Culture Surfing

LIVE TOGETHER: or Die Alone

First thing’s first: SPOILERS ABOUND. Second thing: What lies in the shadow of the statue?  A whole lotta win. “Lost” certainly delivered another one of its trademark “epic” season finales.  The episode titled “The Incident” should be renamed, in hindsight, “Because of Jacob.” Because of Jacob our Losties are all on the island in the first place. Because of Jacob we have a reason for all of this madness and a real chance at a great final season. Most importantly, because of Jacob, Richard “Ricardos” Alpert was made immortal and non-aging in all his attractive glory, and for that we are truly grateful.

The cast list this week was immense, but “The Incident” closed more doors than it opened with former and current cast members.  Another alternate title for the episode might have been “Vincent’s Return,” a situation pondered by fans since the whole frozen donkey wheel mess began. Never fear, Vincent is living happily with Rose and Bernard (who inhabit what later becomes Jacob’s cabin). Wisely, the two want nothing to do with the rest of the Losties, but instead are retired in a cottage living each day as it comes and unconcerned about death. Black-and-white rock/Adam and Eve, anyone?

Pretty much everyone on the original Oceanic 815 flight got a shout-out tonight, mostly in regard to Jacob’s role in his/her past, which helped bring them to the island. Plenty of questions answered there, one of the biggest being how Hurley was released from prison and gained access to Charley’s guitar.

Continue reading “The Televangelist: ‘Lost’ season 5 finale” »

Bookmark It

ONE EPISODE LEFT: Some much to say, so little time

There’s a theory regarding the pleasures of delayed gratification via online shopping. It starts with the small thrill of buying something over the internet. It’s not yet tactile, but you know it’s coming. Depending on your shipping methods, you’re either waiting at the mailbox every day or have semi-forget about the package altogether. Either way, when that box comes, it’s a little bit birthday and a little bit Christmas. Online videos have even been posted of people carefully and deliberately opening their packages, savoring each moment before their present to themselves is revealed.

Richard Alpert is this week’s wrapping paper for Darlton’s gift that’s been carefully unveiled in small parts for several seasons now. Though “Follow the Leader” was initially rumored to be the Richard backstory episode Lostphiles have been waiting at the proverbial mailbox for, it wasn’t quite so obvious. We did see Richard (looking like a true GQ gentlemen in all spaces and places) throughout time, but it was time we’re already familiar with. The episode was Richard-centric insofar as his (never-aging) presence coherently linked our two Lostie camps.

I have to say, for being some kind of “adviser” who’s had the job for “a very, very, very long time,” Richard appears constantly perplexed. Does the island tell him anything? And who are all those Others anyway?  Where did they come from? Next week’s episode appears to promise answers to some of these questions — after all, Darlton said this was going to be the last season of sci-fi business. If so, there’s a lot of island mythology that will need to be sewn up before we delve head first into the Quadrangle. (The Quadrangle is the current preferred term for the Jack-Kate-Sawyer-Juliet mess.)  Though Faraday’s death last week shocked and appalled, rumor has it that wasn’t the “major” death this season. Will one of the Quad-dwellers die off?

Continue reading “The Televangelist: ‘Lost’ episode 15″ »

Bookmark It

RIP: Brother from an Other Mother

I typed two completely different versions of this review — one last night that was full of love, and one this morning that was full of hate. (*Spoiler Alert*!) The swap came after some rumination over “The Variable,” set up to be an epic “Lost” classic. (The show’s 100th episode to follow Obama’s 100 days speech? Come on!) It succeeded and it failed in its attempts. I’m mostly frustrated for myself and every other nerdcore Lostie out there who’s sat through recent episodes this season saying “Yeah, yeah, yeah, OK we know, we know … but now what?”

“The Variable” belonged completely to Daniel “Twitchy” Faraday, fan favorite only behind his oft episodic-counterpart Desmond “Motorboater” Hume. Some questions of Faraday’s history were answered (yes, Widmore is his father); his present revealed (Why we saw him in the Dharma mines to open the season; Why it was so important to find Eloise Hawking), and his future decided (gunned down by mother as an adult in her past — would anything less complicated do?), all of which played out good guesses with a few twists that, in typical “Lost” fashion, both satisfied and beguiled.

Continue reading “The Televangelist: ‘Lost’ episode 14″ »

Bookmark It

1. @heywritemybookforme (Is a book really a book if it’s made up of Twitter posts? NYT columnist David Pogue seems to think so.)

2. The Lazy Reader’s Guide to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (It takes brains to hold firm in the no. 2 spot week after week — er something like that. Sorry, I’m starting to run out of cute one-liners after three weeks on the list.)

3. 5 things to do today: Saturday (Inman Park Festival, Bangkok Fight Night, the Atlanta Film Fest’s closing night … how to choose?!)

4. TIE! The Televangelist: ‘Lost’ episode 13 (Y’all still needed a ‘Lost’ fix after last week’s rerun. You really are addicted aren’t you?) AND “Caprica” provides intriguing “Battlestar” backstory (Sci-fi thrills, frills and automobiles.)

5. Alice Walker sews and tells (The Color Purple author’s archive opened at Emory last week, and you were invited to celebrate with Walker, Gloria Steinem and Howard Zinn, among others.)

Bookmark It

LIGHTS OUT: 'Friday Night Lights' wrapped season three last week.

1. The Televangelist: ‘Friday Night Lights’ season three finale (Eric and Tami say goodbye Panthers, hello East Dillon High.)

2. The Lazy Reader’s Guide to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Dropping one spot from last week, Wyatt Williams’ post about Brit lit’s new undead has taken on, uh, a life of its own.)

3. The Televangelist: ‘Lost’ episode 13 (Normally we’d scold you, saying all this TV you’re watching will rot your brain, but “Lost” is one hell of a mind game, especially when characters are seeing past versions of their fathers holding infant thems.)

4. Big burlesque weekend! (Y’all love some “hip-swiveling, tassle-twirling action.”)

5. Amazon.com ‘pinklisting’ includes Atlanta authors (Does Amazon hate gays? Not likely, as it seems some sort of internal glitch was responsible for the Easter weekend hullabaloo.)

(Photo courtesy NBC)

Bookmark It

YOU CAN CHANGE: Your own diaper

Ah yes, the long awaited Miles episode! I usually complain about needless backstory episodes (cough, Jack’s tattoos, cough) that don’t push the narrative forward enough, but “Some Like it Hoth” was a crowd pleaser, and I thereby refuse to judge it harshly. Miles the Swindler Ghost Whisperer held court this week as we sprinted through his life story: toddler Miles in a single-parent low-rent household; punk Miles uneasy with his gifts and searching for answers; and adult Miles, exploiting the grieving for cash and about to be recruited by Widmore. Finally, we learned that Dr. “Douchebag” Chang is Miles’ “Douchebag” Dad. Fellow watchers inform me that the rumor of Chang as Miles’ father has been around for some time, but since I apparently missed that boat my mouth was suitably agape at the thought. Of course, Miles has had three years to get used to the idea since, “on the third day here I was in line in the cafeteria and my mom got into the line behind me.  That was my first clue.”

At first gander, “Some Like it Hoth” feels chock full of island lore, but for most “Lost” devotees the reveals weren’t anything new.  Hey, there’s the Hatch! Hey, Kate’s messing something up! Hey, everyone on the island has Daddy issues! We saw the beginnings of study regarding the island’s electromagnetism (thanks to an unfortunate Dharma Denizen’s filling being yanked through his brain. It’s not a plane but … it will be). We don’t know what Chang is learning from the bodies (or what he’s doing with them when he’s done), but we do know something even stranger — he loves country music.

Continue reading “The Televangelist: ‘Lost’ episode 13″ »

Bookmark It

1. The Lazy Reader’s Guide to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Could this be the start of a new trend, like the “for dummies” phenomenon? We’re anxiously awaiting the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombies).

2. The Televangelist: ‘Lost’ episode 12 (What is Ben smoking? Or should we say, what’s smoking Ben?)

3. Cool Cinema at Midtown: Purple Rain, Puuurrrple Rain (A little stage humping goes a long way.)

4. It’s business time: Flight of the Conchords’ five best videos (Honorable mention: Bret’s Footloose-style “angry dance“)

5. Atlanta Film Fest rock docs (Chad Radford gives the down and dirty on the much anticipated We Fun and I’m Like This Every Day.)

Bookmark It

JUDGMENT DAY: Smokey can be bad for your health

The first thing we learned in “Dead is Dead” is that dead is not dead. At least, not in conventional ways. After a mediocre Kate-isode last week, this Ben-centric episode felt epic. The man formerly known as Henry Gale was in full manipulation mode last night, and the episode’s sole focus on him highlighted the fact that, all in all, there’s not been enough Ben in the fractured, busy storytelling of late. Typical of a great episode, though, the characters answered some questions and raised even more, including the very nature of of life (and, well, death).

Let’s start with some categorizing. Who’s dead and who isn’t? Both Penny and Desmond are alive — everyone can breathe easy. Locke is “alive.” (The quotation marks here mean everything.) Despite Ben telling Locke that it was part of his master plan to kill Locke so he could be resurrected, Ben admitted to Sun that Locke walking around alive scares the living daylights out of him. In fact, this episode marks the final shift in the Ben-Locke power struggle, with Locke reigning victorious. Locke now knows things Ben doesn’t, which infuriates our former Jacob-whisperer. Yet, “the Island” has chosen to keep him alive for whatever reason.  On the brink of life/death is Alex, slain daughter of Ben/Rousseau. Alex’s alive-but-not situation evoked a little Christian Shepard, and gives credence to the theory that Olde Smokey (”he who shall not be named”) can reanimate or possess the bodies of the dead for his own purposes (except that the bodies must retain some part of their original person, since they often slip in some unfinished business while they’re up and about).

Continue reading “The Televangelist: ‘Lost’ episode 12″ »

Bookmark It

YOU CAN LEAVE: But I will shoot you in the leg, dingbat

We’ve definitely returned to (un)necessary flashback/character-driven mode in Lostville these days. Most of us had guessed that Kate gave Aaron to Claire’s mother before heading back to the island, and that she’d been keeping tabs on Clementine Ford as well. Kate-isodes aren’t typically the show’s strongest, but despite a quick surfacing of the “Jate/Skate” relationship quandary, last night’s offering was, on the whole, solid. The best moments may not have included Kate, but credit must be given to Evangeline Lilly’s excellent portrayal of anguish over leaving Aaron behind.

“Whatever Happened, Happened” had a touch of “Grey’s Anatomy” to it, with two doctors battling it out over whether or not to save a young boy who will grow up to be, well, Ben Linus. In an interesting twist, Jack’s refusal to help young Ben turned out (of course) to play right into the realities of Ben becoming a Hostile.  Facing certain death among the Dharmas, young Ben is transported to Hostile territory by Kate and Sawyer, looking for help from our old friend Richard Alpert. Instead of being stitched up and growing up to be the village sandwich-maker, Richard will, er “take his innocence,” and Ben will become a Hostile and remember nothing. Anyone else feel like this was a cop-out? Since meeting young Ben, many speculators have started putting together the pieces of what adult Ben may remember from his Dharma days. Did he love Juliet because he remembered how she tried to save him? Did he make Sayid’s life hell because Sayid had tried to kill him? Would it explain why he had that list of specifically Hurley, Sawyer, Jack and Kate to take hostage in season two?

Continue reading “The Televangelist: ‘Lost’ episode 11″ »

Bookmark It

BAD ECONOMY: Will work for psychopath

Last night we got back into the typical “Lost” rhythm of one step forward, two steps back. Though nothing really pushed the story forward (er … leaving out the jaw-dropping ending. Spoilers below the cut!), we spent time with Sayid, in true Dharma spirit, on a trip riddled with karmic retribution. It began with toddler Sayid, a Natural Born Killer, and continued through the life of adult Sayid, International Badass … still a killer (with killer hair).

Peppered throughout “He’s Our You” were Sayid’s interactions with young Ben, suffering at the hands of an abusive father and desperate to join the Hostiles. (Side note: Sorry, but Dharma’s “crazy teepee man” has nothing on Sayid. The strongest weapon in his spooky arsenal is sodium pentothal? Give me a break. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Sayid had a resistance to it already built up in his bloodstream.)

For all of Sayid’s moral quandaries, the episode belonged (as it often does) to Ben. Young Ben, who later in life would find a predilection for preparing delicious hams, uses his kitchen prowess to make chicken salad sandwiches for Sayid in the hopes of bribing Sayid to help him leave the Dharma camp for the Wild Island Beyond. The Ben-Sayid relationship has always been complex and interesting, with the power dynamics between the two always in flux. Finding out last week that Sayid and Ben would meet in Ben’s early life (this time travel is wreaking havoc on my verbs) just added another layer to the complexities. I’ve always felt Ben saw Sayid as a true ally, although I’ve been misled by Ben’s manipulations before (haven’t we all?)

Continue reading “The Televangelist: ‘Lost’ episode 10″ »

Bookmark It

YOU HEARD RIGHT: I'm in charge now.

Namaste, recruits!  After a long two weeks “Lost” was back last night in an episode lacking in focus but full of small, fan-pleasing moments. To begin at the beginning: We returned to the plane crash, this time from the point of view of the other Others (Planies?), who mysteriously include Sun. After not quite crash-landing on the island, Lapidus gives a half-hearted attempt to organize the passengers, but allows Caesar to play that role as he follows Sun who’s following a shifty Ben.

Turns out, the plane landed on one of the satellite islands — one where our Losties were held hostage in season three. Ben, Lapidus and a newly badass Sun take a boat to the island proper, which is not in 1977 where the Oceanic Four landed, but in present day. After a cameo appearance by Old Smokey, Christian Shepherd emerges from the shadows to reveal that the folks they seek are actually in the past.

One plot down, several to go. As mentioned, last night’s episode didn’t set its sights on one character arc in particular, instead keeping a wide scope on all the new groupings.  Whereas the Sun-Ben-Lapidus plot might have taken up an entire episode of its own in seasons past, last night it was barely a footnote in this filler-sode. I say filler not in a “Jack’s Tattoos” way, but in that it literally filled in some gaps in island mythology (specifically Dharma-related). In doing so, it also uncovered the further significance of characters from the past (including Radinsky and, holy horrors, Ethan!), tying it in with our main characters’ present.  As the cinematography showcased the island’s dramatic and varied scenery, so too did the plot take us to all all the hills and valleys of our characters new situations.

Continue reading “The Televangelist: ‘Lost’ episode 9″ »

Bookmark It

“Lost” was a rerun last night, so The Televangelist took the week off. However, that’s no reason why we should take a break from pointless speculation about the show, especially given this week’s rumor that a major character will be killed off this season. A few weeks ago the buzz had Evangeline “Kate” Lilly leaving the show and auditioning for a new series, but that rumor has apparently been quashed. Yesterday, though, E! Online posted an item claiming:

• A current series regular is getting killed before the end of season five.
• The character who will die is someone who is much-loved by many of you fans.
• This is a real leaving-the-show death, à la Shannon or Charlie, not a quick-fix time-travel death like Jeremy Bentham/John Locke.
• The character getting killed off is not, I repeat, not Evie’s character Kate Austen.

So the question is, who? Given that the show just brought Jin and Locke back from the dead a few episodes ago, bumping them off would seem pretty cruel. One theory seems to suggest that Juliet’s number is up — but would they kill off another female character so soon after Charlotte’s demise? ? I personally would find it fascinating if it were Jack — according to the “Lost” Season One DVD, the show creators considered killing off Jack at the end of the pilot, as a way of setting up Kate to be the show’s true protagonist.That’s probably unlikely, so who? Anybody but Hurley. Or Desmond…

Bookmark It

I CAN READ: Because my mother taught me

Merry Lostnesday! Thanks again to Curt Holman for filling in for me last week when I actually happened to be on a remote island without TV or internet but plenty of crazy. I caught up with the latest episode only hours before this one, and boy howdy, I rejoiced. This has to be my favorite season so far, if only because of the payoffs to theories and setups from the past. I might even go so far as to declare last week’s episode the best one since the Constant (gasp!)

In a recent Entertainment Weekly article, producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof (known as Darlton from here on out) said our current season 5 was going to be an all-out sci-fi fest (holler!), but that the final season would go back to focusing on the relationships among the characters, a la season 1 (so enjoy this while you can). They also promised the long-awaited Richard back story, a resolution to the “what-the?” regarding the freaky four-toed statue, and of course, more Smokey. For now though, we travel back to L.A. with the Oceanic 6 (minus Aaron) leaving on a jet plane.

After about 20 episodes of dallying (or so it felt), the O6 finally made its way to the island. At the episode’s onset we learned a little bit about the island’s movements and some of its rules. (Why did they all have to go back? To recreate the original plane trip as best as possible to crash again, of course). Sayid is now a fugitive. Hurley shows up out of federal prison, (one would assume, yet with Charlie’s guitar?) and has no trouble getting through airport security. Kate was moody (shouting at Jack, “Don’t ever ask me about Aaron again!” Where is that tyke? And don’t worry Kate, this is “Lost”— no one asks obvious questions). Even Ben shows up at the last possible moment, looking worse for wear, facing no inquiring about his copious injuries (courtesy of Sayid?). The Oceanic Six and Friends are far from the only passengers on the plane, but as far as what’s going to happen to “the others” when the plane crashes, as Ben puts it, “who cares?” The show finally got around to killing off Frogurt and the remaining Red Shirts. The last thing we need is for this plane to be carrying some more Nikkis and Paulos or Tailies 2.0.

Continue reading “The Televangelist: ‘Lost’ episode 6″ »

Bookmark It