What to watch while waiting for Lost

As you may know from previous posts, I'm fairly addicted to the ABC TV show Lost. I love the writing and I love how in one show they've managed to create such a believable world where unbelievable things happen. With an ensemble show like Lost there are so many characters to like and dislike! For example, there's the lovable goof Hurley, the adventuresome tomboy Kate, the fiercely intelligent Juliet, the stubbornly sexy Jack, the sexy bad boy Sawyer, the troubled but well-meaning Locke, etc. The great thing about ensemble shows is that if one character is starting to grate on your nerves or their storyline isn't moving in a direction you like, just wait a little bit and the show will move on to a different character for a while. The only problem with loving Lost is that you miss it desperately when it's not on the air! And since this upcoming season starting in February is its LAST SEASON I will be very happy when it's back on the air but also incredibly sad too. I have about a dozen theories of what's going to happen, but I won't go into those now. What I wanted to talk about is what I'm watching while I'm waiting for Lost to come back on the air.

This season ABC is airing two new shows that are kind of Lostian in style. The first one is "FlashForward." It's an ensemble show situated in the real world where something unreal happened and our characters have to deal with it. There was a worldwide blackout and for 2 minutes and 17 seconds the whole world blacked out and while they were blacked out they flashed forward to six months in the future and saw 2 minutes of what their life will be like. Some characters really liked what they saw while others didn't. It's an interesting premise. The characters are pretty well fleshed out and there's a character-type for everyone. I like it. It's not quite as good as Lost yet but I'll give it time. It also has used a lot of Lost actors. The actress who plays Penny Widmore on Lost plays a main character on FlashForward. And the actor who played Charlie on Lost plays a main character on FlashForward.

The other Lost-like show ABC premiered this season is a remake of an 80s show "V". I'm giving it a shot. It's more advertly sci-fi than Lost and FlashForward. This is another ensemble show with a lot of different character types. So far they've only aired 4 episodes and now they're on a break until March.

Both V and FlashForward are worth checking out. They aren't nearly as good as Lost but they're slowly working towards it and I think it's work sticking with them until they get there.

I'm a cheater.

I tried to stop it, but the attraction was too strong. I knew I shouldn't act on it but I couldn't help it. He knew what I liked and gave it to me with little ceremony. It was perfect and fuss free. Sure I feel dirty afterward but the gratification and pure pleasure I get from watching TV on the internet is too enticing and lovely. I can't help it. I'm weak. I'm sorry TV but we have to talk. I've cheated on you with the Internet and I know that's wrong on so many levels. I know I shouldn't watch TV on the internet because on most sites where you can watch TV on the internet the proper people aren't getting paid for what you are consuming. I know that the writer's strike of 2007-2008 happened because writers weren't getting the proper payment for their work especially their work that is displayed on the internet. That's why I feel dirty for consuming TV shows online. I know the writer's strike was resolved and the writers are being more fairly compensated for their works online, but I don't always watch on legitimate sites which means I'm not adding to their wallets. Which bums me out because as a wannabe writer I don't want to deprive anyone the fruits of their labor. But the internet makes it all so tempting. And easy. And wonderful.

So far I've watched several movies (I may be a cheater but at least I don't watch the stuff put online by the guys who smuggle video cameras into movie theaters and shoot while jamming popcorn in their mouths). I've watched several TV shows and that's where I've fallen in love. I started with "Big Love" which I liked but it was kind of a bummer to sit through at times especially when Bill Paxton goes on and on and whines and does predictable things. Then while I waited the requisite 54 minutes before I could watch some more (free, without joining whatever site I was on) I stumbled on to "Weeds". Now I'm high as a kite on "Weeds" and loving every minute of it. It's smart, well-acted and funny as hell. I smoked through season one and now I'm blazing through season 2 like a madwoman.

I'm sorry TV but the Internet offers so much. It offers all that you can but more immediately and with more of a selection. I know. It's terrible. I can't help it. I'm a dirty cheater and I like it.

A Mad, Mad World.

Mad Men is a show that's been getting a lot of buzz the last 2 seasons and last night was its season 2 finale. I have to admit that the season 2 finale snuck up on me. With the oddly short, non-traditional seasons on cable networks it's enough to confuse even an avid TV watcher like myself. I won't use this space to go on with a review of Mad Men's season 2 finale. Enough people in the blogosphere have already done that and are doing that right now. For a great review of the show I recommend checking out what Couch Baron has to say over at www.televisionwithoutpity.com on the Mad Men page. What I want to do instead of a review is a brief character study of Joan, the curvy office maven of Sterling and Cooper.

I love how consistent the Mad Men characters are written. Joan has been quietly swishing in the background of almost every episode and when she flounces up to the forefront of the storyline I'm always surprised with what she has to say, and pleased at the same time. I loved it when she played a little Russian Roulette with Peggy in season 1. Peggy rose past Joan and Joan quietly swished in the background, slowly working on finding the life she's been looking to start. It was revealed last season that Joan is "older"... gasp... in her 30s... and single... gasp! However, no one in the office sees Joan like a spinster, because how could you with curves like that? What I find compelling this season is that Joan finally got her guy. She had her fling with Roger Sterling, but knew when to back off, because everyone except for 20 year-old nitwit secretaries knows that Roger Sterling is unstable and ready to blow at any moment (double entendre intended).

Now this season she's getting ready to settle down with her successful doctor fiance. It's as if she took the "What Man Every Woman Should Want to Marry" (circa Now and Forever) and ticked off the stereotypical characteristics: young, handsome, tall, conservative, doctor, ambitious. The only problem is he was checking off his list of "The Lousy Things Men Do To Well-Meaning Women": he's jealous, doesn't think she should work, and likes to think that she doesn't have a past with other men, especially a sexual past. He also likes to be the dominant one in the relationship and from everything we've seen with Joan, she is always the dominate one. So for her to choose a "life mate" who is desperately seeking to be the heavy in the relationship, it's a little shocking. The second to last episode of the season he showed his true colors. Joan was acting too confident in bed, she wanted to do the driving and that made him feel inexperienced and stupid. A lousy man feeling stupid usually leads to lousy behavior, but I never saw what he did coming. I should have, but I didn't, much like Joan. He tried to take her power away in the most disgusting, vile and inhumane way.

Joan in season 1 was written as the woman in charge, confident, knew her way around the workplace and men. She simply knew her way around life, even though she didn't always behave as a good girl, you couldn't help but love everything she did. Now, Joan in season 2 was older and was realizing that with each passing month her powers of persuasion with the opposite sex may start to dwindle. So she did what every other woman before her has done: settled for the next stable guy who showed an interest. Oh Joan, why did you have to go and settle? Where did the feisty redhead from season 1 go. The one who could put someone in their place with a quick lashing of the tongue? Was time really that cruel to you? Please come back feisty Joan and don't let that creepy slime ball take you any further down that desolate and sad path of a marriage of convenience. The thing is, I don't think they set up how powerfully confident Joan is only to strip that power away from her with one swift plot maneuver. The writers wrote her as a strong woman so that they go strip her down and have her build herself back up again.

The Internet is Scary

Seriously watch out people, this chick might be lurking around the corner the next time you're leaving the Cum 'n Go (I swear to god there are gas stations named that in Iowa). Anyway, I found her on a creepy ad for home loans or something. The housing market is incredibly scary as it is. We don't need to add to that fright by putting creepy robot Jane Doe on the ad! Yikes. She even would move around and close and open her eyes when you rolled your mouse on her. I swear I'm going to see her in my next nightmare!

I know this has NOTHING to do with television, but maybe it does. Ads like that are like the equivalent of infomercials starring "Bob" and "Nancy" (not their real names). "Bob" excitedly eats strange "food items" that "Nancy" makes with a weird sandwich press thing that you will never you use, you don't need and yet you still find yourself wanting because "Bob" seems so excited about it and "Nancy" makes such strangely odd combinations of food. One of her "recipes" is a sick looking brownie/candy bar cake thing that looks so gross, yet I would still totally eat it if "Nancy" came to my house and gave me one. How could you not want that?

I know. That was a pathetic try to turn this blog entry into something that is actually related to television. I must admit I'm not that into TV right now. Don't get me wrong I'm watching it (hello, do you KNOW me. I live TV!) but I'm not really feeling it. I suppose it's because TV is still going through these strange growing pains after the writers strike. The only programs on are reality and sitcoms. I'm not a big watcher of either of those, so I'm still holding out for shows like "Ugly Betty" and "The Office" to come back on.

So I promise next time I won't scare you with creepy internet ad lady, or my fascination with infomercial sandwich presses.

Verdict: Can't wait until the end of April when TV will be good again!

Lost: A Reaction

So, I thought it was a good episode. I laughed, I cried, I screamed "I've been there!" A few of those deep in the forest scenes I'm pretty sure I was where those were filmed because we were taken deep into the forest at the nature preserve and at Turtle
Bay and told they filmed parts of season 4 there. It was also fun to see the clip show at 7:00 because that
really showed places I've been: the pier, the waterfall, the crash site beach. In that clip show they didn't cover season 2 at all.
They kind of referenced a few things that happened, but it was really heavy on season 1 and especially season 3 (that's
kind of how I feel about season 2, I don't remember it all that well and I remember not liking it as well).
Don't read the next paragraph if you haven't watched the episode yet.

I was a little disappointed that we knew from the start that Hurley's story was a flash forward. I thought they were
going to disguise it a little more than that. I suppose they'll either be obvious or not so obvious and there won't be any in
between. Some of the mysteries they've now set up for season 4 are: 1) Who are the Oceanic 6? 2) How do the Oceanic 6 tie into who took Jack's side and who took Locke's side? 3) 6 isn't a whole lot of people, were all the rest killed or left on the island? Hurley's vision of Charlie said that "You know they're still alive." So there was a certain amount of ambiguity
there when they left, does that have to do with whether they were in the Jack camp or the Locke camp? That last question was kind of answered because we know that Hurley went with Locke and he is off the island as one of the Oceanic 6.
Also, in Jack's flash forward he was pretty crazy and wanted to go back to the island but he seemed very put together in Hurley's flash forward and didn't want to go back so we know that Hurley's flash forward is chronologically before Jack's. We know what caused Hurley to go nuts: Seeing Charlie. What caused Jack to go nuts? It wasn't just the death of the person in the coffin, because he was pretty far gone before he found that out. And we can assume that we know who 3 of the Oceanic 6 are: Jack, Kate and Hurley.

Some other interesting points we learned last night are that Hurley could hear Jacob. Hurley can hear/see Jacob (because we could see Jacob really clearly rocking in the chair, clearer than what we saw before). Also, how did Locke seem to know all that he did about what was happening on the island? He wasn't with either of the groups except for when he killed Naomi and then
he left again. He seemed to know about Charlie and stuff when he had no reason to know. And yes, I think that was Locke's face Hurley sees in the cabin. So my answer is... Locke has been staying with Jacob and Jacob is all-knowing when it
comes to the island, so that's how Locke knew everything. I think Locke has officially replaced Ben as Jacob's right-hand man. Also, the way Hurley was "seeing" the cabin was very interesting, he saw it and then he could close his eyes and it was gone, so it presented itself like one of his crazy visions (i.e. Charlie and Dave). Is Hurley's vision of the "moving" cabin like the smoke monster in that it senses the thoughts of the person it's presenting itself to and adjust itself accordingly. This ties in with my idea that Jacob is the smoke monster and therefore he has the same abilities that the smoke monster has demonstrated.

Another question to ponder is who is the black man who visits Hurley at the psych ward? I think the black guy is either an Other representative, a guy with Widmore (Penny's Dad), or from Naomi's group that attacks the island (from the freighter). Personally, I think he's from Naomi's group. Or I suppose since he says "they're still alive" he could be an Other since the Others were so concerned with Naomi's group coming to the island.

Another question is why are the Oceanic 6 being so secretive about the island (Hurley lies to the cop about Ana Lucia, etc.) My
answer to that is: Naomi's people (from the freighter) want the island for nefarious purposes so they want the island to remain a secret to the outside world. They struck an agreement with the Oceanic 6 that said that they could go back to their lives, but only if they never talk about the island and they never try to get back to it. That's why Hurley (and eventually Jack) go nuts because they realized they sacrificed the other survivors so that they could be let off the island. And why does future Kate seem so content with being off the island (in Jack's flash forward)? Because she has been pardoned for her crimes, she has a child (that's who I think the "him" is) and she's made peace with leaving the island. I think in order for Jack, Kate and
Hurley and the other 3 Oceanic 6 to agree to leave the island without the other survivors is that Naomi's people arriving on the island created a whole war/genocide (like Ben suggested they would) and conditions were so bad that the Oceanic 6 has to assume the other survivors were killed off and they have to save themselves by making this agreement.

I think they will be continuing to do both flash forwards and flash backs and time them out so they start to work towards each other to create the final climax when the show ends.

It's also interesting that Jack and Locke became the two leaders of the opposing sides. It's the Science versus Faith argument all over again. It's also interesting that people follow Locke when he's been acting so nuts for so long. It looks like from what I can tell that the people who go with Locke were the ones who were on the beach when Desmond came back and told them about Charlie and what Charlie said about it not being Penny's boat.

So those are my gut reactions to the season 4 premiere episode of Lost: "The Beginning of the End." That episode title makes me sad because this is truly the beginning of the end of Lost. The writers now have the end of the series in sight and now when they get back to writing after the strike is done they can really focus on pacing out the remainder of the episodes until the end of the series.

Lost Rescue Mountains of Season 4

Lost Rescue Forest

Lost Crash Site Beach

Lost Turtle Bay Resort Beach

Lost pier

Lost jungle

Lost bamboo photo

Lost- forest picture

This photo is of the mountains on the east/Northeast shore. I was running around taking pictures like a crazy woman (oh no, I've turned into a crazy woman like Rousseau) and each time I felt compelled to take a picture it was usually because the scenery reminded me so vividly of Lost. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate Hawaii for it's natural beauty and all that it has to offer not related to TV, but as the TeleVisionary Girl, you know I couldn't pass up comparing things to TV, especially Lost.

Byodo-Inn Temple

The Japanese temple (a replica of a real temple in Japan) that was used as the mansion where Sun used to live with her wealthy mob boss father. Sun is actually Korean, but the replical is actual of a Japanese Buddhist Temple. Jin also filmed scenes at this site. Also, the trademark first shot of Jack's eye in the pilot episode and subsequent shots of shirtless Sawyer in Bamboo grass all takes place at this site. I posed in the bamboo grass too, only I kept my shirt on (thank goodness).