L-O-S-T, Season 5, Episodes 1 and 2 ("Because You Left"/"The Lie")

First off, take a look at Doc Jensen's recap article on EW, then check out the second episode's recap from Doc Jensen.

________________________________

JJ Started Season 5's beginning discussion:

one word:

Wow. The Writer's are STILL surprising me. I didn't see the Time skipping thing coming at all and think it's an absolutely brilliant tactic, not only as a reason to get the O'6 back to the island, but also to explore the island's past...

First of all, i'm not confused. no, i'm not confused at all. I am worried that this is a very big risk storytelling-wise for the show... the flashforwards and flashbacks were easy to grasp with the "whooosh" sound as our queue and being able to follow that easily, but the complexity of the sheer number of points in time to follow now might be too much for your average L O S T audience member, who is not all into following all the details, and they might think it's just too confusing or too hard to keep up with and tune out... i hope not, but i can see it happening. i think it's brilliant and daring on their part, but they are taking a big risk.

ok, anyway, let's start with "Because You Left." i'm thrilled we don't have to endure a "weekend at Bernie's" with them carting Locke's body everywhere they go. that would be silly. and it's totally fascinating how Benry has people ALL OVER THE WORLD who know him and will drop everything to do exactly what he says... was all this part of his PLAN that he mentions to Locke in the season 4 finale before they head into the Orchid? did he intend for the island to skip in time and use it against the Losties to get them all to stay there/bring them back, etc. and put all the people in place ahead of time? maybe. Ben is a total psycho genius.... Then seeing that Sayid is NO LONGER Ben's errand boy was another cool twist. how about that fight at the safe house? i don't think i've ever seen a dude actually hit the pavement before in a fall (tv OR movies!) and then body slamming that other dude on the knives. quite a fight scene. and to have Hurley being the fall guy just because he's with Sayid, clever, clever. he is "crazy" after all.... now he's a rich lunatic killing people all over LA. another great storyline to suck us in quickly. Hurley's scenes in both eps had me laughing out loud all night. Then The Widmore and Sun exchange was very interesting. He is a lot more than she bargained for already. is Sun up for really being as hard core as she is seeming to come off right now? we'll see... and i am SURE that Sun is the source of the legal action for the blood test against Kate/Aaron.

Opening Scence: harkening back to the reveal of Desmond in the hatch in season 2, we got to see old Doctor Candle/Wickmond/Halliwax wake up and do his morning routine and then doing a classic Dharma film. and for the Arrow! and the Arrow being a military strategy station! interesting... and then he's off to the Orchid to deal with an unforseen problem, we get a peak that they have detected the frozen donkey wheel during construction, but don't access it by The Dr.'s orders... and then FARADAY SHOWS UP. absoute mind blower.... so is Faraday there because of the island/them is/are skipping in time right now? or was Faraday part of Dharma at one time in the past and that was part of his time travel research? hmmmm. Plus, Faraday dropping a new super important memory into Desmond's head was great. we heard that Desmond is unique in all the time hopping craziness. so i fear greatly now for he and Penny, and not because Ben wants to kill her... i think that Mrs. Hawking is Faraday's mom, by the way....

then the time jumping with the island... again, genius. i've been speculating on when the island would have moved to and hoping that we'd see the Dharma Inititive again, or maybe Adam and Eve from the caves, or perhaps the Others worshipping the four-toed statue, or how about the arrival of the Black Rock. well NOW we might get to see all of those things flashing at us in quick succession! awesome. and this way they could use it to answer TONS of questions very quickly. will they? i sooo hope so, but we shall see. having Faraday there to tell us what's happening is another ingenius set up for his character. he is now the smartest, most important guy on the show and we as the audience as well as the Losties are now counting on him to be our constant and keep us all from going totally crazy trying to follow everything.... tricky and risky, but very good stuff. plus Locke's exchanges with Richard were fascinating. during their scene, i realized that Locke never got the chance, and therefore WE never got the chance to learn all the island's mysteries from Richard telling them all to Locke once he took Ben's place, because turning the wheel jacked everything up. well now Locke is told he must leave the island and die or they'll be stuck that way for good. Locke never got to be leader, never got any answers, never learned anything about the island that heals him and changes his life, yet he STILL will leave it and die for it. what is the story with Locke? why has he already lost his place we thought he was intended for all this time?

"The Lie" had me laughing out loud and loving Hurley more than ever. First, his acting was superb throughout. when he stars down Sayid on Penny's boat and tells him a day will come when he needs his help and he won't give it because Sayid didn't back him up on NOT lying to everyone was excellent. he looked totally different. something in his eyes became someone else, someone not Hurley to me. not the Hurley we know, and i got chills. THen we he confessed everything to his mom and he was so wracked with guilt and despair and fear. outstanding performance. Give Jorge Garcia his Emmy now, please. plus he was still funny and through a hot pocket and totally stuck it to Benry. awesome and hysterical.

seeing the meeting on Penny's boat about The Lie was great, and seeing Lapidus, too. good to see that people are not being forgotten. plus we got a fun and entertaining episode with Hurley trying to be on the run, care for incapacitated Sayid, fight and hedge with his parents, confront Benry, AND have a visit from Ana Lucia. that was awesome. i new she was going to appear in this episode due to casting news that was leaked, but i expected to see her in her old island attire with bloody bullet riddled chest and say something cryptic. i didn't expect to see her be all hard ass cop again and give Hurley get away instructions. awesome. plus a shout out to Libby for Hugo. nice. this has me thinking that we could literally see any character at any moment... we have undead ghosts off the island, we have undead ghosts on the island, we have time freaking out all over the place so anyone from the past could show up and be alive and well any second. welcome to L O S T totally blasting the rules of storytelling completely out of the water..

finally we saw Mr's Hawking frantically doing calculations and marking points on the earth and playing with chalk-tipped pendulums. Benry comes to see her, surprise surprise, and she gives us all a deadline... L OS T is back everyone. I could not have asked for more to try and wrap my brain around, and i'm so glad we got more than one episode last night. just seeing the first one by itself without the second one would have had us so frustrated. they were brilliant to pair them up and keep us enthralled. let's get talking....

L-O-S-T and 24

Julia got us started on the prep for the LOST talk and threw in some 24 to boot!

My note: Also read J Wood's Powells Pre-Season 5 Post

___________
Julia:
In prep for the long-awaited LOST season premiere next week, Doc Jensen has a column on ew.com that doesn’t have spoilers, but does pose a very interesting theory about next season…and I think I might agree with him. Please read when you can and let’s discuss. I can’t wait to get our little group talking about tv again!

Speaking of that, have any of you watched the first 4 hours of 24? I caught up on it all last night and I am cautiously optimistic that the show is returning to it’s former glory…if not as good as the early seasons, then at least a vast improvement over season 6.
___________

Doc Jensen's article refers to 5 clue-filled episodes and a ComicCon video, I'll refer you to links from our past discussions on these where I can:
1) THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME, PART 2 and PART 3
and
2) This is from the episode before if you are having trouble remembering the build up.
3) ''THE CONSTANT''"
4) FLASHES BEFORE YOUR EYES (Our discussion group didn't track this far back)... but Doc Jensen had a theory at the time.
5) ''CABIN FEVER''
**THE PIERRE CHANG COMIC-CON VIDEO

See Ya Latah, Sinners

Let me start off by saying I give Milk a B/leaning towards a B+ right off the bat. I really liked it, I think it is an important story that I didn't know about before now and it was well-written, well-acted and well-directed.

I have two cricisms, 1) I think in some places, the history took precedence over the story so I was lost in a "here's what happened" vs. a "here's how the story of what happened played out." Josh Brolin's charcacter for example. There wasn't much of a personal connection before Milk shows up at Dan Smith's kid's baptism. One minute he's on tv and the next he's just there. But, I will say that I think they did a good job in showing some great actual footage from The Castro and all over the news and whatnot. I would think that with good footage, there was a real danger that the actual clips could overcome the storyline-I thought that happened with The Queen somewhat, but it didn't happen here.

Along these lines with this first criticism, I had a hard time with the relationship between Milk and Diego Luna's character, Jack. I think that someone who really didn't like Jack must have been consulting on this project, because I think that I would have rather have seen that character and relationship fleshed out or toned down, but not left straggling out there the way it did. I like Diego Luna since his Y Tu Mama Tambien days too, so I am not sure what wasn't getting me there. Seeing little vignettes of all the bad sorts of things Jack ended up doing, doesn't really help bring to the grief that Milk must have been feeling later.

2) Before I say this, because I'm sure there are tons of people who would disagree, let me preface this by the fact that I love Sean Penn, but his portrayal here of Harvey Milk reminded me of his I Am Sam character more than any of the gay guys I know. I just didn't get there with him. Now I thought James Franco and Emile Hirsh both pulled off their roles with flying colors. I'd like to see James Franco get a supporting role nomination for this. He was excellent. And as a side note, the HSM kid was cute in this too.

Anyway, it is a great story, and an important one, especially in light of the California Prop 8 debacle. It makes it difficult to believe that we're actually walking backwards instead of forward in some respects. Can I blame that on W too? :-) Anyway, if you haven't already gone to Funny or Die to see the Prop 8 Musical, go watch, it is funny! But a sad commentary that stars need to come out to shine a spotlight on an issue that we should never be hearing about again. Come on CA! Get it together!

Hopes for a Good Show Smashed at the Aragon

Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis both panned the Smashing Pumpkins show back when they were at the Chicago theater. No, I hadn't read reviews before I went to see them at the Aragon. But I get that Billy could be an acquired taste and I VERY often don't agree with one or both of those critics so I take their reviews as input but definitely not as the last word. That being said, now, not after reading those reviews, but rather after seeing the show... I wish I would have saved my money. The apology show, was still an egomaniacal Corigan blunder.

I really did enjoy the first half of the show, but once Corigan cut loose in a crazed jam session, he left everyone hanging without coming back with some strong songs, instead he dropped a bunch of folksy songs that, let's face it, all sounded the same. Granted, I don't have the new CD. I have heard a couple of songs though and maybe some of the other new ones would grow on me but I'm not feeling it. I want Billy (writing Courtney Love and old Pumpkins) the songwriter up there, not a waste of $45 for an experimental show. I up and left. I felt like there was nothing worthwhile for me to stay to see, and I was sad. Even the Zwan show I saw at the Aragon was better than that show. Not that it was a bad show, but I'm just saying they could have done better.

Kot says, "Had the band come back strong with a couple of rave-ups, the night might’ve added up to a strong statement from the Pumpkins Mach II." But I'll tell you what, when I left, I left thinking that even if they had thrown in one or two good songs, it wasn't going to be worth it to stick around to find out. I was brought way too far down after a good strong beginning to be brought back up again.

Funny thing is, that my friend Jeff, an American transplant hanging out in Australia these days saw them down under and immediately posted on my Facebook page that he had the same reaction to their show there. I can understand that Billy might not be all that great at taking criticism, but shouldn't he at least read the reviews from his fans who WANT to see him do well? Listen to what we're saying Billy. This show could have been fixed ages ago, we still love you though. I'm sure I'll come to see you for the next iteration of Mr Corigan and the SP!

Last Chance to Not Bore Me

This past Sunday, Dec 14th, Talk Cinema gave us Rom Com hopeful Last Chance Harvey on the screen at the Century theater by Clark and Diversey here in Chitown.

It really was cute, well, sort of cute. Dustin Hoffman, is a very sad and pathetic guy. The kind of guy who people don't want to talk to on the airplane, who has a history of drinking, who is on his own, and whose daughter wants her stepdad to walk her down the aisle. He forgoes the chance to make sure he keeps his job to make a trip to London to attend his daughter's wedding. Of course when he arrives, daughter is colored not impressed, the job is lost. But to save the day, in the midst of it he runs into our lovely Emma Thompson.

Thompson character's is basically Elinor Dashwood, from Sense and Sensibility meets Sarah from Love Actually (though with a mother who she stops her life for to talk to on the phone all the time instead of a mildly retarded and violent brother). Kate Walker is the big sister/supervisor to the girls she plays with at work (and who try to set her up with an eligible bachelor) and the martyr who takes care of everyone else including taking her mother's crazy calls all the time because "she's had a hard run of it."

The problem is this, the movie sort of aims its sights at being a ROM COM but a romantic comedy needs comedy. The circumstances leading up to him being in a bad place aren't funny, they are simply depressing. The fact that the rich stepfather could be a class war against the struggling piano player. But, they let that go. Instead we're just left with a sad lonely woman taking the attentions of a messed up and desperate guy. It doesn't even come off as romantic at all (not to mention the afore mentioned lack of comedy). But there are some tender moments and I did laugh, just not enough for me to recommend it to anyone else except for as a renter.

I give it a C/leaning towards a C-

About A Boy Director To Helm New Moon

This is awesome news. Christopher Weitz has been tagged to direct New Moon. Now, let me say the good and bad about this. The Good- is About a Boy and his producing Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist...About a Boy is one of my favorite movies. Awesome, and could Nick and Nora's be cuter? Bad- is the Golden Compass- a favorite book but the movie, eh, not so good. Now let me tell you why I think it still, over all, is a good thing.

Golden Compass had some good special effects and that will help carry the day here. The problem with Golden Compass (the movie) was that the editing wasn't great. The wrong things were focused on. The story was maybe too dense. Here, that isn't a problem. Stephenie Meyer's books, I think I have said before, are enjoyable to read but the stories are not complex. Girl wants Boy, Girl Loses Boy, Boy is Honorable, Girl and Boy Stay in Love. It gives you what you want. Hardwicke did a good job establishing the Angst... but with Edward for much of the storyline, unless Weitz does a floaty head (a la Miss Elizabeth Bennett seeing the floating head of Mr Darcy Firth in the BBC's Pride and Prejudice and later mimicked by another floating head in Bride and Prejudice) and Bella gazes into her mirror or any available window to look dreamily into his eyes for minutes on end, we won't have some of the same problems we had in the first one.

Here's crossing my fingers. I think that Weitz did some good mojo with the whole angst of our boy Marcus in About A Boy...and we definitely see it in Nick from Nick and Nora so I'm hoping he brings some of that to Jacob. Jacob needs it if anyone is going to be okay with him in the 4th movie. He has to be likeable, just HAS to be. :-)

Invite Me In

Let the Right One In... good vampire flick... head to your local indy theater to see it. I give it a B+

read more | digg story

My friend Dana's place is right by the Century theater on Clark so after we ordered some thai we walked over to see see Let the Right One In with a packed house. I really liked it. There were some things that I don't think I picked up on right away until after I thought about the movie a bit and the scenes are still sticking with me. My only critique would be that the dialogue was a bit slow in parts, but that might be a Swedish thing?

I have been a big vamp fan for a long time, really liking the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles, and enjoying Buffy (the movie before the show even came out- so much so that I watched from the very first episode to see the full glory of the show from the beginning) and then Angel. I also like True Blood this season on HBO. Since I haven't read the Charlaine Harris The Southern Vampire series (or frankly any of the other romance/urban vamp fantasy) I can accept the sussing out of the other charachters in the show. I would get tired of all Sookie Stackhouse/all the time. I did read the Twilight series purely for the pop culture value. In comparison, I would say that both Let the Right One In and the Twilight movies do what they set out to do.

Angsty Thirteen and excellent Lords of Dogtown director (not to mention a woman who was a production designer on a favorite movie of mine- Tank Girl), Catherine Hardwicke does the teen angst thing well for Twilight. But I think the staring longingly into one another's eyes but racing through the action sequences, along with some suspect dialogue, just left the movie falling flat. I felt like there was a lot of build-up for the movie and am hopeful they stick with her as a director and let her explore the next book, New Moon's sharper angles. I should note that it seems like Melissa Rosenberg has done nothing but good things, so maybe Hardwicke needs to pull back on letting Stewart and Pattinson make up any of their lines?

But Let the Right One In, does something totally different for me. It made the characters raw and real for me, in a way that I don't think any other vamp movie has been able to do. We have winter here in Chicago (and did in Pennsylvania where I grew up) but the landscape for the scenes gave a preternatural feel in and of itself outside of the vamp story. The slow dialogue lent itself (whether intentionally or not) to the preternatural, stark feel of the film as well.

I am more than a little concerned that the Cloverfield director Matt Reeves already is working on the Americanization of the book. (Not a remake per se, but a reinterpretation of the book's story.) It could be decent or disastrous. We shall see.

Also, see an interview with the author on Aint It Cool News.