LOSTies with Jed & Cara : Episode 17 "Follow the Leader" Part 2

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Vidmail, vidmail and more vidmail. The LOSTies are bombarded with messages from fans, crazy iron pumping supporters and one not very nice fugly. This might be a lengthy episode but join the fun as the LOSTies discuss the upcoming finale and who or what exactly is John Locke.

LOSTies with Jed & Cara : Episode 15 "Follow the Leader"

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John Locke is gonna kill who!??! The LOSTies' heads are spinning with the thunderous thump that was "Follow the Leader." Thankfully, they have a few friends joining them to articulate some sort of reaction. Come along and watch our group discuss the episode as quickly as possible during the wretched commercial breaks!

LOSTies with Jed & Cara : Episode 15 "The Variable" Part 2

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What does Daniel Farraday, gerber daises and "Hardcastle & McCormick" have to do with LOST? Not much... but the LOSTies find a way to combine them all in another action packed episode. Join us as the LOSTies ponder Farraday's "death," Jed plays dress up, and we go through a slew of vidmail!

LOSTies with Jed & Cara : Episode 14 "The Variable"

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LOST's 100th episode rocked Jed & Cara's world! Check out their reactions to the amazing ep, "The Variable," and make sure you watch for some truly shocking bathroom footage - YIKES!!

LOSTies with Jed & Cara : Episode 13 "LOST Rock Band"

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What does LOST have to do with Rock Band - not much, but that doesn't stop the LOSTies!  Here is the Monday edition where we are joined by a few friends who might just be bigger LOST fans than Jed and Cara combined.  Let's get LOST ROCKING!!

LOSTies with Jed & Cara : Episode 12 "Some Like It Hoth Part 2"

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The Monday-morning LOSTies is here!  In this episode we run with the Star Wars theme that Hurley introduced to us last week and make Cara take a quiz to test her Star Wars knowledge!  We also read and watch some viewer mail and that pesky Lilly makes an appearance.  *note - the episode begins with the same ad from last week.

LOSTies with Jed & Cara : Episode 11 "Some Like It Hoth"

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Hurley is re-writing "The Empire Strikes Back" from memory... and Cara can't remember who stabbed Naomi in the back!  Another exciting instant reaction from the LOSTies - join us, won't you?

LOSTies with Jed & Cara : "Dead is Dead Part 2"

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It's the Monday edition of LOSTies.  Jed and Cara and enjoying some burritos, pondering over Ben's role in the future of LOST, and prancing through the backyard in search of hidden Easter vidmail!

LOSTies with Jed & Cara : "Dead is Dead Part 2" from Jed Findlay on Vimeo.

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TV REVIEW : LOST 5.08 "La Fleur"

Here is a review of "La Fleur." Watch for flying peppers!


LOSTies with Jed & Cara: "La Fleur" from Jed Findlay on Vimeo.


LOST 5.08 "La Fleur" : A (Jed) B+ (Cara)

TV REVIEW: LOST 5.07 "The Life and Times of Jeremy Bentham"

Here is the review of "The Life and Times of Jeremy Bentham."

Check it out!


LOSTies with Jed & Cara: "The Life and Times of Jeremy Bentham" from Jed Findlay on Vimeo.


LOST 5.07 "The Life and Times of Jeremy Bentham" : A- (Jed) A- (Cara)

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TV REVIEW : LOST 5.06 "316"

This is the first episode of LOSTies with Jed & Cara - discussing "316."

Check it out!!


LOSTies with Jed & Cara: "316" from Jed Findlay on Vimeo.

LOST 5.06 "316" : A- (Jed) B+ (Cara)

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TV REVIEW: LOST 5.05 "This Place is Death"

Blowing my mind is a quality that LOST often beholds and does very well - "This Place is Death" definitely delivers on the mind massaging.

I am so happy with how the season is going, we have yet to have a bad episode or one that I really did not have a gasping moment with! This ep made me gasp about 5 times.


The biggest and best gasp of the night belonged to smokey. Watching Rousseau's team wander through the jungle to meet up with the Smoke Monster... watching one of her crew get blown out of the ground - into the air - and landing with a nasty thud (sound effects were big tonight).

Montand gets grabbed and is dragged in an exciting sequence - smokey is taking him all the way back to the...


TEMPLE!!! Finally, we get a view of the Temple! I guess smokey likes to hang out here and was given Montand a little tour - the gang held on to him as long as they could, til smokey severed his arm... oops!

Here was gasp 3 and 4 - realizing that Rousseau's team got the sickness by entering the temple after Montand... the scene where Danielle had to shoot Robert was heartbreaking and stunning!


The fun sort of let up once we dealt with the Island Losties finding the Orchid... and the LA stuff was ok this week (though not much happened). I did like Ben's fit about everyone not giving him the respect he deserved!

Having Desmond arrive at the end was annoyingly TV convenient. But - whatever.


The final sequence was gasp 5 - when Locke hit the floor and broke his legs... and had the bone protruding... ewwwww. The sequence was very cool. Christian Shepard announcing that Locke was to turn the wheel... not Ben... odd, what does that mean?

"Say hi to my son..."

The only real bummer of the episode was the death of poor Charlotte... we hardly knew her - my guess is we will see her again as a child - with the Dharma Initiative.

Yummy stuff folks - enjoy it now... this won't last.

LOST 5.05 "This Place is Death" : A

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TV REVIEW: Scrubs 8.07 & 8.08 "My New Role" & "My Lawyer's in Love"

It is my duty - my honor - to report... that Scrubs is good again!!!!

Ok, I never really left the show, but some of the last two seasons was really unbearable to witness. Season 8 opened up on ABC with the notion that it was trying to return the show to it's earlier greatness.

The first two episodes were pretty damn good in comparison to the last two seasons... but the following two episodes slipped right back into nothingness.


Then last week we had two eps that really tried to re-capture some feeling in the series - and they included some decent Seaseme Street dream sequences too!

That sounds weird, but it worked very well.


Now we have the 7th and 8th episodes of the year and... by God, I would put both of these episodes up against anything from Seasons 1-3!!!

In fact, "My Lawyer's in Love" has a moment that I would throw into the pantheon of Scrubs bits... take a look.



Hell, here's another nugget just cuz you were asking!



Seriously... the show knocked both of these out of the park. BRAVO!!!!

Scrubs 8.07 "My New Role" : A-
Scrubs 8.08 "My Lawyer's in Love" : A

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TV REVIEW : LOST 5.04 "The Little Prince"

"The Little Prince" did some good stuff and some really annoying stuff. The opening showed Kate holding Aaron, the night before Jack asks everyone to lie. Kate is pitching the idea that they say Aaron is her child. The scene was flat from the start - unnecessary for the story (we had already assumed something like this went down and we made the leap with the show... why shoot the scene?) and really not very well done on the show.

I get that the scene was to point to the direction of the episode (Kate might lose Aaron) but really, it did not work.


Actually, a fair amount didn't in this episode. Specifically, the writers have gotten very lazy. I am tired of scenes of "What did you just see?" "Nothing" "Why are we doing this?" "That's not important right now." These bits are used to stall until the proper scene starts up. The story is good, but the execution of dialogue is weak.

I do understand that the show has often sacrificed REAL dialogue for story driven time wasting... but it is badly on display here. Let's move on to what I did like.

One little surprise was seeing Claire's mother in L.A. and then finding out it was Ben who was trying to take Aaron. It was nice that I was wrong.


Another moment was one for Locke - his explanation of why he needed to endure the pain of his mistakes - that was worthwhile dialogue... and it made his realization of that all the more important.

The converse was the scene of Sawyer watching the birth of Aaron and seeing Kate - that did not work for me at all.


The biggest winning moments came with two major reveals: Hey there is Jin!!!

I am really glad Jin is alive and back on the show. I thought we might not get this solved until the end of the season - seeing it now surprised and thrilled me.

The other great moment had to do with Jin's rescuers...


Danielle Rousseau and her French gang!!!

I am very excited to see her story.

Overall, the island scenes still moved the episode along well. Methinks the boat and Ajera Airlines water bottle belong to the Oceanic 6 (even though they were chasing our Losties and shooting at them) and that our gang was in the future at that moment.

The O6 should be back on the island soon enough (just gotta go through some Sun drama and a Hurley break out ep). Still a good episode - just clean up some dialogue and get the O6 moving!


LOST 5.04 "The Little Prince" : B

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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-

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-

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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-

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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.

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Films of 2008

2008 is quickly drifting away and sadly, I only saw 17 films this year! I thought I might toss them up here to share with all. Frankly, after listing them and making a top 10 - I am a little sick. I really need to get out and see some good stuff.

Films of 2008 - from best to worst;

The Dark Knight: A
- Yeah, Chris Nolan did a fine job of following up Batman Begins. TDK moves and shakes and is filled with many wonderful moments that tower over its faults (of which it has many). I was entranced by Ledger's performance - really enjoyed how much Harvey Dent was a part of the plot... and tolerated the ending. I wish Nolan would go back and make this puppy a 3&1/2 hour epic that appropriately deals with Two-Face - but we will take this brilliant piece the way it is!

Wall-E: A-
- Pixar nails it again. Though I did hate that the humans were real live actors to start then turned into animated creatures... hmpf.

Iron Man: A-
- Solid - Downey Jr. Rocks!

Tropic Thunder: A-
- Solid - Downey Jr. Rolls!

In Bruges: B+
- I could listen to Colin Farrell talk all day in this flick.

Speed Racer: B+
- Shocked the hell out of me... the critics demolished it! Not very fair - I enjoyed this film a ton!!!

Forgetting Sarah Marshall: B+
- Pretty damn funny - thought it might be better... s'alright.

The Incredible Hulk: B
- Bit of a bummer - some good action sequences.

27 Dresses: B-
- Cara liked it, I did not hate it.

Sex and the City: C
- Cara loved it, I did not.

Step Brothers: C-
- Reign it in boys... 80% garbage.

Sex Drive: C-
- Too bad, loved the trailer.

The Bank Job: C-
- Nope - boring.

The Foot Fist Way: C-
- Funnier as a 5 minute video.

Semi-Pro: D
- Bad year for Ferrel, what the hell were they thinking here?

The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian: D
- Got drunk with Cara, Sara, and Jerry... and still hated this.

21: D-
- I love poker... I nothing'd this movie.

NOT MENTIONED: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: No Grade
- Uh, I can't even really talk about this film... most of the experience has been erased from my mind.

That's all I got out to see! A little depressing. Nothing compared to last year.

Watch out - LOST is coming on January 21st!!!!

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