Carlton Reminices...

Hey all,

Still haven't decided what I'm going to do with my future of blogging, but this article in the NYT from Carlton gave me the impetus to post. Well worth a read.

How's everyone doing? My life is crazy right now. Anyone find a suitable replacement for Lost? We're now through four seasons worth of "Dexter" - that's helped.

Cheers,
Jay

Emmy Nods...

Lost got a haul this year. The short list:

Outstanding Drama (Expected)
Outstanding Actor in a Drama: Matthew Fox (Nice!)
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama: Michael Emerson, Terry O'Quinn (Expected)
Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama: Elizabeth Mitchell, "The End" (Yay!)
Outstanding Direction for a Drama (Jack Bender, "The End")
Outstanding Writing for a Drama (Darlton, "The End")
Outstanding Art Direction for a Drama (For Ab Aeterno)
Outstanding Picture Editing for a Drama (For "The End")
Outstanding Original Dramatic Score: Michael Giacchino, (For "The End")
Outstanding Sound Editing for a Drama (For "The End")

Pretty sweet. Elizabeth Mitchell so deserves an Emmy for her work on Lost, even if it's only for her guest shot in the finale. Nice to see Matthew Fox get nominated too. I think Lost is going to win a bunch this year as a way for the Academy to send it off with a bang. Congrats to all. :)

Also, a quick note: My Blogger polls have been acting funny lately - I'm going to delete this one and try again later.

UPDATE: Yeah, Blogger Polls seem to be down, so I created a free account at PollDaddy instead. Really quick to set up, easy to use. Thanks to DarkUFO for the suggesting it in the Blogger help forums. :)

Valiant Effort

Woman who just lost her job tries to watch all six seasons of Lost in 4.5 days and writes a blog on it as well. She may not succeed, but it's pretty fascinating to follow her along. As of early this morning she was up to the end of Season 2. Might take a couple all-nighters to get it done. :)

I'll have some pre-finale thoughts tomorrow as I contemplate my wings. Missie, you're totally right, I need a Mr. Cluck's bucket for them. :)

Cool Read...

If you haven't seen this article in Wired, you're missing out. Lots of cool stuff here. Loved the cargo list from Flight 815. :)

Addendum: It goes without saying that if you look closely at the big board behind Darlton, there are some spoilers to be seen, including the centricity of the next two episodes. Squint at your own risk. :)

Can You Resist?

EW's Doc Jensen has an interview up with Darlton where apparently they reveal the title of the LOST series finale.

I've resisted clicking on it so far - a bit too early, I think, to learn something so potentially spoiler-ish (think about the title of last season's finale), but I figured some of you might be interested.

I'm so very curious, but no reveals in the comments, please. :)

Fearless Prediction: "What It Takes"

Greed, For Lack Of A Better Word, Sucks

It seems I'm now officially caught in the crossfire of yet another Cablevision dispute, only this time it's unfortunately with ABC, meaning I may not be able to watch LOST on Tuesday night if this isn't resolved between now and then. Anyone know how soon after a show airs it goes up on either ABC.com or Hulu? If it's right afterward, I might be able to get my review done my the next day, if not it won't be going up until Thursday this week.

Can't we all just get along? :P

Edit: Crisis averted. ABC back on my airwaves. *phew*

TV Fest Musings

*minor spoiler alert*

In case you haven't seen it yet, there was some nice Lost info revealed at the Paley TV Fest over the weekend. The key dirt:

On the filming status of the series:

The Lost writers are in the process of breaking the series finale, which will be penned by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and directed by Jack Bender. The penultimate episode will be written by producer/writers (and fellow panelists) Elizabeth Sarnoff, Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. Meanwhile, on the island, Bender has just wrapped episode 14 and is currently shooting 15. After being bombarded with questions about the show for six years, Cuse said they do not plan on commenting on the series finale after it airs.

The answer is “yes” to the following:

Will Richard and Ilana exchange some words soon? Will we see another painting by Bender? Do some of the characters’ last names have significance, particularly Jack’s? Is Jack married to someone we’ve met before? Was Jacob telling the truth when he said someone was coming to the island? Will we learn more about Hurley and Libby’s connection? Will we see Vincent and Charlie again? Will we learn if Desmond was really on the plane?

(emphasis mine)

The answer is “no” to the following:

Will we get a conclusion to the story of Ben’s love, Annie? Do the purple circles in Bender’s mural mean anything? Did Juliet’s ex-husband get killed by a smoke bus? Will there be a DVD release of the show in chronological order?

The answer is “maybe” to the following:

Will the Hurley bird be explained? Will we see Walt again?

The answer is “no comment” to the following:

Will we learn why women can’t have babies on the island?

Final spoiler from Lindelof:

“Water.”

Some general thoughts on all of this:

First off, the fact we know Alt Jack's wife makes me think that it's Juliet even more. Again there aren't that many choices floating around out there since it wasn't anyone we saw on the plane (which definitely eliminates Kate and Cindy). Libby and Ana-Lucia are still possibilities since we didn't see them on the plane, though they were supposed to be there (and theoretically could have been).

And speaking of Libby, I am dying to see more of her, even if it's only in the Alt (BTW, did anyone else know her last name was Smith)? I imagine she might be rich, lucky Alt Hurley's significant other (pun intended). But more than her relationship with Hurley, I really want to know who hired her to give Desmond the Elizabeth - I really don't think their meeting in the coffee shop was coincidence or fate. I think probably Eloise or someone similar hired her to make sure that Desmond enters the race and ends up on the Island.

I figured Desmond's appearance on Alt Flight 815 was important, but I never thought about the possibility that Desmond was merely a figment of Jack's imagination. That would explain his sudden disappearance and it does kinda make sense, since we've been given the impression so far that Jack is the only person outside of the disappearing Desmond who seems to have any sort of connection to the present day timeline.

A little disappointed that Annie won't be appearing in the Alt at all, but not entirely surprised. Likewise it's no surprise they won't comment on the pregnancy issues, given what a big reveal that would be.

As for the final clue, I have no idea. Maybe Alt Jack will have to dive down to the sunken Island? Maybe Smokey's only real weakness is water from Jacob's spring that's now been polluted? Maybe there will be a drought on the Island and everyone will get really, really thirsty? I guess we'll see!

"Sundown" tomorrow! Review up Wednesday morning! :)

Oh, one more thing. This has been mentioned elsewhere, but I do like how the episodes this season have paralleled Season One:

Tabula Rasa ---> What Kate Does (Kate)
Walkabout ----> The Substitute (Locke)
White Rabbit ----> Lighthouse (Jack)
House of the Rising Sun ----> Sundown (Sun, ????)

I do know for a fact that this week is NOT a Sun episode, though I do still like the parallel with the episode title. Of course, that doesn't mean something significant won't happen to Sun in the episode, does it? :)

Link Dump, 11/10/2009

Lost Season 6 Teaser Poster! Woohoo (click for biggie)!

Like the backwards Locke and the fact everyone's there, including Vincent! :)
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Still no word on what time slot Lost is going to get when it returns. Please, please, please ABC - give us a 9pm start!
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The DHARMA Documentary is now complete. Some thoughts on Parts IV, V and VI, a bonus section you can see on Lostpedia:

"Matt Houston" is a show that ran from 1982-1985. Since it's a new show, we can assume the documentary is from 1982.

Liked the mistaken air drop on Tonga. There hasn't been another air drop, has there? Wonder if they are still coordinated through the Lamp Post - seems like they'd have to be if the Island moves from time to time.

What were the other two DHARMA logos in Part V? Is it the main logo and the Arrow? At first, it looked to me like a white cross on a black background and a black cross on a white background. But maybe I'm just projecting here, eh? ;)



Anyone catch anyone recognizable on any of the "Missing?" posters? I think one of them is Olivia Goodspeed, who's featured in Part VI.

Interesting that Eloise took over the Lamp Post sometime in the early 80's. I guess she had to if she was going to make sure Daniel completed his time loop.

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Anyone watching "V?" I haven't caught any bit of it yet, might be a DVD thing later on, although I did catch a bit of the "The Prisoner" last night which was... odd. I think I liked it, but I'm not sure. It was kinda like watching a David Lynch movie. Never seen a full episode of the original, but I'd like to watch it through at some point.

Anyhoo, this review of the latest "V" episode also had this to say:

With all of the ABC "Lost"-alikes this season, it often seems like the network really truly thinks that what made "Lost" such a popular show with so many people was its sense of dramatic portent, those scenes when the characters stared ominously into the distance as ominous music played and ominous birds made ominous noises off in the ominous distance. But that's not why it was at all! "Lost" is a really fun show, and it has a great sense of how to balance out its ability to be portentious with its ability to have, like, Hurley drive a van through some Others. So far, "V" and "FlashForward" haven't quite figured this out yet, but at least there were indications "V" knows the direction to head in in this episode.

Well, one of the things that makes "Lost" such a terrific show are the characters and the cast. Hurley's van-driving scene only works because it's Hurley, dude.
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Sorry for the lack of posting. I simply can't find much time nowadays, though I will certainly have reviews for the Final Season. :)

Noooooooooooooo!

Argh. First we get the ultimate nightmare World Series scenario for a Mets fan. Now we have this:

There is almost nothing I’m looking forward to more, in the realm of movies, television or books, than the final season of Lost. For those of you hoping that we’d have a seamless run for the final chapter of the sci-fi television series, I have some bad news for you. The bad news takes the form of the Winter Olympic games, which will cut into the sixth season.

I agree with Peter: Fark the Olympics. Gimme my Lost! :P

Emmy Noms

EW's got the list of the big ones.

The good: Lost for Best Drama, Michael Emerson for Best Supporting Actor.

The bad: Nothing else (non script-wise, haven't checked the writing noms).

The ugly: Elizabeth Mitchell gets snubbed again.

I swear, what the heck does she have to do to get an Emmy Nomination, blow up a hydrogen bomb on screen? ;)

Hope your summer's going well. I'm currently buried in grant hell. Hope to escape soon. :)

One More Hour

No, not for me. I'm so buried with work I haven't had time to post anything lately.

However, it does seem that we're getting an extra hour of LOST next season! Think of it as a little, happy tidbit to brighten your summer. Hope everyone has a good 4th! :)

The Constant, Part II?

All indications are that tonight's episode,"The Variable," will be the long awaited Daniel flashback episode which should fill in some of the blanks on all the time travel machinations of the Island and, hopefully, we'll get a bit of backstory on Daniel's mom as well.

So one question for tonight is what is the variable? The easy, quick answer to this is Daniel, since it is his episode and Desmond has already played the role of the constant before. But perhaps a better question is what is the equation instead? "The Constant" was referring to the rules of time travel itself, i.e. one needs a constant through the time periods when one's consciousness travels through time. But I'm thinking tonight's episode might refer to the ultimate solution to the show itself.

Perhaps Daniel, who essentially figured out a way to time travel on his own, is really the key to finding a somewhat happy ending to Lost. After "Flashes" aired, I guessed that Lost would end with Desmond going back in time to save everyone with no hope of getting back to the future. Penny then volunteers to go with him and they end up becoming Adam and Eve. Since then, considering we haven't seen Rose and Bernard since everyone started time traveling, it seems a lot more likely they're really Adam and Eve instead.

But let's say Daniel is a metaphorical variable to the end of the show. How could he affect things? Originally I thought Desmond was going to be a fluctuating wild card when it comes to time travel, possibly able to break the rules of the equation itself. And while that may still be true, perhaps Daniel is going to play an equally important time traveling role, something akin to a master course corrector. Desmond seems to need a lot of course correcting to get him to where he needs to be, with Daniel's mom having taken primary responsibility up until now. But maybe from here on out it will be Daniel's job instead.

Expectations are high for tonight. It's going to be hard for tonight's episode to match "The Constant" simply because Desmond and Penny have a wonderful relationship to build an episode around. But one of the biggest knocks on this season has been the relative paucity of Daniel screentime. That gets corrected tonight! Enjoy the show! Review up tomorrow morning! :)

Well, That Was Lame...

Anyone watch the clip show? Bleah.

It wasn't a terrible summary of the last season and a half, but there was absolutely nothing new in there. Course, it was still better than watching the Mets, who seem to be quite adept at finding new and intricate ways to aggravate me. :P

And I don't know if you've seen this video yet, but it's fairly neat (though nausea inducing) - reminds me of a cross between Cloverfield and Half-Life. Seems like it was made by some Lost fans since it uses Michael Giacchino's score and apparently is connected to a couple Lost fan-sites around the web.

Does it actually have anything to do with Lost? Probably not. But it's still better than a clip show. :)

"Trust me..."

Okay, so this week's Miles-centric (I assume) episode is called "Some Like it Hoth?" You've got to be kidding me. I'm hoping this doesn't mean we're getting a joke episode this week with Miles - I really want some nuggety-DHARMA goodness with a character that after two seasons we still really don't know much about at all.

Now considering the Losties are stuck in 1977, I'm assuming the title has something to do with Star Wars premiering on May 25th of that year. Don't suppose there's any way Hurley could hijack the sub to go see it, do you? :)

And, BTW, so far my predictions of season ending episodes look pretty good. So far we've had Kate, Ben and now Miles. My predictions were:

11. Hurley
12. Kate
13. Ben
14. Miles
15. Caesar
16. Sun/Jin
Finale - Daniel

Of course, it doesn't seem like we're going to have a Caesar episode now (unless he somehow survived), but an Ilana episode seems much more likely. And if this episode is comedic at all, perhaps we won't get a Hurley episode. Much rather have a Pierre Chang/Richard/Charles Widmore episode instead. :)

Like A Rolling Stone...

Nice Lost article in Rolling Stone - nothing spoilerish, just some quality time with Darlton and company. As a bonus, there's a neat Q&A with Michael Emerson too that starts off like this:

Rolling Stone: So, how can I believe anything you tell me?

Michael Emerson: Heh-heh. [Long silence follows]

Check 'em out! :)

EDIT: Okay, my mistake. The article's from last year. Weird how I stumbled across it now - need to put down the gin and tonic before posting. :)

Hearts And Kidneys Are Tinkertoys

Tonight's episode is called "Dead is Dead," and while we know it will feature lots of Ben (and hope it contains lots of Temple/Smokey goodness), the title intrigues me. Could we get some answers tonight as to how Smokey is assuming the forms of dead people on the Island? Is it reanimating their bodies or assuming their form? Or is the title merely a reference to Locke? Perhaps Ben has a hard time understanding how he's alive.

Of course, to me, the title immediately brings to mind one of the opening scenes in Young Frankenstein as Gene Wilder admonishes one of his students:

Medical Student: Isn't it true that Darwin preserved a piece of vermicelli in a glass case until, by some extrordinary means, it actually began to move with voluntary motion?

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Are you speaking of the worm or the spaghetti?
[the class laughs]

Medical Student: Why, the worm, sir.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Yes, I did read something of that incident when I was a student, but you have to remember that a worm... with very few exceptions... is not a human being.

Medical Student: But wasn't that the whole basis of your grandfather's work? The reanimation of dead tissue?

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: My grandfather was a very sick man.

Medical Student: But as a Fronkensteen, aren't you the least bit curious about it? Doesn't the bringing back to life what was once dead hold any intrigue to you?

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: You are talking about the nonsensical ravings of a lunatic mind! Dead is dead!

Medical Student: But look at what has been done with hearts and kidneys...

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Hearts and kidneys are tinker toys! I am talking about the central nervous system!

Enjoy the show, everyone! Review up tomorrow morning! :)

“Don’t act like Ben. It will ruin what’s to come.”

In case you missed it, the NY Times had a short interview with Sterling Beaumon, who plays Young Ben. It's pretty neat and may, may, help to tide you over until tomorrow night. :)

Happenings

Tonight's episode is called "Whatever Happened, Happened," which sounds like we're going to get a Daniel-type lecture from the the 1974-ers on not being able to change the future. It would be very cool to get that straightened out, even cooler to get it from Daniel himself.

Including the season finale, there are seven episodes left this season. Assuming Lost has returned to flashback mode (there's certainly a lot we need to know), I kinda wonder who they're going to spotlight for the remaining episodes? The finale could be a smörgåsbord, but I bet the other six are going to focus on a specific character. So far this season we've had:

1. Because You Left - O6
2. The Lie - Hurley
3. Jughead - Desmond
4. The Little Prince - Kate
5. This Place Is Death - Sun/Jin
6. 316 - Jack
7. The Life And Death Of Jeremy Bentham - Locke
8. LaFleur - Sawyer
9. Namaste - Smörgåsbord
10. He's Our You - Sayid

Out of those that have already gotten an episode, Hurley, Kate and Desmond (or Ben) are the ones in most need of a second one. We still need to know 1) How Hurley got Charlie's guitar and ended up on 316 2) Where Kate stashed Aaron and 3) What did Ben do to Penny and Desmond? I think it's very possible we're going to get a Ben episode instead of another Desmond one. That would be very cool, but the Hurley and Kate episodes would only fill in some minor blanks.

So who do we need besides them? Well, Ilana and Caesar come to mind, even though we already got a good portion of Ilana's story last episode, but really Daniel and Miles are the two most interesting characters out there in need of a flashback. And since we need to catch up with Sun and Frank again, I wouldn't be surprised to see one of them get an episode as well. So let's take a guess:

11. Hurley
12. Kate
13. Ben
14. Miles
15. Caesar
16. Sun/Jin
Finale - Daniel

Saving Daniel for the finale seems like a very LOSTish thing for the writers to do, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they throw us a curve and give us something totally unexpected like, say, Pierre Chang or Richard flashbacks instead. Either of those would be awesome. While I really, really want a Daniel flashback, I think we'd all be hard pressed to say we wanted one over a Richard flashback, eh?

Enjoy the show tonight! Review up tomorrow morning! :)

He's Our You

That's the title of tonight's Lost episode? Bizarre.

So who does it refer to and why? I'm guessing tonight's going to be a Sayid episode and that perhaps somewhere in the old DHARMA initiative they have a hippie, peace loving torturer who's going to try to get the truth out of Sayid. Only thing I can think of, really.

I'm very nervous about tonight though, because of the violence in last week's preview. I really don't want any of our time travelers to die and if tonight really is a Sayid episode he's at the top of the possibilities list. Jack, Hurley, Kate and Sawyer have all had episodes this season so far, leaving only Sayid, Miles, Juliet and the missing Faraday from the time travel group, so you have to think Sayid's the likeliest possibility. What I'd love to see happen instead is for Sayid to escape and "join" the Others so we can see what they're working on in 1977. Wouldn't it be nice to actually see inside the Temple, eh?

Anyway, enjoy the episode everyone. Review up tomorrow morning. :)

Tidbits

Couple tidbits, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly. First off, Doc Jensen points out this important little plot point on Radzinsky:

And so, at long last, we met Radzinsky, who preceded Desmond as Kelvin Inman's button-pushing partner in the Hatch and was the originator of the map of the Island that John Locke found on the blast door in season 2. The conventional wisdom about the map has always been that Radzinsky was somewhat clueless about the scope of the Dharma Initiative, and that the Map represented everything he had learned about its facilities and history during his own Island adventuring.

But this doesn't quite jibe with the Radzinsky we saw last night. Here he was, a fully-involved Dharma member, possibly someone in leadership, stationed at the Flame, Dharma's telecommunications center (I dug The Muppet Show clips playing on his monitors), creating a model of the geodesic dome structure of the Swan itself — perhaps the same model seen in the Hatch's orientation film. Clearly, this was a man who knew a lot, if not everything, about the Dharma Initiative. So, presuming Kelvin was telling us the truth about Radzinsky — including the fact that the egghead blew his brains out inside the Hatch — why paint that map on the blast door? Because I'm guessing Radzinsky didn't really need to paint the Map for his own edification. THEORY: Again, I am taken with the notion that perhaps much like the landing strip, the map was painted on the blast door simply because it needed to be there for John Locke to discover it in the future in order to preserve the time loop and avert paradox.

Doc's completely right in that if Radzinsky really designed the Swan and worked in the Flame, he wouldn't be needing to piece together tidbits of questionable DHARMA info in invisible ink. Kelvin, on the other hand, didn't seem to know much about DHARMA at all outside of the Swan, so it's possible he could be responsible for some of the more vague entries on the map, but certainly not all of them.

And I'm sorta willing to buy Doc's theory that maybe he was setting things up for Locke, but the other thing we don't know is how much of the map Radzinsky drew before he killed himself (or so Kelvin says). A simpler explanation is that he might have drawn the basic outlines of the stations he knew and some of the more detailed entries (like those of The Incident and Smokey), but died shortly after that and the remaining stuff was simply Kelvin trying to fill in his own blanks to pass the time. He was still certainly drawing it when Desmond arrived.

Another idea is since we've never actually seen Radzinsky in the Swan Station, we don't know for certain whether it really was him as opposed to, say, an Other impersonating Radzinsky to try and figure out what the Swan Station really was. Maybe Kelvin figured out he really was an impostor and killed him (or maybe Kelvin figured out he wasn't who he said he was and the impostor killed himself before Kelvin could question him). Just a couple ideas of the top of my head...

Secondly, seems the discrepancy regarding Charlotte's age has been resolved. And it was a writer's error, as I thought:

There were a gazillion questions about the timeline discrepancy in that young Charlotte clearly exists in 1974, but wasn't supposed to be born until 1979, per a single line of dialogue courtesy of Ben back in episode #402. When we inquired as to how this happened, the intel came back that we used Rebecca Mader's birthday, July 2, 1979 because she was actually eight years YOUNGER than the character as originally conceived/scripted. We misremembered this as having come from Rebecca herself on the set, but in fact, it came several days earlier when our continuity expert Gregg Nations pointed it out and suggested using Rebecca's actual birthday for Charlotte. And so, the mistake was OURS. Rebecca's production draft DID have the date as being 1979.

So I guess Charlotte was really born in 1971.

The last thing I want to point out is possibly spoiler-ish, so be warned. It seems one of our Losties has been cast in something I'm eagerly awaiting, which may suggest he/she could be killed off at the end of the season. I'm incredibly excited by the casting choice, but don't want to spoil anything for anyone, so click only if you dare.

There's also a spoiler-ish headline in one of the EW articles right now (that I haven't read), so be careful in general when browsing the site. :)