Winter, slumbering in the open air, wears on its smiling face a dream… of spring. Ciao.
–Phil Connors, 2/2/1993
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?”
Lost Geeks Are Everywhere
Back 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.
I Saw The Sign and it Opened Up My Mind
We’ve had a hellacious winter here in central Ohio.
It seems like there was no fall–back in October, the weather felt like it went from summer to freezing temperatures instantaneously. And in the last few weeks, while it hasn’t piled up, it has felt like it’s snowed every day.
Well, yesterday, we were told, we’d get this huge storm- and for once, the weather people were right. Had a few inches Tuesday morning, then a brief respite during the day. But right around 5:00, it started snowing again, which turned to sleet, to freezing rain, and back to huge chunks of white death falling from the sky, which is where we are now.
When The Civee and I first woke up this morning, we figured we’d clean off our car and see how things were. Well, there was a slight problem- our front door wouldn’t open. The door was frozen shut at the bottom. After leaving through the other door, we started clearing the ice off our car, which went well until our scraper broke. After that, we figured someone was trying to tell us something and here we are, looking out the window, watching these huge snowflakes keep falling.
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?
Holy Shat!
While I enjoy Star Trek, I wouldn’t consider myself a trekkie. I’ve never seen more than two episodes of Boston Legal. And I’ve never watched TJ Hooker or Rescue 911 without falling asleep. That said, I consider myself a fan of William Shatner.
I recently started reading Shatner’s autobiography Up Till Now. Its a good book-everything is colored by Shatner’s personality. The man has led a fascinating and full life.
I’m finding out all sorts of things I never knew before, such as the fact that Captain Kirk (well, actually William Shatner, but the story sounds better if I use the name of his most famous character) saved Odd Job’s (actually actor Harold Sakata, but see the previoius parenthetical) life while working on the film Impulse. From the book:
Harold was a huge man with no neck, he was just shoulders and a head. In this particular scene he chased me through a car wash and I managed to escape by climbing up onto a roof; when he walked by below me I threw a lasso over him and yanked him up. As he’s being strangled I jump off the roof, hit him serveral times, then escape.
The stunt coordinator rigged Harold with a harness under his shirt which was connected to a steel cable…We practiced it several times, rope, pull, up, looks good. Then we rolled cameras. I dropped the loop over his head and yanked him up. I jumped down to the ground and looked at him dangling three feet in th air, struggling to get loose. He was making terrible choking sounds. Boy, I thought, I hadn’t realized he was such a good actor. He sounds like he’s really choking. I punched him rat-tat-tat in the gut a few times and took off. And as I started running a thought struck me: Wait a second, he’s actually choking…I yelled “Cut! Cut!” and ran back to help him. Harold weighed about three hundred pounds but somehow I managed to lift his body enough to reduce the pressure, enabling him to breathe, and then held him up until they cut him loose.
So if it wasn’t for Shatner’s Kirk-ian quick thinking, Harold Sakata, one of the best things (along with Gert Fröbe and Sean Connery) about Goldfinger, would have died in a cheap action flick.
The book is chock full of other interesting tidbits, one of which has greatly increased my understanding of the song Rocket Man. I’m familiar with Shatner’s musical career. I’ve heard The Transormed Man. I’m a huge fan of Has Been. But I’ve never seen, or heard his earth-shattering rendition of Rocket Man. After watching it, I’m stunned. First of all, I never realized the lyrics went “burning out his fumes up here alone.” I always thought it was just some random nonsense riffing by Elton John. Second, the guy who wrote the song, Bernie Taupin, is also responsible for bringing the world We Built This City. If anyone deserves to be locked in a booth listening to We Built This City for 24 hours straight, it’s him.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, I give you William Shatner’s rendition of Rocket Man:
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”
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.
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.
The Force (in Magazine Form) Is No Longer With Me
If such an entry had existed in my high school yearbook, it’s likely I would have been voted Most Likely to Dress In Costume While Attending a Star Wars Convention.
Well, it probably wouldn’t surprise my friends from way back when that I did attend a Star Wars Convention, but they’d probably be bummed that I did not wear a costume.
Back in aught-five, my friends Ryan, Brian and Jen (Brian’s Civil War-reenacting wife) made a trek out to Indianapolis for the Star Wars Celebration, the official SW convention, which just so happened to be scheduled for a month before the release of Revenge of the Sith.
Back then, to get a good deal on tickets, I signed up for the Star Wars fan club, which included a subscription to the Star Wars Insider magazine. Not only did we get discounted tickets, but a supposed special access pass, which we didn’t really need. When we got to the convention center, we picked the shortest line, which ended up being a presentation by George Lucas, a nice way to start off a whole day of geekdom.
Even though the convention was a few years ago, I never got around to cancelling my fan club membership. I kept getting the magazine, and while I’d flip through it, it never really held my interest. With the last movie coming out three years ago, how much new Star Wars news is there going to be?
The other day, I got a card in the mail saying my membership would be automatically renewed. Because it’s time that I started paying attention to things I receive in the mail, I gave them a call and cancelled my subscription, and with it, my membership in the Star Wars fan club.
Even though I’ll still be a fan of the saga, it is somewhat liberating. While I’ll watch the Clone Wars TV show, I don’t pay too much attention to the Expanded Universe, which is where all the new action is anyway (unless George wants to do a special Sepcial Edition). I suppose if I want to follow the universe from here on out, I can do it online, where it’s free.