Kevin's Countdown to Lost Season 6 Premiere: Top #15 Favorite Episodes #12

First off, I love the fact that Lost is very much influenced by and very quick to reference literature. ABC features the Lost book club which is full of great books that really encompass the feel of Lost and everything it brings to the table. I wish there was one for Battlestar Galactica but I digress.

Through the Looking Glass was by all means a game changer. Where season three slacked, the second half built up to some of the best material Lost has ever produced which culminated with Through the Looking Glass. Everything had built up to this epic and action packed finale which payed off in a bigger way than any of us could imagine and showcased the biggest Holy Shit moment of all time.

Desmond was a bad ass, Mikhail died a few times, Hurley saved the day, and Charlie died. You can always count on finales to showcase someone dying and unfortunately it called Charlie's number. Though I don't think it was completely necessary it was fitting and his sacrifice was not in vain. It brought all the emotion and finality that was needed for season three and then it just blew our god damn minds with making us think that a flash forward was a flash backward.

The fact that it ended with this realization left me sour. At first I saw it as a glimpse of the end of the series, which we now know it wasn't. But I hated to see Jack utterly destroyed and unrecognizable. Thankfully that wasn't the end. Though Jack sucks now more than ever.

Through the Looking Glass will forever be one of the greatest cliff hangers (though not the greatest) that Lost has ever seen. The show was never the same because of it and that's what I love. Change came, and change is real. And that is what is great about Lost. Things change.

Kevin's Countdown to Lost Season 6 Premiere: Top #15 Favorite Episodes #14

The Man from Tallahassee. To many, Lost season 1 was the strongest, season 2 expanded the mythology of the island, season 3 was okay, season 4 was thrilling, and season 5 was confusing. To me, season 1 was spectacular, season 2 was revealing as well as spectacular, season 3 sucked for half and then was awesome, season 4 was the best season yet, and season 5 finally started giving us real, concrete answers, skewed though they are.

I bring this all up mainly for season 3. It was the season during the writer's strike and thus suffered because of it. The story stalled because of the strike but also because the writers didn't know how long the show would go on for. After the strike, they said it would be 6 seasons and then season 3 picked up. It picked up so much that it is some of the best material Lost has ever produced and will make my countdown. But one of the early gems in all the chaos, was The Man From Tallahassee. In a season full of questions upon questions we were given an answer that was so blatantly in our face but none of us saw it coming.

This episode makes the list just because of that. The confrontation between Sawyer with the man who was responsible for the death of his parents who just so happened to be Locke's father. It was something I never thought we would get an answer to (who is the real Sawyer) and yet it was so obvious. And it was a huge stepping stone for Sawyer who has since become more of the hero than the villain. I'll never forget the moment that Sawyer found out and then strangled Locke's father. I don't think I've ever had the rug taken out from underneath of me like that and that's what I love about Lost.

Kevin's Countdown to Lost Season 6 Premiere: Top #15 Favorite Episodes #15

Okay! So here it goes, my countdown to the Lost Season 6 premier with my top fifteen episodes. I consulted many different top episode lists which didn't not completely agree with me nor I them, but these are mine. These are the outstanding episodes that I remember most because of their shock value (WTF moments) pacing, storytelling, whatever! I'm doing two today because I missed yesterday.

Number fifteen but number 1 on the countdown is THE MOTH. There are plenty of episodes from season one that will appear on this countdown but The Moth will forever be one of my favorites. Before this episode, Charlie was nothing to me. He was a junkie that I felt the producers and writers forced upon you. But this tore down everything we knew about him only to build him back up stronger than ever.

Still being one of the only episodes that truly gets to the core of Charlie, The Moth had all the magic that season one could muster. Locke was still very mysterious and almost mentor-like. The island was still new and exciting and the mysteries of the Mary statues were not fully explained. It was mysterious and heartbreaking, which I believe is the very foundation of Lost.

The final conversation with Locke and Charlie just encapsulates the story perfectly and I will never forget the imagery of the moth flying up into the night sky. Alas, Charlie you are dead now. I do miss you, but I know we'll see you again. Though like many of Lost's reoccurring characters, it will not be the Charlie will all knew and loved. RIP buddy, as I sing, "You All Everybody"!

Flashforward Thoughts/Review

First off, I'm a frickin nerd.

I love disaster movies, I love sci fi twists, I love super heroes, and I love candy. So when I saw that there is this new show called Flashforward coming to ABC, my interest was piqued. With my favorite show of off time, LOST, ending next year, I'm going to need something even remotely like that to keep me going in life as I look for a job and pick cheese doodle dust out of my chest hair whilst relaxing on the couch in the same sweat pants I've worn three days in a row. I had high hopes for the show that seemed like it had a lot of potential.

With that said, I liked the pilot "No More Good Days". It was entertaining, mysterious, fun, and blue. I mean that, there was a blue tint to the entire show. The effects were great, the holy sh*t moments pitch perfect, and the cinematography dead on. The acting was great and I love to see Sonya Walger aka Penny in Lost any day of the week. I thought the baiting gimmicks were disguised nicely and the show has left me curious to know more. But something was off, it took me a second to see it, but I couldn't help but feel like the network was treating me like a baby.

A professor of mine Mike Atkinson and I spoke of Lost once and he said, "It will never happen again. The show is a fluke, a good one, but it will never happen again." I tend to agree with him on this due to the fact that Lost was the first of its kind. A sci fi masked as a prime time drama. Even before the show started there was a huge cult following and I think JJ Abrams can direct better than David Goyer. Blade Trinity ringing a bell here?

ABC is trying to artificially create another Lost with hints to mysteries and online interaction. This just comes off as cheap to me. I got into Lost because of the story, the characters, the acting, and the directing. Flashforward went to commercial and all the strange little hints were brought up by the voice over guy telling us to go to the official website for more clues and answers. I went to said website where I found David Goyer and Brannon Braga talking about these things we "may have missed". I didn't fucking miss anything! I felt degraded. They didn't even give any answers besides what episodes might give us some answers. Lost just let it ride, and let the audience figure things out for themselves.

There was a kangaroo in the episode. Just walking the streets of LA after the blackout. I thought it was a cool little quirky thing but during the commercial I was told to go online and find out more about it. I did and David Goyer said that there is a back story to it that will pan in throughout the season. Like the episode "What Kate Did" it will be like "What the Kangaroo Did". I'm finished with that thought there because there is nothing more to say.

With Dominic Monaghan and Sonya Walger in the show, its almost like ABC is trying to trick people into thinking that this is the next Lost. There is even an Oceanic Airlines billboard at one point. I say, just let the show be a show. If it gets the same kind of following then good for it, it means its a good show. If it doesn't, let it go. They are trying too hard and its obvious.

They say, imitation is the highest form of flattery. In this case, it isn't. I liked the show, but I don't like what they are trying to do. I just hope they calm down in the episodes to come.

Lost "The Variable" Review

After last week's filler "special" episode which was basically a montage of rerun material edited together to give the occasional viewer or the regular "watcher" some clarification of the happenings of our Losties. Now I say "watcher" because there are two different Lost viewers: the "watchers" who look at the pretty pictures on the screen and the real Lost fans, the ones that get into the show and really understand it. So maybe this recap episode was good for the former, but for us die hard Lost scholars, it was just a waste of time. But with the 100th episode "The Variable", it was absolutely worth the wait.

First off, we finally get the Faraday episode we have been waiting for ever since the quirky quantum mechanics brainiac twitched his way into our hearts in season 4. I don't know about you but Desmond and Faraday are my two favorite characters with Sawyer at a close third. This episode explores the relationship with Eloise Hawking and her son Daniel clearing up how he got on the island and how he met Charles Widmore. Though, much like most people, I figured Widmore was his father.

Instead of going too much into this episode, I want to focus on the implications this new story has on this already phenomenol season. This season has focused more on the characters and what each individual has been doing, leaving the plot driven Lost of last season behind. Instead, we are left with more questions then ever as the explanations start coming but leave us scratching our heads in their complexity. My only gripe is that there was no overall story arc giving the season a driving force or uniting the character's journeys under one roof. Don't get me wrong, this season has been fantastic and I daresay that "The Variable" is the best yet. But now that Faraday believes they can change the past I can't help but feel strange.

If they in fact can change the past, preventing the plane from ever crashing, then where does it leave our Losties? Kate goes to jail, Jack buries his father, Sawyer is exiled from Australia, Sun and Jin's life is controlled by her father, Hurley is surrounded by bad luck, and Rose dies. Why would they ever want to go back to that? The show is about the redemption of characters who have no ties to the world and find a better life on the Island. I have a feeling that Faraday is wrong because why would he tell Charlotte what he knew he was going to say and why would Eloise send her son to be shot by her younger self? I believe things will continue to happen the way they always have and with the next episode entitled "The Incident" we will see the birth of the Hatch that we know.

But for now, my theory is being pulled in too many directions. I will leave on this note, if Faraday lives, which I think he will, he will find the bomb buried in the shadow of the statue. Score: A

For "The Variable" easter eggs, go here:

http://www.buddytv.com/slideshows/lost-easter-eggs-for-quotthe-variablequot-34807.aspx