No new Fringe tonight, so it shouldn't make sense that I'm talking about it at all right now. If nothing else, it's a nice chance to touch base on the events of last week's episode. It may not be as powerful a tearjerker, but it had the same emotional potency to it. The final act of the episode is a series of non-stop quality scenes. What I'm truly hoping for next season, and I'm sold on the point that there will be a fourth season, is a conclusion to this trilogy. I want to see how the Jacksonville drug trials ended, the death of Carla Warren and Walter's incarceration, Peter and Elizabeth's reaction to it, and I want to see Hailee Steinfeld play young Olivia. That would be perfect casting in my opinion. Don't you agree? In any case, here's something to satiate you until next week's episode. If you look carefully exactly at 1:15, you'll see a flash of Walter sitting right to... Hurley! Jorge Garcia on Fringe! This is the type of awesome that draws me into this show!
Two months into television broadcast season, we had received absolutely nothing of interest to fill the place in our hearts left empty by shows like Law and Order, 24, and Lost. Then came this zombie series by emotional-horror filmmaker Frank Darabont, and our life is beautiful once more. It took only one episode for us to be fully invested in the characters of this series, and the exact artistry of the narrative. After a rocky second episode, the show really found it's footing with the emotional powerhouse Tell it to the Frogs, and then became a possible successor to Mad Men with the shocking and disturbing Vatos. The ending did seem like a break from what we'd grown accustomed to, but it's more than admirable of Darabont and the writers to take such risks during the first season of a show. This season was gory, heartbreaking, heartwarming, funny, and outstandingly rated. It's a sign of better things to come.
4. Glee (The Substitute, A Very Glee Christmas)
Glee came back from the first half of it's season with what felt like a victory lap of nine episodes. They were taking their newly found fame and success to tell stories purely for the hell of it, and not quite coming out with the challenging episodes we wished they'd give us. Season 2 was a proper correction to that problem, though it wasn't at first. It took some time to fall into its stride as a full fledged series, and it came out victorious. The show is somewhat hit and miss, but mostly hit, and I'm fine with that. Many of the characters have their highs and lows, and the actors do a great with it, most notable Jane Lynch, Heather Morris, and Chris Colfer. It's just a bright and bubbly show that throws these characters through the hell that is high school, and that shows best in A Very Glee Christmas, which emphasizes how much of dreadful time the characters are having, but the joy the series always exudes. Although, a personal favorite of my will always be Gwyneth Paltrow's guest turn in The Substitute. Although, as I hear it, it may not be a one and done deal. Hint. Hint. Nudge. Nudge.
3. Lost (The Candidate, The End)
Quite a few shows ended their long term run this year, but the one I was most emotionally invested in was this gem from J.J. Abrams, and I didn't enter into the mythology until two days before the final season premiered. There have been mixed reactions in the aftermath of the finale, and I just don't get it. Were audiences really expecting answers to all the trivial and meaningless questions they made up along the way? What always appealed to me about the series was the characters and how almost every character death had a deep emotional meaning. On top of that, it's an epic scale story with deep moral undertones spanning across six seasons, which is something that hasn't really been attempted on television before. It opened the door for long narrative arc dramas like The Walking Dead. The finale was meant to give closure to the characters in an emotional way, and it pulled that off at maximum. The way they tied the "sideways world" storyline into the final season actually works perfectly as an ending to this series, and that final scene is immensely tear jerking. I stayed up late into the night to see how the series capped off, and I was devoted right until the very end. I didn't feel cheated.
2. Mad Men (The Suitcase, Hands and Knees)
I'll admit that I haven't gone back and seen the first three seasons of the hit drama Mad Men, and I just entered the fourth season with exuberance. The season was already half over, but putting the money into buying those previous episodes on iTunes was one of the greatest investments I've made in the past year. I love that this is a period drama on network television, and it's almost like if somebody took films like Revolutionary Road and adapted them into a television series. Jon Hamm was a revelation for me, and it's hard for me to believe that he's only reaching the peak of his talent now. He seems like a man who has been this great for years. Elizabeth Moss was originally just the girl from Get Him to the Greek, and she's one of the spunkiest and most likable characters on the show. Maybe I'm a little unfocused because this was my first season watching the show, but I caught it at a time when Fringe wasn't on the air, and I thought this may actually eclipse it as my favorite show on television. It's a meticulously designed and surprising story made in a high-quality manner deserving of an Oscar winning feature.
1. Fringe (Peter, Entrada, Marionette)
Unfortunately for Mad Men, when Fringe came back on the air, it became the best show on television, and I don't just mean that in a fanatical way. I've always loved Fringe, but this year took it to brand new heights emotionally and psychologically. Lets reach back into late Season 2, when the last eight episodes of the season were echoing through the internet with critics wishing the series was this good for entire season. The best of the lot was undoubtedly Peter, the flashback to when Walter did you-know-what, and that was the episode that had me continuously holding back tears for an entire hour. Then Season 3 came, and the critics' wishes for entire season of Peter-caliber episodes were granted. It started on a bang with the adrenaline-fueled Olivia, and then just kept going with episodes that emotionally expanded both universes. We were finally able to empathize not only with the other side, but with the seemingly emotionless shapeshifters. The last two episodes of the year delivered at an equal emotional level as Peter, with Entrada going the fast-paced route to resolve the Olivia-situation in truly cinematic fashion, and Marionette spending the proper time to dissect the aftermath of the scandal in a heartbreaking holding point for next year. Fringe moves to Fridays in January, and Fox has already given the series their vote of confidence in all ways possible. I can promise you confidently that the series will be back for season 4. It's a certainty.
Well, that was almost entirely predictable of them. The American Film Institute's Top 10 List almost exactly resembles my list of predictions for the Oscar for Best Picture, except that they have Black Swan in the place where I have Another Year. Nothing shocking, but still entirely agreeable. Now, what I don't agree with at all, is the television picks. I am heartbroken to see that three of my favorite shows did not make it onto this list: Fringe, Lost, and Cougar Town. I guess it makes sense to honor some show that's been on the air for only six weeks. Sure it's fantastic, but Fringe has done so much more. This is me being angry.
AFI MOVIES OF THE YEAR Black Swan The Fighter Inception The Kids Are All Right 127 Hours The Social Network The Town Toy Story 3 True Grit Winter's Bone
AFI TV PROGRAMS OF THE YEAR The Big C Boardwalk Empire Breaking Bad Glee Mad Men Modern Family The Pacific Temple Grandin 30 Rock The Walking Dead
AFI SPECIAL AWARDS The King's Speech Waiting for "Superman"
Man of Science, Man of Faith: This chapter of Lost is almost like two chapters rolled into one. The first half of this chapter deals with answering the question of what’s inside the hatch. This episode picks up where the last left off, except it’s told from a perspective inside of the hatch. There could’ve been many wild theories about what was inside the hatch, but in the end, something more deadly and dangerous than “the monster” and the consequences of not pushing the button, lied inside: Desmond.
There was a degree of mystery when the hatch blew open, and it almost felt like they were opening Pandora’s box, releasing the untold evil within. While thinking long and hard about it, Desmond was the closest thing to that. He’s not a bad or evil character, but by the end of the series, we know what he’s capable of. He’s the device that could save or destroy us all. We know that there's something important about Desmond from the beginning, seeing as he met Jack off the island years beforehand. It just takes a few more years to figure out what it is.
As for everything else in the episode, it’s pretty much dragging out the exploration into the hatch until the end of the episode. John and Kate have a nice conversation about how insane they may be. At this point in the series, John is afraid of just about nothing, and is just giddy with anticipation. He wants to get into the hatch, because he feels that everything the island did for him was to get him there. He has a lot further to go, but at least for now, he has faith. Then again, it leads to him getting a gun pointed at his head, so maybe it wasn't such a great idea after all.
Adrift: There’s a shark in the water, and Lost keeps it there so it can frequently jump it. The second episode of the season is quite a step down from the premiere, and I mostly blame that on the character it features: Michael. He’s one of my least favorite characters on this show, because he never does atone for being so irritating. His flashback offers us nothing that we didn’t already know, and it took away from his other flashback in Special. His constant bickering with Sawyer on the raft doesn’t make their predicament any more endearing.
The most interesting part of this episode is the time John and Kate spent within the hatch before Jack got down there. There’s a nice altercation where John gets out of being tied up by pointing out Kate as “the dangerous one”. We also get a little more of an idea of who Desmond is after the short peek we got at him in Man of Science, Man of Faith. It all ends the same, but it’s better than Mikey and James’ raft adventures. However, I will give duo’s screen-time one compliment. The ending with Jin running out of the jungle is one of the highlights of the episode, and opens things up for another aspect of the season.
Orientation: The events in the hatch come to a head through the lens of one of our more reliable characters, John Locke. We've known for a long time that John isn't the fearless leader we once thought him to be. He has problems like anybody else, and in most cases even worse. However, this episode really brings home the fact that Locke was not always a man of faith, and it took a long and depressing road through life to get where he is. The issue of science vs. faith has a direct line to the conflict, and though the button may just be a plot device, it's one that tests everything about the theory that John posed at the end of the last chapter.
Now that we're all the way into the hatch, we finally learn exactly what it is for. It's somewhat vague here, but the fundamental concept is that there's a button on a computer, and if it isn't pushed every 108 minutes, the world will end. Exactly how that works is never explained in the series, but my personal guess is that it makes "the source" take back all the "light" around the world, causing civilization to crumble. However, if you haven't seen the final season, you have absolutely no idea what that means. Jack thinks the button is pointless, and that it's just a mindless experiment.
Jack isn't ready to believe that everything happens for a reason, because so many of the things happening on the island seem to have no reason.Everything comes to a head merely minutes before the timer is about to hit zero, as John and Jack reach the climax of their argument. John knows that there is a part of Jack that believes that everything is true, and it's quite emotional to see John doing everything he can to get Jack to push the button. He's trying to get Jack to make that important leap of faith that he was almost unable to make. The ending puts things in place for the rest of the season to explore the hatch.
Everybody Hates Hugo: For a character that everybody loves so much, Hugo's flashback stories aren't all that compelling. They're kind of funny, but they don't ever seem necessary. His "conflicts" on the island aren't all that urgent either. He's now given the epic responsibility of dividing the Dharma food amongst the passengers of Oceanic 815, and he doesn't like being the man with all the power. It seems a bit stupid that everybody keeps turning on him. We get that Charlie is mostly there for comic relief, but could he not be so much of a jerk all the time? What can I say about this episode? It doesn't feel like it actually happened.
Abandoned: Finally, capping off this chapter of Lost, however much of a burn out it may have seemed, we learn a little bit more about Shannon. I have to admit that I sympathized with her flashback a lot more than I did with Boone's. Boone was actually really irritating when you think about it. His biggest dilemma was that he slept with his step-sister? I think we could've lived without that. However, this episode really redeems Shannon's attitude over the series so far. Then it kills her in a twist that is actually quite sad. This leads us into the second main factor of the season: The Tail-Section passengers.
Whatever The Case May Be: Leave it to a Kate-centric episode to drain your faith in a series. After a good run of spectacular episodes, Lost drifts into a more tedious and sluggish chapter of the series. It begins with this meaningless story about Kate and a team robbing a bank vault, for some reason that we will eventually realize. The main conflict of this episode is Kate and Sawyer fighting over who will get the titular briefcase. Only time will tell if it amounts to anything, but right now, it doesn’t.
Hearts and Minds: Once again, we have another episode where absolutely nothing happens to move the plot forward. Of all the background checks Lost has done, Boone and Shannon’s is one of the least interesting. We get that they’re both superficial twits, and the island storyline doesn’t do anything to aid that. It’s all just a fever trip of Boone’s influenced by Locke’s infamous island putty. So it’s not at all Lost’s finest hour.
Special: Things finally pick up a bit, and we finally learn the origins of Michael and Walt’s relationship. Michael has been one of those characters who are hard to get behind, because he seems so forceful and unreasonable. However, he’s had good reason to be. He lost his first chance at being a father, but now he gets another chance on this island. We finally get another threat to one of our characters, and it’s brilliant to see the father-son team finally coming together. Still, I have absolutely no clue why Walt is so special.
Homecoming: After watching this episode, I kept asking myself why the producers of Lost didn’t think so fondly of it. Events move forward dramatically, and we get closure to a suspended plot string of the series. Then again, there are plenty of flaws to this episode. Claire’s sudden loss of memory does seem unnecessary, as she acts completely the same. However, we get some more character building flashbacks for Charlie, and the action picks up and leads to final standoff between Jack and Ethan. Still,
how did Charlie get a gun?
Outlaws: Sawyer is back, and we finally learn exactly why he was in Australia, and what he did there. It’s somewhat satisfying and infuriating when more happens in the flashback than on the island. Sawyer looks for revenge on the boar that stole his tarp, while in the flashback, Sawyer seeks revenge on the man who killed his father. This leads to a surprise encounter with Jack’s father Christian, who Sawyer meets in a bar. Eventually we’ll learn just how many people Christian came in contact with.
In Translation: After looking at how controlling Jin has seemed over the past sixteen episodes, one response has emerged as the majority: Dick! However, as they did with Michael, we finally get to sympathize with his character. This is mostly a companion piece to House of the Rising Sun, except so much more happens here. There is another conflict with Michael and Jin, and somebody does learn that Sun speaks English. Unfortunately, that somebody is Jin. I always enjoyed Jin as a character more than Sun, and this episode is one of the reasons why.
Numbers: There’s been quite a lot of brooding going on, and nothing much has come of it. Nothing much comes of this episode, but it’s still a sprightly change of pace for the series, and I quite enjoyed the dark comedy of Hurley’s predicament. He’s one of the most lovable characters on this show, despite the fact that he might get some of our favorite characters killed. Of course, there’s the main plot line of returning to Danielle to retrieve a battery. There’s some nice emotional play between Hurley and Rousseau at the end, and it really ties everything up nicely. Then, that sight of the hatch as the end adds another layer of mystery onto the island.
Deus Ex Machina: Closing out another slow chapter of Lost is our second look into the pre-island life of John Locke. We do not learn exactly how he got in that wheelchair, a story better left for another time, but we find out that he wasn’t always in one. We learn of Locke’s father, who’s been hinted at in previous episodes, but not elaborated on until now. For so long we’ve seen John being the guiding force for our castaways, going bravely into the night to save our group. Now, we see him, for the first time, afraid and alone.
We get some comic relief in this episode, mainly surrounding Sawyer suddenly figuring out he’s farsighted. However, the main plot of this episode remains the same. We get our first look into John Locke’s head, and he sees some messed up things. It’s a miserable life he leads, and things are about to get worst. With Boone’s death, anger and distrust is on the horizon for our characters. The next chapter will undoubtedly shatter Locke’s position as the savior of our castaways, as this episode shattered the facade of Locke being a fearless leader.
I know I've said this before, but one of the greatest tools that Christopher Nolan (Inception, Memento) uses in his movies is the decision to tell it outside of chronological order. Of all the programs on television, Lost is the only one to take full advantage of it in a way that suits the grand scale of the story. For a series most commonly known for its mysteries, what struck me from these first five episodes is how powerful it is on an emotional level. There's a definite focus on specific characters, but it's really about the ensemble.
1 + 2.Pilot:The two part debut sells the epic nature of the story, opening with a mad dash across the plane wreckage as we get a look at some of the characters we're about to spend six seasons with. Even though we know who is going to live, there still remains a sense that anything can happen here. As the wing of the plane threatens to crash on top of Hugo and a pregnant Claire, all those terrifying possibilities come back. It's still unbelievable that after falling thousands of feet and evading all those explosions, Claire's baby is still unharmed.
A few ongoing mysteries such as the monster, the polar bears, and the french woman are set up in this episode, as if the island itself wasn't enough of a mystery. The thing that makes this premiere great is that it isn't necessarily thinking about the journey the characters are going to take in the next few years. There isn't anything obviously science fiction or fantasy about the series. So far, it's just a story about people who get stuck on an island they can't get away from. However, if the plot just stayed that way, the series wouldn't have made it past season 2.
3. Tabula Rasa: The second episodes of a series tend to lack the same power as the first, and this is no exception. This one is really picking up all the strings left over from the pilot, and it decides to focus on one of the weaker characters of the show, but one that we couldn't live without. The question of whether or not Kate Austen can be trusted is handled pretty well in this episode. Handing the gun to her makes everything a bit more tense. Then we get a sigh of relief when we reveal that Kate isn't so bad after all. However, we do get confirmation that Sawyer may be the most dangerous member of the group.
4. Walkabout: Of the first five episodes, this is the one that people remember the most, as it focuses on what may be the greatest character Lost put together, John Locke. Locke's miracle, which was hinted at in the previous episodes, was finally revealed, and no matter how many times you see that final scene, it never ceases to be as beautiful. This was also the first episode that hinted at the supernatural nature of the series, and it's handled with subtlety, as to make sure that people don't make too much of the occurance. John Locke is only part of the story, as we get updates on Rose, Sayid, and others, which all go towards making this show work with the entire ensemble. Never let anybody completely fade from view.
5. White Rabbit: We've been getting to know Jack as the main character of the story, as he's the one we see right out of the gate, he's the one who does the most to help everybody, and we now get to know where the man is coming from. Jack's off island story arc follows his relationship with his father, and how that's really shaped who he is. His on island story involves him chasing his dead father through the jungle and eventually finding water. This leads to our first conversation between Jack and Locke, and it comes at a point in which nobody thinks that John is insane yet, so it's nice to see the two talking with equal respect for each other. Ultimately this episode closes the first chapter of Lost, with Jack taking the leadership role in the group.
Hopefully, these weeks spent watching Lost from the beginning won't be wasteful, as so far it seems like a really interesting and powerful story. These first few episodes really feel like the opening of a movie or the first chapter of a great book. It's not going to deliver everything at once, and I understand that. I'll tune in next week with my analysis of episodes 6-10. I've embedded the fourth episode of the series, Walkabout, below for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!
make sense that I'm talking about it at all right now. If nothing else, it's a nice chance to touch base on the events of last week's episode. It may not be as powerful a tearjerker, but it had the same emotional potency to it. The final act of the episode is a series of non-stop quality scenes. What I'm truly hoping for next season, and I'm sold on the point that there will be a fourth season, is a conclusion to this trilogy. I want to see how the Jacksonville drug trials ended, the death of Carla Warren and Walter's incarceration, Peter and Elizabeth's reaction to it, and I want to see Hailee Steinfeld play young Olivia. That would be perfect casting in my opinion. Don't you agree? In any case, here's something to satiate you until next week's episode. If you look carefully exactly at 1:15, you'll see a flash of Walter sitting right to... Hurley! Jorge Garcia on Fringe! This is the type of awesome that draws me into this show!
make sense that I'm talking about it at all right now. If nothing else, it's a nice chance to touch base on the events of last week's episode. It may not be as powerful a tearjerker, but it had the same emotional potency to it. The final act of the episode is a series of non-stop quality scenes. What I'm truly hoping for next season, and I'm sold on the point that there will be a fourth season, is a conclusion to this trilogy. I want to see how the Jacksonville drug trials ended, the death of Carla Warren and Walter's incarceration, Peter and Elizabeth's reaction to it, and I want to see Hailee Steinfeld play young Olivia. That would be perfect casting in my opinion. Don't you agree? In any case, here's something to satiate you until next week's episode. If you look carefully exactly at 1:15, you'll see a flash of Walter sitting right to... Hurley! Jorge Garcia on Fringe! This is the type of awesome that draws me into this show!
