Fall 2010: The Event, Hawaii Five-0, Boardwalk Empire

Monday night, 8:45 p.m.

I was standing in my kitchen finishing up the dishes as my husband walked into the living room (the kitchen is open concept looking into it). Suddenly, an ominous beep sounded from the other room. My husband turned, perplexed, and looked at me. I smiled knowingly.

8 HOURS EARLIER

I’m sitting at my desk at work, editing a manuscript. I think, Hey, my iPhone is almost out of juice. I should sync it with my computer and charge it at the same time. So… I do.

2 WEEKS EARLIER

I’m scanning Zap2It for all of the fall premiere dates while putting together my blog post on what I plan to watch this fall. As I’m doing it, I think I should probably put the times into my Outlook calendar just so I don’t forget them.

Monday night, 8:46 p.m.

“What was that?” asked my husband.
“Just my phone telling me The Event is going to start in 15 minutes.”

**

Last night saw the series premiere of The Event and Hawaii Five-0, two shows that I was excited about… but still a little wary. At this point, many of my friends have given up on new shows and wait for the summer DVDs, figuring it’s better to watch it that way (I agree) and they also won’t get hooked on anything that will be prematurely cancelled. But when you write about TV, you’re kind of stuck with watching them as they happen. I’ve decided to watch the first episodes of a lot of stuff (including things I didn’t have on my list, like Lone Star, Blue Bloods, and Undercovers) and then dump them unless they really grabbed me.

While I might not get a chance to write up each one individually, I’m hoping to write up something at the end of the week that talks about each ep and just gives it a thumbs up or down. But because three big ones were starting on two consecutive nights, I wanted to talk about them here.

The Event was always at risk of being the next FlashForward. Big flashy trailer, lots of build-up, everyone talking about it, huge opening… and then, wah wah wah…. Of course, I can’t tell after the first ep if it will have the blah factor after a few episodes, but I can say what I thought of last night’s. To do so, I’ll just tell you the conversation my husband and I had afterwards … after which he said, “You know, we should do a TV podcast together!” Since he’s SUCH a TV snob, I think that would be awesome. I can be a snob, too, but I’m also open to shows like Big Bang Theory, whereas he has a strict “NO LAUGH TRACK” policy in his life right now. He also believes that after The Wire and The Shield there should never be another cop show, so he watched Hawaii Five-0 with some trepidation.

I’ve always been bothered by the overuse of the trope of showing the end, and then going back several hours to show where it began so you can lead up to what you saw at the beginning, knowing where it’s going to end up. It’s like reading a mystery novel: someone dies at the beginning, and the detective has to go back in time to lead up to what happened and why. But in the case of TV, usually the answer to the mystery is about as banal as the situation I recreated above. Alias used it too many times, and The West Wing got to the point of ridiculous in its second and third seasons with it. But The Event seemed to take the idea of non-linear and just said, “Hey, if people are OK with TV shows jumping around in time a lot, then let’s make it SO INCREDIBLY BIZARRE that they will need to write out a graph just to keep track of everything!”

Thankfully, I have been well trained by Lost not to need said graph, but it still got to be a little ridiculous. At one point I said to my husband, “Wait… are we still 8 hours ago or is it 13 days?” “I have NO IDEA.” “Maybe we’re in Before Christ times.” “Possibly.” (After the show there was much, “two hours ago!” joking around.) My favourite was the first – 23 minutes ago… coincidence that they chose a Lost number? I THINK NOT!

But the time wonk aside, I thought the show was rather compelling. Who is Sophia? Why is she being held captive at some compound in Alaska? Who are the “they” she referred to at the end of the episode? How the HELL did a Cuban guy ever become President?? (See, in Canada, Cuba doesn’t have the same resonance of pure evil that it seems to have in the U.S.; I went to Cuba in 2006 for my brother’s wedding and when I mentioned it off-hand to a couple of American friends, they reacted like I’d gone to North Korea, for god’s sakes.) How did the girlfriend disappear, and how did the hotel computer system get changed so they never existed on the cruise ship? How did Sean find out about Mike’s directive to fly that plane into the President? Did the surfer dude with the cast and his crazy girlfriend have anything to do with everything happening? (I think it’s obvious they did, so how do they fit in?)

There were also touches of a LOT of other shows I’ve seen before. The font used on-screen to show us the time seemed very similar to the one used on 24. The way they mention they’re in Alaska again and again on-screen like we can’t actually figure that out for ourselves even though they mention it in the dialogue and have already told us once that that is Alaska reminded me of how many times on FlashForward they had to show the future visions (speaking of which, I ended up deleting all of FF that happened after the hiatus due to a lack of caring, but I’m still curious to find out what happened and why…). There was also the FF element of jumping around in time and showing various stories of people all coming together. There’s a wormhole at the end, which made me think of Lost and Faraday’s bearing and it even made the whoosh sound that we’ve heard over and over on Lost to signal a flash of some kind.

The acting was good. The dad flying the plane was on Aliens in America, and was really REALLY funny on that show (I still miss that show). Jason Ritter was great. And I’ll watch Blair Underwood in pretty much anything. So I did enjoy it, even though it didn’t feel particularly original or unique.

Hawaii Five-0 was more fun, that’s for sure. From the opening theme song, which is barely changed (if at all) from the original version, which brought me to my feet dancing all over the room doing cheesy 60s dance moves (LOVE THAT SONG) to the immediate chemistry between Danno and Steve to James Marsters as the villain (YES!!!!!) to Jin and Sharon (YES YES!!) to the intrigue of the opening, this was more than your average cop show. We get a bit of background for each of the two main characters, and even the secondary characters get a backstory that makes us immediately sympathetic to them. I think I enjoyed this show a lot more than The Event, even though The Event intrigued me enough to check out a second episode. And since we didn't see Marsters' body in the water, could I please assume geekily that he might be back?? I hope so!

But here’s a question for y’all: Was anyone else playing “Name that Lost Location” throughout the episode?? I love having another show set in Hawaii.

So, after these eps, I was happy to say it was two for two on some solid new premieres. I was happy with both of them. But then I ask myself, “Enough to watch them every week?” … and I’m not so sure. I’m not dying for next week’s episodes yet. I don’t care enough about them to mourn their loss if they were cancelled tomorrow, but then again, not many shows can grab you from episode 1 to actually care about the characters that much.

Well, except maybe for Boardwalk Empire. Sunday night saw the premiere of HBO’s new series, and it was FANTASTIC. Steve Buscemi is long overdue to helm his own show, and he does a brilliant job playing Nucky Thompson. From the introduction of Al Capone (why did I not see that line coming??) to the recreation of 1920s Atlantic City, which makes me want to go back in time and become a Flapper, to the depiction of the slum area of the poor pregnant woman and her abusive husband… this show made me care about everyone. I thought Michael Pitt put in a great performance, and Kelly MacDonald was similarly mesmerizing. It was reminiscent of The Sopranos, mostly because of the setting (Tony would often have his meetings on that same boardwalk in Atlantic City, and I think it was the S3 premiere where he thought he saw the dead fish talking in Pussy’s voice, and he was standing on that same boardwalk) but also because of this tortured main character. He runs the show, but he has his vulnerable moments. But he’s merely not a retread of Tony Soprano; his problems are entirely different. There are two moments where we see him stop in front of store windows and look in, once into a shop where babies are in incubators, and another where a psychic is doing a palm-reading and she looks up and glares at him. He seems to be the ultimate insider, and yet in these scenes he’s on the outside looking in, as if these shops hold something that he lost. Interestingly, we see a glimpse of Nucky’s dead wife in a photograph of none other than Molly Parker, dressed in period costume much like she wore when she played Alma on Deadwood. I’m not sure why they would use a well known actress to appear in a photograph, other than to suggest we’ll see a flashback of how she died or their life together at some point, and Parker will be playing that role.

The direction was magnificent in this episode as well; Martin Scorsese, the executive producer of the show, directed it, and it looks like it… the episode took on the look of a movie, and it felt like one, too. By the end of the episode, I wanted to know what’s going to happen to Jimmy and Margaret… that scene where her husband beat her while her little girl cried and cried broke my heart. How will Nucky help her now that he’s done what he did?

Most importantly… this show had OMAR LITTLE in it. Does it get any better than that??? No.

Of the three episodes, Boardwalk Empire was hands-down the winner. I can’t wait to see next week’s episode, and if I never see another ep of The Event or Hawaii Five-0 I won’t be disappointed. That said, I think H50 is a fun show, and one worth tuning in to see when I can, and if The Event can live up to the largeness of its lead-in, it might be a better show than I’m giving it credit for here. But once again, the cable network won out.

Did you watch last night’s new shows? If so, what did you think?

Happy Lost Days!

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Roger Waters: The Wall Live

Last weekend my husband and I were chatting and he mentioned something about Roger Waters doing a live version of The Wall. I said, "That sounds amazing, could you imagine?" and he looked at me with some surprise and said, "Why, do you want to go? I have 4 tickets and haven't figured out who the fourth person will be. You should come!" I then thought sure, before thinking no, I had a lot of work to do and I should really update the blog and I'm behind on TV and I'd really like to read a book... and then thought it would still be really cool to see The Wall. The next day he kept bugging me and I said nah, I'm sure someone else would like it more than I would. So he gave the ticket to my brother. I posted on Facebook that I'd turned down a ticket to The Wall and it might have been a mistake, and several people responded that it was historic and I HAD to get that ticket back. So I emailed my brother, who happily handed it back and even offered to babysit (best brother ever).

And boy, am I glad I changed my mind.

I've never been a huge fan of Pink Floyd. I've listened to a lot of their stuff, my husband is a Syd Barrett fan so he typically plays the early stuff a lot, but of their albums, The Wall is probably my favourite. In the late 80s, MuchMusic (the Canadian equivalent of MTV) used to play a lot of amazing music movies -- Tom Waits' Big Time seemed to air all the time, and The Wall was another one they showed on an endless loop. I think I saw it for the first time when I was 15, and thought it was absolutely insane, and I've seen it once since. I knew the gist of the album -- Waters had been fed up with the audiences at the Pink Floyd shows, going so far as to spit on an audience member at one show. After the incident he apologized, but said sometimes he was just so frustrated by the way the audience acted that he wished he could construct a wall between himself and them.

The Wall is about Pink (who is basically Waters himself), and through 4 sides of the record (in the olden days when it was on vinyl and cassette) you go through Pink's childhood and then teenage years, through to his marriage and the dissolution of that. Throughout his life he constructs a mental wall that separates himself from the rest of society, and at the end of side 2 the wall is complete. Side 3 is about how isolated he feels and how he realizes that he actually needs the people that he's just shut out, and through the end of the album he imagines himself a pseudo-dictator before putting himself on trial, demanding over and over, "Tear down the wall!!" before it comes crashing down and he begins to see a possible new life for himself.

The tour for The Wall was incredibly expensive, and the band only did a few shows to support it. It was revived in 1990 when the Berlin Wall fell, and that's the last anyone saw of it. On Wednesday night Roger Waters kicked off the new tour of The Wall, and the show was unbelievable.

When you walked into the stadium, the sides of the wall were constructed on the stage. Through the first couple of songs, Waters was on a riser behind the wall and the audience went nuts to see him. When the band moved into "Another Brick in the Wall," everyone in the audience was singing along. Suddenly an enormous puppet of the Teacher from the crazed movie, all bug-eyed and menacing, appeared on the side of the stage and began looming over the audience. The song switched to Part 2, and the now-familiar, "We don't need no education" rang out throughout the auditorium before a group of children from the Regent Park Children's Choir ran onto the stage and began singing the children's chorus part of the song. It was glorious (they even sang it in the British accents!!) Roger came around to the front to join them, and they all pointed at the teacher and yelled, "Hey! Teacher! Leave those kids alone!" Awesome. Here's a pretty good video of the song (this only picks up with Part 2):



You'll notice in the background of the video that as the song progressed, roadies came onto the stage and started building up the wall. This continued throughout the show, with various bricks being moved around and used in interesting ways, projecting images on it (some of fallen soldiers as he sang the song about losing his father in the war) and for "Mother," a huge inflatable puppet of the overprotective mom much like the Teacher came out of the side and again loomed over the proceedings.

By the end of the second side, the wall was almost complete except for one final block, and Waters stepped up to that block and sang "Goodbye Cruel World" through it before the wall was complete:



It was gorgeous. At that point there was an intermission, and then the band returned and did "Hey You" entirely behind the wall, before singing "Is Anybody Out There," which was poignant and effective when we were the people on the other side of the wall. They were hidden behind it and you could see nothing but this wall separating you and this desperate man hidden behind. It was very effective. There was darkness, before a square opened up on the one side of the wall and you could see Waters sitting in a lounge chair watching the television, and he sang "Nobody Home" before coming to the front of the stage and performing a few songs on his own with the band still behind the wall. One of those was Comfortably Numb, which was possibly my favourite song of the night (another singer came to the top of the wall to sing Gilmour's parts). It blew my mind. This video's a little bumpy, but it has great sound and you can hear how beautiful the song was:



From there we moved into Pink's bigger crisis, where he's the dictator, and at this point Waters and the band came out all wearing black hoodies and you couldn't see any of them. A friend of mine with me who is a huge Pink Floyd fan told me that the idea behind that number was to show that the audience would clap for anyone, and who's to say that's actually Roger Waters wearing that hoodie? (It was.) During this segment of the show there was a remote controlled giant inflated pig flying above the audience's heads with capitalist slogans all over it.

The most spectacular number was at the end, "The Trial." The band once again moved behind the stage (it could have been pre-recorded for all I know) and Waters sat on a riser on the edge of the stage singing while we watched the long section from the movie projected onto the front of the wall. By the end of it the audience was all on its feet, fists pumping in the air and shouting, "Tear down the wall! Tear down the wall!" and then... it came down. It was incredible.



In the midst of the rubble, Waters came out with his band and quietly sang "Outside the Wall," as one spotlight shone on him to show the hope of his future. He then thanked everyone for coming and left.

The show was epic; if you have a chance to see it, I can't recommend it enough. The only thing that no longer works in the context of this massive production (if it ever did, to be honest) is the anti-capitalist message throughout. It's hard to come down hard on capitalism when you're charging $250 a ticket. But that's a pretty small nitpick against an otherwise awesome show.

First Look at Ben's Journal!!

I'm sitting at the ACC waiting to see Roger Waters perform "The Wall" and I just got a note from Justin L. on Facebook directing me to the first look at Ben's journal. What a generous thing for these Lost fans to share it with all of us after buying it at auction. Thank you!! Go here to see the first few pages.

My Fall TV Schedule

Every year I complain that Entertainment Weekly gets their Fall TV Preview issue out later and later, usually after many of the shows have already premiered. And here I am leaving it to the second week of September to get mine out. Ah well... most haven't premiered yet, so here we go! This is what I'll be watching this fall:

The Event: This is the one that had all of the buzz at Comic-Con. The trailer is slick, it's intriguing, but then again, so was the trailer and the buzz for Flashforward. I have the same feeling about this trailer: I'm looking forward to seeing the show, but I also worried that the show already seems pretty full of itself based on the bombastic preview. That said, I'm tuning in on September 20 for the premiere. Here's the trailer to see for yourself:



No Ordinary Family: The Incredibles meets Lost meets Heroes. An ordinary family crashes onto an island and realizes, after rescue, that the island had mysterious properties (electromagnetism, perhaps??) and it's given them all superpowers. The cast is stellar -- Julie Benz and Michael Chiklis are the parents -- and while at first I scoffed at the premise, after seeing the trailer I'm totally there. It premieres September 28.



Hawaii Five-0: Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park. Need I say more? Unlike Nikita, which is attempting a remake only about 10 years after the original TV series went off the air (I blogged about the premiere here), this one is old enough that a remake isn't off-the-wall. And by the looks of the trailer, it's pretty different from the original. OK, fine. I'm totally watching to spot Hawaiian locations from Lost. And Daniel Dae Kim. It premieres September 20 at 10pm.



Boardwalk Empire: Frankly, I've been pretty disappointed with network TV lately... while I'm about to list a LOT of shows that I'll be tuning into this fall, very few of them will become must-see viewing on my PVR. But HBO and Showtime are the ones that have me the most excited. And the trailer for Boardwalk Empire makes me drool. I cannot WAIT for this show. It premieres next Sunday, September 19 at 9pm.



Raising Hope: While flipping through trailers for all of the fall shows, I stumbled upon this one. Martha Plimpton stars (love her...) and this trailer made me laugh so hard at one point I couldn't breathe (while our family didn't have a hole in the bottom of the car, we had one back door that wouldn't stay shut and my parents looped a seatbelt through it; one day we were driving and Mom turned a corner and my brother literally flew out the car and into a snowbank. I remember laughing so hard it hurt, although now I look back on it and think how HORRIBLY that could have ended up! But it didn't, so... it's still hilarious.) This trailer is awesome, and it premieres September 21 at 9pm.



I think that's it for new shows. And what else will I be tuning in to see?

Nikita: I'm skeptical still, but like I mentioned in my blog post, I'll watch for a few more episodes and see if it can hold my interest.

Being Human S2: I'm currently OBSESSED with series 1 of Being Human, which aired on Space in August. I'm almost finished the season, and series 2 will begin October 28 on Space. I cannot wait.

Fringe: Love love love this show, probably the one I'm most excited about returning on September 23 at 9pm.

Dexter: OK, no, it's tied with Dexter, one of my all-time favourite shows, which returns September 26 at 10pm on The Movie Network in Canada. Apparently it picks up immediately where S4 left off. I won't say anything more to avoid spoiling people currently catching up.

Friday Night Lights: No wait, there are THREE shows that are tied (this is turning into the Spanish Inquisition sketch). Friday Night Lights' fourth season was stellar, and the fifth will, officially, be the last. It airs on DirecTV starting October 27 (which is when I'll be watching) and then on NBC at some point in 2011, probably in June again, which totally sucks for the majority of viewers who are watching it that way. I'll be tuning in in October, and will unfortunately have to keep my mouth shut about it. Argh.

The Big Bang Theory: I got completely caught up on this show last year, and I'm truly in love. (Yes, you're right; it's now a four-way tie.) I hope this show stays on the air eternally. It premieres September 23 at 8pm.

30 Rock and The Office: Both of these slipped last year... to be honest, I've yet to watch the last two episodes of the Office! And now that Steve Carell is leaving the show at the end of this season, I'm losing interest in it already. But I'll stick it out for another season on both. They premiere on September 23.

Glee: I'm a total gleek, but the second half of the show's first season -- i.e. the part they filmed after they knew the world adored them -- was overblown and somewhat boring. They now seem to choose the songs and then build an episode around them, rather than the other way around. Here's hoping Glee doesn't get so full of itself that it's unbearable in S2. Because I love Kurt and Sue Sylvester and don't want their show to suck. It premieres September 21 (and I've already talked about this on Facebook, but the ultimate guide to Glee -- a book I signed up and worked on -- is hitting stores right about now, and you need to pick it up! Order a copy here or pick up a signed copy direct from the publisher here).

Modern Family: Another show that I adore. Can't wait for the return of this wacky family, especially Cameron and Gloria. Returns September 22 at 9pm.

OK, what else! Well, everyone's been telling me since, like, FOREVER, that I should be watching How I Met Your Mother. And Omni, this odd network in Canada, is putting it in syndication starting tomorrow, so I've already set the PVR and will be watching it. You guys had better be right!

The Vampire Diaries: I've still got about 14 episodes on my PVR from season 1... for me, it was a tough go to get into it (I originally watched it as it premiered and then gave up after 3 eps) because it just seemed like Buffy-lite to me. Oh look, there's a broody vampire who's in love with the main chick who's independent but not as tough or vulnerable or likable as Buffy. He's trying to be good, almost like he has a soul or something. But oh look, there's a badass vampire who's all evil and won't give it up and such... kind of like this peroxided vampire on Buffy... or Angelus himself. But then again, that could be said for most vampire shows, and it's not like... oh. Her best friend is a witch. Um... will she be dating a werewolf any time soon? But then a friend of mine convinced me I HAD to give it a chance and she swears it's the second coming of Buffy, and so I'm giving it another chance. I'm about 8 or 9 episodes in and I'm enjoying it, but still skeptical. But I trust her opinion... in fact, I'm not the only one who trusts it! She's written a brilliant companion guide to the show called Love You to Death (which I would LOVE to link to but the html code that Amazon keeps giving me is super-wonky and I can't get it to work) and if you are a TVD fan, you MUST HAVE THIS BOOK. So wish me luck as I continue to try to catch up! (Season 2 premiered last week on September 9.)

Supernatural: Watched some of season 1, loved it so much and wondered where it had been all my life (when I saw it, it was the first show I'd seen since 2003 that reminded me of Buffy in a really good way, as in this could help fill the Buffy-less void in my life) but then the Finding Lost series got in the way and I stopped. I'm determined to get through all of the seasons before the end of the year. (Which means I'll probably be dropping many of the shows previously listed!) The new season premieres September 24.

Doctor Who: I posted on the first two episodes, and am still watching it and enjoying it. This is another show I'm catching up on through the magic of DVD, and frankly starting to wonder if watching anything live as it happens is worth it anymore.

And... I think that's it? Oh, and I'm also reading non-Lost books for the first time in a long time, and loving it. Which, at times, makes me think I'll just sell my TV and go back to reading full-time. But then... this blog would become a book club, and that's not really what it's about. So I watch TV for all of you. Not for myself AT ALL. *cough*

So what are all of you watching? Will you be tuning in to some of the same shows I am?

True Blood Season 3

So, I promised many posts on True Blood's third season, and tonight is the season finale and here I am posting on it for the first time. Sigh. Sorry... (I'll be MUCH better with Fringe's season 3, I promise.)

This season started off with a bang, and there was SO much to love in the beginning of it. Jason Stackhouse reached a new level of idiocy that was absolutely hilarious (my favourite Stackhouse quote is now "There are two kinds of people in the world: people who got no dreams, people who got dreams and don’t do nothing about it and people who go out and fulfill their dreams"); Lafayette was AWESOME in every scene, whether it was taking care of Tara or going to visit his crazy mom or just being an all-around bitch to everyone; Eric was.... Eric (he doesn't have to be much more for me to be happy); Pam stepped up into a bigger role ("Just lie back and think of Estonia"); Terry Bellefleur was as sweet as ever, especially when he read his "10 reasons why you can trust me with your kids" list and it included the fact that he'd found a hurt baby armadillo by the road and nursed it back to health and now it sleeps under his bed (HAHA!); oh, and Sookie? You need to dye that hair black and become a goth... the scene where she was disguised as a werewolf biker chick was amazing... it was like seeing Claire Littleton with black hair.

But then as the season went on, I became less and less enamoured of it. Lafayette, who can cut a person down with a single look, turned into a little puppy when he was with Jesus. It was sweet, in a way, but it also rendered his character less interesting, and it seemed as if Nelsan Ellis, who plays Lafayette, was uncomfortable with the scenes.

Bill, once again, was separated from Sookie, and frankly, I liked her with Werewolf Boy a lot more. He was a great character, and so much could have been mined from him, but he seems to have returned to the shadows. So much was made of the werewolf pack in the beginning, and that seems to have been tossed aside in the recent episodes. Bill almost killed Sookie because of his bloodlust, and then they just moved on from that, too, like it wasn't important.

The Sookie as Fairy development was strange, but intriguing. I'm not sure exactly where they're going with it, but it's not clear why this is coming up all of a sudden and just seems inserted into everything. Why didn't Bill mention anything about this earlier if he's known all along?

I was at a sci-fi con in July and I sat in on a True Blood panel about the books vs. the TV series. It was a fun panel, even though I've never read a single one of the books (I was there to find out if doing so would be worth my time) and someone said, "I cannot WAIT for Crystal to show up!" and someone on the panel said, "Guess what? She's on tonight's episode!" I was intrigued... what sort of character would be so great that people were buzzing about her arrival? Um... the daughter of some meth dealer. Who happens to shape-shift into a panther. And... that's about it so far. She's annoying, she switches sides when it's convenient for her, it's clear she's afraid of her family and she's looking for Jason to save her, but every time he tries she turns on him again. So far I don't like her, but presumably she's going to play a bigger role if the fans of the book series are excited about her.

Tara is just plain annoying. I haven't been able to stand her for much of this season (nor most of last season, for that matter). She's the same angry person who judges everyone around her -- yelling at Sookie that Bill is dangerous while probably still healing from the beatings that Eggs laid on her -- while having sex to dull her pain, only for that -- once again -- to go terribly. I love Tara's caustic mouth, but this season the strength of Rutina Wesley is to be wide-eyed and shaking uncontrollably while bitching through every scene.

There are many things to love about this season, though: Eric's past, when we went back and saw how Russell had destroyed his entire family before his eyes, and Eric's centuries'-long vengeance against him; Edgington himself, and his loopy craziness after Talbot was killed (including carrying his disgusting bloody innards around in a crystal vase)... the scene of him appearing on the news broadcast and declaring war on humanity was brilliant; the Arlene pregnancy story and the agony she's going through, worrying that the baby might be Rene's, and her desperate attempts to end the pregnancy.

I wasn't so sure about Sam's shape-shifting family at first, but I think it's an interesting new plot point this season. Sam's always been so upset about the bad upbringing he had, only to find out that if his mother HADN'T given him away, his past would have been far more painful. That said, while I'm intrigued by what his family did to make money and how they threw their own son to the wolves -- quite literally -- I'm not impressed by this sudden past of Sam's that's come from out of nowhere? Seriously? He was like Sawyer only a couple of years ago, taking women for their money only for the con to be turned on him? He's skeezy and slimy, nothing like the Same we know. I just can't even fathom that, and it seemed like a convenient and ludicrous addition to a beloved character's past.

I also love the tenderness that has been shown this season with the other vampires. Eric shows a love to Pam that we hadn't seen before, leaving everything he has to her. Pam, similarly, can't take her eyes off the CCTV as she watches her Maker smoldering in the sunlight, knowing he's ready to sacrifice himself to kill Edgington. Bill was going to abandon Jessica but changed his mind when she appealed to him (I've loved just about every scene she's been in this season, by the way), and the only thing holding Jessica back from reuniting with Hoyt is that she believes she's not good enough for him. I'm intrigued by what Hoyt's horrible mother is cooking up with the little chiquita she set up to take her son away from Jessica.

So, I'm still a huge fan of True Blood, and the cliffhanger this season's penultimate episode was breathtaking. I can't wait to see how that resolves, and how this season will wrap up.

In the meantime, I want to mention once again Becca Wilcott's brilliant companion guide to True Blood, Truly, Madly, Deadly: The Unofficial True Blood Companion, a book that had me incredibly prepared for the ins and outs of this season. It's funny and insightful, and one of the best companion guides I've ever edited.

Happy viewing tonight!

Nikita . . . Mark IV

I didn't actually have Nikita on my list of shows to watch for this fall. Because I already have far too many shows that I watch, and I have about 4 or 5 that I want to check out (I'll post on those this weekend), I didn't want to add a show I feel like I've already watched... three other times. First there was the French film, La Femme Nikita, which was awesome. Then the U.S. remake starring Bridget Fonda, which was pretty good, but it was basically a retread of the first. Then the TV version, shot here in Toronto and starring Peta Wilson. I LOVED that show. Loved it. Watched it, cursed them only when they were filming in the neighbourhood of my workplace in the Beach area of Toronto (their film trucks would take up several streets and I could never find parking), and even edited a brilliant episode guide to the show written by Dawn Connolly, called La Femme Peta. I knew that show inside and out.

So why would I watch a remake of a show that's not only recent (seriously? You're remaking a show a decade after the previous version ended?) but one that I knew so well? To be honest, I was tired, it was on. That's... pretty much it.

The thing is, 2010 Nikita is not a retread of the previous one. There's a lot that's the same, many things that I liked much better the first time around, and things I liked more in the second one, but it's a very interesting take on the show. First, it's almost like we're expected to know the first one. Peta Nikita was a street kid, she was tough but vulnerable, she was in love with Michael, and she managed to get out, but then got back in. New Nikita is less vulnerable, there was something between her and Michael, but when the show begins, she's already out. All of that first season of Peta Nikita was showing us what it was like for her to learn how to be an agent with them, whereas in the new version, we see that same process through a different kid, Alex. So while wizened, older Nikita has managed to escape and is trying to take down Division from the outside, this younger kid is being recruited on the inside. You get the early days of Peta Nikita, and the later ones, all wrapped up into one show.

I loved Peta Wilson as Nikita, so it's going to take a lot to get me on board with Maggie Q. And while she's good, she lacks that vulnerability I loved about Peta's take on it. And Roy Dupuis as Michael simply isn't even touched by Shane West, that dude from ER. I LOOOOOOOVED Roy Dupuis. He was hot hot hot, he had that low, myserious way of talking, his face never changed expression, and yet you could tell he wanted to be more than the person he was in the agency. Shane West doesn't have any of those qualities yet, but we'll see how he does.

It's interesting that they kept the same names for many of them. There are two Nikitas and two Michaels, and also two Birkhoffs, the nerdy guy who did the computer stuff (think of Topher on Dollhouse). The man named Operations is now Percy, and Madeline is now Amanda. I'm a big fan of Xander Berkeley (when he left 24 was pretty much when I stopped watching) and Melinda Clarke, who played an Amazon on Xena, and then ended up on Vampire Diaries last season. But I'm also partial to Eugene Robert Glazer and Alberta Watson on Peta Nikita, so it'll be interesting to see how they measure up.

Once again the show is filmed in Toronto, but while the earlier version didn't make it clear where it was set, this one clearly states it's in Manhattan. (They screw up, though: watch the scene closely where they locate Nikita in a cemetery and then refer to the GPS map to find her -- it's a map of Toronto! You can see Eglinton Ave and Mount Pleasant and Yonge Street pretty clearly on it.)

Right up to the end, I thought it was an interesting retelling of the same story, but I wasn't sure it was enough to keep it on my PVR. And then there was a twist I didn't see coming at the very end that made it a lot more interesting to me. More interesting than the compelling relationship between Nikita and Michael in the first version? I'm not sure... I thought the chemistry between Wilson and Dupuis was remarkable, and there was nothing between West and Q in the alleyway scene. But it was definitely something that will bring me back for a second episode.

If you missed the premiere and live in Canada, it will re-air on Space on Sunday night.

Bookstore Surprise

I walked into a bookstore in downtown Toronto last weekend, and saw this!

Finding Lost Contest!

Hey all: Just a quick note that the first five people who got FLS6 orders in were Brooke Hall, Ian Malinski, Neil and Susan Andrews, Barb Weatherbee, and Lauren Seiler. I'll be contacting each of you shortly to arrange payment, and yours will be under the cheaper shipping regardless of what happens. Now, for everyone else, I'll be entering your names into a draw and while we wait to see if the books for the first 5 make it through the post office, one of you will get a book for free. :) I'm still taking preorders: just email me using the click-through, or email me at nikki_stafford@yahoo.com.

And to make this more interesting, I'll send ANOTHER free book to anyone who can send me a unique photo featuring any or all of the Finding Lost series of books. (Go here to see previous pics of my readers holding them up!) I'm looking for photos that make me laugh out loud, or unique takes on it. Perhaps you want to dress up as a character and pretend you're hanging out in the jungle, preparing to defend yourself against polar bears by using my books. Or if you don't want to be in it, try your photoshop skills to put the books in very strange locations. Whatever you want to do is up to you. Deadline for entries is September 30 (I was going to put it on the 22nd and make it the anniversary of the plane crash, but the more time we can have fun with this, the better)! I'm looking forward to posting your entries!

And for everyone out there who's been missing our Lost discussions, I've come up with an idea to keep the discussion going. Yes, folks, perhaps we can work together to get past our Lost withdrawal. Watch this space for a new segment I'll be introducing where we can chat about Lost... for all of you who (like me) refuse to let it go. ;)

Mad Men: The Suitcase

I apologize that I haven't had a chance to blog on much of this season of Mad Men. But last night's episode was extraordinary, and I simply had to say something about it.

"The Suitcase" is basically a set piece, almost like a play featuring Don Draper and Peggy Olsen, with all of the other characters just playing the chorus, moving in and out of the action while never being a focus. The way Weiner played with these two, moving them like chess pieces back and forth across the board throughout the episode, was incredible.

At the beginning, Peggy and the three dunderheads she now has to tolerate in the copy writing room put on a ridiculous (but hilarious) performance of the Samsonite commercial they want to do. Peggy never really seems to have her heart in it, and Don can tell. Half-drunk and generally falling apart, he bites her head off and tells her to go back to the drawing board. Most of his actions in the ep are driven by the fact that he's received a phone call from Stephanie, Anne Draper's niece, and he knows what the call is about -- Anne has cancer, and she's probably just died. He can't bring himself to make the call, because he can't handle actually hearing the words that this woman -- the only woman who truly knows him, as he'll later say -- could be gone. He's been hanging by a thread for most of the season, and the only time he seemed like himself was when he was with her and being, well, himself: Dick Whitman.

And so he takes out his frustrations on Peggy. It's Peggy's birthday, and she has a date with her wiener of a boyfriend (who played Karl on Lost, he of the Room 23 brainwashing scene), who, unbeknownst to her, has arranged the dinner with all of her loathsome family. Don keeps her after work, and in between dealing with Don's drunken rages, Peggy continually calls her boyfriend at the restaurant to keep telling him she'll be a bit later. To every viewer's relief, he eventually blows up at her and breaks up with her over the phone (he's the Joe Jonas of his time!!) and Peggy wanders back to Don's office, where he finally shuts up for once when he sees her misery. Though... that doesn't stop him from telling her off for being a big suck on her birthday. Don hits a new low in this episode -- the difference is, this time he KNOWS it.

There are many parallels drawn between the Peggy and Don relationship: Don giggles hysterically as he listens to Roger's tapes of his autobiography, where Roger talks about playing second fiddle to Bert Cooper and worrying that Bert won't think he's good enough. Just as Roger had to pander to Bert, Don had to suck up to Roger, and now Peggy finds herself in the same position, trying to win Don's praise. But unlike all of the men, Peggy won't compromise who she is, and never changes: She stands before Don in this episode and finally tells him what she thinks of him taking the glory for the Glo-Coat commercial that she'd come up with. She reminds him of the many good ideas she's had along the way. She knows that she owes Don -- he took a chance on her, and on a personal level, he was the guy who came to her in the hospital right after she'd had a baby and suffered a mental breakdown -- but she's done owing him. When he finally shapes up and takes her to a Greek restaurant, where they sit under a painting and talk about travel, they sit across the table as equals, not one person battling the other. There's no hierarchy or rivalry in this scene.

From there they go to a bar, where Peggy -- unlike all of the guys at Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Pryce -- does NOT get drunk, and they listen to the Liston-Clay fight that ended less than 2 minutes after it began. Cassius Clay would become Muhammad Ali, and he trounced Sonny Liston. He was the one no one saw coming (even Don bet $100 on Liston). Similarly, throughout this season we've watched the great, unstoppable Don Draper fall time after time, and he's becoming as useless as Roger on the job. How can this be the same guy who did the monologue about the Kodak carousel at the end of season 1?

Broken by his failed marriage, his wife and kids, his stressful job, and younger people who are doing their jobs better than he can, Don has found solace at the bottom of a bottle (well, and between the legs of just about every woman he sees). He's destroying himself, and just as Peggy was picked up at her lowest point by Don, here she sits and talks to him, and finally tells him what he's doing to himself. He tells her about the dreaded phone call, and falls apart. She holds his hat while he vomits into the toilet, and she strokes his hair as he falls crying into her lap. Don couldn't be alone on this difficult evening, and it's important that Peggy is the one he's with.

When Duck Phillips stumbles into the offices to leave a "gift" for Don, Peggy's fling with him is now apparent to Don, but considering many of his past transgressions, he can't judge Peggy for what she did, and he doesn't. He waves it off, she gets rid of Duck, and we know that Peggy won't go with Duck to the new firm -- she's smarter than that.

The next morning, Don gets up and finally finds the nerve to make that fateful phone call, only to find out it's worse than we thought -- Stephanie wasn't calling to say Anne was dead, but that she was at death's door, and wanted to talk to Don. He missed his opportunity, and now she's gone. His fear and self-destruction kept him from his last conversation with Anne (which probably wouldn't have been a good one, but it would have been something). The moment she died, however, he had awakened in his office with a vision of her, holding that Samsonite suitcase and waving goodbye as she left on her exciting new journey. Peggy had pitched an idea of Samsonite being the ultimate case you take with you wherever you go, but Don didn't like it.

The next day, disheveled and tired, Don and Peggy awake in the office. He shows her the ad that he'd come up with that mirrors the Liston/Clay fight, and Peggy begins to question his work the same way he does hers. He takes offense in much the same way, and she waves it off, saying she's just tired and tells him it's very, very good. Just before she leaves to go home and get cleaned up, Don takes her hand and holds it. They gaze at each other for a long time, and Peggy leaves. She'll return a couple of hours later, and it'll be business as usual at the firm as far as everyone else is concerned. But what happened that night was monumental. Don was K.O.'d, but Peggy helped him back up. The relationship between the two has changed, and perhaps they can move forward more as equals, rather than the traditional ageing boozehound and the young upstart who's out to push him to the side.

"The Suitcase" was a phenomenal episode, and one of my favourite hours of television of the year.

Finding Lost S6: Now Taking Pre-Orders for Autographed Copies!

Hey y'all: So, my book officially went to the printer on September 1, and I took one last look at it and had to "let it go." Sigh. No more semicolons to fix. No more chasing dangling participles through the jungles of my grammar. And I think somewhere along the way I cut the book's dural sac and had to piece that together, too. But don't worry: I only let the fear in for 5 seconds.

I finally saw the full cover the other day, and here it is in all its glory!



(Click to see enlarged version.) See that? The jungle that was originally behind the chessboard has been moved to the back and made all dark and creepy. Love it. ;)

So, as I've been saying over on my Facebook page, the book ended up being a bit longer than my other book, I think by 40 pages or something. Which means that where the previous book teetered precariously at 504g at the post office, the new one will set those scales ablaze, and they'll push it into the higher-priced shipping territory. Unfortunately this could take a $7 shipping price and put it into double digits (and I can't even imagine what would happen in the UK).

So here's what I propose. At this stage, what I'll do is collect addresses from anyone interested in buying a copy (signed!!) from me. The price is $14.95 US, and $16.95 CDN (if you live outside of North America, it's up to you which amount you want to pay; I think it's pretty much the same?). Now, I'm not asking for any money at this time, just who is interested so I can make up a list. Then, the first 5 people on that list, I'll send the book out to them at cheaper rates and we'll see if we can manage to sneak them through the post office. And if we do, then it's a free-for-all (well, less-cost-for-all) and at that time, I'll email you back individually, let you know the final full price of the book, and we'll arrange for payment and shipping. If not, I'll pay the extra shipping on those first 5 books for those people, and email everyone else to tell you what the new price will be. And if you're still open to picking up a copy from me (I won't be offended if you're not!), then we'll arrange for payment and I'll send it off.

Now, this information is for the future, where we shall time travel and discover that (yay!) it managed to get past the post office peeps. Paypal is the easiest way to pay, and I can give you the details when I email you, but if it is the lower rate, then in Canada it'll probably cost about $3.50 to ship out, $7 to ship to the U.S., and $14 to ship it overseas (I know... gak). If it doesn't make it past the officials, those prices could double (and if you're living overseas, I doubt you'll want to do it that way!)

If you order now, I'll also throw in my new nifty, shiny bookmark that I'll also sign, with all of the covers of my books on it, which retails for, um... *cough* but can be yours for FREE! Act now, quantities are limited!

OK, they're not limited, I can always order more. But act now!

So if you're interested (again, at this point don't send any money), just email me here and let me know if you want a copy, and send me your full address with postal code or zip (I'll need that to calculate the costs should it become higher). And again, the first 5 people who send me their name and address will automatically get the cheaper shipping rate and their books will be sent out the day I receive them from the printer. :) If that link above doesn't work, just look at the top lefthand side of the blog, under my picture, and click on the option to email me.

I hope you guys like it! When I did my final flip through the book, I was really really happy with it. Sigh... NOW Lost is over for me. Sadness.

Doctor Who: My First Foray

So, as I outlined in a recent post, I've decided I'm going to watch the Doctor Who reboot from the first season onward (i.e. from the beginning of the Ninth Doctor) and last night I began. I was told that it would take some getting used to, that I would probably have to stick with it for a few episodes, but eventually I'd like it.

Well... half of that was true. I loved it from the beginning!

"Rose" gives enough backstory to help even the newest of the n00bs. And I'm new. Now, I'll admit I cheated; my husband was sitting on the couch next to me and I was able to fire questions at him throughout. "What's that blue thing he's holding? What does it do? Why is the inside of the TARDIS bigger than the outside? What's the Doctor's name? Does he have a name? OH WAIT A MINUTE! Is that why he's called Doctor Who, because he says he's the Doctor and people say 'Doctor Who'?"

This episode begins in Rose's world. She's just a normal English girl, going to work in a department store until one day she has to drop something off in the basement and suddenly all of the mannequins in storage come to life and start walking toward her. Now, many people said my 6-year-old could watch this with me, but I watched that scene and just pictured her having nightmares for weeks, so I'm glad she wasn't watching with me. It was campy and over-the-top, but hey, Warren built a female robot on Buffy so he could have sex with it -- this wasn't exactly something I hadn't experienced before on TV.

The introduction to the Doctor was awesome; Eccleston is instantly charming and funny, "Nice to meet you, Rose... now run for your life!!!"

I saw the TARDIS for the first time, and heard the noise that my husband said was pretty true to the original series (that grinding noise it makes when it whirs away). We're introduced to Clive, a guy who has a website about the Doctor and seems like a zany conspiracy theorist... if we didn't know he was absolutely right. This is the way Russell T. Davies gets in all of the background on the Doctor to fill in the n00bs, and then we flash back outside to the garbage bin eating Rose's boyfriend. Or, as my husband said, "In order to get eaten by a garbage pail you've really got to do something dumb." (I loved the added effect of the pail burping afterward.)

At first I thought it was a little OTT that Rose doesn't notice her boyfriend is now plastic, but then I thought it was really funny... the guy's a tool, totally boring, and annoying. She almost dies in an explosion and he comes by to make sure she's ok before heading off to the pub to watch a football match. Winner.

Best line comes from Rose: "If you're an alien, how come you sound like you're from the North?" HAHA! Doctor responds: "Lots of planets have Norths!" Brilliant.

About three-quarters of the way through the ep (we were now in the warehouse with the giant goopy plastic gobby mess talking) my husband said, "This is campier than the original series." I just stared at him and said no, I didn't think so (from the minute here, minute there that I'd ever seen, this wasn't nearly as OTT) but he insists it is. What do you guys think?

My favourite moment was at the end, when the London Eye was starting to be filled with electricity and the Doctor yelled, "It's the end of the world!!" I just thought, ah... as a faithful Buffy viewer I heard that line about three times a season, and I cannot TELL you how warm and fuzzy it makes me feel to hear it again. I welcome, um, whatever the plural of apocalypse is. It feels like home again.

Episode 2, The End of the World, is where Rose finds out just how dangerous her new traveling companion is. He says, "Where do you want to go? Into the past or into the future?" I immediately looked at my husband and asked what he would do. Without a moment's hesitation he said, "I'd go to the 70s and see the Velvet Underground play in New York... then to the 80s to see the Smiths play a small place in Manchester." Meanwhile I'd been thinking I'd go to Bono's high school in 1976 and be there the moment U2 was formed.

God, sometimes I think we're just pathetic. I could go back in time and see one of history's great events or talk to Virginia Woolf or warn Oscar Wilde not to go through with the defamation trial or see my grandparents as children... but no, we just want to go see rock stars before they were famous.

Anyway.

So Rose says let's go into the future and show me something interesting, and he takes her 5 billion years into the future where they're going to watch the Earth come to an end once and for all. Wow. They're on an alien spaceship and she sees all of these creatures enter the place -- crazy music is playing and it feels like the Star Wars cantina -- and the episode was definitely filled with funny moments. They roll in a jukebox and say that humans called this an iPod, and it played the music of the greatest composers of the day... a record drops and it's Tainted Love (the second time I heard that song that day, actually, since it was also on Being Human when I'd been watching it earlier). Then as the Earth begins to crumble, one of them says, "Let us mourn the Earth with a traditional ballad," and Britney Spears' "Toxic" begins playing... HAHA!!! SO funny.

This episode begins the intrigue of where the Doctor came from. One of the tree people discovers he's a Time Lord, and he reveals that he's the last of his race after some sort of war. This was exciting. The special effects were better in this one, and while it had its funny moments (including a bad Michael Jackson joke about too much plastic surgery that just seemed to have lost something watching it now) and it's over-the-topness (the "last human" is one that's had 780 facelifts and is now nothing but a sheet of skin with some capillaries stretched out like a canvas), it ended with some profound thoughts of life and death, of mortality and leaving your mark on the world. We all want to be remembered, but some day this will all be gone. As Rose stands on the edge of oblivion, it suddenly makes her feel very small and insignificant. It was a very powerful ending.

So whoo!! I'm so glad I'm liking this, and now, on to the next one!!

One Reason to Watch the Emmys

Jimmy Fallon.

This just made me giggle out loud at my desk:



And this, if you haven't seen it, is AWESOME.

Emmys: My Brief Thoughts

I had a bit of a crazy whirlwind weekend where, for the first time in a very long time, I wasn't online... and I somehow completely forgot the Emmys were on last night (instead last night my husband and I made a valiant attempt to get in as many episodes of Fringe as we could, since I STILL haven't caught up to the end of season 2... we ended on White Tulip, which was FANTASTIC. But anyway...)

So when I turned on my computer and saw some story on my Yahoo news page about George Clooney at the Emmys, I kinda smacked myself on the forehead and then excitedly went to the winners' page... to see that Lost had been shut out of everything. Acting, writing, directing, everything.

At first, anger. But then I realized, I think this is a good thing. Battlestar Galactica was not named Best Drama Series in any of its years. Buffy never got an acting nom, and never won a writing one. Angel was never recognized at all, and yet Alexis Denisof put in one of the performances of the decade, in my eyes. The Beatles never won Band of the Year at the Grammys, OK Computer didn't win Best Album, and Pulp Fiction didn't win Best Picture at the Oscars.

History is filled with shows, music, movies that are still remembered decades after they first appeared, and every year after their snub they are built up more and more as legendary. But awards shows are not there to recognize legends; they're there to recognize something that was good for that one year. Maybe Bryan Cranston put in a better performance than Matthew Fox (I think Fox put in the performance of a lifetime, but it didn't match Cranston's, I have to say). Perhaps many Academy members didn't like the finale of Lost or the final season or the spirituality of the ending or what have you, but as a series, that show was phenomenal. None of the other nominees will be remembered 10 years from now as being as groundbreaking as Lost was. Mad Men is brilliant, but the writing, style, and even the look of it is very much like the Sopranos. Breaking Bad is a tour de force of acting, but will people still be talking about it in 15 years? To be honest, aside from TV critics, most people aren't talking about it NOW. Aside from my very astute and well-viewed friends, not many people actually watch Breaking Bad (it doesn't air on any network in Canada). That doesn't mean it's not good (I love that show and wished everyone watched it), I'm just saying I'm not sure if people will be talking about it now.

But who knows what the future holds? All I can say is, when you look back at what we're still talking about on a regular basis now, most of those shows were entirely overlooked in their own time.

Lost got people talking and thinking, and we'll still be talking and thinking about it years from now. So I hope Lost simply accepts the lack of awardage as an honour, putting it right up there with Empire Strikes Back, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Star Trek, Supernatural, and all the other great material in pop culture that don't need awards to know they're good.

UPDATE: Just wanted to clarify that A) I love Breaking Bad (some people seem to think I'm dissing it, which I absolutely am not), and B) I don't think if you DO win an award that you're necessarily bad. That's just stupid. I didn't realize I had to come on here and reiterate my love of Mad Men (that would be like saying partway through a post, "And I LOVE Lost," like that needed saying) but let me say again that I love Mad Men. I pretty much love anything on Showtime, HBO, and AMC. Too bad about those networks, for the most part.

Lost: Destiny

Here is the first of theblackbox's new themed videos remembering Lost. Beautiful. As I said to him, I've written up a long section in my episode guide for "The End" where I draw a line through the Jack/John relationship and show how Jack's faith in destiny evolved, and this video is pretty much the visual illustration of what I wrote!

The New Man in Charge Extra

I posted this when I saw The New Man in Charge online, and then took it down when I realized the extra had been leaked illegally. Now that the DVDs are out, here are my thoughts again. A month later, I pretty much still feel the same.

When many people came down hard on the finale saying it didn't answer enough questions, I argued that the questions WERE answered, it just took legwork to actually do it. We actually knew the answers deep down, we just had to figure them out for ourselves. In my upcoming Season 6 book I have a long chapter where I tackle the biggest questions and provide my suggestions for answers. And then I watched the New Man in Charge... and the answers were almost identical to what I'd written in that chapter. Does that make me special? More intuitive than everyone else? No. It just meant I was watching the show and picking up on these hints I'd been saying the writers were dropping all along. Polar bear explanation? Check. Walt's significance? Check. Why women can't have babies? Check.

The general answers matched mine, but in each there were some specifics that differed from mine, specifics that couldn't be gleaned from the show and, to be frank, were rather disappointing. So women on the island couldn't have babies in case they got really super close to the Orchid station? Does that mean Amy was shipped off-shore? I'd always assumed it was the electromagnetic energy from the Swan, which is why women had babies before The Incident. No one had babies after the Incident. I got the part about the electromagnetism causing defects in the genetic code in the first trimester, which is why Rousseau and Claire had their babies, but to pin it on the Orchid seems confusing.

The last 4 minutes are great, where Walt is brought back into the fold, told he's special once again, and then brought back to the island with Hurley and a kinder, gentler Ben, are worth the entire episode. I love the idea of him helping his father escape Purgatory, but it once again confuses the issue of why Michael wasn't in the church. The church itself is dislocated from time, meaning it doesn't matter if people died two thousand years apart, they'd all converge on this place at the same time. Which means if Michael ultimately was freed from purgatory, he would have been in the church. Does that cast a pall on Walt going back to the island, meaning he never succeeded?

Perhaps we can assume Hurley and Ben took him to the island and made HIM the new man in charge (meaning the title wasn't meant to refer to Hurley at all), and he and Michael worked together, with one in the afterlife and one on the island, which would be the perfect leadership, I think. Michael could see things that Walt maybe couldn't, and it would free Ben and Hurley to have done their part and then move on. Or, perhaps Walt's job was to help Michael, and Hurley and Ben continued on the island and they all worked together as a group. I like the idea of Walt being the island's guardian along with his father, helping his father to redeem himself even if the island keeps him there, and they make a new world of the island. And it shows that Hurley has forgiven Michael for what happened to Libby and wants to help him. So that part, I liked.

I enjoyed watching "The New Man in Charge" (hell, I'll just watch discarded dailies if it means I can see more Lost), but I think I was happier leaving things with "The End." It just seemed like the show finished, the writers went, "Oh yeah... maybe we should jam in some of these answers because people probably won't like subtlety" and stuck them in there, rather than leaving the show the enigmatic gem I thought it was at the end of the season.

For Anyone Who's Ever Wanted Their Very Own Frozen Donkey Wheel!

So I know many of you were watching the results of the Lost auction all weekend, and many of you were actually registered bidders (if any of you were actually there, please leave a comment and tell us what it was like!) I was away all weekend, and following the auction sporadically on Twitter, my mind boggling as these extraordinary bids were coming through for items. Some of my faves:

The piece of Oceanic wreckage used to cover Sawyer's stash:
$7,000

Kate's toy airplane:
$6,500

Hurley's winning ticket:
$5,500

Sawyer's letter to the con man Sawyer:
$6,500

Locke's backgammon set:
$7,000

Sayid's boarding pass and passport:
$4,250

Charlie's DS ring (the item I coveted the most, sniff):
$9,000

Rousseau's maps:
$9,000

The hatch door:
$16,000

Desmond's Dharma jumpsuit:
$4,750

Desmond's failsafe key:
$11,000

Swan station computer:
$16,000

Dharma fish biscuit dispenser and 30 fish biscuits (seriously):
$7,000 (SERIOUSLY)

Hurley's Camaro:
$20,000

The Frozen Donkey Wheel:
$25,000

Locke's compass (another item I wanted):
$8,000

Locke's suicide note (and another one):
$8,500

Faraday's journal WITH his notes (OK, this one would be AWESOME):
$27,500

1977 framed photo of Dharma recruits:
$7,000

Jacob's tapestry:
$8,500

Dharma jeep:
$20,000

Man in Black's dagger:
$6,000

Senet game that Jacob and boy in black play:
$7,000

Man in Black's scale:
$8,500

Dial from the lighthouse:
$27,500

Pilot script signed by JJ and Damon:
$15,000

Finale script signed by Damon and Carlton:
$7,500

And the biggest money-maker:
Dharma van:
$47,500

Whew. You know, I think it's really cool, and hey, if people have the money they should be able to spend it the way they want (though I have to say, being the crazy huge Lost fan I am, I can't think of a single place in my house where I'd be able to hang the hatch door and say to people, "So... that's the hatch door. From season 1 of Lost? Remember? The thing they blew open? Um... anyway, let me show you the backyard..." What do you DO with some of this stuff? But hey, to each his own.

What I DO want to know, however, is where the money is going. There's been some minor mention of possibly giving some of the money to a Hawaiian charity, but nothing solid has been said. If the money is all lining some producer's pockets, I think that would be a real shame. The auction pulled in almost $2 million, and it should be going to a worthy charity. A Hawaiian charity is a great idea, giving back to the island for the beautiful scenery and welcoming arms the island gave the show for all these years. I really hope they follow through with that.

I still remember years ago when a woman paid $25,000 for Xena's chakram in an auction, and the following year paid $40,000 for her sword. It was a LOT of money, but it was going to the Make-a-Wish foundation, so the fans were thrilled and proud of this woman who gave so much of her money to a worthy cause. Let's hope they do the same in this case.

You can see the full list of items and what they went for here and here.

New Lost Videos Coming Soon!

It's season 6 DVD day!! During the long wait between seasons 5 and 6, theblackbox was one of the people who kept us entertained by producing some truly brilliant Lost videos that prepared us for the season that was to come. Now there's a new series coming, looking back on the Lost themes and no doubt giving us goosebumps as we look back on the show that was. Here's the teaser. I know I'll be there in a front-row seat!



Thanks to theblackbox for the link!

More Blurbage!

I think everyone should try to work the word "blurbage" into their everyday speech more often...

One of my favorite writers (and people), David Lavery, has given me a blurb for the back cover of my final Lost book. Yay! Thank you, David!


If John Locke (pre-Man in Black) was the most sought-after companion for anyone venturing into Lost’s mysterious island, it is impossible to imagine a better guide than Nikki Stafford for the viewer exploring the incomparable complexities of the now completed series. Whether tracing narrative threads, explaining the meaning of Lost’s many intertexts, probing the motivations of a character, identifying nitpicks and nailing goofs, elucidating mysteries, or defending the controversial finale, Stafford never fails to be funny, candid, informative, and brilliant. We will be reading and consulting her Finding Lost series, now complete, as long as Lost itself is remembered. I suspect it will be required reading even in the Sideways World for anyone seeking to move into the light.
—David Lavery, co-author of Lost’s Buried Treasures and editor of The Essential Cult TV Reader

SQUEEEEEEE!!!

So tonight I had my daughter's sixth birthday party. (SIX?! Where did the time go?? I swear she was just born yesterday... sigh.) I had eleven squealing children running around my backyard, pushing at my elbows begging to see the cupcakes I'd made and wanting them before the pizza, laughing along with the very entertaining magician we hired, and racing out the door with their prized loot bags in tow. But then I opened my email, saw this, and I was suddenly the one who was squealing:

“Lost is over, but I know I’ll be thinking about it for years to come. And in those mental trips to The Island, I’ll be taking three things: my Bible, my comic book collection, and all of Nikki’s insightful and comprehensive Finding Lost books.”
— Jeff “Doc” Jensen, Entertainment Weekly

YAY!!!!! Thank you, thank you, Jeff!

Finding Lost S6: The New Cover!

As I mentioned on my Facebook page a few days ago, the cover of my S6 book has been undergoing a revamp. The long-suffering Barry Johnson, who came up with the cover concept of my S5 book and then was the designer for S6, has been dealing with much back and forth with me over the past month or so as I began to rethink the chess cover that I had. And no, despite my jokes, it had nothing to do with the few people who said it looked too Breaking Dawn.

No, my thinking was that despite all of the chess references in the series, and the prominence of the black and white theme in season 6, and the fact that I've always argued the island was a giant chessboard upon which the game of the survivors' lives have been played, I think the concept is simply too subtle -- chess was alluded to constantly in every episode of season 6 (Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass is the mirror theme that runs through the entire season, and the book is based on one big game of chess) -- but you never see characters playing the game, and so it's just not overt enough. And when it comes to a successful cover, you need a concept that's not so subtle.

And so Barry has probably gone through about 15 different versions of new covers (Hurley number!), featuring jungle backgrounds, beach backgrounds, island backgrounds, and finally after much discussion about what should be front and centre, I told him I'd give him complete freedom to figure it out. And the moment the restrictions were taken away, he nailed it on the first go. I won't tell you what my thinking was behind this one, I'll just let you look at it, the same way you would in a store. And I really hope you guys like it as much as I do. Thank you, Barry, once again, for being so immensely patient and for coming up with a cover that made me gasp the moment I opened the attachment (click on the picture to see it bigger).

Best Book Cover Ever

As someone who love academic takes on popular culture, I nearly spit my water across my desk when I saw this spoof cover. This is BRILLIANT.



If only it were real. I'd totally read it. You can see the original post here.

Hawaii Lost Conference to Change Location

I'm sad to report that the Lost academic conference that was to be held in Hawaii this coming January will no longer be held in Hawaii (wah... all those crushed Nik at Nite dreams of meeting on the Lostie beach...) There was a very low response to the call for papers, and it's probably because most people simply cannot afford to go to Hawaii (David and I had a long phone chat about the possibility of relocation back in June, so it doesn't surprise me, but we were both still holding out hope that things would change). I still plan to get to Hawaii one of these days and take the Kos Tour that everyone has told me so much about, but I will absolutely also be at the Lost Conference, wherever it may be! (Something tells me Sydney, Australia, will probably also be out of the question!) As soon as a new location is chosen, I will post it here! Here is the announcement by organizer David Lavery.

We are sorry to inform you that the conference as planned will not take place. We received a very disappointing response to the CFP. We suspect the economy may have been a major factor, and the time of year, January, was a problem for many.

But we have not given up. We are seeking to reboot the conference and hope to be able to announce a new location and date by October. Our goal is to piggy-back with another conference (we have one in mind) possibly in October 2011 and on a beach (Atlantic, not Pacific) in the mainland US. The cost of attendance should be significantly lower.

We will inform everyone once the reboot is finalized. If you have proposed a paper already, we will keep your proposal on file. If you wish to withdraw your proposal, please let us know or have any questions (or suggestions), write us.

Bryan Fuller's New Pilot!

For all those Pushing Daisies fans out there like me (oh, how I miss that show), it's just been announced that Bryan Fuller, the creator of the show (along with shows Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me) is doing a pilot based on the John Christopher novel, The Lotus Caves (which seems to be completely unavailable on Amazon when I went to check... to the used bookstore I go!!). The book is about a group of people living on the moon inside a bubble in the year 2068, and two teenagers venture out of the bubble and find something surprising.

Or, in Bryan Fuller's hands, they find something completely, totally, awesome. You can read about it here. Thanks to Josh for the link!

My Next Favourite Show?

The Washington Post has confirmed that Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson are pursuing a television project together. I think I'm going to go off and hyperventilate with glee!!!

So, what sort of show do you envision? Modern-day Odd Couple? I think Emerson would be Felix, O'Quinn would be Oscar. Actually, the other way around might be even funnier. But there's something about Ben Linus bitching about changing the coffee filter that makes him a Felix in my head.

Sitcom? YES. Oh yes, please. Cop procedural? Hope not, but who cares, I'll be tuning in. HBO series? Oh... oh... my heart can't handle that much joy. ;)

You can read the article here.

Vampire Fans Support Gulf Aid

I just had to pass this link along to you. A fan of The Vampire Diaries (and all things vampire-related, really), has begun an auction of signed vampire-related items that you could bid on to raise money for Gulf Aid's efforts to clean up the effects of the BP oil spill. My Bite Me book is one of the items (signed) and there are many others to choose from. I think her efforts are amazing (as of this writing, over $750 has been raised), so please head on over there to check out what she's got available!

Mad Men: The Good News

What a great episode of Mad Men we had this week! Last week's episode was depressing as hell. In one moment at the Christmas party, Don's secretary tells the others that Don has forgotten his keys at the office. The new copywriter says, "He's such a disaster" and despite knowing so much about him for three full seasons, the viewer can't help but agree. Don is an alcoholic who sleeps with anything that moves, his wife has left him for another man, he sees his kids only occasionally, and he's a mess. In another scene, Roger comes into the office half-baked and Peggy rolls her eyes, saying, "I can't believe that's his job," referring to his booze-filled schmooze lunches. With Freddy Rumsen back in the office, it's clear the writers are pointing to Don's possible future -- he wants to believe he's above these other guys, but he's turning into the same mess they both were, and still are. When Don groped his secretary as she tried to help him into his apartment, I literally held my hands over my eyes, unable to watch the disaster unfolding on screen, and said out loud, "No, no, Don... don't do it..." but, he did it. And then acted like nothing happened, giving her her Christmas bonus in cash, like she was a paid hooker.

In this week's episode things are far more complex and interesting, with our sympathies moving back to Don again. I love Ann, and he's such a better person when he's around her (making moves on teenagers in cars notwithstanding... like, seriously Don, do you ever just keep those pants zipped?! In moments like this it really DOES seem more natural to call him DICK). Watching the torment on his face as he painted her walls this week, putting a temporary cover over a bigger problem on her wall in much the same way that he was sugar-coating his visit with her knowing it would probably be the last, was heartbreaking.

This episode also moved a focus over to Joanie, much to my delight. I loved her walking into Pryce's office and asking about his fried chicken preferences -- "Breast? Thigh?" -- while she swished her hips about. But back home, things aren't as easy. Her husband refuses to take her seriously, slamming his way out of the house, and then again I winced as, despite everything, she takes the high road and goes out of her way to make a dinner for him, one that begins with her almost slicing off her own finger.

It's in this scene, however, that contains a moment that's riddled with mixed feelings. He shows his sweet side, making jokes with her as he stitches her hand closed. At first he uses a trick on her that he admits he usually reserves only for his child patients, but then tells a dirty joke that makes her laugh and then cry. On the surface it seems sweet. But on the other hand, I simply cannot get that scene from the show's first season out of my head (or was it the second?) where he rapes Joan on the floor of Don's office. At the time, it certainly wouldn't have been seen as rape -- even though they weren't married, she was practically his wife, and therefore his "property" for him to do with what he wishes. I remember once when I was a teenager listening to this very odd conversation between two men about rape where one was arguing that one cannot possibly rape his own wife; that's simply ludicrous. The other was arguing that rape was about consent, and who's to say a wife is always consenting? But despite Joan looking uncomfortable in this scene, it's not clear if she identifies what he does to her as rape or just something that doesn't quite feel right.

Regardless, in this scene one could see his chat as being quite sweet, and that's what brings on the tears. But on the other hand, he treats her like a child and even an imbecile, only showing a modicum of caring to her when he's in charge, and she's completely helpless, and perhaps it's that treatment that Joan simply can't take. It's a very difficult scene to watch because it's hard to come up with just one emotion while doing so. It's this sort of complexity that makes me love the show so much.

Watching Don and Pryce on their wild afternoon was a lot of fun; the Godzilla movie in particular was hilarious, between Don whisper-screaming to Pryce, "You know what's going on here, don't you? HAND JOBS" to Pryce shouting fake Japanese at the woman sitting in front of them, the scene was a classic.

I also enjoyed the contrast between Ann and Betty that we can't help but make in our mind; Ann isn't drop-dead gorgeous, but she's smart, interesting, funny, and doesn't put any pressure on Don. Betty is stunning, but is boring, flat, has no personality, and expects too much from him. While Betty didn't feature in this week's episode at all, she's still one of the most difficult characters to gauge on this show -- one minute you feel sorry for her, the next you can't stand her (and last week I was SO freaking out when creepy Glenn was back!!!)

I know we're only three episodes in this season, but this was definitely my fave of the bunch. Only downside? No Roger! ;)

Weezer ALSO in Lost Withdrawal

I put up a mention of this on my Facebook page yesterday, but everyone who's not on FB is sending it to me again so I'll post it here! In case you haven't heard, Spinner announced yesterday that the new Weezer album would be called Hurley, and it looks like this:



When I first heard about it, I thought it must be a joke... a band I love, putting a character from my favourite TV show on their CD and naming it after him? Could this even be true? But when Jeff Jensen reported on it today (and then Jorge put it up on his blog), I figured it must be (though I can't say I'd be shocked to find out we've all been duped...).

On a scale of awesomeness of one to ten, this one's definitely an eleven.

Lost in 3 Minutes

I just watched this and when I got to the end of it, I applauded. For real. My husband, across the hall in his office, said, "Why are you clapping?" ;) This guy sums up all of Lost by pretty much only focusing on the final 10 episodes, only touching on anything from before that. It's pretty brill, and worth watching for what he says at the very end.

PLEASE do NOT watch this if you've never watched Lost. Go watch Lost instead.



Thanks to SenexMacDonald for the link!

The New Man in Charge

Earlier today I posted something talking about The New Man in Charge extra that will be on the upcoming Lost season 6 DVD because it was leaked onto YouTube. DocArzt also saw it and had posted something, and Carlton Cuse retweeted his post. So I assumed that the video had been leaked on purpose to get people talking, and that it was OK to talk about it. But the video has been taken down, and I don't want to flaunt that some of us have seen it and others haven't, so what I've done is taken down my post on it until the DVD comes out and then I'll repost it. I apologize to those of you who wanted to talk about it further (and if it erases the comments, then I deeply apologize to anyone who posted a comment and it disappeared! I really hope that doesn't happen). But I don't like any sort of exclusionary feelings on here, and I don't want to be talking about something a few of us saw and others didn't. So when the DVDs come out, I'll put it back up on my site and we can all discuss it anew. My feelings since watching it have been changing throughout the day, so I'm looking forward to chatting about it soon! :)

Lost DVD Extra Released!!

Thanks to humanebean for pointing me in the direction of this. They've released a one-minute clip from the "New Man in Charge" extra on the season 6 Lost DVD... and seriously, you'll A) miss Lost so much you'll be back in that ball of goo in the corner that you inhabited the week after the finale (no, no, don't even think of telling me I was the only person doing that) and B) you'll want MORE. NOW!!!

But you'll have to wait a couple more weeks. Until then, check out the advance clip.

Lost Auction and Other Things I Keep Meaning to Post...

So there are a few things that everyone keeps sending me, and first of all, I LOVE that people see Lost stuff and immediately send it to me. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. ;) But it also reminds me that despite saying I'd be back here blogging regularly, I haven't been. I neglected a million other things while writing the book and am trying to get caught up on those things, too, and trying to squish blog time in is tough until the fall. But I DO promise stuff. Soon.

Until then, if you haven't heard about the Lost Auction, where they will be auctioning off props such as an actual Dharma van (no, seriously), Hurley's Camaro, John Locke's wheelchair, Ben's fake passport, and other things, then go here to see some of the items up on the auction block. And while I looked through and went, "Want it... want it... want it..." (like John's suicide letter!) there's only one thing I really truly REALLY want, and it's this:

And I figure no one else will really bid on it, right? RIGHT?

Sigh. I'm not gonna get that ring, am I? Me all is nobody.

And the other thing everyone keeps sending me is this, part of this hysterically funny website by a graphic designer who writes these great stories of email conversations he has with people who ask him to design posters for him. Check out the correspondence between him and a woman who wants a MISSING poster for her cat, and you'll see why everyone keeps sending the link to me. ;)