The two best Idol performances from last night.

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

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.

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.

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

LOST: Episode 6.8

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.

Today's Tweets

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

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

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

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.

TV Talk: Post-Olympics Lull and Randomness

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.

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

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.

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

LOST: Episode 6.5

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.

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

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

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.