Monday, 31 May 2010

LOST Series Finale Wrap up

Well finale season is just about over, with only a couple of shows still running. I plan give my thoughts on all the finales, with single posts dedicated to LOST, and one to Grey's Anatomy, and then another for the rest.

Lets start with LOST.

Well....firstly...I watched the finale last tuesday night, at a LOST finale party, with Ness, Nick and Brett. Pretty much all our reactions were the same.....what the heck was that?!
Its not that I didn't like it so much as, it kinda came out of no where, and I am not sure if it satisfies me.

It has been a few days now, I've had time to process, and I just rewatched it last night. So I can finally do my thoughts.

Firstly, that ending was really strange....I was perfectly happy with the whole island ending. Jack is the new Jacob (obvious choice or not), gets stabbed by Flocke/Man in Black, Flocke gets shot by an injured Kate and is kicked off cliff, Jack fixes broken island, dies, Hurley takes over as new Jack, Ben stays to be his deputy. Which is a perfect ending for Ben, who has always been very connected to the island, and wanting the power of the island.

There are a few unanswered things about this part of the finale in regards to the characters though;
Desmond apparently will live and somehow get home.....
Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Miles, Richard and Lapidus leave the island on the Ajira plane...we assume they get home? I mean....it is left very open...
Rose and Bernard we must assume are still living in their shack?
Claire finally gets to be with Aaron again?
Kate and Sawyer? - Do they pair up in their post-island, post Jack/Juliet world?
--Not that any of these are important....but still things my brain wonders in the wake of processing ever

The ending ending, the whole sideflash world being some kind of meeting place to all go together to the afterlife....weirded me out. I guess it makes an ok ending, not great, but ok.
I mean...I must say I'm glad that it didn't end up being that they were dead all along and that the island was never real....cause that would have been a kick in the face, as bad as a dream senario would have been.
But part of me had always liked the idea of the side flash world being like a parallel world, where they could have chosen which to live in, in which Sawyer would have chosen a world with Juliet, and a good portion of the rest would have chosen the island world.
Desmond even teased at something like that; his better world thing, before he goes down into the light….it was a misleading way of saying the side-flashes are a parallel world….which in a way I would have preferred…..

The end actually reminds me a little of the finale of the Chronicles of Narnia books. (spoilers - for those who haven’t read them)…..
But at the end all the people who have visited Narnia, except 1 of the siblings, dies in a train accident and they all get taken into a new world by Aslan, because Narnia dies too.
I guess thats all part of the whole Biblical thing LOST had going on.



I like the idea that people reunite with those they love/those that mattered, in their afterlife.
I loved the idea that Sawyer and Juliet were soul mates....and that scene where they reunited was so cute and sweet.....made me really really sad. I was a fan of Kate and Sawyer, and would have loved to have seen them get back together (maybe they did once they got off the island...who knows, but she did profess her love for Jack just before they left, so probably not....) But I always felt that Sawyer and Juliet had a really special relationship. They had those 3 years for it to grow and develop....without having to worry about escaping, or surviving, they got a real life for a while. They didn't have the obstacles that Sawyer and Kate had. So since there was an afterlife, I'm glad they got to stay together forever.
I think of Sawyer and Kate in an Amy/Josh from The West Wing way....were great fun, but were never meant to last forever!


I also liked the symmetry of Jack’s eye being the final shot, like from the start of the pilot ep. And Vincent the dog lying next to him. Little things like that are nice.

Liked that that last bit had no sound in the church, that those people came back together in their after life or whatever. Would have been weird with sound.  - I must say I LOVED the music in the finale eps. ....Although that very Western part was a little weird.

It was cool that they brought back so many characters that had died much earlier, like Shannon, Boon, etc, in addition to Juliet, Sun, Jin, and Sayid. But it was odd to see characters who had never ever met in the story, sitting in a room together, like Juliet and Boon….messed with my head.
I also think it was odd to have baby Aaron, I mean, ok he was a catalyst, but it seemed weird to have him there…..but then again….I guess he was just as much an important character in the early days too…

However, I find it interesting that Ben never went in....does that mean he's not part of the gang? He wasn't as meaningful to ALL of them? or just JACK? The moments between him and Locke, and him and Hurley outside were really nice.

Also, I find it interesting that Daniel, Miles, and Charlotte were featured in that world, but not part of the main group at the end, like the rest of the island people that showed up in the side-flashes, like Alex and Danielle. Also.....why weren't Richard and Lapidus part of that world?  - I guess they were all guest stars...not main players.
.....And speaking of Richard, since he got a grey hair, does that mean he will age now? or not....It just seemed weird to me for Richard to gett off the island and flying on a plane....but I guess he's not actually Mr Jungle like I think he was....its part of my missing LOST history/memory.

The whole sideflash thing with Jack being formerly married to Juliet thing was weird....and just another issue for the whole Juliet – Jack – Kate – Sawyer relationship mess. At least it ended ok. I was never a fan of Jack, so never liked him with either Juliet OR Kate....Sawyer I liked with both, but if I had to choose....I'd pick Juliet and Sawyer, for the previously mentioned reasons.

-The fight in the rain was a total finale cliché - I can name quite a few other series or season finales with big epic fights in the rain....

In terms of my predictions for the finale predictions, I didn't actually have many. I never really thought they'd kill Kate, turns out she's wonderwoman!
-I was right about Jack, and Hurley, that they were the new Jacob (never thought there would be more tahn 1 though) - that was it…..although technically they were all dead at the end….so in a way…I was right about that :P

Oh best quotes from the finale.
“I was shot by a fat man” - Charlie after being woken up by Charlotte.
and
“I don’t believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in duck tape!” - Miles fixing the airplane.


Ultimately, LOST ended well.....I think. I still seemed like an odd weirdass ending, but at least they did wrap up the Island part of the story, and I guess that's what matters. But part of me still thinks the whole last season would have been better if the side-flashes had been left out....especially for the finale....but then I guesss no one would have been satisfied with just.....we have  a new Jacob, now lets go home....ending.
Plus the other world left people guessing for most of the 6th season, so I guess that is important for LOST....always keep them guessing.

Unanswered Questions  - I always thought they'd reveal the name of 'Man in Black' at some point....cause they worked so hard to not give it away....but I guess its more mysterious to never name him.
-I'm sure I'll remember some more things that were never resolved later on....but I can't think of anymore that don't really make sense right now.

Whether or not it ended well, I think I am still unsure to whether I am satisfied or not....but since I don't feel too lousy about it....I guess I'm good with it.


Finally, I have some general comments to add on LOST as a whole.....
-apparently Ben is the Sark of LOST….bad, good, bad, good…etc   As well as the series punching bag! I wonder if there is a count out there of the actual number of times he has been beaten up/tortured?....Probably.
-I am now wondering if I have ever commented on the fact that LOST, like Grey’s Anatomy, had a Dr Shephard (diff spelling) and a Dr Burke? ABC is unoriginal apparently when it comes to doctors.

Oh and then there are the saddest LOST deaths.....
-Juliet’s was absolutely brutal, even though I knew she was gonna die, it was just a horrible way to go, and really emotional….not only was I bawling my eyes out in the season 5 finale….but then had to relive it all again in the s6 premiere when she was still alive, before dying in Sawyer’s arms. Gut wrencher!

-Charlie’s was also a really really sad death….Alex's death was pretty sad too, and Shannon's....and Boon’s back in the day…but quickly got topped by others.
-I'm sure I'm forgetting others....Libby's was sad, but only because of how it hurt Hurley....I found Libby annoying, if I remember correctly.

And now I'm done. :)
I am looking forward to being able to rewatch the whole series again in the future, in quick succession, hopefully I will understand a little more of it.....or at the very least, get to relive some of my fave LOST moments from one of the best shows on TV!


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Carlie

Monday, 17 May 2010

SNL: We Want More Girl 'Best Of' Episodes!!!!!!

So in the past year, I have been becoming obsessed with Saturday Night Live....okay 'obsessed' might be too strong a word....but after years of being in the dark, I finally have been watching a lot of episodes.

Firstly, it's not my fault I haven't seen that much - Australia never aired it on free-to-air tv, only the Comedy Channel on foxtel airs it...and even then they cut out half an hour of it to make it fit into 1 hour. My buddy Brett downloaded some eps, and they made their way to me. Then I saw the Amy Poehler best of....and was hooked!

I remember watching plenty of eps back in the day on foxtel, maybe 2 years ago now. They were airing eps daily at lunchtime, so I got to see the whole progression from Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey, to Amy and Tina, to Amy and Seth Meyers. Plus I got to see a lot more of people I had only caught randomly over the past 10 years. To me, SNL greats are Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer, Molly Shannon, Rachel Dratch, Tina, Amy, Darrell Hammond, Chris Parnell, Will Ferrell.....plus from the current cast, Kristen Wiig, Kenan Thompson, Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Fred Armisen, Andy Samberg, Will Forte.

Now that I'm watching some new and old stuff, I've grown attached to the talent....and really wish they'd find some better female talent. Those new young girls, are annoying. They are all young, look the same, and are not even that funny. The guys are all great, but the girls (Kristen Wiig not included) are just not cutting it, they are nowhere near the standard one comes to expect from SNL.

Oh so onto my whole thing about how excited I was to see Maya, Amy, Tina, Rachel, Ana, and Molly back last week for the Betty White ep! I was in SNL heaven! They brought back some of the classic SNL characters, and did some hilarious sketches. Made me even madder, that they have not released more 'Best Of' eps for the girls. Will Ferrell has 3....okay totally deserved...but Amy Poehler got one, and Jimmy Fallon has one.....Molly Shannon has one....I would LOVE to see a Maya one, and a Ana one, and a Rachel, and a Tina one. So I've started a facebook group to get a Tina one out there....now I know people say that will never happen, and she hasn't done that many sketches....but I wouldn't care if it was mostly Weekend Update....that would ROCK!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119472291419646&ref=mf


So here's hoping we can use the internet to achieve something!


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Carlie

Sunday, 16 May 2010

LOST....Finale Countdown

Well...there goes another ep.....I can't really explain my relationship with LOST....I know it all started with JJ Abrams back in the day, as a big Alias fan, and also a fan of television dramas. But when it had buzz coming out of the US 6 months before we got to see it, I knew I would watch it....And even though I am pretty sure I have seen every episode ever....at least in the last 3 seasons anyways....I have very little recollection of the first 2....but I don't think I ever missed one....anyways thats what recaps are for.

When it comes to LOST my brain is a bit of a sieve. I mean its a lot of information to take in in 42 minutes (or 60 with ad breaks)....My brain has never functioned the way LOST really needed it to. I am fan of SO many shows that there is just not room to focus on every little detail that the writers throw at us each week.

I must say though, its amazing how I never gave up on it. - Mostly because my friends wouldn't let me, they fuelled my interest, and once I started downloading it and was able to watch it when I was awake, and without ads, I was able to really get into the whole thing.

Now I'm not some really smart fan who has all these theories....I've always watched for the characters mainly. I find it funny how I hated Juliet for so long, then loved her just in time for her to die....-A serious theme with me....my fave characters always die.
Speaking of which....I always said that I would never be able to make predictions...but based on last week's ep, I think Kate is gonna die....which would suck....but then I have this feeling that they are pretty much all gonna die. Except maybe the candidate....which may or may not be Jack....I never liked Jack much, even in the beginning... It could also be Hurley...he's got some stuff going on there...

Oh and I must comment on this weeks Allison Janney ep (which I have to call it, instead of this weeks ep with Allison Janney). It was really weird watching Allison Janney as a guest star in a show like LOST. Different to how I felt when she guest starred in In Plain Sight, because that was Stunt Casting really. They got another West Wing actor to play a similar type role. But this was totally different. And I must disagree with the reviewer that commented on this ep, and said all they could think about was C.J Cregg.....I never thought about CJ. I guess that might be because I have always felt Allison Janney is one of those people, like Meryl Streep, who can play anything, and it never feels like the same character. It might also have to do with the fact that my love of AJ goes all the way back to 10 Things I Hate About You.....and goes through many other of movies. The West Wing came later.
I thought Allison was awesome in the ep....her character however created many new questions...SOOOO helpfull with only a couple eps left EVER! Not to mention, how crazy/evil/bad she was!

Oh well.....time will tell....or not...I have a feeling that everyone is gonna feel very unsatisfied with the finale....I bet it will answer hardly anything, and create a whole world of new questions....they are just THAT good at it!
One more ep this Tues/Wed, then the big finale Sunday, which will be aired at Ness' LOST finale party on Tuesday Australian time. It'll be fun to watch together, maybe we can help each other keep track of what's going on....and stop some of us who might be inclined to cry if we were viewing it alone, to do so in a group!

-Side note.....I gotta say, Allison Janney has the most honest, kind eyes. Oh and if ever someone makes a movie about me....I want AJ to play my mum :P

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Carlie

Monday, 10 May 2010

TV, TV, Everywhere....and Not a Drop to Drink!

Well I did it. I finished season 5 of Grey's Anatomy. The finale was really hard to watch, knowing that it was George the whole time....it was easier when you only had a little amount of time to get really upset....rather than it growing as the ep went on!
However, now that I've finished season 5, and am back to watching s6....I'm totally confused and lost. I might have to rewatch this seasons eps before the finale, cause Ellen Pompeo hinted that you will need to know what's been happening this season.....and with watching seasons 4 and 5 at the same time as 6....I'm a little jumbled.

Now lets talk Glee! -  Well after a slow, slightly dissapointing first ep back, and then an interesting Madonna episode....which was both fun, yet not quite up to what I want from the show.....ep 3 came along with Kristin Chenoweth singing 3 great songs, and great songs for the others....however a whole ep without a Rachel number was both weird and refreshing. But I think I even liked this Kristin ep better than the first one!
However the 4th ep was not my fave either, I didn't care about Olivia Newton John or Physical one tiny bit. I did like You Can't Touch This....and Emma standing up for herself....but none of the songs really stood out as ones I NEED to download. I mean they finally let Puck sing, and make him share with Finn (and Jesse...who I like less each week sadly).


Brothers and Sisters- I think I can see where they are heading with Robert and Kitty.....I just really don't want him to leave....I think that show is slowly losing the plot. Sometimes it feels like they make up the show each week as they go...without really planning out the arcs. I mean whatever happened to Ryan...he was just a pointless boring character! And I really could care less about Luc....


Parenthood - Still LOVING this show. SO glad to have Lauren on tv every week! And I LOVE that its not just her on that show that keeps me coming back each week. The stories are great. The characters are all great - there is not realy anyone I hate...which is refreshing! The only thing they need to work on, is the editing of the credits. Every ep goes from Cold Open to credits without any proper 'crash' or transition. It feels really out of place. I LOVE that it has credits...I just worry that the editors have forgotton how to transition into them....go back and watch The West Wing, or Dawson's Creek, or Gilmore Girls....they all had it right. The credits should not feel out of place with the rest of the ep, it should blend, keep a tone. Anyways...that's my 2 cents on the credits.


The Good Wife - Well....after Peter stormed out of the apartment, setting off the alarm....I was kinda looking forward to him going to back to jail.....I didn't really care much about what was going on in this weeks ep. I did like Will playing Judge though, that was kinda fun.


P-Rex - SO glad to finally have this show back...1 month was way too long to be away. Although there is only a few eps left, and that mean not long with Mark....however we get Rob Lowe, so I guess that's worth it.


Modern Family - Everyweek I feel a little bad for this show, cause it gets pushed to the back by all my 1 hour dramas, but I really do enjoy this show.



In Plain Sight - Still really enjoying this show....the one problem is that they had Allison Janney on so early, and now no other ep can live up to that! Steve Weber's ep was fun, but last weeks was a token slow ep. I'm sure it will be more fun when Josh Malina comes back....and we figure out what's going on with Brandi.


Private Practice - So glad Violet is finally back!....AND she wants Lucas!


LOST - ok....OMG! I know I had been thinking over the last few eps that they should start killing off the main characters early, cause no one would expect it....and then there was this weeks ep! They SHOT Kate!...which I guess means she won't be around too much longer....she was shot in the chest. Sun and Jin had a very sad exit, and Saiyd had a 'hero' moment - taking the bomb away and being blown up as a result. They also got rid of Lapedis we asssume....but no one really cares about him do they?! So we're left with Jack, Sawyer, Hurley and an injured Kate....oh and Claire and Flocke (faux Locke)....and Desmond...
-I have no idea how this is all gonna turn out, and what it has to do with these alternate world scenes.....but its gonna be AWESOME....and I'm guessing really really sad :(  Must remember tissues for the finale.
-Also ....can't wait for Allison Janney's ep. She's seriously going for TV domination this year!


Now...there was something Ness and I were trying to figure out the other day, recently we were watching a scene of something, where someone had a cup of coffee, emptied it out cause it was hot, filled it with water, and then threw it at someone.....and we haven't been able to place it. To me it sounds like it could have been, Gloria in Modern Family, Mary/Marshall in In Plain Sight, or Charlotte/Cooper in Private Practice. But then it could have also been from a movie....so maybe we'll never know.



Anyways...that's my TV-recap.

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-Carlie