Wait, I know this.

SPOILER ALERT: This entry contains [very vague] information about last night's episode of 'Lost.'

I’ve never found myself watching ‘Lost’ before and thinking “Yeah, this has been done before.” But it happened last night, when Ben was in the temple. It was straight out of the ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ series finale.

I just wish I could find the right screencap. There was the rocky underground cave, the spiritual undertones, the lookalike who’s not who you think they are, the threatening violence. Even the way Ben had his vision, complete with swirling smoke and memory flashes, had the feel of a show on a WB-budget.

And while I loved it in ‘Buffy’ – the camp factor was key to that show’s amazingness – I’m not sure it fits with ‘Lost.’ Though, some disappointment has to be expected when they're trying to explain one of the mythology-heavy show’s most mythological mysteries.

Since I'm assuming most of y'all don't have that same kind of 'Buffy' frame of reference, I'm curious - what did you think about this Big Reveal?

TV nuggets

I’m not going to wax on long about ‘American Idol’ since guest commentary is pending; I just want to say a word about pools, and how they lead to such emotional conflict. Take Anoop, for example. I have him getting kicked off this week, because of how far he fell in the judges’ esteem last week with ‘Beat It,’ and because I just wasn’t sure how Grand Ole Opry would translate on him. But I love him, and the judges were right – his performance last night was among the best. Conflict, I tell you.

So you can keep me honest, here are my official AI pool predictions, as submitted yesterday (The person listed with each corresponding week marks the person I’m predicting gets kicked off):

• Week 11: Anoop
• Week 10: Megan Joy
• Week 9: Michael
• Week 8: Scott
• Week 7: Allison
• Week 6: Matt
• Week 5: Alexis
• Week 4: Kris
• Week 3: Lil
• Runner Up: Danny
• Winner: Adam

Dare I say Alexis and Lil are really in danger after last night? But I’m confident that if either of them gets booted by the popular vote, the judges will save them. According to our pool rules, that will give us the chance to rearrange out predictions. One week in? Yeesh.

In other television news – the CW had me wait 6 weeks for a new ‘Gossip Girl’ for that crap? (Note to show’s writers: Chuck is best when interacting with people we know. Weird high class hooker with out a heart of gold? Not so much.) It feels like 6 weeks since the last ‘Lost’ even if it just missed last week. Looking forward to seeing what Paul Giamatti’s doppelganger has in store for the (Um, major spoiler alert!) newly returned Oceanic 6.

No spoilers here.

How much makeup do you think was necessary to make Evangeline Lilly look this makeup-free?

Would you look at that - a whole (albeit short) post about 'Lost' with absolutely no spoilers!

Mashups are awesome.

Last night, Trevor said to me, “Remember when Michael ran over Meredith with her car and Creed listed all the pain killers she might be on?”. Because we had just finished watching ‘Lost’, the first thing that flashed to mind was “What? Who’s Meredith? I don’t remember that episode! Why am I so incapable of keeping track of everything that happens on that damn show??”. He was actually speaking, of course, of ‘The Office’ episode where Steve Carell’s Michael Scott hits one of his employees with his car in the parking lot.

Though initially confusing, this gave me an awesome idea for someone with time on their hands and Final Cut Pro on their computer. Please create a mashup where plot lines jump from 1 television series to another according to character name.

Let’s say we start with Michael from ‘Lost’ – the perfect scene would be when he gets in his car and starts speeding towards a wall. Before he hits the wall, we cut to Michael from ‘The Office’ announcing that he hit Meredith with his car. Now we’re in ‘Office’ land and the possibilities are almost endless:

Michael from The Office - Kevin from The Office - Kevin from Wonder Years - Jack from The Wonder Years - Jack from 30 Rock - Jack from Lost - Rose from Lost - Rose from Privileged - Lily from Privileged - Lily from How I Met Your Mother - Lily from Gossip Girl - Lily from Pushing Daisies - Chuck from Pushing Daisies - Chuck from Chuck - Chuck from Gossip Girl - Nate from Gossip Girl - Nate from Six Feet Under - Keith from Six Feet Under - Keith from Veronica Mars - Logan from Veronica Mars - Logan from Gilmore Girls - Luke – From Gilmore Girls - Luke from The OC - Ryan from The OC - Ryan from The Office…

From there, you could keep going (I didn’t even get to the Barney from How I Met Your Mother / Barney the Dinosaur connection!), or you are back at the beginning. It’s like a bizarre version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon – and it might become my new obsession.


Please note that today I have been having massive computer issues here at work – it appears I contracted some kind of virus. So, while I’ve been working on this entry – which clearly required a significant amount of time searching for and then playing around with images – I have been in a constant state of panic that the IT guy would actually respond to my plea for help and then walk in: “Yeah, it's the weirdest thing - it must be one of the side effects of the virus. Pictures of the cast of Gossip Girl just keep popping up!”

Man of the Month: February

Coming up with Man of the Month this time around was harder than usual (Or maybe it’s just the fact I’m not sure anyone should have to live up to a title previously held by Obama – but good luck with that Patrick Quinn). To get around the brain block, I've decided to break out of the mold a bit and honor the pop culture entity taking up the most of my time over the last month. I speak, of course, of 'Lost' (And by of course, I mean: Trevor and I spent one rapid fire week watching all of Season 4 on DVD before the new premiere two weeks ago. I’ve blogged twice about it already - and just imagine all the questions I left out of those blogs - and I’ve read more theories and missives over the last two weeks than during the previous 4 years combined.)

How convenient that this obsession comes fully equipped with totally qualified Man of the Month material! Some short love letters to the Men of Lost (And, yes, these are in order of Love - and, though they are wrapped in sarcasm, please be warned that SPOILERS may be contained):

Sayid – You kick so much ass, I have forgiven you for sleeping with Shannon during Season 2. I also loved you in ‘Bride and Prejudice.’

Sawyer – I'm still not entirely sure why you insisted you wanted to stay on the Island, then got on the helicopter to leave, then had the Most Dramatic Exit Ever...but you can call me Freckles anytime. Please don’t hook up with Juliette.

Jack – If you would just get over yourself, everything would be just fine. But you perfected screwed up leader so well in your 'Party of Five' years, and I love you for it.

Charlie – I’m sorry you had to leave us. Thank heavens you’re kind of a ghost now. I’d miss your hoodie, accent and short man overcompensation.

Desmond – Oh, Desmond. You have a chance for happiness. Why must you screw it up by reaching out to Widmore?

Jin – What progress you made as a character. I haven’t given up hope on you yet.

Daniel Faraday – I don’t know how I feel about you yet, but you are kind of adorable when you get all jittery. I hated that part last week though when you confessed your love for Charlotte though. Let’s consider you half-Man of the Month.

Yes, this is a Man of the Month first - not only recognizing multiple people at a time, but also doing so with characters. Back to real life next month y'all.

Get lost

Let’s talk about 'Lost'. (Again – if you are anywhere that’s not up-to-date, this is your spoiler alert.)

What a mediocre episode, huh? Actually, scratch that – what a mediocre first half of an episode, rescued by an amazing reveal. Well hello there, young overzealous Island-resident-who’s-not-Dharma-but-not-yet-Hostile, Charles Widmore!

This episode, ‘Jughead’ (which we saw etched on the side of the H-bomb that’s taken up residence on the island in 1954, courtesy of – gasp! – the US military) asked a lot of its loyal fan base, by focusing on all new characters (even Desmond isn’t an original beachie, and when the only original character being focused on is John Locke, you know you’ve got a problem.) and, more importantly, all new mythology. The producers aren’t leaving any room for doubt – this year is all about the time travel. We’re not flashing back and learning more about a character, or flashing forward and continuing their story. We are seeing all new ones created right in front of us. Without Jack, Kate or Ben. It’s a lot to take in.

Some random thoughts about the episode:

• This new blonde “Other” who looks like Drunkface from the new 90210 and doesn’t open her mouth when speaking – she’s got to go.

• Angela Chase’s dad as the hardnosed lawyer who wants to take Aaron away from Kate? (Fine, that’s from the preview for next week, but still.) Blasphemy!
• This was a good break from self-preserving, in-love-with-Kate, sarcasm-spewing Sawyer, which was getting a bit one-dimensional for my taste towards the end of last season and in last week’s episodes. It was classic, toned down Sawyer, and he had the best line of the night, as new blonde Other asks Faraday about time travel: “You told her??”
• Anyone feel like they are dividing the loyalties of Those Who Left the Island among Ben and Widmore? I know Desmond isn’t an Oceanic 6, but I feel l like they’re lining him up to be working with Widmore (more on that below), and we already know Sun is. Jack and Sayid are with Ben. Where will Hurley and Kate land?

I’m not one for theories. I barely read them, and I’m not sure I’ve ever had one – I prefer to trust the writers and creators to take me where I need to go with this story – but I just got a feeling last night about the impossibly blue-eyed, possibly dead Charlotte. There’s something there between her and the Charles Widmore-funded coma (for lack of a better word) patient.

“She’s not here right now,” said comatose girl’s sister. So, her consciousness is where exactly? Are we really supposed to think that Daniel Faraday fell in love with some girl, convinced her to participate in his experiments that involve transporting rat brains through time, just to heartlessly abandon her penniless and comatose and go off on adventures. They haven’t been building up his character as a nervous softy to throw that one at us.

I can’t believe I’m about to write this sentence, but: What if during these experiments, he “lost” her somewhere in time and this whole time he’s been searching for her, and she somehow is Charlotte, about to move times again and that’s what’s going on with the bloody nose thing? Yes, I realize she has a different body. I haven’t figured that part out yet.

Okay, that is enough mind-boggling for the day. Moving on. Final 'Lost' thought for the day:

Dear Desmond,

You are a moron. I have never been more mad at a television character, and this includes when Lorelai cheated on Luke. You go straight to the man who has proved he’s absolutely moral-free when it comes to island-seeking, whose own daughter is afraid of what he’s capable of, and tell him who you’re looking for? That’s great that you didn’t answer any of his questions. That’s great that you half-heartedly tried to tell Penny that you weren’t going to follow any more clues. Fact of the matter is that you are now headed – wife and son in tow – to an address that was given to you by Charles Widmore.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Nice sunglasses though.



Love,
Ashley

PS: Thank you for naming your adorably curly haired child Charlie. That is really nice.

So many questions

This post is going to be about 'Lost'. Consider it one giant spoiler if you’re anywhere behind last night’s 2-hour season premiere. Got that? SPOILER ALERT.

Okay. These are clearly just the beginning of the questions, but here we go (screen caps courtesy of lost-media.com):

• Are they trying to make Sun potentially evil? Like, she probably isn’t, but they’re going to give her borderline sketchy lines so we don’t really know? How much does she blame Jack for Jin’s death?
• When do we get Charles Whitmore's back story? Why do I still feel like he's Caleb from The OC?
• Is anyone else annoyed by the eye makeup future (or is it now current?) Kate wears? We get it – eyeliner means she’s not on the island anymore, but I feel like it makes her eyes look swollen, as if she’s been crying for the last three years of her life.

• Doesn’t it seem like they have really turned up the musical score over the last 2 seasons? It’s like we’re constantly being reminded how dramatic everything is.
• Is Miles the son of the main Darma Initiative guy (from all the videos)?
• Why has nothing bad happened to Kate since being off the island?
• Why (Whyyyy) on earth would they cast the Aaron Burr/Got Milk guy as the annoying castaway who we mysteriously have never seen before?
  
• Say Sawyer gets a shirt (heaven forbid) from their camp on the beach if/when that reappears. Will it disappear when they move times?
• Is Desmond “special” because he kind of landed on the island of his own volition? But do we even believe that? (It’s awfully coincidental that he would go off on a boat trip to prove to Whitmore that he’s worthy of the love of his daughter, only to land on the island that Whitmore himself is searching for – and if 'Lost' has taught us anything, isn’t it that there’s no such thing as a coincidence?). Did the island pull him in? Does the island want Whitmore to come back? (Yes, *back* – that’s one of my very few theories,)
• Why doesn’t Walt have to go back to the island?
• Why do Hurley’s parents have such awful hair?

• After everything that he put her through, would Kate really have a picture of Jack and Aaron on display in her house?

I think that's enough for now. I know you have more - What did I miss?

For the record, all these questions have nothing to do with my enjoyment of this show. I am good with there being questions – that’s what keeps me watching. Also, I feel like there will be some fan backlash on this upcoming season’s reliance on time travel, but I’m also good with this as a plot arc. I think they need ways to keep everything fresh, and this is the new mystery, just like The Others were originally, and then Desmond, and then the future, etc. I am so glad it's back.