Review: "Lights Out"

Patrick "Lights" Leary  (Credit: FX)

What better way to help put the "T" back in NYaT than by reviewing "Lights Out," the boxing drama that just finished its first season on FX?  Although I'm a little revved up, having watched the finale just a few minutes ago, I'll try my best to see the forest among the trees.  But if you watched along with me, I think you'll understand how difficult that might be.  Here we go.

I'll start by saying that "Lights Out" is the only fictional sports show on TV right now.  Gone are the days of Playmakers, Friday Night Lights, and Arli$$.  FX somehow stands alone in the sports niche, which I find amazing.  Think about how many successful sports films -- not just comedies, but dramas too -- are produced every year.  From Invictus to Seabiscuit to Million Dollar Baby, sports movies are all over Hollywood.  So how and why has the small screen abandoned the genre?  And how did FX beat every other network to the punch (get it?) by creating a very, very good boxing drama?

For the purpose of this review, the answers to these questions are irrelevant.  I'll let the TV executives figure it out.  I just hope that some other networks meet the obvious demand for good original sports programming.  While they're at it, why not get rid of some of the lousy reality shows that are clogging up the evening hours?  Does America really need another weight loss show?  Viewers can already choose from the following options: Biggest Loser, Celebrity Fit Club, I Used To Be Fat, HEAVY, and Shedding for the Wedding.  Six shows about fat people...six!  I know that people secretly like these shows because they feel better about themselves after watching even fatter people on TV, but come on.  We need to encourage the networks to invest more in quality original sports programming like Lights Out.  Attention all executives -- follow FX's lead.  Here's what they did well.

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Winter TV Review: The Best (and Worst) TV of 2010

I know I'm late to the party, but I have planned to get back to more television writing here at NYaT. I have to admit, I'm far from a TV expert. I don't have time to watch every show (and there are a few on my list to pick up in 2011) but I wanted to compile a list of shows I like a lot--and a few I couldn't stand. So without further ado, let's get to my list top television series of 2010:

Miss Blankenship was one of the best characters of 2010 (AMC)

Top 5 Series

1. Mad Men: It was a really weird year for Don Draper and SCDP but what made it different, made it great. In my opinion it was their finest season yet. The season started with the question "Who is Don Draper?" and by the end of the season we realized that it may be a man (and a company) headed for some rocky times. The omission of the very annoying Betty Draper for much of the season was enough to bump up the season and "The Suitcase" was one of the all-time great episodes of the show. The latter episode should get someone an Emmy (Elizabeth Moss who I have been critical of in the past was excellent) and I don't know what award we can give to "The Queen of Perversions", Miss Ida Blankenship, but maybe they can add her to the "in memorium" part of the Emmy's. Her death joins the "lawnmower scene" as the two most sickly funny things that have happened on the show.

2. Breaking Bad: Every once in a while I'll decide I've had enough of not watching a show that everyone else loves and catch up on it. Breaking Bad was an easy choice and I zoomed through two seasons of the show. I found it entertaining and was excited for the third season. And the third season blew me away like Jesse Pinkman blew that guy away in the finale. The shootout scene in the parking lot at the end of "One Minute" was something the Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino would have been proud of. The season finale left a lot of questions in the air for Walter White, Jesse Pinkman and the whole drug operation, but the season answered a lot of questions about the contender status of this show: it's truly one of the best. The mark of a good show for me is that when I can recommend it to my dad and we both really like it. Dexter and Breaking Bad are two of the best and they both fall under this category.

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Winter TV Review: Dexter Comes to an Unsatisfying Close

It's been a while since we did some real recapping of television here at NYaT, but since the "T" stands for "Television", I felt that last night's finale of Dexter was a good time to get back into the television business. Dexter is one of the more under-appreciated shows out there; a funny and serious show that makes you laugh, cringe, and hide your eyes all in the span of a few minutes. People took the leap to rooting for a drug dealer in shows like Weeds or Breaking Bad but those shows always put the characters actions in the context of "this was for their family". Dexter is a serial killer who kills to satisfy his own dark passenger and fans eat up every minute of it. It was anything but safe and predictable and that's what made it different and exciting. But after a season and season-finale that was less-than-spectacular, I wonder how many of those fans are questioning their devotion to Harry.

The Season 5 Dexter finale wasn't one of the show's best (Showtime)

It may be that expectations of Dexter are so high, but I just felt like Season 5 didn't hold a candle to Season 4. John Lithgow was fantastic (and got Emmy recognition for being fantastic) and so it was going to be hard to match The Trinity Killer. But it wasn't Julia Stiles fault Season 5 didn't match the aura of last season--actually I found her quite good in the role and wished she had stuck around*. And it wasn't Jonny Lee Miller (previously of Hackers and Eli Stone fame) who was convincing as the ultimate bad guy. My issues were the plot holes so large you could drive a surveillance van through them and the way the show just dropped plotlines like they were body parts into the ocean.

*Side Note: The last time that Stiles made a non-Bourne movie that got a "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes? 2001 with The Business of Strangers. She also starred in O that year which got a "fresh" rating. That's it for her non-Bourne career. Although I liked 10 Things I Hate About You, her career has been choc full of movies like The Omen, The Princess and Me, A Guy Thing, and Down to You (four movies I've never seen and it seems with good reason). Why do I mention this? Because Stiles should have begged the people behind the scene at Dexter to keep her on board. Jimmy Smits resurrected his career and he was less-than-great on the show. Lumen and Dexter for another season would have been awesome.

The early seasons of Dexter were like the character himself: always grasping with whether Dexter is a good person while making sure that everything is cleaned up neatly by the end. As fans, we were given the real dilemma as to whether we could truly root for a character who is a serial killer. We debated with ourselves as Dexter debated with himself how much proof he truly needed before he could kill someone bad and whether he was really doing a service for society or feeding some monster inside of him. Now? It all seems black-and-white. Dexter can kill whoever he wants and we're not supposed to feel conflicted. What, really, did Liddy do to deserve to die by Dexter's hand according to Harry's code? Nothing. Is it OK that he killed him? Sure. But what happened to Dexter grappling with that?

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Family Guy Takes a Shot at the New York Mets

For those that missed last night's Family Guy, Stewie Griffin is shown wearing a Mets hat (sort of) and at a Mets game. Those who know Family Guy know that's not a good sign for Mets fans. Let's just say that Stewie isn't enthused by the Sandy Alderson signing in this very quick clip from the Family Guy Halloween episode:

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LOST with Lost: One Last LOST Post--The Epilogue

After LOST was done, I felt like I needed a breather until I thought about it again. It was such a rich and deep show and I felt overwhelmed when it was finished. I was also disappointed that there would be no LOST. 6 seasons never felt like enough even though I was happy in the way they concluded the story. I was pretty sure they concluded the story.

Well...that wasn't entirely true. The "Official LOST Epilogue" was leaked on the internet and after watching it on Jezebel, I can agree with them you should be seated when watching it and, yes, "OMFG". If you wanted to know more about the package drops, fertility issues, polar bears, or even (semi-spoiler alert after the jump)

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Summer TV Review: The Second Level of Mad Men

Sometimes we mix our pleasure with pain and it seems like Don Draper takes the same approach with a prostitute in the season premiere of Mad Men. With a cadre of flawed characters, Mad Men has always let us live with an uneasy relationship where we like unlikable characters and dislike those we would normally become sympathetic to in the real world. Take Don or Roger Sterling--lovable womanizers--and I'll take them any day over Betty Draper or Peggy Olson--beat down women not worthy of sympathy. It made me queasy even writing that last sentence but that foreign place that Mad Men makes us sit (even more foreign to many of us than 1964). But while most of the show has been a back-and-forth struggle between Don Draper and his work-home life, "Public Relations", the season premiere of Mad Men, seems to be pushing the show onto another level. Bert Cooper may "refuse to be any part of that charade" (one of the best lines from the first episode), but I'm ready an excited for what's in store for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (or SCDP as they are now known) this season on Mad Men.

Don debates who he really is during the Season 4 premiere (AMC)

We've spent the better part of three seasons trying to answer our opening question: "who is Don Draper?" The answer that we have received so far has been pretty consistent, a self-assured man hell-bent on keeping his personal life under wraps and surviving in a fast-changing world--while trying to keep up the airs that his personal life is A-O-K. Is it any wonder that Don felt somewhat uneasy by the questioning of the one-legged man from Ad Age (like Jack Hammond, Draper was also in Korea--and he too came back with something false) as it delved into Don's personal life and his marriage? It's no wonder that Don seemed to be more at ease by the end of the episode in his interview with the Wall Street Journal talking about the "scrappy upstart" as SCDP instead of Don Draper.

The problem may be that Don Draper is in full-on identity crisis. His wife is with another man tending to his own kids in the house he technically owns. His dating life is different now that he's a divorcee and bachelor instead of a married philanderer (and now that it's 1964). His office* and job responsibilities are new and different. While last season he was dealing with Hilton, this season he's dealing with a "two-piece" bathing suit company that doesn't want to be raunchy. Don's still a brilliant ad man, but he's also a hypercritical boss (and more about this later) who doesn't really know how to relate to people. While everyone (including the aforementioned prostitute) has plans on Thanksgiving, Don is left by himself in his bachelor pad in the Village (reminding me a lot of the 30 Rock Valentine's Day episode). He's a lonely soul who doesn't want to eat what the housekeeper makes for him and seems to only sleep at the office.

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Summer TV Review: Entourage Lacking Its Ammo

When Ari Gold's son showed up at breakfast with a water pistol, Ari said to his son, "Jews don't carry guns buddy, you know that." That was the closest that Entourage has come to show any bullets this season. I wanted to go through and do reviews for my summer shows (Entourage, Dexter, Mad Men, Weeds, Californication, Eastbound and Down, etc.), but Entourage is slowly inching towards moving off my summer watching list all together. The show has gone from being a fun (and funny) look at a boy's club in Los Angeles to being unimportant. Like an upper-middle class teenage girl moaning about her life problems because boys don't like her and her mom grounded her for her C- on her report card, the problems of the entourage are not as bad as they seem and they are the same issues that they dealt with a week ago--and it all comes off as whiny and,  mostly, unfunny. That's the worst part about the show right now: in an effort to "mature" as a show and as characters, the show has lost it's sprinkling of humor to the point where watching the show has become more of a routine than an enjoyable Sunday experience.

Maybe the issue is that I'm expecting too much from Entourage. As Steven Kurutz from the Wall Street Journal wrote yesterday after the episode named "Dramedy":

We’ve been forced to confront something unpleasant since we began recapping “Entourage:” it’s not a very smart show. Perhaps on some level we always knew this but were sufficiently distracted by the male fantasy aspects: the beautiful, willing women; the free-wheeling lifestyle celebrated by Vince and his buddies; the fact that male friends can hang out together without requiring three weeks of advance scheduling.

Kurutz points out quite correctly that by making the characters grow apart and mature, "we’re left with slight plots that illuminate shallow lives." Not only do the characters seem bored by this (Vince doesn't seem all that excited to be having an awesome party at his place and Johnny finally seems to be getting his career off the ground but seems ambivalent towards it), but the writers and casting seem bored as well.

The celebrity cameos which were fun and cool in the first few seasons are now ingrained into the plot and too self-referential at times to be enjoyable. The celebrities they get dryly recite lines that are sometimes not even comprehensible (sorry A.P., you're a great running back, but that was you this past week). The only person who ever seems to make it work is Bob Saget*--but even his "dirty old man" bit has been overplayed (and I can watch him do his The Aristocrats bit multiple times so that says a lot). Entourage must have ran out of celebrities for walk on rolls so now their auctioning them off for us regular folk. They bring on new talent who can't act (Dania Ramirez as Turtle's former employee Alex is an awful actress). The stars on the show even seem so bored that they're investing in Albany restaurants to keep their lives occupied. 

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Lost with LOST: Peace, Love and Closure

Namaste! If you were to tell me two years ago that the final episode of LOST would answer no questions, I would have been pissed. I would have probably stopped watching. I would have been wondering what was the point of continuing with the show. But last night's finale was exactly what I needed to close out such an emotionally charged series: closure. It's a funny word to use considering [spoiler alert] everyone dies in the end, but I can't think of another word that describes the feeling I was hoping for--and was achieved--at the end. It was a magical journey through the years, one that kept all of us guessing and theorizing and debating. But in the end, I've always said that the show was about the characters and their battles with redemption, love, and faith--and the finale was all about those three themes. One last time, let's go under the waterfall and go down the rabbit hole, shall we?

Overall Summary

I usually do the conclusion at the end, but I'm sort of going to skip ahead to this step for this 2 1/2 hour episode. The episode had four parts in my mind. The first part was ridiculously (for the topic) funny* and self-referential. The second part was action-packed, choppy (how many freaking commercial breaks?) and tense. The third part was emotional, reflective and enlightening. And the last part was happy and satisfying. I truly believe the end filled my deepest desires to finish the show on a strong, emotional, and clear note. After the show, on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse had a few fake "alternate endings" and one was a replica of the Sopranos. The hope was that LOST would end on a more clear note than the Sopranos and with a stronger finish than Seinfeld and I think it delivered.

*Side Note: Speaking of funny, the Target ads were great (if you caught them in between furious fast forwarding of the DVR). The "smoke detector" one was the best. Kudos to Target to be the only company to treat this like a Super Bowl. And as for the self-referential, I had no clue for the first hour or so if the lines were meant for the character in the show or for the audience. I'll take the homage to me but in some ways, it got a little cutesy (more on this in about 10 seconds)

The ending was not without flaws, though. I felt at times it was getting too self-referential to the point it was cheesy at times. Things almost seemed to work out too perfectly and the "reunion episode" feeling of the final scenes were a bit too easy for me as did some weak plot twists. I loved the scene where Detective James Ford goes into the hospital room to see Jin and Sun and they're just smiling ear-to-ear since they know so much more than him, but I could have dealt without some of the other cutesy moments that I felt were easy outs (like the Boone line about how hard it was to get Shannon back). So was the whole "purgatory" idea when the creators swore up and down the show wasn't about that (though, to be fair, I guess "The Island" wasn't that place). And I'm not a big fan of Sayid's constant being Shannon--a whiny brat who he had a week affair with (as Ari said during the show, it was his "white girl phase") and they needed to find a way to write her back into the show for the finale--instead of Nadia or somebody else (hey, I'd have taken Rousseau who was his "constant" for the entire first season). And didn't it feel like a ton of the narratives just sort of ended with a bloody knife like Dogen? But that's the end of my larger quips for now since I really did love the finale. On to the recap, which, unlike last night's episode, will be presented commercial free.

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Open Thread: The End of An Era Part 1 -- Goodbye LOST!

It's a one-two punch to the gut. LOST ends tonight with 24 following tomorrow. I don't think there's any question that 24 revolutionized television in a way with its unique format, topic, and style, but while we'll talk about 24 a ton tomorrow, today is set for the other revolutionary show: LOST. At a time when we as a nation were dealing with questions about spirituality, questioning authority figures, love, science vs. faith, loneliness, redemption and maybe were all feeling a bit, well, lost, a show came around and blew all of our minds. It was never without its flaws (*cough* Nikki and Paulo), but LOST was generally an A grade experience, ranking it someplace very close behind Seinfeld on the TV pantheon (in my humble opinion). I waited excitedly for it every week and when the show finally came, all I wanted to do was discuss it with everyone.

That's why tonight feels like a break up you knew you needed to do, but still can't bring yourself to go through with it (and tomorrow will be rinse and repeat). For a while now I moved my LOST discussion from e-mails and water cooler talk to this blog and it's been cathartic every day-after to pound out a post and see who agrees with me and who thinks I'm crazier than Hurley in the mental hospital. But even though the show is ending, I think we're far from over with discussing the show. The plan is to have an open discussion here where you can post all your last thoughts, theories, feelings, question and whatever else you want--as long as they don't contain any spoilers. Then at midnight tonight, you can come back here and talk about anything you want from the show that happened. As usual I'll throw up a recap tomorrow but once I digest, I'll have another LOST post for later in the week with some more thoughts on what went down during tonight's 2 and 1/2 hour epic.

But this is your place to vent so go ahead and start chatting below as we all prepare for the end of an era.

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Lost with LOST: The Chinese Food Episode

Last night's LOST left me with one overarching thought: it felt like a meal of Chinese food--I digested a lot but I'm still hungry and I'm not sure what I ate. And although I got a cookie at the end of the meal, the fortune inside wasn't exactly what I was looking for when I sat down to eat. Since LOST planned its end date, I don't think I've been disappointed by very many episodes but I have to say that I was not a fan of last night's "Across the Sea". And "not a fan" may be an understatement; I disliked it. With now only two nights left of LOST, I feel like last night's episode was a diversion from what I loved so much about LOST: meaningful character development. When I listed my favorite LOST episodes yesterday, the theme of each one was that it helped further our understanding of the people on The Island. "The Man Behind the Curtain" and "Ab Aeterno" sent us in a deep dive into the mysticism of The Island, but the reason I loved those two episodes was because of the meaningful character development.  Last night's foray into the history of The Island didn't live up to the expectations I had set out for it in so many ways.

Really! with Andrew, Jay and Jim

It has been quite a few years since I sat down and watched an entire Saturday Night Live episode, but this past week's Betty White-hosted episode was worth watching, especially to see the return of old stars Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon. Poehler, Fey and Seth Meyers teamed up together on the "Weekend Update" desk for a segment called "Really! With Seth, Amy & Tina" where they sarcastically blasted the news (Mediate has the details including my favorite, on last Thursday’s stock market-crashing typo “How is there not a backup system? When I delete a picture on Facebook, it asks me if I’m sure!”). Well I'm now going to "Really!" the heck out of "Across the Sea"

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Lost with LOST: My Favorite LOST Episodes Ever (To Date)

As we approach the end of two shows that revolutionized television (LOST and 24), it's time to look back and reflect on the shows best (and sometimes worst) moments. LOST ends May 23rd and 24's finale is the night after, May 24th so we'll start here with LOST. For a show the has relied so little on plot and so much on characters, I found it tough to narrow down the show to favorite episodes. I have my favorite characters and background stories but recalling individual episodes was tougher than I originally thought. I even have my least favorite episode ("Exposé" with "Stranger in a Strange Land" coming in a close second), but recalling my favorite was tougher than originally imagined.Well thank goodness for Lostpedia--maybe the most important website to accompany a show ever?--(and it's episode portal). I admit, though, I couldn't narrow it down to just 10. So we have pairings and I do not have them ranked--I'll let you do that in the comments. Here are my thoughts on the best episodes to date (with some help from my friends):

"Pilot, Part 1 and Part 2" and
"Walkabout"

They go hand-in-hand. The pilot episodes introduced us to The Island, to Jack and to the Smoke Monster (though many thought it was just a polar bear at that point). We open up on injuries and Doctor Jack Shephard saving people (but counting to 5 first). In "Walkabout" we have The Island in a whole new way: the mystical side. We have John Locke and a powerful flashback juxtaposed to his Island life (one of the best uses of this to date). John Locke's sudden ability to walk upped the stakes on this show: we weren't in Kansas (or Gilligan's Island) anymore. Before we ever had the Man of Science vs. Man of Faith argument, we had these two episodes pitting both sides of LOST against each other. The soundbite of the entire first season was spoken in the Pilot when Charlie asks "guys...where are we?" It's a question we've been trying to answer since that point. Jay says about the pilot: "totally over the top by pilot standards.  Set the stage for everything.  The writers even worked in some stuff that is still relevant today (Locke playing backgammon with Walt, for example)."

"Man of Science, Man of Faith" and "Orientation"

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Lost with LOST: And Then The Sun Sets On Disney Happy Endings

Last night's episode was one where most people finish it so engulfed in a sea of emotions that all they can say is "whoa". Or at least that was my reaction. Last night's show was a quick reminder that LOST is now about Disney-style happy endings. The characters don't all live and defeat the evil and go on with their happy lives. No, they sometimes (usually?) end up dying. But in that death, sometimes characters find their own happiness. Charlie died a hero, Shannon died having finally found a man who would treat her well (Sayid), and Sayid even got his own redemption in death. In some ways, Jin and Sun found that same happiness in each others arms, dying in the most tragic/poetically-beautiful of ways. That doesn't make things any easier to swallow for the audience which lost Sun, Jin, Sayid, and probably (maybe?) Lapidus last night. Let's take a look at what happened on The Island and the Sideways World in last night's great returning episode:

Island World

Sun and Jin - let's get right into it. Sun and Jin had been trying to get back together since the fateful freighter scene many moons ago. Last episode, we finally got their long-awaited tearful reunion. This episode, we shed some more tears for them. Shannon died in Sayid's arms, Juliet died in Sawyer's arms and last night we had lovers die hand in hand once again. It was a tough scene to watch. You sort of knew that Sun wasn't getting out of there. And you got the feeling that Jin wasn't leaving without her. So what happens to little orphan Ji-Yeon? What happens to their candidacy? Was their daughter the candidate all along? We know we'll probably see the characters again in the Sideways World but what does this say for Sideways Jin and Sun? So many years spent trying to get back together and their reunion was tragically short-lived. I loved the scene in the cage where they were talking to each other (in English!) about their daughter. I smiled when Sun pulled out the ring to give to Jin. Their marriage had finally come back full circle (remember "no ring" in the Sideways World?). Let's hope there's more love for that couple in the afterlife. And it was also very appropriate that these two characters spoke Korean to each other in their last moments considering the first season showed them climbing down the Tower of Babel. RIP Jin and Sun.

Lapidus - If that was Captain Frank Lapidus' end, I'm going to be pissed. Like really pissed. I was OK with characters like Ilana or Casear having quick, unceremonious deaths, but Lapidus? It can't be. He (like Desmond) has to be alive. Right? There's no sub anymore so this plane is their last chance. And Lapidus is their pilot. Hopefully.

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Quick Review of MLB.TV on the PS3

A few weeks back I wrote about a $20 price mistake for MLB.TV that I was able to jump on. Today, that purchase became even more valuable when MLB.TV made it's way to the Playstation 3. There's a lot of ways to watch the games. But I'll say this: MLB.TV on the PS# is awesome and if you're a big baseball fan (and have a PS3) it's worth every penny to lay down the full price to get it for the rest of the year. Let's give you a quick preview I found on the Playstation Blog:



When I got home from work, I went back and watched the half inning where A-Rod turned the triple play. Maybe in a few months I'll want to go back and watch the near-no-no that Phil Hughes just threw or CC Sabathia threw before him--and I can do that too. It's unbelievably awesome and almost feels like it was silly that it wasn't in place before. They've basically made Neftlix streaming this easy so why would it take so long for MLB's media, which CNET says is the No. 1 most profitable video-streaming service on the Web? It's worth the wait, though. Globe and Mail says that it's a game changer and I totally agree. As a Premium subscriber, I can listen to home or away broadcasts and pause live games. Interactive scoreboard to pick from games. Whatever game you want. It's baseball a la carte and baseball a la mode. It's an iTunes for MLB games. Streaming On Demand--in 720P HD. I love it.

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Lost with LOST: Oh The Places We'll Go

A whole lot of nothing happened last night on LOST. Yet, a lot happened. Last night's episode was a "Matthew Abaddon" episode. The other one this season occurred the last time we saw Sawyer and Miles in the Sideways World. It was also the one where FLocke tried to recruit Sawyer. In last night's episode, we saw FLocke try to recruit Jack with many of the same double speak. Meanwhile, Sideways Desmond is pulling his own Matthew Abaddon impression, shepherding all the Castaways towards consciousness. It wasn't an episode I loved but it seemed like a necessary one to set up the rest of the season. So in honor of last night's episode being on 4/20, put a whole lot of nothing into our [tobacco-only] paraphenalia, put on some Geronimo Jackson, light our Dharma matches, inhale, and let the world as we know it float away.

That's FLocke'd Up!

The above was uttered by Stacey as we watched the episode and it was certainly true. Let's bring out a few large questions/reveals from the episode and I'll give my opinion on it. I want to know your opinions too so make sure to chime in below in the comments. Because we all know that I'm bound to be wrong more than I'm right, but since you're here reading my blog post, you must think something of my commentary. (I'm more curious about yours)

FLocke tells Jack that his dead father's ghost was actually Man In Black running around the forest in Smokey's body. Do we believe him?

[Deep exhale] I don't know. In some ways, this makes sense with everything we've learned from LOST so far. But there are some serious holes here. If the Man In Black can't leave The Island then how did he show up as Christian in Los Angeles during Jack's flash forward in "Something Nice Back Home"? Was he Christian when he appeared before Michael telling him "you can go now" in "There's No Place Like Home: Part II"? Is it possible that Christian's body never made it on the plane in the Island World as it didn't make it on the plane in the Sideways World? I've learned not to trust "bad guys" on LOST (from Ben to Widmore to FLocke), so excuse me if I'm not going to believe the shifty FLocke just yet. And Claire did say to Jin that she was kept company on The Island by Christian and a friend (MIB). It keeps me wondering...

Sayid couldn't have killed Desmond, could he have? Come on, brutha!

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Lost with LOST: Constant-ly Messing With Desmond's Happy Ending in the Matrix

I watch basketball and baseball very differently. For the most part I don't turn on basketball until the second half. There's no reason to, in my mind. It's like American Idol, Dancing With the Stars or the ilk (a host of shows I do not care to watch): you really just care about the ending and everything else before it is just filler. Baseball is different. It's a finely woven story from first pitch to the final out. Some find that difference boring but I'm not one of those. It's the only major sport that's not timed. I love the intricacies of the game, the games within the games, and how each pitch changes that at bat and the at bats after it. "Whatever happened, happened"...but until the last out is recorded, the game isn't over. LOST is baseball (you were probably wondering where I was going with this analogy. Well, I'm here). You have casual watchers who turn it on for enjoyment but you also have people who analyze every pitch, every at-bat. You have the real hardcore "nerds" who take it to the next level and search every literary reference and spoken word in LOST or every "PitchFX" in baseball. I sit someplace in the middle. But if LOST is truly baseball, then Desmond Hume is the set-up man: a misused character that literally sets up some of the most important parts of what we're watching. Desmond may disappear when we want him most and not be used enough, but he's always giving us great production. We, like Daniel Faraday, need Desmond Hume--he's our constant. And last night's episode was our set-up for the rest of the season.

As good as a shot of MacCutcheon 60 with John Updike

I ended last night's episode "Happy Ending", with a big "what the heck just happened?" I still will honestly say I don't know. But what the heck, I'm going to give it a try, brutha! John Updike*, in the same New Yorker article that he famously described Fenway Park as a "lyric little bandbox of a ballpark" also wrote of Fenway that it was "a compromise between Man’s Euclidean determinations and Nature’s beguiling irregularities." Hell, we could use the same description to paint a picture of The Island.

*Side Note: I wrote the Updike piece because I happened to stumble upon it this morning and then saw this (!) in The Atlanic: "On the island, we see a white rabbit named Angstrom who apparently is being subjected to Widmore's electromagnetic tests. Harold C. "Rabbit" Angstrom is the main character in five John Updike novels and represents the struggles of mid-century middle class Americans, with many problems surrounding his family life." (!!!!)

The Island is where we open this episode. In the eye* of one Desmond Hume. The man who is declared to be "special" by everyone Widmore: Charles, Eloise, Daniel, and even Penny. Except when Desmond is blasted into his Sideways World, he has no Penny. He's a rich man without a Penny--which would make him Penniless. He has everything but nothing. He has the approval of Charles Widmore--a man who he constantly sought the approval for in the Island World.

*Side Note: Now, let's remember, when we talk about the eye, we can remember another Bostonian, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and his essay titled "Circles". Read through that when you get a chance for some big LOST-y statements made. The only reason I have this literary reference? 10th grade English and my need to memorize Emerson, Thoreau and all those American authors. But this one was one of my favorites. And I think the most relevant to LOST. Oh yeah, and Penny's last name is Milton. Which I think refer's to John Milton...who wrote "Paradise Lost". I do remember that too.

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24 Recap: The Best Bitchslapping Episodes of the Season

Well that was much better, wasn’t it? This whole season we were building up towards something big and we finally seemed to hit the nail right on the head last night. My plan was the two hours of 24 and then the second half of the NCAA National Championship game. I got two amazing endings. The basketball final was one for the ages. The one on 24 was so game-changing-ly delicious that I think it might have seen our best “episode” in years. Why did I put episode in quotes? Because it was two episodes—AKA a two-hour event—that lived up to its billing.

Taking Yourself Hostage is So Hardcore

The ending was so shocking and so deliciously 24 that I think we need to backup two hours and figure out how we got there. The sun was rising. Jack was busy escorting President Hassan back to the United Nations when Hassan decided to take matters into his own hands—literally. Hassan crowbars Jack to the back of the head (seemed a little light, but Jack went down) and points a gun at Freckles. He then (for some reason) turns over his gun to the guy who had been trying to take him hostage in the first place (Bishop) and orders his wife, daughter, Frecks and Jack into a room where he adds a crowbar to the lock so they’re nice and trapped*. Hassan and Bishop exit to the street (7th Ave? Really? How did we get to the West Side? I need a 24 geography lesson) where there is an SUV waiting with keys underneath. How nice and convenient. Hassan has literally taken himself hostage. Now that’s a Jack Bauer move.

*Side Note: OK, here’s what I don’t get. Hassan is an honorable guy…but all those Secret Service people who fought for him when he was taking fire last episode now died for nothing. They sacrificed their own lives so he could get away and now he’s turning himself into the same people who were after him. Also, why the hell would he give Bishop his gun? What’s stopping Bishop from putting a cap in Jack and Freckles and pistolwhipping Hassan’s daughter and wife? He doesn’t want them getting free and blowing the mission. He had every reason to just kill Jack and Freckles since he was trying to do the same exact thing like 20 minutes before. Even Jack yells, “Mr. President, you can’t trust him!” Why did it change now? Why was this totally missed?

Jack calls Chloe for help (“Can you hear me now?” Sprint must be sooooo pissed that Jack’s hocking for Verizon now) and tells her that General Brucker is the one behind all this. Jack gets a phone call in to the President where he tells her that her Cabinet has been compromised and that she needs to confront him now. I mean she was already onto something wrong since she had just asked for updated casualty numbers, Hassan and Ethan (who Rob Weiss locked in his office to die). Chloe then watches as Jack carjacks some poor dude in a Hyundai who is trying to grab the morning paper. Sucks for you, dude—your car just got Jack’d.

Brucker, Rob Weiss and Bishop get to the terrorists just as the bomb is about to go off. Samir calls Tarin and tells him to stop the bomb. And with a few seconds left until detonation, it’s a good thing. Especially for Tarin who seems more than relieved. Tarin and Bishop then do a very cool phone trade: Hassan for the bomb. Meanwhile Taylor and Secret Service invade Ethan’s office, she has Brucker arrested and she smacks the shit out of Rob Weiss—and threatens him with treason. She’s really not happy about his treason and doesn’t want his promise of “plausible deniability”. Too late, Madam President—Weiss has confirmation*; Hassan is with the terrorists. Bitchslap number 2.

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Top 10 South Park Episodes of All Time

Thought I'd do a bit of random blogging today. Andrew and I have been discussing this topic for a while so I thought I'd throw in my two cents. South Park, which has just begun its 14th season on television, has certainly had its share of laughs and controversy over the years. It has evolved quite a bit since it's inception (watch Eric Cartman in any first season episode and compare his presentation with that of any current version of himself). And unlike The Simpsons, who waited 18 years before making a feature film, South Park took advantage of the series' early popularity and produced a feature film between seasons one and two (A side note - my friend Matt and I never got a chance to see the movie in the theaters so we were quite happy when his mom managed to rent a copy for us after its VHS release. We were forewarned by the video store clerk that they attempted to play the movie on the video store monitors only for them to have to turn it off less than five minutes in due to the movie's vulgarity. Needless to say we were certainly entertained).

Now, three episodes into season 14, I will attempt to compile a list of my ten favorite South Park episodes. I'll include a few runner-ups since it is nearly impossible to squeeze this list into 10 episodes. Also, multi-part episodes will be listed as a single episode.


1-Towelie - Towelie may very well the best "worst character ever." A talking Towel who goes around giving advise on proper towel use and proper towel safety, but who also likes to get really high. The episode begins with Cartman finding Stan's mom's used tampon in a garbage can. In order to distract them from their finding, Stan's mom buys them an Okama Game Sphere, the hot new video game system on the market. After returning from school one day, they find their Game Sphere missing, with a ransom note in its place, stating that they must turn in Towelie (who they had met a few days prior) in order to get their Game Sphere back. What ensues is a soap opera of a story in which they manage to get their Game Sphere back (with a little help from Towelie, of course) and more importantly, Towelie gets high. I think its fair to say that when we take a shower, we won't forget to bring a towel.

2-The Jeffersons - A former college roommate of mine advised me of how disturbed he was after watching this episode, thus leaving me intrigued. After watching it, I had to agree, yet I found hysterically entertaining as well. The portrayal of Michael "Jefferson" Jackson is frightening, yet outrageous. Can't get enough of Mr. Jefferson in his Peter Pan costume, yet I also can't rid myself of the image of him kissing Cartman. 'Nough said.
(Photo courtesy of southparkstudios.mtvnimages.com)

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Lost with LOST: Playing "To Tell The Truth"

There's a series of DirecTV commercials airing right now that pit "Cable", Dish TV, and DirecTV against each other on a fake version the gameshow "To Tell The Truth"--a show that had aired on and off since 1956 (if you're wondering, it's also the show being depicted in the opening scene of Catch Me If You Can). Anyways, the reason that I thought of the show is that it is quite relevant to the sixth and final season of LOST. Let's say that Jacob, Charles Widmore, and the Man In Black/FLocke were the three contestants on the show. Now Jacob is like DirecTV in the commercial because they're the ones who the audience expects to tell the truth. But imagine if they were actually pitted against each other in the gameshow version and you are a Castaway and you had Jacob, Widmore and FLocke all telling you to follow him and he could get you off The Island. Who do you believe? Now that's the question. I wrote about the search for truth in LOST on Tuesday before the show aired. But I believe even more now, after watching "The Package" that the show is after exactly that--truth. Not only figuring out who is telling the truth but figuring out the true person inside you and allowing that person to get out. The problem is that in the characters search for truth on LOST, there are casualties along the way. Jin and Sun certainly fit into that category and although "The Package" was a huge drop from the epic "Ab Aeterno", it was still a good episode.

Sun-dry Thoughts

As I've seen this Sideways World, I've asked the question: how do we know that some of these events wouldn't have occurred if the Castaways hadn't reached Los Angeles? Like what if Jack really has a son and he's just never talked about him in the "Island World"? I'm pretty sure we know that Sawyer isn't a cop back in the Island World, but Kate and Claire have followed their Island storylines in the Sideways World. So are we sure that Jin's mission to America wasn't to deliver that watch and got whacked for doing it? I mean he may have gotten wind of Jin's plans to run away (if he hadn't gotten plans of his own daughter's). Maybe he sent him to America to get him killed. Not totally out of the realm of possibilities.

This Sideways story told us how Jin got from being interrogated about his money at LAX (or is it now LA X?) to Keamy's restaurant and also how he got that gash on his head (damn Omar, you have to be more careful). We learned that in the Sideways World, Jin and Sun aren't married*, but are very much in love. It also seems like a gentler, kinder Jin that we saw at the beginning of the show. So maybe not being married to Sun was going to work out OK for him. Him and Sun were planning to run away anyways, though I guess Daddy Paik wasn't so happy about that one. Sun says that it's nice knowing that no one was watching them was certainly untrue in this episode and ironic considering "Lighthouse" where we found out that Jacob had been, in fact, watching all of them. Coveting your neighbor's daughter? Sounds like the 10th Commandment right there!

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24 Recap: The Beginning of the End

This is it. The end. I know I said I was happy about 24 ending, but the proximity to the finale left me feeling nostalgic. So I ditched the note-taking for a week, sat back and watched the episode last night like I had from the start: with wide-eyed wonder. How would they end a show that had revolutionized television? How would they take us towards a finale none of us really wanted to reach? How would said finale “tee us up for the movie” as Kiefer Sutherland promised? And how much longer do we have to deal with Denny? I need answers to my questions, DAMMIT, and I’m going to interrogate this episode like Jack—with the aid of nothing else but my own two hands. Here we go…

In the Line of Fire

Jack McCoy Shephard Bauer (maybe I do need notes) has wore a lot of different hats over the years. He’s been an agent, head of CTU, head of field Ops, a paper pusher for the Department of Defense, undercover, terrorist bait, a trading chip, on the run, in hiding, etc etc. The hat he was given last night was as a bodyguard. Of course, with a nuclear threat against the city of Manhattan, the best use of Jack Bauer’s time is to escort a dignitary. It’s not like he could be chasing down terrorists (oh wait, he could be? My bad). I’m sure you’re right, Madam President, we should definitely dedicate America’s most valuable natural resource to the same role that Kevin Costner played in Bodyguard or Clint Eastwood played in In The Line of Fire.

Oh right—this just in—where Jack goes, so does the firefight. He realized something was up and started to retreat but it was too late. Jack’s convoy was attacked (by Americans, no less…more on that ridiculousness later) and like everyone who partners Jack on a mission, they are being knocked down like bowling pins. A heroic Secret Service female agent tells Jack to stay with President Hassan while she adds to Ari’s body count. Good plan, lady. Why don’t you both go with Hassan? Wouldn’t that make more sense? Isn’t the point of the Secret Service to stay with whomever they’re protecting and make sure they’re safe? Is she promoting FOX’s new show, Human Target? Regardless, she’s a dead woman.

Jack, Freckles (so happy to have her back) and company are fleeing when Hassan tells Jack to go back for his men*. Jack knows better—those people only signed one episode contracts. They continue to run through this tunnel which all of a sudden has gotten a lot larger than when they were going the other way and realize they are trapped. Jack gives Hassan a gun and Freckles instructions to fire willy nilly into the crowd once Jack sets off a smoke bomb. What did that do? The last time I saw someone brandish a gun that recklessly, Plaxico was in The Latin Quarter. Oh wait…it doesn’t matter. Jack and Freckles unlocked the code for unlimited ammo! Gotta love 24, the video game.

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Lost with LOST: The LOST Genie, The Bible, and the 9th Commandment

Quick programming note: due to the Jewish holiday of Passover and me moving, 24 and LOST recaps for the week will be delayed. But that doesn't mean that I don't have a ton to say about both. I wrote about 24 on Friday and now it's time to rub the magic lamp, check in on our bible studies and get ready for LOST as I enjoy my new Firefox theme:

The 9th Commandment

We've been agreeing with EW's Doc Jensen that LOST's 6th season has followed the 10 Commandments to a T. I wrote on 3/17 (post the Sawyer-centric episode and greatly named "Recon"): "[We knew that tonight's episode] had to be Sawyer because of our 10 Commandments telling us the 8th is 'thou shalt not steal'. The 9th? Do not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Not sure what that means to LOST, but I'm excited to find out." But then I was left questioning--after Richard's "Ab Aeterno" episode (that Jay so excellently recapped here)--if we were still following those commandments.

"Do not bear false witness against your neighbor" isn't exactly what last night's episode was about. No one lied in court or accused their neighbor of something that they didn't do. But it doesn't mean the episode wasn't devoid of "lying". When Ricardo was in Spanish jail and awaiting execution, the priest came to him an asked for his confession. He lied. Sort of. And this may have been a reason that the priest would not accept his confession. As Doc Jensen wrote: "It made me wonder if the priest declined the confession because he saw that it wasn't genuine. Ricardo didn't really consider himself guilty of a crime. He called it accidental. He called it killing instead of murder. He didn't view himself as a sinner who needed God. Rather, God was a means to an end — a last gasp hope to be reconciled with Isabella in the heaven of her faith."

Or the priest, Father Suárez (whose namesake has tons of juicy LOST themes associated with his name including a lot about metaphysics and predestination), was lying himself. Suárez refused to grant Ricardo forgiveness, claiming that there is no absolution of sin for murder (which, I'm told, is contrary to Catholic doctrine). Suárez then told Ricardo that he would only gain absolution through penance...but he wouldn't be able to achieve it because he had been sentenced to be hanged. That leaves Ricardo in a pretty desperate state of life. So desperate that he had to say yes when Suárez walked through the door the next day and offered to extend his life by selling him into slavery. Maybe Suárez lied to break Ricardo down and make the offer that much sweeter.

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