Emmys:2010 – Series Finales – Lost, Law & Order, 24

The Law & Order patriarch finally ended last night, with a school bombing episode. ¬†If there was one take-away from the closing, Emmy-wise, it was that S. Epatha Merkerson might finally get some Emmy love for her work on the long-running series. If her bout with cancer doesn’t do the trick, what will? Love for that series, and the spin-offs it fathered should be enough to garner it more than a few farewell Emmys. Merkerson has never been nominated for her work on Law & Order, although the show has been nominated for, and won many Emmys. Nothing since 2003, however.

24 and Lost have been on the air longer than they should have. The truth is that most would agree (except perhaps die-hard fans of either or both) that they both ran out of material long ago and since then have been just going through the motions. Of the two, Lost seems like it might have been a big enough phenomenon, watched and appreciated by many, to maybe get yet more Emmy love; the show has been much lauded with the Television Academy.

How does Emmy do with series finales? Does it prefer to reward the old or the new? It almost seems like they should have an award for a long-running show reaching its conclusion. If it’s true that Emmy wins can lengthen a show’s shelf life, then there is no incentive to reward one on the way out. But if it is sentimental enough, loved enough, there might be something for one of these shows.

Of the three, I will probably miss Lost the best; not because I understood any of it; I didn’t. But watching it was a weekly event. And I admire its brazen absurdity.

Meanwhile, Law & Order will fill its slot with a “fresh and new” Law & Order Los Angeles to start in the Fall.