Now this is the Lost that I know -- a pointless, anticlimactic culmination that was so tonally misguided that I checked to see if Ronald D. Moore was involved. Just before it aired on my coast, I made fun of someone on Twitter for choosing to watch the combined manipulative sentimentality of Tom Hanks and Senor Spielbergo (ok ok it was only produced by them, but I can't stand either of them as people), but clearly, the joke was on me, especially so since I stayed up well past bedtime to watch this mediocrity.
Showing posts with label Lost. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lost. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Lost - 5x09 "Namaste"
I'm quite happy to be eating my harsh words for Lost, but knowing that season 6 will possibly bring back the painfully dull melodrama is preparing me for another major letdown, while the furtive glances between the romantic triangle-cum-rectangle in "Namaste" is setting me up for the DREAD. At this point, Jack and Sawyer have me convinced that their incestuous competition for Juliet and Kate is their way of sublimating their desire for each other so why DON'T THEY JUST MAKE OUT RIGHT NOW AND SAVE EVERYONE ELSE THE AGONIZING TEDIUM OF WHO IS KATE GONNA CHOOOOOOSE OMG OMG OMG.
Indie rating: Komar & Melamid and Dave Soldier - "The Most Unwanted Song"
Indie rating: Komar & Melamid and Dave Soldier - "The Most Unwanted Song"
Monday, January 01, 2007
Ten Hours from 2006
I'm a bit surprised that I've taken so long coming up with a Top 10 TV shows, especially because 2006 was a fairly strong year in terms of reality TV plus Veronica Mars (haters can shut it), and that I'm as obsessed with TV as ever. Compare TV to my music geekness, which has abated considerably, though nonetheless I've decided on a moderately stable list of 10 albums:
Special mention goes out to Electrelane's Singles, B-Sides & Live collection.
Anyway, back on the TV front. To cut some suspense, stuff that is totally up my alley -- Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans, and Battlestar Galactica -- aren't on the list because like a failed nerd, I only started watching their first seasons this year -- I have a feeling that once I get completely caught up, a lot of reality tv would get bumped off this list.
So, without thematizing the entire year (which, if you ask me, is an exercise in futility and arrogance), an ascending list of my favorite hours from 2006 with brief-to-briefish commentary:
10. So You Think You Can Dance, Top 10 Dancers (2x16)
The judges were witless annoyances, the reality wasn't narrative-based, and I still don't know a quickstep from a jive, but SYTYCD is the younger, snottier, snappier, and sometimes "edgier" (i.e. including krumping as a style) version of Dancing with the Stars. Clearly, all of the hip-hop styles are on the show to appeal to younger viewers, who would be more familiar with popping-and-locking than fan kicks, but amazingly, the most impressive, sublime moments of the second season of SYTYCD were lyrical, paso doble, and the Cuban rumba, and this episode featured two of these styles. As shallow eye-candy goes, SYTYCD is fluffier (even if the final prize is actual employment for the winner), but as camp as a high-energy disco number, fluffy goes a long way.
9. The Amazing Race, "5 Continents...10 Countries...And More than 59 Thousand Miles!" (9x12)
Wherein smelly hippies flex their brains to beat almost heterosexual fratties!
8. Scrubs, "My Transition" (5x18)
OK, so Scrubs makes the list 9.5 hours. Add "My Urologist" (5x17) if you're into Dr. Acula. Vampires and absurdist high-comedy -- how could I not love this?
7. Friday Night Lights, "Pilot" (1x01)
Friday Night Light perfectly blends the football action with searing melodrama in its first episode. Also: QB1 vs. QB1.
6. Survivor: Cook Islands, "People That You Like Want To See You Suffer" (13x10)
Many reviews point to the preceding "Mutiny" episode (where Candice, and then Jonathan, abandoned the Aitu (Survivorese for "hero") Tribe) as the turning point of Cook Islands, since it turned the most likeable contestants Ozzy and Yul, who to that point were among the likeliest contenders to win the game, into underdogs. At the same time, the other tribe, composed of young white kids (& Nate), dared to treat the solemnity of the Survivor as no more than The Real World: Cook Islands, thus earning the contempt of most viewers. (Insert boring tangent about how the white kids, AKA the face of homogenous America, rejected the Protestant Work Ethic, which the two Koreans, a Mexican, a black woman, and a middle-aged Jew were left to pick up.) In other words, "Mutiny" completely deserves its place in Cook Islands lore, but in all of 2006, I don't think that my schadenfreude got as much of a work out as it did when I saw Candice blub because she was surprised that the tribe she betrayed to make out with her show-boyfriend was angry at her.
5. Project Runway, "Designer's Best Friend" (3x03)
Just about any episode could've made this list (like Kayne's Marilyn Monroe riff), but seeing how Laura interacted with her dog was just too priceless. (Not to mention the first of Angela's many disasters.)
4. Heroes, "Fallout" (1x11)
Lost-lite, but a very candy-coated version that, thus far, doesn't take itself quite as seriously as its progenitor, as summed up by Matt and FBI Girlfriend's telepathic flirting (better known as the awesomest exchange between shippy characters ever).
3. Lost, "Live Together, Die Alone" (2x23)
Even though Lost consistently disappoints and frustrates me, the finale to season 2 rates this high almost because it stands out so much from the rest of that tease of a season, much of which was satisfied with maintaining its insular little world as the series became preoccupied with drawing out its status quo. Without answering existing questions, the show introduced new mysteries that were entirely within the parameters of the status quo, and as a result, many viewers felt like they were strung along. But by the finale, Lindelof, Cuse, et al seized the chance to blow up the insular little world they'd created and show us that, yes, another world existed beyond the Island, a world much larger with a whole different vocabulary to describe its own questions. (Unsurprisingly, this outside world has been a non-factor in season 3.)
2. Veronica Mars, "Not Pictured" (2x22)
Maybe my taste is questionable (obviously it is with all these reality tv shows), but Veronica Mars was no less enjoyable in its second season than it was in its first. (Caveat: I only saw the mythological episodes that UPN reran during the summer hiatus.) The season finale typified everything I love about the show and even added a cherry on top: snappy and "epic" dialogue that culminated with Logan's impassioned and equally epic speech to V, a reveal that was unexpected but not out of leftfield, and a serious and genuine sense of danger during the climax (which is the cherry, if you're still keeping track).
1. America's Next Top Model Cycle 6, "The Girl Who is Going to the Moon" (6x09)
Before this year, I wouldn't have listed a recap episode at all, much less rank it this high, mostly because it's simply a summary of what's happened so far in a show's season. However, I picked a recap episode is because if it would stand in for the whole season, and I otherwise would've listed multiple episodes of Cycle 6. But "The Girl Who is Going to the Moon" also helped me realize two benefits of recap episodes. The first: "deleted" scenes that offered hilarity -- Joanie doing her Furonda impression, Danielle and Joanie rapping in the kitchen, etc. The second: it allows viewers like me, who originally couldn't stand Jade's mentalism, to revisit such classics as, "This is not America's Next Top Best Friend." The difference between the first time I heard her inanity and the second time were was Joanie and Danielle had both been built up into protagonists who could face (or play) off against Jade. As long as Jade was a credible threat to win, and without any frontrunning girls to keep her winning, I couldn't enjoy her Sister Soldier antics; but when Joanie and Danielle became the prohibitive favorites to reach the top two, I could safely dwelve into Jade's analystic mind.
Indie rating: Joanna Newsom - "Emily"
- Boris, Pink
- The Pipettes, We are the Pipettes
- Joanna Newsom, Ys
- Bardo Pond, Ticket Crystals
- Espers, II
- Isis, In the Absence of Truth
- OOIOO, Taiga
- Saint Etienne, Tales From Turnpike House
- Camera Obscura, Let's Get Out of This Country
- Eluvium, When I Live in the Garden and the Sea
Special mention goes out to Electrelane's Singles, B-Sides & Live collection.
Anyway, back on the TV front. To cut some suspense, stuff that is totally up my alley -- Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans, and Battlestar Galactica -- aren't on the list because like a failed nerd, I only started watching their first seasons this year -- I have a feeling that once I get completely caught up, a lot of reality tv would get bumped off this list.
So, without thematizing the entire year (which, if you ask me, is an exercise in futility and arrogance), an ascending list of my favorite hours from 2006 with brief-to-briefish commentary:
10. So You Think You Can Dance, Top 10 Dancers (2x16)
The judges were witless annoyances, the reality wasn't narrative-based, and I still don't know a quickstep from a jive, but SYTYCD is the younger, snottier, snappier, and sometimes "edgier" (i.e. including krumping as a style) version of Dancing with the Stars. Clearly, all of the hip-hop styles are on the show to appeal to younger viewers, who would be more familiar with popping-and-locking than fan kicks, but amazingly, the most impressive, sublime moments of the second season of SYTYCD were lyrical, paso doble, and the Cuban rumba, and this episode featured two of these styles. As shallow eye-candy goes, SYTYCD is fluffier (even if the final prize is actual employment for the winner), but as camp as a high-energy disco number, fluffy goes a long way.
9. The Amazing Race, "5 Continents...10 Countries...And More than 59 Thousand Miles!" (9x12)
Wherein smelly hippies flex their brains to beat almost heterosexual fratties!
8. Scrubs, "My Transition" (5x18)
OK, so Scrubs makes the list 9.5 hours. Add "My Urologist" (5x17) if you're into Dr. Acula. Vampires and absurdist high-comedy -- how could I not love this?
7. Friday Night Lights, "Pilot" (1x01)
Friday Night Light perfectly blends the football action with searing melodrama in its first episode. Also: QB1 vs. QB1.
6. Survivor: Cook Islands, "People That You Like Want To See You Suffer" (13x10)
Many reviews point to the preceding "Mutiny" episode (where Candice, and then Jonathan, abandoned the Aitu (Survivorese for "hero") Tribe) as the turning point of Cook Islands, since it turned the most likeable contestants Ozzy and Yul, who to that point were among the likeliest contenders to win the game, into underdogs. At the same time, the other tribe, composed of young white kids (& Nate), dared to treat the solemnity of the Survivor as no more than The Real World: Cook Islands, thus earning the contempt of most viewers. (Insert boring tangent about how the white kids, AKA the face of homogenous America, rejected the Protestant Work Ethic, which the two Koreans, a Mexican, a black woman, and a middle-aged Jew were left to pick up.) In other words, "Mutiny" completely deserves its place in Cook Islands lore, but in all of 2006, I don't think that my schadenfreude got as much of a work out as it did when I saw Candice blub because she was surprised that the tribe she betrayed to make out with her show-boyfriend was angry at her.
5. Project Runway, "Designer's Best Friend" (3x03)
Just about any episode could've made this list (like Kayne's Marilyn Monroe riff), but seeing how Laura interacted with her dog was just too priceless. (Not to mention the first of Angela's many disasters.)
4. Heroes, "Fallout" (1x11)
Lost-lite, but a very candy-coated version that, thus far, doesn't take itself quite as seriously as its progenitor, as summed up by Matt and FBI Girlfriend's telepathic flirting (better known as the awesomest exchange between shippy characters ever).
3. Lost, "Live Together, Die Alone" (2x23)
Even though Lost consistently disappoints and frustrates me, the finale to season 2 rates this high almost because it stands out so much from the rest of that tease of a season, much of which was satisfied with maintaining its insular little world as the series became preoccupied with drawing out its status quo. Without answering existing questions, the show introduced new mysteries that were entirely within the parameters of the status quo, and as a result, many viewers felt like they were strung along. But by the finale, Lindelof, Cuse, et al seized the chance to blow up the insular little world they'd created and show us that, yes, another world existed beyond the Island, a world much larger with a whole different vocabulary to describe its own questions. (Unsurprisingly, this outside world has been a non-factor in season 3.)
2. Veronica Mars, "Not Pictured" (2x22)
Maybe my taste is questionable (obviously it is with all these reality tv shows), but Veronica Mars was no less enjoyable in its second season than it was in its first. (Caveat: I only saw the mythological episodes that UPN reran during the summer hiatus.) The season finale typified everything I love about the show and even added a cherry on top: snappy and "epic" dialogue that culminated with Logan's impassioned and equally epic speech to V, a reveal that was unexpected but not out of leftfield, and a serious and genuine sense of danger during the climax (which is the cherry, if you're still keeping track).
1. America's Next Top Model Cycle 6, "The Girl Who is Going to the Moon" (6x09)
Before this year, I wouldn't have listed a recap episode at all, much less rank it this high, mostly because it's simply a summary of what's happened so far in a show's season. However, I picked a recap episode is because if it would stand in for the whole season, and I otherwise would've listed multiple episodes of Cycle 6. But "The Girl Who is Going to the Moon" also helped me realize two benefits of recap episodes. The first: "deleted" scenes that offered hilarity -- Joanie doing her Furonda impression, Danielle and Joanie rapping in the kitchen, etc. The second: it allows viewers like me, who originally couldn't stand Jade's mentalism, to revisit such classics as, "This is not America's Next Top Best Friend." The difference between the first time I heard her inanity and the second time were was Joanie and Danielle had both been built up into protagonists who could face (or play) off against Jade. As long as Jade was a credible threat to win, and without any frontrunning girls to keep her winning, I couldn't enjoy her Sister Soldier antics; but when Joanie and Danielle became the prohibitive favorites to reach the top two, I could safely dwelve into Jade's analystic mind.
Indie rating: Joanna Newsom - "Emily"
Monday, March 27, 2006
Wednesday Night Showdown: LOST vs. VERONICA MARS
At least ratings-wise, the head-to-head competition between these two shows is over before it really starts. Lost routinely clobbers any and all competition. However, both Lost and Veronica Mars head the primetime charge towards the continuing, serialized narrative, though each program approaches serialism with a significantly different philosophy.
Although both shows center around a dominant mystery, Lost, on an episode-by-episode basis, typically offers a mystery that has a direct consequence on the show's mythology (i.e. what is the island, why are survivors there, etc.), but more often than not in season 2, the episode fails to resolve the mystery so that a later episode to grapple with. An episode of Veronica Mars on the other hand introduces a small plot that may or may not be related to the larger mythology (in season one, who killed Lilly Kane; in season two, who sabotaged the school bus), and unlike Lost, the episode resolves that mystery before its 42 minutes are up. And just as importantly, that episode of Veronica Mars will also sneak in a new mystery right at the end. These two different serial approaches have profoundly different effects on the viewer (though I must warn that I'm once again generalizing from my individual experience).
In order to talk about Lost's approach to mystery and cliffhangers, it's best if I first talk about cliffhangers in Veronica Mars. When an episode opens with a new, minor mystery, the viewer feels incomplete in a very basic sense: she doesn't know Who Did It or What Happened, and she wants to know. So of course, when the mystery is solved, the viewer feels completed with the knowledge. But when the episode, in typical Veronica Mars fashion, introduces another mystery or a new clue in the mythological mystery, Veronica Mars displays a thorough understanding of both an ongoing television show and the capacious and bottomless appetite of human desire.
The American model of a TV program and the mechanism of human desire run parallel to each other. Television programs always want their viewers to come back for more because as money-making enterprises, they need to maintain their number of viewers from one episode to the next to remain attractive to advertising dollars; meanwhile, viewes are happy to oblige the programs because people will always desire that one object that will make them whole and complete. But of course, even if they get the object of desire, they'll soon find something else that they're missing and will want once again. So, when Veronica Mars ends an episode with a new mystery or a new wrinkle in an existing mystery, the show enacts both the American TV model and viewers' psychological inclinations.
With its method of introducing new mysteries, Veronica Mars also treats viewers with a pang of pleasure. After an episode resolves its mystery, the viewer feels satisfied and complete, but this sense of wholeness is quickly shattered by the new mystery. Yet, instead of feeling distressed by the new mystery (and the lack of knowledge that comes with it), our unconscious mechanism of desire is stimulated. People want to want, and Veronica Mars taps such an impulse by persuading the viewer to want to know Who Did It or What Happens Next.
Lost, in contrast to Veronica Mars, is much stingier with its mysteries, which resultsin fewer mystery plots. And with fewer mysteries (which usually are stretched out across multiple episodes), resolutions are likewise harder to come by. Ultimately, the entire mechanism of desire is frustrated. Although people want to want, they want to want new things, and Lost often doesn't deliver new mysteries because it's fully intent on milking the Island mystery. Take "The Whole Truth" (2x16), for example. It centers around the Henry Gale mystery (initiated two episodes ago with "One of Them" (2x14)): is Gale an Other or not? This episode begins with this question in the air (I won't usually count flashbacks as new mystery plots because they're not very interesting most of the time) and ends with it still unanswered. Consequently, the viewer is unfulfilled and incomplete, which is a regular feeling since Lost stopped offering new twists and turns and instead focused on stringing its viewers along with old mysteries.
That Veronica Mars seems to wield an innate understanding of Lacanian psychoanalysis (i.e. the mechanism of desire, for those of you keeping track) doesn't mean that its method is perfect. As season two has shown, the show's directive of one new mystery per week seems to be straining its internal logic and credibility. After all, it's only a matter of time when such a proliferation of ideas caves in on itself, leaving viewers with "One Angry Veronica" and "Ain't No Magic Mountain High Enough."
Still, it's notable that Veronica Mars dares to incorporate so many mysteries, especially since most other serial shows adhere to the Lost-style -- Alias and 24 spring to mind most readily.
Indie rating: Drive Like Jehu - "Human Interest"
Although both shows center around a dominant mystery, Lost, on an episode-by-episode basis, typically offers a mystery that has a direct consequence on the show's mythology (i.e. what is the island, why are survivors there, etc.), but more often than not in season 2, the episode fails to resolve the mystery so that a later episode to grapple with. An episode of Veronica Mars on the other hand introduces a small plot that may or may not be related to the larger mythology (in season one, who killed Lilly Kane; in season two, who sabotaged the school bus), and unlike Lost, the episode resolves that mystery before its 42 minutes are up. And just as importantly, that episode of Veronica Mars will also sneak in a new mystery right at the end. These two different serial approaches have profoundly different effects on the viewer (though I must warn that I'm once again generalizing from my individual experience).
In order to talk about Lost's approach to mystery and cliffhangers, it's best if I first talk about cliffhangers in Veronica Mars. When an episode opens with a new, minor mystery, the viewer feels incomplete in a very basic sense: she doesn't know Who Did It or What Happened, and she wants to know. So of course, when the mystery is solved, the viewer feels completed with the knowledge. But when the episode, in typical Veronica Mars fashion, introduces another mystery or a new clue in the mythological mystery, Veronica Mars displays a thorough understanding of both an ongoing television show and the capacious and bottomless appetite of human desire.
The American model of a TV program and the mechanism of human desire run parallel to each other. Television programs always want their viewers to come back for more because as money-making enterprises, they need to maintain their number of viewers from one episode to the next to remain attractive to advertising dollars; meanwhile, viewes are happy to oblige the programs because people will always desire that one object that will make them whole and complete. But of course, even if they get the object of desire, they'll soon find something else that they're missing and will want once again. So, when Veronica Mars ends an episode with a new mystery or a new wrinkle in an existing mystery, the show enacts both the American TV model and viewers' psychological inclinations.
With its method of introducing new mysteries, Veronica Mars also treats viewers with a pang of pleasure. After an episode resolves its mystery, the viewer feels satisfied and complete, but this sense of wholeness is quickly shattered by the new mystery. Yet, instead of feeling distressed by the new mystery (and the lack of knowledge that comes with it), our unconscious mechanism of desire is stimulated. People want to want, and Veronica Mars taps such an impulse by persuading the viewer to want to know Who Did It or What Happens Next.
Lost, in contrast to Veronica Mars, is much stingier with its mysteries, which resultsin fewer mystery plots. And with fewer mysteries (which usually are stretched out across multiple episodes), resolutions are likewise harder to come by. Ultimately, the entire mechanism of desire is frustrated. Although people want to want, they want to want new things, and Lost often doesn't deliver new mysteries because it's fully intent on milking the Island mystery. Take "The Whole Truth" (2x16), for example. It centers around the Henry Gale mystery (initiated two episodes ago with "One of Them" (2x14)): is Gale an Other or not? This episode begins with this question in the air (I won't usually count flashbacks as new mystery plots because they're not very interesting most of the time) and ends with it still unanswered. Consequently, the viewer is unfulfilled and incomplete, which is a regular feeling since Lost stopped offering new twists and turns and instead focused on stringing its viewers along with old mysteries.
That Veronica Mars seems to wield an innate understanding of Lacanian psychoanalysis (i.e. the mechanism of desire, for those of you keeping track) doesn't mean that its method is perfect. As season two has shown, the show's directive of one new mystery per week seems to be straining its internal logic and credibility. After all, it's only a matter of time when such a proliferation of ideas caves in on itself, leaving viewers with "One Angry Veronica" and "Ain't No Magic Mountain High Enough."
Still, it's notable that Veronica Mars dares to incorporate so many mysteries, especially since most other serial shows adhere to the Lost-style -- Alias and 24 spring to mind most readily.
Indie rating: Drive Like Jehu - "Human Interest"
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