Two of My Favourite Things
I love Ricky Gervais. And I adore David Bowie. On the British show Extras, the two recently collided when Gervais's character, Andy, is ticked off when he loses his seat in the club to David Bowie and his entourage. When he tries to approach Bowie to tell him his story, Bowie does what Bowie does best, and the result is hilarious! Tonight's episode of The Office is written by Gervais and his writing partner Stephen Merchant (who you see briefly in this clip as a guy with glasses standing against the wall), so this clip is in honour of what will no doubt be an awesome episode.

V is for Vendetta…and Veronica!
“What’s the word of the day, folks? Is it avuncular?”

How much did I love last night’s episode? The heartbreak! The humour! The tension! The Piz! Thank you, Rob Thomas, thank you!!

Yes, “Spit & Eggs” was the final episode of the first “mini-arc” of the season (there will be three, I’ve heard) and the controversial (for all the wrong reasons) mystery has finally been resolved and come to an end. On the one hand it was kind of sucky that both of the guys responsible for the rapes of the women at Hearst have been V’s suspects in the past, but at the same time, that made it pretty cool. They were flying under our radar BECAUSE they were Ronnie’s suspects in the past. I felt personally vindicated when the RA turned out to be responsible – right from the beginning of the season it’s been a joke with my husband and me: every time he appears on screen we’ll say, “Ooh! HE did it!!” because after all, how else is Screech gonna get any? What I don’t understand is how these two guys ended up getting together. Was Mercer once an anti-social loser like Moe? After, you know, doping and raping a bunch of women, did he develop a higher self-esteem that allowed him to rise above geekydom and into loathsome pigdom?

Logan and Veronica broke up AGAIN because he couldn’t be with her AGAIN but we know this means that he’ll just be all moony for her for the next few episodes and by the end of the season declaring that he can’t live with anyone else. And in the meantime, I hope she realizes that Piz is the coolest guy at school and we get some more awesome Piz lines. (Have I mentioned I’m in love with Piz?) Or… hmm… maybe Mac could end up with him? I love Mac, too, and I’ll let her have him.

The last scene in the episode was awesome. When I saw Logan trashing the cop car I thought, “What the hell is he doing?!” and then we see he did it all for Veronica. Sniffle… you gotta love Logan. He’s complicated, he’s an emotional basket case, but you gotta love him.

Now they’ve set us up for the next mystery, as Dean O’Dell has been found dead (by Eli… uh oh). Whodunnit? One of the gals from the Lilith House? That would be too obvious, since they were a suspect (and perpetrators) of the rapes, even if they were faking it. Could it be Veronica’s hot professor? O’Dell’s trophy wife? O’Dell’s dorky TA (Worst. Hair. EVER.), who was really pissed off at his girlfriend, stormed back to his office, found the professor there all beat up by O’Dell and then exacted his revenge? One of the people who voted to get rid of the Greeks at Hearst? Hearst herself? Piz, upset that O’Dell made the controversial announcement on his show? Wievel, so he could steal the dean’s HDTV? Wallace, desperate for more lines on the show?

Whatever it is, here’s my wish list for the next arc:

§ Give Wallace more lines, and meaningful ones like the episode where he quit the basketball team
§ Give Eli his dignity back. Make him the rocking character he was in season 1. Stop with the Latino janitor crap.
§ MORE PIZ
§ MORE MAC
§ Let’s see the mystery become really complicated
§ A few more scenes of Veronica outwitting the sheriff and making him look like an idiot
§ More Keith/Veronica sweet scenes
§ Let’s shed some more light on the whole Kendall thing, which still remains a bit of a baffler to me (not to mention I don’t believe she’s actually dead)
§ Get the TA a haircut
§ Bring back the cheery, witty, adorable Veronica, and do away with party pooper, down-in-the-dumps, ‘I’m WAY too serious’ Veronica
§ And someone tell the CW to renew the whole season!

Heroes Ep 10: Six Months Ago
Best. Episode. Yet. WOW!! Heroes’ 10th episode moved back in time 6 months, to a place where all of the heroes were just finding out about their powers, and where Suresh is starting to put the pieces together. In a move that is very rare on television, the audience knows far more than any of the characters about what is going to happen to them (it’s like those flashback episodes to Angelus on Buffy, where we go back 100 or more years to find out why Angel is the way he is). Suddenly, SO much of this show makes sense:

Niki: She had a twin sister named Jessica (a little more Sweet Valley High for ya, but it seemed less cheesy than just naming your alter-ego) who was killed when she was only 11. It is often said that twins have the power to know what the other one is thinking or feeling, and perhaps some of this ESP has passed from one to the other, and now Niki inhabits both sides. Their father was an abusive alcoholic who would beat Jessica (it’s not really mentioned if he did anything sexually oriented) and Jessica, looking out for Niki, would take the brunt of it to protect Jessica. So Niki’s power derives from having a twin, and the emotional trauma that she was split in two when her twin was killed. It’s only when her father shows up to try to be BFFs that the dormant twin reared its head.

Nathan: There’s no real scientific explanation for why Nathan can fly, but we see the accident that left his wife paralyzed, and in the moment where he could have saved her, he flew out of his seat. No wonder he sees his power as a curse, and not a blessing. Had he not flown away like a pilot ejecting from a crashing plane, he could have steered the vehicle away from the concrete abutment and probably saved his wife. Before the accident, he’s actually a pretty funny, laid-back guy. Lieberman is a guy whom the Petrellis’ father worked for, and they’ve both done shady things, so if he has some sort of mafia presence, as Peter suggests, it would link him to Nikessica and the shady things she undertakes in the months to come.

Peter: It’s been established that his power is to take on the power of anyone else he’s close to, but we can’t underestimate the power of the prophetic (Buffy-like, I have to say) dreams he’s been having. He dreams of the car accident and knows exactly what happens. He dreams of Simone’s father right before he dies. He dreams of what Isaac is painting, and then the dream comes true when he acts it out on the building. What has triggered those dreams?

Matt: He’s dyslexic, and has the brains and knowledge to pass the exam he’s tried three times, but not the ability to read. Dyslexics have been known to develop skills in other areas to compensate, and maybe Matt’s power grows out of this (researchers who have worked on dyslexia claim it’s a genetic problem). We see an early moment where he overhears his wife saying, “You’re my hero, buddy” but his reaction suggests he thinks she actually said it, and he doesn’t pick up that he’d actually read her mind.

Eden: As already shown, she has the power of persuasion, and arguably the biggest power of the bunch. She runs into Matt as he tries to pull her over, and when she tells him to go eat donuts, he does, and then ends up sitting there, baffled about what he’s doing. Did her mental suggestion to him spark his own ability to hear voices? After all, in order to persuade people, as we see in this episode, she says it out loud but a much deeper, growlier voice transmits the message directly to the person’s brain telepathically, and maybe it triggered Matt’s new power.

Claire: She’s just at the beginning of her realization that she’s invincible, and the focus seems to be more on her father than her, but the power seems to have come with her getting onto the cheerleading squad. Maybe when she graduates, she’ll lose all of the powers that the outfit got her (i.e., she’d be like every other high school cheerleader who ever graduated high school and realized their best years are behind them)?

Horn-Rimmed Glasses: He’s still a little grey, because while we see his reason for being so involved in everything (he wants his daughter’s name off the list), he also seems to have an immense knowledge of everything before Suresh contacts him. He seems to know there will be a predator out there, and if his daughter’s name is on Suresh’s list, then it’ll mean she’ll become his prey. He finds Eden through his Haitian guy, and helps her hone her powers. He’s definitely someone who, like Suresh and Sylar, wants to find all of the heroes, but unlike Suresh, who wants to catalogue and study them, and Sylar, who wants to kill them, HRG seems to want to help them develop their skills. Whether it’s for good or evil, we still don’t know.

Sylar: Most importantly, we see how Sylar came to be. His real name is Gabriel Grey, definitely a reference to the archangel Gabriel, who is seen as the messenger of God, but this messenger is a perverted version of the biblical one. This was my favourite part of the episode. We discover why he’s been killing off the other heroes – it’s nothing more than blind jealousy. Not only does he kill them, but he sucks up their powers as well. That’s why he seems so untouchable: he’s picked up the guy’s telekinesis, and dozens of other abilities along the way. Now that he’s killed Charlie, he’ll be able to remember absolutely everything. Eden got to him first, though, as we saw in Homecoming, so it means that despite all of his powers, she still managed to trump him.

Hiro: Poor Hiro. He stands alone in this episode as the only one who goes back 6 months with the knowledge of what would happen 6 months hence (and beyond, actually). But what happens to him there is the opposite of what happens to everyone else. Six months ago, all of these people had these new powers budding within them, and some of them became aware of the powers and wondered at the potential. Hiro, on the other hand, already knew about his powers, and six months ago realized there is no potential for him. He’s a hero with a power that’s bigger than him, one he can’t rein in, and if he doesn’t know how to use it to help people, then what good is it? Poor Hiro…

Next week: Though this week’s felt like the fall finale, and would have been the PERFECT way to cap things off, next week’s episode (“Fallout”) will deal with the aftermath of the Homecoming night, and as things come to a head and the heroes all begin to join forces. As the creepy voice on the preview says, “A hero will be lost.” Who will it be? DL? Nathan? And does anyone else think that HRG is holding Sylar in Spike’s old Hostile 17 room from Buffy? Here’s the preview on YouTube.

Lost Seinfeld episode
Someone over at National Lampoon knows their Seinfeld. Michael Richards, who played Kramer, has recently been caught on tape shouting racist epithets, and has since appeared everywhere from Letterman to your local pub insisting that he's not a racist and he's sorry. (Sorry he was caught, that is.)

In response to the story, National Lampoon has done what they do best, and has created a lost Seinfeld episode by piecing together various scenes from Seinfeld episodes and creating a plot about Kramer going nuts at the Laugh Factory and the rest of the gang having to deal with the fallout. Uncomfortable? Yes, but this is one of the most brilliant parodies I've seen since that trailer that made The Shining look like a fun family film. Go and watch it here, and brace yourself.

Right Here, Right Now: Veronica Mars
Tomorrow night's Veronica Mars is being touted all over the Internet by the show itself. Since it's the last episode during November sweeps, I'm assuming they really, really need this episode to do well if the CW will renew it beyond the paltry 13 episodes it ordered at the end of the season. Of course, up here in Canada, watching it on SunTV won't help the ratings in the U.S., but if you're one of our lovely neighbours to the south, please tune in. Here's the preview, which looks AWESOME.



Is Logan kissing some other girl? Did Veronica get raped? Is she wearing a wig? Will something happen to Mac? (Please no...) I cannot WAIT. (Using Fatboy Slim as the background music makes me even more excited...) The last few eps of Veronica have truly ROCKED, despite what the nearsighted online critic at EW had to say about the last show (clearly not paying any attention and having no idea that last Tuesday's ep was NOT meant to wrap up the storyline). If you're a fan of the show, it's worth it to read the review, and then read the comments, which are pretty entertaining. :)

Things that made me laugh today:
You can always count on McSweeney's to bring sunshine to your day, and not only did "If I Did It!: The Musical" make me howl with laughter, but My Prison Notes made me laugh even harder.

The Go Fug Yourself gals are always good for making you laugh so hard you think you're going to fall off your chair, but you're at work, and you have to look like you're working, so you cover your mouth and close your eyes and your entire body shakes with laughter while tears are welling up in your eyes, and occasionally a squeak gets out and when people look you say you just got some sad news about a relative and you're very shaken up over it. (Or, in the case of my office, someone reads it, looks up and yells to everyone else, "Omigod have you read today's fug?!" and then everyone immediately clicks to it and we all laugh hysterically.) Today's piece, featuring K-Fed standing in as Unkle Fugly, is pure comedy gold. Usually I don't like Ask Aunt Fugly that much, but this is AWESOME.

Things that made me laugh last night:

Ugly Betty. Best. Episode. EVER. I laughed out loud at Daniel waking up in Betty's bed, looking up and staring right into the horrid senior class picture she has her on her nightstand. Then she tells him that she slept in his arms and the look on his face was priceless. The episode featured Wilhemina finding a cashew on her floor and demanding to know who on her staff would snack on something that was 15 grams of fat per serving (hahahahaha! I thought... and then I stopped eating my cashews...); Justin talking about some Hungarian queen's skin that was "FABulous!"; Daniel making little ornaments with glitter and jellybeans with Betty's family; Betty being stuck doing a cover featuring Chloe, Tim, and Baby Chutney, clearly a satire of TomKat (and that row of little baby dolls in various insanely funny outfits was SO good); Betty firing the artistic director when he wanted to put the baby in chain mail; Wilhemina and Marc getting stuck in Queens when the cab driver ("What did you drive in the old country, a goat?!" Wilhemina yells at him) can't find JFK airport, and he dumps them on a street corner; Wilhemina having it out with a couple of prostitutes on a corner who are fingering her "albino lynx" stole, and just as she's telling them to get their hands off the money, Marc grabs her and says, "OK, Lil Kim, I think we've had enough," which was the funniest line in the episode; Marc and Wilhemina getting to a tiny storefront church and her breaking the offering box open with a stiletto heel and taking out the dollar bills.... it was SO good. I love this show. If the rest of the episodes are anywhere near this one, this will be one season remembered for its dazzling return to comedy.

Things that made me laugh two days ago:
My husband was in a car accident on Sunday (ok, that's not what made me laugh... come on, my heart isn't ALL stone) and the insurance company told us they could reimburse us $100 a week for the housework he's now no longer able to do. HAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! I seriously had to be helped up off the floor after that one.

Things that made me laugh a week ago:

30 Rock. My pal Crissy told me about this show, and I could NEVER find it (I even set my PVR/TiVO to a universal find and record and IT couldn't find it) and they finally moved it to Thursday last week. It was BRILLIANT. Seriously, if you're not watching this show, tune in. I actually liked it better than (oh my god, I can't believe I'm saying this) The Office. And you know how much I love The Office. I don't know why no one ever offered Alec Baldwin his own show before now. As the head of GE, he does this little instructional video for the network shows explaining how to work product placement into their storylines to advertise GE products. Then Tina Fey's character puts him in a sketch for that week's show, and his assistant brings in the blooper tape. What we see next is about 5 solid minutes of Alec Baldwin looking like a complete idiot, as he walks like a robot, falls over, knocks out a window, constantly interrupts the flow of it, keeps flubbing the lines, saying "racial integration" and "product integortion" instead of Product Integration, answers a cell phone call, insists he doesn't know what to do with his hands... I've kept the episode on the PVR and have easily watched this scene 6 or 7 times this week. It NEVER ceases to make me laugh. Watch it next week (and watch The Office, where the episode is going to be written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the guys behind the original BBC Office.

This Week's Lost Preview

OOOOOH!!! Come on February, can't you get here a little quicker??!!

The Return of Buffy!

SPIKE: Watch your mouth, little girl. You should know better than to tempt the fates that way.'Cause the Big Bad is back, and this time it's . . . urgh . . . aaaaahh!!

That's right, folks, Buffy is returning! (Let's hope it's better than Spike's return in season 4 just before he's zapped by the truly annoying Initiative.) Unfortunately, it's not Sarah Michelle Gellar and Co.: it's in comic book form. And yes, I can hear you saying that Buffy's been in comic book form for almost a decade, but this is different: Joss Whedon is at the helm, and says the 4-issue comic book series will comprise the "pilot" of what would have happened in season 8 of Buffy, had the show continued. The complete Scooby gang will be there, as will Spike and Angel, though the WB sold off the rights to Spike and Angel out of Joss's hands (???) and so he will be using them "sparingly," and says he won't reveal what would have happened after the season 5 cliffhanger. So, presumably this will be happening concurrently with season 5 of Angel. Or something.

DRUSILLA: Angel.
ANGELUS: Yeah baby, I'm back.
SPIKE: Is it really true?
ANGELUS: It's really true.
DRUSILLA: You've come home.

According to Joss Whedon in an interview he did with EW, things won't be as cozy and liberating as they appeared to be at the end of "Chosen," Buffy's series finale. ''Not that everything is dire and angsty and season six-y, But she's dealing with the consequences of having empowered thousands of girls around the world. She may have closed the Hellmouth under Sunnydale and defeated The First. But evil? Still rampant!''

After the 4 issue start, which will be completely written by Joss, the remaining issues in the projected 30-issue series will be written by others, but Joss will oversee it (kinda like every season of Buffy, when the episodes were written by his other writers). I'm praying he can lure back writers like Jane Espenson, David Fury, Drew Goddard, and Drew Z. Greenberg.

And maybe... just maybe... he'll be able to lure back his stars for some sort of Buffy movie. With lots of Spike in it, WB be damned.

GILES: Can you forgive me?
BUFFY: For what?
GILES: I never should have left.
BUFFY: No, you were right to leave. We're just . . . stupid.
GILES: I know you're all stupid. But I never should have abandoned you.

"I'm a loser baby...."
Well, I didn't make it to Round 2 of the Canadian Blog Awards. Sniff... Maybe it's because I didn't update my blog daily while the awards were on. Maybe I didn't ask enough friends and family members to vote for me (heck, even I forgot to vote, and maybe clicked about 3 times instead of every day on every computer I could get my hands on). Maybe I should have hit up more American voters (I didn't realize Americans could vote, and only just found out). Or -- here's a thought -- maybe my blog just wasn't as good as the others.

But the upside is, my pal Jeremy DOES have a fantastic blog, and he's made it to the final 5, and so now I'd like to rally support from my readers to vote him through in the Best Entertainment Blog category. You can read his blog here, and then go vote for him here. Good luck, Jeremy! Your hilarious insights deserve it. :)

LOST -- Off the Island
Yes, it's Wednesday again, which means that 9-10p.m. slot is a lonely, lonely place for us Lost fans. But luckily, there's something that's pretty damn good to fill in for our pals who are stuck on Craphole Island. Jeff Heimbuch is a director with Bamfer Productions, and over the past few months he's been working with a professional crew to film a would-be episode of Lost, called "Off the Island."

Last week, the episode was officially launched. Jeff sent me an e-mail to let me know, and I finally got around to watching it a few nights ago, and was very impressed! Here's the gist: Chase (guy in green shirt in the picture there) is the brother of Scott Jackson. You know him as half of the Scott and Steve combo, the one who wasn't killed. (Yeah, yeah, I hear you saying, "But Nikki, he WAS killed... Ethan killed Scott, though Sawyer thought it was Steve, and Hurley corrected him! If you still think that, just read pp 97-98 of my book, and I'll clear it up for ya. You've been had by the Lost writers.) Anyway, poor Chase Jackson finds out his brother's plane has gone down, but a couple of days later he's contacted by someone from the Dharma Initiative and he is forced to do some crazy things to try to keep his brother alive.

It's a great idea, and since we know virtually nothing about what's going on in the outside world, Heimbuch and his cohorts pretty much had carte blanche to do whatever the heck they wanted. The acting is pretty strong, considering this is a fan movie (I especially like the creepy dude who's also pictured above; I thought he was great). I like how they've incorporated elements from Lost (look for little clues in the background) and even used the soundtrack music.

My only suggestion, if there's a way to make a difference, is for them to add a whooshing sound like the one used on the show to indicate a flashback. On Lost, we get that strange sound every time we go back into the past, but it's also obvious the time is changing, because (with the exception of Maternity Leave and Three Minutes) they're NOT ON THE ISLAND. However, in this movie, when they flashed back to the past, it wasn't clear they had because Chase looked the same, his apartment looked the same, and so it was confusing. At one point we see him make a mark on the wall that would suggest many weeks had passed, but in the next scene he tells someone his brother had died 4 days earlier, and I wasn't sure what was going on. Then I figured it out by the time the next scene was going on.

So it's just a little beef, but overall, I would definitely recommend this to Lost fans. You can download it at Bamfer Productions, or you can watch it in five parts on YouTube, which is what I did.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five

Enjoy, and post your thoughts here. Congrats, Jeff!

Masi Oka ( Hiro on Heroes ) on Conan 11/20

I tried to post this last night but it didn't work, so I'll try it again. This is an interview Conan O'Brien did with Masi Oka (Hiro) on Monday night, and Oka is adorable. He's definitely not used to the spotlight yet, so he maintains that sweetness that Hiro has, but he's very funny and sincere. And who knew he was a human beatbox?! I hope they can find a way to incorporate that into the show. :)

Heroes Ep 9: Homecoming
Last night's ep of Heroes was awesome (when is it not?!) At the beginning of the ep, I was thinking, Hmm... this episode is actually kind of weak compared to other eps, but then it picked up in the second half and was truly amazing. I will admit: the mantra, "Save the cheerleader, save the world" sounds more and more ridiculous every time I hear it, but hey, it'll be over soon, since it appears the cheerleader's been saved. And by the way, this episode garnered the show's highest ratings, at 16 million viewers, putting it in Lost territory.

Mohinder: I found it a little strange that he approached the boy with the soccer ball and then let him go away, especially since the boy was so important to his father as well as him. And I was a little disappointed that last week I blogged about how happy I was that the writers didn't do the obvious "Do you want to quit? NO" scene, and that's because they saved it for this week. But what Mohinder found there was exciting, and it was nice to see him actually happy about something (the guy's pretty dour... but still hot).

Nathan: He's just annoying me more. Come on, writers, start to make me care about this guy. I know he threw the paint on the canvas to save his brother, but I still don't like him.

Peter: I loved the scene with him standing in the hallway looking at the pics of Jackie and having a complete conversation with Claire, not knowing SHE is the cheerleader he's supposed to be saving. That was pretty funny. I also loved that moment where he admits to Ando that he has no powers unless he's with someone else with powers, and then Ando says he's actually nothing without Hiro, and then they both stand there in that uncomfortable silence for a moment. Buck up, Ando: sidekicks are necessary, and we love you as Hiro's sidekick... especially since you so often seem to be the one in charge, which is a refreshing twist. It was pretty clear (if you've been paying ANY kind of attention to this show) that Peter wasn't going to die, no matter what Isaac's painting suggested, simply because if he was saving Claire, then he'd be in her presence, and if he's in her presence, he can't die.

Claire: Which begs the question: Can Claire die? Would Sylar be able to remove the top of her skull, or would she just grow another one? Does Horn-Rimmed Glasses really have anything to fear here? HRG has seen Claire in action (he's seen her videotapes) so you'd think he would know what she's capable of, but he might be as unclear on her powers as we are. Isaac's paintings are prophetic, so maybe he was predicting Jackie's death? Not that anyone cares (was anyone else secretly cheering?). Will Claire step forward and tell the police that Peter saved her? Will HRG let her out of his sight?

Sylar: We've seen Sylar come into Isaac's studio and take off his head, and then he did the same thing to Charlie in the diner. So why did he make the mistake of killing Jackie instead of Claire? Does he NOT have the omniscient powers we thought he did, and instead just goes by newspaper clippings? After all, this is a guy who was in Hiro's presence and didn't seem to know HE had any powers. It seems it's only the people who make their powers well known to others who become his targets (people in the diner commented on Charlie's memory; Isaac's paintings were becoming popular).

By the way, I've never asked this question on here, but what are people's theories on who Mr. Linderman is?

Eden: When HRG told Eden to go and neutralize Sylar, I thought, "Oh, as IF" and then she did. And WOW... I totally loved her for the first time. What a great scene. It seems Eden DOES have the power of persuasion. Why isn't HRG using her more often? "Hmm... this restaurant bill is really high. Eden, go and talk to the waitress over there." I'm suddenly intrigued by her.

Micah: My suspicions were realized, and it looks like Micah realizes his mom is two different people, but I don't think he realizes the seriousness of the situation. Poor DL... I think he's totally innocent and has been framed completely by Jessica (have I mentioned how annoying that name is? It's like someone read too many Sweet Valley High books and decided to name her after the evil twin. Why not name the good side of her Elizabeth?) So... did Jessica hit DL or did she miss? Couldn't she have invested in a silencer?

Hiro: I missed him! The episode was totally lacking something by not having him in it. But I'm presuming next week's episode (which is called "Six Months Ago") will be all about him, which will be awesome.

After that, they have episodes scheduled for December 4th and 18th, so it looks like Heroes isn't planning on leaving us in December. My worry is, that only leaves 10 episodes for the new year. Are they thinking this through?

I’m Getting Tired of This…
In the latest “star goes completely crazy” incident, Michael Richards, a.k.a. Kramer (for that is all he’ll ever be remembered for) has been caught on tape shouting racist comments at an audience member who heckled him at the Laugh Factory last Friday. When someone interrupted his act, he began screaming, “He’s a n****r! He’s a n****r!” over and over, and the audience actually begins laughing nervously, before talking loudly and leaving the place when they realize it’s not part of the act. You can see it at TMZ.com, where they’ve had the video running for days now. Last night Kramer appeared on Letterman, all sober and apologetic, and saying he’s very sorry that he hurt anyone, and he didn’t mean it.
Right. And Mel Gibson doesn’t have an anti-Semitic bone in his body. Remember him getting drunk a few months ago, screaming about the Jews, and ending up with his mugshot plastered all over the newspapers, looking like a looneytune? Don’t worry, folks — he didn’t mean it, either.

Then there’s Isaiah Washington, a.k.a. Dr. Burke on Grey’s Anatomy, who called a fellow actor a “fag” on the set of the show (T.R. Knight, who plays Dr. O’Malley), not realizing the guy really was gay (or at least that’s his story). Knight came out publicly, and Washington released his feeble apology, saying the comments had been “beneath” him. Give me a BREAK.

Oh, and don’t forget the two yahoos that appear in Borat when the Kazakh journalist is picked up by them and they begin to rant about women and black people, saying that it’s a shame slavery has been abolished and they wish they still had the right to own slaves. Now those two brain trusts are suing the show saying they’d gotten them really drunk and they didn’t mean a word they’d said.

I’m SO tired of this crap. Listen, I’ve been out partying with friends, and while I’ll admit I’m not a drinker, it can be just as much fun watching your friends get drunk. And none of my friends use the n-word, denigrate women, or make racist comments. Why? Because they don’t believe it. Alcohol loosens the tongue, and can act like a truth serum. The only reason you would say these things while drunk is because you’ve lost the filter that stops the little things in your brain from making it to your mouth.

Mel Gibson is an anti-Semite. Isaiah Washington is a homophobe who should be fired from the show, not just for his comments, but for the fact he said it to a co-worker, while in the middle of an argument with another one. The two yahoos should be strapped to a chair, forced to watch Borat over and over… no, wait, that’s a good movie… they should watch Walker Texas Ranger over and over… wait, they’d probably enjoy that… um… they should have leeches attached to their eyeballs.

But Michael Richards didn’t have any alcohol in his system. He chalks his actions up to being out of control with “rage” … because someone heckled him. O…kay. He’s not sorry that he hurt anyone, he’s sorry that it was caught on tape, and that he’ll now be out of work. But then again, considering the less-than-stellar career he’s had post-Seinfeld, it’s not like Tom Hanks was the one caught on tape this time. Will this incident be the one to wake up Hollywood, and make them realize they have to stop forgiving their own when they do stupid and hateful things like this?

Does Watching Book Television Count?
So my pal Crissy sent me this link to a site where they talk about a book called The 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. The author of the website has created a link where you can click to a spreadsheet of the complete list of books, and put ones beside the books you've actually read, and then when you reach the bottom, you'll see your total. So, I hunkered down, clicked on the link, and prepared myself for complete depression. The spreadsheet started with the newest book at the top, and went down to the oldest. By the time I hit #379, I emailed her back and said, "OK, officially depressed." I took 4 years of English literature for my undergrad, and then another year of intense reading for my Masters degree, which focused on the Modernists and the Victorians (I'm a big fan of the Modernists... the Victorians, not so much). Then I read a gajillion books while working on Finding Lost (ok, maybe only about 11, but STILL) and most of those were classics.

But the thing is, my true interest is in modern books. I love Canadian authors, and graphic novellists. I love Neil Gaiman and Jonathan Lethem. I thought The Corrections was one of the best books I've ever read, and I cried so hard during Ann-Marie MacDonald's Fall On Your Knees that when I finished it, I started all over again.

Yet by the time I hit somewhere around 1940 on the list, going backwards from the 2000s, I had only racked up about 55. In the end, I scored 108. I killed in the Virginia Woolf and George Eliot sections, and was horrified to suddenly realize I've read one Margaret Atwood (ONE). This might be an admirable score to some, but to someone who spent as many years as I have being a "reader," it was measly. And I hated seeing that so many of the books I checked off were ones that I'd been told to read, not ones I'd chosen to read for myself.

Is the list fair? Well... the judges have a serious predilection for Woolf, Dickens (surprise), Ian McEwan (in fact, if you ever held a British passport and wrote a book that was nominated for something, you're probably on this list), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (OK, some of the guy's philosophies were interesting, and I'll admit I read Confessions in first-year university and felt like I was seeing things differently, but was the writing any good? Not really...), any Bronte, and, gulp, Atwood. But there are notable omissions: You're going to include Carol Shields' Unless, but NOT Timothy Findley's The Wars? I haven't actually read The Satanic Verses (though I do think Rushdie is one of the most brilliant writers alive today, if not THE most), but most people believe the book's controversy far outweighed the book's merits. And there isn't a single Gaiman on there.

But I can't really talk. I scored 108. That means there are (wait, subtract the 8... carry the one... and... um...) 893 books I have to read before I die. Aside from the ones I WANT to read that weren't on that list. And considering, with a toddler, I read about 10 books a year now, I have to live to be about 120, and hope that no more books are published for the next 90 years.

Anyway, go check it out, and post your scores here. I'm interested in what people are reading, what they thought of the list, and if, like me, they read it and were equally depressed and inspired to read more. (Corey, I'm dying to hear your score on this one.)

So if you suddenly see my posts turn from the television to literature, you can blame Peter Ackroyd for editing this book.

LOST: Preview for next February

For everyone who felt like there was a hole in their Wednesday night viewing schedule, here's the promo they aired during Daybreak (I'm not interested in the show, so I'll just be checking YouTube every Thursday morning). This one involves Desmond and Charlie. I'm assuming Des looked at Claire, and that has Charlie freaking out. I'm hoping this signals an upcoming Desmond flashback!

Horn-Rimmed Glasses, Eden, Mohinder, Fate, and ... Walt
Once again, I'll pull some of the comments up here to discuss in the post, because some of the questions and comments deserve further discussion.

I think Eden's power is being annoying... Or more likely, as you suggest, the power of persuasion. I just don't like her. As far as Claire's dad goes, I'm sticking to my "he's evil" guns. Claire's birth mother mysteriously dies cause things didn't go according to plan? Suspect. People's powers getting out of control because the Paper Factory Folk are meddling? Very suspect.

I agree with you on Eden. I want to grow my hair out now because of how much I dislike her. :) I switch back and forth on HRG's evilness factor, which I guess makes for a great mystery, since it's just not obvious.

Their powers are being "purified." I think Mohinder's "love" interest's name is Mira. And finally, why didn't Eden use her whispery whispers on Mohinder to stop him from leaving?

You're right; it's Mira. Mohinder looked like he said Nira, and I didn't check the credits. Good question about Eden not using her powers on him... maybe she wanted him to leave? Maybe they needed him back in India to find out about the boy's file, and that would be their only link. If HRG and Eden really are puppet masters of some kind, they'll need Mohinder in India working the Suresh angle for them, since Suresh was so far ahead of everyone else on this.

was I the only one screaming at the tv for mohinder to hurry up and open the drawer. He knew the drawer was locked, he knew where the key was. I understand that he thought there were some aspects of his father's work that should stay locked away, but COME ON, it took forever. OK rant over, sorry

You know, sometimes I'm watching a show and looking for the answers and my mind is trying to figure it all out before they do, and other times I just sit back and let it happen and don't think it through. I thought he was still staring at the key that got him into Sylar's place, and didn't realize it was a different one, so it never occurred to me that it was to the drawer. But if you'd caught on, I could definitely see why you'd be frustrated! :)

Maybe their powers aren't generating naturally, but sombody has been cutting them open and tinkering and leaving the mark to indicate their work. Didn't Mohinder's voice over say you can't escape your fate? Perhaps that's why HRG isn't stoping Claire from going to Homecoming. Still not sure on HRG - I'd say he's grey. Doing bad for good reasons, perhaps selfishly so.

That's exactly what I'm starting to think. I agree with you ont he voiceover, and for me, it was a little confusing: If we can't escape our fate, and HRG knows that, then how would Isaac's paintings help him help Claire? He can't change her fate, and if her fate is to be a big bloody mess, then that's that. Game over. But despite Mohinder's words, HRG is trying to find a way to save her (at least, that's what he's saying). And Hiro is appearing from the future to tell people to Save the Cheerleader. So despite what Mohinder is saying, these people clearly believe we can CHANGE our fate, if we can't escape it.

Thanks for the book on Lost. Very helpful! This addresses one of your asides, regarding Lost, rather than Heroes. Can we still truly say that Walt astrally projected himself? We know that the "smoke monster" can take on human form (Yemi to Eko). How far back in the series does this possibility reach? Was it the monster projecting Boone to Locke in 303. Or Eko to Locke later in that episode? Did the monster project Walt to Shannon in Season 2? Christian to Jack in Season
One? That one shot in 305 seems to force you to rethink every island apparition and prophetic dream in the show. What do you think about this and why? (Sorry this is on a Heroes thread.)

Ooh, I don't care what thread we're in; I'll always talk about Lost. I'm glad you liked the book! Great theory! Smokey can bring death, as we saw with Eko. It can also bring peace, as we saw with Locke... it's just a matter of how it wants to appear to the people on the island. I definitely think that now that we've seen the smoke monster take on the form of Yemi to lead Eko all over the island, that it could have been the one that created Boone and Christian. The one thing all 3 of them have in common is, they're dead. Walt wasn't dead. So while it's very possible that he was also a projection of Smokey, I'm thinking Walt somehow did it. Unlike Christian, Boone, and Yemi, Walt has been proven to have special powers. And Klugh asked Michael in "Three Minutes," "Has Walt ever appeared in a place where he wasn't supposed to be?" as if they, too, knew he was doing something extraordinary. So that becomes a big question: Was Walt really doing it himself, or was it just the smoke monster playing with Shannon? Walt seems like the odd man out in this situation because he was alive, but the other thing that connects Shannon to Eko is after they saw their apparitions, they died, so that would add to your theory that it was Smokey in both circumstances. Hmmm... definitely something worth thinking about.

And it begs the question, once again, can they ever bring back Walt? I don't think we've seen the last of Michael, but Walt was SO important to the show, and yet from a practical perspective, if they bring him back in season 4, they're dealing with a 16-year-old who's still supposed to be 12. Do they pull a switcheroo and just get another actor? It'll be tough.

One more thing on Heroes: I was watching part of last week's episode because I'm transferring the eps off my PVR (TiVO) and putting them onto DVDs. When Micah is talking to Niki and knows it's not her and asks if she can put his mother on the phone, does he know who he's talking to? At first I thought maybe he thought he was talking to a neighbour, but something tells me Micah has actually seen both sides of his mom, and she doesn't know it. So he knows when he's talking to Buffiki, and when it's Niki, and he's very calm about it because he knows neither one will hurt him. Thoughts?

Did anyone else feel like something was missing from their Wednesday night last night? :(

They Like Me, They Really, Really... Oh.
So apparently I've been nominated for the Canadian Blog Awards. I don't know who's running it, or if there is any prestige in it, or if it's just a popularity contest to see who has the most friends who will go and vote often for you, but hey, isn't that the basis of ANY awards competition? So I might as well jump in and do what everyone else is doing... to vote for my blog in the areas of Best Blog, Best New Blog, and Best Entertainment Blog, you can go here, and they let you vote once a day, so... vote often. Voting on this round closes Monday. Come on, let's get Nikki to Round 2!! Other blogs to vote for there are Menard Communications for Best Media Blog, and Popped Culture (though, if he's up against me, vote for me... heehee...) I still love ya, Jer. ;)

Jeremy, who runs the Popped Culture blog, and I, have had an ongoing war come Oscar season that has been going since 1996. We have Oscar parties, trash talk each other, and see who can get the most winners right. So now, let's extend our war into blog territory. May the best gal win. Har har...

Heroes – Seven Minutes to Midnight

Mohinder: First of all, can I just say that Sendhil Ramamurthy has got to be one of the hottest guys on TV right now? I’ve been missing him on Heroes, because the show has moved to other characters in the past two weeks, but it was good to see Mohinder again. I’d been speculating with friends that when he threw his father’s ashes into the Ganges, there would be something hidden in the urn, and I was pretty disappointed when there wasn’t. But instead, we have a new mystery: Is that child one of the heroes? Can he dream and project himself somehow while dreaming? (And added to Walt, that makes two young boys who can astrally project on TV now…) There’s a mysterious woman in Mohinder’s past (get your HANDS OFF my Mohinder, Nira!) and it seems like she is someone who helped convince Mohinder that his dad was a bit nuts. Did anyone else think the episode would end with Mohinder sitting in front the computer, looking at the “Are you sure you want to quit?” question staring at him, and hitting NO? Thanks to the writers for not going for the obvious on that one. What happened to Mohinder’s sister? How was she “special”? (Notice that’s the same word used for Walt on Lost?)

Hiro: I LOVED Charlie, and I hope Hiro can bring her back somehow… the ending of this episode was amazing. Hiro didn’t come back; does that mean the show will now be broadcasting two different timelines simultaneously? Will we flash to Hiro in the past or will we stay with Ando, wondering when Hiro will return? It was exciting (and terrifying) to see Sylar again, and something told me the top of Charlie’s head wouldn’t see the end of the day… (Best line in the ep: “Bring something delicious for me, and for my friend, something for fatto fatto!” HAHAHAHA) How far back did Hiro go? The photo on the wall would indicate he went back further than one day, since she says her birthday was 6 months ago, and the pic is him celebrating her birthday party (and his face is very strange in the photo).

Isaac: This storyline confused me in the beginning, I’ll admit. I actually stopped the ep, went to the ep from two weeks ago still on my PVR, checked to see if Eden took Isaac somewhere, etc. But once I realized what was going on, it was easier. And this episode seems to be pointing – again – to what my husband had suggested weeks ago: That Horn-Rimmed Glasses is actually a good guy (or a REALLY good actor). How does he know something’s going to happen to Claire at her homecoming? Why not prevent her from going? Does he think Isaac’s future cannot be twisted that easily? And what’s up with Eden? Is she a hero, too, one that maybe HRG saved at some point? What is her power, persuasion? There was definitely some significance to the way she leaned in to talk to him, and next thing you know, he’s shooting up. What’s with the holding pen that HRG has in the back of the printing warehouse? Is it a government thing?

Matt: The radiation guy is creepy cool, but also very sad. His anger seems to bring forth the radiation. Is there some significance to the fact that Audrey just stood there when his radiation started billowing? Does she have something up with her that she can’t figure out, too? Herein lies the episode’s greatest mystery: What are the two black marks? Does the Haitian guy mark the people, and Sylar kills them? BUT… it would point to Haitian guy being bad, and therefore HRG being bad. We see what happens when Ted is outside, and he blows up a street corner because of his powers. Could Sylar be someone who thinks the heroes will get out of control if left to their own devices? Are the marked ones the ones who are potentially dangerous? Why wasn’t Hiro marked? Why did Sylar go after Charlie instead of Hiro in this scene?

Why are some of the people finding their powers manifesting themselves now, not at birth? It seems to be some strange crack in the cosmos that is bringing forth the dormant powers within people that they previously didn’t know they had. Have we seen other characters who don’t have powers yet, but soon will?

What would you want your power to be? ;)

MIA this week: Peter and Nathan, Micah and DL, Niki. We see Claire but nothing major about her, just the looming event that’s going to happen at homecoming.

The Faces of Evil
They look innocent, don't they? Cute little twin girls, with golden hair and beautiful smiles. But according to an article I just read at ABCNews.com, it would appear that hair is covering their horns, as Borat would say.

Meet Lamb and Lynx Gaede, 13-year-old twin singers who have an album, a video, they tour, and they have leagues of fans. The nature of their music? White Nationalist hatred. Yep. The band is called Prussian Blue, and you're looking into the face of the new generation of Neo-Nazism. Call me naive, but I read this article and just felt overwhelming sadness. I don't know what's worse -- the fact that their trashy mother April decided to raise them to believe in White Power and death to all other races (she was raised by a piece of excrement who covered the walls of the house with swastikas and Nazi memorabilia, and this same man remains a profound influence on his granddaughters), or the fact that they're finding an audience for this hatred of theirs. Their album has been put out on "Resistance Records," which apparently is an ENTIRE LABEL devoted to this crap.

Go read the article. And weep for the future.

Kate NOT pregnant, and other comments
Thanks to the people who commented on my late-night Lost blog last night and confirmed that Kate's pregnancy test was negative. When I watched it the second time, I paused that scene, backed it up, checked again, but, like Blondie mentioned in her comment, I was watching the ABC feed and there was a stupid AP alert across the bottom of my screen, so I didn't get to see the bottom of what she was holding, so it wasn't clear.

So, sorry about that! ;) Now other comments:

the problem i've had with the episodes so far is that they seem to be repeating a lot of character development in the flashbacks. For example, with Kate in "i do" we learn that she was in a romance which could not be because she was a fugitive, but wasn't that the same case with Tom whom she got killed because of her criminal actions. Also with Locke, we knew about his previous pain stemming from his lack of a family. And yet again that point was made again by his screw up in his pot growing hippie family. How many times have these people repeated their mistakes? I would say the only revealing flashbacks so far were of Jack, Sun and Jin because those were the only flashbacks that displayed new aspects of these characters.

I agree with the other episodes, and it's what I'd said earlier in the season when we saw Locke's (and Sawyer's, I would argue). Kate's, however, did show a different side to her, I thought. Yes, the Tom thing showed she couldn't settle down, but he was also married with a kid, so that played a major role there. But this one showed how she tried to settle down, which is something we haven't seen before. With Tom, it was a reminder of all of the things she could have been, and wasn't. With Kevin, it was what she tried to do to make up for it, but couldn't. And unlike with Tom, with Kevin, she couldn't be "Kate," but Monica.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did Alex, when she's being carried away, ask them about what they'd done with her boyfriend, and then say something about Ben?

Yes, she said she wanted to see Ben. I took it to mean that she wanted to speak to the leader, but as I was saying, he asked about her, too, which makes me wonder if there was something more there. Did he raise Alex as his daughter when she was younger?

I was disappointed, not so much in the episode, but in the six-episode arc as a whole. I was under the impression that this was going to be a self-contained mini-movie of sorts. Almost stand-alone.

I thought to myself last night that some people will be very annoyed by the mini-arc because of what you said; at the end of 6 episodes, we're pretty much back where we started. In a way. But I think we're heading in a new direction now: Jack has taken control of the situation, and 6 episodes ago he was very much NOT in control. Jack is a potential killer; Kate and Sawyer are bed buddies; and we've had some insight into the Others. I think the 6-ep mini-arc was simply to show us what was going on with Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, primarily, but they knew if they didn't have some focus on the other side of the island, we'd get pretty pissed.

Seriously, if this were any other show, I'd give up. Three months??? I was annoyed when Prison Break pulled this stunt and I'm mortified by this. And the audacity of trying to sell this as a benefit to the viewers .

But there's the thing: If this were any other show, we'd all give up, but it's Lost, and they make it good enough that you won't give up, and neither will be. That's saying something. :) I agree I was SO annoyed with Prison Break (mostly because I hate FOX, and I'll take any excuse to hate FOX) but Lost, unlike Prison Break, was announced way back in April that it would have this broadcast schedule.

The thing about the 6 eps is, maybe it wasn't its own closed mini-arc, but have you ever known Lost to be a show where they answered ANYTHING in 6 episodes? I wasn't expecting answers, so maybe that's why I wasn't as upset. I'm not saying, 'Hey, expect nothing, and Lost will make you happy,' but they've given me just enough to whet my appetite, and make me clamour for more come February 7.

Not enough Sayid. What's up with Claire, the baby, and the Hobbit? Hurley Who? Sun, Jin, we hardly knew ye...

I was actually going to post on that today, so I'll do it now. Hurley is practically non-existent. Desmond had about 4 lines. Rose and Bernard? Gone. Hobbit seems to have a hearing problem of some kind, continues to dominate Clarie, and that's it. Locke's been pretty significant, as has Eko, but one of them is dead now. Sun and Jin... it seems so strange to think they actually had a flashback this season -- to me, it seems completely out of place that they had one. But they needed to get Kate, Sawyer and Jack their flashbacks, and that leaves them with 3 more, so Locke, Eko, and... someone, was the way to go. (I think it should have been Desmond; probably would have been more fitting... or Sayid. That would have better.) I love Jin and Sun flashbacks, don't get me wrong, but has ANYONE seen those 2 since the second episode?? I haven't. (Then again, I thought the pregnancy test was positive, so who am I to say?)

But again, I think the focus needed to be on the other side. Maybe they should have just waited until January, and done a 24. But the difference with the two shows is, Jack Bauer's adventures are self-contained. See a season, you've seen a complete arc begin, develop, and end. Lost is continuous, and to leave them hanging last May with a big explosion and not show us anything until January? It would have been lunacy, and they'd have lost a LOT of viewers. They gave us a taste of what was to come, and it's enough to bring me (and a lot of other Lost viewers) back for more come February. So, I totally see where you're coming from, and understand why you'd be ticked, but I've been trying to figure out how else they could have handled it, and I'm not coming up with anything yet.

when Danny (?) is walking out to the cages to kill Sawyer, he says, "Shepherd wasn't even on Jacob's list." Who is Jacob?

ACK! I can't believe I left off the most important thing in my blog!!! That line freaked me out, too. Who is Jacob? Does it mean Ben really isn't the leader? (I speculated in my book that he wasn't; it just seemed too easy.) Is it a list of people who were supposed to have gotten on the plane? Is Ben's real name Jacob? It's an interesting name to choose, because Jacob was the second son of Isaac in Genesis. He tricked his first-born brother Esau out of his birthright, but more importantly, he had a vision of a ladder stretching to heaven with God standing at the top of it. If you go back to Locke's episode, we saw him lying at the bottom of an escalator with Boone standing at the top of it, an obvious reference to this. (The movie, Jacob's Ladder, is about a man trapped in purgatory, another comment on the island.) Jacob is the only person in the bible whom God explicitly says He "loved."

LOST Ep 6: “I Do”
WOW. Sometimes I HATE the writers on Lost. (But it’s a good hate, of course.) I literally screamed, “NOOOOOOOO” at the end of this episode. I cannot believe they are being this cruel to us, ARGH!!!! (I’m writing this about 2 minutes later, so the frustration hasn’t calmed yet.)

This episode revealed Kate’s ex (played by the man Joss Whedon fans love to love, Nathan Fillion… a fellow Canuck with Evangeline), who was a good man who fell in love with the wrong woman. Again we discover that Kate is a good person doomed to spend her life paying for her one crime. I have to admit, Kate flashbacks aren’t usually met with a huge, “Yay!” from me, yet every time I watch one it’s usually a great episode and always reveals something new about her character. Unlike the Sawyer one a couple of episodes ago, this episode not only shows us the marriage we’d only heard about, but showed again how difficult Kate’s life has been since she tried to save her mother’s life by taking her father’s. The call to the marshal was something he mentioned in an earlier flashback, when he told her she would call him and tell him she didn’t want to stop running, so this flashback was entirely consistent with what we’ve seen with her. It was an excellent episode, with awesome performances from Lilly and Fox. This is Matthew Fox’s season, for sure.

Did You Notice:
-ep opened with Ann Margret’s “Slowly”
-Adewale’s name was in the credits. Must be a contract thing.
-Pickett wants to kill Sawyer because Sun killed Colleen. It’s like they see the Losties as all the same person, just as the Losties see the Others as all the same.
**The minister who married Kate and Kevin was ALSO the head doctor in “All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues” with Jack. Uh… same guy, or just same actor?
-Ben is very much like a God figure, watching over all of the action and making judgments on people.
-the marshal mentions the Feast of the Ascension, which is a strange thing to mention, except in the context of Eko. While we know that AAA is not returning to the show, so it’s not like he’s going to rise from the dead like Christ, it was an interesting reference nonetheless (the Feast of the Ascension is a Catholic holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Christ)
-after seeing Sawyer and Kate together, Jack tells Ben that HE needs to get off the island, not he and his friends
**before Henry goes under, he says, “See you on the other side.” This is exactly what Anthony Cooper said to Locke as they headed into surgery. There have been twists on this throughout the series (I’ve written about it in my book). Nadia wrote a similar thing to Sayid, Desmond’s said, “See you in another life” twice to Jack, Dave said the same thing to Hurley before jumping off the cliff, and Pickett says, “See you in the funny pages” to Michael.

I loved:
-“Written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse”
-Ben telling Jack that he’s disappointed in him, and Jack saying it’s a good thing he won’t have to be disappointed for very long. OUCH!!
- the way Kate climbs out of her cage, and how she makes it look effortless. It would take me 10 minutes to do the same thing, and I’d still manage to land on my head and sustain a major concussion.
-how young Kate looked in the flashbacks. It’s a wonder what bangs can do for making a person look younger (note to self: get bangs).
-that Paolo was just there, without uttering a word. Can we keep him like that for the rest of the season (until he’s killed by a polar bear?)
-Alex! And the David and Goliath thing they did with her and the slingshot
-Kate and Sawyer! That went without saying… and yet, part of me also wants her with Jack. The moment where he saw the two of them on the monitor, my heart stopped.
-Kate walking down the aisle with her new husband, and the cut to her being escorted to Jack’s cage with Juliet. Nicely done.
-at the wedding, the fact that her fiancée loves that with Kate, “what you see is what you get”
-Locke seeing Eko’s stick. “Lift up your eyes and look north” not only refers to looking upwards to God, but to the North of the island (or, offshore; let’s hope he looks across the water). Locke has had a renewed spirit and faith since the hatch explosion. I thought his huge mistake (that almost killed everyone) might destroy him completely, but it’s had the opposite effect, as if by showing him the button actually did something, it justified him pushing it for so long

Questions:
-who is Alex asking about? Where is the “home” that Juliet mentions she was taken to? Why does Ben ask about her, and why does Juliet lie about what happened to her? Where did the Others really take her?
-if the Others REALLY wanted to force Jack to operate on Ben, why threaten Sawyer’s life? Isn’t that the most asinine plan they’ve had yet? Why not threaten to kill Kate? THAT would have an impact on the guy.
-How long ago was she married? The cellphone she was talking to Kevin on looked fairly recent.
-why did she call the marshal? Was she really so naïve as to think he’d just let her walk away after he’d been hunting her so long? (The egg timer was genius.)
-Kevin got 2 tickets to Costa Rica on Oceanic Airlines as a honeymoon gift for Kate. Was Dharma perhaps tracking its former passengers? Is that how they got all of these people on the plane?
-did Kate have an abortion, or did she have the baby? (I’m thinking the former since a baby wouldn’t really work in the Kate timeline, but you never know with this show.) She later says to Kevin, “I almost had a baby” as if the abortion’s already happened, so I’m leaning to that.
-who was communicating with Jack in his cell through the com device? Was it Juliet? If so, it points to her being in cahoots with Ben, because by forcing Jack to leave his cell and go to the closed circuit TV room, he sees Kate and Sawyer together and it forces him to act.
-Jack doing what he does in the surgery definitely points to a change in his character. He’s never used his skills to kill someone… has he?
-Jack says he needs to get off the island: does he mean the Alcatraz island (i.e. does he know?) or is he talking about it all as one big island, and he wants to go home to L.A.?
-will Jack really attempt to kill Ben? If he doesn’t know they’re on another island, will Kate tell him or will she run?
-what did Kate mean when she said she can’t leave without Jack. Does she mean she won’t leave, or she CAN’T? Is she trying to tell him they actually CAN’T leave the island?
-will Locke head out with other Losties to try to find Jack, Kate, and Sawyer? WHY haven’t they tried to do so already?
-will Kate get pregnant from being with Sawyer? Or has he discovered that if you hit the button 42 times, a prophylactic comes out?
-will I make it to February without completely losing my mind??
-does ABC really think fans will tune in to Daybreak just because they’re going to run commercials of Lost during every episode? (Note: just check YouTube the next day; the Lost promos will be there instead.)

So now what? I have 3 months to fill this space every Wednesday night. I guess I’ll just have to write about Heroes a lot more (I owe you one for this week… d’oh!) And anti-Paolo fan fiction. Tune in next week when Paolo discovers a poisonous snake.

Live Blog: America's Next Top Model
I'm trying something new tonight and live blogging ANTM. I wanted to do something mindless before turning to the final episode of Lost until February. So here's the episode, as I watched it.

Ah, remembering Brooke… Jaeda is saying everyone is sad, and OH MY GOD is Melrose singing “We love you Brooke and we’ll miss you like hell?” Please stop. I love you, Caridee, but the cowboy hat with the price tag hanging off it is too much… Michelle is telling Caridee and Melrose that she really never wanted to be a model, she’s just here and doesn’t know what she’s doing. Good one, Michelle. Melrose telling the camera that she’s sick of people being here who don’t want it, and you know… I can’t blame her.

The Tyra reply coupon time: Ooh, if you could bump a girl out, who would it be? Interesting! And they’re cutting to surfing. Please don’t let these girls surf. Gabrielle Reece is here talking about action modeling, and the girls are pretending they remember who she was. Jaeda played volleyball in college and now is happy with the competition. Huh? “You guys will go over there and change into your bikinis and come back.” And once again, ANTM does its best to push feminism backwards a MILLION years. Anchal is upset that she’s fat. I hate her for thinking she’s fat. Ugh. Caridee looks completely freaked out and goofy in her “action shot.” OK, she did it again. Eugena looks like she’s in pain. Melrose actually does an OK job here. Jaeda pulls her mouth back and looks awful and Gabrielle tells her she looks awesome. Amanda looks like George Michael on Arrested Development, turning her body to avoid the ball. Michelle poofs her mouth out and lands face-first in the sand, HA! Achal hides and says she doesn’t want to come out of her towel. Her face looks the sexiest of the bunch and Gabrielle says, “Good try, too bad you suck” and it’s like, ok, were you just looking at her “jiggles” and not her face? Sheesh. Did Eugena just call Achal a “big ol’ blob?” CRIPES.

Melrose is SO frustrated!! She wants her to go home and is telling everyone this in the Jacuzzi… Anchal isn’t hanging over the balcony listening this time, but tells the camera she wants to “slap the ho.”

Tyra reply coupon: Will you snap when the pressure is on? (Is that a reference to an elastic band? Or “Oh SNAP!” Or will Miss Jay do three snaps or something?”) Oh MY GOD Jamesh Shaint Jamesh is back, oh GOD. Someone tell this guy he’s 103 years old and is NO LONGER A CLUB KID. “Nashcar enthushiasht”? GIVE ME A BREAK!!! Dude, just… give up. You were played in a movie by MACAULEY CULKIN! Or was it Seth Green?? Maybe it was Seth. Can’t remember… now I think it was Seth, but the movie SUCKED so maybe I’m just removing it from my head. Action shots… Eugena’s is cool. Melrose looks like Trinity, but is good. Jaeda a little freaky. Amanda is Trinity as well. Seriously, woefully skinny Trinity. OK, Caridee is stepping up and being all acty, but, um, model she’s not. Come on, Caridee, will you PLEASE remember the camera is on you?? I love you. Don’t screw this up. Anchal’s up, he tells her to use her anger and drama and… HAHAHAHAHAHA… She looks like she’s stepping on an ant. Now she took off her shoe and, um, dusted the furniture with it. Is Anchal going home? She’s terrible at this photo shoot. Nascar guy is taunting her and asking if she doesn’t care. Michelle’s up and doing a hella job… oh wait, she just straddled the guy. Now she’s on the car, and Caridee is chanting “Screw up, Michelle.” And… Michelle just won, though all the girls are “fantashtic.” Michelle just chose, um… all the remaining white girls to be her co-winners. :::awkward::: They just won a shopping spree. Anchal is whining she’s never been chosen for any of the things. After THAT performance, I’m not crying any tears for her.

Billion dollar babes sample sale. Sigh. These are usually the scenes I fastforward through…. Ok, they’re turning it into a race and Mr. Monotone Nascar guy is saying, “Okay you girls will run toward this line and you will try to grab clothes and you have 30 seconds to put on clothes and then run back or you won’t win anything and I’m shocked anyone is still listening because I’m about as boring a speaker as they could find. Now they’re counting the number of items all of the girls grabbed, and I missed what the point is… girl with most things wins? (I passed out somewhere during Mr. Monotone’s instructions.) No way… everyone has to give Melrose all her clothes?? Melrose, do NOT be a bitch… you’d better give something to Michelle. Aaaaand, she just told the camera that the girls look like they’re going to kill her, without suggesting she might give anything away. Sigh.

OK, now Melrose is lecturing Anchal on being immature and childish (after she just took all the toys and ran out of the playroom screeching with delight and didn’t SHARE) and Anchal is sitting there dumbfounded and upset. Another moment where I know they’re editing stuff out and it’s not clear why everyone lets Melrose get away with those comments while she’s such a beeyotch herself.

Tyra reply coupon: Tomorrow you will defy the biggest model stereotype: Don’t be an airhead… see, Tyra, a stereotype is something that ISN’T TRUE. Airhead? Um… TRUE.

They’re jumping out of a plane. Oh my GOD I’ve been waiting for this photo shoot for 7 seasons now. After suffering through so many of these horrible little girls backbiting throughout 13 episodes and listening to Tyra go on about how they’re defying stereotypes while she upholds them I am finally going to see them fall out of the sky and hopefully… oh come ON Jay, did you just say they’re not jumping out of a plane? It’s some indoor thing, what the hell?? OK… actually, this looks pretty damn cool. I want to go and float in this chamber thingie. And I want to see these girls thrown out of a plane while I do it. Cover Girl major product placement yadda yadda…. Michelle is going all over the place and the guy is trying to hold her in place and she says she just keeps flipping over and has no idea why… um, you cannot defy gravity when you weigh 38 pounds, so obviously she’s going to continue to fly against the window, HAHAHA! Michelle is too much sometimes…

Jaeda’s jowls are flapping in the wind, but Jay likes her. You know, I’m with Jaeda… they’ve made her look like a man with that haircut. Amanda is flailing like a rag doll, but now the guy seems to have held her in one spot and Jay is slobbering that she’s the most graceful darn thing he’s EVER seen in the air, what beauty, what form…. Anchal’s turn. Gay makeup guy is holding the Cover Girl foundation with the product name out just in case we MISSED the fact that he’s going on about how awesome it blends with her beautiful skin tones. Closeup on Anchal shows she doesn’t have the flawless skin we’d been led to believe she did. OK, makeup guy just yelled at her to SUCK IT IN. What a bitch. Melrose is complaining that Anchal does the same thing every time, but what girl yet has done anything but hold the same damn pose the entire time they’ve been in the chamber?? Eugena is up and the guy seems to be holding her neck like a dog collar, and she’s trying to be all purty and facing the camera. Whoa, they just floated way up and back down… cool. Jay just told Melrose to make the girls hate her even more, and she whines, “That’s not possible, teehee!!” Give them some CLOTHES, Mel. Oh hey, Melrose, are you HOLDING THE SAME POSITION THE WHOLE TIME?? Anchal, kick her ass. Anchal’s happy, heehee!!

Caridee’s turn, come on, girl!! So far, her face looks awesome, she’s flipping onto her back, and now they just banged into the wall, and… Jay is bitching that she didn’t listen and didn’t do slow moves, but she still did her job.

Back to the house in the stretch truck. I hate that thing. Anchal reads the elimination reply card like they’ve never heard it.

Melrose is wearing a black moustache. What the hell is she doing?? Is she supposed to be Freud? What is that accent? And, uh, why did she have a moustache in her bag? They all lie around and complain about how they don’t want to go home and who they want to go home…

Judge panel: WHOA… Tyra, what is WITH this week’s hair?? And my eyes, my eyes, what the hell is that BELT?? Is it just me or has Tyra been packing on some poundage in the last few weeks? OK, now it’s the judging test. Boys will choose… a verb and an adverb? Did someone have to explain to Tyra what the difference was? Eugena has to shake flirtatiously (she looks like spaghetti). Amanda has to… ski sadly? Huh? Jaeda is skipping sensually, not bad. Michelle has to swim frightfully. Well, she got the frightful part right, YIKES. Anchal: Dance aggressively. She’s standing and thinking and WHOA. Stay away from the clubs, Anchal. Melrose has to box joyfully and she’s… voguing. HAHAHAHAHA!!! She thinks of a box like a mime would. Caridee has to hide dizzily, and is actually kinda funny. Tyra loves her (me too).

Eugena: Twiggy said she should have shimmied, now Tyra’s complimenting Naomi Campbell, WHAT? Anyway… best shot… where’s her face? Yep, that’s what they want to know, too. Not so hot, Eugena.

Amanda: Tyra said she wasn’t sad, she was scary. Best shot, can’t see her face, either, all profile. Nigel says her body is too slender. You think?

Jaeda: They said she didn’t skip sensually enough, just didn’t try. Gabbi Reece is saying someone who’s bigger has to use it. Jaeda also in profile… is there a problem with the photographer here? Did they point her to look to the product in the wrong angle?? So far all the photos are terrible, IMO.

Anchal: They told her she ran out of the room, and they were very unhappy with her exit. Weirdest exit since Jade, they said. HA! (Ok, what is with Miss Jay’s hair? Looks like Amanda could have skied right off it.) Tyra lecturing lecturing lecturing, and telling her it’s a problem in life that she has. Best show: We can see the face!! Best angle so far. And… they’re still lecturing. Second person Tyra has called Michael Jackson.

Melrose: Nigel calls her a genius for voguing instead of boxing. Someone hand the guy a dictionary. Best shot: they love the body, the face, everything. Nigel calls it stellar. I think Melrose is gonna win this competition. Maybe she should.

Caridee: They bow before her for hiding dizzily. They adore her. Please let the shot be good… they’re all going on about how awesome she was, and the rest of the girls are all GLARING from behind… shot is great. Profile, but it still looks awesome, her body is cool. YES! Go, Caridee!! OK, now she’s saying Jay told them she was out of control, and Caridee’s face falls and then she tries laughing it off and now Tyra’s lecturing her like SHUT UP Tyra. GOD.

Michelle: Tyra can’t say frighteningly. Surprise. Now Tyra’s calling her a wasted space??? HUH? OK, this girl’s had some of the best photos. Whatever. “You were the challenge winner.” Depends on your idea of winner (ask Melrose about those clothes). Photo is great. Tyra just called her Michael Jackson… what is your problem, Tyra?

“Now it is time for the judges to debooberate, and we will decide” and camera zooms in eerily on… Eugena. O…kay.

Judge debooberation: Twiggy loves loves loves Caridee. Miss Jay makes the ugliest face I’ve ever seen on the show saying Caridee’s a crackpot. Tyra says she could hurt someone. Sigh. Someone just kick her in the head this week. Nigel talks again about Anchal’s face being gorgeous and says her foundation is whipped, and so is she. Oh COME ON do we need to work the product placement into the judging? Melrose good, Amanda’s photo can be turned upside down (?), Tyra says Michelle doesn’t want this even though her photo is awesome. (Do photos COUNT with these people anymore??) Don’t like Jaeda. Don’t like Eugena. Nigel’s kinda bogarting the judging panel this week. Blah blah blah. Miss Jay says Eugena is pretty lost in space. HA!

Girls are back. Tyra looks VERY SERIOUS. Music is all “buda buda buda…” Six of you will become America’s Next… Top………. Model. Caridee is first. YAY! Melrose looks pissed, she’s second, still looks pissed. Jaeda third. Interesting. Will Anchal go home? One of the twins? Amanda is safe. Michelle grinning, now looking worried. Eugena is safe. Uh oh. (Did Tyra just tell Eugena to flip her hair like a white girl?)

Emaciated and FAT (in her head) step forward. Tyra gets all quiet and serious. Music gets all scary. Oh, Anchal you are SO beautiful (I think she needs to have her hair threaded again… it looks like hair plugs at the top of her forehead.) Michelle looks really confident that she’s not going home. Hmm… Tyra’s telling her she doesn’t have it. EEK. Michelle looks really flip, like she doesn’t care. Is she going… oh… Anchal is going home. Sigh. Anchal is very gracious, crying, thanks Tyra for the opportunity. Melrose tells Anchal she’s awesome (sure). Anchal weeping and saying it’s a life lesson and she won’t let Melrose get to her. Says she’s going to step out of her box. O…kay.

Coming up: Girls lose their inhibitions in acting class. Looks like they’re going to Spain.

Oh, SNAP! -- Veronica Mars
Veronica's ep last night was the best of the season, in my opinion. FINALLY this show seems to have gotten back on track. Thank you, Rob Thomas!! It had great lines, funny dialogue, Keith was awesome (even if he has made a difficult decision that will no doubt fly back in his face in a nasty way); Logan was funny and mysterious; Piz was back and was sweet (I can't remember the last time a show introduced a new character in the third season that I took to as quickly as this guy); Wallace felt like he wasn't just inserted into the storyline, and actually had a purpose; and Veronica was back to her witty, vengeful self. The Nancy Drew mystery-of-the-week was intriguing, and we couldn't WAIT to find out whodunnit, and hope they incur the full Wrath of the Ron. (And her revenge on Ratner, who didn't actually do it, was HILARIOUS!)

We've found out Claire was faking it, and it gave me hope that maybe she was the only one, and it steers us away from the worry that it will have all been a sham. I'm still disappointed that Ronnie didn't look at the ATM photo and think maybe it was something more than what she wanted it to be. Yeah, if there's someone standing behind someone else in line looking ticked in an ATM photo, there's no doubt that person raped the one standing at the counter. Come ON. I'm glad she was proven wrong on that one so quickly. The Mercer mystery is a new twist in the bigger mystery, and I'm intrigued about where Logan was with Mercer.

Thank you, Rob Thomas, for bringing Veronica back to me. Now don't disappoint me again.

FED-EX
In honour of my friend Crissy, I had to post about the best news we've had in weeks... K-Fed is now Fed-Ex! Our girl Brit FINALLY came to her senses yesterday and filed for divorce, and TMZ was the first to report on it. What was so hilarious is, my husband emailed me the link at work, and even though I was on the phone, his subject line -- Britney Files for Divorce -- was enough incentive to tune out the person on the phone and click on the link. As I sat there staring at the awesome news, I immediately flipped my head in the direction of Crissy (who sits beside me) and who had simultaneously flipped her head in my direction... and she had the exact same article on her computer screen. It was a beautiful moment. :)

TMZ reports today that Kev is reportedly going to fight her for custody, which is so ass. Yeah, I'm sure the Cornrow King makes a MUCH better parent than Britney. Sure, there are moments where I hold my hands up and think, "Hmm... do the kids go with bad, or worse?" but I think bad is the better option. Poor kids. They're doomed either way, but now that K is out of the picture, maybe Brit can get her life back on track and find a REAL guy. One who doesn't rap about how rich he's gotten off his wife. "Who told this bastard that he can't rap? I got 50 mil. I can do whatever I want!" Um... not anymore, dude!

Lost & Heroes: Here be interesting revelations!
The latest issue of EW has just dropped into my mailbox (and I can't find a larger pic of the cover online so this eensy one will have to do). Not only is the cover story on Heroes (YES!!) but they have an exclusive interview with Adewale, a.k.a. Eko, and it puts an end to the speculation in my post this morning, and the responses to it.

Turns out... it was Adewale's idea to leave the show.

He was excited to get the part in the beginning because he wanted to play a quiet priest, which is what he thought the role would be. Then he got the script where we found out he was a drug runner, and he says he was "devastated." But, being the professional he was, and having faith in the writers, he read on, and came to terms with the role. He had an active role in Eko's development, and Carlton and Damon say he's "complicated" to work with, but never say "difficult." In the end, they saw his interest in the character as a positive one.

But Adewale, being an actor who always wants to move and develop and not stay stuck in a role, believed that his character could be played out in a single season, and that by the end of season 2, he'd done all he could to complete Eko's arc. He believed the way the season ended should have been the end of Eko. It actually took some cajoling on the part of the writers to get him to return for a couple of season 3 eps, and he eventually gave in and allowed for one more flashback. As he put it, "I never like to get lazy, sitting in a character two or three years, him getting fat and having grandchildren. I like to hit and run." He discussed his plan with the writers, and Damon says, "...we all decided the shocking and emotional death would be the best way to go."

So there you have it. It had nothing to do with the colour of his skin, or the fact he got a traffic ticket in the summer, or, perhaps, what the writers had in mind. (Though the article DOES state that even when they hired him, the original idea was for him to only extend to about the middle of season 3, so it sounds to me like his flashback just came earlier in the season than anticipated.)

The cover story on Heroes is great, too, though they warned of spoilers near the end and I skipped it, but apparently by the end of November sweeps we'll have a TON of answers to the questions that have been building. Tim Kring, the creator of the show, says he's annoyed by shows that draw out questions and refuse to give answers (even though he actually consulted with Lindelof while developing the story idea, and Lost would be the ultimate show with no answers) so he's planning on answering things as he goes, and coming up with new questions. Let's hope he doesn't run out of ideas after one season. :)

Definitely pick up a copy of this issue.

Nobody's Watching

I thought this was so hilarious... okay, they got one of Hurley's numbers wrong, but we can forgive them that. :)

And it begins...
Today's post is on a more serious topic (and after my original digression here, I will move to make a point on Lost). As often happens in the more vocal fan communities, when a character dies off, you usually get the naysayers who accuse the writers of some sort of prejudice. The most notorious one I can remember is when Tara was killed off Buffy. For two years, the writers of the show had built up the relationship of Willow and Tara to be one of the most beautiful on television. Willow came out as a lesbian to her friends and Tara was sweet, smart, and funny. It was a risk taking the most popular character on the show, and making her a lesbian, especially after Willow's romance with Oz was such an amazing story arc. At first, Joss Whedon came under fire from some of the lesser contingent of Buffy fans, saying they didn't want the show to be "gayed up" like that, but once they thankfully went away and people began seeing the romance for what it was, it became a very popular aspect of the series.

And then Tara died. And then Willow went all black-eyed and veiny. And that's when the REAL horror show began. People began posting all over saying Joss Whedon was homophobic and he killed off the lesbian because she was a lesbian. They pointed to academic articles that dissected film and television depictions of lesbians and how gay people are always the first to die as some subliminal morality tale. My book on Buffy was published, and in the episode guide where I discussed Tara's death, I talked about my sadness over it, how she was one of my favourite characters, but I didn't censure the actual storyline. I was working at home one afternoon when I got an email out of the blue calling me names and telling me in no uncertain terms that that person would absolutely NOT EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES EVER lower themselves to buy my book, because I had condoned the homophobic actions of Joss Whedon (their words). I thought, Who the hell is this person... and then suddenly got a second email from someone else. And a third. And that's when I realized I'd been letterbombed by the Tara Kittens. These people were a contingent of Buffy "fans" who were so outraged with the episode they vowed never to watch the show again, and went out of their way to stop everyone else from watching it, too. Someone had posted on their forum that my book condoned the actions of the episode and upheld Whedon's homophobia, and rather than do the sensible thing and go and check it out for themselves, they took this person's word for it and started emailing blasting me after this person had given out my email address. I tried talking to some of them, and asked them to calmly explain what their problem was with me and the episode, and open up a dialogue, but they were right and I was wrong and that was that. One person did talk to me, which was nice, but absolutely refused to back down, and wouldn't actually listen to what I had to say.

As I said to them at the time, Joss has killed a gypsy, did anyone accuse him of being gypsophobic? He's killed art gallery workers, vampires, vampires, vampires, principals (twice), men, women, and children... the man kills with abandon. But he goes and kills Tara, and suddenly he's homophobic. The person wrote back to me, "HE KILLED THE LESBIAN." I said, "No, he killed Tara. She was a lesbian, but that's not all she was. I'm sorry that's all you see her for." My problem with the Kittens was that they saw Tara as nothing more than a token lesbian, and seemed to have missed the point that hey, Joss Whedon MADE her the lovable, wonderful person she was on the show, and how could he be homophobic when he made the lesbian relationship the most beautiful and honest one on the series?

But now Eko has died on Lost, and fans are starting to be vocal about that, too. Shouts of racism are being bleated across North America as people are saying the writers of Lost have gotten rid of The Black Guy. But while my initial reaction was, "Oh cripes, here we go AGAIN," there's a difference here. Unlike Tara's death on Buffy, Eko's death has actually been part of a pattern. Walt was kidnapped and thereby removed from the show. Michael spent half of the last season off looking for Walt, and was essentially gone, before being sent off for good at the end of the season, with Walt. Ana Lucia was Hispanic, and she was taken out at the end of the last season. Are the writers systematically killing off the minorities?

I'd say no. Somehow people are forgetting the deaths of Shannon (as blonde and blue-eyed as they could get), Boone, and Libby. Or the fact that the island was so multi-racial to begin with. Hurley is also Hispanic. Jin and Sun are Asian. And so far, Sayid's still with us. Rose hasn't been killed (ok, she hasn't been seen this season, either, but presumably she's still with us... I'm sure the people screaming "RACISM" would argue it's only because she has a white hubby that she's OK... seriously, give it a few days before THAT argument is used). Paolo's been introduced (and unfortunately he HAS been seen this season, and I hope he's not with us for long). We've seen dark-skinned characters with The Others. Lost probably has the most multi-racial cast on television, and now people are lobbing comments of racism against it?

An Associated Press story quotes some fans :

“I no longer want to watch this show! They have killed and sent a father and his
son sailing away into the ocean. All these characters were black. This show do
not want blacks on the island. I’m sure I can find many others who think the
same.”

"I liked the show..but..the hispanic character (Ana Lucia) gone... all the black characters gone? Hurley is next."

Yes, Eko was an amazing character. I loved him, and throughout the summer said endlessly, "Nah, they won't kill him off, because he's just too important to the show." And when we saw him a couple of weeks ago and he was alive, I felt vindicated. And now he's gone.

Did his death make sense? No. I don't know why the writers thought it was time to get rid of him. Did Shannon's death make sense? No. After it happened, Naveen Andrews (Sayid) went public with his own frustrations on that storyline, and criticized the writers for using her death as a cheap gimmick to boost ratings. So again, it's tough to lob racism bombs at the writers when they've done the same thing before. With Shannon, Boone was gone and perhaps they thought there was nothing more to do with her, since her entire storyline was wrapped up in his. With Eko, maybe they thought the same thing. He's passed on his wisdom to others, and it's time for him to go. I don't accept it yet, because his character had so much more potential than Shannon's, but maybe SOMEONE will finish that church, and someone will have learned from Eko's mistakes. The writers needed to get across to us the point that if you reject God in your final moments, Satan (or Smokey) will take his revenge on you. It will sense a weakness, and your soul will be stripped from your body. Who better to demonstrate that point than Eko? Maybe it was a meaningful death, and it will take until the end of the series before we look back on it and say, "And that's where the show took a turn, and really began showing us the way." But please, can we just wait until we see where the show is going before we start accusing the writers of racism? Doesn't it register with anyone anymore just how serious an accusation that is?

Then again, the sort of fans that the Associated Press story quoted weren't exactly all "thinkers." When you put the racism comments in the context of the comments below, you suddenly realize, hmm... maybe they DIDN'T poll the average Lost viewer (who'd I'd like to think has a rather high IQ, reads a lot and is well versed in popular culture, and would know that John Locke was actually a real person at one time):

"I absolutely HATE this episode. How dare they kill off Mr Eko, he was hot,
hot, hot. Stop killing off the best looking and strongest characters and have at
the less important roles. And here again we still have no answers to the
island's perplexing questions."

"I think you should bring Eko back he is a sexy mysterious Black Man. I
have liked the show from the beginning and I love it. Eko's character is flawed
which makes him interesting. You need a good looking Black man on the show w/an
edge. Please bring him back!"

"I liked Eko, but am not too upset about him leaving. Hey as long as Sawyer
stays, it's all good!"