Wow. I did not see all that coming. In my head, I was feeling pretty confident going into this season that I had an idea about where it was going. In my head, I was trying to keep the concepts of time travel fairly reasonable (and as pseudo-sciencey as possible). In my head, it was complicated but manageable.
Leave it to Lost to totally blow my confidence out of the water and present us with one of the most complicated episodes of television ever produced.
Let's just start to wrap our minds around what happened in these two hours...
Characters on the Island traveling back and forth in time unpredicatably.
Some characters on the Island remembering things, others not so much.
The audience having vague concepts of the general timeframe of each jump, but not specific enough to know if we just saw the characters visit two, three, or four different time periods.
No one being clear on the rules of these time jumps, aside from Faraday and perhaps Richard Alpert - neither of which had time to fully explain this episode.
So what are we left with? A lot of analyzing to do!
The crazy thing is that I think we got enough information to work through a lot of answers, including some answers to questions that have been posed over the first four seasons of the show. I need some time to digest, but here is the traditional spewing of random thoughts to tide you over and pique your interests for the next few days...
Is Charlotte suffering the same "sickness" that killed Minkowski (and almost Desmond?) Is it because she was on the Island before (as a child) and left, but returned on a different bearing? Or is it because she doesn't have a Constant? Could this be the same "illness" that killed all of CFL's crew? But CFL was somehow spared because she had Alex to act as her Constant?
If Desmond is the only one immune to the effects of the Island jumping in time and wiping out memories, is he screwing up the space-time continuum by suddenly having the ability to actually change the past?
Who the F is Ms. Hawking? I definitely got the vibe that she is some type of "The Matrix"-esque Oracle character who is trying to prevent the end of the world, mucked up by Desmond changing the past. Is this why she was so adamant about him not marrying Penny and just staying put on the Island?
Who was the Jill character that Ben left Locke's body with? An Other that he is BFF with from back in the day? Or someone in the Ms. Hawking clan who are just working on preventing the world from coming to an end?
Even with Hurley potentially being arrested, it's pretty hilarious how simple the Oceanic Six storyline is in comparison to the Island one. Every time they would jump to an Oceanic Six scene, I would feel slight disappointment on the inside.
What are the odds that the opening scene of the season, featuring Faraday inside the Orchid as it is being built, was actually a "flashback", and that at some point this season, the Island will "jump" back that far in time, allowing Faraday to enter the Orchid to try and sort everything out? Will this lead to throwing him into the future? Is this why he was crying when we first met his character last season? Does he have this residual memory of everything that happened, and everyone that dies (Charlotte in particular), but can't quite remember it? Will he be exposed to high levels of radiation like Desmond rendering him able to remember things outside of the "jumps"?
Locke ends up with the compass that Alpert gave him, which seems like the object that Alpert wanted him to choose as a child when he visited. However, the knife is actually what was Locke's - the compass is Alpert's. So wouldn't that mean that Locke chose correctly?
Is this how the Others knew that Locke was going to be their future leader? Did 1970's Locke tell them all sorts of stuff that had not yet happened and they figured that he was seeing into the future and must be some all-knowing being / witch?
My early assumption is that Island Originals are immune from the effects of the Island moving - but any outsiders are not. This would explain Alpert knowing what was going on, but Ethan and the early Dharma folks not. But there are still all sorts of questions about what this means for characters who are alive vs. dead in the different timelines. Could this be why we see characters like Christian Shephard walking around?
My head hurts.
I will say this - these two episodes probably effectively turned off any "casual viewers" of the show. It's probably going to take 100% brainpower from people to be able to keep up and appreciate how awesome this show is getting. After teasing the "sci-fi" angle for the first four seasons, it jumped in head first into the deep end with the start of Season Five. Thus far, I'm quite impressed. It takes a lot for a show to challenge me, but Lost gave me all the challenge I could ask for and more.
Looks like we’ve got a first-ever double episode preview to kickoff Season Five! Even though the first two episodes of Season Five are airing back to back as part of a three hour Lost bonanza on January 21st, it seems pretty clear that the Lost writers originally envisioned them to be individual episodes, as each episode has its own title and episode description. So, to stick with tradition, we’ll deal with each individually, but interspersing some overall analysis within both. Take a deep breath – here we go!
Episode Title: “Because You Left”
Brian’s Deeper Meaning Guess: The traditional pre-episode Google search of the title revealed little in terms of books / movies / songs with this title. Instead, it returned thousands of sites talking about the Season Premiere. But that’s okay, because I don’t think the “deeper meaning” of the title comes from some outside source. In fact, for the first time ever in the history of Lost, we know exactly where this episode title will come from before the episode airs.
If you actually watched all the video clips I included with my previous post, you’ve already seen it:
For those unable to view the video clip (like all my co-workers), here’s the quote:
Jack: “How did all this happen?”
Ben: “It happened BECAUSE YOU LEFT, Jack.”
I’m guessing that this scene is one of the very first ones of Season Five, since it looks like it takes place immediately after the last scene of Season Four with Ben and Jack inside the Hofs Drawler Funeral Parlor (but not the very first scene of Season Five, of course – more on that later).
So in this situation, the deeper meaning isn’t really the symbolism of the words, but what the words themselves actually mean. It’s the question that we’ve all been asking ourselves since last season’s finale, where we found out that some very bad things happened on the Island after the Oceanic Six left – but it wasn’t simply just that these bad things happened, but because they happened DUE to the Oceanic Six leaving.
At first, this seems totally logical – whatever happened when Ben turned the Frozen Donkey Wheel (FDW) caused the Island to jump in space and time (in theory), which suddenly thrust our Survivors into a new, suddenly dangerous situation (like going back in time, putting them under attack from the Others). If Ben hadn’t turned the FDW, everything would have continued to be happy-go-lucky on the Island for our Survivors, aside from the occasional Smokey or Others attack.
But it’s not quite that easy.
If this were the case, Locke would have a serious, legitimate grudge against the Oceanic Six for indirectly causing all the very bad things to come about, but why would he need them to come back to the Island to make it right? This is the question I wrestled with after last season’s finale, and didn’t get very far:
Looking back, my original theory doesn’t hold up very well now because based on the episode previews it isn’t a slow decline from Good Times to Very Bad Times, but something that is almost immediate based on the flaming arrows and explosions.
On the other hand, maybe we’re approaching this all wrong, and need to look at the two points totally separate from each other. Yes, Locke came back looking for our the Oceanic Six to return to the Island as part of some wacky scheme to save the Island (in his head, Locke probably thinks that the Oceanic Six coming back would help since it was their “destiny” to be there in the first place – and their leaving caused the Island to become “unbalanced” or something) – but maybe Ben wasn’t even talking about the Island in his conversation with Jack.
I’m reminded of the last few lines of Season Four:
Jack: “He told me that after I left the Island, some very bad things happened. And he told me that it was my fault for leaving. And he said that I have to come back. Why are you here?” Ben: “The Island won’t let you come alone. All of you have to go back.” Jack: “I don’t know where Sayid is. Hurley is insane. Sun blames me for… and Kate she won’t even talk to me anymore.” Ben: “Perhaps I can help you with that. This is the way it has to be. This is the only way. You have to do it together, all of you.” Jack: “How?” Ben: “I have a few ideas. Jack – I said all of you. We’re going to have to bring him too.”
It looks like Jack’s question of “how did this all happen” has nothing to do with the Island – but rather, with all the terrible things that happened to the Oceanic Six after they returned to the “real world”. Think about it:
Sayid lost the love of his life, and is working as a hit man for Ben.
Hurley is right back in the mental institution, seeing images of dead Islanders.
Sun lost the love of her life and has potentially turned evil and sided with Widmore in the race for the Island.
Kate lost both of the loves of her life (Jack to crazy town and Sawyer to the Island), and is being haunted by images of her fake son’s real mother.
Aaron is being raised without a father, by a known criminal (albeit hot).
So if you add it all up, each member of the Oceanic Six would have been better off if they had stayed on the Island. I have to think this fact is not lost on Jack, someone who was more determined than anyone to make it off the Island – but also someone who more than anyone wanted to help / “fix” people. Unfortunately, the two goals seemed to be at odds with each other. And through a cruel twist of fate, accomplishing the first goal made the second impossible – all because they left.
Episode Description: The remaining island survivors start to feel the effects of the aftermath of moving the island, and Jack and Ben begin their quest to reunite the Oceanic 6 in order to return to the island with Locke's body in an attempt to save their former fellow castaways.
Guest Cast: L. Scott Caldwell as Rose, Sam Anderson as Bernard, Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert, William Mapother as Ethan Rom, Francois Chau as Dr. Marvin Candle, Sonya Walger as Penelope "Penny" Widmore, Alan Dale as Charles Widmore, Rebecca Mader as Charlotte Lewis, William Blanchett as Aaron, Sean Whalen as Neil Frogurt, Tom Irwin as Dan Norton, Michael Dempsey as foreman, Stephanie Smart as ticket agent, Leslie Ishii as woman, Cindy Paliracio as TV anchor, Brad Berryhill as anxious guy, Sven Lindstrom as crew member, Chantal Boomla as counter girl, Jeremy Colvin as security guard.
Guest Cast Breakdown: This year, I’ve decided to give a dedicated paragraph or two each week to the guest stars for each episode – because they often offer as many clues to an episode as the Episode Description, if not more.
This week, we’ve got two guest stars that jump out at me – Ethan Rom and Marvin Candle. First up, we’ve got Ethan Rom, the Claire-kidnapping Other who was killed in Season One courtesy of multiple gunshots from Charlie. His inclusion in the episode means one of two things:
We are going to see a flashback to before Ethan was killed (probably pre-Oceanic Flight 815 crash)
When the Island went back in time (which I am assuming based on my previous post), it truly “resets” in every way, bringing people who have died since that time back to life, Ethan Rom included.
Both explanations seem pretty reasonable. As I argued in my “Destiny Calls” post, the most logical explanation for why the Others would suddenly be attacking our Survivors would be if the 1970’s Others have no memories of the 2004 Others – and if that’s the case, the space-time continuum seems like it would get out of whack really quickly if you had people die in 2004 and suddenly no longer exist in 1974. As insane as it sounds, bringing dead people back to life would be the easier and more logical way to deal with this proposed time jump.
On the other hand, I was racking my brain to figure out how this season is going to start. A quick refresher down memory lane:
Season One – started with Jack’s eye opening, having no idea what was going on until we realized he was a survivor of a plane crash on an Island.
Season Two – started with Desmond waking up and going through a daily routine, having no idea what was going on until we realized he was the man inside the Hatch.
Season Three – started with Juliet hosting book club, having no idea what was going on until we realized she was living with the Others in a totally normal appearing Island neighborhood.
Season Four – started with Hurley leading the police on a wild chase, having no idea what was going on until he screamed “I’m one of the Oceanic Six!”
So as you can see, the Lost writers seem to love putting us in situations where we have no idea where (or when) we are at the start of the season, only to have us finally realize what the heck is going on right before the big black LOST hits the screen. (Okay, Season Four was a pretty weak example of this – and broke the trend of introducing a new character, but let’s play the odds).
Keeping all this in mind, here’s a thought for the Season Five opener – what if we see what happened when Ben turned the FDW, only this time from the perspective of the Others in the 1970’s? From their perspective, what if the sky suddenly went white and all the sudden there were all these new people (our Survivors) on their Island? I’d probably start shooting flaming arrows too! Or – what if the jump in time correlates with roughly the time that Dharma came to the Island for the first time? The Others would be in full-fledged “attack mode” for these newcomers to the Island.
I think it would be a pretty cool opening scene in the same vein as past seasons’ openers.
What about Marvin Candle’s appearance in the episode?
Well, if we assume it’s early Dharma days then it’s logical to think that Pierre Chang himself would be walking around on the Island, filming Orientation videos and coming up with fun candle-related pseudonames for himself. On the other hand, one of my other cool thoughts for the Fifth Season would be if Radzinski was alive and well operating the Swan Hatch, pre-Kelvin and Desmond. I think it would be fascinating to see a glimpse of Radzinski learning about the Swan Hatch for the first time, watching the Orientation video in whole, and starting on his whole invisible ink Blast Door Map.
The other fun cameo this episode is Neil Frogurt, a Survivor who has been mentioned a few times in the past, but has only appeared in one of the Webisodes before last season. Given the scant number of Survivors left on the Island, it’s kinda cool that they are finally putting a true face to his name for consistency’s sake, rather than just having new random background characters in the Island scenes. Although, with all the people on fire and things blowing up, we may see him for only a moment before he is quickly killed – irony!
Episode Breakdown: On to the episode itself.
The first thing that caught my eye was the word “effects” – it’s not just one side-effect to the aftermath of turning the Island – but multiple ones. I have to think the first one is that the Island went back in time. As for the others? They could range from anything like being under attack from the Others to losing their memories similar to Faraday’s apparent memory loss.
It makes you wonder – does this put all the Survivors on the Island in the same boat as Faraday / Desmond? Do they need a Constant now to be able to keep “in touch” with 2005, even though they now exist in the past? That could really escalate things quickly.
Wait a minute, that could also provide the perfect explanation for why the Others would “forget” about the Survivors! If they spend their whole lives on the Island, they wouldn’t have anyone in the outside world to become their Constant, and would be victims of losing their memory every time the Island jumps!
At any rate, I’m expecting the Survivors to suddenly be in very bad shape – totally confused as to what’s going on, under attack, and possibly experiencing weird side effects like memory loss. Thank God Faraday is there to explain everything to them. Here’s hoping we get a few minutes of exposition before the episode is over so that we, as the viewers have an understanding about how this is all happening in “science terms” (good luck).
The other main storyline obviously will focus on Jack rounding up the Oceanic Six in their effort to return to the Island and save the Survivors they left behind. As Jack mentioned in his Season Four Finale speech, this seems like a much more difficult task than one would think, since everyone’s lives are in shambles post-Island.
If we were being realistic about this – it would take Jack years, if ever, to get the Oceanic Six to all agree to return to the Island. But in TV world, I sure hope it doesn’t take more than a few episodes. I think that there is a risk of a number of unnecessary scenes of Jack trying to convince the Oceanic Six to see his side of things, work with Ben, go back to the Island, etc – when as viewers, we’re all going to be thinking “okay, okay – just do it so we can see what happens!” The Lost writers have never let me down in the past (except for portions of the first half of Season Three), so I have faith that we can get this storyline resolved in four or five episodes – then the real fun of the season can begin.
As for Locke, the only possible reason to bring him back to the Island is because he’s going to come back to life, right? As insane as that sounds, I don’t know that Ben would insist on bringing him along for the ride if it was something as poetic as “burying him in the place that he belongs”. If not truly back to life, then at least becoming a Jacob-equivalent on the Island – but this should be even more entertaining to see Jack try and pull off. How do you lug around a dead body without people taking notice?
Lots to think about – and we’re only half done. On to the next episode!
Episode Title: “The Lie”
Brian’s Deeper Meaning Guess: Another episode where the “deeper meaning” is pretty light – in fact, the episode title is referenced in the episode description itself! Those Lost writers are getting lazy in their old age…
Episode Description: Hurley and Sayid are on the run from the cops after stumbling into trouble at the safehouse; the island survivors come under attack by unknown forces; and an old friend offers some shocking advice to Kate in order to ensure that "the lie" remain a secret.
So who is this “old friend” that is offering Kate shocking advice? Let’s check the Guest Cast for potential candidates!
Guest Cast: Michelle Rodriguez as Ana Lucia, L. Scott Caldwell as Rose, Sam Anderson as Bernard, Sonya Walger as Penelope "Penny" Widmore, Rebecca Mader as Charlotte Lewis, Jeff Fahey as Frank Lapidus, Lillian Hurst as Carmen Reyes, Cheech Marin as David Reyes, William Blanchett as Aaron, Sean Whalen as Neil Frogurt, Tom Connolly as Jones, Mary Mara as Jill, Dana Sorman as Darlene, James Jeremiah as police officer, Stephanie Conching as nurse, Matthew Allan as Cunningham, Todd Bryant as Mattingly.
Guest Cast Breakdown: Ana Lucia?! Could this be the “old friend” that offers the advice to Kate? I wouldn’t call Ana-Lucia and Kate “friends” by any means – they were both fighting over Jack in a way back on the Island, but she jumps out as the most likely candidate from the guest list. We’ve seen Kate having visions of Claire warning her about not “bringing him back” (which we all assumed meant Aaron – but thinking about it now, could have meant anyone from Locke to Ben), so seeing a vision of the dead Ana-Lucia also seems possible.
However, looking at the other Guest Stars this episode, it seems pretty clear that it’s a Hurley-centric outing (since his mom and dad are guest stars). Keeping in mind that Jack is working on rounding up the Oceanic Six, could it be that Hurley himself is the “old friend” that comes in contact with Kate and offers her shocking advice to keep “the lie” secret?
I guess it all depends on what “the lie” actually is. With the Oceanic Six, there are a number of strong candidates, since their whole lives have been a lie since returning from the Island, but if we’re talking about Kate, my money is on “the lie” being about Aaron. The lie is that Aaron is actually her child. So what is the shocking advice that someone would give to keep this lie a secret? What if someone figured out that Aaron isn’t Kate’s child? It really shouldn’t be that hard. Anyone who saw her pre-flight could confirm that she didn’t look pregnant. Any DNA evidence would confirm that he is not her child. In that case, what could Kate do to ensure that Aaron wouldn’t be taken away by the authorities?
Even more importantly, finding out that Aaron is not Kate’s child would basically prove that the Oceanic Six were lying about the crash, the Island, and the Survivors – and would immediately put all of our Survivors back on the Island in great danger (even bigger than the danger that they are facing anyways). How would Kate be able to keep this lie a secret to protect Aaron, the Oceanic Six, AND the Survivors back on the Island?
She would need to run and hide.
What better place to go than BACK TO THE ISLAND?
Out of all the Oceanic Six, Kate seemed like the one least likely to be able to be convinced to go back to the Island. But if it meant protecting EVERYONE, I think she might be able to be convinced. It might be the only way to keep “The Lie” intact.
Back to the Guest Stars – the other truly noteworthy guest this episode is none other than Frank Lapidus. As I mentioned during my Season Four wrap up last spring, I had some real concerns about Frank ever appearing on the show again. He seemed like a character whose storyline might be sufficiently wrapped up, especially with less than forty episodes remaining. However, his inclusion gives me hope that he’ll continue to be an integral part of the Oceanic Six’s return to the Island – flying the plane they use to get there, or maybe when Ben said “you all have to go back”, it meant every single person who has ever set foot on the Island. Either way, I like Frank, and am happy to see him back.
Episode Breakdown: If you remember last season’s finale, Sayid went to the Mental Institution to “rescue” Hurley, killing a man stationed in a car outside in the process. The assumption was that the man in the car was one of Widmore’s people, keeping an eye on Hurley, seeing if they could gather any information from him (or those who visited him).
I have to assume that Sayid was taking Hurley back to his “safehouse” – a place that would be safe from Widmore’s spies. I’m guessing the “trouble” is that Widmore discovers the safehouse and has his men attempt to kidnap / murder Hurley and Sayid. My money would be on Sayid kicking ass and taking names using his sweet break-dance fighting style… but gunshots will be fired, drawing the attention of the police. From there, they’ll stumble upon the dead bodies and assume that Sayid and Hurley are criminals (which to some extent, they are).
Unfortunately, this adds an extra degree of difficulty to Jack’s mission to bring everyone back to the Island. With Hurley and Sayid on the run from the cops, not only do the Oceanic Six have to worry about Widmore’s hit men, but also the regular police. The good news is this should expedite the time it takes the Oceanic Six to get back to the Island, since there won’t be time for everyone to sit down and talk through the pros and cons of trying to go back. All the sudden, almost everyone has a reason to get back to the Island as soon as possible:
Jack – life is a wreck because he left
Kate – needs to protect the lie that Aaron is her son
Sayid – on the run from Widmore’s people and the law
Hurley – on the run from Widmore’s people and the law
Sun – working for Widmore to find the Island?
Aaron – is able to be picked up and carried to the Island, so he doesn’t get a vote
But even if they all agree to return to the Island, I’m still wondering how exactly this can happen. Will they go back into the past? That seems pretty unlikely. Even if they do find some type of Dharma Station in the real world (the Lighthouse logo referenced in my previous post?), it having the ability to send them back in time seems outside the realm of pseudo-science… because the station exists off of the Island. On the Island, it’s easy to explain something like “jumping back in time” thanks to the “exotic matter” and “unique properties” there. But if Dharma could create a station that could send people back in time, that’s straight up inventing time travel – and while it could explain some of the happenings we’ve seen on Lost, it’s a little too far out there for me. Also, it seems like it could have been used last season to solve some problems, rather than resorting to turning the FDW.
The other alternative seems to be waiting until the Island catches up to the present – but that also seems really unlikely since the Survivors are under immediate danger and probably wouldn’t survive for 30 years on the Island – and it also brings up the pesky aging issue of the characters which creates a messy situation for all the love triangles on the Island. Kate making out with old man Sawyer? Gross. Jack hooking up with Grandma Juliet? No thank you!
So what’s left?
The only thing I can think of is that the Island somehow finds it way back to the present (2008). I don’t know if this would involve Faraday figuring something out, or our Survivors making their way to the Dharma Lighthouse station (if it exists on the Island), but it seems to me that the only way for the Oceanic Six to find the Island is for the Island to find them – at least from a timeline perspective. This would go along with Ben’s comments that once you leave, you can never go back… unless the Island wants you to come back, because the Island – or those on it – would have to proactively do something to make it happen.
The last part of the episode description is also quite intriguing. The Island Survivors come under attack by “unknown forces”. I was operating under the assumption that the flaming arrows and explosions attacking the Survivors in the preview were coming from the Others or possibly Dharma… but both of these are pretty well-known by our Survivors. Is it possible there is some new entity on the Island back in the past that existed pre-Dharma? Or does this comment simply refer to the fact that our Survivors are puzzled because the Others / Dharma are suddenly attacking them, tied to the fact that suddenly they don’t remember / know about our Survivors?
I guess I’ve always thought that in the grand history of the Island, it’s been the Others… and then Dharma, and then our Survivors. Sure, there might have been some other random visitors here and there (the Black Rock pirates, Henry Gale, Yemi), but I never thought about any other large group spending time on the Island – but if there are “unknown forces”, maybe that’s exactly what we’re going to find. However, that would mean the Island jumped back more than 30 years, which would contradict some of the other clues we’ve received via the Comic-Con video. Confusing.
Of course, I could just be getting caught up in the wording – and the “unknown forces” are simply unknown to our Survivors at the time because they don’t know who is attacking them – and it ends up being Dharma or the Others. I suppose I’ll settle on that for now since it’s the least confusing possibility.
Wrap Up. Okay, between that post, and my “Destiny Calls” post, I think I’ve pretty much thrown all my thoughts out for how the first few episodes of the season. In summary:
The Island went back in the past. This has put the Survivors on the Island in danger, because they are suddenly strangers to the 1970’s Island inhabitants (Others / Dharma).
The Oceanic Six all have various reasons to go back. The tricky part will be figuring out how to do it.
We are all relying on Faraday to explain all this using pseudo-science.
The tricky part is going to be in the details. I’ve got a feeling that after the first two episodes of Season Five, our heads are going to be about to explode, trying to digest the time jump concepts, and what it might mean for the Others, the history of the Island, and some of the yet unanswered questions we still have.
It should be a fun season of analyzing.
Happy Losting! See you back here for Instant Reactions Wednesday night!
It’s time to get excited. It’s also a time to be very, very afraid.
It’s exciting because we are three weeks away from the start of a brand new season of Lost, which is the happiest time of the year (aside from Christmastime and NCAA Tournament time, of course). But it’s also a scary time because apparently the first two episodes of the new season have been distributed to the media. While the “official media people” are somewhat sworn to secrecy about the contents of these episodes, inevitably these episodes will find their way into the hands of the various spoiler websites in the world. Therefore, it’s time to go on high alert, avoiding any potential spoiler sites for the next three weeks in order to maximize the enjoyment of the season premiere.
But that doesn’t mean we should just sit idly and wait for January 21st. There is still a TON of preseason hyping and speculating to do.
Over the past few months, there have been a number of officially released commercials / previews of the forthcoming fifth season of Lost, and a good number of them are worth discussing.
Before we get started, it’s probably a good idea to remind ourselves of exactly where we left things at the end of the fourth season. For those of you who own the Season Four DVDs, there is a “Lost in 8:15” feature at the start of Disc One, which tells the story of Lost in Cliffs Notes form, bringing you up to speed on the first three seasons before you start watching Season Four. It’s hilarious and informative. Thankfully, it looks like ABC released a similar video on the Internet last month, this time including everything from the fourth season as well.
So, before we get started, I present to you – 86 Lost episodes condensed down into 4 minutes and 51 seconds… even less if you take out the 20 seconds of ABC advertisements at the end. If you have randomly stumbled upon this website but have never viewed an episode of Lost in your life, here’s your chance to get the quick and dirty 100,000 foot view of the series:
Okay, so now that we are up to speed (as of May 2008), it’s time to review what’s happened since then. Let’s review the facts first, and then I’ll follow up with analysis at the end. It all started with this video that emerged from Comic Con over the summer…
A few notes from the video:
Marvin Candle’s real name is Pierre Chang.
He seems defeated, and is done with the “games”.
He only has “one chance at this”.
He was recruited to this “God-forsakenIsland” to study the Kerr Metric solutions to Einstein's Field Equations – which is really complicated, but deals with funky forces acting on objects and black holes. If you are smarter than me, this might make more sense to you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerr_metric
Mentions “if I can keep this pinhole open long enough, you should be receiving my message roughly thirty years…”
Knows about George W. Bush, the Internet, and his death in the Purge (but is powerless to escape).
Time is not just of the essence… it IS the essence.
Hopes that we can find a way to save them – to change the past.
The Comic Con video, and a few others that emerged at the time, seemed to kickoff a new ARG for the fall – a terribly run ARG that unfolded far too slow, was far too uninteresting, and eventually died in a pretty embarrassing way. After the trainwreck, Damon and Carlton appeared to explain:
And shortly after followed it up with this, far more intriguing video:
The books they reference are:
Lancelot by Walker Percy – Sawyer was reading in Season Two’s “Maternity Leave”.
Lancelot is a novel that was written in 1977 by the author Walker Percy. The book is about Lancelot Lamar, a lawyer who, when he discovers that he is not the father of his youngest daughter, kills his wife by blowing up their house. He ends up being confined in a mental institution, where he then dwells on the memories of his frightful past. There is a surrealistic element, where reality blends with delirium.
Ulysses by James Joyce – Ben will be reading in the seventh episode of the season, which will be called “316” (or is it 3:16 – "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.")
I haven’t read Ulysses, but according to Amazon, it’s a book about “everything.” The author sees the universe in Dublin, Ireland, on June 16, 1904, a day distinguished by its utter normality. In it, two characters go about their separate business, crossing paths with a gallery of indelible Dubliners. The result is that almost every variety of human experience is crammed into the accordion folds of a single day.
The Stand by Steven King – referenced by Damon and Carlton in previous interviews, the Stand is the ultimate story of a superflu killing most of the world’s population, culminating in the final battle of Good vs. Evil with the few survivors.
But perhaps more interesting is the logo that flashes at the end of the video:
To me, that sure does look like some sort of light, which I’ll call the “Lighthouse Dharma Logo” because it sounds like the name of a Dharma station.
With this next video, Damon and Carlton answer a little Q&A. While there answers are usually very vague, I’m a believer that they hand pick the questions that they answer because they want to remind us about things that haven’t been referenced on the show in a while – or minor things that we didn’t pay much attention to the first time.
The noteworthy items:
When Ben mentions, “you all have to go back”, it was worded intentionally ambiguous, but will be answered… I’m guessing in Act One of Episode One of the Fifth Season.
They respond to a question about the Others building the runway in Season Three. It’s either one of those things that they will never talk about again and pretend it never happened, or will be essential to plot of Season Five. Damon bets that it is irrelevant, but then follows up by making a bet with Carlton that the LOSER of the bet gets to punch the winner… meaning it’s probably pretty essential to the plot.
Confirm that the Smoke Monster came before the Dharma Initiative.
Initially, this appears to be a fun, throwaway video… but I picked up one very big possible point - Future Damon and Carlton tell us that it is impossible to change the future.
The video ends with one second shots of what appear to be two new characters for Season Five. We’ll worry about them later.
Two brief takeaways from this one:
The reason Christian Shephard is wearing white shoes will be answered this season – which is a good question, I suppose – and one that I personally never asked.
The four toed statue will be seen in Season Five, but more extensively in Season Six.
Visiting the website, there are a few references to Lost (such as the hieroglyphics from the 108 counter in the Swan Hatch, Lost-relevant locations like Los Angeles, Portland, and Baghdad, and the phrase "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" hidden in the code), but so far nothing earth shattering has been discovered yet.
It is intriguing that Ajira is Hindi for "island" or "isle", or Arabic for "Eternal life after Death".
That brings us to the new commercials that have been airing over the past month, which feature some noteworthy scenes if you watch very closely.
We see Juliet, Sawyer, and Locke shielding their eyes from a bright light.
Locke is shown falling off those big vines / roots – like the ones near the Pearl, and later seen clutching a bloody compass.
Someone uncovering a vine-covered hatch opening in the jungle.
Sawyer and Juliet running from flaming arrows.
Someone wearing a Dharma haz-mat suit (like Kelvin wore) pointing a gun at Faraday near what looks like the Swan entrance.
Next, there is what I deemed the “Freakout Trailer” that I posted on the Blog before Christmas…
Among the freakout-worthy scenes were:
Strangers getting pulled through the jungle similar to how Smokey dragged Locke in Season One)
A baby being born.
Locke all alone asking “is anyone there? Anyone?”
A pendulum swinging over funky charts / graphs / maps.
A person writing all over chalkboard that reminds me of Faraday busily writing on his chalkboard when Desmond visited during Season Four… or is it Radzinski creating the Blast Door Map?
Desmond leaving Penny.
Claire telling Kate “you can’t bring him back” via telephone.
Stuff blowing up in the water and on land
A computer that looks similar to the one inside the Swan hatch.
A man catching on fire in front of Charlotte and Faraday.
Sawyer threatening Faraday since everyone he loved blew up on their boat.
Person typing at computer that says “EVENT WINDOW DETERMINED”.
Finally, there is this commercial – just released last week:
In it, we see:
Desmond and Penny WITH BABY!
Sayid strangling someone.
Sun pointing a gun at someone.
Locke dodging the Beechcraft plane.
Okay, so add it all up and what do you get?
A lot of evidence that the Island “moved” back into the past.
I’ve been racking my brain and annoying my wife with philosophical questions about how this would all work for the past few days. Here’s my best guess, so far:
When Ben turned the FDW, he sent the Island back in time. Since it “disappeared” in the present to the Oceanic Six, I’m guessing the Island moved in space as well. I’m also guessing this is not the first time the Island has moved, which provides handy explanations for how the Black Rock and Yemi’s airplane ended up on the Island.
Since Chang referenced 30 years in his Comic Con video, that seems like a good estimate of exactly how far back in time it moved… although 23 or 42 would be more “Losty”. That puts the Island in the 1970’s, which conveniently is when “The Incident” occurs and the Dharma Initiative is created.
Here’s a crazy, mind-blowing thought: what if the Island moving back in time, IS “The Incident”? From what we learned from Kelvin and the Blast Door, the Incident dealt with a big electromagnetic blast. In the past, when we’ve seen one of these electromagnetic blasts (like when the Swan imploded), the sky filled with a bright light – just like we see Juliet and Sawyer shielding their eyes from in the previews.
We’ve all been hoping to someday see more of the history of the Island and the Dharma Initiative – what better way than to experience it firsthand through the eyes of our Survivors still on the Island? It’s totally genius.
The intriguing thing is that the Island also seemed to “reset” somehow, and this is where it gets confusing. The videos seem to show the Swan Hatch rebuilt (and occupied) and covered by the jungle – the way Locke found it back in Season One. We also see our Survivors under fire (literally) with flaming arrows. Who could these be coming from? Would the Others, who have been in hiding at The Temple for more than a season, suddenly launch some huge offensive against our Survivors? Seems unlikely. It’s almost like they are just stumbling upon them for the first time – or it’s a different group of people attacking, who weren’t on the Island in 2004.
What better defense could the Island have than totally resetting itself back 30 years, before any of its current threats even existed?
But here’s where it gets sticky.
Our Survivors weren’t on the Island 30 years ago – but clearly they are now. How could some portions of the Island reset and others remain the same? I’m assuming our Survivors still have total knowledge of everything that has happened to them over the past few months, but it seems like potentially the Others do not. If someone is manning the Swan Hatch, that would mean either Kelvin or Radzinski were brought back to life with the move. Does this mean that people would revert back in age as well? What if they weren’t alive in the 1970’s? Would they disappear? What if someone was on the Island in both 2004 and 1974? Would there be two of them, a la Back to the Future?
These questions stumped me for a while, and delayed this post by a few days – but here’s my best guess:
Only the Island originals reset – any “outsiders” like our Survivors simply move along with it. This could be used to explain the seeming eternal life of Richard Alpert as well as the reason that the Island doesn’t allow babies to be born on the Island – getting older or younger when the Island moves – or having people suddenly appear or disappear would muck up the cosmos and create potentially impossible (and confusing) scenarios.
I still don’t know what this would mean for someone like Ben – if he goes back to the Island, will young Ben be there? That would be weird.
The other thing that this could lead to is our characters having some residual knowledge in the present about the past. Remember how Faraday was crying when he saw the video of the Oceanic 815 crash but didn’t know why? If he is now existing on the Island in the 1970’s, would his 2004 self know everything that already happened with him on the Island, since it “lived through it” thirty years prior?
Could a character like Ben return to the Island and suddenly be viewed as some sort of all-knowing God since he knows exactly what is going to happen before it does? Is this the reason why Ben always seems one step ahead of everyone? Or why Alpert was checking Locke out as a kid, since he knew that he would eventually end up on the Island as a potential new leader?
It gets really confusing really fast. But this just goes to show how critical Faraday is going to be for Lost at the start of this season. He’s going to be the one to explain this all to the Survivors and to us, the audience. Here’s hoping he can dumb it down enough for me.
The logical question to ask at this point is “how can the Oceanic Six possibly return to the Island, if it’s now in the past?” Would they actually travel back in time to get there, or would they arrive at the Island in 2005 and find our Survivors have lived 30 years on the Island waiting for them? All the shots of the pendulum swinging over weird lines and the phrase “EVENT WINDOW DETERMINED” makes me think they’re going to go back in the past, but who knows. It seems pretty clear that getting back is going to involve Ajira Airways – possibly landing a plane on the runway on Alcatraz - but from there, it’s a mystery. Maybe there that “Lighthouse Dharma Station” exists off the Island, and provides a way to reach to it? Maybe this is also how people like Alpert travel on and off the Island (and in time).
But one important takeaway for all this comes from Damon and Carlton – YOU CAN’T CHANGE THE FUTURE. It’s been a theme of Lost from the start – fate, destiny, things happen that are supposed to happen. Even if the Island “resets”, is there anything that anyone can do to prevent the same terrible things happening the second time around? This is precisely what Dharma was trying to do – solve the world’s problems before it’s too late – and being able to rewind thirty years and try again seems like a pretty handy way to keep trying even if you fail the first time. Chang seems to be pleading for us to try and change the past in his video, while noting that it may be impossible to do.
Okay – enough mindless rambling. Let’s wrap up my thoughts:
It seems as though Desmond will be involved in returning to the Island, since he is shown leaving not only Penny – but also a NEW BABY! This still doesn’t answer if people like Walt or Frank would need to go back, but as long as Desmond is still going to be heavily featured, I’m pumped (even though this puts Penny in big danger since Ben vowed to kill her if he could find her).
I’m hopeful that the shots of Sun with a gun mean that she is working with Widmore to return to the Island for his purposes, which would create an awesome counter to Ben and Sayid.
With the introduction of all this time-travel stuff, I’m pretty sure Adam and Eve will end up being Jack and Kate. I’m also thinking that we might go even farther back in time in Season Six, when we learn more about the four toed statue.
Okay – that’s all for now. We’ve got three weeks to discuss all this, and that is precisely what I’d like to do. Here’s an official Message Board post to kick things off:
I don't know how to put this delicately, so I'll just come out and say it:
If you love me, you'll watch "Pushing Daisies" this Wednesday night at 8:00 pm on ABC.
Why all the urgency? Well apparently, "Pushing Daisies", the happiest, fantastical-tastic, heart-warming, word-bendiest show on TV is in serious danger of being cancelled. Rumor on the street is that ABC is waiting to see the ratings for this week's show (and possibly next week's) before deciding if they will give the show a full season or cancel it after 13 episodes.
This is serious people. In a world of drab, depressing, inane crime dramas, "Pushing Daisies" shines like a beacon of color-saturated hope in an otherwise black and white TV world. I don't want to over-exaggerate, but I'm pretty sure "Pushing Daisies" can single handedly solve the world's current financial and economic crises... but only if you watch.
Do it for me. Do it for you. Do it for the future of humanity, mankind, and the world.
Well, it’s time to start getting excited. Not only do we now have our first official preview for Season Five of Lost, we also know when it returns!
According to the Hollywood Reporter:
"Lost" is coming back, and sooner than you might think.
Sources say ABC is scheduling a two-hour premiere for the fifth season debut of the Emmy-winning thriller on Wednesday, Jan. 21. The premiere will be preceded by a one-hour clip show (so three hours of "Lost" total).
That means "Lost" is returning to its Wednesday-at-9 p.m. time period. The most recent fourth season aired on Thursdays -- first at 9 p.m., then shifting to 10 p.m. after "Grey's Anatomy" returned to air following the writers strike. The new premiere date is also slightly earlier than last season.
ABC has lined up 17 episodes for 2009, which is one hour more than the show's now-standard 16-episode tally. The network added an extra hour to compensate for last year, which was cut short due to the strike. Also, yesterday THR reported that Reiko Aylesworth is in negotiations for a major recurring role on the show.
The recently picked up "Private Practice" is currently in the same slot and there's no word yet where it will go once "Lost" returns.
This is fantastic news for me.
Lost moving back to the TV night wasteland of Wednesday, instead of being yet-another good show on Thursday night!
Lost airing at 9:00 pm instead of 10:00 pm, so I’m not falling asleep by the last act!
Plenty of time to analyze and discuss before the weekend!
Also, did you catch the line in there about Reiko Aylesworth (aka - Michelle Dessler) pulling a Jin and jumping from 24 to Lost? Awesome!
I’m a little skeptical about two new hours of Lost actually airing on the 21st. With only 17 to air for the season, I would think they’d try to stretch them out as much as possible – and maybe there is some confusion that the “two hour event” actually just means the recap episode, and one new episode. If they were to air one episode each week starting on January 21st, it would put the Season Finale on May 13th – a little early. If they were to air two new episodes on January 21st, it would put the Season Finale on May 6th – which seems really early. And that doesn’t even consider the potential for the Season Finale to be a two-hour event, as it has been in years’ past.
Lastly, there is also word that the following are the episode titles for the first six episodes of Season Five. I’m pretty sure we decided that episode titles aren’t spoilers since they appear in TV Guide and stuff well in advance of the show airing, plus they’re fun to try and decipher ahead of time. But if you don’t want to know, stop reading here!
5.1 - Because You Left
5.2 - The Lie
5.3 - Jughead
5.4 -The Little Prince
5.5 - This Place is Death
5.6 - The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham
Based on this, I’m going with the following guesses for the centricity of the season premiere:
Juliet or Jack.
Smart money would be on the season premiere picking up right where last season finale’s left off – with Ben explaining to Jack what happened “because he left”. However, this would go against the Lost tradition of starting each season with the viewer completely confused as to when and where they are, or what is going on.
If they want to keep that trend alive, a Juliet-centric outing would be a nice start to the season, as we could see what the heck was happening on the Island “because they left”. This also calls into question exactly when and where the storylines for next season will take place. Obviously the Oceanic Six are currently in “present day”, and will continue forward from there. But for those on the Island, we have no idea what has happened to them from the moment the Island vanished to the time when Locke tried to recruit the Oceanic Six to come back to the Island. In my mind, there are two options for how the Island portions of the season could be shown:
1. They take place in the same timeline as the Oceanic Six. This would allow for that “what the heck is going on?” moment for the premiere, where we see a very different life on the Island than when we last left – because a lot of bad stuff has gone down since the Oceanic Six left. This would mean that the story of the previous two years on the Island would have to be told in Flashback form – or referenced but never shown.
2. The take place starting from the moment the Oceanic Six left the Island. This scenario would setup a much better payoff later in the season, when the Oceanic Six (presumably) return to the Island and see the “very bad things” for the first time at the same time the viewers do. This would mean the Island scenes for the season would show the start of things going very badly, but I’m still guessing there would be a “gap” in time that the viewers don’t see before all the characters reunite in what we term “present time”.
I think either scenario could work quite well.
A few other random thoughts on the episode titles:
- I’ve already looked, and “Jughead” doesn’t seem to be a clear reference to any book / movie / song. All you find is hits on Archie comics and some weird search engine.
- Could “The Little Price” be referring to Aaron? Or is that waaaaaaaay too obvious?
- “This Place is Death” is a strong candidate for an Island-centric episode, but I’m hoping we get some on-Island action before the 5th episode of the season.
- “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” is almost certainly Locke-centric, and will probably be one of the greatest episodes of the season (since Locke episodes usually are), and will probably show us exactly what happened from the point Locke left the Island to the point he died… which will probably answer a LOT of questions.
Okay, that’s all for now. I'm not sure why this post looks so crappy - stupid Blogger formatting - but I apologize. Less than 75 days to go!
True story – I’ve started to write this a blog post not once, not twice, not thrice – but whatever the “four” version of that phrase is (fource?)
So what’s the excuse? It just never felt right. I started to write about the Lost ARG from over the summer… but it was so boring I wasn’t really into it. I started to write about the ridiculous highs and crushing lows of the Dave Matthews Band Summer 2008 Tour… but knew that if I posted it without including something about Lost or TV, everyone would be disappointed. I started to write about the Fall TV Season… but so few shows generated any sort of passion for me that I found myself forcing words – which just isn’t my style. I sit and write without thinking.
At this point, I think the best options is to piece together those partial posts from the past four months to “cover” everything I missed so that we can all put the blogless past few months behind us and move on with our lives... and the discussion about the upcoming season of Lost, whose details are slowly beginning to trickle in.
So without further ado, I present to you the half-written crap of the past four months.
July
July brought us the promise of hope and summery Lost goodness in the form of the new ARG, dharmawantsyou.com – but those hopes quickly waned as the website turned out to be frustratingly inconsistent. More often than not, it would freeze up and refuse to load or advance to the “tests” no matter what time of day the user logged on. During the 10% of the time the website actually functioned, it offered some pretty interesting tests – a mix of problem solving, analytical ability, and personality tests.
The problem is, it’s been going on for four months without tying anything back to the greater Lost mythology. Basically, it’s been gathering information on each user of the website, hinting that at some point it will “reveal” some worthwhile information to those who “pass” or are deemed “worthy” of joining Dharma – but here we are in October, and they are currently promising test results to be released on December 15.
While it might be cool to have this thing really take off a month and a half before Lost returns, to get us at a fever-pitch level of excitement right before the season premiere, it sure would have been nice if they would have spread a touch of that excitement out over the eight months between episodes of Lost to help keep us all feed the habit.
But I digress. Maybe it will turn out cool. Maybe it will turn out lame. But up until this point, there’s nothing that has happened worth writing about.
(One last thing – this whole “Dharma Wants You” thing got me thinking – what if they are introducing this storyline of Dharma re-forming as a way to make Lost live on past its well established finale in two short years? Think about it – does anyone really think the grand mysteries and uber-complicated pseudo-science that Dharma is working on in an attempt to save the world is going to be answered by the conclusion of the series? With only 34 episodes remaining, I’m thinking we’ll mainly focus on the storylines of characters, getting some answers to the Island mysteries – but probably not all – and probably not expanding to the much larger storylines about the past, present, and future of Dharma.
But by introducing this new “Dharma Wants You” storyline, it could be a way to let Lost live on. I can envision new storylines – Lost “spinoffs” in a way – that would introduce a whole new set of characters – anyone from past Dharmites to current Dharmites and focus on their mission of saving the world through their funky pseudo-science. Maybe the Island and the events of the Island could play a role, but they could easily proceed featuring the Island as a minor storyline in the vast history of Dharma.
…or maybe that’s what JJ Abrams’ new series, “Fringe” is actually all about – taking the pseudo science to another level and exploring it further.
I’m just saying, if the Lost Powers That Be want to see Lost live on in the form of novels, made for TV movies, spinoffs, comic books, or live-action musicals, Dharma is the key. It’s the storyline that could outlive the show, branch off in countless directions, and give us resolution to the main Lost storyline without closing the door on the Lost universe forever.)
August
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
First, a brief background – over the past 10 years, I’ve been to 45 Dave Matthews Band shows. At those shows, I’ve heard 143 different songs – basically hearing every major song the band has played in those 10 years, except for one. The white whale, the forbidden fruit, the elusive tune that fans were chanting for during encore breaks since the band first formed in 1992, the song that had only been played six times during the 10 years I’ve been spending thousands of dollars following the Dave Matthews Band…
A little song, festively titled as “HALLOWEEN”.
On August 5, 2008 – in the most unlikely of scenarios, a band playing without a saxophone player for the first time in fourteen years, they responded to the loud crowd chants for the song and after a short tease of “Everyday”, launched into “Halloween”… and I was there.
Back in the day, as a Senior in college, with my whole life in front of me, I decided it was time to set a few goals for life. They were as follows:
- Make it to level 30 in Dr. Mario (accomplished in 2003) - Return to Augsburg, Germany (accomplished in 2007) - Get married (accomplished in 2008) - Hear “Halloween” live (accomplished in 2008) - Get a dog (TBD)
At this point, you’re thinking I’m absolutely insane – but hopefully I’ve conveyed what a big deal this was for me. Honestly, I can’t remember a single point in my life where I’ve been so full of joy, pure happiness, relief, and accomplishment (man, I hope the wife isn’t reading this!) – I set my mind on something, worked at it for 10 years, and finally achieved my goal. It was glorious.
I was on cloud nine for weeks. I still think back to that concert and smile, and probably listen to it once a week. This was the best of times.
Then came the worst of times.
As I posted on the Blog a few months back without any accompanying words, LeRoi Moore, the saxophone player for the aforementioned Dave Matthews Band, suddenly passed away a month after suffering an ATV accident. I don’t like writing about sad things, so I won’t relive all the details of me getting drunk in the dark alone listening to DMB music that night – but the Dave Matthews Band is one of the single most positive influences there has ever been on my life. They preach happy music, love, peace, and seizing the day – lessons that I have taken to heart, lessons that we should all take to heart and it would make the world a better place. So even though the death of LeRoi probably doesn’t mean the death of the band (we all hope), it was the death of a large part of something very important to me for as long as I can remember.
Sad stuff. But all good things come to an end sometime – don’t burn the day away.
September
With September came the official return of the Fall Television Season. One of the unforeseen results of getting married and living with a girl is that you have to share the DVR with someone who may have different interests in television than you do. Sadly, there are a few shows that I would like to be watching – but simply can’t due to scheduling conflicts or time constraints. Also, for some reason I have way less free time now that I own a home and a wife, so even shows that I DVRed for a while never ended up being watched, and I unfairly gave up on without giving them a fair chance. But something else I’ve noticed is that TV isn’t really that great this fall. There are a few good shows on each night, but very few that actually make me giddy with excitement to watch each week.
Monday
8:00 pm – Chuck (NBC) – My favorite television show on TV right now.
It’s hard to pinpoint what makes Chuck so great. It’s got action, it’s got humor, it’s got arguably the most attractive female on TV (Yvonne Strahovski), it’s got extremely likeable characters across the board, it’s got an overarching storyline while maintaining entertaining individual episodes – but overall, it’s just pure polished fun entertainment.
What’s even harder to pinpoint is why Chuck isn’t a huge ratings hit. I can understand why some shows I’ve liked over the years haven’t been popular with the average viewer – for either being too complicated, too “weird”, or too intelligent… and not to say that Chuck isn’t smart TV – but it’s absolutely accessible to anyone. If you just want to watch for the Alias-light spy storylines, you can. If you want to watch for the potential forbidden romance between Chuck and Sarah, you can. If you want to watch for the nerdy hijinx of the Buy More staff, you can. Or you can be like me and watch for all these reasons and more.
I love Chuck. Just watch it, okay?
9:00 pm – Prison Break (Fox) – I have no idea how they did it, but they have totally revamped this show into something nearly as entertaining as its first season. Although it’s maybe the biggest case of false advertising since the movie “The Never-ending Story”, “Prison Break” is suddenly more like an Ocean’s 11-esque show featuring our characters pulling elaborate heists to bring down “The Company” and win their freedom (although I’m not really sure why they have to since they were exonerated for their crimes in Season Three, when Lincoln was moving around America free at the start of the season).
Just when I think it can’t go on for another season, those clever Prison Break writers find a way. But I still hope that the end is near. Mindless fun.
10:00 pm – The Hills (MTV) – Yep, I still watch the Hills, but even I am starting to feel embarrassed about it. How many times can I watch Heidi and Spencer make up and break up? How many times can Audrina foolishly go back to Justin Bobby? How is Whitney, the most normal of all of them, the only one without a significant other? How do those crafty editors stretch seven sentences of dialogue into a half hour show? I don’t know – but it’s a show that is quickly losing my interest, even with attractive females, flashy editing, and a hipster soundtrack.
Tuesday
8:00 pm – 90210 (CW) – Wow, I really wish that The Hills and 90210 weren’t back to back on this list. I swear I’m 100% straight and not a 16 year old girl. You can chalk this one up to living with a girl. There is no way I ever would have watched this were it not for my wife’s fond memories of the original 9-0. But after seeing about two episodes, I was totally hooked.
It’s kinda like the OC (Season One, when it was good), but with way more innocence in the storylines. Sure, there’s a “bad girl” doing drugs, high schoolers cheating on each other, and the random fisticuffs, but all the main characters are the most All-American family you could ever find. Also, it features three really hot females, including the never-aging Aunt Becky from Full House, Lori Loughlin. I don’t know what anti-aging drugs she and AC Slater (Mario Lopez) are using, but neither one of them has aged for the entire course of my life thus far.
This past week’s episode was pretty cheesy, and almost made me embarrassed to be watching – but as a whole the show has been pretty damn entertaining. Plus, I can watch it and call it “quality time” with the wife – so it’s win / win.
Wednesday
8:00 pm – Pushing Daisies (ABC) – forget about worrying about the upcoming Presidential Election, there are far more scarier things than 4 years of Obama or McCain – the cancellation of Pushing Daisies.
I don’t want to alarm you, but the ratings for Pushing Daisies have been scary low this season, even though the show has retained the clever high quality from its first season. Unlike “Chuck”, I understand why this show could suffer in the ratings. The voiceover dialogue is tough to keep up with – quick witted, intelligent, and rapid-fire. The storylines are complex, usually involving at least one or two red herrings and a twist that ties everything together over the course of one hour. The premise is a little “weird” for some people.
Even so, I challenge anyone to watch an hour of this program and not have their heart warmed, their mind entertained, and their soul refreshed. If this country wants to watch grisly murders on any of the numerous procedural dramas that score huge ratings instead of watching comical murders in a oversaturated cartoon world, then it’s no wonder there is so much wrong with the world today.
Save Pushing Daisies. Watch it. Force your family and friends to watch it. Mock those who don’t watch it. Here’s hoping.
Thursday
9:00 pm – The Office (NBC) – It’s still funny, but this season hasn’t blown me away. Once again we have Pam and Jim separated, Michael dating a co-worker, and Dwight and Andy at odds – we’ve been there before. There haven’t been any bad episodes, but there also haven’t been any where I couldn’t wait to get to work to discuss and quote incessantly.
9:00 pm – Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) – Showing huge improvements over the past two seasons, and getting back to pretty enjoyable. Still, if I didn’t live with a girl, I probably would have given up on this show long ago.
9:30 pm – 30 Rock (NBC) – Although it hasn’t aired yet this season thanks to the SNL Election Specials, let’s be honest – it’s going to be great. Great cast, great storylines, great guests, and more laughs per minute than the Office last season. Here’s hoping it doesn’t suffer an Arrested Development-esque fate.
10:00 pm – It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX) – Over the top, ridiculous storylines, but has made me laugh more than any other TV show thus far this year. I complain about Americans being too dumb for good TV, and yet the poop-centric episode of “It’s Always Sunny” was the funniest half hour of TV I’ve seen all year. I’m a hypocrite.
Sunday
8:00 pm – Amazing Race (CBS) – the one show I watch on CBS gets special mention here because FOB Nick Spangler is a contestant this season. He Emailed me before the season started to see if there was any type of weekly post I could do about the show, but unfortunately since there isn’t too much to analyze about the show or discuss, and he really isn’t legally allowed to talk about it until it’s all over, I couldn’t come up with much to do with it. But it’s kinda cool to see a fellow Lost…and Gone Forever fan on TV racing around the world.
You should root for him by default.
9:00 pm – Dexter (SHOWTIME) – After burning through the first two seasons of “Dexter” in the weeks leading up to my wedding in the spring, I was beyond pumped to be able to watch new episodes this fall on Showtime – which somehow is still free in my house, even though it was only supposed to last for six months.
The third season has been a departure from the first two so far. It’s been far more focused on the drama and personal lives of the characters rather than on gruesome killings. But it appears as though the writers were simply setting the stage for the rest of the season, and they’ve done a damn good job of doing it. Two of the first five episodes of the season ended with my jaw on the floor – with endings usually reserved for season finales. After being totally confused as to where this season was going to go, I think I finally get it – and it’s a genius idea that I never saw coming. For those waiting for the DVDs after the season ends, I won’t get into too much detail here – but will highly recommend it for anyone and everyone, as long as you’re cool with rooting for a serial killer and wishing he was your friend.
Phew. So there you have it. Four months condensed into one medium length post. I apologize for being such a terrible Blogger over the past few months. Hopefully you’ll forgive me.
