And it's over

Some of you don't watch Lost. So some of you are scratching your heads over all the hoopla. But in this household, and in thousands of others nationwide, it's the end of an era.

Noel stayed up until 3 am writing a five-thousand-word post about the final episode. A placeholder set of notes he put up shortly after the episode ended had a thousand comments by the time he got his full essay up.

This morning he's been quoted all over the internet and on social networks. Huffington Post, Us Magazine, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Time Magazine, and any number of television-specific and Lost-specific sites, plus countless Twitter feeds -- all have mentioned and responded to his coverage.

Frankly, one thing we'll miss -- or at least I'll miss; I shouldn't speak for Noel -- is the sense of being at the center of the cultural conversation. The Lost blog led us to have some good conversations about television writing in general, and about the emerging conventions that surround them in the instant-reaction environment of the web. I hope Noel -- and the TV Club -- have gained some readers. And I'm sure that the thinking, reading, and writing we've done in this high-profile area will inform and improve our work to come.