TV Surveillance

With “Lost” coming to an end this season and ABC’s hopes of replacing it — “FlashForward” and “V” — failing, TV critics and bloggers have taken to the Web to ponder aloud if serialized television is dead.

These people are wrong.

“Lost” (and the probable end of “24” this season) do, in fact, mark the end of an era where hyper-serialized television programs last on one of the major broadcast networks for an extended period of time. But those series are the extreme examples of a storytelling style that existed before them and will exist after they are long gone.

For some reason, critics are taking the ratings failures of “FlashForward” and “V” evidence that serials don’t work. Aaron Barnhart of the Kansas City Star had this to say: “Serial dramas are taking it on the chin, even on cable channels, where smaller audiences can keep a show afloat long after a big network would ordinarily cut it loose.”

While the above-mentioned series aren’t doing well, they aren’t the first to tank. How quickly folks forget that series trying to emulate the “24” and “Lost” formulas have been failing since 2001 and 2004, respectively.

Barnhart’s argument about cable serials failing is also misplaced, as he refers to the just-starting “Caprica”  and the always poorly rated “Damages.” I guess Barnhart wasn’t paying attention when “Mad Men” set viewership records on AMC, or when ratings for “True Blood” went through the roof on HBO. Same goes for “Sons of Anarchy,” and “Dexter.” Lower ratings and lack of syndication money are causes for concern for the major networks, but cable serials seem to be doing amazing.

Perhaps the biggest danger to the serial isn’t viewers but producers. The primary reason series like “FlashForward” and “Heroes” bleed viewers? They suck. The writing is terrible, the characters are wafer-thin and there is no one to root for.

That’s the story for almost all the past examples too. None of the serials on cable that employ good writing have been canceled.

“Lost” and “24” were originally propelled by great writing, and they just happened to get lucky with ratings. So if serials die, it’ll be because no one can write a good one, not because no one watches.

Extremes like “Lost” and “24” might not come to us every season, but serialization exists in other ways: the “four for us, one for you ‘X-Files’ approach” used by “Fringe” and “Supernatural” that employs a string of standalones before a taste of mythology; the “arc story in the first and last five minutes approach” used by USA series; and the “serial melodrama approach” used by “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Desperate Housewives” that develops character week-to-week.

Serialization isn’t going anywhere. It might not be able to serve two masters in the sense that dense mythology rarely equals high ratings, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to write a eulogy.