Killing the Hero

OK, I swore that I would stay away from pop culture, but I'm so sick of this latest trend that I need to rant for a minute.

Warning: Spoilers for Lost, Supernatural, 24, Prison Break and an unnamed movie

I have been a Lost fan since the beginning. This is the only show I can think of that I watched faithfully from the very first episode to the very last. And I gotta tell you, the finale pissed me off. Why? Not for all of the reasons everyone else stated. It sucks that all the mysteries didn't get explained and that they left plot holes in that you can drive a truck through. But what really did it for me is that I had to watch the protagonist struggle for six seasons, only to die. WTF? Really? Are they just trying to prove the old adage "Life sucks, and then you die"? Because they just did. Prison Break did exactly the same thing -- let's reward the hero with a dirt nap.

So one could argue that these two protagonists had lived their lives to protect and save their loved ones. OK, I don't care for that, but whatever. Which brings me to the unnamed movie. (If I say the name, you're going to know who dies, and I don't want to spoil it for anyone who doesn't happen to enjoy these death endings.) The protagonist is a little girl -- maybe 11 -- who has a craptastic life and all sorts of horrible things happen to her, and then she rescues her little brother, and guess what? She dies. Right on the verge of having a chance at something new. Sucks to be her. She didn't even get as much time to do anything as Jack Shepherd and Michael Scofield.

Maybe I'm more sensitive to these types of stories because I've lost someone and when I want to escape into entertainment, I don't want to be reminded of that. I want to believe that other people get the happily ever after I didn't. Isn't there room for that in pop culture?

Which brings me to the final two shows: Supernatural and 24. In these two, the heros live. Why? Not because the gods of entertainment chose to spare them, but because there's still more to come. I fully believe the last scene of 24 would have been Chloe blowing Jack's head off, but they've got a movie. So they'll probably just kill him there. With Supernatural, this was supposed to be the final season and the ending was the original written by the creator, so until the show was unexpectedly renewed for a 6th season, I'm willing to bet Sam would still be in hell -- his reward for stopping the apocalypse and saving the world.

OK, rant over. Maybe it's time to write my own movie.