Category: On TV

Things on TV

If That's Jughead, Is Locke Mr. Weatherbee?

So this is Season Five of Lost–minor action off-island with major exposition on the island, with the audience left to figure out what time it is.

I like it.

Jughead was like a history lesson about the Lost island.  However, this lesson just tells us what happened, leaving out all the names and dates.  The when becomes pretty easy to figure out.  But the who, that’s for us to determine.  The why, I’m sure will be answered later.  But if the who turns out to be who we think they are, then my mind is blown.

Continue reading “If That's Jughead, Is Locke Mr. Weatherbee?” →

King Tom1 Comment

Lost Geeks Are Everywhere

Al Trautwig: Lost fanBack in the day when Yankees games were telecast over the MSG network, my favorite broadcaster who covered the Yankees was Al Trautwig.  Al didn’t specialize in baseball, but covered every sport–he’s done hockey, he’s done the Olympics, he even covered the Jamaican Bobsledding Team.  

Al is a damn good broadcaster.  When he did the Yankees games, he’d appear throughout the game and on the MSG pre and post game shows.  Then the Yankees went to YES, and other than the Olympics (and the fact that I moved out of MSG’s viewing area), I haven’t had much of a chance to listen to Al–until now.

It turns out Al is a Lost geek.  Al has started what looks to be a weekly video blog on the MSG Network Web site where he talks about Lost.  And boy, does he talk–he goes on for seven minutes.  I can’t say I agree with all of his analysis, but it’s solid.  He makes a lot of good points, and isn’t ashamed to hide his fanaticism.  He even plugs Lostpedia, which makes me wonder if he’s an active member of the online Lost community.  If you’re out there Al, you’re always welcome at the Kingdom.

If you’re a fan of Lost, give Al’s podcast a view–hopefully, it’ll show you that we’re everywhere.

King Tom

The First Husband Hulks Up

I’ve noticed a regular occurence throughout my years of watching of 24–one hour is a bit slow, setting things up.  I think the hour is a disappointment, even if it’s full of exposition and witty one-liners (“I’m a stay at home mom”). Then all of a sudden, after the episode, as I watch the previews, my mind is blown and I think the next week can redeem the show I just watched.

This week was one of those weeks.

To be honest, this hour had its moments.  Chlöe and Bill rescuing the redhead.  Jack and Tony taking down both groups of bad guys.  The reveal of Henderson (RoboCop) being behind Tony’s reseurrection. And the first husband hulking up out of his drug-induced paralysis to take down the evil secret service agent (or, more accurately, take him over the railing and onto the table below, using the evil agent’s body to break his fall).  Actually, with all due respect to Jack, that was the moment of this episode- making the first husband’s storyline worthwhile.

The rest of the hour seemed like it was sitting around and talking.  The FBI is still boring and full of unsympathetic characters (the one FBI agent with any likability whatsoever is out in the field with Jack).  The White House drama is okay, but to be honest, we’ve heard it all in some form of another over the past six years.  And if the cabinet invokes the Twenty-Fifth Amendment for a third time on this show, I’m going to walk away.  

Overall, this season is average, but I’m waiting for it to go somewhere.  Am I alone?

King Tom

I Wish I'd Read That Book By That Wheelchair Guy

After eight months, Lost picks right up from where it left off with two new episodes, Because You Left and The Lie.  The show which seemingly juggles genres finally started probing two issues that it had hinted at in earlier years–time travel and (well, for the first scene at lease) the workings of the DHARMA Initiative.

It’s great to have Lost back, and it was great to end the hiatus with two episodes.  The shows were good, but a little disjointed.  The one drawback to having characters in different locales is that it’s hard to get a good narrative going when you’re skipping story tracks like a record (or the inhabitants of the island tripping through time).   I like what’s happening on the island.  Ben’s attempts at getting everyone together is interesting.  Sun and Kate on the other hand, are kinda boring.  The only possible redeeming quality of that storyline is that I don’t trust Sun at all, so Kate deserves what’s coming for putting her trust in Sun.  

And Ben has 70 hours to get everyone back to the island.  What is this, 24?

Continue reading “I Wish I'd Read That Book By That Wheelchair Guy” →

King Tom

The Show With A Plan

Trust me, this will eventually be about Lost.

Over the past few weeks, The Civee and I have been re-watching Alias, a show that we would watch “together” during our dating days (since we were cities away, we’d talk on the phone during commercial breaks than hang up on each other as soon as the show came back on).  It was a fun show, one we both enjoyed.  It had moments of greatness, but overall, the show was frustrating for fans because of three things that had to do more with the creator (J.J. Abrams, who would go on to help create Lost) and backstage happenings than the stories told on the show.  Alias was a let down because of:

– There not being an end-point for the story from Day 1.
– The failure of the network to get a key actress to commit to a second season, leading to storylines being scrapped and hastily re-written to accomodate her disappearance (not to mention other cast changes brought about by the interpersonal relationships of actors).
 -J.J.’s short attention span and abandonment of Alias (for Lost) in seasons four and five.

If there had been a clear path and had storylines played out like they were supposed to, then the fate of Alias would have been different.  Thankfully, both the creators of Lost (which returns tomorrow) and the network seemed to have learned their lesson.  

Alan Sepinwall, TV critic for New Jersey’s Star Ledger has (in what has seemingly become an annual tradition) published an interview with Lost Co-Creator Damon Lindelof, who explains that these things don’t happen by accident:

But more importantly, if “Stranger in a Strange Land” — which, universally, is (considered) the worst episode we ever produced — had not been produced, we would not have been able to convince the network that, “This is the future of the show: how Jack got his tattoos. Everything we’ve been saying for two years about what’s to come, is now all here on the screen. You argued that an hour of Matthew Fox in emotionally-based conflicts, it doesn’t matter what the flashback story is, it’ll be fine. But now that we’re doing his ninth flashback story, you just don’t care.” 

We can’t go back and apologize for the creative mistakes that we made, because we had to make them. If that episode hadn’t been made, we weren’t able to get a notes call that said, “We don’t like this episode,” and where we could then say, “We don’t like it, either, but it’s the best we can do if we’re not moving the story forward. And we’re now at a point, guys, where we can’t move the story forward.” And they asked, “Well, what would you do if we allowed you an end date?” And we said, “Give us an end date, and we’ll tell you what we’ll do.” And the conversations then reached a new pitch.

Everything has to happen the way it happened. 

It’s a great interview with not only hints of things to come, but some explanations as to why some things ended up the way they did.  

It seems as if they’re avoiding the pitfalls that sunk J.J.’s earlier brainchild.  And as someone who has followed both shows, I’m glad they have both a committed cast and crew and an endgame in sight.

As for me, I’ll be on the couch between the hours of eight and 11 tomorrow evening.  I pity the fool who tries to interrupt the return.

By the way, if you want something to look forward to, check out the first clip on this page. It’s only quasi spoilerish.

King Tom2 Comments

I'd Like To Do A Jack Bauer On My Cable Box

For some reason, my cable box decided to go out in the middle of tonight’s 24.  I missed (what I’m guessing was) minutes 5-25 of tonight’s show.  While I’m not entirely happy with this, all I have to say is if this happens Wednesday night, there will be hell to pay.

That being said, from what I was able to watch:

Not enough Jack tonight.

Too much FBI.  I don’t care about them.  Their holier-than-thou attitude makes them very unsympathetic.  And Special Agent Jeanene Garafolo still hasn’t grown on me.  Also, please tell me which alternate universe 24 exists in where the federal government can respond to alleged civil rights violations in five seconds flat while not making any headway into solving the identities of those behind the terror plot.

Speaking of the FBI, Special Agent Jeanene’s associate (good ol’ whatshisname) is really irritating, even moreso than her.  I’m guessing he’s the mole.  Because of the hair grease.  Why the hair grease?  Well, the main terrorist (the guy who Jack’s boss reported to) also used a bit too much hair grease this morning.  So did one of the evil secret service agents.  Remember back in season 1 how all the good guys used Macs and the bad guys used PCs?  Well, I’m calling it now.  Bad guys, hair grease.  Good guys, natural and fluffy.

I was also disappointed in the paucity of Bill and Chlöe (aka Shadow CTU).  Were they doing anything at all this hour?  Was it their lunch break?

Speaking of CTU, I know the creators really wanted to switch things up this year, but killing CTU was a bad decision.  It was a great set and added a lot to the story.  Now, we are to believe the FBI can save the day when it looks like all their agents are filing their TPS reports and getting ready for their 3:30 meeting the corporate.

One more thing. The ending would have been far more shocking had Lost not already done the same thing.  That reminds me. Only two more days.

King Tom1 Comment

This Is A Song About A Superhero Named Tony

About twenty years ago, Randy “Macho Man” Savage and Hulk Hogan teamed up to form the Mega Powers, a union that gave fans what they wanted- the ultimate good guy wrestling tag team. The Mega Powers decimated everyone in their way, before imploding and turning on each other.

Last night on the third and fourth hours of the seventh longest day of Jack Bauer’s life, we found out Tony Almeida (who cheated death) wasn’t evil, but “undercover.”  Jack busted Tony out of FBI custody, learned Tony was working with Chlöe and Bill Buchanan and teamed up, forming with Tony the 24-universe equivalend of the Mega Powers.

Combine that with the return of Jack Bauer’s man purse (or the Jack Sack, if you will) and you have the beginnings of what could be a turnaround for the fortunes of 24.

I’m not saying all is forgiven.  There’s a lot not to like this season.  To wit:

  • Jeaneane Garafolo serving no purpose on the show other than to rip off Chlöe.
  • That FBI guy who says “we’re not CTU, we’re the FBI and we follow the law” every other scene.
  • The neurotic First Husband.
  • The fact that everyone in the government, including the Attorney General and commandant of the Merchant Marines are moles.
  • This nebulous link between the Sangala warlords and the evil terrorist organization determined to rule the world that’s causing so much havoc this season.

All that said, while this season has opened much slower than last season, it has a better foundation.  And the Mega Powers’ escape from the FBI was pretty cool.

King Tom2 Comments

Yet Another Long Day For Jack Bauer

So I caught the first two hours of Day 7 of 24 last night, and while I’m not doing cartwheels in the hope that it will be a great season, I’m hopeful because it seems better than last season.  So far.

Day 6 opened strong, with Jack killing Curtis and a nuclear bomb going off in suburban L.A.  That wasn’t the only bomb for the season–the day quickly went downhill, featuring Jack teaming up with Rain Main to hunt the terrorists, going up against his father and being a witness to the killing of Charles Logan, one of the best characters on the show.

This season so far is more grounded, but it has some problems:

  • CTU is no more.
  • The First Husband is a psycho.
  • Once again, there are moles all over the place.
  • Tony Almeida is not only alive, but (seemingly) evil.

I can do with the first.  But I’m getting tired of moles in every government classification from vice president on the way down to postal carrier.  I’m sick of crazy relatives of powerful political figures. And like Jack, I don’t want to believe Tony is bad.
Still, it’s nice to see Jack in action and sticking it to a Congressional committee.  Only time will tell if this season can save the show.

King Tom3 Comments

So Long, Survivorman

For my money, Les Stroud (a.k.a. Survivorman) is the hardest working man in showbiz.

The premise of Survivorman is simple: Les spends a week alone in some wilderness area somewhere in the globe with few (if any) resources and is responsible for not only his own survival, but recording the whole thing himself.  In other words, as viewers sit in their climate-controlled homes on comfy couches with an assortment of snacks at hand, Les is living in some cold (or hot) place, trying to start a fire and if he’s lucky, munching on a handful of bugs while making sure he’s in the camera frame.

The show is great and it’s amazing the situations Les gets himself into and out of.  For those of you into Lost, he’s like a real-life Locke, except (as far as I know) he wasn’t once paralyzed and has both his kidneys. 

But after three seasons, I don’t blame Les for hanging up his multi-tool.  From the CBC:

“You can only do seven days surviving without food a certain number of times a year. I’m pleased with what I have done, I’ve been copied around the world, but 25 times I’ve not eaten anything for a week while sleeping on rocks. I need to move on,” he said.

If you haven’t watched Survivorman, I implore you to give it a shot. It’s definitely worth watching and (re-watching).

Just like the castaways on Lost, if there was someone I’d count on to make sure I survive, it would be Les (even if he can’t catch a fish).  If I’m ever in a survival situation (that doesn’t involve take-out), I’ll think of some tips I’ve learned from watching Les:

  • Talking to yourself actually helps.
  • Put your bait inside your traps before setting them up.
  • Don’t eat too much rabbit (or drink too much coconut juice).
  • Punky wood is the best for starting a fire.
  • You can start a fire with two sticks and a lot of hard work.
  • When you sweat, you die.

King Tom2 Comments

Time Is Not Of The Essence, It Is The Essence

If Lost fans were fans of any other show, by this point in the season, we’d be whining about how the show isn’t going anywhere, coming up with nicknames for new characters we hate and would be frustrated with the will-they-won’t-they nature of the show’s relationships.

But we don’t have to do that. Instead, we wait and pine for the network to throw us some scraps or hints of the upcoming season.

And here it is. The Lost Season 5 promo (thanks Dark UFO) (you may not want to watch if you’re not all caught up):

 

 
(and if you’re unsure about the title of the blog post, it comes from an official Lost video premiered over the summer, available here)

King Tom