neurological dryer lint

i was pretty hyped up for scifi's short miniseries the lost room... the premise was interesting and the cast looked solid - peter krause, kevin pollack...

the three-episode, two-hour-each show was on for the last three days. the storyline sucked me in: pittsburgh police detective joe miller receives a strange motel key from a suspect. he finds that it turns any door into a passageway to a motel room in new mexico, and from that room he can teleport to any door on the planet. he soon discovers that other objects that once sat in the strange room also possess supernatural powers. his daughter disappears into the room, though, and as he tries to figure out how to get her back he encounters other people, good and evil, who are trying to collect all of the objects for different purposes.

you could tell it was done by scifi fans - because they actually took the time to stop and explain some of the questions that they knew the audience would be thinking. i always appreciate that style of writing. krause is still a great everyman, and kevin pollack keeps you guessing about his character's true motives the whole time. julianna margulies makes you yawn, though, she's typically emotionless and dry and didn't wow me at all.

episode one set things up and got me drooling, and two had me completely enthralled. and then episode three... total disaster. one of the most disappointing, unfulfilling endings i've ever seen. scifi has to be setting this show up for a full-scale series... the only other possibilities are that the editors were drunk, or the writers were stupid. you get absolutely no answers to any of the questions that drive you to keep watching - what was the event that happened in the room on may 4, 1961? what happened to joe at the end? what happened to karl and his son? who is the occupant?

don't get me wrong, a full series would be worth checking out, but they seemed to put some effort into trying to bring closure. poor effort, but enough to try to create the illusion of happily-ever-after for the main characters. and if they leave it where it is, it'd be a shame.