Critics Love 'Lost' Finale, Not So Much 'Heroes'

From syfyportal, The third season of "Lost" may have created some head-scratching among television critics, but the season finale and its amazing twist blew those hands off their heads, prompting the critics to name the ABC series the second best television show in the spring, according to a survey conducted by TV Week.

"With a terrific string of spring episodes, leading up to a game-changing, risk-taking finale, this audacious, gorgeous show re-established itself as network TV's best," said Robert Bianco, a television critic with USA Today.

Matt Roush, the popular critic for TV Guide, agreed, calling "Lost" the "comeback kid."

"'Lost' reclaimed its reputation as TV's most adventurous and surprising series with a run of terrific and exciting episodes, culminating in the most mind-blowing finale of the season."

After the fall string of episodes, "Lost" was still ranked a pretty healthy sixth, according to the TV Week poll, behind two other ABC shows, "Ugly Betty" and "Grey's Anatomy." But a strong finish to the season shot "Lost" straight up the chart behind only HBO's "The Sopranos," which also got a boost from what critics called a spectacular series finale.

Not every show's finale did so well. "Heroes," for example, tumbled in the rankings a few slots after the NBC show's first season finale met with a lukewarm reception with critics. It had previously held the No. 2 slot only to tumble to sixth behind "Ugly Betty," and NBC's "The Office" and "Friday Night Lights."

"Good story, good characters, disappointing resolution," said Robert Philpot, a critic with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Despite the fall, "Heroes" remained in the critics top 10 ahead of "30 Rock" on NBC, "The Shield" on FX, "Grey's Anatomy" on ABC and Showtime's "The Tudors."

"Battlestar Galactica," which held the ninth position after the fall airings, made a small dip to tie HBO's "Entourage" in 12th place, finishing just behind "The Riches" on FX. Critically, BSG finished ahead of some powerhouse programming like "American Idol" and "House" on Fox as well as "Boston Legal" and "Desperate Housewives" on ABC.

Fox did have some bad news in terms of "24," however. The show -- which was ranked 22 in the best list in the fall -- instead fell to the second worst reviewed television show.

"Soap opera elements and bad dialogue have always infected this series, but usually the action moves fast enough that you don't care about the flaws," Philpot said. "Not this year. And who decided it was a good idea to both neuter Chloe and make her pregnant?"

The twice-annual list is compiled from rankings developed by nearly 35 television critics nationwide. For the complete list, check out TV Week's original reporting by clicking here.