7 posts tagged “lost”
The Wire is back for its fifth and final season so the return is bittersweet knowing that it will too soon be gone for good. I am savoring each episode, and so, not looking to deconstruct each episode. But I can point you to resources for discussion. Though these links come with a very strong warning: Because episodes are available a week earlier on Comcast On Demand spoil sports enjoy putting spoilers in the comments before episodes air and some blogs, with full warning, post on the On Demand schedule. So click at your own risk. I'm not even really following the discussion for precisely that reason. Last season I watched on the On Demand schedule but every Sunday night I found myself disappointed that I didn't have a new episode to watch when it aired.
NYT Freakonomics Blog "What do real thugs think of The Wire?" (My new favorite and it's all in the post - comments are skippable)
Personal blog of Tim Goodman, TV critic for the SF Chronicle - personal blog handles The Wire decons (separate from The Bastard Machine which is his blog at SFGate.com and his reviews in The Chronicle - throw in podcasts and this is one busy TV watching man).
Heaven and Here - terrific commentary but on On Demand schedule
The House Next Door (Ep. 53 - 3rd ep. S5) Commentary on The Wire among this site's extensive and top notch film and television criticism
What's Alan Watching, personal blog of Alan Sepinwall, TV critic for the NJ Star-Ledger. Reviews lots of shows, not just The Wire. On Demand schedule
A Thousand Corners - a blog dedicated to The Wire
During the strike I'm happy that Psych is back. Looking forward to Lost returning next week. And I enjoyed the debut of Breaking Bad on AMC next week. It is a very dark comedy and Bryan Cranston is inspired as a dying Chemistry teacher turned Meth maker. I can't find any slam dunk reviews but it is sufficiently interesting that I'll keep watching. It airs Sundays at 10pm right after The Wire.
For February I'm enjoying season 2 of the PBS show America's Ballroom Challenge. It is a strange and compelling spectacle. If nothing else, I will be better prepared to understand and critique So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars. In fact, last week I think one of the dance teams ripped off So You Think You Can Dance and the Wade Robeson choreographed group zombie dance set to "Ramalama (Bang Bang)" by Roisin Murphy. And Tony Dovolani from DWTS has won the American Rhythm competition both seasons. It's also endlessly amusing to see the parade of fake tanned, sequined Eastern European dancers and to better understand what makes DWTS so camp-fabulous. I've gotta say seeing the 10 year olds doing exhibitions in the exact same costumes is kind of frightening.
And Top Design so far pleasantly surprises in that I enjoy it more than I thought I would based on some of the reviews I've read but, so far, is not nearly as engaging as Project Runway or even Top Chef. None of the designs so far has been particularly compelling and none of the contestants has particularly engaged me so it's wait and see on this one.
As shows arrive back after being gone for the holidays I'm finding I'm not feeling as fond of them as I did before.
How I Met Your Mother on Monday was OK but not great. Which is fine because good-not-great for them is better than most sitcoms. The Ted office scenes with Bryan Cranston as his boss where meh, but I did enjoy Barney begging Lily to paint him nude after finding her painting of Marshall. Especially when she gave him the "Ken doll" and didn't paint his "barnana."
Studio 60 on the other hand was practically unbearable. I doubt I can continue to keep watching heavy handed, preachy characters I feel no emotional engagement with. I don't care about the Matt/Harriet relationship, the Danny stalking Jordan and her having to beg him to stop storyline was creepy, I just can't buy multiple women vying for Tom and the Darius/Simon "massa" conversation didn't feel bold and enlightening but rather unsettling.
On Tuesday the Gilmore Girls returned but it just felt wrong. Chris and Lorelei were great when the alternative was Max. But at least it seems like they are moving Luke and Lorelei closer towards understanding and forgiving each other and it's clear the Chris doesn't fit into Stars Hollow or Lorelei's life. The Lane pregnancy story is just awful and ridiculous and sad. And where were Miss Patty and Babette and Kirk...? Why wasn't Sookie knocking sense into Lor? I'll ride the wave to this once great show's sad end but it makes me sadder with every passing episode.
Top Chef is on tonight but after that over-the-top head shaving episode where Chef Tom wanted to send everyone but Marcel packing and declare him the winner without a final cookoff, put the nail in the coffin to me caring who wins this hot mess. Top Design can't get here fast enough.
Lost is coming back next week and I am surprisingly not that excited about diving back into the Jack-Sawyer-Kate love triangle. Please get back to the mysteries of the Island!
Armed and Fabulous and Beauty and the Geek are your alternatives to the unpleasantly mean American Idol auditions which apparently virtually everybody in America hates but is watching anyway and the critically adored Friday Night Lights. I encourage watching one episode of Armed and Fabulous as it is funnier and sweeter than expected and not in a train wreck way. However one episode will be enough for me, I think. I'm going to watch Beauty and the Geek again tonight but I'm not really enjoying the Beauties that much this season - they don't seem to be learning their lessons very well - but once AI is out of it's cruel debut I'll switch over.
Happy viewing!
"I love the series. I have faith in it. I'll be there when it returns. But that doesn't mean I can't be annoyed all to hell about each episode."
- I might buy why the boys admired Kate's spunky-ness in the beginning, when in sharp contrast to Shannon, she was willing to get messy and go hiking and generally join in the island exploration instead of waiting on the beach to be rescued. However, at this point, in addition to not being able to care less about the Jack-Kate-Sawyer love triangle, I really can't understand how it is more important to each of them than their own survival. And, notice that Sayid, who, even with the torturing and all, is far less of an ass (and willing to admit his mistakes when he is like when he apologized to Jin for asking Sun to conspire to lie to and trick him) than either Jack or Sawyer, was beguiled by Shannon and not Kate.
- Tim Goodman also woke me up to the concept of being willing to accept stories and actions that fit within the universe the show creates. Yet another reason why I don't get the whole Kate 'shipping thing. I saw an interviewer for one of those Hollywood Tonight shows interviewing new cast member, Rodrigo Santoro, and her burning question was not what his character's role would be on the show but whether or not he would have any love scenes with Evangeline Lilly. As if all male characters on the show will move to Hawaii on the hopes that their reward is getting to make out with Evangeline Lilly. It's like the ABC marketing team is working overtime to convince us that Evangeline Lilly is deemed gorgeous and thus we must care about Kate. Let the story make us care about Kate. The story about Kate so far only makes me feel that she is whiny, murderous and exists only to screw up any hope of any of the Lostie's efforts ever working.
- Continuing down the I'll-accept-what-makes-sense-in-that-universe path, polar bears on a tropical island? Love it. Totally buy them. Giant cloud of black smoke that plays "this is your life" before mauling you to death? Fabulous! Ben hatching a convuluted plot to spy on and then kidnap Jack in order to win him over to get desperately needed spinal surgery from the neurosurgeon God dropped on the island for him? I can't suspend my disbelief enough even in the polar bear-inhabited tropical island in which Lost exists.
- I have only one word for the Kate-Sawyer filthy, dirty, sweaty, stinky, fish-biscuit-dispensing polar bear cage, so-not-bringing-sexy-back, relationship consumation... to quote Summer Roberts, freshman at Brown, ... Eww!
- What a waste of Nathan Fillion (also, Caleb from Buffy). The only redemption will be if he isn't dead, just comatose from Kate's I-must-poison-you-because-I-love-you lemonade, and that he somehow figures in prominently in the Lost mythology in the future.
Overall I found this episode disappointing and the cliffhangers lame. Seriously, I will not be staying awake pondering "Will Kate run?" "Will Sawyer get shot?" "Will Jack let Ben die?" It's action that leaves me hanging on the cliff. It was "Who shot J.R.?" not "Will J.R. be shot?" that left America holding its collective breath. But, come February I will be back. Hopefully, for Lost, it will be more than just me and Tim Goodman.
Not much to update today as I didn't see much last night. A dear friend called me and we had a great time gabbing but it meant that I missed half of Lost (although enough to say, cage sex? Ewww!). What I'm going to do is try watching it on ABC.com. I've watched shows on my computer via iTunes and at CBS using their Innertube service. Innertube was maddening, clunky, difficult to use and returned repeated error messages. iTunes was a bit of a pain to get set up with because (gasp!) it was the first time I ever used the service. I know! I do not have an iPod. However, once downloaded, the show (a free episode of 30 Days on immigration) played easily and the quality was exceptional. I wouldn't want to regularly replace watching on my hi-def, widescreen plama television ;-P but it's nice to have iTunes as a backup option. If ABC.com doesn't work out, I'll pay for this episode of Lost.
The lack of surprises on Dancing With the Stars continued as, indeed, Joey was voted off the dance floor.
I saw The Nine which improved in that they showed a tiny bit more of the robbery than previous episodes. But, seriously, the post-robbery storylines are just so cliched and boring. In hooking up post robbery, one of the female characters says to the male character just before he kisses her "Are we really doing this?" Another female character when her boyfriend starts to propose, she runs out so she doesn't have to answer. Meh, who cares?. The robbery scenes are so much better with real tension and energy. They should take a tip from 24 and keep the action going.
The recorded stuff and Lost will have to wait for a weekend catchup.
Tonight I'll watch My Name is Earl, The Office, and ER. Ugly Betty and The OC will be recorded unless I somehow squeeze in last night's OC beforehand, in which case I'll watch.
And, why no Grey's Anatomy you ask? Because I simply cannot suspend my disbelief sufficiently to buy the notion that virtually every man who comes within ten feet of boney, squinty-eyed, Ellen Pompeo completely self-absorbed Meredith, falls instantly in love, or at least lust, with her. In general, the whole everybody-in-the-hospital-is-hooking-up-with-any-co-worker-who-breathes thing is, even by soap opera standards, just too much for me.
Tonight brings dueling must see shows. The OC with a Wednesday try out against Lost. I can't stress enough how awesome The OC was last week. Truly a return to what we all loved about Season 1 pre-Oliver. Critics I've read universally agree. And since they are real critics they get episodes in advance and the consensus is that the first 4 episodes rock and last week wasn't a one time fluke.
Lost is the last episode of the "fall season." Rather than chopping up the season with repeats, Lost will disappear until Feburary and finish out the season. In its place will be Day Break with Taye Diggs. Now Taye Diggs is hot enough to get me to watch for him alone but the whole deja vu theme is just so uninteresting to me - Groundhog Day but the wife gets killed over and over...? I'm hard pressed to find that premise compelling as entertainment. So I'll be hoping that The OC does better in its tryout and sticks so I can just watch it without conflict. I'll also watch The Nine tonight but, again, critics agree with me, my patience is wearing thin. The pilot was terrific but it has been downhill ever since. Unless they quickly rework this show and show more bank robbery and less PTSD moping it is going to fail.
Anyhoo - on to the TV!
Wednesday: 30 Rock once again featured no "girlies" past or present which is a mixed blessing but, hey, more Alec Baldwin, yay! ... Lost - darn it, I was right about who got died - memo to ABC - don't promo that someone is going to die on Lost and then promo by name that an actor from Lost will be making the talk show rounds the day after that episode! The Nine continues on its maddening pace but I'm intrigued enough to keep watching... Top Chef picked up a bit after the lackluster first couple of episodes but it still seems like the "characters" are edited a little too closely to match last season's cast.
Thursday had another fun Ugly Betty, but no Justin! What up with that? After his fabulous Halloween Gene Kelley dance break how could you leave his energy out of an episode? And focusing on the story about the Dad being a killer illegal immigrant is a downer. More Justin and less immigration drama, please. However, Debi Mazar guesting as an immigration lawyer was a kick so maybe a little more immigration drama... Roseanne Barr was enjoyable as a guest item on Earl's karma list... The Office was my favorite episode I've seen. I haven't drunk the kool-aid on this show and I generally find it amusing though sometimes repetitive in the jokes. At times the humor in Michael's cluelessness wears thin. However, this "Diwali" episode written by Mindy Kaling (who plays Kelly) was freakin' genius. And Jim and Andy, drunk and rolling around on the floor singing "Closer to Fine" by the Indigo Girls... I'm still giggling... ER continues to benefit from John Stamos' injection of Clooney-esque bad boy rebelliousness.
Skipping to Friday (saving the best for last) - I got hipped to Battlestar Gallactica too late and now I want to play catch-up before getting into it. Someday I'll rent it all and learn what I'm missing.
Saturday is a complete wasteland now that NBC isn't even burning off the remaining episodes of Kidnapped.
Sunday is, of course, all about The Wire. And, just a spoiler alert note, HBO has started offering the next week's episode of some shows, including The Wire, a week prior to when it runs in its scheduled time slot. So, if you visit some sites that cover the show they will have recaps of the On Demand episode up several days before it runs on Sunday. Just be careful with your clicking if you hate spoilers.
Today is Monday and that means watching How I Met Your Mother and it should be interesting to appreciate anew the awesomeness of Neil Patrick Harris' acting abilities and his portrayal of womanizing Barney and, even playing "himself" in the hilarious Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle now that he's outed himself. Recording Everybody Hates Chris and Girlfriends, and Studio 60 which I appreciate more intellectually than emotionally. I'm hoping it will grip me more but if, as rumors persist, it goes away, I don't think I'll be too sad except for the fact that it means NBC will give us more game shows.
OK - the best thing in the past week (other than The Wire) was the return of The OC. Seriously, wonderfully, awesome. And the music was perfect. "A Bad Dream" by Keane came at the end, but bookending the show was Placebo's cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill."
"If I only could, make a deal with God, and get him to swap our places..."
The perfect soundtrack to this episode which showed the ways in which those Marissa left behind were continuing to mourn her 5 months after her tragic demise. The show benefits from the absence of Mischa Barton's sulky, slouchy Marissa. It gives Ryan's brooding the appropriate weight in the show's balance and keeps his Fight Club life from going too over the top. We got Luke's younger twin brothers as Kaitlin's lap dogs - hopefully this means that somehow Luke will make his way back to be Ryan's pal once Seth goes off to RISD.
Unfortunately, the viewership for this airing was abismally low. So Fox is playing around with the schedule and will run the next two on Wednesday and Thursday. The show is up against too much fire power either way but perhaps, if it can survive this week, Fox can run it against Day Break once it subs in for Lost. I just hope that Fox doesn't give up and dump the show before even finishing off the shortened final season. And, hopefully, Josh Schwartz will spare us any more Olivers or Johnnys to disrupt the flow now that Marissa is gone.
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