[DevSop]

It's the #1 seed overall Lost vs. the last show to make it in, Prisoner.

#1.LOST






vs.

#64.THE PRISONER

[Stu]

People who complain about Lost having no answers probably haven't seen or don't remember the Prisoner.

[DevSop]

While I think Lost has its faults and hopefully it doesn't steamroll everything, I don't even know if the info/pic I have for Prisoner is correct, so Lost in a blowout.

[Jack Quinn]

Lost can eat a dick

[National Champion Chris Cole]

Lost easily for me.

[creepy]

I tried watching the first year of Lost. It was ok, but then it just seemed like they had a hit that they didn't know what to do with and they just started making up stupid shit to keep making money off of it.


Sounds like 24.

I vote Prisoner.

[Courtney]

I like the fact that Lost is going all 24-style now. Hopefully, this writer's thing is over soon and we won't have to wait until 2009 for more.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

I think there is enough criticsm of Lost to keep it from doing a Simpsons-esque steamroll in this tournament.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

According to the brackets, Lost could possibly go up against Homicide, Quantum Leap and The X-Files. Forget steamrolling, it might not even win.

[Jack Quinn]

and Gilligan's Island 2K7 shouldn't win

[williamssl]

Regardless, at some point along this tournament journey we will be reminded of how vastly superior the cable dramas were to this whole lot.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

Or not. Fuck Cable.

[BC]

I've never seen Prisoner, but I voted for it. Lost must lose.

[Electric Sodomy]

The Prisoner is arguably the most important and thoughtful series in the history of TV, and the amount of shit that LOST owes to it is fucking overwhelming. I'm not saying this because it's old and eggheaded, but seriously, the number of TV shows that crawled out from underneath The Prisoner and the Twilight Zone's collective umbrellas is just staggering.

While the ending of The Prisoner is irresolute, the themes and arguments it presents are still concrete enough that anyone can get a ton out of them. It was powerful enough to produce enough outrage and outcry from social critics, members of government and a public that wanted concrete answers and things to believe in that it forced Patrick McGoohan (the creator and lead) to LEAVE ENGLAND.

Putting it up against LOST in anything other than final rounds is almost cruel, because (a) LOST in a lot of ways is "The Prisoner: 2000" and because LOST pretty much couldn't exist without shows like The Prisoner coming before it. I think if LOST pays off really well, it'll be in the top ten all-time pretty easily, because every show has the potential to be pretty amazing, given all the elements they have in play. But until then, I gotta take the show that has a complete body of work and did almost all the same things LOST is doing as well (or better) within a complete story.

[Lucky]

I've never heard of it.

EDIT: What I mean to say is it really could have been awesome and everything you say. I'm in no way denying that. But damn. British Sci Fi from the '60s? Sorry. You got me.

[Electric Sodomy]

luckylopez said:

I've never heard of it.

EDIT: What I mean to say is it really could have been awesome and everything you say. I'm in no way denying that. But damn. British Sci Fi from the '60s? Sorry. You got me.

It's not sci-fi. It's about a secret agent who goes to retire from his job, gets gassed and wakes up on a mysterious island. (Hi, LOST!) The people keeping him there won't identify who they are. (Us? THEM???) They know he has information, and they want it from him. But if they tell him WHAT they want, then he'd know who they are and also what to keep from them. So they interrogate and torture and mindfuck the guy to get information they can't be sure he has, about things they won't say, for purposes they won't say, on behalf of whom they won't say, because what they think he might know might mean something... if only they could get him to talk about the thing they want to know but can't mention.

The whole thing is a long, funny, amazingly well-written and also bitter indictment of the government's role in society, how we are increasingly monitored and observed, how we've lost a sense of privacy and individuality and personal power, and how our governments control us for purposes they can't tell us because it's better for our protection that we not know.

Now consider just how poignant those ideas and that kind of show still ARE.

There's no sci-fi about it. It's the Cold War. It's the War on Terror. It was there already; it's still here.

[Electric Sodomy]

I mean, no offense to The Powers That Be, but how does a show like that NOT rank better than "Reaper" (I don't even know what the fuck that IS) or A-Team (a fucking KID'S show)? There's some cosmic injustice at work when a show loses to the show that owes a huuuuuuuuge debt to it, while, in other brackets, you can advance a show for children and another show that God help me (as a total pop culture wonk) I've never even heard about.


Edit: I just Wikipedia'd it. Yes, Reaper, a show that has yet to even have a full season, should definitely be considered amongst the best dramas of all time. That makes sense. If only I'd gotten someone to greenlight the pilot I was thinking of, of the dog that wanted to chew its own ass, because the fleas in its ass were DEMONS.

[williamssl]

Welcome to the Showdowns. Where shows that have been on TV for a partial season or were on WBCWUPN are OMG best EVER of all time EVERMORE.

[Electric Sodomy]

williamssl said:

Welcome to the Showdowns. Where shows that have been on TV for a partial season or were on WBCWUPN are OMG best EVER of all time EVERMORE.

Yeah, but were the chicks on UPN hot?????

[williamssl]

Answering that would require me to have watched something on UPN. Which I don't think I ever did.

Well, except XFL, Smackdown, and Everybody Hates Chris. But Chris Rock, Undertaker, and He Hate Me aren't on my list of hot chicks.

[Electric Sodomy]

Haha, your lies are so transparent.

[williamssl]

You caught me.

I

[Mikey]

Best NFL bio picture EVAR~!

[Lucky]

Sorry about the Sci-Fi thing. Wiki described it as such and I just trusted them. I always trust Wiki. Its trustworthy.

And yeah, these Showdowns blow. You just went through what most of us have at SOME stage of these things.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

I think you all are being way too high and mighty about the showdowns. Why do newer shows get in over older ones? More visibility right now. It is really as easy as that. In the end those shows get weeded out. I think people take these things too seriously.