thisisgina.com

Regarding those changes I was hinting about...

2010-06-08T10:38:00.001-04:00

I'm starting a new blog. This one won't be going anywhere, you will still be able to access all of the archived posts and I'm not sure I'm going to entirely abandon it just yet. But as of right now, I will no longer be posting here.

The new blog is called My TV and Me, and the web address is http://mytvandme.wordpress.com. As the blog title suggests, it will deal almost exclusively with television matters. I would like to say that I decided to narrow the focus of the blog on my own, but in fact it's been happening for a while now. My online presence has become increasingly fractured by Facebook and Twitter - FB is where I post most of my photos and share funny videos and interesting news items with family and friends and Twitter, well, it's yet another diversion. I have been a terrible blogger in recent months, and I'm hoping that starting all over, with a more specific focus, will light a fire under my ass. It hasn't been an easy decision for me to make - I've had this blog since 2001 (!), and I'm not as fond of change as I would like to think I am - but I do believe it's time. I chose Wordpress because of its behind-the-scenes functionality and cool designs. And it's also free.

So, thank you for visiting thisisgina, whether this is the first time you've been here or you've been reading this blog for years. Seriously, thank you :).

See you at my new site!

Today's Tweets

2010-06-04T09:52:00.000-04:00

Via @ebertchicago - A British cemetery encased in caterpillar silk

Via @Movieline - Daniel Craig in talks to play Mikael Blomkvist in US film of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" (Oh, please please please PLEASE!)

Via @feliciaday - Animals with their tongues sticking out!

Today's Tweets

2010-06-02T10:58:00.000-04:00

Via @vanityfairmag - Liz and Dick, the Ultimate Celebrity Couple

Via @EW - 10 Rookie Shows Ken Tucker Wants to See (Of that list, the only ones that appeal to me are No Ordinary Family and Undercovers. Otherwise? Meh)

Via @npr - Artist Tattoos Indelible Iraq Memorial Into His Skin

Via @televisionary - HBO's new True Blood trailer!

The Daily Otter

2010-06-01T16:07:00.000-04:00

How did I not know about The Daily Otter?? How have I managed to live out each day without a dose of these guys?? I feel like I have been living a life half full.

Not any longer.

LOST: The End

2010-05-24T15:37:00.001-04:00

"Remember. Let go. Move on."
~Damon Lindelof, Twitter, May 23, 2010, midnight

My God, where do I even begin? There is no way I can do a thorough recap so soon, so I will give you my immediate, knee-jerk reaction (which often times is the most reliable): I thought that it was, by far, the best series finale I have ever seen. It was about as close to perfect as it could have been, at least for me and what I was wanting out of a finale. Would it have been nice to have had the mythology of the show addressed a little more directly? Perhaps, but certainly not at the expense of anything we saw last night.

I have dissected (or tried to dissect) the mysteries of this show right along with the geekiest of LOST geeks, and the tantalizing weirdness of LOST was a big part of the appeal for me. A great television show, however, does not survive on mythology alone. How far would The X-Files have gone if it weren't for the iconic Mulder and Scully? And look at how much the series finale of that show suffered for its emphasis on tieing up an already messy mythology. No, for me, the plot should always serve the characters, and not the other way around, and I would have lost interest in LOST very early on if I hadn't gotten so invested, so quickly in these characters.

There was so much about the finale that I loved, but let's get a couple of questions out of the way, first:

So what exactly happened when Juliet detonated the bomb? Nothing? I was assuming it had because of her saying "It worked" to Sawyer right before she died; but we now know that "it worked" was really just what she said to Sawyer about the candy machine trick. Was it the detonation of the bomb that created the sideways place?
Why was the Island at the bottom of the ocean in the sideways world? Perhaps this one is connected to the first question.

I know I have more questions than that, but these will be a good start.

I'm going to take the easy way out and bombard you with bullets. No! not the kind that are always flying around on this show, this kind:

My favorite parts on the Island:

Rose and Bernard are alive! Vincent is alive! Richard Alpert is alive! Frank Lapidus is alive!! Man, that was a great way to start things off.
I admit to laughing out loud when poor Ben got hit in the face one last time by Sawyer
Jack and Locke's epic fight on the cliff was the best fight scene on LOST, ever. As well it should be.
I'm not a huge Kate fan, but I was pleased that it was she who shot Locke and then got to carry out one last badass move and jump off of that cliff before Sawyer did.
The scene where Jack hands the baton to Hurley was note perfect.
and, of course, the final scene. By the time Vincent came and laid down next to Jack, I was a blubbering idiot.

My favorite Sideways parts:

Hurley's face when he saw Charlie. So much love and affection.
Sun, Jin and Juliet - that's where the crying began.
Then Claire, Kate and Charlie had me nearly sobbing.
But it was Sawyer and Juliet who put me over the edge, especially when he whispered, "I got you, baby" in her ear.

From that point to the end I was crying like a baby. I was wrecked.

I think the thing I took away from the finale - and the show as a whole - is that it is our relationships with others that sustain us through our life and beyond, and that what was important was the they all found each other again. Live together, or die alone.

OK, that's about all I can write for now. What did you all think?

This is my final review of LOST. I can't believe it. I want to thank everyone - however few you may be! - who took the time to come here, to listen to my ravings, and to share in the discussion. I will miss watching LOST, miss it terribly, and I will miss talking about it with you.

Namaste.

LOST

2010-05-23T16:36:00.002-04:00

So this is it.

For good or bad, there was never a television show like LOST - innovative and interactive, at times frustrating but mostly rewarding - and I doubt there will ever be another one like it.

I'm not sure what to expect tonight, but I am almost certain I will love it no matter how it ends. This will be the very last LOST episode, ever. Enjoy it.

LOSTapalooza III

2010-05-22T13:45:00.001-04:00

Jimmy Fallon grills Fox, Lilly and Garcia:

Remember this?

LOSTapalooza II

2010-05-22T13:28:00.000-04:00

Fabulously long Vanity Fair interview with Michael Emerson

Mo Ryan's favorite LOST characters (i.e., just about all of them!)

A graphic guide to LOST

The entire series of LOST re-enacted by cats in 1 minute:

It's a LOSTapalooza

2010-05-21T13:55:00.000-04:00

I'm just going to keep posting LOST stuff all weekend, as I find it, until it's over.

Jorge Garcia says goodbye to LOST. *sniff*

Auditions for the Smoke Monster:

The shirtless men of LOST, ladies!

LOST Reading Recs

2010-05-19T14:03:00.000-04:00

Alan Sepinwall loved it.

Mo Ryan liked it

I don't think Vanity Fair's Mike Ryan liked it.

Televisionary really liked it.

And Tom and Lorenzo called it the most satisfying episode of the season.

LOST: Episode 6.15

2010-05-19T12:04:00.001-04:00

What They Died For

"We're very close to the end, Hugo."
~Jacob

What makes a LOST episode great, amazing, unlike anything else on TV? I'd say it was a combination of things: emotionally resonant character interaction, heart-stopping action, moments of humor, and just plain freaky shit. (Richard! No!) And that pretty much describes last night's fantastic episode.

What did I love about it? I think just about everything, but mostly the great character moments. Let me count the ways...

Alt-Desmond - well, the night was an embarrassment of riches for him, wouldn't you say? Particularly the scenes in the jail and the prisoner van.

Ben - I think the same can be said for Ben, in both timelines. The selflessness of alt-Ben, juxtaposed with the self-preservation skills of Island Ben. I love that the rumored romance for Ben (which frankly I had forgotten about) turned out to be with Rousseau. When his breath caught after learning he was like a father to Alex, I almost lost it. Loved the kidnapping line, too.

Alt-Locke - He was amazing in the scene in Jack's office. What an expressive face TOQ has.

Jack - His acceptance of Jacob's job has long been predicted, yet it didn't feel anti-climactic to me. I think it's because his character as come so far to get here. I loved the breakfast scene in the alt world. I hope that happiness doesn't get shattered by the real world.

Sawyer - Poor, poor Sawyer. What a shitty week or so he's had, huh? I am so glad he acknowledged his part in the sinking of the sub, but my heart broke for him.

Even Alt-Sayid and Alt-Hurley had their moments - Sayid's snarky "Oh of course, sure, I promise!" and Hurley's effusive "Hey, Ana Lucia!" - in the middle of all the madness. And Miles, of course, rocked the smartass stuff. I guess when you spend 6 years building strong characters it only takes a line or two.

OK, the random stuff and the questions:

When Desmond started the car I actually said out loud to an empty room, "He's not going to try again, is he?!"
Who let our Desmond out of the well? Sayid told Jack he was in there, so it wasn't him. Claire, perhaps?
What's going on with alt-Jack's neck? And what purpose does telling him that the airline found his father's coffin serve?
Has Ben regressed to his old ways? I don't think so. I think the memory of Alex's death was fresh (because of Miles), that when he saw Widmore all he wanted to do was to get revenge. Then when he saw what MIBLocke did to Richard (Richard! No!), he knew he had no chance of defeating him, at least not on his own. He's got something up his sleeve. He always does.
So all of the events of the sideways world are leading up to the concert - I'm assuming David's concert is the same as the museum one. Attending so far: Jack, David, David's mother (Juliet?), Miles (with Sawyer?), Desmond, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid. I wonder how (or if) Jin, Sun, Ben and Locke will get there?

So what do you think? Will MIBLocke succeed in destroying the Island (remember, the Island is at the bottom of the sea in the alt world)? And will that be the point at which "none of this will exist anymore", leaving the sideways world as the "real" one? I can totally see that happening. And I can imagine the final scene - or at least one of the final scenes - being Juliet, after meeting Sawyer at the concert, asking him out for a cup of coffee. I will bawl my eyes out, but I think I could deal with that ending.

Oh, and one more thing: Kate? the next time a sexy Scotsman gives you a little black dress and tells you he's taking you to a concert in a smokin' red Camaro, just say "OK".

Three and a half hours and then it's over.

2010-05-18T12:11:00.003-04:00

Tonight is the penultimate episode of LOST, which will be leaving our TV screens forever - FOREVER! - in less than a week. This time next week, it'll all be over. GAH!

The Internet is of course awash in all things LOST in the lead-up to "The End", so I thought I'd point out a few things that you may have missed.

New York Times interview with Lindelof and Cuse

Reflection on LOST from the stars, fans and bloggers

Dana Carvey's LOST Spinoff:

Dana Carvey's LOST Spin-off from Dana Carvey

Televisionary previews tonight's episode - without spoilers:

While "Across the Sea" felt like an entirely different series, a parable slotted in right after a particularly tense and heartbreaking episode, "What They Died For" feels entirely like a penultimate episode of Lost should: it sets the stage for the final chapter (airing Sunday evening, of course) and kicks the action into high gear, signaling in no uncertain terms that the end is about to arrive.

Enjoy the show.

Fan-Made Trailer for LOST Finale

2010-05-15T20:06:00.000-04:00

Get psyched!

LOST Reading Recs

2010-05-12T13:50:00.003-04:00

Alan Sepinwall liked it (the discussion in his comments really illuminated some stuff for me)

Mo Ryan hated it

And Tom and Lorenzo can't get over the "big, glowing vagina."

LOST: Episode 6.14

2010-05-12T13:12:00.000-04:00

Across the Sea

WARNING: Heavy Exposition Work Ahead!

This one? Eh. I'll take it for what it was: Backstory and exposition. We need it, they have to give it, so here it is. I had very little emotional connection with any of the characters, but I did love the last 10 or 15 minutes.

This is what I think went down:

Mother is one in a long line of Island protectors. I think her years (decades? centuries?) of isolation on the Island have made her a little crackers, as well as a bit homicidal. She sees the opportunity for recruiting candidates for the replacement position when a pregnant woman washes ashore. So, after the babies are born, she kills her and raises the twins herself, Jacob and the one with no name, who I will continue to call MIB. She shows them a stream leading into a cave filled with a golden light, telling them that is what they need to protect, but they can never enter it. Whoever did would suffer a fate worse than death. "Mother" favors MIB, possibly because he seems to be the brighter of the two, but his intelligence/inquisitiveness/thirst for knowledge will eventually lead him away from her and Jacob.

30 years later, and MIB is thisclose to getting off the Island for good when Mother ruins everything - destroys his donkey wheel contraption and murders all of his "people". Afterward, Mother annoints Jacob as her successor, letting him drink from the cup of everlasting life. When MIB discovers what Mother has done, stabs her with his special dagger and kills her. Then Jacob in a fit of rage beats MIB and tosses him into the golden cave where I believe his soul is ripped from his body and released in the form of the Smoke Monster (pure rage?). Right? Sounds downright Shakepearean, doesn't it? Or maybe Biblical is a better description.

And if I'm looking at this screencap correctly, the light has gone out of the cave. So Jacob had the job for what? A few hours before he destroyed the source of all life or whatever that light is supposed to be? The Island seems to be the source of all life, right? Or maybe just the soul?

Anyhoo, Jacob finds MIB's dead body, which he brings back to the cave and places next to Mother's body, placing with them the small pouch with the black and white stones. Adam and Eve explained. The origin of the Others, where the statue came from? Not explained.

Does all of that sound about right?

Some random thoughts:

I did think it was interesting that MIB was the one who was supposed to have the job, and that he was 'special' like Hurley, with the ability to see dead people. Jacob, on the other hand, seemed more than just naive - he actually seemed a bit dim. Jacob also seemed to be the one with the violent tendencies, almost beating his brother to death those two times. MIB not only seemed more on the ball, he possessed a cynicism and world-weariness even as a boy.
Here are a few things that I did not like about the episode (and they were kind of big things): 1) I thought that Allison Janney, who I usually love, was miscast. Her affect was too flat; 2) I thought the dialogue was very clunky, and suffered from the fact that MIB had no name; and 3) You're telling me that these ancient people understood the electromagnetic powers of the Island/its light and figured out that if you build some kind of contraption, hook it up to the light and install a donkey wheel, that you can turn that donkey wheel and get off the Island? Maybe end up in Tunisia somewhere? Come on. I would rather have not had that answer!
The writers have said that they knew all along who Adam and Eve were - thus implying that they pretty much had the story mapped out in their heads from the beginning - and we would have proof of that when we found out who they were. Just the identity of the man and woman, though, wouldn't have been enough to convince me that they knew from the beginning - they could make any scenario work at this point, e.g. Rose and Bernard, or Jack and Kate - and pretend that they knew it was going to be them all along. It's the black and white stones in the pouch that Jacob places with his Mother and MIB and that Jack and Kate found with Adam and Eve way back in season 1 that leave me convinced that they really did know how things would end when they started.

Well, now that we've gotten the Jacob/MIB origin story out of the way - and I do think we needed this episode - let's get back to the people we really want to see!

LOST Scraps

2010-05-11T15:20:00.002-04:00

A few tidbits in the lead-up to tonight's episode...

New York Post Michael Emerson Interview

Hurley gets the EW with Sawyer on the cover (so did I, but I'm not complaining!)

Dharma product labels, just in time for your LOST finale party!

(all links via tvtattle)

Maybe it's really a head bandage disguised as a bandana?

2010-05-11T14:42:00.003-04:00

OK, before I say anything else, I want you all to know that I am very happy that Bret Michaels seems to have recovered nicely from his cerebral hemorrage. Really, I am. He's a cheeseball with terrible taste in women, but he also seems like he's a pretty nice guy.

So anyway, I was just wondering if anyone finds it hilarious that he's wearing his bandana in that inset photo? I bet he's got his guyliner on, too.

Today's Tweets

2010-05-11T14:32:00.002-04:00

Via @CuteOverload - Baby Otter Webcam!

Via @Movieline - Lost's Jeff Fahey on the Fate of Frank Lapidus and that Machete Trailer

Via @fuggirls - Anne Hathaway really knows how to pick 'em.

Today's Tweets

2010-05-06T14:07:00.000-04:00

@vanityfairmag - The LOST Good-Bye

Via @fuggirls - The Fug Girls' Annotated History of Mickey Rourke's Fashion Choices

Via @EW - This week's cover: The End of LOST

Via @redwingx (my friend) - Sunrise over Bryce Canyon

Via @popcandy - Downloadable PDF season finale calendar

LOST Reading Recs

2010-05-05T15:53:00.003-04:00

I thought I'd point you in the direction of some great reviews/recaps of last night's LOST episode. Enjoy!

Alan Sepinwall's review

Televisionary Jace's review

Tom and Lorenzo

and

Mark Lisanti's "23 Questions About LOST Episode 614 Answered"

A big thank you to all of the above for helping me to make sense of what I just saw.

LOST: Episodes 6.13 and 6.14

2010-05-05T14:13:00.000-04:00

THERE BE MAJOR SPOILERS HERE!

I am still reeling. It is no lie when I say that my heart was still racing when I went to bed a full hour an a half after I finished watching. Was "The Candidate" a good episode? Um, I think so. The massacre at the end has kind of obliterated, for now, the forty minutes that came before it. Oy!

Before I get to last night's episode, a few brief words about the one I neglected,

The Last Recruit

Two weeks I've had, and I still didn't manage to get a post up for this episode, and I am really sorry about that. It was a solid episode that spent a lot of time moving people around like pieces on a chessboard, and blowing up a lot of stuff. While it felt a bit too brief and/or understated at the time, after last night Sun and Jin's reunion at the end of "The Last Recruit" will probably play a little better upon rewatch. They barely had time to say hello when the guns got whipped out again.

I loved how we got to see all of the players finally come together. This show always works well when everyone plays a part, imo.

I don't really have too much else to say about this one. If you'd like to delve more deeply, please check out Alan's review and its comment section.

Now, on to last night's soul-crusher...

The Candidate

Sayid: "Because it's going to be you, Jack."

Me, after it was over: "I wish Sawyer had believed him."

My God, where do I start? Honestly, I have no idea where this thing is going anymore. Well, I never actually KNEW, but I felt I could give an educated guess. Not anymore. And I'm sort of afraid. That's not necessarily a bad thing - it probably means that the writers are doing a good job - but it's scary to be afraid!

(Warning: If you couldn't tell already, this thing is going to be all over the place because that's what the inside of my brain is like now)

With the end so near, I was preparing myself for the inevitable shocking deaths but Jiminy Cricket! FOUR people in ten minutes?! That's more shock than my heart can take, thank you very much.

Frank Lapidus - My favorite wise-crackin', honorary LOSTie. There's no way he survived getting hit by that bulkhead and drowning. Is there?

Sayid - The one thing that MIBLocke did not count on, and that was a human being's capacity for good, for choosing to do the right thing, even if he is a zombie with an infected soul. Like Hurley said, you can always come back from the Dark Side. I was pretty confident that there would be no other ending for Sayid but death, and I am glad that it was a redemptive one.

Sun and Jin - I don't know what to say. I think I'm still processing it. This is not the ending I wanted for them, not by a long shot. Their story, however, was done being told, and I suppose there is comfort in the knowledge that they died together, at last. *sniff* Doc Jensen at EW posted a short interview with Lindelof and Cuse in which they talk about some of the stuff that went down in "The Candidate". This is what they said about the Kwons' death:

“Because now you know this show is willing and capable of killing anyone,” says Damon Lindelof...Why was it so important for Lost to prove that it can be downright homicidal during its last season? To establish once and for all that the Locke-ness Monster is the true villain of season 6 and quite possibly all of Lost. “There is no ambiguity,” says Cuse. “He is evil and he has to be stopped.”

Point well-made.

I'm just going to put everything else into a bullet point list because I just can't be prosy right now.

I don't think Widmore put the C4 on the plane. I think it was Richard, Ben and Miles - isn't that what they went to do? Get explosives from Dharmaville and rig the plane to blow? No? Whoever put it there, MIBLocke already knew it was on board - why else would he have taken the dead guy's watch before he climbed into the plane?
Jack was 100% correct about MIBLocke's intention with regard to the bomb. If they let the clock run out, the bomb would not have gone off (just like the dynamite in the Black Rock). MIBLocke was counting on Sawyer doing exactly what he did, including his betrayal.
I enjoyed all of the alt-timeline, watching the veil between the sideways world and the real world slip away a bit more as Jack starts making connections between Oceanic 815 people (Bernard!) and more of the real world begins to seep into their subconscious minds ("I wish you'd believed me", "Push the button", "What happened, happened", Catch a Falling Star playing on the music box). Great shot of Jack and Claire in the music box mirror, btw. Terry O'Quinn was amazing in the final scene between him and Jack in the hospital hallway.
That final scene on the beach killed me. Killed me! To see them all so devastated, to hear Hurley sobbing and to see the pain in Jack's face...Jesus, show!

I need to wrap this up because, in my real world, I'm supposed to be working. Like I can concentrate now.

What did you think?

I want what he's smoking!

2010-04-30T22:54:00.002-04:00

Two of my loyal readers - or should I say, "my two loyal readers"? - have made reference in the comments of another post to how fantastic Fringe has been these past few weeks, and I wholeheartedly agree. In fact, I think it's one of the best shows on TV right now.

Last night's episode - "Brown Betty", a pot-fueled, noir fantasy sprinkled with song - might not have been everyone's cup of tea, but I thought it was fantastic. Being the geek that I am, the sci-fi aspects of the show are what drew me in, but it's the characters and emotional storytelling the keep me watching. And "Brown Betty" was filled with both, allowing us to see the characters through Walter's eyes. Both Peter and Olivia seemed more alive, somehow (and didn't she look gorgeous?), and had more chemistry together in one episode than they have had in all the others combined. Interesting that Walter sees them that way. I liked the metaphor of the glass heart, how Peter had stolen Walter's heart when he left. Walter's own view of himself - as the villain of the story, the stealer of children's dreams, someone unworthy of a happy ending - was so sad.

As far as the musical portions (mandated by FOX as part of their musical-themed week of programming), they weren't nearly as intrusive as I thought they would be, and I especially loved Broyles' song and Olivia singing "For Once In My Life" to Peter.

"Brown Betty" allowed us to pause and spend time with the characters, to understand where they are emotionally before the inevitable shit starts hitting the fan on the way to the season finale. I just hope that ultimately, when all is said and done and the show finishes its run, that Walter, Peter and Olivia get the happy ending that they deserve.

I'm looking forward to watching it again.

MoMA

2010-04-27T11:35:00.001-04:00

03-28-2010 027, originally uploaded by gina64.

Here are some photos that I have been meaning to post.

On March 27 friends and I went to the Museum of Modern Art to see the Tim Burton Exhibit (which has since ended). The Burton exhibit was awesome - so great to see items from his movies as well as his many drawings - but unfortunately, there was no photography allowed. The photo above - Toxic Boy - was the only Burton image I came away with.

Besides Burton, I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy MoMA, since I consider myself not a fan of modern art. Well, I was wrong because I was wrong about what is considered modern art. I really enjoyed seeing many of the paintings that I've always loved (particularly Van Gogh's "The Starry Night").

OK, on to the images...

There was an exhibit of Monet's Water Lilies:

This, part of a performance art exhibit, was titled "Unspoken Communication". Or, as I like to call it, "Staring Contest":

People admiring Picasso's "Les Demoiselles":

Admiring a sculpture piece:

One of my favorites, Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World":

And finally, Van Gogh's "The Starry Night", probably my favorite painting of all (probably):

Where the hell is my LOST recap??

2010-04-23T10:48:00.002-04:00

It isn't up yet for two reason: 1) I've been laid up with back trouble and 2) We've had company for the past two days. I will do my best to work through my drug haze and get something posted by the end of the weekend.

Have a nice one :)

Oh, and I loved the episode.

Today's Tweets

2010-04-16T11:32:00.004-04:00

Via @vanityfairmag - Great interview with Kristin Chenowith

Via @ebertchicago - Stunning photo of the ash from the Iceland volcano

Via @EW - Behind the scenes photos from the best Star Wars film

Via @vanityfairmag - Oh, Kiefer.

LOST: Episode 6.12

2010-04-15T16:28:00.002-04:00

Everybody Loves Hugo

"What's that, girl? Desmond's in the well?"

You can really feel it now, can't you? The push to the end, the sensation that the story has built some serious momentum and is now hurtling toward the finish line. So much happened in this episode. Here are some of my erratic thoughts on it.

Island

"Dude. You've got some Ilana on you." Holy crap! Before you could say, "I wouldn't toss that bag of unstable dynamite around so casually" -- BOOM! Ilana blew herself up. I guess the Island was finished with her, huh? It was a great WTF moment, mostly because I really thought she still had a part to play in the story. Huh.

Speaking of things blowing up, bye-bye Black Rock. I guess you won't be on the LOST Location Tour, huh?

I liked Hurley in his leadership role, and Jack as a follower. I'm thinking that Hurley, contrary to appearances, does have a plan of some kind for dealing with MIBLocke: He has Ilana's bag of Jacob's ashes, which he knows can be used to contain the smoke monster. I think Hurley will try to do just that. Unfortunately, I don't think he's planned things out any further than that.

It was surprisingly nice to see Michael again, especially since he wasn't screaming about WAAAAALLLT! And because he was doling out the info: According to him, the Whispers are actually the souls of people who in life have done wrong (to the Island? on the Island?) and so are unable to move on in death.

It's very sad what's happened to Sayid but you know what? ZombieSayid is kind of cracking me up. He embodies the term "dead pan", don't you think? I'm still holding out hope that there's some small bit of the good part of him deep down inside and that he will ultimately come down on the side of the good guys in the end (although it will most likely be at the expense of his own life, and that makes me sad).

OK, here's a question: Was that the same kid as the one we saw in The Substitute? Because I'm not so sure. His face is sort of the same, but the hair color is totally different. Check out these screencaps (click on the image for larger size):

Could he be getting older? Is the dark-haired boy just an older version of the blonde? Or are they two different boys? Perhaps the blond boy is Jacob and the dark-haired boy is Esau (MIB)? Jacob and Esau were brothers in the bible, after all.

As soon as I saw that well, I KNEW MIBLocke was going to toss Desmond in there. GAH! Here's the thing, though: Isn't this well one of the EM pockets on the Island? Has MIBLocke inadvertently deposited Desmond exactly where Widmore wants him to be? By the way, I think Desmond was totally telling a lie when MIBLocke asked him if he knew who he was and Desmond said, "Yeah, John Locke." I think Desmond knows very well that Locke is not Locke anymore. And that brings us to...

Alt-Timeline

...the whopper of a final scene in the alt-timeline. First, though, a few words about the alt-story.

I was so happy to see the Hurley/Libby relationship, for all intents and purposes, "consummated". I got all teary when they showed him spreading out the blanket on the beach, the way he would have on their original picnic date if Michael hadn't murdered Libby the way he did. It wasn't a near-death experience that awoke Hurley's memories of the real timeline, like it was for Charlie and Desmond, but a kiss from someone he was in love with, much like Daniel seeing Charlotte brought on his visions of the the real timeline. So it would seem that there are two triggers that "wake" people up: 1) almost dying and 2) re-connecting with the person you were in love with in the original timeline.

If that's the case, then I suppose the most obvious reason for Desmond RUNNING OVER A WHEELCHAIR-BOUND MAN, was that Locke was already with his true love and only a near-death experience would do the trick. I couldn't believe it when I saw it! Here's the thing, though: How could Desmond know he wouldn't kill Locke? My first thought was that he was trying to do just that because Alt-Locke's death would somehow affect MIBLocke...but I'm not sure how that would work. I do know one thing: Alt-Locke is totally headed to Jack's hospital, where Sun and Jin probably are, too.

Bits:

I chose this photo for my Desmond screencap this week because, well, let's just say he's right where I want him.

And finally, the fabulously AWESOME, Wonka-fied preview for next week's episode (turn it up loud!):

I can't WAIT.

Today's Tweets

2010-04-13T13:51:00.000-04:00

Vie @thefutoncritic - Deadliest Catch executive producer Jeff Conroy chats about the loss of Phil Harris, and the beginning of tonight's new season

Via @movieline - Steven Seagal is the worst boss ever.

Via @CuteOverload - 'Tugboat' the bebe pug.

Via @ebertchicago - Great (and too short) New Yorker Mag article about Christopher Walken

Today's Tweets

2010-04-09T14:04:00.002-04:00

Just one today.

Via @EW - Favorite Flashback Episode Poll (I had such a hard time choosing! In the end I voted for Firefly, "Out of Gas", but now I'm thinking maybe it should have been BSG, or Futurama, or West Wing...)

LOST: Episode 6.11

2010-04-09T10:58:00.000-04:00

Happily Ever After

There's always a choice, brutha.

~Desmond

And now we have a show, people! This was the first episode this season that directly (somewhat) addressed the nature of the "flash-sideways" (an expression widely used around the internets, but one I don't really care for), giving us some clues as to what it could all mean. As with just about all Desmond episodes, this one was one of their best, right up there with my all time favorite, The Constant. And so far, I think it's the best of the season.

Yes, I am biased, but that doesn't mean I'm not also right.

Here's what happened:

Widmore brought Desmond back to the Island against his will because somehow, Desmond's ability to survive exposure to massive amounts of elecrtomagnetism (EM for short) make him the key player in setting things to rights. But first, Widmore needs to verify Desmond's EM-immunity, so he tosses him in a big box and turns up the juice. In a familiar flash of white - remember the same flash when Desmond turned the failsafe key and when Juliette set off the bomb? - we cut to the alt-timeline, where Desmond has just gotten off Oceanic Flight 815.

As it turns out, in the alt-timeline Desmond is not with Penny - doesn't even know her, in fact - but he does work for Widmore. He's his right hand man, who in Widmore's eyes can do no wrong. Just what Desmond always wanted, apparently. Widmore sends Desmond on errand that involves someone named Cholly, who is walking around in a weirdly serene, fairly smug state since nearly choking to death on that bag of heroin. Des has been charged with delivering Charlie to Widmore's harpy-of-a-wife's charity benefit. Widmore's wife is Eloise Hawking.

Charlie tells Desmond that none of "this" is real, that he got a glimpse of the true reality when he nearly died and was in a different state of consciousness and saw a blonde woman he realized was his soulmate (Claire). To prove his theory to Desmond, he forces their car off the road and into the waters of the harbor. With the car submerged, Desmond tries to save Charlie; as Des tries to open the door, Charlie puts his hand up on the car window - that's when the two timelines smash together, I gasp out loud, and Desmond has a vision of the scene from "Through the Looking Glass", where Charlie wrote the message "Not Penny's Boat" on his hand and then drowned in front of Desmond's eyes.

At the hospital, Desmond is ordered to undergo an MRI to make sure his brains aren't scrambled (too late!), but being doused with all of that magnetic energy opens the flood gates of Desmond's unconscious mind and images of his true timeline, his life with Penny, come rushing in. Desmond tries to get answers from Charlie, but he totally bags on him.

Desmond warily tells Eloise that he was unable to get Charlie to the benefit and is surprised when she does not castrate him there on the spot, as he fully expected her to; instead she smiles and says "no problem" and sends him on his way. For now. When Desmond overhears Penny's name as he's walking away and starts asking questions, the claws come out. Eloise tells him to "stop talking" and stop looking for whatever it is he's looking for; she tells him that someone has obviously changed the way he sees things, and that is a "violation". Hmm. Before sending him away, she tells Desmond, "You're not ready yet."

As he's about to leave, someone knocks on Desmond's limo window. It's alt-Daniel (Faraday) Widmore, who in the alt-timeline is still Eloise and Widmore's son, but is not a theoretical physicist. He's a musician who, after seeing alt-Charlotte and falling in love instantly, begins writing complex notes/equations in his journal. He tells Desmond that he thinks that he may have done something that created an alternate life (the alt-timeline) that they are not supposed to be leading. He tells Desmond that Penny is his half-sister and he knows where she is. (How sad is it that in his "true" life, Daniel dies so tragically?)

Desmond finds Penny running at the same stadium where he first met Jack. They meet and have crazy instant chemistry together and when Penny's hand touches his, Desmond's consciousness zooms back to the present Island time, where he's lying on the floor of the EM box. A calm has come over him and he tells Widmore that he is ready to help. As Des walks through the jungle with Zoe and a couple of red shirts, Sayid attacks, kills the red shirts and sends Zoe away. Aw, even as a zombie Sayid is a gentleman. Sayid tells Desmond that Widmore's guys are bad news and he must leave with him, and Desmond's so zen that he's like, "yeah, cool, let's go." But there's something else behind his eyes.

Then we're back in the alt-timeline, post-Penny meeting, and I don't think I've ever seen Desmond so happy, and at peace. He asks his driver (Minkowski!) if he can get him the manifest of Flight 815. Minkowski says yeah, but why? Desmond says he needs to "show them something." (Them being the passengers who are still alive and still on the Island - the candidates - I presume)

I found it very interesting that we weren't shown some sort of catalyst for the final scene in the alt-timeline. His consciousness was sent there when he got blasted by the EM energy, and then his consciousness returned after he made contact with Penny, who is his constant. But what propelled him back to the the alt-timeline? There was no white flash shown before that final scene. What I'm thinking, is that Desmond's consciousness, after exposure to the high EM levels, is now existing in both timelines.

We still don't know exactly what the alt-timeline IS, but we do know what it ISN'T: According to Charlie, "none of it matters" and isn't real, and according to Daniel, he "isn't supposed to live this life". I think whatever it is, the alt-timeline is not a naturally occurring event but something that was created by someone. Eloise knows who and is playing the same part she did in "Flashes Before Your Eyes": steering Desmond in a certain direction, and away from Penny, his constant.

I am really looking forward to seeing how Desmond is going to open the others' eyes and show them that the life they are living isn't the one they were supposed to live. I think that there is a part of all of their consciousnesses that understands that there's something "off" (mirror scenes). And I think that in the end, they will all be presented with a choice between the two realities. And I think I'm going to be doing a lot of crying.

LOST: Episodes 6.9 and 6.10

2010-04-06T14:24:00.000-04:00

Real life constraints force me to combine the last two episodes into one brief post, before tonight's new episode airs and I find myself even further behind. I'm such a bad LOST blogger that if I were on the Island, MIBLocke would have no trouble stealing my soul.

Ab Aeterno

From Wikipedia: Literally, "from the everlasting" or "from eternity". Thus, "from time immemorial", "since the beginning of time" or "from an infinitely remote time in the past". In theology, often indicates something, such as the universe, that was created outside of time.

While it didn't feel like a LOST episode in the classic sense, I still enjoyed this immensely. A wonderful character piece that filled in the backstory, at last, of the mysterious Richard Alpert, "Ab Aeterno" revealed not only how Richard got to the Island and why he is immortal, but it also offered more information/hints about the roles Jacob and MIB are playing and what purpose the Island serves and why it must be protected (it's a cork in hellmouth bottle!).

Definitely a solid episode, very entertaining and Nestor Carbonell acted his little pants off. You can read more about it in Alan's review.

The Package

I was right about two things in my "Recon" recap:

1. MIBLocke does apparently have a reason for "collecting" followers. Specifically: He needs to gather all of the candidates together. I suspect he doesn't want to play some pickup basketball with them; and

2. Desmond (DESMOND!) is The Package behind the padlocked door.

I've said this many times before and I'll say it again: Sun and Jin episodes are among my favorites. This one was no exception.

A few things:

Again, the alt-timeline shows a similar version of the characters, who have made slightly different choices and seem happier, although Sun and Jin's timeline seems to be heading in a tragic direction. I hope the Island timeline doesn't go in a similarly sad direction. Keamy's remark that Sun and Jin weren't meant to be together, however, makes me very worried.
Hey! It's Alt-Mikhail! And he has both ey--Wait, I take that back!
And again, the mirror theme continues in the alt-timeline, with Sun pausing an extra moment while looking at herself in the hotel mirror.
If Sun wasn't already a favorite of mine, the fact that she ran as fast as she could away from MIBLocke would have made her one. Atta girl! It happens so rarely that when a LOST character actually show some sense, it automatically elevates the quality of the episode.
I loved the Sun/Jack scene on the beach. At the risk of sounding like a broken record...Jack rocks this season. He looks pretty good, too.
(Paraphrasing) Ben to Ilana: "Why won't you believe me when I say that Sun was already unconscious when I found her?" Ilana: "Because you are speaking." Hee. Speaking of Ilana, her expression when she saw Richard enter the beach camp was so well done.
I was totally verklempt when Jin was looking at the pictures of Jeon. I hope that's not the only way he's going to see her.

That is so not the best picture of him - in fact, he looks like Russell Crowe - but I don't care. He's back! My joy, however, is mixed with anxiety about what his ultimate purpose is with regard to the Island, and what his ultimate fate will be. I don't like the fact that Widmore had to drug him and keep him under lock and key in order to get him to come back to the Island. He was brought against his will, apparently, and Widmore's plan must involve Desmond's special "connection" with the electromagnetism of the Island. I just hope his role isn't a sacrificial one.

And so I head into tonight's episode filled with anxiety. It's about Desmond, and as Damon Lindelof tweeted last week, "In one week, the conversation is going to change."

What does that MEAN??

Today's Tweets

2010-04-05T14:25:00.003-04:00

Via @vanityfairmag - Liam Neeson: A Thinking (Wo)Man's Badass (doesn't he look like Lloyd Bridges in that picture?!)

Via @feliciaday - "Amazon reviewers think this masterpiece sucks"

April Fools!

2010-04-01T12:04:00.001-04:00

Official Google Blog: A different kind of company name

The two best Idol performances from last night.

2010-03-31T11:15:00.002-04:00

I gave up watching American Idol at the end of the David Cook season, and hadn't watched it since. Not until, that is, Katie Stevens - who hails from my hometown - made the cut. Of course we had to watch. And so, once again I have been sucked in by that evil show.

I think Katie is very talented (and adorable), and I wish her all the best, but I have to confess that she is not my favorite. That would be Crystal Bowersox. There were two performances last night that I loved: Lee's "Treat Her Like A Lady" (wow, welcome to the competition, Lee!), and of course Crystal's "Midnight Train To Georgia". Enjoy.

Today's Tweets

2010-03-30T16:25:00.000-04:00

Via @ebertchicago and @nytimes - Father reads to daughter 3,218 nights in a row

Via @moryan - All you wanted to know about "V", and more!

Via @televisionary - Five reasons to tune into tonight's return of "V".

I'll miss Sawyer.

2010-03-30T14:01:00.003-04:00

I spent the weekend in NYC - saw the Tim Burton exhibit at MoMA, photos coming! - and I'm going to use that as an excuse for not having my recap of last week's episode done. What can I say? I'm a son of a bitch!

Nothing like a good cup of Joe.

2010-03-25T16:01:00.000-04:00

True Blood returns on June 13 with the season 3 premiere!

LOST: Episode 6.8

2010-03-25T13:59:00.000-04:00

Recon

March 23...I don't have my recap ready - I realized this morning that I never finished it! - so this post will act as a place holder for now. I hope to post more when I get home tonight, before I watch the new ep. In the meantime, consider this:

Am I the only one distracted by Josh Holloway's physical appearance this season? He seems changed. There's something about his face that's different. New teeth? Perhaps. He looks puffy, too. And if he didn't have on a wig or at least some sort of hairpiece or extensions in last night's episode, I'll eat my tin foil hat. It's really bothering me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two days later...Well, I wasn't really successful in putting together a coherent recap/analysis of this episode. I'm not sure why. I do know that I felt a little detached while watching it, and I think that's because it aired following one of LOST's best episodes - "Dr. Linus" - and wasn't as emotionally resonant for me as that one was. It was also really plot heavy, which I don't always mind, but when there's so much going on it can be tough to connect with the characters on screen on a meaningful level.

So what I've got here are a whole bunch of notes and questions that I am going to pretty much just transcribe here. Sort of willy-nilly.

I loved that Alt-Sawyer is a cop, but still obsessed with avenging his parents. He's clearly made better choices in this timeline of his life, and the portrayal of his alternate character fits with the others we have seen so far: They still have their central conflict, or characteristic, but they don't let it define them. Except perhaps for Kate. And Sayid.
There were tons of callbacks to prior episodes/characters/episode details in the Alt scenes: Miles and Charlotte were the obvious ones (Charlotte looked beautiful but I really would have preferred she turned out to be Juliette); Charlie's brother Liam looking for him at the police station; the code word "LaFleur"; Little House on the Prairie, which Sawyer admitted to watching in a previous ep; "Watership Down"; and Sawyer bringing Charlotte the sunflower, like he did for Juliette.
So, if Sawyer is a cop, why did he let Kate go at the airport? Now that we know he's a cop, though, it makes his admonishment to Hurley about people taking advantage of him sincere and credible.
Do you think Sawyer was planning a con against MIBLocke from the very beginning, or at least since the cave, or do you think it wasn't until he found out that MIBLocke is the smoke monster and killed all of the people at the Temple?
Sayid and Claire really are off their respective nuts. I think they are lost for good.
What the heck was MIBLocke talking about when he was telling Kate about his crazy mother? For a second there I thought he was implying that, through some time loop thingy, that he was in fact Aaron and Claire was his mother, but I've since abandoned that one (this show makes you think crazy things). Could he have been manipulating Kate into killing Claire? I'm actually starting to feel bad for Kate.
OK, so MIBLocke's big plan is to leave the Island on the Ajira plane. Who is going to fly it? Or is he just telling a tale to get people to follow him and help him escape? I doubt he can just get on a plane and fly off the Island. I don't know, it just seems too easy. There must be some reason he is gathering followers, something that he needs them for, like maybe he needs to pay a "ferry man" to get off the Island and the toll is like, 20 souls or something. I'm just not seeing a logical plan yet.
Speaking of a plan, who's going to pilot the submarine, Sawyer?

And speaking of the submarine, what in the world is behind that padlocked door?? I'd like to think it was Desmond (please please please), but I'm not sure that Widmore would have to keep him locked up like that. Next week's episode is called "The Package", so I think it's a good bet we're going to find out.

I will try to get something posted about this week's fantastic Richard Alpert episode tonight, but I am going to NYC in the morning for the weekend, so I may not get to it. But I will try!

Crystal. Kicks. ASS.

2010-03-24T17:31:00.000-04:00

Today's Tweets

2010-03-23T12:09:00.005-04:00

I haven't posted tweets in a long time. Facebook and Twitter are seriously impeding my blogging, and I apologize for that (if there are any of you still coming here). I'm not sure how to change that without weaning myself off of one of them. Perhaps it's time to cut back on Twitter. It *is* awfully addictive.

That said, here are some tweets for you! Heh.

Via @reduced - LOST Reduced:

Via @nprmonkeysee - Miley Cyrus as an Idol mentor?? They're joking, right?

Via @popcandy - Banana museum for sale!

TV Talk: Drive By

2010-03-18T13:30:00.003-04:00

Very quickly:

Justified premiered Tuesday night on fX, but I haven't watched it yet. Will let you know when I do.

True Blood is back on HBO for a third season beginning June 13, 2010. Woohoo! (HBO's re-airing season 2 beginning on Sunday, March 21)

Discovery's 11-part series life begins on Sunday, March 21 at 8PM.

Not sure I mentioned this here, but Futurama is coming back to Comedy Central with all new episodes in June. Woohoo again! Here's a teaser trailer.

And last but not least, I have half a draft of my recap of this week's LOST episode done, but I don't expect to finish it for another day or so. Don't forget to check back!

LOST: Episode 6.7

2010-03-12T18:04:00.000-05:00

Dr. Linus

I went into this episode convinced, based on the "next week on LOST" preview, that Benjamin Linus was going to die. As much as I didn't want that to happen, it made sense: Ben's story seemed to have run its course and his character has been marginalized so far this season. It made sense that he would have to pay for killing Jacob - among other nefarious deeds - by being killed himself. And so I watched with dread as Ilana discovered the truth about Ben's part in Jacob's death and set him to work digging his own grave.

Then MIBLocke appeared and offered Ben a way out of his death sentence. I didn't want him to die, but I also didn't want Ben to accept MIBLocke's offer since doing so would be choosing to go down a path - one in pursuit of power and his own personal interests - that was much like the one that got him into his current messy predicament. Much to my great delight, instead of being his final episode, "Dr. Linus" turned out to be a very emotionally satisfying redemption story for Ben. And it proved once and for all that Michael Emerson is one of the best actors on TV.

I loved this episode, and would rank it as one of my top 5 favorite LOST episodes.

OK, some stuff:

Alt-Ben

I'm still grabbing at straws when it comes to figuring out what these alternate realities actually are, besides being great character pieces. Alan Sepinwall has formulated the theory that they are in fact an epilogue for each character, they we are being shown what reality each person will be "gifted" with as a result of the outcome of whatever war is currently brewing:

"For now, I'm sticking with my theory that the flash-sideways are an epilogue in advance - that this is where and when the characters all wound up in the aftermath of the war between Smokey and Jacob's forces. (I have no idea if I'm right, nor will I be upset either way when the reveal comes, but right now it's important for me to have some idea of what the alt-timeline scenes mean, even if it turns out I'm completely wrong. Otherwise, there's no weight to them this late in the "real world" timeline.)"

I do agree that there is a need at this point to know what they are, but I can't say I buy the epilogue theory. I'm still leaning towards the idea that the time stream split in 1977 when Juliet detonated the bomb, and the universe will course-correct and eventually the two timelines will converge, probably in the finale. Why does everyone so far in the alternate timelines seem to be happier, and make better choices? I don't know. My brain can only process so much.

Alt-Ben is still a little Machiavellian, but it appears that a healthier relationship with his father has stemmed some of his more evil tendencies. In the end, he makes the choice that our Ben, until now, would never have been able to make: the happiness of someone he loves over his own lust for power. He is able to save Alt-Alex this time, choosing her, elevating her needs above his own.

So, we learned a few things in the scene with his father, one being that Alt-Ben has the same microwave as I do! I mean, he could totally be standing in my kitchen in that picture. Ha! We also learned that even in the alternate timeline, the Linuses joined the Dharma Initiative and went to the Island. I suppose that means that they left shortly after they got there (before the 1977 explosion), when Roger was unhappy about being hired as a "Workman". Also, great touch having Ben "gas" his father in the alternate reality, only this time it's just oxygen.

Jack, Hurley and Richard

So we got sort of a confirmation that Richard was on the Black Rock, perhaps in chains as a slave (or a prisoner?). He's been so controlled all along that I love watching him freak out now. The dynamite scene with him and Jack was, well, dynamite. It seems that perhaps Jack is finally beginning to believe. I think he's also going a little crazy, but I suppose that's to be expected since it was only about 11 days ago in LOST time that Jack was going to kill himself by jumping off the bridge. Can you believe that? (check the LOSTpedia Timeline) Check it out:

Jack finds out about Locke's death in 2007 L.A. and tries to jump off the bridge;
5 days later, he's on the Ajira Flight 316 and it crashes and he flashes to 1977;
He spends only 4 DAYS in 1977,until Juliet detonates the bomb;
they get sent back to 2007 at the beginning of this season, and only 2 days have passed since then. That's why this show works SO well on DVD.

Island Ben

There's really nothing more to say about the scene with Ilana except that it was amazing and heartbreaking. Only Michael Emerson could make you love such a weaselly character.

Like I said last week, LOST really knows how to end an episode, and the slo-mo beach reunion this week was awesome. As was the arrival of Charles Widmore! I don't think I speculated here about who the man was that Jacob said was coming to the Island, but I thought it was Widmore right from the start. What his intentions are, I dare not speculate - look how Ben's character has turned around! - but I think there is one big question that must be answered: Is Desmond on that sub?

Desmond's Replacement

2010-03-09T14:28:00.003-05:00

I bought a new t-shirt today. If you would like one, hurry: they're only available for a little over 9 more hours.

One of the best fan tribute videos, ever.

2010-03-09T14:24:00.001-05:00

TV Talk: Post-Olympics Lull and Randomness

2010-03-09T11:07:00.004-05:00

Now that the Vancouver Winter Olympics are over, there has been nothing on TV. Or at least none of my shows have been on except for LOST. It's like the Olympics scared them all away and they won't come back until they're absolutely sure it's safe, which seems to be some time in the next few weeks:

V returns on Tuesday, March 30 at 10:00 PM, right after LOST. I'm looking forward to it.

I'm about 90% sure that I will not be returning to FlashForward when it comes back on Thursday, March 18 at 9:00 PM. I just don't care about it, even if Gaius Baltar has joined the cast, I just don't want to set myself up for that disappointment again. I must be strong...

Fringe is back on Thursday, April 1 at 9:00 PM, and guess what...FOX has renewed it for a full third season! Yay! Best TV news I've heard in a long time, and I don't think there's another show out there that deserves renewal more than they do.

Did you love Discovery's Planet Earth series? If so, then you probably already know about life, Discovery's "sequel" to Planet Earth. It looks AMAZING:

Finally, the new show I'm most excited about: Justified, based on a character created by Elmore Leonard, played by Deadwood's Timothy Olyphant, it premieres on fX on March 16:

Say hello to Bachelor Number One.

2010-03-09T10:45:00.002-05:00

Convicted serial killer won on 'Dating Game'

This story is disturbing in so many ways, from the fact that this guy had already raped an 8 yr old 10 years earlier, to the creepy introduction on the show - "Bachelor No. 1 is a successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the dark room at the age of 13, fully developed" - to the fellow contestant who has somehow made this story all about him.

Weird, weird, weird.

LOST: Episode 6.6

2010-03-05T11:30:00.000-05:00

Sundown

Shit just got real, people! For fans looking for some forward plot momentum, this episode was a goldmine. I loved it, but boy was it a dark one.

The scales that balanced the good and evil inside of Sayid were always tipped toward evil - he showed himself skilled at killing even as a boy - and his life as we've seen it has always been about the struggle to overcome those baser impulses and be a good man. This week's episode saw him, under the influence of MIBLocke, finally give in and embrace those impulses. His story has always been one of the most moving on the show, and it was very sad to see what appeared to be the loss of his soul.

Now, with that said, I have to wonder: How much of the real Sayid were we watching this week, or for that matter, have we seen since this season began? He is not the same man: First off, he was dead for 2 hours - remember "dead is dead"? Second, I swear his accent is altered (if only slightly); and finally, I'm sorry, but the Sayid we know would never, ever say he was a good man. Who exactly is this new, infected Sayid? And was his "infected" soul already damned before he spoke to Locke?

There are a lot of comparisons being made to Stephen King's "The Stand", and I believe I read that the show's creators were greatly influenced by King and that story. You can see the parallels beginning to take shape now, with the players taking sides; I'm thinking it will come down to a "war" between MIBLocke and Jack, who will ultimately be Jacob's replacement, harkening back to the "Man of Science vs. Man of Faith" theme the show has been using throughout.

This was not the Sun/Jin episode I had supposed it would be, but it was so good that I didn't mind. I loved all of the action and the kung-fu fights, and I couldn't believe it when I saw Keamey! My God, he makes Christopher Walken look like as harmless as Bing Freaking Crosby. And how about Jin! In the freezer!

LOST has always known how to close out an episode and this one was no exception, from the surprise appearance of Ilana, Frank, Sun and Ben, to Smokey's terrifying rampage through the Temple to the slo-mo final scene of MIBLocke and his army forming ranks and heading into the jungle, I was riveted. The cherry on top? Ben's "Oh shit" face when he realized that Sayid had gone over to the Dark Side. Priceless.

What I've liked so far in these Olympics.

2010-02-25T14:22:00.002-05:00

Despite my complaints about NBC's lackluster coverage of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, I've been watching like crazy, and there are two reasons for that:

1) I love Vancouver. I've been there a bunch of times and it's still not enough. I love hearing about it, seeing the places I've been to on TV, and daydreaming about getting back there.
2) I love the winter sports and much prefer them over the summer games.

Some of the highlights for me so far:

Apollo Ohno on the short track, particularly the Men's 1500m on Feb 13 when the two South Koreans crashed right before reaching the finish line and Ohno ended up with the Silver (and Selski with the bronze). Exciting!

I could watch all manner of Alpine Skiing for hours - downhill, slalom, Super G - especially if all of the skiers looked my new Olympics boyfriend Aksel Lund Svindal.

The moguls are crazy, and it was so awesome when Bilodeau won Canada's first gold medal on home soil.

Also crazy: Snow Cross and Snowboard Cross, where about 4 skiers at a time race each other down the hill. Terrifying and thrilling.

New for me this year was Curling. I had heard it was weirdly riveting and wanted to check it out. Well, I'm hooked. I have no idea what's going on but I love it.

Finally, my favorite commercial, one that makes me tear up every damn time I see it:

Have you been watching? Do you have a favorite sport, or athlete or story from the Games?

Star Wars Humor Never Gets Old

2010-02-25T10:30:00.000-05:00

LOST: Episode 6.5

2010-02-24T15:18:00.000-05:00

Lighthouse

Let's get the shallow stuff out of the way, shall we? Jack is looking hot this season. I think he lost some weight, and I love the longer hair on him. Maybe that's where all of his chest hair went!

On to the episode itself...I thought this was just a mediocre outing. I liked the story they were telling, and I was interested in seeing where things were heading, but I just wasn't pulled into it the way I was last week. Not a particularly bad episode, just not one of the better ones.

Hurley and Jack's Trek:

A question about the route Jacob sent them on: Why would he send them to the caves? What was Jack meant to see there? Most likely, it was his father's coffin, but why? To remind him of what he saw way back when they first crashed? You know, when you think about it, Jack lost his father's body in both realities, didn't he? Well, perhaps "misplaced" is a better word for it.

I loved Jack's reason for coming back to Island: To fix himself. Always looking to fix things is our Jack, even if that means crashing a plane full of passengers so he could get back to an Island that he couldn't wait to leave in the first place, just so he could blow up a hydrogen bomb. He really doesn't know what he wants, does he?

I am enjoying him much more this season, but all of my Jack-hate came rushing back when he smashed the mirrors in the lighthouse. I thought he was pretty chill now, but I see I was mistaken. All it took was one phrase - "You've got what it takes" - to make him freak out and not think before acting, just like the old days. If someone asks him to do something he won't do it blindly, but he always takes the bait, doesn't he?

Clousseau

This is how I've got the Claire story in my head so far: Claire actually died when Keamy and his mercenaries blew up the house she was in. Because her body wasn't buried, Smokey infected her with the "darkness" and when she came back to consciousness she was like Sayid (however that is!), and perhaps like the other dead people that have been wandering around the Island these past few years.

That's the only explanation I have for why she would just get up and walk away from Aaron and join her "father" in the woods. Christian said that Aaron was where he needed to be, and she just left it at that. So why is she now convinced that the Temple people took him? Just because she's crazy and can't remember what really happened? Is she dead AND crazy? She's certainly crazy. One need only look at the crazybabydoll she made and put in that cradle. Yipe.

Alt-Jack

So one of the big differences in alternate Jack's life is a teenage son. (Who, btw, played the same Chopin piece in his audition that Daniel Faraday was playing when his mother told him he had to give up playing to become a physicist, or something like that) Little David Shepard looked distractingly to me like McLovin' from Super Bad.

Anyway...Who is David's mother? Is it important? Perhaps, and we may find out in a future episode, but it really had no bearing on the story they were telling last night. Some people on the interwebs are putting forward the theory that Jack's ex in the alt timeline is Juliet. That could be cool - mostly because I just want to see Juliet alive again, but if I had my way I would prefer that she somehow connected with Sawyer in the alternate timeline. I really like those 2 kids together.

Finally, some thoughts on an emerging theme - one that's made appearances here and there but is just this season really becoming prominent, and which really stood out for me last night: That of mirrors and what may lay beyond them. Check it out:

The Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass theme:
The season 3 finale was titled "Through the Looking Glass"; the underwater Dharma station was the Looking Glass station and its symbol was a white rabbit; white rabbits have made appearances in the show ever since the Dharma Initiative was introduced; Jack was reading Alice in Wonderland to Aaron in "Something Nice Back Home", which he says his father used to read to him; and last night David was reading "The Annotated Alice".

And now mirrors seem to be playing an important role:
Alt-Jack looks at himself in the bathroom mirror on the plane in "LA X 1", and seems to see something different/unusual about himself; In "What Kate Does", alt-Kate has a similar experience when she looks at herself in the mirror at the auto garage; and last night again alt-Jack looks at himself sort of funny in his bathroom mirror, notices his appendix scar (his appendix was removed on the Island) but doesn't remember having it removed as a child.

Call me crazy, but I'd even go so far as to say the alt-Jack is a mirror image of Island Jack - I noticed last night that his hair was parted on opposite sides in the two realities.

Then they cap the whole thing off with the Lighthouse mirrors that Jacob uses to watch his candidates as they live out their lives.

I think this is all more of a thematic device than a literal explanation of the plot, but they have me wondering: Is the Island what we would find if we went down the rabbit hole?

TV Talk: After watching the Vancouver Olympics for over a week, I think I can safely say that NBC's coverage stinks.

2010-02-22T14:12:00.000-05:00

It is fragmented at best, irrelevant at worst (ice dancing in prime time, really?), and in this day and age, with the Internet and DVR capabilities, there's really no excuse for the shambles they have made of televising this thing. NPR.org's Linda Holmes blogs about it, and what she says makes so much sense.

"At one time, you could broadcast events hours after they happened, and you'd have a reasonable chance that people could live in a bubble while they were waiting. That is not the world we live in anymore. The fantasy that is indulged when Bob Costas speaks breathlessly about an upcoming ski race where he already knows exactly what happened is no longer even a fragile fantasy; it's a blatant fiction that everyone knows about."

It's a great article.

One more thing regarding NBC's coverage: I know that they have to pay for it and the way they do that is through advertising, but come on. I had a hockey game on yesterday and after about 5 minutes of commercials, then 5 minutes of Costas talking about events, and then another 5-7 minutes of commercials, I gave up and turned the channel. Thank God for late-night curling. Yeah, it goes on forever, but at least you feel like you're watching something in its entirety.

LOST: Episode 6.4

2010-02-17T14:56:00.000-05:00

The Substitute

"This is the weirdest damn funeral I've ever been to."
~ Frank Lapidus

You know, I'm torn between wanting them to do more with Frank's character, because I love him so much, or them just leaving things as they are and giving him the best lines. Because he really does have the best lines. (well, him and Ben)

This episode was SO good, and I've got tons to say about it, and I am MUCHO busy today. This will have to be brief, but I will try to hit on the major stuff. And I will be referring to Island Locke as MIBLocke (man in black).

The directing and cinematography choices, particularly in the alt-timeline, were very well done. A lot of the camera angles were from John's POV - in the wheel chair, the bathtub, on the front lawn - which I think added to the story. And on the flip side, we got MIBLocke/Smokey's POV as he flew (? how do you describe how a smoke monster gets around?) across the Island, scanning the jungle and the old Dharma Village, which I thought was very cool.

The first thought that came to mind when MIBLocke saw the blonde kid was that it was Aaron. Now I'm not so sure. Was it Jacob? And if it was Jacob, who made these rules he's talking about? I always thought that Aaron was important in some way to the larger story, though, so I'm going to stick with that theory for now. I wonder why he had blood on his hands the first time MIBLocke saw him (pictured), but not the second? Why could Sawyer see him, when Richard couldn't? Poor Richard. If he's that frightened, there's got to be some bad shit about to go down!

It was nice to see a relatively happy John Locke in the alternate timeline, even if that happiness came at the cost of losing his most dominant character trait (or flaw?): His willingness to believe, no matter what. Giving up hope for a miracle is what allows him to accept his lot in life and to truly be happy. I was so glad to see him still with Helen. Locke's relationship with his father is clearly different in this 2004: Not only does he not have an obsession with his father that would drive Helen away, but she actually mentions inviting him to their wedding! If that's the case, how did Locke become paralyzed in this 2004? And why these particular differences? Are they randomly chosen, or are they important? Gah!

Loved seeing Hurley and Rose, but I was downright delighted to see Ben Linus as the European History teacher in Locke's alternate timeline. His bitchy fussing over the coffee pot and his geeky politeness in welcoming John was perfection. His eulogy for John in 2007 was also perfection, so I will let it stand on its own:

”John Locke was a… believer. He was a man of faith. He was a much better man than I will ever be, and I’m very sorry I murdered him.”

The crazy thing is, I really do think he's sorry. The little bugger couldn't help himself, though, and lied to Ilana about killing Jacob. I've got a feeling he's going to regret that, and soon.

I got a very strong "eat from the tree of knowledge" vibe during the conversation between Sawyer and MIBLocke, when MIBLocke told him to come with him and he would give him answers. Did you?

Boy, Sawyer sure did get REALLY dirty, REALLY fast, huh? It looked he hadn't even bothered to get up off the floor to go to the bathroom. Ew. Thank God he cleaned up and changed into the next generation of The Blue Shirt of Hotness. Desmond would approve.

Sawyer's anger and grief have made him vulnerable and when he chose to leave the Island with MIBLocke, even though he KNEW Locke was not who he was really talking to, all I could imagine in my head is the old knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade saying, "He chose...poorly."

Oh, and speaking of Sawyer, does anyone else think he looks slightly different this season, like maybe he got his teeth done or something?

The cave, the cave, the cave. Black and white stones, like the black and white stones in the hands of the Adam and Eve couple found in the caves way back in season 1, and like the black and white game pieces in backgammon, the game that Walt and John Locke used to play together. And, of course, Jacob's main list, the names and numbers of the "candidates" that he scrawled on the walls of the cave:

4 - Locke
8 - Reyes
15 - Ford
16 - Jarrah
23 - Shepard
42 - Kwon

It was a great scene, seeing the numbers associated with the names like that. But where is Kate's name? Was she never a candidate?

I guess I found the time to say a lot, didn't I? Fantastic episode.

Snow Day

2010-02-16T21:18:00.001-05:00

IMGP1051, originally uploaded by gina64.

Last week's much-anticipated Snowpocalypse was a complete dud - a Nopocalypse, if you will - and we closed the office for nothing. The forecast of a foot plus of snow fizzled out into only a few inches.

One week later, another storm has come through. This forecast? Possibly 2 inches. When all was said and done - almost 24 hours later - I'd say we got a good 8 inches of the stuff. It made driving a nerve-wracking experience, but boy was it pretty.

What if LOST was made in the 60s?

2010-02-12T14:44:00.002-05:00

Or perhaps the 80s? (this one won the Comic Con 2009 contest):

A Valentine.

2010-02-12T09:59:00.004-05:00

"This is a love story. And, oddly enough, it starts with an interstellar space mission and a golden record."

I'm not big on Valentine's Day, and I'll be honest, it's mostly because I never have anyone to celebrate it with, and not that I have anything against the holiday itself. However, I do appreciate a romantic story, and the one I heard on NPR this morning made me smile and brought tears to my eyes.

The written story is good, but you MUST listen to the actual audio from the show, and hear Ann Druyan tell the story herself. Just beautiful.

LOST: Episode 6.3

2010-02-10T11:37:00.000-05:00

What Kate Does

(a play on the previous episode title "What Kate Did")

So, a Kate episode. Never among my favorites, they are almost always interchangeable and usually boring. This one was made better by placing the same old story within the deepening mystery, and I think once we know more this episode will stand up better; but for right now, I think it was just OK.

At first I found it difficult to believe that Claire would not only accept a ride from the woman who highjacked her taxi and put a gun in her face, but also give that same woman her credit card; but then it occurred to me that those things become more likely if we assume that everyone in the new 2004 timeline is being affected by some sort of "memory" of the Island timeline, and because of that Claire and Kate trust each other even though they shouldn't.

Speaking of the 2004 timeline, Claire's ultrasound gives us the first confirmation that it takes place in 2004. However, it's a month later, on October 22. What does that mean?!

I was very happy to see the return of the "infection", especially in reference, somewhat obliquely, to Rousseau. Someone on another site pointed out that Claire disappeared the day after Rousseau died. Perhaps Claire died and was "occupied" by Rousseau? She did make those traps and apparently she is now a crack shot. Sounds like Rousseau to me. There's also a nice parallel between their two stories: Both pregnant women who crash on the Island, give birth and are separated from their child in some way. Interesting.

I'm not sure what the heck is up with Sayid, but he is definitely not the same. Did anyone else notice the slight difference in his accent? It's much more like Naveen Andrews' British accent now. Wait a minute. Who else died just before Sayid, besides Jacob? Juliet! Oh man, that's just too weird, even for this show!

I wonder what Sayid would have had to do to pass Dogen's "test"? He screams in horror and pain when being tortured, so he is infected? How would an uninfected person react?

Jack is so much less annoying this season. Perhaps the annoying Jack got split off into the 2004 timeline! Yeah, that's it! He's not as obstinate, or thick-headed or asshole-ish - he's more laid back, focused, asking the right questions, and he's looking really good, too. I really liked the scenes between him and Dogen.

Another good thing from this episode: Jin has begun his search for Sun. I cannot wait for the reunion!

The best part of the episode, though, was Sawyer and his heartbreaking grief for the loss of Juliet, who he truly loved. The scene on the dock should be submitted at Emmy time. He's reverting back to his solitary, self-loathing ways. While he has good reason for it, I hope it doesn't last.

I feel more confident after this episode that they are not going to try to put Sawyer and Kate together, at least not right away. I think Kate was crying on the dock for few reasons: 1) Sawyer's heart belonged to another; 2) He wouldn't be helping her to find Claire and 3) I think mostly she was feeling bad about coming back to the Island, and how everything got shot to hell when they did.

So what did you think about the episode?

I'll miss you, Captain Phil.

2010-02-10T09:42:00.002-05:00

My favorite Deadliest Catch captain has died, after suffering a massive stroke last Friday.

Rest in peace Captain Phil. The show won't be the same without you.

I wish I was there.

2010-02-09T10:58:00.001-05:00

From NASA:

Guests look on from the terrace of Operations Support Building II as space shuttle Endeavour launches on the shuttle program's last planned night launch.

(via gawker)

Men don't like to wear pants and they hate girls, or, "What I learned from this year's Super Bowl ads".

2010-02-08T13:59:00.003-05:00

Was anyone else as underwhelmed as I was with this year's crop of Super Bowl commercials? I was doubly disappointed because for the first time in years I actually watched the game (and it was a good one - go Saints!) and was looking forward to seeing some really good ads. Like I said, disappointed!

However, while they may have been overall unimpressive, there were a few I liked.

I got your puppies right here!

2010-02-05T16:05:00.005-05:00

(pictured: Jake, a Puppy Bowl player)

Hipster Puppies

The Puppy Bowl is on Sunday!

The Shiba Inu Puppy Cam, the Squeakquel:

Online TV Shows by Ustream

Fringe Winter Finale: When Universes Collide

2010-02-05T13:26:00.000-05:00

Last night's "winter finale" episode, Jacksonville, was one of the best episodes so far, I think. From the freaky and gruesome opener to the heart-breaking end, I was totally riveted. The look on Olivia's face when she saw the glimmer around Peter was so sad. I knew what was coming, but that didn't lessen the impact of the scene, especially the look she gave Walter when he said, "Please don't tell him."

Now, while it was a good episode, I did have one problem with it: The kiss scene. I am not ashamed to say that I absolutely 'ship Peter and Olivia, and I've been hoping that the writers would eventually take them in that direction. However, the aborted kiss seemed to come out of nowhere. I have been a fan of some ridiculously long and angsty build-ups and UST-filled relationships on TV, and this one was nowhere near the kissing point, imo. The scene really wasn't earned. Peter and Olivia seemed more like brother and sister than possible romantic partners up to this point. They should have done a better job of building up to it.

Anyway, I can overlook that, especially since it looks like they probably won't be consummating that kiss any time soon.

Today's Tweets

2010-02-04T09:10:00.000-05:00

Via @EW - Captain Phil of the Cornelia Marie is slowly recovering from a stroke he suffered on Friday. Get better soon, Phil!

Via @bbcentertain - Leif Garret busted for heroin. Sad.

Via @marklisanti - "How's that flash-sideways deal working out for our castaways"? Hilarious.

LOST: Episodes 6.1 and 6.2

2010-02-03T20:37:00.000-05:00

LA X 1 and LA X 2

"Nothing is irreversible."

Wow, what a return! I was on the edge of my seat, sometimes with my jaw hanging down, for almost the entire 2 hours (except for the Kate stuff - everyone but her seemed different in the reset timeline/reality *yawn*).

The story picked up immediately where it left off last season, showing us what seem to be 2 timelines that resulted from the detonation of the bomb:

1. Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, Miles and Sawyer are still on the island, but now appear to be in the same 2007 timeline as the Locke/Ben/Sun/Jacob drama; and

2. A 2004 timeline where Oceanic 815 does not crash and makes it successfully to LAX, albeit with some notable differences.

There are a number of theories floating around the internet as to what the 2004 timeline is - an alternate timeline? and alternate reality? a parallel universe?- and while I've never been big on theorizing in my recaps, there is one that I favor: In the comments of Alan Sepinwall's fantastic review, someone recalled Daniel Faraday's description of the "movement" of time: It's like a stream. If you throw a rock in the stream that's big enough, it will alter the direction, or course, of the water. If the rock is not large enough, the water will divide to go around it, creating two streams that will eventually meet up on the other side of the rock. This season, we have a new storytelling structure. Instead of flashbacks, flash forwards or time-jumping, it appears the story will move laterally between the two timelines, and I bet they will somehow converge by the end of the season.

But that's all speculation, and while it can be fun, it can also hurt my brain, so that's enough of that.

Watching the 2004 parts of the story, I felt like I was playing one of those picture games where I had to pick out all of the things that were wrong, or out of place. Not that I'm complaining, but what was Desmond doing on the plane, and only for a short while at that? Where did he go? Was he time flashing again? Why wasn't Shannon on the plane in this timeline? What was the blood on Jack's neck? He knew there was something "off" when he looked at himself in the mirror, don't you think? Having seen the pilot episode recently, it was very noticeable to me that that they didn't make any attempt to mimic everyone's hair from the pilot. Jack and Sawyer both had much shorter hair in the pilot, Charlie's was much shorter in the LA X version of the flight, and I think even Rose's hair was different. Hurley was happy and lucky, and Sawyer didn't seem troubled by having just murdered the wrong man. Something's off. It's almost like bits and pieces of the original, 2007 island timeline are seeping into the 2004 timeline, e.g. the abrasion on Jack's neck, or when Charlie tells Jack that he was supposed to die.

Everyone makes it to Los Angeles, although not without confronting some obstacles after getting off the plane:

Jack: His father's body has been misplaced
Locke: His suitcase with knives is missing
Charlie: In police custody after getting caught with heroin on the plane
Jin and Sun: Jin is taken by security and Sun does nothing to help him
Kate: Escapes and jumps into a cab with Claire, who I can only assume is pregnant

I'm interested in seeing what's going to happen, including how much this timeline might be affected by the events of the original island timeline.

On the Island, we get to see poor Juliet die. Again. Like it wasn't sad enough the first time. Before she dies, however, she does something odd: She asks Sawyer out for coffee. Could that be a bit of the new 2004 timeline seeping into this one? Through Miles we learn that the important thing she wanted to tell Sawyer was that "it worked". Not very well, from what I can tell. Sawyer is so heart-broken over Juliet's death that I will find it very hard to accept if they try to put him and Kate together at this point.

Seeing the Temple felt a little underwhelming to me. Not sure what I expected, maybe something that felt a little more "magical" or mystical. Do you think the water in the healing pool was not clear because Jacob was dead? Oh, and who else was wicked psyched when Sayid rose from the dead?! My first thought, however, was that Jacob was taking Sayid's form now, just as Esau, or the man in black, did with John Locke.

And speaking of John Locke, whoa! After rewatching The Incident, I was convinced that the Smoke Monster, Esau and the risen John Locke were one and the same, and I was very pleased last night to see that I was on the right track. While I'm very happy that we're going to have lots of Terry O'Quinn acting his heart out this season, I would still like to see some kind of redemption/vindication for the real John Locke before the show ends. And for Ben, too. He was ill-used by the Island powers-that-be and I kind of feel sorry for him now.

I'm going to have to wrap this up now. I know there's a lot more to talk about, but I'm not feeling all that well with this head cold, so I'm turning it over to you guys to continue the discussion. What did you think??

Oh, wait a minute, I almost forgot. Look who's back!

I did it.

2010-02-02T16:58:00.002-05:00

I actually did it. I finished The Great LOST Rewatch today, in my car, on my laptop, waiting for my mother to finish up her doctor appointment.

And now it's time for the beginning of the end. Enjoy the show tonight!

Cool LOST Easter Egg!

2010-02-01T17:09:00.003-05:00

Need to fly to Los Angeles from Sydney Australia on September22, 2010? Go to Kayak.com and search for one way flights and you'll find that Oceanic Airlines has the perfect one. Check out the airfare and taxes.

Also: Someone made a cool LOST subway map!

"Futuristic prom rave murder sparkle cable installation"

2010-02-01T16:53:00.002-05:00

You absolutely MUST go directly to the Gofugyourself site and read their descriptions of Lady Gaga's Grammys, uh, wardrobe. Fabulous!

2010-02-01T12:13:00.000-05:00

OK, so, in case you haven't heard, I got all 5 seasons as a Christmas present and set off on rewatching the entire series before the season 6 premiere. Five weeks (and very little sleep or social interaction) later, and I find myself with only 5 episodes left to watch on the day before the premiere. I think I might actually do it.

I read Mo Ryan's wonderful 3-part interview with Lindelof and Cuse, and what they said about how the show is really mostly about character, and how the mysteries are secondary, well, it really is so true. I had seen every episode at least twice *before* I began this rewatch, yet I still cried when characters died, when they were born, when they left, when they were re-united. And because of that, I have great faith that no matter how the mysteries are or aren't resolved, I am going to be enthralled by this final season. I can't wait!

I will be re-capping all of the episodes this season, so please check back. They may not all be complete, straight up recaps, but I promise I will post something for every episode. Unfortunately, the task of making rewatch notes fell to the wayside as the pressure mounted to finish and I just didn't have the time to post much. I did continue to post #TheGreatLOSTRewatch updates at Facebook and Twitter,however, and I'll share them here once I finish.

Sky1 Interview with Michael Emerson (No Spoilers)

2010-01-29T23:04:00.001-05:00

He seems like such a nice guy.

Cuse and Lindelof Speak!

2010-01-29T13:28:00.005-05:00

Mo Ryan has posted an amazing 3-part, in-depth interview with LOST producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, in which they say a whole heck of a lot but spoil nothing. It is in my opinion required reading for anyone looking forward to the final season.

I am trying my best to get through these last twenty or so episodes before Tuesday night, but for the first time since I started The Great LOST Rewatch, I'm being to get discouraged. Unless I'm able to watch almost all of season 5 on Sunday, I don't think I'm going to make it. Whether or not I succeed, I am definitely enjoying myself. With the help of hindsight and the ability to watch episodes in quick succession, all of the little irritations and frustrations that I had while watching in real time..? *POOF*. Gone. And I'm so glad that I won't be carrying them with me when the final season begins.

I have been posting #TheGreatLOSTRewatch updates to Facebook and Twitter as I've gone along, and once I finish I will gather them all here in a post for your reading pleasure.

Today's Tweets

2010-01-28T15:39:00.000-05:00

In case you were wondering, and I'm sure you were, I am alive and well, and completely obsessed with finishing The Great LOST Rewatch before the season 6 premiere on Tuesday, Feb. 2, which is only 4 days from now. Four days?! Oh my God, what am I doing talking to you??!

Via @EW - Click here to hear Sean Connery say...

Via @CarltonCuse - Italian family re-enacts important scenes from all 5 seasons of LOST. I love Juliet at the end!

Via @realityphoto - A two-year-old Mad TV skit that Steve Jobs really should have seen before naming the iPad:

Anderson Cooper is the real deal.

2010-01-19T15:29:00.001-05:00

Today's Tweets

2010-01-19T11:23:00.000-05:00

Via @vanityfairmag - Anthony Hopkins answers the Proust questionnaire

Via @sutterink - An open invitation to Conan O'Brien:

We have an IRA story line that will continue to play out this coming season and I could use a bad-ass O'Brien on my team. Guns, blood, fist fights -- you could really work some shit out. Think about it.

Via @TheOnion - "Final Season of LOST Promises To Make Fans More Annoying Than Ever":

Final Season Of 'Lost' Promises To Make Fans More Annoying Than Ever

Today's Tweets

2010-01-14T10:49:00.000-05:00

Via @moryan - 70 cute animals, a balm for the soul.

Via @NYTimes - A closer look at the destruction in Haiti.

Via @televisionary - NYMag Q&A with our very own SpyDaddy, known in theater circles as the great Victor Garber

Vie @popcandy - Ricky Gervais on Conan:

How you can help Haiti.

2010-01-13T12:03:00.005-05:00

"Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed. There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them." ~Haitian President Rene Preval

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, is in desperate need of help after yesterday's 7.0 earthquake almost completely devastated it. If you would like to make a donation toward the relief effort, please go to the Network for Good website for their list of relief organizations.

More Notes From The Great LOST Rewatch: Season 2

2010-01-13T11:00:00.000-05:00

I'm almost done with season 2! I just have the 2-hour finale to watch, which I may get to tonight. Lots of stuff going on in s2, what with the Tailies, the Others, and the exploration of the Hatch and the ensuing Dharma mystery; and of course the arrival of Benry, one of the best TV characters of all time. Great stuff.

A few things I jotted down while watching...

WTF was the meaning of Charlie's "Save the Baby" dream anyway? I didn't like that episode the first time it aired, and I still don't.

In "The Long Con", during that great final scene with Hurley and Sayid on the beach listening to "Moonlight Serenade" on the radio, they have this conversation:

Sayid: "Radio frequencies like this bounce off the ionosphere. They could be coming from anywhere."

Hurley: "Or any time. Just kidding, man."

Right you are, Hurley! I wonder if they were picking up a radio transmission across time, from when the Army was on the Island in 1954, the time of "Jughead"?

"Two For The Road" - I don't think I ever put together the name of the episode with the two real-life DUI cases that got killed off in it (Libby and Ana Lucia). Hehe. On a more serious note, the scene where Michael shoots both of them was still just as powerful, even knowing what was coming.

On a LOST-related note, I was watching "The Fugitive" off and on Sunday when it hit me: That's where I know Rose from! She was Poole, one of Sam Gerard's junior marshals.

Finally, while I love them all, I really think that Benry was the best thing that ever happened to this show.

The man's got class. Bad hair, but a lot of class.

2010-01-12T15:55:00.003-05:00

I don't watch any of the late night shows regularly, but I have been following the debacle that is NBC's decision to put Leno on every single night at 10PM. Now they are backpedaling and Conan is not happy. From a letter he released today:

So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.

Smart, funny and classy and I can't say I blame him. You can read the entire letter here.

The final LOST Panel at the Television Critics Press Tour

2010-01-12T12:13:00.003-05:00

Alan Sepinwall is live-blogging the TCA LOST Panel on his NJ.com column page right now!

It's Official, Dawg.

2010-01-11T16:24:00.004-05:00

Simon is leaving American Idol after this season.

Not wholly unexpected, I suppose, especially considering there's been talk of him doing X-Factor here in America for a while now, but still. American Idol without Simon or Paula? Not even Ellen's considerable charms could make up for the loss of those two.

Who would have thought that Randy Jackson, of all people, would be the last original Idol judge left standing?

TV Talk: Fresh TV!

2010-01-11T10:47:00.001-05:00

Just a reminder that this is the week when we finally start getting some new episodes! Here's a list of some shows and their return dates. If you're looking for a show that's not on this list, check the futon critic's winter grid.

Modern Family, Jan. 6
How I Met Your Mother, Jan. 11
Big Bang Theory, Jan. 11
Castle, Jan. 11
American Idol, Jan. 12
Bones, Jan. 14
Community, Jan. 14
Parks and Rec, Jan. 14
30 Rock, Jan. 14
CSI, Jan. 14 (busy night)
24, Jan. 17 & Jan. 18

Caprica, Jan. 22
The Final Season of LOST, Feb. 2

Update: Gah! My friend Krys just pointed out that I omitted Fringe from this list. Shame on me. Fringe returns TONIGHT at 9:00 with a special, un-aired episode from last season. The regular season returns on Thursday night, Jan 14, at 9:00. Thanks, Krys!

I told you this was going to become the "All LOST All The Time" Blog.

2010-01-06T13:48:00.005-05:00

"Everything you need to know about LOST in 8 minutes":

Season 5 Blooper Reel:

And for your geeky pleasure, ABC has released two promotional "LOST Supper" images. Analyze away!

(click on the images for a much larger view)

The most troubling thing about these images? No Desmond and no Penny. Very worrisome.

Notes from The Great LOST Rewatch: Season 2

2010-01-05T15:49:00.000-05:00

Season 1 is in the can! And I'm 7 episodes into Season 2. So far, I'm having a great time.

Some thoughts:

The season 2 premiere, "Man of Science, Man of Faith" - otherwise known as the day Desmond came into my life. I remember it as if it was only yesterday. Fantastic season opener. Remember how we all flipped out when we learned there was someone living down there in that hatch all along? And how we dissected that opener? I think this is the point where Jack really started to bug, with his irrational antagonistic point of view with regard to the button/hatch.

Tell me, have they ever explained why Dharma stamped the numbers on the Swan hatch? Because I can't recall if there was ever an explanation beyond showing the worker engraving it on the door in 1974.

"Adrift" - Rewatching this confirmed for me that the moment when Walt was taken, that's when Michael's character went into the toilet; or at least that's when I began to not like him very much. Almost all of his dialogue after 7 episodes into the season has been variations of "They took my son", and "I'm not leaving without my boy", and of course, "WALT!" Very annoying.

I think it was also in "Adrift" that Desmond asks Locke when the plane crashed. When Locke tells him "44 days ago", you can see Desmond putting it together, that he must have caused the crash. Those are the little moments that are fun to re-discover now that I know what's going to happen.

As a final note, I just wanted to mention that while I was highly irritated with the Tail Section part of the story when it originally aired, re-watching those episodes in quick succession makes that part of the plot much more palatable.

Only 67 episodes left to watch before February 2!

By-the-way, Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T15:10:00.001-05:00

More Notes From The Great LOST Rewatch: Season 1

2010-01-01T17:15:00.000-05:00

As I rewatch these early LOST episodes, I try to spot hints or clues about things to come that the writers may have sprinkled throughout. I found one in "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues" (S1,E11):

Walt and Hurley are playing a game of backgammon on the beach. When Hurley walks away, Walt says, "You owe me twenty thousand dollars!" To that Hurley replies, "You'll get it." A reference to Hurley's lottery winnings WAY before they were revealed in "Numbers" (S1E18)

Other random thoughts:

I miss all the running through the jungle. They did that well.

Another thing that has struck me is how early Boone and Locke found the Hatch. (also in E11) I was thinking as I've been watching that the entire time Locke and Boone were digging around and trying to get in, Desmond was down in that hatch.

In "Homecoming" (S1E15), Ethan attacks the camp from the water. Did the writers already have in mind the Looking Glass Station?? They must have, because Sayid has already discovered the power cable on the beach by E9. Cool.

Also in "Homecoming", the girl Lucy, from Charlie's flashback, the one with the rich father that he tries to con...I just overheard her say, "I think he's buying some paper company up in Slough..." Was that a shout-out to The Office (UK)?

Alright back to watching. Only 9 more episodes to go and Season 1 is in the can!

A new template for a new year.

2009-12-29T10:03:00.002-05:00

Let me know if you have any trouble with it!

The Great LOST Rewatch

2009-12-28T21:30:00.000-05:00

Guess what I got for Christmas? All 5 seasons of LOST!! Thank you, Sheila!!

It's a pipe dream, I know, but I am going to try my best to watch them all before Feb. 2. Impossible, yes, but I'll have a good time trying. The Great LOST Rewatch began yesterday, when I managed to knock off the first 8 episodes while archiving photos and doing laundry. I hadn't seen the Pilot since it first aired, and a few things stood out for me:

1. Jack trying to save everyone - well established right off the bat.
2. The first 2 words out of Michael's mouth: "WALT! WALT!" Ha!
3. The music really stands out, and it continued as a character throughout the series run
4. Sayid: "You think they would have come by now." Oh, Sayid, you have no idea.
5. One of the moments that really nailed the show's tone: When Kate is removing a dead person's boots and Locke smiles at her with the orange peel in his mouth. When I watched that, I remembered thinking, "What the hell is this show?" In a good way.
6. I remembered how much I didn't really care for Shannon or Boone.

Mostly, re-watching the Pilot proved that among the many things that make LOST such a great show, the characters are probably the most important. They arrive in the Pilot almost fully formed, and are acted so well.

Only 91 more episodes to go. I'd better get crackin'!

Today's Tweets

2009-12-28T20:48:00.002-05:00

Today, a couple of awesome fan videos.

Via @NathanFillion - A fun Firefly blooper video (I just wish I could hear what they're saying!):

Via @EW - "Battlestar Rhapsody":

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas

2009-12-24T10:20:00.000-05:00

A Christmas Eve poem from Calvin & Hobbes:

(click the image for a larger size)

Merry Christmas, everyone. I'll be back in a couple of days!

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas

2009-12-23T14:29:00.002-05:00

Dave updates A Charlie Brown Christmas.

ABC is stepping up its game in the latest LOST promo.

2009-12-22T22:31:00.006-05:00

There's still no new footage in this promo for LOST's final season (and I am more than fine with that - I want to be completely unspoiled for this - but this is by far the best official promo they've released so far:

On the Tenth Day of Christmas

2009-12-22T20:45:00.001-05:00

My true love gave to me the really freaky Conan O'Brien Yule Log.

I can't watch that for more than 30 seconds!

On the Ninth Day of Christmas

2009-12-22T20:20:00.009-05:00

(sorry I missed a day - Monday was a little nuts)

On the Eighth Day of Christmas

2009-12-20T21:18:00.003-05:00

This one is for all you old hosers out there.

On the Seventh Day of Christmas

2009-12-19T15:25:00.000-05:00

Santa gets the Jack Bauer treatment. Awesome!

On the Sixth Day of Christmas

2009-12-18T10:30:00.001-05:00

Eddie's 12 Days of Christmas is much better than mine!

I want all of them.

2009-12-17T16:04:00.001-05:00

The LOST Underground Art Show.

Today's Tweets

2009-12-17T15:45:00.000-05:00

Via @GeekTyrant - Shaun of the Dead reunion photo shoot!

Via @EW - Great follow-up interview with Olivia Olson, the little girl who sang "All I Want For Christmas" in "Love Actually"

On the fifth day of Christmas

2009-12-17T10:15:00.002-05:00

My true love gave to me, PeeWeeeeeee Chri-istmas Caaaaards!

Go to PeeWee's Official Website and click on Pterry in the upper left part of your screen and send some PeeWee Christmas cheer!

My favorite TV critics shoot the shit about LOST.

2009-12-16T15:00:00.002-05:00

Fantastic transcript of a converstation between Mo Ryan,Alan Sepinwall and TIME critic James Poniewozik, about LOST and expectations for its final season. (No spoilers!)

Snippet:

Ryan: What do you guys think “Lost's” legacy will be? Is it a one-off or is it going to have some kind of lasting influence? I really go back and forth on that.

Poniewozik: I actually was just thinking about this, because I had not been thinking about “Lost” in the off season, but I started watching the remake of “The Prisoner,” [which aired Nov. 15-17 on AMC] and you can’t watch any iteration of “The Prisoner” without thinking about how much “Lost” goes to that.

I don’t think “Lost” is a one-off, but I also don’t think that we’ll see a lot of mini-"Losts" every year after that. I think it [ties into] the theory of the eternal return. There will just be one of them that comes like a comet every 10 years You get your “Prisoner” and you get your “Twin Peaks” and you get “Lost." There will always be some obsessive who watched “Lost” when he was a kid, or watched the “Prisoner” when she was a kid or whatever. And so that’s going to continue to be remade in some way or another.

Sepinwall: But I think the interesting thing that differentiates “Lost,” even from “The Prisoner,” is that “Lost,” at least for a while, was insanely popular. It was a cult show with a huge mass audience. And most of that audience has kind of run straight into the time travel and the polar bear cages and all that. But this idea that you can do a show this complicated and this weird and have this much sci-fi content in it and yet get that kind of audience -- I don’t know that that’s ever going to happen again.

Poniewozik: Well, you won’t have that kind of audience again, yeah. [Future shows might not] necessarily need that kind of audience. Yeah, as a mass phenomenon, you may be right.

Sepinwall: And the other thing is – you’ll see lots of shows like this and we’ve seen a lot of shows be made like it in the few years that “Lost” has been on, but you’ll very rarely see shows this good.

TV Talk: Round Up

2009-12-16T13:28:00.000-05:00

And boy do I have a lot to round up!

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I'm not feeling inspired to write much about what I'm watching right now. Part of the reason for that is that some of what I'm watching is at best lackluster - FlashFoward, I'm looking at you - or just showing promise (that would be "V"), and that's leaving me plain uninspired.

Two of my favorites, however - one that just ended its second season, and one that's really hitting its creative stride now - are interesting enough to write about; I'm just not sure who wants to read about them. Would any of my readers be interested in recaps/reviews of Sons of Anarchy or Fringe? If people want it, I'll do it.

In the meantime, a few thoughts on what I've been watching.

Sons of Anarchy just ended its second season, and boy what a season it was, with bravura performances by Ron Perlman, Charlie Hunnam, and most especially Katey Sagal as Gemma, the hard-as-nails matriarch of SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original). I don't put much stock in awards, and I keep telling myself that the Golden Globes don't mean anything, but the fact that this show was completely overlooked for a nomination really makes my blood boil. There are very few shows on television that are better written or acted, or that reach the Shakespearean levels of storytelling that SOA does. I am very sorry for everyone who does not watch it.

So, V and Flashforward are on a very LONG hiatus - V returns on March 30, FlashForward on March 4 - and I can't say that's very surprising for either show. I know ABC says the long hiatus is to protect them from NBC's Olympics coverage, but anyone with half a brain knows that both of these shows need some work. I feel more optimistic about V, but that may only be because V hasn't been on long enough to dig a hole as deep as the one FlashForward finds itself in. I will definitely be returning to V, but there's about a 50/50 chance that I'll never watch FlashForward again.

Fringe, however, has been AMAZING. John Noble as Walter Bishop has been AMAZING. The Walter/Peter relationship has grown to the point where, when the truth comes out, the fallout will be heart-breaking. I cannot wait. (returns Jan. 14)

Alright, let's wrap this up with a couple of programming notes:

1. Missed watching True Blood the first time around? Or perhaps you just want to watch it all again? Well aren't you lucky: HBO is airing a season 1 marathon beginning December 28, at 8:00 PM!

2. Fans of Deadwood's Timothy Olyphant and Elmore Leonard, take note:

That looks goooood.

3. Last but not least, how about some return dates?

Modern Family, Jan. 6

How I Met Your Mother, Jan. 11

Big Bang Theory, Jan. 11

Castle, Jan. 11

American Idol, Jan. 12

Bones, Jan. 14

Community, Jan. 14

Parks and Rec, Jan. 14

30 Rock, Jan. 14

CSI, Jan. 14 (busy night)

24, Jan. 17 & Jan. 18

The Final Season of LOST, Feb. 2

I have a feeling this is going to turn into the Nothing-but-LOST blog on Feb. 2.

(all return dates courtesy of Ausiello's Mid-season cheat sheet - check it out to see when your favorite show is returning)

Today's Tweets

2009-12-16T13:20:00.000-05:00

Via @ebertchicago - Brian Cox's Masterclass with Theo

Via @EW - Alice in Wonderland trailer!

On the fourth day of Christmas

2009-12-16T11:00:00.006-05:00

Pingu Throw, the classic time-waster of a game. Have fun!

Hosted by Daily Free Games

thisisgina.com

Regarding those changes I was hinting about...

Today's Tweets

Today's Tweets

The Daily Otter

LOST: The End

LOST

LOSTapalooza III

LOSTapalooza II

It's a LOSTapalooza

LOST Reading Recs

LOST: Episode 6.15

Three and a half hours and then it's over.

Fan-Made Trailer for LOST Finale

LOST Reading Recs

LOST: Episode 6.14

LOST Scraps

Maybe it's really a head bandage *disguised* as a bandana?

Today's Tweets

Today's Tweets

LOST Reading Recs

LOST: Episodes 6.13 and 6.14

I want what he's smoking!

MoMA

Where the hell is my LOST recap??

Today's Tweets

LOST: Episode 6.12

Today's Tweets

Today's Tweets

LOST: Episode 6.11

LOST: Episodes 6.9 and 6.10

Today's Tweets

April Fools!

The two best Idol performances from last night.

Today's Tweets

I'll miss Sawyer.

Nothing like a good cup of Joe.

LOST: Episode 6.8

Crystal. Kicks. ASS.

Today's Tweets

TV Talk: Drive By

LOST: Episode 6.7

Desmond's Replacement

One of the best fan tribute videos, ever.

TV Talk: Post-Olympics Lull and Randomness

Say hello to Bachelor Number One.

LOST: Episode 6.6

What I've liked so far in these Olympics.

Star Wars Humor Never Gets Old

LOST: Episode 6.5

TV Talk: After watching the Vancouver Olympics for over a week, I think I can safely say that NBC's coverage stinks.

LOST: Episode 6.4

Snow Day

What if LOST was made in the 60s?

A Valentine.

LOST: Episode 6.3

I'll miss you, Captain Phil.

I wish I was there.

Men don't like to wear pants and they hate girls, or, "What I learned from this year's Super Bowl ads".

I got your puppies right here!

Fringe Winter Finale: When Universes Collide

Today's Tweets

LOST: Episodes 6.1 and 6.2

I did it.

Cool LOST Easter Egg!

"Futuristic prom rave murder sparkle cable installation"

Sky1 Interview with Michael Emerson (No Spoilers)

Cuse and Lindelof Speak!

Today's Tweets

Anderson Cooper is the real deal.

Today's Tweets

Today's Tweets

How you can help Haiti.

More Notes From The Great LOST Rewatch: Season 2

The man's got class. Bad hair, but a lot of class.

The final LOST Panel at the Television Critics Press Tour

It's Official, Dawg.

TV Talk: Fresh TV!

I told you this was going to become the "All LOST All The Time" Blog.

Notes from The Great LOST Rewatch: Season 2

Maybe it's really a head bandage disguised as a bandana?