Thursday, January 29, 2009

TV REVIEW: LOST 5.03 "Jughead"


I was a little worried after about 15 minutes of "Jughead" - but things became very very cool. The ep could be called a Desmond centric story, Des was off to Great Britain to find Daniel Farraday's mother at Oxford. Of course, there was no record of Farraday, but his stuff was still left in his office (this was a bad scene... bad writing!). This led him to a time-traveling woman who had worked with Farraday and who was living on life support with funding by... WIDMORE!

None to shocking.

Penny had a baby... blurg. The baby's name was Charlie, which I thought was a great reference to the man who brought them together - our drowned guitar hero... but then Cara said "Isn't her Dad named Charles?" Hmmmm. Des met with Widmore... meh. He made plans with Pen to head to L.A. - ok ok.


This real shiz was Jughead itself! Holy crap it is a Hydrogen-Bomb... dangling on some rope!?!??! When the bomb was revealed the ep finally started to kick into gear. Here is a little theory coming from someone who has watched too many TV/Movies... that bomb will be essential to the dramatic ending of the show.

EXT: H-Bomb Jughead is sitting on the ground in the rain. Jack hovers over it with a gun - Ben stands in front of him and Locke floats above the ground in spiritual form.

BEN/LOCKE: "Jack, don't do it."

JACK, in a breathy huff - sarcastically: "All roads lead here."

Jack shoots and the island explodes. THE END


More coolness came with Locke talking with Richard Alpert (who is delivering the most kick ass lines of the show... "Not that I want to contradict myself...") about searching him out in 1956. We sorta knew this scene was coming, but it was a blast!!


A juicy nugget was this little dish who marched Farraday off to the bomb. She was british, unsure of Farraday... and more importantly, recognizable to Farraday! Methinks this is a young Ms. Hawking - Dan's mom!


And that would make this man Dan's pop! WIDMORE!!! Holy crap! This was the reveal of the ep. I loved it. Man, Locke should have hauled off and slugged this guy - or done a Sawyer bitch slap!

Little Mr. Widmore used to work with Alpert - he was on the island in 1954... whoa.

Uber cool kids... LOST is a rocking!

LOST 5.03 "Jughead" : A-

Sunday, January 25, 2009

TV REVIEW: LOST 5.02 "The Lie"


Last season we started off things with a Hurley centric episode, "Beginning of the End," that found our large friend running from the police in his beloved Camaro. The second ep of season 5 again went to Hurley to lead the way (episode 1 was all over and so is this ep, but the title and a lot of the show lean towards Hurley... so maybe we can bank on that).


We start off with Hurley trying to deal with the action packed surroundings of Sayid's crazy safe house. Three dead guys, a drugged out Sayid, and one killer Shit-zu t-shirt later... and we find Hurley being pulled over by a cop.

I am not sure how I knew this... I suppose it was because Hurley does see dead people and that Ana-Lucia was the only cop on the show (discounting an unlikely Nathan Fillion cameo)... but the second I saw the reflection I knew it was her... and I loved it!! Ana was always stuck being such a downer, but with a little tweak of her character (come on Ana, life ain't that bad) and all of the sudden she is cracking me up! This little bit was the highlight of the show. Well done.


Challenging the Ana cameo for best part of "The Lie" is the story itself. I was dying watching Hurley and his family deal with the incapacitated Sayid. His mother's line "Why is there a dead Pakistani on my sofa?" just slayed me.


Yet, the top prize almost went to Neil Froggurt and his unsightly demise. Froggurt was a character mentioned in Season 2, but was fleshed out in the Webisodes preceeding last season. Again, the show had me giggling.

The on-island story is obviously going to be what makes all of us LOST fans drool. The strange army attacking the losties... I think we lost a few log carrying red shirts... I kind of thought these guys were Black Rock pirates - but the three soldiers at the end through that off... maybe it is a young Charles Widmore!

Yummy.


There were a few hiccups... Jack is still not doing much yet. Sun is creeping me out - Kate's story is moving slow... Hurley getting arrested at the end is merely a staller to keep things happening off island (though a humorous prison break should be a joy). The nugget with the arrival of Ms. Hawking at the end was worth the wait. All the bits with the chalkboard... the pendulum... the old (Swan-esque) computer... it all kind of leads to finding out where the island is... and when.

Things are starting off very nicely!

LOST 5.02 "The Lie" : A-

yo

TV REVIEW: LOST 5.01 "Because You Left"


This has been a great hiatus from LOST! I got Cara addicted to the show, started listening to some really good LOST podcasts... and nobody has gone on strike (knock on wood)!!

Last Wednesday brought a great Hawkeye victory over the Wisconsin Badgers and also the first episode of Season 5 of LOST. Cara and I got home around 12:30 from Iowa City and I was forced to watch the two hours of LOST waaaay past my bedtime.


Things got off to a rocking start with an alarm clock going off at 8:15 - waking a baby and a rather annoyed father named Edgar Halliwax... or Marvin Candle... or Peter Chang! Doesn't matter.

I was a little bummed that I knew who it was right off the bat. The comic-con video that the producers showed kind of led me to believe that Chang would be a part of this season - and that Daniel Farraday would end up spending time with Dharma. None of this is a problem though, I loved the hell out of the opening.


Off island, the Oceanic Six are all split up and unhappy with one another. Ben is attempting to get the group together (Sun is not playing nice at all - talking with Charles Widmore... saying she wants to kill Ben!).

On island, the losties are time traveling around - skipping like a record between timelines. This is a very big leap for the show, going completely sci-fi on us. I can dig it. Mostly... the bit where Daniel speaks with Desmond giving him marching orders... saying it all works because he is special... kind of a stretch. Oh well, still fun.


The most fun of "Because You Left" had to be when Ethan shot Locke - just seeing Ethan again was exciting and it really surprised me to see him come stomping out of the jungle. Locke tells him Ben declared him the leader of the Others... and Ethan wasn't hearing any of that. Then the jump to Richard arriving to let Locke know that he is going to have to die... oh, it all started with the Nigerian plane crashing!! This show is so cool.


Hour 1 flew by so quick I barely realized what had happened. The episode structure is completely all over the place (just as Damon and Carlton said it would be) and that might be a little tough to handle at first... but the pace is moving!

Thank crap that LOST is back!!

LOST 5.01 "Because You Left" : A-

yo

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Getting LOST


Watching LOST has not always been such an obsession for me. When the first season arrived, I was heading over to Holly and Dan's place and watching every Wednesday this odd show with very strange elements in it. We got excited about the monster in the jungle - loved watching the small twists (who is Ethan?!??) - and enjoyed seeing the dramatic flashbacks. Yet, once Season Two hit and I was not going over to Hol's place anymore... I lost interest.

I watched the first few eps of Season Two, but after that - I quit on LOST.

Flash-forward to the end of Season Three - news stories came up of how the series had completely shocked fans and sent viewers into a whirlwind of activity. I got interested again. So I picked up some DVD's and caught up before Season Four. Thus began my addiction.

While watching the DVD's I also listened to the Official LOST podcast - once I ate up all of those I moved onto The LOST Podcast with Jay and Jack - then The Transmission - and the Dharmalars! By the time Season Four hit, I was addicted to 5 podcasts and one majorly amazing website - LOSTpedia.

Season Four came and went and stunned me... then came nine months of waiting. Since then, I have added more podcasts (Donald is LOST, The LOST Mystery Podcast, LOST Chatter, etc.), spent far too much time searching through various online reviews and posts... and one more thing. I re-watched every episode with Cara.

I am not sure when she decided to allow this to happen, but sometime she accidentally let it slip that she would watch LOST from Season One all the way to Season Four with me before Season Five begins. We have spent days watching three to four episodes at a time (we did five once - it did not go well) and she has really taken a liking to the show.

LOST does have some not so good moments and frankly we kind of enjoy ripping on the show and some of the badness... but I have had a blast going through every exciting moment with her. From the initial shock of the Pilot - to watching Charlie overcome his heroin addiction - to Claire's birthing of Aaron - to the open of Season Two - to the deaths of Ana-Lucia and Libby... all the way to "WE HAVE TO GO BACK!!!"

We have four episodes left to watch before next Wednesday. Then we will finally be completely LOST.

yo