LOST and Comics

If you are fan of LOST you will remember the season 4 episode "Cabin Fever". In this episode Richard Alpert shows up at the child John Locke's foster home to present him with several items to choose from that are "his already". One of the items is the March 1956 Atlas(Marvel)comic Mystery Tales 40. The "Hidden Land" is a four page story with the most obvious similarity to LOST being that Fred Phipps, the story's protagonist, works as a bookkeeper as did Locke.

Comics are one of the major influences on the LOST producers particularly Damon Lindelof who called Watchmen "the greatest piece of popular fiction ever produced". Producer/writer Brian K. Vaughan, who is best known for his works in the field of comics (writing the excellent "Runaways"), cited Watchmen as "definitely" the inspiration for his start as a writer. Javier Grillo-Marxuach, writer/producer in Seasons 1 and 2, has stated that Watchmen "was a topic of much discussion among those of us in the writers’ room who were comics-minded." Quoting Damon: “The Watchman” influenced me by telling a story out of order with flashbacks to explore the universe. And how — to know these four characters — you need to know about these six as well, and how they seem to not come together, but they do. We kept that in mind when creating the “Lost” universe. We learned that people will swallow a tremendous amount of story if it’s fed to them the right way."

What lies in the shadow of the statue?

The answer: "Ille qui nos omnes servabit" ("He who will protect/save us all"). If you have been a faithful fan of the LOST television series you were rewarded with a rather satisfying and mind blowing treat in the season 5 finale: "The Incident". I just re-watched the two hour episode and with it now fresh in my mind I want to explore a few thoughts.

The direction and musical score by Jack Bender and Michael Giacchino are right up at the top of anything ever done on television. The cinematic and epic feel they bring demands that this show be watched in 5.1 HD widescreen format.

In the opening sequence we finally meet the ethereal always present but never seen Jacob. He is joined by the unnamed man in black who asks Jacob if he knows; "...how much I want to kill you"; to which Jacob replies; "Yes". It implies that they have been adversaries for a long time. The eternal struggle of good versus evil, free will and choice vs predestination or fate, light vs dark. These are the common themes in the book "The Stand" which Darlton have both said they are fans of. The man in black would obviously reference the "Dark Man" from "The Stand" and probably also Darth Vader from Star Wars.

It also rather obviously implies that Jacob's adversary is the malevolent black smoke monster.

The next big reveal is that we get a full side on view of the four toed statue which ABC has claimed is the Egyptian goddess of fertility Tawaret.

We got an earlier view of the back of the statue from the episode "LaFleur". Is it just the different angles or is this a different statue because from the back it looks like the legs are separated with the right leg forward whereas from the side view the legs look together with the left leg and foot slightly forward.

The last and biggest reveal is when we find out that the Locke that has been leading "The Others" on an expedition to find and kill Jacob is his adversary: the man in black. The real Locke's body has still been in his casket which has been dumped out onto the sand for everyone to see.

Carlton Cuse said in the last podcast of the season that there hasn't been enough clues presented for fans to really make a close guess as what the end game for LOST is. He said the final episode of season five would do that. Ummm...I still don't have a clue. I am sticking with my original guess that we are dealing with the Lost City of Atlantis. Season 5 ends with the detonation of a hydrogen bomb and another white out. We will have to wait nine months to find out what happened to our LOST family and what happens next for them. The build up and hype for the 6th and final season is going to be amazing.

In the next post I'm going to get into the movies, TV shows, and Comics which have influenced the LOST executive producers and writers.

Finale's and Beginnings

The new Star Trek movie (for the non trekkies) is a reboot of the original series and it's terrific. I got a lump in my throat several times in the film because it brought back for me the wonderment I had when the show first came on in the 60's. The casting is excellent and while the principal roles of the cast resemble those on the original series (Captain Kirk, Spock, and McCoy), it's even more fun that Chekov, Scotty, Sulu, and Uhura are played by actors who resemble the originals very little. Not too long after we meet "Bones" McCoy we get a parody of Karl Urban rapidly arching his right eyebrow. I thought this was pretty funny and obviously a wink to the audience.

It was a brilliant move by JJ Abrams to make a prequel to the original series because it allows the new actors playing very familiar characters to grow on the audience and make the 21st century telling of Star Trek their own. This is a very good summer movie standing on it's own even without the luxury of having a built in audience champing at the bit to see it.

As far as finale's, "Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles" on Fox had it's season ending episode in April. I found out today that it was the series ender also, as Fox has canceled it. So Fox cancels a good series with a great cast and renews the execrable "Dollhouse". "Dollhouse" is a mess of a show and unwatchable save for the Eliza Dushku eye candy. I'd love to know what goes on behind the scenes that makes TV execs do the inexplicable things they do.

Other finale's:
Lost A+ Wow! Just wow
Desperate Housewives C -- this show is becoming stale and way too predictable.
The Office A -- Pam is preggers? The producers of the British "Office" admit that this American version is better than the original.
Chuck B -- I thought about giving this show up a time or two but it's generally a fun hour. Not too sure they can keep dragging out the same plots for a successful third season.
Supernatural A -- One of the best shows on TV period. Consistently puts out a solid hour week after week. If you aren't watching or DVRing this, you really should be.
The Mentalist A+ The best new show of the season and it ended the way it began with a "Red John" episode. "The Mentalist" takes on a totally different tone with the "Red John" episodes. The majority of the episodes are lighter and with lots of humor. It's like "Monk" without all the obsessive compulsive behavior and phobias. This last episode of the season was wrought with tension and Simon Baker's portrayal of the man who is hell bent (with good reason I might add) on catching Red John gives a stellar performance. "Red John" won't be overplayed and the producers have said that we won't find out who he is until the last episode of the series. Let's hope that won't be for a while yet.

LOST

I get my weekly fix of the TV show LOST tonight. This season is just slammin for the devotees of the show. LOST hasn't had a dud episode yet this season. It has been chock full of revelations, new twists and turns, not to mention great acting except for the outrageously hambone performances of Fionnula Flanagan as Mrs. Hawkings. It's sad that a lot of the people who were hooked the first season fell by the wayside in season two and three as the show meandered along with trying not to run out of ideas. The problem was that trying to run as a continuing series until who knows when wasn't working for the concept behind LOST. Now with a finite end to LOST, as next season will be the final season, the ones who have hung in there are being handsomely rewarded. Many of those folks who initially watched faithfully every week and gave up on it like my wife, now find the show inaccessible because the don't know what is going on. Well too bad for them I guess unless they buy the DVD's. That wouldn't be a bad idea though to watch the episodes in succession where you can remember all the character's back stories, flash forwards, time jumps, and all the easter eggs that are fun to look for.

I'm not going to try and catch anyone up here because there are other blogs that are dedicated to doing that all the time. If you are a LOST fan you must read three sites without fail. The first one is Nik At Nite. Nikki catches all the little details that I usually miss and breaks it all down. Then she discusses it all with other fans who read her blog. She rewatches it and has updates with anything else that we might have missed. The 2nd site is Lostpedia.com. Everything you wanted to know about LOST but were afraid to ask. The 3rd essential LOST guru you have to read is Jeff Jensen and his weekly columns at EW.com. He goes by Doc Jensen. Why? Beats the heck outta me. Anyway he researches all the obscure literary references that the LOST writers drop on the viewers. He gets a little whacked out with his existential theories and whatnot but it's always entertaining, plus he has interviews with the producers and actors to try and get spoilers. Not major spoilers. They're more like little teases.

Speaking of teasers, here's one on tonight's episode.