It's kind of unsatisfactory, since the show was intended to go to regular. But it didn't, so the "To Be Continued" ending and fact that nothing is really resolved leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. But it's a fun trip along the way.
A key part of it is Kevin Pollak, who walks the thin line between a bad guy and a father driven insane with grief over the loss of his son. Pollak did a lot of movie and TV appearances, but he was never better than 'The Lost Room'. I don't know what casting person recruited him, but they did Pollak and the audience a big favor.
Another key actor is Peter Jacobson, who smirks, twitches, and upstages everyone in every scene he occupies. Other than Joe's obligatory sidekick and Exposition Guy, Wally really doesn't _do_ anything. But he's an entertaining presence despite that, as I've noted in my previous reviews.
Really, the whole cast shines. Mostly due to the writing of Laura Harkcom and Christopher Leone. The world of 'Lost Room' just seems... lived in. Mostly because the characters are so down-to-earth. Kreutzfeld is a pawnshop owner. Kang runs a dry-cleaning store. The Weasel is a disgraced professor. Harold is apparently a homeless guy. Zoraida is a drug dealer. Even minor roles like the Sood and Anthony get their moments. I like Anthony's childlike wonder when Kreutzfeld uses the Key in front of him. Or the Sood's defense of his honor when Kreutzfeld calls him on possibly faking the Object chart.
Lois Geary as Mabel also shines in a bit part. The actress plays a small-town librarian who has to convey a lifetime of regrets ("Should I agree with this complete stranger, who has inconvertible proof that he's my husband, even though I don't remember him?") into a five-minute scene that is more like Serling's original Twilight Zone, than most of the newer TZ ones were like that the original TZ series. It's also interesting to watch Jacobson, whose Wally is only present to witness Mabel's doubts. He doesn't overreact like Wally usually does: he just... reacts, like back in Episode 2 (or the back half of episode 1, depending on how you're counting) when he told Joe, "You forget to be human, sometime."
Part of it the precision clockwork writing that Harkcom and Leone do. The Objects' sheer normality helps: we don't have weird antique (a trefinator? An aspirator?) like on 'Friday the 13th', or famous people's items like 'Warehouse 13'. They're just... common things that are given a bit of reality-altering power by an unexplained Event.
I'm not a big fan of Peter Krause, but the writers turn Joe into an everyman who gets by because of sheer persistence and because he's an outsider dealing with all the obsessed individuals that have and are hunting the Objects. Krause does that well.
Julianna Marguiles is the one disappointment, in part because her character doesn't have much to do, and she doesn't do much with it. She's the obligatory "Heroic Guy's Girlfriend", and falls into the sack with Joe for no reason other than IITS (It's In the Script). Marguiles and Krause don't have any chemistry, and one gets the impression Jennifer was tossed in because either the writers or the network thought Joe should have a romance.
The last "episode" is kind of rushed, like the production staff knew that SyFy was pulling the plug. The Weasel shows up for no particular reason, just to get Joe to the Sood, who gets Joe to the Occupant. And the Occupant explains how Joe can get Anna back. Which... doesn't make much sense. The Occupant, Eddie, says that if Joe kills him then Joe will become the new Occupant. But Joe doesn't become the new Occupant, at least that is never shown. And Anna reappears, just because. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with Joe killing Eddie.
At the end Joe drives of, unOccupanted. After tossing the Key into the Room and apparently resetting it so that it disappears. But... it reappears. Apparently on its own, because it's... sentient? Who knows?
Along the way, Kreutzfeld disappear into the Room as well. That doesn't make much sense, either. He has the Eye, which will heal flesh. Which he said he was trying to get to cure Isaac of leukemia. But when Kreutzfeld had the Eye, he didn't use it to cure the "memory Isaac". And why is the real Isaac in the Room when he died of leukemia years ago? Presumably the Room is using the image of Isaac to lure Kreutzfeld into the rip. But the rip is "healed" by Eddie going into the Room? So why did the Room want Kreutzfeld? Did it? What happened to Kreutzfeld? It's a waste of Pollak's performance. Ditto for Jacobson, who just walks away at the beginning of Episode 6.
So 'The Lost Room' doesn't really stick the ending. It's hard to imagine any of this would, or could, have been explained if it went to series as was intended. I wish the writers had rewritten it so there was a little more ending to the ending. But it was a fun trip along the way.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
A key part of it is Kevin Pollak, who walks the thin line between a bad guy and a father driven insane with grief over the loss of his son. Pollak did a lot of movie and TV appearances, but he was never better than 'The Lost Room'. I don't know what casting person recruited him, but they did Pollak and the audience a big favor.
Another key actor is Peter Jacobson, who smirks, twitches, and upstages everyone in every scene he occupies. Other than Joe's obligatory sidekick and Exposition Guy, Wally really doesn't _do_ anything. But he's an entertaining presence despite that, as I've noted in my previous reviews.
Really, the whole cast shines. Mostly due to the writing of Laura Harkcom and Christopher Leone. The world of 'Lost Room' just seems... lived in. Mostly because the characters are so down-to-earth. Kreutzfeld is a pawnshop owner. Kang runs a dry-cleaning store. The Weasel is a disgraced professor. Harold is apparently a homeless guy. Zoraida is a drug dealer. Even minor roles like the Sood and Anthony get their moments. I like Anthony's childlike wonder when Kreutzfeld uses the Key in front of him. Or the Sood's defense of his honor when Kreutzfeld calls him on possibly faking the Object chart.
Lois Geary as Mabel also shines in a bit part. The actress plays a small-town librarian who has to convey a lifetime of regrets ("Should I agree with this complete stranger, who has inconvertible proof that he's my husband, even though I don't remember him?") into a five-minute scene that is more like Serling's original Twilight Zone, than most of the newer TZ ones were like that the original TZ series. It's also interesting to watch Jacobson, whose Wally is only present to witness Mabel's doubts. He doesn't overreact like Wally usually does: he just... reacts, like back in Episode 2 (or the back half of episode 1, depending on how you're counting) when he told Joe, "You forget to be human, sometime."
Part of it the precision clockwork writing that Harkcom and Leone do. The Objects' sheer normality helps: we don't have weird antique (a trefinator? An aspirator?) like on 'Friday the 13th', or famous people's items like 'Warehouse 13'. They're just... common things that are given a bit of reality-altering power by an unexplained Event.
I'm not a big fan of Peter Krause, but the writers turn Joe into an everyman who gets by because of sheer persistence and because he's an outsider dealing with all the obsessed individuals that have and are hunting the Objects. Krause does that well.
Julianna Marguiles is the one disappointment, in part because her character doesn't have much to do, and she doesn't do much with it. She's the obligatory "Heroic Guy's Girlfriend", and falls into the sack with Joe for no reason other than IITS (It's In the Script). Marguiles and Krause don't have any chemistry, and one gets the impression Jennifer was tossed in because either the writers or the network thought Joe should have a romance.
The last "episode" is kind of rushed, like the production staff knew that SyFy was pulling the plug. The Weasel shows up for no particular reason, just to get Joe to the Sood, who gets Joe to the Occupant. And the Occupant explains how Joe can get Anna back. Which... doesn't make much sense. The Occupant, Eddie, says that if Joe kills him then Joe will become the new Occupant. But Joe doesn't become the new Occupant, at least that is never shown. And Anna reappears, just because. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with Joe killing Eddie.
At the end Joe drives of, unOccupanted. After tossing the Key into the Room and apparently resetting it so that it disappears. But... it reappears. Apparently on its own, because it's... sentient? Who knows?
Along the way, Kreutzfeld disappear into the Room as well. That doesn't make much sense, either. He has the Eye, which will heal flesh. Which he said he was trying to get to cure Isaac of leukemia. But when Kreutzfeld had the Eye, he didn't use it to cure the "memory Isaac". And why is the real Isaac in the Room when he died of leukemia years ago? Presumably the Room is using the image of Isaac to lure Kreutzfeld into the rip. But the rip is "healed" by Eddie going into the Room? So why did the Room want Kreutzfeld? Did it? What happened to Kreutzfeld? It's a waste of Pollak's performance. Ditto for Jacobson, who just walks away at the beginning of Episode 6.
So 'The Lost Room' doesn't really stick the ending. It's hard to imagine any of this would, or could, have been explained if it went to series as was intended. I wish the writers had rewritten it so there was a little more ending to the ending. But it was a fun trip along the way.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
