Once again this is being posted later than I'd like for it to be, but life happens. Here goes nothing (shouldn't that be the slogan for Idol X?)
Scotty and his faces kicked off Elton John night. Now, I must confess I am an Elton fan, but I'm not a highly educated one. I'm an Elton hits fan. I probably couldn't name one deep cut. Scotty, on the other hand, found a very deep cut. Well, that or he got a word document list of every Elton John song and hit ctrl F and typed in "country." Yeah, let's go with that theory. Scotty chose a country song that even Elton himself probably forgot he'd ever recorded. Why did he choose this?? Because Scotty has less than one dimension, if that's possible. Did it sound all right? Sure, it sounded like Scotty doing a country song. No one would have ever known or cared that it was an Elton John tune. Sir Smirks A Lot will undoubtedly have a nice country career ahead of him, but he's so annoying on so many levels. On the bright side, at least we know he used his real accent.
See how nicely I segued into the next performer? Naima decided she was going to pretend to be Jamaican this week, after taking us to Namibia in the previous week. Thus "I'm Still Standing" because I'm still stonding, and all the world was worse for it. It was atrocious and, to steal a Simon word, indulgent. I highly doubt she won any fans with this performance, and is in serious danger of leaving.
Paul came next with my favorite Elton John song, "Rocket Man." The problem with doing this song in Idolverse is that the verse builds and builds until the grand pay off in the chorus. With less than two minutes to perform, you're not able to build up to the big payoff. I think this hurt Paul a bit. Don't get me wrong, it was a decent performance and he's not leaving based off of it, but it's a song that requires some marinating time. That being said, find a Jason Mraz cover of the song. Pure magic.
Pia came next and, sadly, did what Pia does. As Kate in Lost is to running, Pia is to slow, predictable song choices. Did she sing it well? Yes. But in one of the rarest of occasions this season, the judges were right last week when they told her to speed it up and show us something different. She needs to do that soon or run the risk of being overlooked by the audience.
Stefano took "Tiny Dancer" and abused it with his tiny range. The boy just isn't that great of a singer. He's pretty much a waste of space at this point. Filler in an already filler dominated season. Please put us out of his misery soon, America.
Lauren Alaina was at her best last night, and for the first time I saw a glimpse of what the judges see in her "Underwood Possibilities." I'm not anointing her into that category in any way, but she's able to do with her country tone what Scotty isn't: take it other places. She can still sound like a country singer, but doesn't have to make everything sound like a country song. I thought her outfit was a bit ridiculous, and I wish they'd never show her stage mom, but kudos to Lauren.
James Durbin came out and did exactly what I had told my wife he would, which is sing a mediocre version of "Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting." I didn't predict the flaming piano, but I should have. This guy is such a watered down version of Adam Lambert, it's kind of fun to watch him overcompensate.
Thia came out and performed....oops, sorry, as soon as I started typing about her my computer went into sleep mode. This girl is one of the most forgettable performers in recent Idol big stage memory.
Casey finally decided to sing in this singing competition. You'd think this was a wise move. Unfortunately for the furry jokester, his vocal limitations were on full display, making it clear why he's been shooting for personality over voice. If we'd never seen his personality, and just heard him sing "Your Song," he wouldn't have gotten this far. Good save there panel.
Oh Jacob Lusk, great job listening to Jimmy Iovine's plea for not being over dramatic. This year's gospel singer came out with shadowed silhouette and fog machine in full effect, and continued to overdo it.
Haley closed the show with an Elton song I actually can't stand. I know, I know, blasphemy, but Buh buh buh Bennie does nothing for me, nor did Haley's growly, sometimes screamy rendition of it. The judges of course thought she'd just reinvented the wheel, but I didn't love it. The girl has spunk, I'll give her that, but the vocals are just so-so for me. The growling has to go, as does the look on Jennifer Lopez's "someone just did an SBD near me" face when they cut away to her during Haley's performance. If you don't know what SBD is...I won't ruin the surprise.
I might add more later, but I'll end it now so I can watch the results. Prediction: Thia, Naima and Stefano in the bottom three, Naima and Stefano go home (I only say Stefano because I vowed never to pick Thia again).
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
American Idol Season Ten - Top 11 *ELIMINATION UPDATE*
Another warp speed update comin' at ya!
So, after the judges tell contestant they are trying to figure out "what type of artist" they are, the powers that be at American Idol decide there's no better way to figure that out than....Motown Night! Seriously, did we have to dedicate the first five minutes to kissing Barry Gordy's butt again??? How many times can Idol run the same fluff piece? And I may sound like a broken record, but for a show trying to find the next great pop star, you'd think they wouldn't bother making them sing songs from a genre that's been dead for 30 years. But enough of my complaining, let's get to the singers (hmm should I put a question mark next to the word singers...).
Was anyone surprised that Casey Abrams chose "I Heard It Through The Grapevine?" I mean, what other Motown hit would give him the opportunity to snarl and say miiiine and viiiiine? This guy is seriously turning into a bad joke. Simon must be thanking his lucky stars that he didn't have to sit through a season of Casey. He's like Jack Black in Zach Galfianakis' body. He gave his usual shticky performance and the judges gave their usual useless praise. The end.
America's favorite bathroom break Thia followed Casey with a completely campy group day performance of "Heatwave." It really is saying something that she hasn't been one of the first two contestants eliminated (in case you didn't get it, the something it's saying is not good).
Jacob didn't annoy me for once. I thought he was mostly on key and I did enjoy his restraint. I still wish he'd pull it back even more, but he's a gospel singer, this is about as much reining it in as one can reasonably ask for from him. He's going to be around for a few more weeks. It certainly wasn't a performance worthy of a Steven Tyler/family/audience storming the stage moment, but hey, Idol 10.0 is nothing if not a love fest.
Lauren came out and did a Supremes classic that wasn't half bad. It wasn't half great, but at least she showed that a country artist could take a song from a different genre and not completely hickify it (keep reading for further discussion on that).
Stefano was a train wreck this week. He did Lionel Richie's horrid song, "Hello," and I think managed to hit one or two notes. I've never been a fan of his as you know, but I thought he was by far the worst of the night. Man judges, your wild cards are as bad as your outfits.
Haley came out and growled at us for a bit. It wasn't as out of tune as Stefano's vocal, but it was still too runny for me. It irritates me when Christina Aguilera throws her diva runs all over songs, and Haley's no Christina. Can't we just sing a song sometimes? They're just going to put Haley's name on a bottom three stool if she lasts much longer.
Ah, and now we get to Scotty. I've been saying for weeks that he was going to be a disaster when we got to a week that he couldn't go country. I believe I even sited Motown Week as an example, and he didn't disappoint. Wait, he did disappoint. Oh, that's confusing, anyway; Scotty decided to do the classic Stevie Wonder song "For Once In My Life." The problem with this? It was arranged and performed as if it were being sung at a horseshoe pitching contest. It was so cheesy and sad. Poor Stevie. As if blindness weren't enough of an obstacle to overcome, now he has this assault on another of his senses.
Pia came out with her usual diva lighting and evening gown and did a ho hum rendition of "All In Love Is Fair." She really needs to speed it up next week. We all know you can sing ballads, but don't beat us over the head with them. She reminds me more of McPhee every week.
Paul McDonald came out and did the one song Adam Lambert had a restrained performance with, Smokey Robinson's "Tracks Of My Tears." Perhaps it was because my Dad loves Smokey and I used to hear those tunes when I was a kid, but I have an affinity for the song. I was very pleasantly surprised with the spin Paul put on it. He made it a folky James Blunt feel, and I thought it was well done. Definitely the best of the night for me and Paul's best performance over all. I was right in thinking he needs the guitar in his hands. It makes him an artist I'd listen to.
What can I say about Naima? She doesn't sing well, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes when Africa Boombata came out in a Vaudvillian clown's costume to rain dance with her. I have no use for her, and thus little words to say about her.
Adam Lambert's favorite impersonator closed the show with the song - oh who cares? He did his usual mediocre vocal performance followed by wailing business and then bathed in the attention he's so sorely needed. I did get a chuckle out of his Jamiroquai without the conveyor belt dance. It'll be a great day when he goes home.
This was a slightly better performance night than the previous two, but I still care little to none at all about half of the contestants. I'd say I want Paul to win it all, but I have a 50 dollar bet with my sister that he won't. So....go anyone else!
Bottom three prediction: Thia, Stefano and Haley. Thia goes home. Thia, I promise if you survive this week I'll never say you're going home again! Mostly because I'm tired of being wrong.
Elimination Update:
The sideshow continues! Yes, apparently there is nothing like a snarling furball, or saving an 11th place contestant, as the judges decided to use their 'save' (a stupid idea when it was first introduced a few seasons ago that now takes on an even bigger from of ridiculous) on Casey Abrams. In a profanity laced, Hulk Hogan infused results show, the judges supposedly spontaneously stopped Casey 20 seconds into his SINGING FOR HIS LIFE performance to tell him they needed to hear no more, he was saved. Never again can the show claim that its judges do not know the results until Seacrest reads them. There's no way they would magically stop a performance like that unless it was, like most things seem this season on Idol this season, preplanned. So now we get another however many weeks of Mr. Gimmick. Oh, and Thia, you win. I shall never again choose you for elimination. You've got more lives than Jason from Friday the 13th. Tune in next week, when we find out that Lauren Alaina liked Barney as a child, and the purple one himself shows up on the results show while the contestants start up a spur of the moment rendition of "I Love You, You Love Me."
So, after the judges tell contestant they are trying to figure out "what type of artist" they are, the powers that be at American Idol decide there's no better way to figure that out than....Motown Night! Seriously, did we have to dedicate the first five minutes to kissing Barry Gordy's butt again??? How many times can Idol run the same fluff piece? And I may sound like a broken record, but for a show trying to find the next great pop star, you'd think they wouldn't bother making them sing songs from a genre that's been dead for 30 years. But enough of my complaining, let's get to the singers (hmm should I put a question mark next to the word singers...).
Was anyone surprised that Casey Abrams chose "I Heard It Through The Grapevine?" I mean, what other Motown hit would give him the opportunity to snarl and say miiiine and viiiiine? This guy is seriously turning into a bad joke. Simon must be thanking his lucky stars that he didn't have to sit through a season of Casey. He's like Jack Black in Zach Galfianakis' body. He gave his usual shticky performance and the judges gave their usual useless praise. The end.
America's favorite bathroom break Thia followed Casey with a completely campy group day performance of "Heatwave." It really is saying something that she hasn't been one of the first two contestants eliminated (in case you didn't get it, the something it's saying is not good).
Jacob didn't annoy me for once. I thought he was mostly on key and I did enjoy his restraint. I still wish he'd pull it back even more, but he's a gospel singer, this is about as much reining it in as one can reasonably ask for from him. He's going to be around for a few more weeks. It certainly wasn't a performance worthy of a Steven Tyler/family/audience storming the stage moment, but hey, Idol 10.0 is nothing if not a love fest.
Lauren came out and did a Supremes classic that wasn't half bad. It wasn't half great, but at least she showed that a country artist could take a song from a different genre and not completely hickify it (keep reading for further discussion on that).
Stefano was a train wreck this week. He did Lionel Richie's horrid song, "Hello," and I think managed to hit one or two notes. I've never been a fan of his as you know, but I thought he was by far the worst of the night. Man judges, your wild cards are as bad as your outfits.
Haley came out and growled at us for a bit. It wasn't as out of tune as Stefano's vocal, but it was still too runny for me. It irritates me when Christina Aguilera throws her diva runs all over songs, and Haley's no Christina. Can't we just sing a song sometimes? They're just going to put Haley's name on a bottom three stool if she lasts much longer.
Ah, and now we get to Scotty. I've been saying for weeks that he was going to be a disaster when we got to a week that he couldn't go country. I believe I even sited Motown Week as an example, and he didn't disappoint. Wait, he did disappoint. Oh, that's confusing, anyway; Scotty decided to do the classic Stevie Wonder song "For Once In My Life." The problem with this? It was arranged and performed as if it were being sung at a horseshoe pitching contest. It was so cheesy and sad. Poor Stevie. As if blindness weren't enough of an obstacle to overcome, now he has this assault on another of his senses.
Pia came out with her usual diva lighting and evening gown and did a ho hum rendition of "All In Love Is Fair." She really needs to speed it up next week. We all know you can sing ballads, but don't beat us over the head with them. She reminds me more of McPhee every week.
Paul McDonald came out and did the one song Adam Lambert had a restrained performance with, Smokey Robinson's "Tracks Of My Tears." Perhaps it was because my Dad loves Smokey and I used to hear those tunes when I was a kid, but I have an affinity for the song. I was very pleasantly surprised with the spin Paul put on it. He made it a folky James Blunt feel, and I thought it was well done. Definitely the best of the night for me and Paul's best performance over all. I was right in thinking he needs the guitar in his hands. It makes him an artist I'd listen to.
What can I say about Naima? She doesn't sing well, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes when Africa Boombata came out in a Vaudvillian clown's costume to rain dance with her. I have no use for her, and thus little words to say about her.
Adam Lambert's favorite impersonator closed the show with the song - oh who cares? He did his usual mediocre vocal performance followed by wailing business and then bathed in the attention he's so sorely needed. I did get a chuckle out of his Jamiroquai without the conveyor belt dance. It'll be a great day when he goes home.
This was a slightly better performance night than the previous two, but I still care little to none at all about half of the contestants. I'd say I want Paul to win it all, but I have a 50 dollar bet with my sister that he won't. So....go anyone else!
Bottom three prediction: Thia, Stefano and Haley. Thia goes home. Thia, I promise if you survive this week I'll never say you're going home again! Mostly because I'm tired of being wrong.
Elimination Update:
The sideshow continues! Yes, apparently there is nothing like a snarling furball, or saving an 11th place contestant, as the judges decided to use their 'save' (a stupid idea when it was first introduced a few seasons ago that now takes on an even bigger from of ridiculous) on Casey Abrams. In a profanity laced, Hulk Hogan infused results show, the judges supposedly spontaneously stopped Casey 20 seconds into his SINGING FOR HIS LIFE performance to tell him they needed to hear no more, he was saved. Never again can the show claim that its judges do not know the results until Seacrest reads them. There's no way they would magically stop a performance like that unless it was, like most things seem this season on Idol this season, preplanned. So now we get another however many weeks of Mr. Gimmick. Oh, and Thia, you win. I shall never again choose you for elimination. You've got more lives than Jason from Friday the 13th. Tune in next week, when we find out that Lauren Alaina liked Barney as a child, and the purple one himself shows up on the results show while the contestants start up a spur of the moment rendition of "I Love You, You Love Me."
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Random Thoughts - Just Go With It
I was having a fairly pleasant, mundane day when I received some unwanted work related news. After letting the news fester and eat away at me for what I now view as far too long, I decided to no longer let it bother me. In the grand scheme of things, it really is a minor annoyance. I exerted way too much energy letting it dominate my mood. So I'm challenging myself, and I suppose any readers that would like to take up this challenge should attack it head on as well. The next time you receive bad news, allow yourself as little time as possible to let it control your emotions, and then find a small piece of happiness that has happened in your life recently and replace the minor annoyance with thoughts of that. Example: I've replaced my work news with the memory of the small nerd worthy smile I got from checking the mail yesterday and finding out my new debit card had arrived. Why would I smile about a debit card? Umm, because it has this picture on it!
That's right, a nice wide shot of the Lost island, this picture being a screen shot from Season Four, Episode Three, The Economist. Yes I am perfectly content being a geek. Sure I could have pulled from a long list of things to be happy about. My wife, our insane cat, my neurotic but lovable father, but those are in my opinion big things, and I'll reserve those for when the news is truly bad. Today was just a slight hiccup. If you choose to take up this challenge, I salute you. Perspective is everything, yet is so easy to forget. Enjoy your evening blog world, and I hope tomorrow's is an even better one for ya.
LOST - Season Two
When we last saw our castaways, they were split into two main groups. We had the raft crew of Michael, Walt, Sawyer and Jin. They had been attacked by The Others, their raft was destroyed, Sawyer had been shot and Walt had been kidnapped. On the island we had the rest of the Oceanic survivors. They'd fled to the caves in fear of The Others and Jack, Locke, Kate and Sawyer had successfully blown the hatch door off. This is the part where you should stop reading if you have yet to watch season two.
Season two's first episode, "Man of Science, Man of Faith", begins with a unique teaser that is a Lost trademark. The episode opens with a series of audible beeps. A man's eye opens, he springs out of bed and goes quickly to an antiquated computer where he types something and presses an execute button. He then starts his day by listening to music, exercising and making some form of protein shake; all seems normal (save for some strange injection the man gives himself). Then something happens. You hear an explosion and the man runs to a closet to grab a rifle. He checks a periscope and sees Jack and Locke peering down the shaft of the hatch.
The season two premiere picks up right where the season one finale left off. Undeterred by the broken ladder that would have taken them down the shaft, Locke wants to be lowered down into the hatch. Despite Jack's objections, and Hurley's pleas (in case you forgot a certain sequence of numbers was on the hatch door), Kate and Locke decide to descend into the hatch. Locke begins to lower Kate down using a cable tethered to a tree. Part of the way down Kate yells "Stop! I think there's something down here." Suddenly the same bright beam of light Locke saw when he pounded on the hatch door during season one is turned on. Locke calls out for Kate, but she's gone.
Jack's flashback in this episode is centered on a patient he's trying to "fix." The patient, Sarah, was involved in a head on collision (with the father of Jack's fellow Oceanic survivor Shannon). Seeing Jack's usual realist approach to things when he tells Sarah about her prognosis, Jack's father suggests to his son that it might not be a bad idea to offer hope once in a while. Jack is reluctant towards taking that approach, but when Sarah is about to undergo surgery, she tells Jack "I know I'm not going to be dancing anymore. I can still roll around at my wedding." This strikes a nerve in our hero doc, and he declares to Sarah that he will fix her.
Jack is not happy with how the surgery went, and is releasing some stress by running steps in a stadium. He notices another man in the stadium also running. Jack twists his ankle and stops. The man approaches Jack, and they talk for a few minutes. Jack tells the man about what he thinks of as his failure to fix Sarah, and the man tells Jack about how he is training for a race around the world. As they part ways, the man tells Jack, "I'll see you in another life." This line would be repeated often in Lost, both literally and in theme. Jack returns to the hospital to break the news to Sarah that she will be paralyzed from the waist down from the rest of her life. Upon hearing this, Sarah asks him, "Then how come I can wiggle my toes?"
Meanwhile, back on the island, Jack decides to go back to the hatch. When he arrives, Locke is nowhere to be found. Jack lowers himself into the hatch and gives us our first glimpse of what's inside. There's a strange mural that included Hurley's numbers and the number 108 (the sum total of 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42). He gets near a wall and notices that the key around his neck is being drawn to the wall as if there's some sort of magnetic pull. Jack notices a surveillance camera mounted in the corridor and suddenly the Mama Cass song that opened this episode once again blares. Jack ducks into the control room where he notices computer and electronic equipment that looks as if it were made circa 1980. He walks to the computer and looks as if he's about to type something when Locke appears behind him and says, "I wouldn't do that." Jack whirls around and says "Where's Kate? What the hell did you-," before he notices there's someone behind Locke, pointing a gun at him. Jack draws his own gun, but the man orders he put it down. As the man comes into view, Jack looks stunned. It is the man he met at the stadium. Thus began our introduction to someone who would become one of the most beloved characters Lost ever produced, the much adored Scotsman Desmond Hume.
You might be wondering why, if this is supposed to be a recap of the entire second season, am I spending so much time on the premiere? The answer is an easy one. Not only was this the highest rated episode in Lost's history, but it was also by far my favorite of the six season premieres. Man of Science, Man of Faith also was a great set up episode for many of the show's prevailing themes.
Season two pushed us farther down the road of Science Vs. Faith as was beautifully displayed in one of my favorite Locke Vs. Jack scenes during season two's third episode, Orientation.
Jin, having dove off the raft when the Others came for Walt, is nowhere to be found. Sawyer and Michael, after bickering over who's to blame for their predicament and having a run in with a shark (who, in case you hadn't noticed, had a Dharma Logo on its body), drift back onto the island. Upon washing ashore they are confronted by Jin who, after running out of the jungle with his hands tied behind his back, speaks one of the few English words he knows: Others. The episode closes with what appears to be natives coming out of the jungle towards our raft guys.
Now that we've gone over where season one left off, let's talk about where season two took us. We found out early on in season two that the tail section of the plane had crashed on a different part of the island, and we met some new survivors that would be referred to in Lost Fandom as the tailies. One of the most universally loathed characters to appear on the show, Ana Lucia, was the leader of this group. Played by the always scowling Michelle Rodriguez, Ana Lucia was a "me against the world" type of leader. A former cop turned murderer in her pre-island story, Ana did little to make herself likable after the crash. One neat "lives intersecting" tidbit we got from Ana's flashback was how she came to be on Oceanic 815. A bit lost after having quit the police force, she had a random encounter in an airport with none other than Christian Shephard. Them both being lost souls, Christian convinced Ana to accompany him to Sydney. We also learn during this flashback that Christian drunkenly knocked on someone's door demanding to his daughter. Hmm, who could that be? Ultimately though, Anna Lucia's run on the show was short, and I'm thankful for that. She and another survivor, Libby, were killed by Michael in one of the best twists the show ever gave us. More on that in a bit.
The aforementioned Libby provided us with one of the saddest but wonderfully acted moments on Lost. Hurley had taken a liking to Libby, and they were preparing for their first date when she was murdered by Michael. Hurley's pain was beautifully portrayed by Jorge Garcia. The scene where Ana and Libby were buried reaffirmed Hurley's place as the heart of the show.
Mr. Eko was an interesting taily. A giant of a man, Eko was extremely spiritual. We learned that violence was no stranger to this man, and he was fearless. This was no more apparent than when he stared down the smoke monster, giving us our best glimpse to date of this mystery. It stared back at Eko and appeared to flash glimpses of his life. We also learned that Eko had ties to the island, his brother having been on the ill fated Nigerian drug running plane that Locke and Boone discovered. However, as with most things on Lost, that would not be what it seemed. Indeed it was Eko that was the drug runner, but in a cruel twist of fate, his brother Yemi, a priest, ended up on the plane.
Fans got a happy ending with one tail survivor being Rose's husband Bernard. Her resolve paid off as they reunited. We were even treated to a Rose and Bernard-centric flashback this season, where we see their first encounter, their courtship, and the sad news that Rose has terminal cancer. Well, I suppose I should say had terminal cancer, as the island seems to have cured her.
We said goodbye to another original survivor this season as well, with Shannon being accidentally shot by Ana Lucia. This happened early in the season while Shannon kept seeing a water logged Walt pop up randomly on the island. This probably seems like a key piece of information I'm glossing over, but I have my reasons that I will talk about in my overall show recap. I don't want to spoil anyone that hasn't gone beyond season two yet.
The flashbacks this season gave us more insight on our heroes' pre-island lives. As mentioned before we learned how Jack met his wife and saw the deterioration of their marriage. We learned what Kate's original crime was, murdering the man she believed was her step father, only to learn later that he was her real father. Locke, sadly, continued to be the easily conned man, ruining his relationship with (Peg Bundy?!) Helen because he was unable to let go of his need for his father's acceptance. In a rare bit of political statement from the show, we discover that it was the American forces in Iraq that helped shape Sayid into the torturer he became. For those of you interested in the Jin/Sun love story, you were undoubtedly satisfied with the story of how they met, and later troubled by Sun's infidelity. Charlie remained one of my personal favorites, but he and Claire took a bit of a back seat at times this season. They had strife between each other when Claire found out about Charlie's heroin statue, but overall their characters didn't serve much to the season's central story.
The on island story this season focused largely on the hatch and the history behind it. Through an orientation video we learn that the hatch is one of a series of stations on the island built by a group called the Dharma Initiative. The station our survivors first found, The Swan Station, has a series of numbers (yep, those numbers) that must be entered into a computer every 108 minutes. Desmond explains to them that they're "saving the world." We find out in the season two finale that this was how it was explained to him. Locke immediately takes to the task of pushing the button, but Jack of course is hesitant.
The hatch presented a different sort of life for our survivors, and created yet another splinter in the group. Some of them decided to remain on the beach while other stayed in the hatch. After having made the trek from one side of the island to the other, the tailies unite with the middle section, and Jin, Sawyer and Michael are reunited with their friends. Michael's stay would be short lived, however, when he steals a gun from the hatch and takes off looking for Walt. Jack, Sawyer and Locke go to find him, only to run into the bearded grungy man that took Walt in last season's finale. He tells them that they can turn around and go back to their camp, and as long as they don't cross a proverbial line drawn in the sand, the Others will leave them alone. When Jack challenges him, claiming his group outnumbers grungy man's, the bearded one yells for his people to light their torches, revealing a much larger group than Jack had anticipated. Jack is then shown just how much of an upper hand they have when they bring a bound and gagged Kate out of the jungle. Against Jack's wishes, she'd followed them to look for Michael and had been captured by the Others. They agree to release her in exchange for the weapons Jack, Locke and Sawyer had.
The feeling of dejection after being bested by the Others was short lived however when, in the episode titled "One Of Them," we meet Henry Gale. Rousseau tells Sayid she had trapped one of the Others in one of her nets. The man claims to be a man named Henry Gale, from Minnesota who, while flying in a hot air balloon, had crashed with his wife on the island. They bring him back to the hatch and he is locked in the armory. Sayid interrogates him and the man, seemingly terrified, tells him that he and his wife crashed on the island, she got sick and he buried her. Sayid doesn't believe him, and Henry stays locked in the armory while they decide what to do next. Eventually Ana Lucia makes Henry draw a map to where he buried his wife's body. Ana, Sayid and Charlie follow the map and do in fact find a grave site and a crashed balloon.
While Ana and company are off finding the grave, Locke is alone in the hatch with Henry. Strange static starts to emit from the speakers in the hatch and a large blast door comes down, confining Locke and Henry to just a part of the hatch. Locke lets Henry out to help him with the door, but Locke's leg gets pinned under it. The timer starts beeping and Locke tells Henry that he has to climb through the air ducts and input the numbers. Henry does this, the door comes up and Henry tends to Locke. Just as this happens, however, the group that went to the grave site returns. Sayid informs Henry that yes, he found his balloon, and he dug up the grave and found two people in the ground. One was the real Henry Gale.
Michael Emerson was so brilliant in this role. He played the mind games of Henry Gale (or whatever his real name is) perfectly. Emerson single handedly transformed the view of our survivors' nemesis from backwoods hillbillies to cunning manipulators. Henry would later inform Locke that he never input the numbers, he simply let it countdown to zero and it reset by itself. Was this true? Perhaps not, but it planted a seed of doubt in Locke's head that would lead to the events of season two's finale. Oh, John Locke. You poor, gullible bastard.
Following the confirmation that Henry Gale is in fact an Other, Jack and Kate go once more to the spot where they'd met beardy in hopes of trading Henry for Michael and Walt. The Others don't come, but Michael, dazed and dehydrated, appears out of the jungle. They bring him back to camp, and he informs them that he found the Others' camp, that they're not well armed and can be taken. This all ends up being a ruse when, at the end of "Two For The Road," Michael kills Ana Lucia and Libby, unlocks Henry from the armory, and shoots himself in the arm. He does this all based on a promise by the Others that if he frees Henry and brings them certain survivors they requested, they will let him and Walt leave the island.
Sayid becomes suspicious of Michael after he insists that it must only be himself, Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley (the people the Others demanded he bring with him) that goes after the Others. He tells Jack and together they devise a plan that would allow for Michael to continue thinking he has the upper hand. This plan got an even bigger advantage when a boat washed up near our survivors' beach.
This brought us to the season two finale, "Live Together, Die Alone." Desmond, who disappeared into the jungle earlier in the season, washed ashore in the sail boat. He said he'd been sailing for weeks and still ended up right back where he started. In the finale we find out about Desmond's pre-island life. We see him dishonorably discharged from the British Army, and confronted by his estranged girlfriend Penny's father who tells Desmond that he intercepted all of his letters to Penny. He offers Desmond a large sum of money to stay away from Penny. In flashbacks we see Desmond some time later in the U.S., where he meets Libby in a chance encounter at a coffee shop. He tells her that he wants to enter an around the world sailing race sponsored by Charles Widmore (Penny's father). Libby offers her late husband's sail boat to Desmond to run the race in. In a recall back to Jack and Desmond's meeting in the stadium, we find out that Penny found him there and confronted him, asking why he was running away. He told her he was going to win the race to regain his honor.
The sailing race ended for Desmond when he was marooned on the island. He's brought into the hatch by a man named Kelvin, whom you might remember as one of the American soldiers in Sayid's flashback. Kelvin convinces Desmond that he must stay in the hatch to avoid getting infected by some mysterious disease he claims is on the island. We also learn that, according to Kelvin, the purpose for pushing the button is an electromagnetic anomaly on the island that builds up, and the pressure has to be released every 108 minutes. There's a failsafe key that can be turned, but he claims this would be like blowing up the dam.
One day Desmond sees a tear in Kelvin's HAZMAT suit as he goes outside. Desmond follows him out to find that Kelvin has fixed Desmond's sailboat. Infuriated, Desmond tackles Kelvin and during their struggle, accidentally kills him. Desmond races back to the hatch to discover he's neglected the button for too long and the speakers are blaring "System Failure." Everything starts to shake but he is able to input the numbers eventually and stop the chaos.
The final flashback shows a drunk, depressed Desmond in the hatch with a gun. He is holding the Charles Dickens book Our Mutual Friend, a novel he earlier claimed he was saving to be the last book he ever read. He opens it and a letter from Penny falls out. In it she explains that she hid the letter there knowing he would find it in a moment of great desperation. The letter ends with Penny saying, "All we really need to survive is one person who truly loves us. And you have her. I will wait for you. Always."That letter broke every fan girl's little heart, I'm sure. It sent Desmond into a rage knowing he was stuck in the hatch seemingly forever. That is the moment that Locke began to beat on the hatch door in season one. In a spectacular twist of fate only Lost could provide, Locke's persistent banging provided Desmond the same sort of hope that Desmond's turning the light on for Locke provided him.
The on island portion of the finale deals with another division of two camps. We have Locke who, at his spiritual weakest, is convinced that the button means nothing. Eko, on the other hand, now believes the button is of the utmost importance and refuses to let Locke destroy it. Locke tells Desmond that the button is all a mind game and that they're going to find out for sure. Together they stage another lock down and Eko is forced out of the control room. Despite his attempts to get back in, which included using some of the left over Black Rock dynamite, Eko could not penetrate the blast door.
Desmond, meanwhile, began to have second thoughts. When Locke told him about the computer printout he and Eko had found at the other Dharma station, Desmond began feverishly reading it. He asked Locke what day his flight had crashed and when Locke told him it was September 22, 2004, Desmond told him, "I think I crashed your plane." Indeed he had, as that was the same date that he'd killed Kelvin and returned to the hatch with the time having run out to push the button. This convinced Desmond that the button was necessary, but Locke was still stubbornly refusing to accept it. When Desmond tried to enter the numbers, Locke smashed the computer.
As the time ticked to zero, Desmond once again said "I'll see you in another life, brother," and raced to turn the failsafe key. At that time Eko, who'd found a way back into the room, saw John. Every metal object began flying towards the wall and John told Eko, "I was wrong." Desmond inserts the key, says "I love you Penny," and turns it. The sky turns a brilliant shade of purple and there is a loud humming. In regards to the fate of the people inside the hatch? Well, you'll have to wait until season three to find that out.
The other group, which consisted of Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer and Michael, headed to where Michael claimed the Others camp was. Sayid, Jin and Sun left in Desmond's boat to find the camp faster and warn Jack. One of the more creepy images from the show was first seen in the finale. The boat crew sailed by a strange statue that Sayid accurately said "I don't know what is more disquieting, the fact that the rest of the statue is missing, or that it has four toes."They eventually found the camp Michael had described, but it was deserted. Sayid knew that Jack was being lead into a trap.
Sayid's discovery was too late, as the island trekking crew were lead into a large clearing by Michael where they began to be hit with tranquilizer darts. They are brought to a dock where they once again see the man previously known as Henry Gale. He tells Michael that they got more than they bargained for with Walt, and that the two of them were free to go. They then told Hurley that he was to return to his side of the island and inform his camp that they were never to come back there. The Others said that Jack, Kate and Sawyer were coming with them, and hoods were placed over their heads. Their fate would also remain unknown until season three.
The last scene of season two was a strange one for many reasons, some yet unknown to those of you who have not gone beyond season two. Our last Lost images were of two men, seemingly in the arctic, playing chess. One of the men notices a computer's red light blinking and saying that an electromagnetic anomaly was detected. They scramble to make a phone call. Penelope Widmore answers and the men tell her, "We found it."
All in all I thought season two was a successful one. More mysteries were created, and the show clicked mostly on all cylinders. I thought the introduction of the tailies was a somewhat unnecessary one. I enjoyed the Rose and Bernard reunification and I thought Eko was an interesting character to play off of Locke, but some of it seemed to distract from some of the survivors we had already come to know and love. Charlie became too much of a sidekick for my taste, and Claire was mostly an afterthought. Sawyer, as always, had his moments, but I don't think he shined as much in season two. Michael Emerson was a wonderful piece of casting that would come to pay dividends for the future of the show. I don't think it quite lived up to the standard set in season one, but it was close and still provided a great bit of entertainment to a wide spectrum of viewers.
For those of you groaning at the length of this post, with a smile on my face I say deal with it. The remaining season posts will undoubtedly be shorter (I'm contemplating posting about the series finale in a separate post entirely). Season two put Lost on a path that I felt required more detail. Science against religion, good against evil, man against nature, all of these things were displayed in season two. The writers gave us more themes of manipulation, redemption and betrayal that would become critical in the future telling of the story. Season three's post will be an interesting one to write, as the show was a very conflicted show for me in that season. But that's for another day. For now, I thank you if you made it to the end of this post. Your time and your attention are much appreciated. Until then, I hope all of you Desmonds find your Pennies, and all of you Pennies find your Desmonds.
Season two's first episode, "Man of Science, Man of Faith", begins with a unique teaser that is a Lost trademark. The episode opens with a series of audible beeps. A man's eye opens, he springs out of bed and goes quickly to an antiquated computer where he types something and presses an execute button. He then starts his day by listening to music, exercising and making some form of protein shake; all seems normal (save for some strange injection the man gives himself). Then something happens. You hear an explosion and the man runs to a closet to grab a rifle. He checks a periscope and sees Jack and Locke peering down the shaft of the hatch.
The season two premiere picks up right where the season one finale left off. Undeterred by the broken ladder that would have taken them down the shaft, Locke wants to be lowered down into the hatch. Despite Jack's objections, and Hurley's pleas (in case you forgot a certain sequence of numbers was on the hatch door), Kate and Locke decide to descend into the hatch. Locke begins to lower Kate down using a cable tethered to a tree. Part of the way down Kate yells "Stop! I think there's something down here." Suddenly the same bright beam of light Locke saw when he pounded on the hatch door during season one is turned on. Locke calls out for Kate, but she's gone.
Jack's flashback in this episode is centered on a patient he's trying to "fix." The patient, Sarah, was involved in a head on collision (with the father of Jack's fellow Oceanic survivor Shannon). Seeing Jack's usual realist approach to things when he tells Sarah about her prognosis, Jack's father suggests to his son that it might not be a bad idea to offer hope once in a while. Jack is reluctant towards taking that approach, but when Sarah is about to undergo surgery, she tells Jack "I know I'm not going to be dancing anymore. I can still roll around at my wedding." This strikes a nerve in our hero doc, and he declares to Sarah that he will fix her.
Jack is not happy with how the surgery went, and is releasing some stress by running steps in a stadium. He notices another man in the stadium also running. Jack twists his ankle and stops. The man approaches Jack, and they talk for a few minutes. Jack tells the man about what he thinks of as his failure to fix Sarah, and the man tells Jack about how he is training for a race around the world. As they part ways, the man tells Jack, "I'll see you in another life." This line would be repeated often in Lost, both literally and in theme. Jack returns to the hospital to break the news to Sarah that she will be paralyzed from the waist down from the rest of her life. Upon hearing this, Sarah asks him, "Then how come I can wiggle my toes?"
Meanwhile, back on the island, Jack decides to go back to the hatch. When he arrives, Locke is nowhere to be found. Jack lowers himself into the hatch and gives us our first glimpse of what's inside. There's a strange mural that included Hurley's numbers and the number 108 (the sum total of 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42). He gets near a wall and notices that the key around his neck is being drawn to the wall as if there's some sort of magnetic pull. Jack notices a surveillance camera mounted in the corridor and suddenly the Mama Cass song that opened this episode once again blares. Jack ducks into the control room where he notices computer and electronic equipment that looks as if it were made circa 1980. He walks to the computer and looks as if he's about to type something when Locke appears behind him and says, "I wouldn't do that." Jack whirls around and says "Where's Kate? What the hell did you-," before he notices there's someone behind Locke, pointing a gun at him. Jack draws his own gun, but the man orders he put it down. As the man comes into view, Jack looks stunned. It is the man he met at the stadium. Thus began our introduction to someone who would become one of the most beloved characters Lost ever produced, the much adored Scotsman Desmond Hume.
You might be wondering why, if this is supposed to be a recap of the entire second season, am I spending so much time on the premiere? The answer is an easy one. Not only was this the highest rated episode in Lost's history, but it was also by far my favorite of the six season premieres. Man of Science, Man of Faith also was a great set up episode for many of the show's prevailing themes.
Season two pushed us farther down the road of Science Vs. Faith as was beautifully displayed in one of my favorite Locke Vs. Jack scenes during season two's third episode, Orientation.
Locke: Why do you find it so hard to believe?
Jack: Why do you find it so easy?
Locke: It's never been easy!Season two started Lost on a path of divided factions as well. It's sometimes overlooked but important to point out that once the raft crew set sail, it would become rare that the survivor camp would ever be one cohesive unit. This frequently resulted in faction-centric episodes like we saw in the beginning of season two. While the first episode gave us the "what happened next" for the hatch group, it gave us no insight on the fate of the rafties. We would have to wait until the second episode, Adrift, to see Michael, Sawyer and Jin.
Jin, having dove off the raft when the Others came for Walt, is nowhere to be found. Sawyer and Michael, after bickering over who's to blame for their predicament and having a run in with a shark (who, in case you hadn't noticed, had a Dharma Logo on its body), drift back onto the island. Upon washing ashore they are confronted by Jin who, after running out of the jungle with his hands tied behind his back, speaks one of the few English words he knows: Others. The episode closes with what appears to be natives coming out of the jungle towards our raft guys.
Now that we've gone over where season one left off, let's talk about where season two took us. We found out early on in season two that the tail section of the plane had crashed on a different part of the island, and we met some new survivors that would be referred to in Lost Fandom as the tailies. One of the most universally loathed characters to appear on the show, Ana Lucia, was the leader of this group. Played by the always scowling Michelle Rodriguez, Ana Lucia was a "me against the world" type of leader. A former cop turned murderer in her pre-island story, Ana did little to make herself likable after the crash. One neat "lives intersecting" tidbit we got from Ana's flashback was how she came to be on Oceanic 815. A bit lost after having quit the police force, she had a random encounter in an airport with none other than Christian Shephard. Them both being lost souls, Christian convinced Ana to accompany him to Sydney. We also learn during this flashback that Christian drunkenly knocked on someone's door demanding to his daughter. Hmm, who could that be? Ultimately though, Anna Lucia's run on the show was short, and I'm thankful for that. She and another survivor, Libby, were killed by Michael in one of the best twists the show ever gave us. More on that in a bit.
The aforementioned Libby provided us with one of the saddest but wonderfully acted moments on Lost. Hurley had taken a liking to Libby, and they were preparing for their first date when she was murdered by Michael. Hurley's pain was beautifully portrayed by Jorge Garcia. The scene where Ana and Libby were buried reaffirmed Hurley's place as the heart of the show.
Mr. Eko was an interesting taily. A giant of a man, Eko was extremely spiritual. We learned that violence was no stranger to this man, and he was fearless. This was no more apparent than when he stared down the smoke monster, giving us our best glimpse to date of this mystery. It stared back at Eko and appeared to flash glimpses of his life. We also learned that Eko had ties to the island, his brother having been on the ill fated Nigerian drug running plane that Locke and Boone discovered. However, as with most things on Lost, that would not be what it seemed. Indeed it was Eko that was the drug runner, but in a cruel twist of fate, his brother Yemi, a priest, ended up on the plane.
Fans got a happy ending with one tail survivor being Rose's husband Bernard. Her resolve paid off as they reunited. We were even treated to a Rose and Bernard-centric flashback this season, where we see their first encounter, their courtship, and the sad news that Rose has terminal cancer. Well, I suppose I should say had terminal cancer, as the island seems to have cured her.
We said goodbye to another original survivor this season as well, with Shannon being accidentally shot by Ana Lucia. This happened early in the season while Shannon kept seeing a water logged Walt pop up randomly on the island. This probably seems like a key piece of information I'm glossing over, but I have my reasons that I will talk about in my overall show recap. I don't want to spoil anyone that hasn't gone beyond season two yet.
The flashbacks this season gave us more insight on our heroes' pre-island lives. As mentioned before we learned how Jack met his wife and saw the deterioration of their marriage. We learned what Kate's original crime was, murdering the man she believed was her step father, only to learn later that he was her real father. Locke, sadly, continued to be the easily conned man, ruining his relationship with (Peg Bundy?!) Helen because he was unable to let go of his need for his father's acceptance. In a rare bit of political statement from the show, we discover that it was the American forces in Iraq that helped shape Sayid into the torturer he became. For those of you interested in the Jin/Sun love story, you were undoubtedly satisfied with the story of how they met, and later troubled by Sun's infidelity. Charlie remained one of my personal favorites, but he and Claire took a bit of a back seat at times this season. They had strife between each other when Claire found out about Charlie's heroin statue, but overall their characters didn't serve much to the season's central story.
The on island story this season focused largely on the hatch and the history behind it. Through an orientation video we learn that the hatch is one of a series of stations on the island built by a group called the Dharma Initiative. The station our survivors first found, The Swan Station, has a series of numbers (yep, those numbers) that must be entered into a computer every 108 minutes. Desmond explains to them that they're "saving the world." We find out in the season two finale that this was how it was explained to him. Locke immediately takes to the task of pushing the button, but Jack of course is hesitant.
The hatch presented a different sort of life for our survivors, and created yet another splinter in the group. Some of them decided to remain on the beach while other stayed in the hatch. After having made the trek from one side of the island to the other, the tailies unite with the middle section, and Jin, Sawyer and Michael are reunited with their friends. Michael's stay would be short lived, however, when he steals a gun from the hatch and takes off looking for Walt. Jack, Sawyer and Locke go to find him, only to run into the bearded grungy man that took Walt in last season's finale. He tells them that they can turn around and go back to their camp, and as long as they don't cross a proverbial line drawn in the sand, the Others will leave them alone. When Jack challenges him, claiming his group outnumbers grungy man's, the bearded one yells for his people to light their torches, revealing a much larger group than Jack had anticipated. Jack is then shown just how much of an upper hand they have when they bring a bound and gagged Kate out of the jungle. Against Jack's wishes, she'd followed them to look for Michael and had been captured by the Others. They agree to release her in exchange for the weapons Jack, Locke and Sawyer had.
The feeling of dejection after being bested by the Others was short lived however when, in the episode titled "One Of Them," we meet Henry Gale. Rousseau tells Sayid she had trapped one of the Others in one of her nets. The man claims to be a man named Henry Gale, from Minnesota who, while flying in a hot air balloon, had crashed with his wife on the island. They bring him back to the hatch and he is locked in the armory. Sayid interrogates him and the man, seemingly terrified, tells him that he and his wife crashed on the island, she got sick and he buried her. Sayid doesn't believe him, and Henry stays locked in the armory while they decide what to do next. Eventually Ana Lucia makes Henry draw a map to where he buried his wife's body. Ana, Sayid and Charlie follow the map and do in fact find a grave site and a crashed balloon.
While Ana and company are off finding the grave, Locke is alone in the hatch with Henry. Strange static starts to emit from the speakers in the hatch and a large blast door comes down, confining Locke and Henry to just a part of the hatch. Locke lets Henry out to help him with the door, but Locke's leg gets pinned under it. The timer starts beeping and Locke tells Henry that he has to climb through the air ducts and input the numbers. Henry does this, the door comes up and Henry tends to Locke. Just as this happens, however, the group that went to the grave site returns. Sayid informs Henry that yes, he found his balloon, and he dug up the grave and found two people in the ground. One was the real Henry Gale.
Michael Emerson was so brilliant in this role. He played the mind games of Henry Gale (or whatever his real name is) perfectly. Emerson single handedly transformed the view of our survivors' nemesis from backwoods hillbillies to cunning manipulators. Henry would later inform Locke that he never input the numbers, he simply let it countdown to zero and it reset by itself. Was this true? Perhaps not, but it planted a seed of doubt in Locke's head that would lead to the events of season two's finale. Oh, John Locke. You poor, gullible bastard.
Following the confirmation that Henry Gale is in fact an Other, Jack and Kate go once more to the spot where they'd met beardy in hopes of trading Henry for Michael and Walt. The Others don't come, but Michael, dazed and dehydrated, appears out of the jungle. They bring him back to camp, and he informs them that he found the Others' camp, that they're not well armed and can be taken. This all ends up being a ruse when, at the end of "Two For The Road," Michael kills Ana Lucia and Libby, unlocks Henry from the armory, and shoots himself in the arm. He does this all based on a promise by the Others that if he frees Henry and brings them certain survivors they requested, they will let him and Walt leave the island.
Sayid becomes suspicious of Michael after he insists that it must only be himself, Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley (the people the Others demanded he bring with him) that goes after the Others. He tells Jack and together they devise a plan that would allow for Michael to continue thinking he has the upper hand. This plan got an even bigger advantage when a boat washed up near our survivors' beach.
This brought us to the season two finale, "Live Together, Die Alone." Desmond, who disappeared into the jungle earlier in the season, washed ashore in the sail boat. He said he'd been sailing for weeks and still ended up right back where he started. In the finale we find out about Desmond's pre-island life. We see him dishonorably discharged from the British Army, and confronted by his estranged girlfriend Penny's father who tells Desmond that he intercepted all of his letters to Penny. He offers Desmond a large sum of money to stay away from Penny. In flashbacks we see Desmond some time later in the U.S., where he meets Libby in a chance encounter at a coffee shop. He tells her that he wants to enter an around the world sailing race sponsored by Charles Widmore (Penny's father). Libby offers her late husband's sail boat to Desmond to run the race in. In a recall back to Jack and Desmond's meeting in the stadium, we find out that Penny found him there and confronted him, asking why he was running away. He told her he was going to win the race to regain his honor.
The sailing race ended for Desmond when he was marooned on the island. He's brought into the hatch by a man named Kelvin, whom you might remember as one of the American soldiers in Sayid's flashback. Kelvin convinces Desmond that he must stay in the hatch to avoid getting infected by some mysterious disease he claims is on the island. We also learn that, according to Kelvin, the purpose for pushing the button is an electromagnetic anomaly on the island that builds up, and the pressure has to be released every 108 minutes. There's a failsafe key that can be turned, but he claims this would be like blowing up the dam.
One day Desmond sees a tear in Kelvin's HAZMAT suit as he goes outside. Desmond follows him out to find that Kelvin has fixed Desmond's sailboat. Infuriated, Desmond tackles Kelvin and during their struggle, accidentally kills him. Desmond races back to the hatch to discover he's neglected the button for too long and the speakers are blaring "System Failure." Everything starts to shake but he is able to input the numbers eventually and stop the chaos.
The final flashback shows a drunk, depressed Desmond in the hatch with a gun. He is holding the Charles Dickens book Our Mutual Friend, a novel he earlier claimed he was saving to be the last book he ever read. He opens it and a letter from Penny falls out. In it she explains that she hid the letter there knowing he would find it in a moment of great desperation. The letter ends with Penny saying, "All we really need to survive is one person who truly loves us. And you have her. I will wait for you. Always."That letter broke every fan girl's little heart, I'm sure. It sent Desmond into a rage knowing he was stuck in the hatch seemingly forever. That is the moment that Locke began to beat on the hatch door in season one. In a spectacular twist of fate only Lost could provide, Locke's persistent banging provided Desmond the same sort of hope that Desmond's turning the light on for Locke provided him.
The on island portion of the finale deals with another division of two camps. We have Locke who, at his spiritual weakest, is convinced that the button means nothing. Eko, on the other hand, now believes the button is of the utmost importance and refuses to let Locke destroy it. Locke tells Desmond that the button is all a mind game and that they're going to find out for sure. Together they stage another lock down and Eko is forced out of the control room. Despite his attempts to get back in, which included using some of the left over Black Rock dynamite, Eko could not penetrate the blast door.
Desmond, meanwhile, began to have second thoughts. When Locke told him about the computer printout he and Eko had found at the other Dharma station, Desmond began feverishly reading it. He asked Locke what day his flight had crashed and when Locke told him it was September 22, 2004, Desmond told him, "I think I crashed your plane." Indeed he had, as that was the same date that he'd killed Kelvin and returned to the hatch with the time having run out to push the button. This convinced Desmond that the button was necessary, but Locke was still stubbornly refusing to accept it. When Desmond tried to enter the numbers, Locke smashed the computer.
As the time ticked to zero, Desmond once again said "I'll see you in another life, brother," and raced to turn the failsafe key. At that time Eko, who'd found a way back into the room, saw John. Every metal object began flying towards the wall and John told Eko, "I was wrong." Desmond inserts the key, says "I love you Penny," and turns it. The sky turns a brilliant shade of purple and there is a loud humming. In regards to the fate of the people inside the hatch? Well, you'll have to wait until season three to find that out.
The other group, which consisted of Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer and Michael, headed to where Michael claimed the Others camp was. Sayid, Jin and Sun left in Desmond's boat to find the camp faster and warn Jack. One of the more creepy images from the show was first seen in the finale. The boat crew sailed by a strange statue that Sayid accurately said "I don't know what is more disquieting, the fact that the rest of the statue is missing, or that it has four toes."They eventually found the camp Michael had described, but it was deserted. Sayid knew that Jack was being lead into a trap.
Sayid's discovery was too late, as the island trekking crew were lead into a large clearing by Michael where they began to be hit with tranquilizer darts. They are brought to a dock where they once again see the man previously known as Henry Gale. He tells Michael that they got more than they bargained for with Walt, and that the two of them were free to go. They then told Hurley that he was to return to his side of the island and inform his camp that they were never to come back there. The Others said that Jack, Kate and Sawyer were coming with them, and hoods were placed over their heads. Their fate would also remain unknown until season three.
The last scene of season two was a strange one for many reasons, some yet unknown to those of you who have not gone beyond season two. Our last Lost images were of two men, seemingly in the arctic, playing chess. One of the men notices a computer's red light blinking and saying that an electromagnetic anomaly was detected. They scramble to make a phone call. Penelope Widmore answers and the men tell her, "We found it."
All in all I thought season two was a successful one. More mysteries were created, and the show clicked mostly on all cylinders. I thought the introduction of the tailies was a somewhat unnecessary one. I enjoyed the Rose and Bernard reunification and I thought Eko was an interesting character to play off of Locke, but some of it seemed to distract from some of the survivors we had already come to know and love. Charlie became too much of a sidekick for my taste, and Claire was mostly an afterthought. Sawyer, as always, had his moments, but I don't think he shined as much in season two. Michael Emerson was a wonderful piece of casting that would come to pay dividends for the future of the show. I don't think it quite lived up to the standard set in season one, but it was close and still provided a great bit of entertainment to a wide spectrum of viewers.
For those of you groaning at the length of this post, with a smile on my face I say deal with it. The remaining season posts will undoubtedly be shorter (I'm contemplating posting about the series finale in a separate post entirely). Season two put Lost on a path that I felt required more detail. Science against religion, good against evil, man against nature, all of these things were displayed in season two. The writers gave us more themes of manipulation, redemption and betrayal that would become critical in the future telling of the story. Season three's post will be an interesting one to write, as the show was a very conflicted show for me in that season. But that's for another day. For now, I thank you if you made it to the end of this post. Your time and your attention are much appreciated. Until then, I hope all of you Desmonds find your Pennies, and all of you Pennies find your Desmonds.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
American Idol Season Ten - Top 12
Another week another theme. This time it was "songs from the year of your birth." Who else thought Scotty would try to falsify his birth certificate in order to be able to belt out some lock them doors? But no time for small talk, I have to get this posted before I watch the results show!
Everyone's favorite Reggae contestant, Naima, drew the dreaded (I'll punch myself for that pun) first up slot. She surprisingly chose Tina Turner's "What's Love Got To Do With It?" I say surprisingly because it didn't seem to fit her hip hop style, and the arrangement wasn't changed drastically enough to produce a hip hop vibe. Instead we got a slightly sped up version without any of the Tina power. Even the judges didn't give her the love they're known to bestow upon everybody. Could Naima be in trouble? Possibly, although I suspect she may have earned enough of a following last week to save her.
Paul, whose voice was already raspy to the border of annoyance, was battling an illness. Look at him taking Casey's shtick! He chose Elton John's "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" and continued on his seizure dancing theme. This guy needs a guitar in his hands, badly. I didn't hate the vocal, but again his stage presence is so awkward that it's hard to focus on anything else.
Thia followed Captain Shake 'N Twitch with a video package clearly designed to show that she does in fact have a personality. But was anybody else creeped out by the painting of Grandma in her parents' clip? Puzzling, Thia chose a horrid Vanessa Williams song which she later defended by saying something along the lines of "I feel like the song mirrored what was going on in the world right now." How does colors of the wind reflect the devastation in Japan? Does she think earthquakes and tsunamis are caused by strong winds? Oh who cares what she thinks, or what she sings. This girl has no chance of making an impact on this show.
The bane of my existence aka James Durbin took the stage and tried his best to sound like Jon Bon Jovi. I thought he failed miserably. This guy seriously couldn't hold a glittery candle to Adam Lambert. He capped the desperate performance with a lame bit of pyrotechnics. The judges bathed in the brilliance that is James (gag), and he showed once again how cocky he is, claiming he's saving his Aerosmith performance "for the finale."
Haley did nothing to change my mind on how I view her. Still a nice girl who will have a short run on the show and fade into infamous Idol obscurity. What did she sing? Does she even remember? Sympathy over her makeup mess may save her another week. Oh, and kudos to Seacrest for stepping in to rescue Haley. But did he really need another reason for Joel McHale to make fun of him? I'm ready for this week's The Soup clip of "Ryan Seacrest's Makeup Tips."
Next came Stefano. I came to a startling conclusion during his video package. Jimmy Iovine is kind of a douche, and I think I love him for it. As for Stefano's performance, I have no use for it. If that vocal had any more runs - naw, I won't go there. Decent voice, but still nothing special. Stefano reminds of David Archuleta, only cocky. Bad combo, sir.
What was with Pia's jump suit? Not that I'll ever be confused with -insert fashionable person's name here...no, seriously, please do because I can't name anyone- but she's a pretty girl and that outfit was just odd. It's easy to see that Pia is staking her claim as this season's diva, but I could have done without Whitney Houston. She's just so overdone on the show. I still like her voice though. She has a McPhee feel, which doesn't bode well for her post show success, but should allow for a long stay on this season.
Scotty followed Pia with yet another country song. I don't blame him for sticking to country every time the theme allows for it, I think the dude is going to be a train wreck when he can't twang it up, but I've never been a country fan and mostly don't pay attention when he sings. He was solid, and he's not going anywhere for a long time. He does need to stay in his lower register though. He loses pitch a bit when he goes up. Oh, and at least his Travis Tritt performance gave Randy an opportunity to name drop on his career achievements!
Rosetta Stone, I mean Karen, flip flopped languages on "Love Will Lead You Back." All I can say is, what's with the hair? Its gravity defying efforts mesmerized me and made it hard to pay attention to her vocals. Or maybe it was because it was boring and a throw away. Take your ethnic what-it-is-ness elsewhere please, it's really not winning over this reviewer.
Ahh, and now Casey Abrams. I fell asleep after Karen, right? He didn't really do "Smells Like Teen Spirit." To me, it made him seem like a side show and not a singer. I grew up on Nirvana, but Kurt Cobain's lyrical stylings have no business in a singing competition.
Lauren Alaina tried to redeem herself this week with Melissa Etheridge's "I'm The Only One." The performance was good, but I still think she's much closer to a Pickler than an Underwood. And I don't like that she uses a stage name. It makes her seem even more like a prepackaged star for Idol.
Jacob, the man who never met a song he couldn't over sing closed the show. The only problem is he often goes out of key when he goes over the top. Color me unimpressed.
If you can't tell I'm still completely underwhelmed with this season. I want to like some of the contestants, I promise. Bottom three prediction (and I swear this is before watching the results): Thia, Naima and Karen. Thia goes home.
*Elimination Update*
Thia managed to avoid the bottom three. I'm really puzzled as to how. The girl has no personality and chooses putrid songs. But her day is coming soon. Karen, in case you hadn't heard, went home. No loss there, this is another down Idol year, and particularly weak with the girls; it's no coincidence that the bottom three both weeks were all girls. Pia and Lauren are the only two who have a shot at the top five in my opinion. But, like lambs to the slaughter, I'll be tuning in next week. Until then...
Everyone's favorite Reggae contestant, Naima, drew the dreaded (I'll punch myself for that pun) first up slot. She surprisingly chose Tina Turner's "What's Love Got To Do With It?" I say surprisingly because it didn't seem to fit her hip hop style, and the arrangement wasn't changed drastically enough to produce a hip hop vibe. Instead we got a slightly sped up version without any of the Tina power. Even the judges didn't give her the love they're known to bestow upon everybody. Could Naima be in trouble? Possibly, although I suspect she may have earned enough of a following last week to save her.
Paul, whose voice was already raspy to the border of annoyance, was battling an illness. Look at him taking Casey's shtick! He chose Elton John's "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" and continued on his seizure dancing theme. This guy needs a guitar in his hands, badly. I didn't hate the vocal, but again his stage presence is so awkward that it's hard to focus on anything else.
Thia followed Captain Shake 'N Twitch with a video package clearly designed to show that she does in fact have a personality. But was anybody else creeped out by the painting of Grandma in her parents' clip? Puzzling, Thia chose a horrid Vanessa Williams song which she later defended by saying something along the lines of "I feel like the song mirrored what was going on in the world right now." How does colors of the wind reflect the devastation in Japan? Does she think earthquakes and tsunamis are caused by strong winds? Oh who cares what she thinks, or what she sings. This girl has no chance of making an impact on this show.
The bane of my existence aka James Durbin took the stage and tried his best to sound like Jon Bon Jovi. I thought he failed miserably. This guy seriously couldn't hold a glittery candle to Adam Lambert. He capped the desperate performance with a lame bit of pyrotechnics. The judges bathed in the brilliance that is James (gag), and he showed once again how cocky he is, claiming he's saving his Aerosmith performance "for the finale."
Haley did nothing to change my mind on how I view her. Still a nice girl who will have a short run on the show and fade into infamous Idol obscurity. What did she sing? Does she even remember? Sympathy over her makeup mess may save her another week. Oh, and kudos to Seacrest for stepping in to rescue Haley. But did he really need another reason for Joel McHale to make fun of him? I'm ready for this week's The Soup clip of "Ryan Seacrest's Makeup Tips."
Next came Stefano. I came to a startling conclusion during his video package. Jimmy Iovine is kind of a douche, and I think I love him for it. As for Stefano's performance, I have no use for it. If that vocal had any more runs - naw, I won't go there. Decent voice, but still nothing special. Stefano reminds of David Archuleta, only cocky. Bad combo, sir.
What was with Pia's jump suit? Not that I'll ever be confused with -insert fashionable person's name here...no, seriously, please do because I can't name anyone- but she's a pretty girl and that outfit was just odd. It's easy to see that Pia is staking her claim as this season's diva, but I could have done without Whitney Houston. She's just so overdone on the show. I still like her voice though. She has a McPhee feel, which doesn't bode well for her post show success, but should allow for a long stay on this season.
Scotty followed Pia with yet another country song. I don't blame him for sticking to country every time the theme allows for it, I think the dude is going to be a train wreck when he can't twang it up, but I've never been a country fan and mostly don't pay attention when he sings. He was solid, and he's not going anywhere for a long time. He does need to stay in his lower register though. He loses pitch a bit when he goes up. Oh, and at least his Travis Tritt performance gave Randy an opportunity to name drop on his career achievements!
Rosetta Stone, I mean Karen, flip flopped languages on "Love Will Lead You Back." All I can say is, what's with the hair? Its gravity defying efforts mesmerized me and made it hard to pay attention to her vocals. Or maybe it was because it was boring and a throw away. Take your ethnic what-it-is-ness elsewhere please, it's really not winning over this reviewer.
Ahh, and now Casey Abrams. I fell asleep after Karen, right? He didn't really do "Smells Like Teen Spirit." To me, it made him seem like a side show and not a singer. I grew up on Nirvana, but Kurt Cobain's lyrical stylings have no business in a singing competition.
Lauren Alaina tried to redeem herself this week with Melissa Etheridge's "I'm The Only One." The performance was good, but I still think she's much closer to a Pickler than an Underwood. And I don't like that she uses a stage name. It makes her seem even more like a prepackaged star for Idol.
Jacob, the man who never met a song he couldn't over sing closed the show. The only problem is he often goes out of key when he goes over the top. Color me unimpressed.
If you can't tell I'm still completely underwhelmed with this season. I want to like some of the contestants, I promise. Bottom three prediction (and I swear this is before watching the results): Thia, Naima and Karen. Thia goes home.
*Elimination Update*
Thia managed to avoid the bottom three. I'm really puzzled as to how. The girl has no personality and chooses putrid songs. But her day is coming soon. Karen, in case you hadn't heard, went home. No loss there, this is another down Idol year, and particularly weak with the girls; it's no coincidence that the bottom three both weeks were all girls. Pia and Lauren are the only two who have a shot at the top five in my opinion. But, like lambs to the slaughter, I'll be tuning in next week. Until then...
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Raising Hope - This Year's Best New Show
Who doesn't like to laugh? Well until last fall, it appeared Fox executives would have had to raise their hands. Since the sad departure of Arrested Development from their airwaves, Fox has been dreadfully chuckle free during the week. Save for its Sunday animated line up, the network has been void of successful comedies (sorry Gleeks, the show is not a comedy no matter what the Golden Globes say). If you're like me and find yourself too old for cartoons no matter how 'adult' they try to make them, you've gone elsewhere to get your laughs. Heck, even if you can latch on to cartoon comedy, The Simpsons hasn't been funny since before Y2K. However, with the success of the comedies during the 2009-2010 TV season, family oriented comedy especially (thank you Modern Family), Fox gave the green light to a couple of projects. One was the hugely unsuccessful Running Wilde, starring Will Arnett and Kerri Russell. The other, was Raising Hope.
I'm a big fan of comedy that makes you uncomfortable. The Office was a master at this when it was at its creative peak. Raising Hope, from My Name Is Earl creator Greg Garcia, is shining this year by making you squirm. It's the story of the Chance family, a white trash (not to worry, the Earl comparisons mostly stop there) clan whose son Jimmy impregnates a serial killer. The criminal, played by Bijou Phillips, is sentenced to die and Jimmy is given custody of the baby. Jimmy works for his father Burt's lawn maintenance company and his mom, Virginia, cleans houses. Virginia is masterfully played by Martha Plimpton, whose most known role prior to Raising Hope was Stef in The Goonies for God's sake! Seriously, Martha, where have you been since the eighties? She is perfection in this role. I sincerely hope she gets the Emmy nomination she deserves.
Burt, Virginia, Jimmy and the new baby live with Virginia's mother, the affectionately named Maw Maw. The remarkable Cloris Leachman plays the dementia ravaged matriarch who is often seen in her underwear, saying and doing the most peculiar things. Kudos to Leachman for setting dignity aside in the name of comedy. Sure, some may find it cruel that they're poking fun at senility, but come on, let's not get crazy here people. This show never pretends to be rooted in much reality, a perfect example being when the infant's deranged mother had decided to name the child Princess Beyonce. As Jimmy will tell you in the pilot episode, he's thinking of changing that (which he did, naming her Hope of course).
Added into the mix is Sabrina, the sarcastic grocery store clerk that Jimmy has a crush on. She's played by relative unknown Shannon Woodward. The casting director did a good job of giving Jimmy a pretty but attainable girl in Ms. Woodward. The second half of the season has seen a decrease in the Jimmy/Sabrina crush story. They should play it up more if you ask me. Woodward is pretty funny when given the material.
Having had Jimmy at such a young age (around 15 or 16), Virginia and Burt can relate to the things Jimmy is going through, which lends itself to some of the shows heartwarming moments. Burt is essentially a big kid himself, and his antics provide a lot of the physical comedy for the show. Virginia's character is the one that normally delivers the more subtle laughs.
All in all though, Raising Hope works on a lot of levels. It has enough of that Earl feel to satisfy the fans of Garcia's previous work, but not so much that those who could take or leave the former Jason Lee comedy (yours truly included) would be turned off. It's ridiculous, it's absurd, and it's awkward. All of this makes it the best new comedy on television. Raising Hope airs Tuesdays at 9 P.M. Eastern on Fox.
I'm a big fan of comedy that makes you uncomfortable. The Office was a master at this when it was at its creative peak. Raising Hope, from My Name Is Earl creator Greg Garcia, is shining this year by making you squirm. It's the story of the Chance family, a white trash (not to worry, the Earl comparisons mostly stop there) clan whose son Jimmy impregnates a serial killer. The criminal, played by Bijou Phillips, is sentenced to die and Jimmy is given custody of the baby. Jimmy works for his father Burt's lawn maintenance company and his mom, Virginia, cleans houses. Virginia is masterfully played by Martha Plimpton, whose most known role prior to Raising Hope was Stef in The Goonies for God's sake! Seriously, Martha, where have you been since the eighties? She is perfection in this role. I sincerely hope she gets the Emmy nomination she deserves.
Burt, Virginia, Jimmy and the new baby live with Virginia's mother, the affectionately named Maw Maw. The remarkable Cloris Leachman plays the dementia ravaged matriarch who is often seen in her underwear, saying and doing the most peculiar things. Kudos to Leachman for setting dignity aside in the name of comedy. Sure, some may find it cruel that they're poking fun at senility, but come on, let's not get crazy here people. This show never pretends to be rooted in much reality, a perfect example being when the infant's deranged mother had decided to name the child Princess Beyonce. As Jimmy will tell you in the pilot episode, he's thinking of changing that (which he did, naming her Hope of course).
Added into the mix is Sabrina, the sarcastic grocery store clerk that Jimmy has a crush on. She's played by relative unknown Shannon Woodward. The casting director did a good job of giving Jimmy a pretty but attainable girl in Ms. Woodward. The second half of the season has seen a decrease in the Jimmy/Sabrina crush story. They should play it up more if you ask me. Woodward is pretty funny when given the material.
Having had Jimmy at such a young age (around 15 or 16), Virginia and Burt can relate to the things Jimmy is going through, which lends itself to some of the shows heartwarming moments. Burt is essentially a big kid himself, and his antics provide a lot of the physical comedy for the show. Virginia's character is the one that normally delivers the more subtle laughs.
All in all though, Raising Hope works on a lot of levels. It has enough of that Earl feel to satisfy the fans of Garcia's previous work, but not so much that those who could take or leave the former Jason Lee comedy (yours truly included) would be turned off. It's ridiculous, it's absurd, and it's awkward. All of this makes it the best new comedy on television. Raising Hope airs Tuesdays at 9 P.M. Eastern on Fox.
Parenthood - The Most Realistic Family On Television
For those of you that haven't caught on to Parenthood yet, and judging by the ratings there are plenty of you, you're missing out. I understand that part of its viewership problems stem from it being up against CBS' The Good Wife, but come on folks! We're in the DVR age. Surely you can find some space in your TV life for this show.
Not to rain on anyone's viewing parade, but I find most CBS shows completely forgettable. I know they dominate in the ratings, but a lot of that is attributed to them grabbing the older demographic. Before you start throwing things at the monitor, I know that all things are subjective. For me, CSI (regardless of the city in which it's set) is much like House and Law and Order. All three can be entertaining shows, but after a while doesn't it feel like you're watching the same episode over and over again? I call this Groundhog Viewing. I tried to get into The Good Wife as well, but it gave me the same Groundhogian vibe. Yes, I know there is an ongoing storyline that is woven throughout, but shows like this that are so formulaic really have to bring the goods in other ways to hold my interest. As far as CBS comedies go...sorry, I prefer my comedy sans laugh track in the new millennium. Thus ends my CBS gripe, back to Parenthood.
If you've heard nothing about Parenthood, let me give you some background. Ron Howard directed a movie in 1989 of the same name. The show is loosely based (emphasis on loosely) on the film. Parenthood is about the lives of the Braverman family. There's the patriarch, Zeek, and his wife Camille, who have four adult children. Zeek is your standard older man set in his ways, thinking of things in the antiquated designed roles of men and women. Camille, on the other hand, is tired of the old ways of thinking and wants Zeek to change. Their marriage is strained to say the least. The show focuses on them and their children's lives and families.
Adam, Zeek and Camille's oldest child, has a wife, son, and teenage daughter. In the show's pilot episode their son is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Their story early on deals with how they handle the difficulties with raising a child with Asperger's. The writers handle this in a way that not only tugs at the heart strings of the viewer, but tells their story in such a way that doesn't over dramatize a situation many families deal with every day. Their daughter, Haddie, also has to deal with being the forgotten child as Adam and his wife Kristina must focus their attention on their son Max.
The next child is Sarah. We first meet her as she and her two teenage kids move into Zeek and Camille's home. Sarah was the wild child of the family. She married an alcoholic musician, had a girl and a boy with him, but left him to move back home and hopefully rebuild her family. Sarah is a bit lost both as a person and a mother, and her struggles are nothing if not easy to relate to. Her daughter Amber's battles with her mother are unfiltered and are one of the most believable family dynamics I've seen on network television. Sarah's awkward son Drew is a regular part of the cast, but has mostly been overlooked until recently on the show.
Julia Braverman, Zeek and Camille's third child, is a successful lawyer married to Joel, a stay at home dad to their young daughter Sydney. When the show starts off, Julia is portrayed as the workaholic mother who is mostly a spectator in her daughter's life. It's my feeling that the producers realized early on how unlikeable this would make the character. They've since eased off on that aspect of her and found ways to make her more of hard working but active mom. A wise choice.
The youngest of the group is Crosby (why they chose to go from Adam, Sarah and Julia to naming their kid after Melissa Etheridge's sperm donor is beyond me), a music producer and free spirit. Crosby lives the typical bachelor life until an old flame turns up and tells him that he's the father to her son Jabbar. Crosby's evolution from misfit to dad has been one of the most interesting plot lines on the show to date.
One thing that makes Parenthood work so well and stay fresh is the sheer volume of the cast. You only get bits and pieces of each family per episode, so if a particular story isn't catching your interest you're not stuck with it for an entire episode or more. The writers did a brilliant job of constructing families at different stages of their lives/marriages/children ages so that the show appeals to a wide spectrum of people. For the teenagers there's story lines involving Amber and Haddie for them to sink their teeth into. Haddie, for example, has recently started dating an older kid (played by The Wire's Michael B. Jordan. Go Wallace!) who has been through a lot at an early age. She's had conflict with her parents over the relationship. It's a high school story, but told in a real enough way not to bore the older viewer. It's rare that a show can have enough diversity and intelligence to appeal to teenagers, parents raising special needs children, new parents, single parents and grandparents.
What I think brings the show to another level is the cast. I've been a Craig T. Nelson fan for a long time, and I think he does a phenomenal job playing the 'man's man' with Zeek. Peter Krause (of Six Feet Under fame) plays Adam in such a way that you just root for the guy. His moments with Max are beautiful. I can't say the same for Monica Potter as Kristina. I don't know if it's the actress or the character itself, but something just annoys the bejesus out of me with her. I've been campaigning to my wife that they should shake up the family dynamics of the show and kill off Kristina. Any thoughts on this, fellow viewers?
As someone who has seen every episode of Gilmore Girls (might as well admit it, my wife outed me at our wedding and no, I will not turn in my man card), I want to love Lauren Graham as Sarah. Really, I do. But sometimes she just seems so wrong for the role. I'm sure this is in part attributed to her being the world's coolest mom on Gilmore Girls. There just seems to be such little growth in her character. It's frustrating to see her continually be the clueless mother.
Erika Christensen plays the overworked Julia. I remember thinking how talented she was as a teenager in the movie Traffic. It's nice to see her get something that she can sink her teeth into. Dax Shepard, who first rose to fame on of all things, Punk'd, is one of the most underrated actors on television. He brings so much heart to what could have been a throw away character in Crosby. His facial expressions alone can steal a scene.
Parenthood is one of those shows that make you feel good after you see it. Even if a particular episode deals with a tough topic, it's portrayed in as true a sense as I think you can get on network television. Ultimately, it's a show about family. Most of us are fortunate enough to be able to relate to that. Whether your family is good, bad, functional, dysfunctional, small or large, Parenthood has something that will appeal to you. More than anything though, Parenthood has qualities you don't find on television that often. Parenthood airs Tuesdays at 10 P.M. Eastern on NBC
Not to rain on anyone's viewing parade, but I find most CBS shows completely forgettable. I know they dominate in the ratings, but a lot of that is attributed to them grabbing the older demographic. Before you start throwing things at the monitor, I know that all things are subjective. For me, CSI (regardless of the city in which it's set) is much like House and Law and Order. All three can be entertaining shows, but after a while doesn't it feel like you're watching the same episode over and over again? I call this Groundhog Viewing. I tried to get into The Good Wife as well, but it gave me the same Groundhogian vibe. Yes, I know there is an ongoing storyline that is woven throughout, but shows like this that are so formulaic really have to bring the goods in other ways to hold my interest. As far as CBS comedies go...sorry, I prefer my comedy sans laugh track in the new millennium. Thus ends my CBS gripe, back to Parenthood.
If you've heard nothing about Parenthood, let me give you some background. Ron Howard directed a movie in 1989 of the same name. The show is loosely based (emphasis on loosely) on the film. Parenthood is about the lives of the Braverman family. There's the patriarch, Zeek, and his wife Camille, who have four adult children. Zeek is your standard older man set in his ways, thinking of things in the antiquated designed roles of men and women. Camille, on the other hand, is tired of the old ways of thinking and wants Zeek to change. Their marriage is strained to say the least. The show focuses on them and their children's lives and families.
Adam, Zeek and Camille's oldest child, has a wife, son, and teenage daughter. In the show's pilot episode their son is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Their story early on deals with how they handle the difficulties with raising a child with Asperger's. The writers handle this in a way that not only tugs at the heart strings of the viewer, but tells their story in such a way that doesn't over dramatize a situation many families deal with every day. Their daughter, Haddie, also has to deal with being the forgotten child as Adam and his wife Kristina must focus their attention on their son Max.
The next child is Sarah. We first meet her as she and her two teenage kids move into Zeek and Camille's home. Sarah was the wild child of the family. She married an alcoholic musician, had a girl and a boy with him, but left him to move back home and hopefully rebuild her family. Sarah is a bit lost both as a person and a mother, and her struggles are nothing if not easy to relate to. Her daughter Amber's battles with her mother are unfiltered and are one of the most believable family dynamics I've seen on network television. Sarah's awkward son Drew is a regular part of the cast, but has mostly been overlooked until recently on the show.
Julia Braverman, Zeek and Camille's third child, is a successful lawyer married to Joel, a stay at home dad to their young daughter Sydney. When the show starts off, Julia is portrayed as the workaholic mother who is mostly a spectator in her daughter's life. It's my feeling that the producers realized early on how unlikeable this would make the character. They've since eased off on that aspect of her and found ways to make her more of hard working but active mom. A wise choice.
The youngest of the group is Crosby (why they chose to go from Adam, Sarah and Julia to naming their kid after Melissa Etheridge's sperm donor is beyond me), a music producer and free spirit. Crosby lives the typical bachelor life until an old flame turns up and tells him that he's the father to her son Jabbar. Crosby's evolution from misfit to dad has been one of the most interesting plot lines on the show to date.
One thing that makes Parenthood work so well and stay fresh is the sheer volume of the cast. You only get bits and pieces of each family per episode, so if a particular story isn't catching your interest you're not stuck with it for an entire episode or more. The writers did a brilliant job of constructing families at different stages of their lives/marriages/children ages so that the show appeals to a wide spectrum of people. For the teenagers there's story lines involving Amber and Haddie for them to sink their teeth into. Haddie, for example, has recently started dating an older kid (played by The Wire's Michael B. Jordan. Go Wallace!) who has been through a lot at an early age. She's had conflict with her parents over the relationship. It's a high school story, but told in a real enough way not to bore the older viewer. It's rare that a show can have enough diversity and intelligence to appeal to teenagers, parents raising special needs children, new parents, single parents and grandparents.
What I think brings the show to another level is the cast. I've been a Craig T. Nelson fan for a long time, and I think he does a phenomenal job playing the 'man's man' with Zeek. Peter Krause (of Six Feet Under fame) plays Adam in such a way that you just root for the guy. His moments with Max are beautiful. I can't say the same for Monica Potter as Kristina. I don't know if it's the actress or the character itself, but something just annoys the bejesus out of me with her. I've been campaigning to my wife that they should shake up the family dynamics of the show and kill off Kristina. Any thoughts on this, fellow viewers?
As someone who has seen every episode of Gilmore Girls (might as well admit it, my wife outed me at our wedding and no, I will not turn in my man card), I want to love Lauren Graham as Sarah. Really, I do. But sometimes she just seems so wrong for the role. I'm sure this is in part attributed to her being the world's coolest mom on Gilmore Girls. There just seems to be such little growth in her character. It's frustrating to see her continually be the clueless mother.
Erika Christensen plays the overworked Julia. I remember thinking how talented she was as a teenager in the movie Traffic. It's nice to see her get something that she can sink her teeth into. Dax Shepard, who first rose to fame on of all things, Punk'd, is one of the most underrated actors on television. He brings so much heart to what could have been a throw away character in Crosby. His facial expressions alone can steal a scene.
Parenthood is one of those shows that make you feel good after you see it. Even if a particular episode deals with a tough topic, it's portrayed in as true a sense as I think you can get on network television. Ultimately, it's a show about family. Most of us are fortunate enough to be able to relate to that. Whether your family is good, bad, functional, dysfunctional, small or large, Parenthood has something that will appeal to you. More than anything though, Parenthood has qualities you don't find on television that often. Parenthood airs Tuesdays at 10 P.M. Eastern on NBC
Chuck - Why Aren't You Watching?
For those of you that have enjoyed the whimsy of Chuck for four seasons, you'll hopefully provide an "Amen" to the following post. But for the masses that have yet to latch on to this treasure, get with the program. It's currently the only thing I watch on Mondays. What is your Monday schedule like that you can't squeeze in some spy time? Yes, I'm aware that How I Met Your Mother, Dancing With The Stars and House are on at the same time. Check out my Parenthood post if you want to know how I feel about CBS comedies. How many times do you need to see D list celebrities Waltz? Oh, and if you've seen one House, you've seen them all. I'll fill you in on next week's House using my psychic powers. A patient comes in with an odd ailment, Dr. House makes a snide remark, the doctoral team feels they found a cure, but it only worsens said patient's condition, the surly limping genius has another humorous quip, they find the real cure, patient is better. Well, unless you happen to catch an episode with the infrequent occurrence of the patient dying. Roll credits, see ya next week. Second verse, same as the first. Now back to Chuck.
I'm reciting most of this from memory, so Chuck Loyalists please don't crucify me if I mess up or miss a minor detail. The series starts out with Chuck Bartowski, a nerdy, easy going guy who works at Buy More, an electronics store, where he is part of an IT team known as The Nerd Herd (yes, tongue firmly planted in cheek from the start with this show). He's a bit lost at the beginning of the show, having dropped out of college and taken the job at the Buy More where Morgan Grimes, his best friend since childhood works. Chuck lives with his sister Ellie and her boyfriend Devin, who Chuck and Morgan affectionately refer to as Captain Awesome.
In the pilot episode we see Chuck's college roommate, Bryce Larkin, running from a man we will later come to know as General John Casey, an NSA agent. Casey shoots Bryce and apparently kills him, but not before Bryce was able to email a Top Secret file to Chuck, specifically encrypted with a puzzle he knows Chuck can figure out. After receiving this email and solving the puzzle, a secret government code known as The Intersect is downloaded into Chuck's brain and the email self destructs Mission Impossible style. Chuck's brain, now full of the most sensitive secrets of the U.S. government, is now a hot commodity. Sarah Walker, a CIA operative, is sent to retrieve Chuck. Unfortunately for Chuck, so is John Casey. Unsure who should have jurisdiction over handling Chuck, the U.S. Military' decides to have Sarah and Casey come together in a joint effort between the CIA and NSA to protect Chuck and the valuable information his mind possesses.
Having read all of that, you're probably thinking that this sounds like a high speed, action thriller of a show. In some ways it is, but in most ways not. This is why I think Chuck is one of the most well rounded, widely appealing shows on television. There is action there for the blue collar Jack Bauer fan to enjoy mixed in with the eye candy Yvonne Strahovski as Sarah for, well, anyone to enjoy. However, due to the writing style of the show being as light-hearted as it is, the show never takes itself too seriously. Whenever there's an intense action sequence that may start to wear thin on the viewer who isn't interested in that type of thing, the show shifts gears to Chuck's job (which he maintains throughout the show) at the Buy More.
The Buy More brings with it another set of characters. Jeff and Lester, who make up the epic rock band Jeffster, also work at the Buy More. These are two characters so absurd they would force you to change the channel if they had a half hour sitcom, but in small doses they're wildly entertaining. The brain trust behind Chuck is wise enough to know this and adds just the right pinch of Jeffster to the Chuck stew. Chuck's friend Morgan is also quite the charming dork, and almost any scene he's in lightens the mood. More than anything though, as the show was designed, Chuck is the center upon which everything rotates. He's so quirky and awkward that adding him to the action scenes automatically makes them less dark.
One of the trademarks of the show has been its unique guest stars. The producers have done a phenomenal job of getting unexpected familiar faces on the show. Scott Bakula, Linda Hamilton, Robert Englund (yes, he was Freddy Krueger), John Larroquette, Lou Diamond Phillips, Summer Glau, Steve Austin,Timothy Dalton, Brandon Routh and many others have graced the Chuck screen.
As is the case with most shows, things change and evolve on Chuck. Chuck naturally begins to have feelings for Sarah and the cliched on again off again/will they won't they game is played, but in such a way that doesn't annoy and alienate the viewer (and I promise it gets resolved a lot sooner than most onscreen romances). Mostly Chuck is a show with a lot of heart, and has wavered very little in quality throughout its duration. Most shows can't say that.
Unfortunately, Chuck is probably more known by the non-viewer for its ratings struggles as much as anything else. It baffles me that this show has not reached more of an audience. Some of its struggles can be tied to the downtrodden times that plagued NBC's prime time line up the last few years, another part of the blame can be attributed the writer's strike in 2008 that doomed many new shows that came out around that time. Mostly though, some shows just don't find their niche (see Pushing Daisies). The viewers Chuck does have, however, are extremely loyal. You might recall a famous Save Chuck campaign that viewers got behind a couple of years ago that involved a certain sandwich franchise that sells 12 inch sandwiches for 500 pennies.
Personally, I feel that Chuck is one of the best shows on network television right now, and definitely the best program NBC has to offer (sorry The Office, your last few seasons have fallen off). It is currently in its fourth season and as of now it is still unknown whether or not it will receive a fifth. This state of limbo has been the case for the show's entire existence. If you haven't experienced the whimsical joyride that is Chuck, I strongly recommend it. Chuck airs Mondays at 8 P.M. Eastern on NBC.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
American Idol Season Ten - Top 13 *ELIMINATION UPDATE*
First and final warning: I've watched American Idol since season two. I have a very cynical view of a lot of things with this show, and there is an excellent chance that all of my Idol posts will contain copious amounts of snark and will NOT be politically correct. There, you've been warned.
I love music. I've played guitar since I was 14, done the whole garage band thing and essentially have been a music nut for as long as I want to recall. I've never been one for pop music, so I suppose it's ironic that I watch a talent show that claims it's in search of the next great pop star. I detest reality television. I think it's mostly chock full of fame seeking dimwits. Why do you watch American Idol, then? Hmm, well, I did title this blog A Blinking Idiot. My short answer to that question would be that I enjoy music. I enjoy seeing and hearing new things and new voices. I suppose the more truthful answer would be I started watching because I'm diverse in my TV watching and sometimes I just want the simplest form of entertainment.
Sadly, I feel that Idol reached its peak around season five and has been rolling downhill ever since. I probably watch now more out of tradition than enjoyment. In fact, my wife asked me last night why we watch the show if neither of us likes any of the contestants. As any good husband would do, I ignored the question. Without further ado, I present to you my thoughts on last night's performance show. My sister and I have a habit of reviewing the show to each other via text as we watch, so I'll sprinkle a few of those observations in as well. Some of them are juvenile and offensive, in which case I will label the text as anonymous. That's right, saving myself the liability.
Idol has received a lot of flack over its tacky theme nights over the years. In their defense, what else are they supposed to do for 11 weeks of performances?! But some of them were truly bad. Who wants to hear a trained gospel singer croon country? Or conversely is anyone pining to hear Scotty McCreery take on Motown? They kept it simple for this theme night, trying to give each contestant a chance to shine. The problem with that is there are far too many dull pennies in the bunch. The theme was "Songs of Your Musical Idol." Right off the bat I had some problems with some of the singers' choices. Really Naima? Rhianna? She's been popular all of five minutes, who did you idolize before Rhianna sang about rain prevention equipment? But Naima Avocado went last, so let's save her for later.
Up first was Lauren Alaina. My wife has a soft spot for this girl. She read somewhere that in response to what she's trying to do to become a star, Alaina had said she's trying to lose some weight. While I agree with my better half that it's sad that she has to think that way in today's pop culture environment, I'm an Idol Grinch and have little sympathy for anything Idol related. I'm more tired of how much the producers have shoved Alaina down our throats from day one. The girl has talent and plenty of potential, but no one likes to be spoon fed their opinion. Lauren sang Shania Twain (of course) and it was predictable, safe and boring. Surprisingly the judges gave her less than favorable reviews. I say surprisingly because the new judging panel seems to love everything. Perhaps they were under strict orders not to praise her for once because of all the backlash the show has already received from hyping her up. All that being said, I don't think she's in danger of going home. She's a cute country girl who already has a built in following. Going first and being forgettable puts her at risk, but I think she'll survive.
Next in line was Casey Abrams. Why do I always picture Steve Carell in Anchorman saying "I'm riding a furry tractor," whenever I see Casey? I am a fan of Casey's sense of humor; he seems like a dude you'd want to hang out with. I'm not sold on him as a singer though. I think Simon would have hated him. There's way too much of a Taylor "I don't sing that well but I'm sooo personable" Hicks vibe about Casey for me. I will say that I liked his rendition this week of Joe Cocker's version of "A Little Help From My Friends" better than his performance in last week's top 24, the hellfire and brimstone sermon of "I put a spell on you."
Ashthon Jones followed Casey. Who? Yeah, exactly. She got next to no screen time during Hollywood week, delivered a forgettable performance in the top 24 and was put through on the judges' wild card for reasons known only to them. She's definitely not going to be here long, especially if she keeps choosing snoozefest Dianna Ross songs. Most people have never heard "When You Tell Me That You Love Me." Heck, that song came out long after Dianna's reign as top diva ended. What made it worse were the judges praising her! What was there to praise about that decently sung, completely outdated, supremely boring performance? I need a good Simon "Pack your bags." Enjoy your fifteen minutes Ashthon, you're on your way out, possibly as soon as tonight.
And now we get to Paul McDonald...I've been wanting to like him. My sister has some weird obsession with him. To me, this is a guy that needs the guitar in his hands. His stage presence just makes me uncomfortable. Paul sang an obscure Ryan Adams song that most viewers won't know, and dressed liked Sergeant Pepper. Even the judges sounded uneasy while professing their love to him. They weren't sure if America would "get" him or not. Oh, I got him, I just want to give him back. I'm sorry Paul, I really did want to like you, but you're just not doing it for me.
Pia Toscano (if that's not an entree at Olive Garden I don't know what is) chose Celine Dion's "All By Myself", which I want to hate her for, but the girl can sing. I think she may have the best pure vocals in this year's group, but she'll probably exit weeks before the finale because her performances are very straight forward. She has no niche. She's not country girl or rocker guy or Mr. Personality. She's just a good singer. Odd as it sounds, that's never enough for Idol (see London, Latoya). The judges of course loved her and thought she was great, what else is new?
Up next is (audible sigh) James Durbin. He is the male version of Lauren Alaina. We've been told how "amazing" Durbin was since before he auditioned. They teased his audition for the entire San Francisco audition episode. Let me preface this by saying I couldn't stand Adam Lambert throughout his entire run on Idol. He annoyed the you know what out of me. I view Durbin as a cheap knock off of Adam Lambert. Obviously if you've read anything about this season of American Idol, you'll know that I'm not alone in this opinion. I have a theory that the producers decided early on that this season was, much like the last few seasons, weak on talent, so they played up the few people they thought would draw people's attention. This would explain why Scotty, Alaina, Durbin and Casey have gotten so much camera time. Scotty and Lauren bring in the country vote, and it's well documented that country contestants have had post show success. Lambert, screechingly annoying as he may be, was one of the most talked about contestants in Idol history and Casey is just damn likable. I haven't seen anyone ham it up for the camera this much since Matt Rogers (remember him? Anyone?). This dude knows when the camera is on him and never misses an opportunity to remind you that he's a rocker. Devil horns! Devil horns! Anyway, back to Durbin's performance. He chose to do McCartney's Wings hit "Maybe I'm Amazed". I love this song, and was immediately disgusted that Durbin was doing it. I must say though that I didn't hate it. For the first time he didn't infect the entire song with his wails. It reminded me of the one Lambert performance I enjoyed, when he showed restraint on The Miracles hit "The Tracks Of My Tears" during Motown week. All that being said, I don't think James Durbin's voice is that strong and thus he resorts to the wails as a crutch. Oh, and in other news the sun rose, Charlie Sheen's a lunatic and the judges loved his performance.
Haley Reinhart traded in her over the top runs and growls for yodels this week, choosing LeAnn Rimes' "Blue". I have no use for this girl, and I don't think America will either. She's one of those "nice" singers that has a few week run on the show and is immediately erased from our memories. On a side note, is anyone besides me wondering what happened to Nigel Lythgoe's earlier proclamation of not trying to have an even number of boys and girls make the top 12 (or 13) as they'd done in years past? Not that I'm over the moon about the men this year, but I thought this was a weak crop of girls especially, and was disappointed when they decided to do the five and five with the judges picking wild cards thing. Anyway, I'll finish up on Haley. Oh wait, I really have nothing else to say about her. Next!
Jacob Lusk decided to remind us that he's a good church going boy, turning R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly" into a religious movement. Has no one learned (producers included) that gospel singers (a) don't make good pop stars these days and (b) by and large don't have that much success on the show or after the show. How many powerhouse gospel singers have graced the Idol stage only to exit early and slink away into obscurity? Let's name some, shall we? Ruben, Rickey Smith, Fantasia, Jennifer Hudson, Mandisa, Lakisha Jones...Before you start screaming "Jennifer Hudson won an Oscar," umm, last I checked American Idol's mission statement was to find the next great pop star, not movie star. None of the previously mentioned singers have achieved any form of pop star status, and most of them exited early. Ruben and Fantasia are obviously exceptions that won the show, but have had zero mainstream success to show for it. Jacob Lusk is going to join this list, I'm afraid. His performance was as over the top and preachy as it could be, complete with the gospel singers flanking him. If you enjoy gospel music, then Jacob is right up your alley. Unfortunately for him, it's a rather small alley that doesn't pack a significant number of voters.
And now for something completely different. One thing you can say about Jacob Lusk is he brings you the emotion, which is in stark contrast to the contestant that followed him. Thia Megia has shown no likable traits thus far in the competition. She seems completely disinterested in, well, everything. This includes her performances. She chose some strange mutation of Michael Jackson's version of "Smile" that morphed into a Tony Bennett version halfway through. It was uncomfortable to watch. Even the judges couldn't fake enjoyment on this one. Let's put this girl out of her misery, please. P.S. More better is not proper English, dear.
Stefano followed her with another crime against humanity. He chose some awful dance remix of the classic Stevie Wonder song, "Lately." I didn't understand the judges putting him through with the wild card and he did nothing with this song but reinforce my opinion. But the judges love him so all is right in the world.
Ah, now at last we get to Karen Rodriguez. J Lo loves her. She sees a lot of herself in Karen. Of course that's why she loves her! I think Jennifer would put a mirror onstage if they'd let her. Karen stuck to one language this time, thanks for that. Big shock though, she chose Selena. Not to rain on the girl's parade, but she's a decade late on the Latin music invasion. Oh, and she's not that great of a singer. That also may be a hindrance. Her performance was so weak she even got the dreaded "you look stunning" critique.
This brings us to Scotty Lockthemdoors. He's provided some of the most amusing moments of the season for me. "Nuts of wonder," the phrase he created when he couldn't remember the words to "I Hope You Dance," has become one of my favorite phrases. I also loved when Jordan Dorsey asked him to sing something to audition for Dorsey's group during the group night rehearsals, and Scotty chose ol' reliable "Your Man" by Josh Turner. Four notes in Jordan told him "No, no, that's not gonna work for me." It was a few weeks into the competition before we learned that Scotty could in fact learn another song. I, however, still held out hope that he would sing "Your Man" every time he took to the stage.
Producers: Scotty, it's soundtrack week!
Scotty: Well, I'm sure this song's in a movie somewhere. (clears throat) Baby lock them doors and-
Producers: Scotty, stop it!
Scotty changed it up this week though, choosing Garth Brooks' "The River," complete with a backdrop so cheesy even Seacrest couldn't resist making fun of it. Scotty's performance was solid for what it was. If you're a country fan you'll enjoy it. His facial expressions are terrible though. He needs to practice looking at himself while he sings to see how ridiculous it looks. I'm sure J Lo has a spare mirror somewhere she could lend him. I worry about Scotty when they get to theme weeks that he can't go country with. Like the judges said, country is who he is and he would sound ridiculous on Barry Manilow night.
Naima closed the show with her longtime Idol Rhianna's "Umbrella." I've been pretty indifferent towards her from the start. She's another one I think the judges love far more than America will. She's shown little to no personality thus far, but the judges have gone out of their way to let you know how great they think she is. I must admit I can't stand the song she chose, so I was naturally predisposed to hate the performance. While I give her credit for injecting some life into an otherwise sleepy night, I don't think she's "different" in the appealing way. Crystal Bowersox was different and didn't show a lot of personality, but there was just something cool about her that people latched on to last year. I don't think Naima has that quality, although I do want to ask her what overstand means.
Overall it was another underwhelming night for Idol, something that has happened far too often in recent seasons. I always thought I'd miss Simon's presence more in the audition shows than I would on the big stage, but it's been quite the opposite. Now more than ever harsh criticisms are expected. These are supposed to be the best of the best, and when they fall short someone should be there to point it out. This judging panel hands out praise like it's candy. I'll keep watching for reasons unknown to even me at times, but it is getting harder to commit to.
Bottom three prediction: Haley, Thia and Ashthon. Thia goes home.
RESULTS UPDATE:
I've been asked to post an update regarding the voting results of this Idol episode. I don't feel that it deserves a full post, but I will say a few words regarding Ashthon going home. Not particularly stunning. While it was mildly surprising that Singing Zombie Thia wasn't in the bottom three, her days are numbered if she continues on her forgettable path. I'm slightly perturbed that they're sticking with the "Judge's Save" thing. If this is the Idol AMERICA is supposed to be choosing, who are you to tell us we're wrong? They just tried to do that, awarding Ashthon a wild card spot and we saw how our country reacted to that. America is a baby and Steven, Randy and J Lo tried to force feed us pureed peas. Bleck! Spit it back out Baby America! Bye bye Ashthon, we hardly knew ya, and apparently didn't want to!
I love music. I've played guitar since I was 14, done the whole garage band thing and essentially have been a music nut for as long as I want to recall. I've never been one for pop music, so I suppose it's ironic that I watch a talent show that claims it's in search of the next great pop star. I detest reality television. I think it's mostly chock full of fame seeking dimwits. Why do you watch American Idol, then? Hmm, well, I did title this blog A Blinking Idiot. My short answer to that question would be that I enjoy music. I enjoy seeing and hearing new things and new voices. I suppose the more truthful answer would be I started watching because I'm diverse in my TV watching and sometimes I just want the simplest form of entertainment.
Sadly, I feel that Idol reached its peak around season five and has been rolling downhill ever since. I probably watch now more out of tradition than enjoyment. In fact, my wife asked me last night why we watch the show if neither of us likes any of the contestants. As any good husband would do, I ignored the question. Without further ado, I present to you my thoughts on last night's performance show. My sister and I have a habit of reviewing the show to each other via text as we watch, so I'll sprinkle a few of those observations in as well. Some of them are juvenile and offensive, in which case I will label the text as anonymous. That's right, saving myself the liability.
Idol has received a lot of flack over its tacky theme nights over the years. In their defense, what else are they supposed to do for 11 weeks of performances?! But some of them were truly bad. Who wants to hear a trained gospel singer croon country? Or conversely is anyone pining to hear Scotty McCreery take on Motown? They kept it simple for this theme night, trying to give each contestant a chance to shine. The problem with that is there are far too many dull pennies in the bunch. The theme was "Songs of Your Musical Idol." Right off the bat I had some problems with some of the singers' choices. Really Naima? Rhianna? She's been popular all of five minutes, who did you idolize before Rhianna sang about rain prevention equipment? But Naima Avocado went last, so let's save her for later.
Up first was Lauren Alaina. My wife has a soft spot for this girl. She read somewhere that in response to what she's trying to do to become a star, Alaina had said she's trying to lose some weight. While I agree with my better half that it's sad that she has to think that way in today's pop culture environment, I'm an Idol Grinch and have little sympathy for anything Idol related. I'm more tired of how much the producers have shoved Alaina down our throats from day one. The girl has talent and plenty of potential, but no one likes to be spoon fed their opinion. Lauren sang Shania Twain (of course) and it was predictable, safe and boring. Surprisingly the judges gave her less than favorable reviews. I say surprisingly because the new judging panel seems to love everything. Perhaps they were under strict orders not to praise her for once because of all the backlash the show has already received from hyping her up. All that being said, I don't think she's in danger of going home. She's a cute country girl who already has a built in following. Going first and being forgettable puts her at risk, but I think she'll survive.
Next in line was Casey Abrams. Why do I always picture Steve Carell in Anchorman saying "I'm riding a furry tractor," whenever I see Casey? I am a fan of Casey's sense of humor; he seems like a dude you'd want to hang out with. I'm not sold on him as a singer though. I think Simon would have hated him. There's way too much of a Taylor "I don't sing that well but I'm sooo personable" Hicks vibe about Casey for me. I will say that I liked his rendition this week of Joe Cocker's version of "A Little Help From My Friends" better than his performance in last week's top 24, the hellfire and brimstone sermon of "I put a spell on you."
Sister: Who's your favorite this year?
Me: Steven Tyler.
Sister: Favorite SINGER?
Me: He sings.
Ashthon Jones followed Casey. Who? Yeah, exactly. She got next to no screen time during Hollywood week, delivered a forgettable performance in the top 24 and was put through on the judges' wild card for reasons known only to them. She's definitely not going to be here long, especially if she keeps choosing snoozefest Dianna Ross songs. Most people have never heard "When You Tell Me That You Love Me." Heck, that song came out long after Dianna's reign as top diva ended. What made it worse were the judges praising her! What was there to praise about that decently sung, completely outdated, supremely boring performance? I need a good Simon "Pack your bags." Enjoy your fifteen minutes Ashthon, you're on your way out, possibly as soon as tonight.
Anonymous Text: I hate Assthong
And now we get to Paul McDonald...I've been wanting to like him. My sister has some weird obsession with him. To me, this is a guy that needs the guitar in his hands. His stage presence just makes me uncomfortable. Paul sang an obscure Ryan Adams song that most viewers won't know, and dressed liked Sergeant Pepper. Even the judges sounded uneasy while professing their love to him. They weren't sure if America would "get" him or not. Oh, I got him, I just want to give him back. I'm sorry Paul, I really did want to like you, but you're just not doing it for me.
Anonymous Text: Scott MacIntyre dresses Paul.
Pia Toscano (if that's not an entree at Olive Garden I don't know what is) chose Celine Dion's "All By Myself", which I want to hate her for, but the girl can sing. I think she may have the best pure vocals in this year's group, but she'll probably exit weeks before the finale because her performances are very straight forward. She has no niche. She's not country girl or rocker guy or Mr. Personality. She's just a good singer. Odd as it sounds, that's never enough for Idol (see London, Latoya). The judges of course loved her and thought she was great, what else is new?
Up next is (audible sigh) James Durbin. He is the male version of Lauren Alaina. We've been told how "amazing" Durbin was since before he auditioned. They teased his audition for the entire San Francisco audition episode. Let me preface this by saying I couldn't stand Adam Lambert throughout his entire run on Idol. He annoyed the you know what out of me. I view Durbin as a cheap knock off of Adam Lambert. Obviously if you've read anything about this season of American Idol, you'll know that I'm not alone in this opinion. I have a theory that the producers decided early on that this season was, much like the last few seasons, weak on talent, so they played up the few people they thought would draw people's attention. This would explain why Scotty, Alaina, Durbin and Casey have gotten so much camera time. Scotty and Lauren bring in the country vote, and it's well documented that country contestants have had post show success. Lambert, screechingly annoying as he may be, was one of the most talked about contestants in Idol history and Casey is just damn likable. I haven't seen anyone ham it up for the camera this much since Matt Rogers (remember him? Anyone?). This dude knows when the camera is on him and never misses an opportunity to remind you that he's a rocker. Devil horns! Devil horns! Anyway, back to Durbin's performance. He chose to do McCartney's Wings hit "Maybe I'm Amazed". I love this song, and was immediately disgusted that Durbin was doing it. I must say though that I didn't hate it. For the first time he didn't infect the entire song with his wails. It reminded me of the one Lambert performance I enjoyed, when he showed restraint on The Miracles hit "The Tracks Of My Tears" during Motown week. All that being said, I don't think James Durbin's voice is that strong and thus he resorts to the wails as a crutch. Oh, and in other news the sun rose, Charlie Sheen's a lunatic and the judges loved his performance.
Haley Reinhart traded in her over the top runs and growls for yodels this week, choosing LeAnn Rimes' "Blue". I have no use for this girl, and I don't think America will either. She's one of those "nice" singers that has a few week run on the show and is immediately erased from our memories. On a side note, is anyone besides me wondering what happened to Nigel Lythgoe's earlier proclamation of not trying to have an even number of boys and girls make the top 12 (or 13) as they'd done in years past? Not that I'm over the moon about the men this year, but I thought this was a weak crop of girls especially, and was disappointed when they decided to do the five and five with the judges picking wild cards thing. Anyway, I'll finish up on Haley. Oh wait, I really have nothing else to say about her. Next!
Jacob Lusk decided to remind us that he's a good church going boy, turning R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly" into a religious movement. Has no one learned (producers included) that gospel singers (a) don't make good pop stars these days and (b) by and large don't have that much success on the show or after the show. How many powerhouse gospel singers have graced the Idol stage only to exit early and slink away into obscurity? Let's name some, shall we? Ruben, Rickey Smith, Fantasia, Jennifer Hudson, Mandisa, Lakisha Jones...Before you start screaming "Jennifer Hudson won an Oscar," umm, last I checked American Idol's mission statement was to find the next great pop star, not movie star. None of the previously mentioned singers have achieved any form of pop star status, and most of them exited early. Ruben and Fantasia are obviously exceptions that won the show, but have had zero mainstream success to show for it. Jacob Lusk is going to join this list, I'm afraid. His performance was as over the top and preachy as it could be, complete with the gospel singers flanking him. If you enjoy gospel music, then Jacob is right up your alley. Unfortunately for him, it's a rather small alley that doesn't pack a significant number of voters.
And now for something completely different. One thing you can say about Jacob Lusk is he brings you the emotion, which is in stark contrast to the contestant that followed him. Thia Megia has shown no likable traits thus far in the competition. She seems completely disinterested in, well, everything. This includes her performances. She chose some strange mutation of Michael Jackson's version of "Smile" that morphed into a Tony Bennett version halfway through. It was uncomfortable to watch. Even the judges couldn't fake enjoyment on this one. Let's put this girl out of her misery, please. P.S. More better is not proper English, dear.
Anonymous Text: Thia Diarrhea has the personality of a door stop.
Stefano followed her with another crime against humanity. He chose some awful dance remix of the classic Stevie Wonder song, "Lately." I didn't understand the judges putting him through with the wild card and he did nothing with this song but reinforce my opinion. But the judges love him so all is right in the world.
Sister: I love the song "Lately."
Me: You won't after this.
Ah, now at last we get to Karen Rodriguez. J Lo loves her. She sees a lot of herself in Karen. Of course that's why she loves her! I think Jennifer would put a mirror onstage if they'd let her. Karen stuck to one language this time, thanks for that. Big shock though, she chose Selena. Not to rain on the girl's parade, but she's a decade late on the Latin music invasion. Oh, and she's not that great of a singer. That also may be a hindrance. Her performance was so weak she even got the dreaded "you look stunning" critique.
This brings us to Scotty Lockthemdoors. He's provided some of the most amusing moments of the season for me. "Nuts of wonder," the phrase he created when he couldn't remember the words to "I Hope You Dance," has become one of my favorite phrases. I also loved when Jordan Dorsey asked him to sing something to audition for Dorsey's group during the group night rehearsals, and Scotty chose ol' reliable "Your Man" by Josh Turner. Four notes in Jordan told him "No, no, that's not gonna work for me." It was a few weeks into the competition before we learned that Scotty could in fact learn another song. I, however, still held out hope that he would sing "Your Man" every time he took to the stage.
Producers: Scotty, it's soundtrack week!
Scotty: Well, I'm sure this song's in a movie somewhere. (clears throat) Baby lock them doors and-
Producers: Scotty, stop it!
Scotty changed it up this week though, choosing Garth Brooks' "The River," complete with a backdrop so cheesy even Seacrest couldn't resist making fun of it. Scotty's performance was solid for what it was. If you're a country fan you'll enjoy it. His facial expressions are terrible though. He needs to practice looking at himself while he sings to see how ridiculous it looks. I'm sure J Lo has a spare mirror somewhere she could lend him. I worry about Scotty when they get to theme weeks that he can't go country with. Like the judges said, country is who he is and he would sound ridiculous on Barry Manilow night.
Naima closed the show with her longtime Idol Rhianna's "Umbrella." I've been pretty indifferent towards her from the start. She's another one I think the judges love far more than America will. She's shown little to no personality thus far, but the judges have gone out of their way to let you know how great they think she is. I must admit I can't stand the song she chose, so I was naturally predisposed to hate the performance. While I give her credit for injecting some life into an otherwise sleepy night, I don't think she's "different" in the appealing way. Crystal Bowersox was different and didn't show a lot of personality, but there was just something cool about her that people latched on to last year. I don't think Naima has that quality, although I do want to ask her what overstand means.
Overall it was another underwhelming night for Idol, something that has happened far too often in recent seasons. I always thought I'd miss Simon's presence more in the audition shows than I would on the big stage, but it's been quite the opposite. Now more than ever harsh criticisms are expected. These are supposed to be the best of the best, and when they fall short someone should be there to point it out. This judging panel hands out praise like it's candy. I'll keep watching for reasons unknown to even me at times, but it is getting harder to commit to.
Bottom three prediction: Haley, Thia and Ashthon. Thia goes home.
RESULTS UPDATE:
I've been asked to post an update regarding the voting results of this Idol episode. I don't feel that it deserves a full post, but I will say a few words regarding Ashthon going home. Not particularly stunning. While it was mildly surprising that Singing Zombie Thia wasn't in the bottom three, her days are numbered if she continues on her forgettable path. I'm slightly perturbed that they're sticking with the "Judge's Save" thing. If this is the Idol AMERICA is supposed to be choosing, who are you to tell us we're wrong? They just tried to do that, awarding Ashthon a wild card spot and we saw how our country reacted to that. America is a baby and Steven, Randy and J Lo tried to force feed us pureed peas. Bleck! Spit it back out Baby America! Bye bye Ashthon, we hardly knew ya, and apparently didn't want to!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
LOST - Season One
Anyone that knows me (or attended my wedding) is well aware of my love affair with the show Lost. What most people may not know is why I have such a passion for the show. I don't think my wife even fully understands it. For those of you Lost detractors infuriated, let down and/or annoyed by the finale (don't worry, no spoilers beyond season one in this entry), don't click away thinking that all of my Lost posts will simply be me heaving non-stop praise upon the show. I have plenty of issues with some of the decisions they made and didn't make. I suppose the best place to start any story is at the beginning, so I'll take you there.
I wasn't part of the first wave of Lost love when it debuted in September of 2004. In fact, I didn't watch a single second of season one when it originally aired. It wasn't until the following summer that I got introduced to the show that would come to consume far too many of my thoughts. My best friend since I was 14 (I'm now months away from 30) and I were roommates at the time, and we both were drawn to thought provoking entertainment. Having heard so much about the mystery and drama of Lost, we decided during the summer of 2005 to rent disc one of season one from Blockbuster. Yes, Blockbuster. Remember those days when you went to video stores? A few hours later we were calculating how much it would cost to rent the entire season. Realizing the cost, we decided it would be much more financially beneficial for us to purchase season one. A two day marathon later, we were hooked. Watching Lost became a ritual for us, and that weekend season one viewing party we had remains one of my favorite memories of our now 15+ year friendship.
Throughout season two my friend worked days and I worked nights, so the few hour block that we were both home became prime Lost viewing/discussion time for us. The endlessly mindless night job I had became my time for reflection on whatever episode I'd just watched. To end this far too long sidebar, we both started dating women who would later become our wives, he moved out about three quarters of the way into season three and stopped watching the show due to schedule conflicts and life getting in the way. I believe his last episode was Expose, which any Lost devotee will tell you is a HORRIBLE episode to go out on. If you're reading this, I will never forgive you for losing track of the show. I had to go through the final three seasons explaining Lost to my sister, which was more torturous than the eight or so month layoff the show took between seasons three and four. Update: He's recently started watching again and I strongly look forward to him getting through the end of season three.
Now on to what this post was originally meant to be: my thoughts on season one. I've recently re-watched season one and it is so striking how much the show changed from beginning to end. FYI, if you're fortunate enough to be able to rent or buy the complete collection on blu ray, do it. It is so vivid and wonderful; it's almost a whole new experience. Final warning to those who have not watched the show and intend to do so at some point. The rest of this post will contain spoilers about season one. And away we go...
The adventure begins with Jack's (our resident hero) eye opening. He's in a jungle. You see a shoe in a tree and a dog walking by him. He gets up, appears dazed and runs towards the sound of screams. Jack reaches a clearing in the jungle, revealing a beach and complete chaos on its shore from a crashed plane. He rushes to action, helping the wounded and trying to save his fellow crash survivors. This is important to note, as salvation and Jack trying to fix things become essential to what will unfold over the course of the next six seasons.
The casual fan may not be aware that Jack was originally set to die in the pilot episode. A little background on how the show was created: Lloyd Braun (the ABC executive, not the Seinfeld character) pitched an idea for a sort of Survivor/Castaway show. The powers that be at ABC liked the idea and told him to find someone to develop it. J.J. Abrams (who I am not a fan of, more on that later) was a hot commodity at the time. He was just coming off of the successful ABC show Alias, and was asked to help develop this idea. Having a great deal on his plate at the time, Abrams agreed to take on the project but insisted that ABC find him someone to work with who could take on the burden of the day to day activities. Enter Damon Lindelof. Damon had worked on some successful shows in the past and was highly thought of by some of the executives. He was introduced to Abrams and the two creatively hit it off. They soon had a pilot script to show the network. In it, hero Dr. Jack Shephard was set to die during the now famous Jack/Kate/Charlie trek to find the cockpit. Wisely, ABC felt that killing off someone the audience would quickly identify as the hero would make them immediately lose trust in the show. They were ordered to change it, which quickly brought about a casting change. When Jack's character arc was set to be about an hour long, Michael Keaton was in talks to play the role. He, however, had no desire to work full time on a television show (Why, Mr. Keaton? Still holding out hopes for Multiplicity Two? Or perhaps you're putting pins in your Christian Bale Voo Doo doll, hoping he undergoes some sort of "accident" and you can put the Bat Suit on one more time).
Over the course of season one we're introduced to our key players through a series of flashbacks. Most episodes center on one character or couple and a bit of their back story is revealed through these flashbacks. There's Jack, our aforementioned hero doctor. We learn that Jack was bringing his dead father's body back from Sydney, Australia (where the flight took off from) to Los Angeles (where the flight was headed). He and his father, Christian, had a complicated relationship. Relationships between father and child would become a recurring topic on the show. Christian was the chief of surgery at the hospital where his son was an up and coming spinal surgeon. Jack struggles with guilt over a decision he made that ultimately ended his father's career and started him on the downward spiral that lead to his death. Jack, who had always been reluctant to take charge, is thrust into the role of leader for the plane crash survivors.
We also meet Kate, the mysterious young woman Jack connects with quickly. We soon learn that she's a fugitive that was being brought back to the U.S. to stand trial for murder. Kate is a character that I've had a lot of personal conflict with from a viewership standpoint. I don't feel that the brain trust behind Lost writes women very well, and they often struggled with what direction they wanted to take Kate.
Another crash survivor is Charlie, the drug addicted washed up rock star. His character arc is one of my favorites and definitely one of the most satisfying. Charlie struggles with acceptance, always feeling like he was in his big brother's shadow and never feeling a sense of self worth (noticing a theme?). It was a visit to his brother that ultimately placed Charlie on the doomed air craft.
Claire, the lone Aussie we were introduced to in season one, served as Charlie's first chance to feel needed. Claire is pregnant when the plane crashes and we learn that her boyfriend left her during her pregnancy. Faced with raising the child alone, Claire decides to give up the child. This leads to an intriguing story line involving a psychic that Claire goes to see (I won't reveal the end of that story line for those of you that haven't gone beyond season one), which ultimately puts her on our crashed plane.
Con man Sawyer (listen closely as he refines the southern accent over the first few episodes) quickly became a fan favorite. I wasn't as big of a fan, but Sawyer definitely had his moments. We learn that Sawyer's mother was scammed by a man of the same Twainian name, which caused his dad to snap and kill both the mother and himself. In a sad bit of irony, a lifelong quest for revenge not only forces our Sawyer to become a con man, but brings him to Australia based off of a false tip that the "other Sawyer" was in Sydney.
Lost was such a different kind of show than anything else on television that they often felt the need to conform. This sadly lead to a Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle that I pretty much had no use for, but I understand the reasoning behind it. To many viewers that sort of scenario is something they can wrap their heads around, but the show was so enthralling that I don't think it needed to use that cliche as a crutch.
John Locke, a man of faith who was paralyzed until crashing on the island, was one of the shows shining stars in the first season. So brilliantly played by actor Terry O'Quinn, Locke was a tragic figure who his whole life just wanted to feel connected to something. The island became his connection. It's this writer's opinion that Locke's character was done a severe injustice by the show's end, but I'll save that for a later date.
Hugo "Hurley" Reyes was and is perhaps the ultimate fan favorite. The portly, lovable type whom we waited seemingly forever to get a flashback for, Hurley shed light on one of the show's first mysteries: numbers. For those of you just starting your Lost journey, pay attention to numbers. You'll see the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 repeatedly. The first sign you'll get that they mean something is in a Hurley-centric episode appropriately titled Numbers. We find out in this episode that Hurley won the lottery by playing those numbers, but the new found fortune brought him nothing but bad luck. We discover that Hurley, who spent time in a mental institution, got that sequence of numbers in his head from a fellow patient. It's Hurley's search for the origin of the numbers that puts him on the ill fated Oceanic Flight 815 (8, 15...see what I mean?).
The Iraqi Jack Bauer, otherwise known as Sayid, is another conflicted soul we meet in season one. An Iraqi interrogator (aka torturer), Sayid is haunted by the evil in his past but holds on to what he sees as the one act of kindness he performed: saving Nadia, the woman he loved, from said torture. It's his hope of reuniting with Nadia that sets in motion events that bring him to the island. Sayid is another one I don't think got the conclusion that befitted his character.
Sun and Jin Kwon are a married couple who end up as castaways as well. We learn over the course of season one that they have had a complicated relationship rife with lies and things unsaid (Sun, unbeknownst to Jin speaking English being one of the key revelations). Their complex love story would come to be one of many fans favorite plot lines. I never connected as much with them, though. I suppose you can chalk it up to my distaste for subtitles, but Sun and Jin episodes always felt to me like Lisa episodes of The Simpsons feel to Simpsons lovers (of which I am not).
Boone and Shannon, step brother and sister with a strained relationship, were two other characters brought into the show to provide more romantic conflict. I was never much of a fan of either, but I thought Shannon got a bit more flack than she should have. I've developed a bit of an appreciation for some of what her character brought to the show now that I've re-watched season one. Boone provided little to the story and mercifully became, to steal a line from Locke, the first sacrifice the island demanded. Go become a vampire Mr. Somerhalder. Lord knows we need another of those in our entertainment lives.
Michael and Walt are, as we soon discover, a father and son in title only. Michael and Walt's mother Susan split up when Walt is a toddler, and Walt grows up never knowing his father. When Walt's mom dies suddenly, Michael is given custody of his son. It's this news that brings Michael to Sydney (where Walt and his mom were currently living) and puts the two of them on flight 815. We find out in season one that Walt is a boy with special abilities. He's a key part to the mystery of season one, and one of the cliff hangers of its finale is Walt being taken off of the survivors' attempted rescue boat by a creepy group of island dwellers referred to as "the others."
There are other characters you'll come to know both on the island and in flashbacks (hey is that Claire Dunphy in Jack's flashback? It is!). You'll meet Danielle Rousseau, also referred to as The French Woman, who crashed on the island 16 years prior to our castaways. Ethan Rom (Other Man, the writers love anagrams and having fun with names) is someone who poses as one of the plane crash survivors but is in fact one of the dreaded others. Mostly though, this season is about the plane crash survivors.
The most compelling character of the first season though, is not portrayed by an actor. The crucial question of the season is a complicated one. What is the island? People saw ghosts on the island. Polar bears appeared and some strange monster would pop up out of nowhere, leaving destruction and at times death in its wake. There's a centuries old ship known as The Black Rock marooned in the middle of the jungle. There's a small plane that also crashed on the island and is full of what appear to be dead priests and heroin stuffed Virgin Mary statues. Locke discovers a door to an underground hatch that will serve as the other season one finale cliff hanger. What's in the hatch? The island is full of wonderment, danger and if you ask John Locke, miraculous healing powers. Countless theories were launched by the show's huge following.
Here are some of my favorite moments/observations from season one:
The revelation that Locke was in a wheelchair prior to landing on the island.
Jack seeing his father's ghost on the island. This was your first glimpse into the "haunting" quality of the island, an element that would be important in the seasons to come.
The introduction to Sawyer's nicknames.
Sayid's struggle for self-forgiveness.
Claire's dealings with the psychic.
The discovery of Ethan as an Other.
Locke and Boone finding the hatch.
Walt's "special" abilities. By far one of the coolest mysteries in season one.
The aforementioned curse of Hurley's numbers.
Jack messing with Sawyer while diagnosing him. "Have you ever contracted a sexually transmitted disease?" One of the few comedic moments Jack's character ever had.
Exodus, the finale. Lost would become famous for their jaw dropping, head scratching finales. The season one finale was the start of that. It produced my favorite scene of season one: Sawyer telling Jack that he met Christian, Jack's father, in Sydney (which we saw in a previous flashback). This tender moment played out as follows with a very well played monologue:
The season one finale as a whole was perfect. New mysteries were introduced (The Black Rock), our survivors were split up into two factions with the raft group and the island group. "We're gonna have to take the boy," will go down in television history as one of the creepiest lines ever uttered, and I can't think of a better way to end season one than the hatch door being blown off and the final camera shot of our heroes staring down the hatch shaft.
There's an undeniable magic to season one. Sure, there are some formulaic television elements of the show, but I'm able to look beyond that. They were building a story, but had to build an audience simultaneously. This brings me back to my earlier proclamation of my distaste for J.J. Abrams. If you're not familiar with his work, he was known prior to Lost as the creator of Felicity and Alias. Both were highly successful shows, but fizzled out due to what I see as a lack of growth in the story telling. I strongly believe Lost would have become a much more "safe" show than it became were it not for Tom Cruise. Huh? I'll explain. Cruise, being a fan of Abrams' work, pegged him to direct Mission Impossible III. This came up just as Lost launched, and Abrams left the show mainly in the hands of Damon Lindelof. Lindelof being a first time show runner, ABC wanted to bring in an experienced TV vet. This brought Carlton Cuse onto the scene. The two of them took over as the creative heads to Lost, and the rest is history.
It has always bothered me that Abrams continued to get so much credit for a show he had so little to do with beyond season one. I look at it from a culinary perspective. If you send someone to the store to shop for ingredients and they bring you back some fresh produce and prime cuts of meat, they shouldn't get a ton of the credit for what ends up on the plate if they left the kitchen immediately after dropping off the groceries. It was the chefs (in this case Lindelof and Cuse) that transformed these ingredients into the meal at your table. But I digress.
Those of you still undecided on whether you want to watch the show, I understand. Some of it seems absurd, and it's certainly not a show for everyone. There are hidden meanings and subtle secrets laced throughout the story that require a viewer's full attention. Watching Lost is a commitment. It's a thinking person's show. Sure, there are people who don't like that sort of thing that enjoyed the show (my sister for example), but for many of you that just want simple entertainment from your television experience, Lost may not be for you. If you watched season one and thought "Man, this show is weird, I don't know if I'm into some of the odd stuff," I'll warn you now that it's only going to get weirder. Heck, season one may be thought of as the least weird season the show produced!
Lost made its fair share of missteps along the way, but very few in season one. It was a wonderful ride for many of us that decided to hop on board, and one I'll never forget.
I wasn't part of the first wave of Lost love when it debuted in September of 2004. In fact, I didn't watch a single second of season one when it originally aired. It wasn't until the following summer that I got introduced to the show that would come to consume far too many of my thoughts. My best friend since I was 14 (I'm now months away from 30) and I were roommates at the time, and we both were drawn to thought provoking entertainment. Having heard so much about the mystery and drama of Lost, we decided during the summer of 2005 to rent disc one of season one from Blockbuster. Yes, Blockbuster. Remember those days when you went to video stores? A few hours later we were calculating how much it would cost to rent the entire season. Realizing the cost, we decided it would be much more financially beneficial for us to purchase season one. A two day marathon later, we were hooked. Watching Lost became a ritual for us, and that weekend season one viewing party we had remains one of my favorite memories of our now 15+ year friendship.
Throughout season two my friend worked days and I worked nights, so the few hour block that we were both home became prime Lost viewing/discussion time for us. The endlessly mindless night job I had became my time for reflection on whatever episode I'd just watched. To end this far too long sidebar, we both started dating women who would later become our wives, he moved out about three quarters of the way into season three and stopped watching the show due to schedule conflicts and life getting in the way. I believe his last episode was Expose, which any Lost devotee will tell you is a HORRIBLE episode to go out on. If you're reading this, I will never forgive you for losing track of the show. I had to go through the final three seasons explaining Lost to my sister, which was more torturous than the eight or so month layoff the show took between seasons three and four. Update: He's recently started watching again and I strongly look forward to him getting through the end of season three.
Now on to what this post was originally meant to be: my thoughts on season one. I've recently re-watched season one and it is so striking how much the show changed from beginning to end. FYI, if you're fortunate enough to be able to rent or buy the complete collection on blu ray, do it. It is so vivid and wonderful; it's almost a whole new experience. Final warning to those who have not watched the show and intend to do so at some point. The rest of this post will contain spoilers about season one. And away we go...
The adventure begins with Jack's (our resident hero) eye opening. He's in a jungle. You see a shoe in a tree and a dog walking by him. He gets up, appears dazed and runs towards the sound of screams. Jack reaches a clearing in the jungle, revealing a beach and complete chaos on its shore from a crashed plane. He rushes to action, helping the wounded and trying to save his fellow crash survivors. This is important to note, as salvation and Jack trying to fix things become essential to what will unfold over the course of the next six seasons.
The casual fan may not be aware that Jack was originally set to die in the pilot episode. A little background on how the show was created: Lloyd Braun (the ABC executive, not the Seinfeld character) pitched an idea for a sort of Survivor/Castaway show. The powers that be at ABC liked the idea and told him to find someone to develop it. J.J. Abrams (who I am not a fan of, more on that later) was a hot commodity at the time. He was just coming off of the successful ABC show Alias, and was asked to help develop this idea. Having a great deal on his plate at the time, Abrams agreed to take on the project but insisted that ABC find him someone to work with who could take on the burden of the day to day activities. Enter Damon Lindelof. Damon had worked on some successful shows in the past and was highly thought of by some of the executives. He was introduced to Abrams and the two creatively hit it off. They soon had a pilot script to show the network. In it, hero Dr. Jack Shephard was set to die during the now famous Jack/Kate/Charlie trek to find the cockpit. Wisely, ABC felt that killing off someone the audience would quickly identify as the hero would make them immediately lose trust in the show. They were ordered to change it, which quickly brought about a casting change. When Jack's character arc was set to be about an hour long, Michael Keaton was in talks to play the role. He, however, had no desire to work full time on a television show (Why, Mr. Keaton? Still holding out hopes for Multiplicity Two? Or perhaps you're putting pins in your Christian Bale Voo Doo doll, hoping he undergoes some sort of "accident" and you can put the Bat Suit on one more time).
Over the course of season one we're introduced to our key players through a series of flashbacks. Most episodes center on one character or couple and a bit of their back story is revealed through these flashbacks. There's Jack, our aforementioned hero doctor. We learn that Jack was bringing his dead father's body back from Sydney, Australia (where the flight took off from) to Los Angeles (where the flight was headed). He and his father, Christian, had a complicated relationship. Relationships between father and child would become a recurring topic on the show. Christian was the chief of surgery at the hospital where his son was an up and coming spinal surgeon. Jack struggles with guilt over a decision he made that ultimately ended his father's career and started him on the downward spiral that lead to his death. Jack, who had always been reluctant to take charge, is thrust into the role of leader for the plane crash survivors.
We also meet Kate, the mysterious young woman Jack connects with quickly. We soon learn that she's a fugitive that was being brought back to the U.S. to stand trial for murder. Kate is a character that I've had a lot of personal conflict with from a viewership standpoint. I don't feel that the brain trust behind Lost writes women very well, and they often struggled with what direction they wanted to take Kate.
Another crash survivor is Charlie, the drug addicted washed up rock star. His character arc is one of my favorites and definitely one of the most satisfying. Charlie struggles with acceptance, always feeling like he was in his big brother's shadow and never feeling a sense of self worth (noticing a theme?). It was a visit to his brother that ultimately placed Charlie on the doomed air craft.
Claire, the lone Aussie we were introduced to in season one, served as Charlie's first chance to feel needed. Claire is pregnant when the plane crashes and we learn that her boyfriend left her during her pregnancy. Faced with raising the child alone, Claire decides to give up the child. This leads to an intriguing story line involving a psychic that Claire goes to see (I won't reveal the end of that story line for those of you that haven't gone beyond season one), which ultimately puts her on our crashed plane.
Con man Sawyer (listen closely as he refines the southern accent over the first few episodes) quickly became a fan favorite. I wasn't as big of a fan, but Sawyer definitely had his moments. We learn that Sawyer's mother was scammed by a man of the same Twainian name, which caused his dad to snap and kill both the mother and himself. In a sad bit of irony, a lifelong quest for revenge not only forces our Sawyer to become a con man, but brings him to Australia based off of a false tip that the "other Sawyer" was in Sydney.
Lost was such a different kind of show than anything else on television that they often felt the need to conform. This sadly lead to a Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle that I pretty much had no use for, but I understand the reasoning behind it. To many viewers that sort of scenario is something they can wrap their heads around, but the show was so enthralling that I don't think it needed to use that cliche as a crutch.
John Locke, a man of faith who was paralyzed until crashing on the island, was one of the shows shining stars in the first season. So brilliantly played by actor Terry O'Quinn, Locke was a tragic figure who his whole life just wanted to feel connected to something. The island became his connection. It's this writer's opinion that Locke's character was done a severe injustice by the show's end, but I'll save that for a later date.
Hugo "Hurley" Reyes was and is perhaps the ultimate fan favorite. The portly, lovable type whom we waited seemingly forever to get a flashback for, Hurley shed light on one of the show's first mysteries: numbers. For those of you just starting your Lost journey, pay attention to numbers. You'll see the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 repeatedly. The first sign you'll get that they mean something is in a Hurley-centric episode appropriately titled Numbers. We find out in this episode that Hurley won the lottery by playing those numbers, but the new found fortune brought him nothing but bad luck. We discover that Hurley, who spent time in a mental institution, got that sequence of numbers in his head from a fellow patient. It's Hurley's search for the origin of the numbers that puts him on the ill fated Oceanic Flight 815 (8, 15...see what I mean?).
The Iraqi Jack Bauer, otherwise known as Sayid, is another conflicted soul we meet in season one. An Iraqi interrogator (aka torturer), Sayid is haunted by the evil in his past but holds on to what he sees as the one act of kindness he performed: saving Nadia, the woman he loved, from said torture. It's his hope of reuniting with Nadia that sets in motion events that bring him to the island. Sayid is another one I don't think got the conclusion that befitted his character.
Sun and Jin Kwon are a married couple who end up as castaways as well. We learn over the course of season one that they have had a complicated relationship rife with lies and things unsaid (Sun, unbeknownst to Jin speaking English being one of the key revelations). Their complex love story would come to be one of many fans favorite plot lines. I never connected as much with them, though. I suppose you can chalk it up to my distaste for subtitles, but Sun and Jin episodes always felt to me like Lisa episodes of The Simpsons feel to Simpsons lovers (of which I am not).
Boone and Shannon, step brother and sister with a strained relationship, were two other characters brought into the show to provide more romantic conflict. I was never much of a fan of either, but I thought Shannon got a bit more flack than she should have. I've developed a bit of an appreciation for some of what her character brought to the show now that I've re-watched season one. Boone provided little to the story and mercifully became, to steal a line from Locke, the first sacrifice the island demanded. Go become a vampire Mr. Somerhalder. Lord knows we need another of those in our entertainment lives.
Michael and Walt are, as we soon discover, a father and son in title only. Michael and Walt's mother Susan split up when Walt is a toddler, and Walt grows up never knowing his father. When Walt's mom dies suddenly, Michael is given custody of his son. It's this news that brings Michael to Sydney (where Walt and his mom were currently living) and puts the two of them on flight 815. We find out in season one that Walt is a boy with special abilities. He's a key part to the mystery of season one, and one of the cliff hangers of its finale is Walt being taken off of the survivors' attempted rescue boat by a creepy group of island dwellers referred to as "the others."
There are other characters you'll come to know both on the island and in flashbacks (hey is that Claire Dunphy in Jack's flashback? It is!). You'll meet Danielle Rousseau, also referred to as The French Woman, who crashed on the island 16 years prior to our castaways. Ethan Rom (Other Man, the writers love anagrams and having fun with names) is someone who poses as one of the plane crash survivors but is in fact one of the dreaded others. Mostly though, this season is about the plane crash survivors.
The most compelling character of the first season though, is not portrayed by an actor. The crucial question of the season is a complicated one. What is the island? People saw ghosts on the island. Polar bears appeared and some strange monster would pop up out of nowhere, leaving destruction and at times death in its wake. There's a centuries old ship known as The Black Rock marooned in the middle of the jungle. There's a small plane that also crashed on the island and is full of what appear to be dead priests and heroin stuffed Virgin Mary statues. Locke discovers a door to an underground hatch that will serve as the other season one finale cliff hanger. What's in the hatch? The island is full of wonderment, danger and if you ask John Locke, miraculous healing powers. Countless theories were launched by the show's huge following.
Here are some of my favorite moments/observations from season one:
The revelation that Locke was in a wheelchair prior to landing on the island.
Jack seeing his father's ghost on the island. This was your first glimpse into the "haunting" quality of the island, an element that would be important in the seasons to come.
The introduction to Sawyer's nicknames.
Sayid's struggle for self-forgiveness.
Claire's dealings with the psychic.
The discovery of Ethan as an Other.
Locke and Boone finding the hatch.
Walt's "special" abilities. By far one of the coolest mysteries in season one.
The aforementioned curse of Hurley's numbers.
Jack messing with Sawyer while diagnosing him. "Have you ever contracted a sexually transmitted disease?" One of the few comedic moments Jack's character ever had.
Exodus, the finale. Lost would become famous for their jaw dropping, head scratching finales. The season one finale was the start of that. It produced my favorite scene of season one: Sawyer telling Jack that he met Christian, Jack's father, in Sydney (which we saw in a previous flashback). This tender moment played out as follows with a very well played monologue:
Sawyer: About a week before we all got on the plane, I got to talking with this man in a bar in Sydney...turns out this guy has a son, the son's a doctor too. They had some big time falling out. The guy knew it was his fault, and knew his son was back in the states thinking the same damn thing...there's a pay phone in this bar, and this guy, Christian, tells me he wishes he had the stones to pick up the phone and call his kid, tell him he's sorry, that he's a better doctor than he'll ever be. He's proud, he loves him...something tells me he never got around to making that call.One major question would become a topic of much debate for Lost fans and critics, and I imagine even for the Lost production team. That question is a seemingly simple one, but as you'll come to know with Lost, nothing is ever simple. So I pose the question now to you, trusted reader. What is Lost about? Some will say it's about the island, some will say it's about spirituality. Others may claim it's about death. One could argue it's about science, or good versus evil, or science versus faith. In some ways there is no wrong answer. I'll save my full pontification for my end of the series post, but I will tell you this now: I think Lost was at its cinematic best when it focused on the people. Make no mistake, I was captivated by all of the island mysteries, adventure scenes and spiritual questions the show raised. I ate it all up. But it's moments like the above Sawyer monologue that were the lifeblood of the show for me. Not only did it reveal an intersection between some of the survivors' lives (something you'll see repeatedly in the show), but it gave us such a different insight into Sawyer as a person and allowed he and Jack to have a real moment that didn't feel contrived. So many of the Jack/Sawyer moments were Kate love triangle related that to see a side to these two men that involved respect and friendship was all the more rewarding.
The season one finale as a whole was perfect. New mysteries were introduced (The Black Rock), our survivors were split up into two factions with the raft group and the island group. "We're gonna have to take the boy," will go down in television history as one of the creepiest lines ever uttered, and I can't think of a better way to end season one than the hatch door being blown off and the final camera shot of our heroes staring down the hatch shaft.
There's an undeniable magic to season one. Sure, there are some formulaic television elements of the show, but I'm able to look beyond that. They were building a story, but had to build an audience simultaneously. This brings me back to my earlier proclamation of my distaste for J.J. Abrams. If you're not familiar with his work, he was known prior to Lost as the creator of Felicity and Alias. Both were highly successful shows, but fizzled out due to what I see as a lack of growth in the story telling. I strongly believe Lost would have become a much more "safe" show than it became were it not for Tom Cruise. Huh? I'll explain. Cruise, being a fan of Abrams' work, pegged him to direct Mission Impossible III. This came up just as Lost launched, and Abrams left the show mainly in the hands of Damon Lindelof. Lindelof being a first time show runner, ABC wanted to bring in an experienced TV vet. This brought Carlton Cuse onto the scene. The two of them took over as the creative heads to Lost, and the rest is history.
It has always bothered me that Abrams continued to get so much credit for a show he had so little to do with beyond season one. I look at it from a culinary perspective. If you send someone to the store to shop for ingredients and they bring you back some fresh produce and prime cuts of meat, they shouldn't get a ton of the credit for what ends up on the plate if they left the kitchen immediately after dropping off the groceries. It was the chefs (in this case Lindelof and Cuse) that transformed these ingredients into the meal at your table. But I digress.
Those of you still undecided on whether you want to watch the show, I understand. Some of it seems absurd, and it's certainly not a show for everyone. There are hidden meanings and subtle secrets laced throughout the story that require a viewer's full attention. Watching Lost is a commitment. It's a thinking person's show. Sure, there are people who don't like that sort of thing that enjoyed the show (my sister for example), but for many of you that just want simple entertainment from your television experience, Lost may not be for you. If you watched season one and thought "Man, this show is weird, I don't know if I'm into some of the odd stuff," I'll warn you now that it's only going to get weirder. Heck, season one may be thought of as the least weird season the show produced!
Lost made its fair share of missteps along the way, but very few in season one. It was a wonderful ride for many of us that decided to hop on board, and one I'll never forget.
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