LOST questions

(Okay, so it's an older image. It just happened to feature eye candy front and center, plus Miles and Daniel.)

Over at EW.com, Doc Jensen has his review up of 'Some Like it Hoth'. There is a good reason why I don't do and will probably never touch trying to recap this show: He does it beautifully. Somehow he manages to ask all the right questions and give me a spring board for coming up with my own theories. I've linked you above to one of his theories in particular, but for the lazy clickers out there, I'll give you the quote:

Hurley tried to bond with Miles over their respective abilities to speak with
the dead, but snooty Straume believed his power was more impressively nuanced.
''You're just jealous my power is cooler than yours,'' Hurley replied.
CONSPICUOUS DETAIL — BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Alright, so here's what I think. I think that the dead people Hurley sees (by my count that would be Charlie, Mr. Eko, Ana Lucia and Dave) are Smokey himself. For some reason the monster is shifting himself into those people, but for what? Why was he/it trying to help Hurley? Or was it? The reason I bring up Dave is because of the speculation I had way back in the day that Dave was Libby's dead husband. (You know, the one who had the boat which she gave to Desmond.)

If you can explain to me where I was going that, I'd be very grateful. All I know for sure is that the time Hurley was seeing Dave, Libby was in the nuthouse too, and then Libby and Dave were both on the island.

What are some of your more 'far out' ideas? Anyone have any speculation they want to share? Leave me comments, and I'll address your theories in my next post!

Well, balls in your court, NBC

It seems to me that NBC doesn't actually care about ever being a reputable network again. First, they get rid of an hour of weeknight programming by putting Jay Leno on at 10/9 central. Does anyone actually want to see this guy at nine p.m.? Does anyone want to keep seeing him at all? You didn't see Johnny Carson crying for more air time when his time came to pass the torch. This is not how you slip into retirement, Leno. And how is the show even going to be any different? He's screwing Conan by getting all the good guests on his show so that Conan gets the leftovers. It's lame and I'm honestly hoping that it crash and burns. (Actually, if its ratings suck but the show stays on the air, it will prove once and for all that all the network cares about is money.)

Then, NBC decides to cancel Kings which is a damn shame because it's a brilliant show. I get that enough people aren't watching it but come on! You're airing it on Friday and now you're moving it to fucking SATURDAY.

I'm sorry, I don't normally curse like this in my blog but I can't even understand that network anymore. I'm pretty sure trained monkeys are making the decisions up there - it certainly isn't Jack Donaghy, is it?

Am I the only one?

Am I the only one, or did other people appreciate the U.S. remake of Life on Mars?

Maybe I'm biased here. Maybe it's because I never saw the British version of the show so I'm not jaded, but I loved this show. Well, maybe loved is too strong. But I greately enjoyed it, especially after LOST when my brain was already leaking from all the time travel theories flying around. I felt emotionally connected to the characters too, especially during the second to last episode 'Everyone Knows It's Wendy'. Why don't more people watch shows like this? Why do people keep watching Two and a Half Men? Why didn't more people watch Battlestar Galactica? LIFE'S MYSTERYS GUYS.

Am I the only one, or does American Idol truly suck now?

Back when the show first started and Kelly Clarkson was the winner, I don't think I'd even heard of this show. I didn't care and I didn't start caring until the third season. So, then I tuned in once we got past the auditions and down to the top six or so. Many people told me that I was missing something precious called audition week, so last year was the first year I actually watched the entire season. And you know, I wasn't disappointed. I liked David Cook well enough and there was actual talent. This year...this year I stopped. I haven't watched since Adam Lambert killed Ring of Fire. I have this gut feeling that if Johnny Cash weren't dead, he would have contemplated suicide. And Danny Gokey? Are you kidding me with this? And the blind guy? America, are you trying to tell me that all I need is some terrible sob story and I can get anything I want? There is no one this show this season that actually deserves to be called an American Idol. Watching for Paula's whacked out behavior used to be enough but not anymore. Now I actually understand why she's whacked out all the time.

Am I the only one, or are you tired of the Sarah/Chuck UST/angst on Chuck?

I understand. I get it it. The whole show is based on this pairing but it is beyond the point of beating a dead horse. The dead horse has been flogged over and over again and is ready to be put into the dehydrater to be made into horse jerky. I would much rather see the characters be quirky and fun than watch Mr. Bartwoski pine for the woman he apparently can't have or Captain Awesome and Ellie work out their insecurities. I stopped watching the show about three weeks before the super bowl and last week thought I would tune in (only because Tricia Helfer was guest starring). Within ten to fifteen minutes I was reminded why I stopped watching. Between Ellie crying over Awesome because he does what most guys do at their bachelor party, and Sarah throwing eye daggers and Tricia Helfer's character (who was sent in because it's starting to become obvious ONLY NOW to everyone that Sarah has feelings for Chuck) I was done by the halfway mark. Sorry, Chuck. I know that at times it can be cute but I'm over the romance part of it.

The only thing I learned from BSG was how to be an alcoholic

I have been trying to write something that can properly express how important Battlestar Galactica has been to me and no matter what, it always comes out sounding a little bit pathetic. That doesn’t matter to me, not really, I just want to write something more coherent than ‘OH GOD I LOVE THIS SHOW WHY IS IT ENDING?!’ Trust me, it would be easy to do, and I have been on my Livejournal. Here though, I want to try and explain how I ended up loving this show and why it has made such an impact.

Even though I would love for people to think I’ve been watching this show since the mini-series aired back in 2003, I have to be honest: I had no clue about this show or what it was even in the 80s. That’s how much I dislike the sci-fi genre. I’ve never seen an entire Star Wars movie completely through, I only saw Star Trek once when Whoopi Goldberg was a part of the cast and…honestly, I think the closest I ever came to sci-fi was the Power Rangers when Rita lived in space. When someone handed me a copy of the mini-series DVD in the summer of 2006, I waited until about the end of September to actually watch it. Actually making the time to want to sit still through some stupid outer space show was so not my cup of tea. I started watching, IMing snide remarks to a friend about how slow it was already, and then Six walked on screen, snapped an infant’s neck, and my away message went up, saying something to the effect of: ‘holy shit what am I watching?’

Lucky for me, season three had just started when I finished the mini-series. So when ‘Exodus Part 2’ aired, I watched and of course had no idea what was going on. I just remember incredibly vividly how intense it was to watch Galactica jump into New Caprica’s atmosphere and watch those Vipers launch. Talk about edge of your seat, folks. After an intense watching of seasons one and two and the downloading of the first two season three episodes I missed, by the time the next new episode happened? I was all caught up. Honestly I’m not sure how I did it, and I don’t remember doing it. My commitment to the show was that intense after seeing what I had. It then became my mission to convince everyone I knew that this show was for everyone, not just the people who love sci-fi. I was a smoker back then, and while watching the episode ‘33’ I think I went through an entire pack. Then I did the same thing when I got to ‘Epiphanies’. By the time ‘Taking A Break From All Your Worries’ came around I was a full fledged alcoholic.

Somehow, I managed to convince my dad to watch this show. And by ‘convince’, I mean he couldn’t walk due to a recent surgery and therefore could not prevent me from loading the DVD and forcing him to watch it. He yelled just as loud as I had that he would hate it, and then he was hooked as well. I think for him it was the smut within twenty minutes of the show starting but you know; to each their own. It became a tradition for the two of us at that point to watch the show together, and to date has been one of the only things we can debate about and not get all huffy over. Except when he told me that Adama just wanted to get laid on New Caprica and that he didn’t really care about Laura at all. We did argue over that; oh yes. My brother has been a more casual viewer in that when he watches, it’s once a season or if I’m having a marathon. He loves what he sees but has the attention span of Gaius Baltar, so it’s pretty pointless to corral him into the living room on Friday nights. I’ve recapped this show for a while now in one forum or another and that, combined with watching with my dad has been a tradition for so long that I’m not sure what I’m going to do come Friday the 27th. I’m almost positive I’ll be curled up in a ball on the floor suffering from withdrawals.

This show, for me, hasn’t simply been about who is paired together, or not being able to wait and see what struggle the fleet is going to be hit with next. That stuff is interesting yes, but I am so invested in the human story and emotion; the cylon’s story of life and creation; death and destruction. I need to know how Adama is going to eventually break down. It’s been scary to see him deteriorate from stoic leader to a man slowly losing everything and at the end of his rope. It has absolutely made my heart ache to see Caprica Six finally grow and learn what it truly means to have human emotion only to lose her child and the man she loves. (Because it certainly doesn’t seem like Tigh stuck around after the death of Liam.) It’s those personal story lines that I have to see resolved before the end of the show. Most importantly (for me) will be knowing where they all end up. There are only two possible scenarios in my mind: They all jump back to Kobol or New Caprica (but let’s go with Kobol since it didn’t look like a craphole) because those are the two planets that haven’t been nuked, or they all die. That’s all I can come up with in my head and it’s making my stomach twist up in knots just thinking about it. I’m trying to come to terms with Laura’s death; even though we may not see it. Even though it may not even happen at this point. Let’s face it, if they don’t show her death I’m going to pretend a magical unicorn cured her. And if she dies? Well, I’ll give out the directions to the shiva later.

I can’t explain anymore how important this show is to me by being serious, so let me give some examples. If I had the choice between watching a new episode of this show for one hour and going on an all expenses paid trip to Disney World? I’d watch the new hour. (Let’s pretend that I have no DVR for these scenarios.) If my friends wanted to go out and celebrate a sudden surge in the economy and a new episode of BSG was on? Sorry friends, I’ve got more important things to do. I suppose one good thing about the show ending will be the resurgence of my social life on Friday nights. In trying to come up with a way to cope, I’ve even formed crossover ideas. Here’s my favorite pitch: Galactica is using one of the few jumps it has left before it falls apart. The island on LOST is also jumping through time and it just so happens that Galactica jumps at a time the island is having one of its flashy moments. The crew crash lands and the island cures Laura’s cancer. It turns out the Oceanic Six are the important ones because they are the descendants of the Final Five Cylons. Laura and Bill become King and Queen of the island, they adopt Ben and Daniel, Jack cries a million tears after becoming part of the Lee/Kara/Anders affair, and Kate gets tossed out of an airlock. I like my idea.

It has been a blast and an honor talking about this show so often and recapping it over at The Two Cents.com. I’ve honestly not had a better time with any show, even my first real love, The X-Files. Battlestar Galactica trumps all in the end, and I suspect it always will. Until twenty five years go by and Bodie Olmos plays Adama, the kid who played Boxy plays Lee, and Amy Adams plays Laura Roslin.

So say we all.

Internet - make my life decisions for me, please.

So, I have a question for all of you. I'm letting my T.V. Guide subscription lapse. I think the writing is blase and very childish; besides that anything I need to know I can get on the internet without paying a subscription fee. I honestly don't even know why I thought I needed a subscription anyway, but I do have to say that I'm glad it didn't lapse before I got the Battlestar Galactica collector's edition. I'm also letting my O magazine subscription lapse. Mostly because I've found that for a magazine geared towards Oprah's watchers who are not insanely rich, there's a whole lot of shit in there I can't afford. Also, I'm not a hip young soccer mom and I have not reached the age where I find my aha! moment. So, whatever Oprah. Your magazine does not cater to me.

Anyway, all of this to say I'd like to subscribe to something else. I have a subscription to EW that I will not let go of until the day I die and even then, I'll probably be paid so far in advance that issues are delivered to the nursing home where I died. My question is, what should I subscribe to in place of O and T.V. Guide? I could go with People, and I do enjoy that magazine but if there's something even better, well then, I'd love to know it. And I don't want a subscription to Star or US Weekly or any of that stuff - I have Oh No They Didn't for that. So what should it be? I'm even willing to look at online magazines if they have good material.

Enlighten me, internet. I'm counting on you!

(Also, keep in mind that I am a t.v. fan so it's a huge plus if the magazine is somehow television related.)

Lost speculation!

In which I argue

Can I share with you three things I noticed about the Battlestar Galactica mini-series right quick? Then I promise we'll get to the meat and potatoes of my post:

Number one (and this is nit-picky of me): Tigh pronounces Gaeta’s name ‘Guy-tuh’. I could chalk this up to the show being new, but only the character of Tigh says his name this way. So it makes me wonder if Michael Hogan just couldn’t say Gaeta at the time. This is kind of the same deal with how Ron Moore says Kara’s name. Every single person on the show pronounces it one way, and he’s off in his own verse calling her Car-uh. I don’t get it – it’s his show, he could get everyone to pronounce it any way he wants.

Number two: This is my own personal happy moment, but every single time Adama and Laura bickered, and especially during their talk about running and having babies, I couldn’t help but think about how far this relationship has come. It has easily been one of the most natural progressions of a relationship I think I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t a rushed ‘hey let’s get together because it’s the end of the world’ thing. They hated each other for a minute, then started to like each other, and then the respect reached an all time high after New Caprica. Or maybe during New Caprica; we’ll never really know because all we ever got to see was the pair getting high. (I’m still bitter about not getting a reunion between them after the exodus, but I digress.)

Number three: The mini-series is shot in a way that is unique from the rest of the series. Now when I watch the show, it has dark undertones (because this is the most depressing show on television, maybe?) but watching the mini series it seems that the lighting is much better. The footage however, seems grainy, as if someone put a scratch texture over the camera lens. Has anyone else noticed that or is my DVD just playing tricks on me?

Recently, a mutual friend posted on her Livejournal 12 Reasons You Have to Watch BSG. I normally don’t advocate telling people they have to do something (hypocrite; see my post on 30 Rock and Mad Men) but there are a few things that were brought up within the comments of that post that I wanted to address here. Mostly because I never got a response from the people I questioned, but more over because I’m planning my own farewell post on the best and worst aspects of Galactica at the end of March. I have not linked back to the Livejournal post because I don’t want any specific user to feel ganged up on, and two, I don’t want the particular journal to suddenly be flooded with comments. These are simply my views and how I feel about some of the points made against the show.

One of the ‘points against BSG’ was the fact that it was an actual sci-fi show. I hate to break it to you, but I’m not sure what you thought a show called Battlestar Galactica would be about. I didn’t love the show right away; in fact someone had to force me to watch the mini series in 2006. I’ll tell you the exact moment I was hooked: As soon as Adama made the speech that [they] were at war. Admittedly the mini-series is long and it feels like it takes an extremely long time to get to that point, but once the Cylons actually attack it’s a roller coaster ride to the end. The final reveal that Sharon is a cylon just about threw me on the floor. The next day, I bought seasons one and two on DVD and got caught up just in time to start watching season three live.

Another point against watching the show was that ‘it has not satisfactorily ideal couples’ because love interests are swapped. For example: Dee/Billy/Lee, Lee/Kara/Anders…and you know what? I have no argument for that. It’s really not my favorite part of the show. I get that Lee and Kara are both messed up but really, please commit already. I’m not even counting Gaius as one of the people in this argument because it’s been pretty firmly established that he’s a whore. So, points go to you argumentative person. However, I don’t think the romance factor is a reason to throw in the towel on the whole show. If it were, I would have stopped watching when Billy was killed.

The fact that a reason against the show was ‘there are too many young and pretty actors’ to make it watchable proved to me that the person clearly has not been shown one single episode of the show and/or lives in a bubble. ‘Young’ definitely does not describe Mary McDonnell, Edward James Olmos, and Michael Hogan. And while Mary McDonnell is drop dead gorgeous, Edward James Olmos is not exactly ‘pretty’. I mean, I love that man to pieces and personally find him incredibly sexy, but these are the leads of the show; actors in their fifties and sixties respectively. I believe the person is probably referring to Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, Jamie Bamber, etc. when talking about ‘young and pretty’, but I don’t even understand why this would be something negative. Every show on television features ‘pretty’ people because we like looking at pretty people. Is that narcissistic of us as a species? Oh yes, you’re damn right it is. But I challenge you to find a show that doesn’t feature pretty, if not an all young cast. Please.

The show being liked by too many people on the internet made the list too, and I just sat in confusion looking at the screen. Is that a back handed compliment? Is someone trying to say that people on the internet have no taste and could therefore not watch a show that is intelligent? Or is someone trying to say that so many people like the show that there’s no way it could actually be that good? You know what? I’d love for someone to explain how people on the internet liking something is a bad thing.

The last argument worth mentioning was that the commenter doesn’t like the plot device of surprise pregnancies. Well, seeing as how one of the Cylon’s goals is reproduction, I’d say a surprise pregnancy or two is probably understood? I mean, I’m going out on a limb here…but it’s not as if Laura Roslin is going to pop into Adama’s quarters waving a pregnancy stick and demanding Maury Povich.

I know this has turned into a long winded post, but the point is: You can find something wrong with any single show on the planet if you look hard enough. Of course you as a viewer know what you do and do not like and I can respect that. But how - how - can you know if you’ll like or loathe something unless you give it a chance? That’s my biggest pet peeve; never making an actual informed decision about something. If you do decide to take a crack at the show, I suggest you start with the season one episode ‘33’. It explains the war, it gives you a good background on the characters, and is one of those ‘edge of your seat’ episodes. If you still refuse to at least try the show on for size, then that’s your prerogative, of course. We’ll just keep this television prize-winner all to ourselves.