If the strike extends into the new year and beyond, there is achance ABC may opt to delay the new season until the fall. Or worseyet, February 2009. Another scenario has the network simply airingthe eight episodes already in the can this February as originallyplanned — something Team Darlton would not be in favor of. Says Lostcocreator Carlton Cuse, “Damon [Lindelof] and my concern about runningthe [eight] episodes we will have made is that it will feel a littlelike reading half a Harry Potter novel, then having to put it down.There is a mini-cliff-hanger at the end of Episode 8, but it’s like theend of an exciting book chapter; it’s not the end of the novel. Damonand I didn’t write [the ending of Episode 8] differently [with thelooming strike in mind]. We wrote it to be the ending of Episode 8.” Inany case, he concedes that the decision to hold or air the episodesisn’t ultimately theirs. “It’s really [ABC honcho Steve MacPherson’s]call,” Cuse notes, adding, “No one was happy with the six-episode runlast season.”

What a predicament. But the truth is, I’ll wait for either option. I’ll watch 8 episodes to keep me interested and wait for the strike to be over. Or I’ll wait until 2009. It’s unfortunate, because I am a fan of the show, but, again, I support the writers and I’m willing to wait so that they can get what the want.

(Of course, there is a tiny part of me that died knowing that I may have to wait 16 months to see a new episode of LOST.)