I was beginning to think we’d have to wait for the DVDs just to be able to see the last two episodes…except there was no sign of a season 2 DVD release, either.

The wait is over: as of the first of the month, Better Off Ted Season 2 is available online at Netflix Instant, Amazon Video on Demand, and iTunes. The whole season, including those last two episodes!

We watched them both tonight. They were great: just as funny, quirky, absurd (in every sense of the word) and uncomfortable as ever.

I’m really going to miss this show. Really, I’ve been missing it since February, but there was always that thought that, somewhere in a network vault there were two more new episodes to see, if ABC would ever let them out.

For now, they’re streaming online. Here’s hoping for an eventual DVD or Blu-Ray release — some form of semi-permanent library. Because I don’t trust ABC to keep the show available long-term.

*Technically they didn’t officially cancel it until May, but production was shut down and they hadn’t shown an episode since February. It was pretty clear they weren’t going to bring it back.

FlashForward is two episodes away from its season — now series — finale. I’ll miss it a little, but I think I’ll miss what it could have been a lot more than I’ll miss what it actually was. The book was fascinating, and the pilot episode was absolutely fantastic, but since then it’s just been a study in missteps and missed opportunity, week after week. It was canceled yesterday. At least they built the first season around a one-year main arc, rather than relying on future seasons happening.

Heroes I won’t miss at all, actually. I loved season one, and even liked most of season two, flawed as it was…but I gave up on it during season three. The “Villains” arc was just plain annoying. I gave each of the following arcs a shot, but “Fugitives” is the kind of story that always bugs me, and “Redemption” just didn’t grab me at all. It was canceled today.

Better off Ted, though…that one I’ll miss. This one followed the Pushing Daisies path so precisely it’s bizarre: A short first season with Too Good to Last stamped all over it, then a surprise renewal, then cancellation halfway through season two…with several episodes left unshown. Maybe now that it’s officially toast, ABC will put the unaired episodes up at 3AM on a Sunday or something…again, like they did with Pushing Daisies. Or maybe we’ll just have to wait for the DVD. (There’d better be a DVD.)

Oh, well. Just like with Pushing Daisies, it’s a season more than I thought we’d see.

Next year: At least Castle will be back, and Leverage starts season three next month. I haven’t been paying much attention to new shows, but I’ve been keeping half an eye on No Ordinary Family, sort of a Fantastic Four/Incredibles type show about a family that gains super-powers, mostly because the mom is a speedster. (She’s also Darla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.) It was picked up by ABC yesterday. I suspect this means that if the show actually proves to be good, it’ll get two short seasons with the last three episodes left unaired for five months.

The only downside is that it looks like ABC has decided to throw Better Off Ted under the bus. I was really hoping that it was only preempted for the two-hour premiere, but there’s no sign of it next week. It would be nice if they’d at least let the show finish out the season.

Also: really angry at ABC News’s scare tactics of “OMG Al Qaeda intends to attack us!” Um, yeah. We knew that. We’ve known that for over a decade. We’ve known that since before 9/11. Trying to scare your viewers into a panic at every commercial break is not what I’d call responsible journalism.

Anyway, Lost spoilers below…

.

.

.

I’ve never liked the “none of this ever happened!” approach to ending a story, since it always makes me wonder what the point was. Exceptions are those where there are clear consequences. Someone who experienced the erased timeline is changed by it, for instance, like in It’s A Wonderful Life or Groundhog Day. “LA X” managed to do this twice: First by clearly establishing that in the alternate timeline, the island had actually been destroyed, and second by picking up five minutes later in the original timeline, making it clear that everything the show has built over the last five years hasn’t been a waste of time.

Okay, it’s sort of an “eat your cake and have it too” approach, but it works for me. It even makes some amount of sense that they’ve changed the rules of time travel, because changing history — or rather creating an alternate timeline — takes a lot more energy (adding a nuclear bomb to the island discharge) than the fully self-consistent time travel we’ve seen before.

It seems clear that the point of divergence isn’t whether the 815 survivors were present in 1977, or whether they tried Faraday’s plan, but whether the bomb detonated or not. They were instrumental in making sure that young Miles and Charlotte and their families left the island, cementing Ben’s connection with the Others, and saving Dr. Chang after his arm was crushed in the “incident.”

So far it’s been fun to look at the way the crashless reality aligns with and differs from the original, and look back at how characters have grown and their relationships have changed during the show. (Jin is a much better person, and Sun much stronger, for their time on the island.) It remains to be seen whether it’ll ultimately be anything more than a “what if…?” and a way to illustrate character traits. I’m not sure I want to see the timelines actually merge or cross, but I’d like to see some sort of link between the two.

Some things I want to see this season:

• What’s up with the Others at the temple?
• Jin and Sun reunited in the main timeline.
• What’s up with Desmond and Penny? (both timelines)
• More focus on people who aren’t named Jack.
• How will destiny play out in the alternate timeline?
• What’s the cost of saving Flight 815?

We can assume everyone on the island in 1977 died. No Eloise Hawking, no Daniel Faraday, no Mittelos Bioscience, etc. The island itself was apparently destroyed, though it seems to have sunken relatively intact (suggesting something else was going on and not just the bomb). Clearly Desmond wasn’t shipwrecked there, but what about Rousseau’s expedition? Was it recovered, or simply lost at sea? Did Charles Widmore know the island was destroyed, or did he keep looking for it? Edit: I just remembered that Widmore was still on the island in 1977. Which might also mean no Penny, depending on when she was born.

As for the passengers on the uneventful Flight 815, Rose’s cancer won’t be healed, Locke won’t find his calling, and Jin and Sun may never reconcile.

And what about the island itself? What does it mean for the rest of the world that the mysterious island no longer exists?

It was the chair in our hotel room (the converted bank office with the impressive lobby). Fortunately it wasn’t nearly as scratchy as Viridian Dynamics’ “Focus Master.” (Incidentally: more Better off Ted episodes are starting up in a couple of weeks for the summer!)

Some graffiti on plywood in the Gaslamp District area:

And then there was this “You Are Under Surveillance” sign. Something about the combination of the sign, the stairway, and all the posters on the walls just looked interesting.

Lost – Good season, learned a lot more than I expected about DHARMA, major cliffhanger. Renewed for a final season…in 2010. (Hard to believe that’s less than a year away)

Pushing Daisies – managed to maintain the tone & quality, but canceled halfway through the year. Supposed to get the last 3 episodes starting at the end of the month. A 12-issue comic book miniseries has already been announced.

Bones – I only saw a few episodes, but liked them, and Katie’s been watching it regularly. Fun off-format season finale w/ a nasty cliffhanger. Returning, according to the voiceover during the credits.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – turned our to be a surprisingly solid, complex show. No word on renewal yet, but I’d like to see more. Update 6: canceled.

Dollhouse: Started off weak, but got really interesting as the season progressed. It’s not a comfortable show by any means. No word on renewal, but if I had to choose between this and T:SCC, I’d take SCC. Update 2: Unofficial sources say it’s renewed, but I wouldn’t count my actives until they’re all back for their treatments.

Heroes: I gave up 2 episodes into the “Fugitives” arc, but Katie kept watching. Deeply problematic show but its high points were very good. Renewed, and I hope it’ll improve next year.

Better Off Ted – fun, painful, quirky all rolled into one. Sort of like a less-nerdy Dilbert or Office Space. I’d like to see more, but it doesn’t seem likely. Update 3: Holy crap, it’s been renewed! That’s a bigger surprise than Dollhouse!

Castle – favorite of this year’s mid-season replacements. Would definitely like to see more, but would be okay if this turned out to be all. Unlike, say, Drive. Update 1: Cool! It’s been renewed!

Battlestar Galactica – finished off with a very good final season. Caprica, on the other hand, was tedious. May take another look at it when the series launches.

Update 4: Forgot to mention The Unusuals, which we checked out, but neither of us found interesting enough to stick with. The ads built it up to be…well…unusual, and it wasn’t. Castle and Bones both routinely dealt with more unusual cases. For anyone who did like it, prospects look dim. Update 7: canceled.

Update 5: EW has a running tally of all the network shows.

Update 8 (May 18): The decisions are in for all of them now. I’m sad to see Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles canceled (especially in the same week that Terminator: Salvation opens), and I’m still annoyed at losing Pushing Daisies halfway through the season, but the other shows we watch have had a remarkably good survival rate this year.