…I Am A Tree

Archive for the ‘The Boob Tube’ Category

Two days after the LOST finale, I’m still mulling over what happened in the two-and-a-half hour episode, and I’ve come to the determination that I liked it. A lot.

LOST was a flawed show as time went on – a flawed gem, but flawed nonetheless. Why? Because the creators of the show never had a road map by which to guide the story, at least not until the fifth season.  The continual addition of new faces and new plot threads led to people thinking it was far more complicated than it actually was.  Yes, there were the mysteries of the Island, and of the Dharma Initiative. The smoke monster and Jacob. The mystery of the numbers and what they meant.

This is why, I think, the show lost the momentum of the first season or two.  The pilot and the subsequent first season, were simply breathtaking. To this day, I recall the “holy shit!” feeling I had watching the first scenes of the show back in 2004.  We were cooking dinner in the kitchen and became glued to the television. The scene on the beach, when Jack comes out of the woods into the wreckage of Flight 815 is burned into my memory.  Rarely have I seen such powerful imagery in a television show.

Things began to drift, though, as time went on.  I’m not sure what did it to me, but somewhere around the third season, I began to care less about things.  Sure, I still watched, but it felt like too much was being layered onto things.  I felt the writers just didn’t know where they were going with the story, so they just kept adding layers of weirdness. Answers to questions simply begat more questions.  In the end, it probably proved extremely difficult to reconcile, so I think they decided to just ignore it.  More on that in a moment.

What kept drawing me back to the show during this time wasn’t the allure of mystery – it was the characters, many of whom I grew to love deeply.  Hugo. Sayid. Sun and Jin. Sawyer. Desmond and Penny. Bernard and Rose. Jack. Charlie and Claire. Juliet. Ben. And John Locke. (I lost interest in Kate as the series progressed.) And all the rest.  Most the characters were flawed (I don’t think Bernard and Rose were — they were at peace with the universe) and it was their interaction that made things so appealing.  Every character changed in profound ways and I found myself cheering them on. 

In the end, the finale was about just that: change. Over the six seasons, we saw Jack go from a troubled man to hitting bottom after he got back to the mainland. While he may have been an outstanding doctor, in all other aspects of his life he was a failure.  He certainly couldn’t live up to his father’s expectations. His realization that he needed to return to the Island was the beginning of his transformation. 

Jack became more than the man of reason he’d been: he became a man of faith as well. He reconciled the two with one another, and as a result, saved the people he’d grown to love more than anything prior in his life. And likely the world, as well — if Smokey had gotten free, there’s no telling what he might have done.

So sure, we didn’t get all the answers in the finale. The weird science faded into the background as the battle of good versus evil took center stage.  Throughout its six seasons, LOST was always about the people, first, and that’s how it ended — about the people.  I find nothing to complain about when it comes to the scenes in the church. The multi-denominational aspect was a wonderful touch and in keeping with the show’s nature.

We got to say goodbye to old friends, and saw happiness finally take root in all of them.  Is that a bad thing? No. I’m glad the show went out in a shower of love and joy. Very few shows get a chance to do a real series finale.  I’m glad LOST had its chance, and delivered an ending worthy of its characters.

Yeah, yeah, not blogging. Yada yada yada. I keep meaning to, and then forget.

Oops.

I really should get that twitter feed installed at the very least, shouldn’t I?

Total aside: Kim addicted me to Gossip Girl. We’ve now seen both seasons and man, it’s fun. I really didn’t expect to be this much into a show like this, but there you have it.

Caprica continues to taunt me. January can’t get here soon enough. I won’t even mention A Song of Ice and Fire, and the pilot being readied now for HBO… w00t!

So, how’s folks?

It was brought to my attention that I haven’t really posted much in a couple weeks. Well, life’s been busy. Work is nuts — it’s summer associate season (rabbit season!) — and I was in Boston for two days for that and other work, getting home last night.

Last Sunday, the car died out in Queens while I was driving home with our grocery order from Fresh Direct. Under the LIE. In a baaaad section of town. However, within minutes, a nice guy named Harry, and his wife, stopped and offered assistance. He sped off and found a nearby garage that just happened to be opened, and then used his car to push me there. I was then able to leave it and get a car service home with the groceries. All in an hour. It restored my faith in humanity — at least in NYC.

The car is still being repaired (turned out to be the distributor) and hopefully will be ready tomorrow morning — I’ll find out later today. We were going to try and go to DelFest down in Maryland this weekend with a bunch of hobos, but the car repairs precluded that. It’s not like we won’t have more live music in the future; we’re just bummed we’ll miss Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet. We can see Railroad Earth a lot, but not her. Now we’re talking about hitting Grey Fox in July and maybe find a way into All Good for just one day (July 13th, as we’ll be an hour and a half away due to a family gathering in Pittsburgh the day before) when Railroad Earth will be there.

The new Railroad Earth tunes (available here for a sneak peak) are wonderful and I’m excited to hear them live.

Other than that, work is just really busy as I mentioned. I’ve also finally dusted off Neverwinter Nights 2 and am enjoying that as well. Currently playing a halfling mage/rogue combination and am kicking some butt. It fills my RPG needs for the moment, so that’s also good.

And who isn’t loving the new Battlestar: Galactica episodes? JUUUUUUMMMMP! Wow! Did not see that one coming!

So yes, I’m still alive. And yes, the Railroad Earth stuff shoulda gone in the other blog, but this is stream-of-consciousness.

We started watching John Adams via HBO On Demand last night and caught the first two episodes.

Wow.

I know a bunch about the Founding Fathers, but this really brings it home. It’s a remarkably written, acted, and directed series with everyone pretty much perfect in their roles. Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney are outstanding, and Tom Wilkinson (I knew I knew who that was!) as Ben Franklin is exceptional.

Watch this if you aren’t. I think its timing is perfect and it’s something that schools will hopefully embrace. I see on the HBO site that there are teaching guides to go along with it. Bravo!

Here:

LOS ANGELES — An end to Hollywood’s long and bitter writers’ strike appeared close on Saturday, as union leaders representing some 12,000 movie and television writers said they had reached a tentative deal with production companies.

The strike, which began Nov. 5, remains in effect until the governing boards of the two writers’ guilds formally review the agreement and decide whether to end the walkout. The boards are expected to meet as early as Sunday, and the strike could be over by Monday morning.

Awesome news! Maybe the season won’t be an entire wash as a result.

I had no idea the show was cancelled until a co-worker sent me this link.

Apparently, fans are using sunflower seeds the way peanuts were used to save Jericho (which comes back next week, I might add). If you’d like to add your voice to those asking that the show be continued, click on Save the 4400 and sign the petition!