Flashback, flashforward, flash-two-places-at-once?
Last night’s episode of Lost brought the intensity of the story to a whole new dimension. Literally. We’ve seen Desmond’s flashes of the future before and learned that time on the island was weird, but this episode really delved into the subject.
Not only was Desmond transported back in time, the quality of the writing was a blast from the past seasons with intensity normally only seen on the season finales. I mentioned in an earlier blog post that Lost has really redeemed itself after the pathetic third season, and I now I think it really has potential to be better than ever before.
The fourth season of Lost, however, is addictive and intense in a different kind of way than the first two seasons. The show used to have so many undertones and subplots of religion and philosophy, but it seems that the writers are abandoning much of that to go deeper into the sci-fi aspects of the island than before. Daniel the physicist seems to be a character that’s going to help us understand more about the island, and so far I really like him. By “like him” I mean “trust him.” Don’t get me started on Charlotte and Miles. They creep me out.
I’m glad that the new science-heavy Lost isn’t losing the humanness that made the earlier seasons so good. The flashbacks were such a great way to get to know characters, and the connections between the characters that were shown were always fun—especially because the characters themselves didn’t know the connections exist (ex. Clare and Jack are half-siblings, but don’t know it). Anyway, bringing Penny back as Desmond’s “constant” was a great way to keep the personal, emotional touch.
I’m so glad that Penny was back, even though we probably won’t see her again for a while. Her storyline drives me crazy because it has the most holes in it. Why was the communications room on the ship sabotaged and who did it? Why aren’t the people on the ship allowed to take Penny’s calls? And HOW DID SHE FIND OUT ABOUT THE ISLAND IN THE FIRST PLACE?
I can’t wait for next week’s episode.
Lost in this show
I have been watching Lost since the beginning of this season, but before that I had never seen it. At first, when I started watching it, I was really confused and had no clue what was going on. Then I saw Lost in 8:15, that summarizes the first three seasons into 8 minutes and 15 seconds. After seeing this I recognized how great a show Lost is. Although I have only seen about 5 episodes now, I can surely say that this past episode on Thursday, February 28th was the best of all time.
This episode was about Desmond being stuck between time and jumping back and forth between 1996 and present day. Each time he goes into the past and then back, the time shortens. His brain will short-circuit unless he makes a constant connection with someone from both times.
I don’t know why I thought it was so good, but it was. I absolutely loved it and would suggest everyone join the Lost bandwagon.
I will probably talk about Lost next week also. Check in soon,
~Anthony D.
Dealing Out Greatness
Over the past month, I have bought and completed watching the first season of Weeds.
Weeds is a Showtime show about a mother living in the wealthy town of Agrestic. Agrestic is full of sexual scandals, political battles for town positions, and, of course, the marijuana dealing widowed mother of two.
Nancy Botwin, the town dealer, has gotten herself in to mess after mess. First, she deals her weed in other dealers’ territory. Next, she has 14,000 dollars worth of marijuana stolen from her by a campus policeman. Her most recent accident is sleeping with a DEA agent.
I am only 7 episodes in to the second season, and my prediction is as good as yours. Silas, Nancy’s son, has knocked up a deaf girl. Andy, Nancy’s brother in law, brings Shane to a whore house. All the while, Nancy struggles with herself with honesty issues. Do her kids deserve to know about her line of work?
Her latest problem has been a raid on the dealers growing marijuana in the apartment building that she also grows in. The twist is, the DEA agent, who she recently married, by the way, ordered raids on those apartments to take away competition for his wife.
Nancy’s life is twisted, and is past the point of return. A mix of humor, as Andy teaches Shane masturbation techniques, with drama, as Nancy struggles to communicate with her children awards this show with the honor of “best show ever to reach the screen,” from me.
Almighty Family Movie
I have been extremely busy this past week because teachers always pile tests and quizzes the week before a school break. Due to this, I have not watched a lot of T.V., but I did see Evan Almighty Saturday night, and Fool’s Gold Sunday afternoon. I wrote about Fool’s Gold is my article, so I am just going to talk about Evan Almighty.
Steve Carrel stars in this movie that is a remake of Noah’s Ark. It was good, but not that funny. It had more of a family movie feel, but that could have just been because the whole time I was watching it, my younger sister was asking a million questions.
Besides the fact that it is a good family movie, there is not much else to point out about it. Steve Carrel is an extremely funny actor, but this movie might be the least funny movie/ TV show I have seen him in.
Next week is vacation week, but the week after that I will write more.
~Anthony D.
I think I might write about LOST…and something else
So, last night on LOST lots of questions were raised, and some questions were answered. But in obvious LOST tradition, more questions are created than answers given. Why is there a second nearly identical plane near the coast of Bali? Where is that photo of Ben from? And is Miles a ghostbuster?
Last nights episode cleared up various issues, such as what the new people are doing on the island (getting Ben), and Walt’s apparent growth. Yet mystery is still in the air, when Ben, essentially native to the island, does not know what the smoke-monster is.
In total, this has been one of the best episodes of LOST this season, which isn’t saying all that much since there have only been two episodes. The Writers Guild strike, which seems to have been going on forever, creates an abscence of new episodes, as well as quality shows. LOST’s return is essentially a two month period of glory, until what will ultimately return as a drought (unless the writers will give up or the opposition gives in).
Next’s week episode of LOST looks to be a doosie. Another one of the Oceanic 6 will be revealed (those who escaped the island). Additionally, we will learn about the motives behind the rescuers search for Ben.
After LOST, at 10pm, the new series, Eli Stone, airs. It is one of the few shows that is at all interesting without having excessive violence, sex or drugs. It follows the growth of Eli Stone, who very well may be a prophet. In these dark times for television, it is nice to have atleast one heartfealt show. It will never beat LOST though!
Superbowl 2 Letdowns in 1 Game
Of course everyone knows I am disappointed that the Patriots lost. I don’t know what to say about that besides that we had an off night. The Giants played terribly, but we played worse. Besides the game another thing that is super besides the game is the commercials. Sadly, the commercials were a letdown also.
Usually, the commercials that air during the Super Bowl are the best and funniest commercials of the year. This year, only a few were funny and of those few only three of them were funny enough for me to remember.
In the mix of car and House commercials, the three that I remember are The Fed-Ex Pigeon Carrier. Which is not a surprise because Fed-Ex has had extremely funny commercials in the past Super Bowl, like the How To Make A Super Bowl Commercial. Another funny commercial was the Bud Light Firebreather. The final funny commercial that I remember is the Doritos Giant Mouse.
Besides these few, the commercials were not as funny as past years. More to come next week.
~Anthony D.
Found: One great show, no new answers
If you’re one of those people who recorded the season premiere of Lost last night to do homework and hasn’t watched it yet…go read someone else’s blog.
For those of you who did watch (or who just don’t care), I think you’ll agree that Lost is returning to its former glory.
I have to admit that although the third season finale’s flash-forward brought thrill, excitement, and an agonizing desire for answers that’s been bugging me for months, it also made me nervous. Lost’s third season was weak. Although not every episode was as bad as the Nikki-Paulo fiasco, I was really doubting whether the show could survive. Would jumping into the future to show us that Jack and Kate (and we can now add Hurley and three unknowns) got off the island take the intrigue out of future episodes?
Absolutely not. If anything, answering one question about the future has only intensified the mystery. As much as I love the flashbacks, I really hope that we see more about the future as the season develops.
The only thing that really bothered me about this episode was that Jack tried to shoot Locke. Actually, it seemed like Jack and Locke had a bit of an identity swap.
Five minutes before the end of Lost’s fourth season premiere I was yelling “GO WITH LOCKE, YOU STUPID, STUBBORN, FAITHLESS, EGOMANIAC MURDERER” at Jack, but several minutes later I was silent.
Hurley thinks that he should have gone with Jack? Wait. What? This is such a role reversal. I’m used to Locke being the one to maker the freaky-faith-based decisions that end up being right. Also, he’s not afraid to shoot, while Jack is much more about the “saving.” It was so uncharacteristic of Jack to try and kill Locke that I assumed no good could come of his decision to meet the mysterious boat crew. Actually, depending on how you view the choice’s consequences on his future, it could be “good” or “bad….”
This brings up the question of whether Locke is “good” or “bad.” First of all, I hate to use the terms “good” and “bad” because right and wrong are so ambiguous on the show. Putting this aside, there’s never been any question in my mind that Locke is a good guy. Sure he can be a little eccentric, but faith can make you kind of crazy, right? It just seems weird that Hurley, looking back on his experience, decides that he was wrong to follow Locke.
I’ve always thought that Locke’s supernatural connection to the island would help protect the group, and when he was so sure that the boat could only bring danger, I assumed that he had received cautionary advice from Jacob. Is Locke purposely leading his group towards danger under the direction of Jacob? I guess we just have to wait to find out the consequences of the Jack-Locke schism.
Also, what’s up with Penelope? Is she just someone who’s going to pop up during season finales to annoy us and raise more questions? Lost leaves A LOT of things hanging, but it’s been two years since we saw the men working for Penny in the listening station, and I’d really like to know what’s going on over there.
Lost, you drive me crazy. And I love it.
LOST RETURNS!!!!
Last night on ABC, LOST returned with its fourth season. All I can say is….AMAZING. Without giving much away, season 4 opens with the oncoming arrival of what appears to be a rescue team, coming to save the survivors of Oceanic flight 815, after 91 days stuck on an island, invisible to the rest of the world.
Sadly, however, this season may be very short lived, due to the current writers’ strike. Depending on how much longer it continues, season 4 may very well be a mere 8 episodes. Co-executive producer Damon Lindelof told viewers that the 8th episode has a cliff-hanger, although it will not be on the same level as a season finale.
This season plays with time. LOST has always been known to use flashbacks to describe characters motives and emotions, but as seen last night (as well as the season 3 finale), flashforwards exist, providing the ultimate fates of our dearly beloved survivors. Now with three continuing story-lines, the show has become even more complicated and undecipherable.
Regardless, I will continue to watch LOST religiously until it ends or gets taken off the air (note: pun).
Look Out, Terrible Show
Friday night, after putting the kids I was babysitting to bed, I went into their den and discovered the greatest prize in their house. I moved forward and was standing in front of a plasma screen T.V. made by Sony that had as many HD channels as my T.V. at home has regular.
I began watching a rerun of CSI from 9-10, and then switched to NUMB3RS from 10-11. While I was watching NUMB3RS I saw that two channels ahead there was a marathon of Dog Whisperer episodes. As I began to watch I noticed that although it is an addicting show to watch, it is not a great show. He does help the dogs, but not to the level that you would expect from a “professional dog rehabilitater”. The dogs show a little improvement, but he leaves it up to the owners to do more.
It shows how the dogs are at the end, but doesn’t tell you how they end up in a later time frame. I think it was a waste of my time and next time I see it I will make sure to change the channel.
More to come next week,
~Anthony D.
Introduction to Anthony’s TV Blog
Hey, my name is Anthony D. I am the business manager for the Bradford, the paper which this blog is based off of. I also write about sports for the Wellesley Townsman. (Soccer in the fall, wrestling in the winter, and tennis in the spring) I recently saw two great movies. One of them I saw in theaters, Cloverfield, and one I saw at home, Lucky Number Slevin. Click their titles to view the corresponding trailer. Because this is just an introduction, I won’t go into depth about them, but using this blog I will talk about all things T.V. related. Trailers, Movies, T.V. Shows and even commercials.
Back to the movies, Lucky Number Slevin is about a guy who gets caught up in a feud between two mob bosses. All the crazy events tie up in the end which is very similar to the Ocean movies. (Oceans 11, 12, and 13)
Cloverfield is about a monster that attacks Manhattan. It is completely original despite many reviews. It is filmed from first person. One of the characters carries a video camera around. Even though this is original, it causes motion sickness, as one of the friends I went with found out. It was a great movie, in fact it was one of the best movies I have ever seen. I strongly recommend you see it in movie theaters. They have the best environment to watch it in. (Dark, big screen, with no interruptions like a phone call) This movie is unlike any I have ever seen. I had to look over at my friend to make sure I was in the movie theater and not in Manhattan.
I will post a new blog every week. So far I have no schedule, but if you want me to talk about a certain movie tell me and I will try to rent it and see it, or see it in the movie theater if it’s new.
Thanks for reading,
~Anthony D.
