Okay then. Two hours of what was either infuriatingly nonsensical exposition or shocking revelations that saved the great secret "twist" for the very last scene, one that in the grand scheme of things certainly opens up new avenues of storytelling for the series. It also put pretty much all the main characters in mortal peril, with the major cliffhanger for next season being the fates of two of them in particular, and yet the episode and the flashbacks strangely focused on a character we hadn't seen since the very start of this season, 20 episodes ago. And it isn't Walt, with whom the writers may have figured out a way to avoid the actor's tremendous growth spurt in the 65 days on the island. And yes, we do get the date of the Oceanic Flight 815 crash - September 22, 2004. And the revelation from Locke about the amount of time they'd been on the island. But all in all, in an episode that contained more questions than the promised answers, I still found myself on the edge of my seat and I can't wait until next year's new episodes begin. It just keeps sucking you in more and more. Maybe the grand experiment on the Island is how many idiots will keep watching this stuff as the plots get more and more convoluted.
Continue reading "The Lost Finale" »
As we come to a close on a truly impressive television season (especially compared with last year), it's time for some awards to be passed out. Since I've already awarded Weeds with the 2005 television series of the year, I'm limiting the countdown to those shows that premiered during the traditional television season, starting back in September and ending this May. So no summer series, which also includes Entourage. But for the most part, this was a great season for television viewing, and I don't even watch some (all?) of the most popular shows on TV, including 24, Desperate Housewives, CSI, Grey's Anatomy, and American Idol. Of course, if you've read this blog before, you know I'm not a big fan of things that are popular. But now without further ado, the best show on television this season was...
Continue reading "TV Season in Review '05-'06" »
So I've stumbled upon the best way to watch Lost without getting frustrated at the infernally slow pacing where it seems like nothing is ever answered and only more questions are developed as the show moves forward. The answer is to TiVo a bunch of episodes and watch them in a row. I've done that over the past four new episodes, and dammit, they were fucking amazing. It's true nothing really has been resolved. Not even remotely, but I'm more excited about tonight's season finale than any show this season. Which means this show has come a long way since back in the fall when its plot frustrations led me to nearly give up on it on multiple occasions. Who knew that "Henry Gale" - the mysterious stranger who was captured by Rousseau and believed to be one of The Others - would be the character that would save the series. But ever since Henry appeared in the hatch, the tension and action and suspense and storyline have been driven forward at a near breakneck pace (at least for this show) culminating with the shocking murders of Ana Lucia and Libby two episodes ago at the hands of Michael, one of their fellow castaways. And now? Like I said, I can't wait to see what happens tonight.
Continue reading "Lost" »
"Oh I can tell this is gonna suck."
Well Jeremy's words were pretty prescient this week, describing the fate of their team after dominating the Race for most of the season but getting felled at the final task by a challenge that was not suited to their normally impressive talents. It was a strong season for the most part, but there were only four teams that readily competed in every leg, and three of them made it to the final leg (with only MoJo kicked out early). And in the end, after significant bunching at multiple stages in the 2-hour finale, each of which basically rendered the entire challenges preceding them meaningless - including trips to both Japan and Alaska - it all came down to a Roadblock featuring flags of each of the countries that the teams had visited on the Race, which the contestants had to put in order of their arrival at the country. The "frat boys" made it to the challenge first, but needless to say, they were not the first to complete it.
Jeremy: "We didn't know the last one would be brains."
Continue reading "The Amazing Finale" »
Continuing the summer music theme as the weather begins to border on sweltering here in New Jersey (fortunately, as yet without the lovely humidity). Starting off with a couple old time classics that I can't believe I'm calling "old time". Wow, I feel old. Enjoy...
