Daniel's TV Blog

LOST is getting so complex (and awesome!) this season I need to define the terms I use to describe groups and time frames. I don't have a place list, I just felt that saying who and when in the title was missing something.

When:
Ancient Times - The period long ago when the Temple, the ruins, the foot sculpture and probably the well Locke went down were built. Nothing is known yet of these time.
Pre-Dharma - The time on the island before the Dharma Initiative. We saw Richard Alpert and young Widmore in this time frame in the fourth episode. The Others were the dominate force on the island.
Dharma years - Sometime in the 70s through sometime in the 80s or 90s when the Dharma Initiative was the dominate presence on the island. They built up the hatch and other stations but where whipped out in "The Purge"
After the Purge - The time when the Others where once again the dominant force. They appropriated the Dharma facilities and had a network off the island. Things where fine until...
The 108 Days of Flight 815 - Or just the 108 days. This is the time frame of the first four seasons from the time flight 815 crashed to the disappearance of the island by Ben's turning of the Frozen Donkey Wheel.
After the Disappearance - This is the time between the island disappearing and the arrival of Flight 316. We don't know what happened during this time yet.
After Flight 316 - The current time frame Ben and Locke as well as the other Flight 316 survivors are living in. I'm assuming this time is concurrent with the mainland at the time of the crash so 2008.

The groups have now splintered in ways the some of the old terms are no longer applicable. Here are all the groups as I call them.
The Losties (retired term) - The name for the original survivors of the middle section of Flight 815 during the 108 days.
The Tailies (retired) - The tail section survivors. Of them Bernard is the only one still living, maybe. We haven't seen him in a while.
The Freighter People (retired) - The people originally sent by Widmore in the freighter.
The Oceanic Six - The five Losties and Aaron who made it off the island. I will use this term to refer to Jack, Kate, Hurly, Sayid, and Sun as they integrate into the island during the Dharma years.
The Time Travelers - Daniel, Juliet, Sawyer, Jin, Miles, Charlotte (deceased), Locke (exited), Rose, Bernard, and anyone else left alive from the original Losties. This is the group that bounced around in time and presumably ended up in Dharma time when Locke turned the wheel again.
Dharma Initiative - Original members of the Dharma team. We are uncertain who is still alive after the purge.
The Others with Ben - The others who were led by Ben on and off the island. After leaving he still seems to have a large network of people and resources at his disposal.
The Others with Widmore - It seems clear that Widmore is not Dharma and he was once part of the same group as Ben and Richard. This could be a mislead. Anyway he has his own network of people (Abadon, now deceased) and resources working toward the island's cause. Ben and Widmore are likely a power struggle within the same organization who will be in the war with Dharma over the destiny of the island.
The 316ers - The newest group on the scene. The survivors of Flight 316 which landed mostly intact on the Hydra island. Frank, Ben, Locke (now resurrected), and new-comers Caesar the Lost Whisperer, Ilena, and any other survivors.

I'll probably need new terms in the coming weeks again. Who knows what will happen in the Dharma years.

Labels: LOST

I have to say I was very surprised to have the Oceanic Six back on the island in only the sixth episode of the season. I thought the entire season was going to be about them getting back. Of course it still is going to be that. This move just allowed them to return the their normal formula of character flashbacks instead of the real-time shows we've had this season. Also for an episode which was expecting to answer many questions there were more new big questions created than any episode since the second season finale. Don't expect many answers tonight. This one is all about what Locke did between leaving the island and ending up in the coffin. It should be enlightening but no new island questions of scenes are expected. My favorite part was the opening with a close-up of Jack's eye which is exactly how the pilot opened so many years ago. Here are the new questions:

How did they get from the plane to the island?
Why are Kate, Jack, and Hurley seperated from Sayid, Sun, and Ben?
Ben said he couldn't return to the island. Will he be able to?
Did anyone else from the plane come with them? Frank?
Why did they need to recreate the circumstances of the original flight?
What happened to Aaron?
What changed Kate's mind?
How was she able to leave the country since her terms of murder trial prevented her from leaving California?
Why is Sayid in handcuffs?
Who is taking him?
Why would he be going to Guam?
What made Hurley change his mind?
Why is he bringing the guitar?
What will happen to the other people on the plane?
What will happen to Locke?
Why did he kill himself?
What happened to Ben that left him beat up and covered in blood?
What happened to Desmond?
Why didn't Aaron have to be on the plane?
Why didn't Walt have to be on the plane?
How did they end up in Dharma time?
Did all of them end up in Dharma time or are they spread out through time?
How long have the time travelers been in Dharma time?
How did the time travelers integrate into the Dharma Initiative?
If Widmore knows the location of Ms. Hawking, does he know about The Lamp Post?
Why hasn't he used it to find the island?
Why Dharma leave the Lamp Post?
Why haven't they returned to it?

That's a lot of questions. I guess the final question is where am I going to watch LOST tonight? I still don't have ABC.

Labels: LOST

I've been watching shows in batches recently. I'm still a bit behind after all the new shows that were on while I was on vacation. Over the weekend I watched Fridge. Why only four episodes? This week while recovering from my nasty foot injury, I watched all the Psyche episodes in the recent block. I missed one which I'll have to watch on Hulu. I had the TiVo set for only 5 episodes.

The season finale had Shawn, Gus, and the Santa Barbara police department chasing after the notorious Ying-Yang serial killer. I'm not a fan of serial killer shows. I think there are about 10 times more on TV in any given year than in real life. Probably lots more. And there were big problems with the one on Psych, but at least they had fun with it. No real killer would leave such elaborate clues. The second clue was spelled out with Alpha-Bits making the Ying-Yang Killer the true Cereal Killer. Cute. I still don't approve of serial killer storylines in any show.

Psych is still a great show. There's always some crazy murder to solve and only Shawn with his unique skills of observation can take down the killer each week. Too bad The Mentalist is such a blatant rip-off and it is pulling in high ratings from the geriatric audiences to keep it around. Psych is off until summer when it starts its fourth season.

Labels: Psych

Here's my hybrid of LOST with the Gilly sketch from SNL.
Kate: Someone's trying to take my baby! Is it you Jack?
Jack: No, I'm too busy writing an essay on why we need to get back to the island.
Kate: Is it you Hurley?
Hurley: I'm in jail. So once again, not possible.
Kate: Is it you Ben? Beeeeeennnnnn?
Ben: Sorry.

OK new episode tonight. Last week we got to see the Temple for the first time, and Smokey seems to be guarding it. He did a nice job of de-limbing one of the hot Frenchmen. Jin un-death has been reveal to everyone, both on and off the island. I'm happy to see Jin back with the other survivors. After Jin's quick adventure with the French, the survivors head out for an even bigger adventurer and Locke's destiny with the Frozen Donkey Wheel. Back to the future where Jack and Ben loose Kate and Sayid but gain Sun and Desmond. And no surprise, Desmond quests for Daniel's mom leads him to the women he met during his first adventure in time traveling who told him he needed to leave Penny. All right, let's get started with what we learned:

• Ben knows Jin is alive.Smokey killed some of the French, but crazy Danielle killed the others.
• Jack is still kind of a dick.
• Charlotte knows more about Carthage than Hannibal.
• Charlotte was part of the Dharma Initiative.
• The Frozen Donkey Wheel has been traveling with the survivors, otherwise they would have travelled to a time when it wasn't off it's axis and stayed there.
• Similarly the ghost of Christian Sheppard is travelling with them.
• Charlotte is dead, but remembers meeting Daniel as a child.

And new questions:

• Why was Robert trying to kill Danielle?
• Why does he think the Smoke Monster is a security system?
• What did Ben do to keep the Oceanic Six safe?
• What other time periods did they travel through?
• How did Charlotte know to look for the well?
• How did Locke know where it was?
• Is the well in the future or the past?
• Has anyone seen Desmond since they left the yacht?
• Why didn't Jin get a nose bleed?
• Where will Locke be sent?
• Why didn't Locke tell Sun about Jin?

Labels: LOST

Yesterday was the last day to for non-HD over-the-air broadcasts. Starting today the switch to high definition will be complete. Of course people with cable and satelite had all the hardware switched on the source end so I didn't need to do anything. The Simpsons picked a perfect time to switch over to HD. The broadcast season of the Simpsons and the production season do not match up. While Sunday looks like a mid season episode of the 20th season, it was in fact the first episode of the 20th production season. And what a perfect time to make brand new opening credits. After 20 years the old credits seemed so, well old. The new title sequence has updated characters, lots more of the city, and more jokes. Sheri and Terri are text messaging during music class. Jimbo and Kerny are cutting off the head of the statue. Apu's eight kids join him for the first time. Maggie's nemesis appears in the adjacent cart in the grocery store. And they debuted the new starting with a lengthy new couch gag. The couch ran away and the Simpson family had to give chase all around the world and into orbit. Good job Simpsons creators! Welcome to the digital age.

Season 14 of The Amazing Race starts tonight. 11 new teams start a race around the world. Tonight they head off to one of my favorite countries Switzerland. Here are the interesting team to watch:

• Jennifer and Preston - hot guy with super bossy girl. Just dump her.
• Amanda and Kris - hot guy with cool girlfriend.
• Margie and Luke - mother and son but the son is deaf.
• Mark and Michael - Brothers and little people and stuntmen. I hope they are on Chelsea.
• Mel and Mike - Father and son team who are both gay. Go gays!

There are also three girl-girl teams: The cheerleaders, the flight attendants, and the athletes. Also the Asian couple, the athletic old couple and the rednecks.

Labels: The Amazing Race

If you haven't yet seen LOST Untangled on go.abc.com, you must watch it. It's this guy who does four minute recaps of recent episodes. You can see the one for last week right here:

My favorite part is the exchange between Ben and Sun, even though that didn't really happen yet.

So Kate episodes have always been my least favorite so I wasn't too thrilled with last week's episode. But the events on the island were fun and mysterious. The flashback was again on the Seeker as we see how it turned out that Kate became Aaron mother. The she and Jack went off to solve the mystery of who wants to take Ben. By the end four of the Oceanic Six where all at the waterfront. Over on the island there was lots of fun adventure and someone comes back from the dead. Well Jin really wasn't dead but we were lead to believe that. As soon the the survivors found the supplies with French writing, everyone knew what time they were in. And then Rousseau and the other French people found Jin. I don't know why the French wasn't subtitled. So I have two theories to why he is with the French. One, he is traveling along with the other survivors. But since he was further out from the island than the helicopter that wouldn't make make sense. Unless the helicopter didn't move with the island because they were in flight. The second idea is he isn't moving with the survivors. The explosion and the island move pushed him permanently back in time to 1988. I guess we will see tonight. So the big cliffhanger is the reveal that the French woman is Rousseau, big surprise. But the new actress seems a bit too young for the role. Delenn is 53 years old so when she was pregnant with Alex she would have been in her 30's. At that seems consistent with someone who works on a research vessel. The new actress looks like shes 20 at most. Anyway here's what we learned:

• Jin is alive
• Jin was rescued by the French
• The French guys with Rousseau are really hot. Too bad they die.
• Miles has been on the island before
• Miles and Juliet are getting nosebleeds (in that order). Sawyer and Locke should be next.
• Ben is trying to take Aaron. Probably just to scare Kate to go back to the island.
• Sun is tracking Ben (or Jack)
• Jack had been suspended for substance abuse

And here are the new questions:

• What happened to the other survivors at the beach?
• Who are the people in the outrigger?
• How far in the future are they?
• Where is the zodiak?
• So Hugo will be cleared of the first murder, but what about the other two where he was photographed at the scene of two deaths?
• Is miles the son of Dr. Marvin Candle, the baby we saw in episode 5.01?

I say yes. It's not very highly rated online. It's not as popular as Jizz in my Pants or Mark Wahlberb Talks to Animals. I think it is worthy of discussing.



Most SNL skits have just one joke, and it's drawn out way too long. The Gilly skit had many jokes other than just Gilly being a very dangerous pre-teen. The kid with the step dad and the kid with broken arms are both hilarious. Very surprising character development. Also there's a great new catch phrase "Sorry". I can't stop saying it. Then it has a fun little theme song, "Knock, Knock. Who's there? It's Gilly!" But the best part is the best redirection joke of the season. "I apologize in the bum's ass." This was real genius comedy writing and it shouldn't be overlooked.

Labels: SNL

What's going on over at VH1? Yesterday I was watching a video block I Tivo'd from the middle of the week. I like to keep up with the new videos once a month so. I was happy to see the new Kelly Clarkson video, My Life Would Suck Without You. But the title looked a little funny in the corner.

"M Life Would Suck..." Who let that slip by? It was the same later when it was on again. Then there was a new song I hadn't heard before. I went back to see the title of the song. It was a new artist I hadn't heard either named Brett Dennen. The song had an odd title "Make Your Crazy".

I looked it up on iTunes and indeed the true title of the song is "Make You Crazy". What is going on over at VH1? Do they even watch what they are putting on TV? What about Kelly and Brett's people?

The third episode this season skips over the Oceanic Six gathering in Los Angeles for the very special adventures of Desmond and Penny. This had to be the Desmond episode so the appearance of young Charles Widmore would coincide with a big Widmore episode. Most of Desmond's story was reminder filler story so we could remember what Daniel was doing at Oxford and how it was similar to the plight of the survivors. But the big story is of course about Widmore. We was part of the Others back in the 50's. This predates the Dharma Initiative. He clearly knows a lot about the island since he funded Daniel's research on time travel. It also appears the Others didn't have any possessions. Their camp, clothing, and guns are all taken from the US Army. In modern times they live in captured Dharma housing. Who are these people? Clearly Richard has been there forever but what about the other Others? This mystery is deepening. But the nosebleeds are taking a turn for the worse and Charlotte passed out in the cliffhanger ending.

Here's what we learned:

• Widmore was an Other!
• Richard was at Locke's birth because Locke told him about it
• Richard's always been on the island
• Penny hasn't seen Widmore since returning from the island
  
• Desmond and Penny are heading to L.A.
• Desmond and Penny's son is named Charlie. He was born in the opening flashback.

And more new questions:

• How did Juliet know that Richard was always on the island?
• Who does Daniel think Ellie looks like? My guess: his mother.
• How did the US Army find the island?
• If everything the Others have is taken from other people, how are they going to fill the bomb with lead and concrete?
• How did Widmore get to the island?
• Where are Bernard, Rose, and any other beach survivors?

Labels: LOST

First off I have to say that Hulu has saved my life. Not literally of course. Before my trip I forgot to re-add Burn Notice to my TiVo. So the first two episodes of this episode set would have been lost to me if not for the wonders of Hulu.com. If you haven't seen the new Hulu Super Bowl commercial, it's awesome and it's right here!

Last night was the third episode of this half of the second season. Unfortunately there are only seven episodes in this set. This show is really great. In my opinion, a great modern show has four elements.

1. Great characters that are likable. Micheal, Fiona, and Sam make a great team. The P-Flag Mom is awesome as Michael's chain smoking mom. Although her main job seems to be hosting Michael's clients while they are hiding from the bad guys.
   
2. A great story arc. For Burn Notice it is all about the title of the show: who put the burn notice out on Michael? But they don't over do it. Which leads me to #3.
3. Great stand alone episodes. Each week Michael and his team solve great mysteries and help out the underdogs. Most of the time they screw over the bad guys by turning other bad guys against them.
4. Something original. With Burn Notice they have McGyver like gadgets with creative voice over. Neither of these are real original. What they have are creative captions. At the point Michael decides to take the case, "The Client" is written underneath the client. It's neat and original.
   

Another good episode of LOST last night. But I'm still backlogged from my trip. Episode 2 was called The Lie and obviously was about the lie that Oceanic Six told for the last four years with a flashback where they first discussed it. Hurley episodes are always fun. The sequence where Hurley tells his mother the true story of the island was a great moment. Everyone but the Oceanic survivors call Hurley "Hugo", his real name. The Oceanic Six continued their gathering. Sun came to L.A. and contacted Kate. Sayid was brought to Jack. But Ben's offer to Hurley about not having to lie any more wasn't good enough and now Hurley is out of reach. But the biggest mystery is what is going on in the basement of the Church. It looks like there is Dharma computers and manuals and the women doing the calculation was no other than the strange women who told Desmond he couldn't change the past back in the 90's, Ms. Hawking. Here are the other new questions:

• What is Ms. Hawking's relationship to The Others? She seems to be working with Ben.
• What is Ms. Hawking's relationship to The Dharma Inititive? She was using their equipement off the island.
• What is the "Event Window"?
• What happens in 70 hours?
• What is Sun's business in L.A.?
• Who is Jill at the Butcher shop?
• Who are the Gabriel and Jeffrey?

Labels: LOST

Recently on the Animal Planet show, It's Me Or The Dog, the funniest moment of television so far this year occurred. It is clearly going to be a classic moment of television. If you haven't seen it yet, click on the link below to see The Soup's take on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUbsc_a-e3g

It's been days and I still laugh every time I watch it.

Labels: The Soup

The season premier of LOST did something no show has done in the history of everything. They started up just where the final two seasons ended. On the island we see the results of the island move at the end of season 4. In L.A., Jack continues his journey back to the island which he started at the end of season 3. The flashback scene (or flashforward scene?) was with Daniel Faraday at the construction of the Orchid Station. On the island Locke has some non-linear conversations with the Others and the beach survivors freak out at their new situation. Off the island, the Oceanic Six deal with the situations which will bring them all together and back to the island. It was a great episode but we didn't learn much new. Here are the new questions:

• Is the island moving through time or is it fixed and the survivors moving through time?
• Why are both Locke and Juliet moving through time? Shouldn't Juliet be with the rest of the Others? If Locke is truly the leader of the Others, why isn't he with the rest of the Others? It seems that either one of them shouldn't be unstuck.
• Is Daniel working on the Orchid station in his future or past?
• Did Desmond not remember meeting Daniel because it didn't happen the first time? Otherwise why did he suddenly remember it then?
• Did the problems on the island really happen because Jack (and the Oceanic Six) left like Ben said? If this is true, why did Richard let them go?
• Why does Sun want to kill Ben?
• Who hired the lawyers to question the parentage of Aaron?
• Why does Desmond need to find Daniel's mother? What can she do to help?
  

Labels: LOST

The new season of Heroes started last night. I don't know if you can really call it a new season since it is part of the same production run as the "Villains" season. After the last two misfires I had high hopes for this new season. However, after last night I was unimpressed. Here's what I didn't like:

• Hiro has no powers. He's got the best ones too. But I suppose if concept is catching and imprisoning the Heroes, having someone who could teleport anywhere would be a show stopper.
• Peter's power has changed. Now he can only have one power at a time. If the power is somehow tied to ones DNA like a fingerprint, why would his power change when removed and reinjected? I call shenanigans.
• Mohinder and Peter meeting up was just a bit to coincidental for me. He just happened to pick him up right before they were both picked up by the new baddies? I call shenanigans.
• Finally, they reshuffled the bad guys. Last year it was Tracy, Peter, Syler, and Mohinder. This year Angela and Noah join Peter and the bad guy conspiracy. It seems a bit out of the blue. I call shenanigans.

Luckily Chuck is still awesome and Medium started last night too.

Labels: Heroes

LOST is back baby! Season five started up with two episodes two weeks ago. I was out of two for this and the following third episode last week. LOST has a great way of ending each season with what I call a "Game Changer" season finale. Season 4 ended with the island moving and the Oceanic Six getting home. Now season five is no longer about trying to get off the island or escaping from the Others. It is about getting back to the island and surviving the time shifts. I love the new season.

I love the new format. This season they've dropped the regular flashbacks and now just shift between the two groups of survivors. But they didn't get rid of the flashbacks all together. At the start of each episode they have a single flashback scene. In the first we see a Dharma flashback to the frozen donkey wheel, then Hurley's flashback of the Lie planning on Penny's boat, and then Desmond's flashback of the birth of his son Charlie.

The love the gathering that is taking place off the island. As the last season ended Ben and Sayid had come to L.A. where Jack, Kate, and Hurley already lived. Then Sun arrived and met up with Kate. Now Desmond and Penny are now on their way seeking Daniel's mother. So all the major players will be in the same place as early as episode 5.04.

I love the explanations and revelations already given so far. Locke told Richard when he would be born and Widmore was on the island in the 50's. The complete story is starting to come into focus.

I love the adventure of the survivors through time. It's kind of the excitement from the first season where suddenly they have no idea where they are anymore. In a sense they are LOST again.

Labels: LOST