Monday, May 24, 2010

Lost, Series Finale. So much crying.

So, Lost ended, and I sobbed. I, for one, found the series finale to be pretty satisfying. I don't think any television show could actually hold up to the kind of scrutiny Lost fans will be putting the finale, though I can certainly see that it all doesn't fit together quite perfectly. But saying that, there was mostly greatness going on last night, especially with the character beats/emotional moments. We'll get to that in a minute, but FIRST, let's talk about what mysteries the show actually solved for us and where it left us hanging. (I think that the big stuff has pretty much been revealed, but leave your biggest Lost questions in the comments if you disagree!)

What is answered:

What is the Island anyway?
This one, in my opinion was made fairly clear in the show and stated explicitly in these leaked pages from the script. It's a cork keeping the world out of hell. So it's pretty damn important.

What was up with the Dharma Initiative?
It totally baffles me that people still ask this question. They were a research group studying the Islands unique properties. They were sort of weird, but mostly in a human, explainable way.

Why can't ladies have babies on the Island?
Because of "The Incident", whether that incident was the electromagnetic even caused by Dharma's drilling or the hydrogen bomb set off by Juliet. Ethan was the last child born on the island, not long before this.

What was up with The Others? Why did they do such weird and awful things?
Hmm a group of the faithful doing awful things in the name of a peaceful dude? Weird, that never happens.

Why does Jacob bring people to the island?
Because the Smoke Monster wants to kill him, and he needs to find someone to replace him.

Why them?
Their lives sucked. They were, well, lost.

What happens when the Smoke Monster leaves the island?
I think he needs the light to be out to leave the island, so pretty much, the world gets sucked into hell.

Questions where they left us hanging:

A lot of the purgatory world.
I think there a lot of weird things going on over there in purgatory world (Why did Jack have a son? With Juliet? Since when did Christian Shepard get so great that he leads people into heaven? Where did Faraday, Miles, et all end up?) but I think most of it is kind of purposely left open for interpretation. I get why that annoys some people, but it doesn't annoy me. (Jack had a son to work out his daddy issues, Christian spent time in the purgatory world redeeming himself, Faraday passed through with his family, etc.) and as a subset to this:

What was the deal with the shot of the Island being sunk in the beginning of this season?
Maybe there's no hell in purgatory world so no need for the island? But we know Ben and his dad at least remember the island existing in that world so...is that a false memory? Are they only living the time loop from 815 landing to going to heaven, and the rest is just fake memories? Or did they actually live these lifetimes in this world getting ready to move on? And if the second one is true, what happened to the island?


Waaaaaaalt!
Okay, it was a mistake. Casting a kid on the cusp of puberty to play someone the same age for years on end was a mistake. I get why people want to know about Walt, but I guess I am cool with it because he isn't the only character on the show to have unexplained magical powers. Hurley can see and talk to dead people. Miles can hear the thoughts of corpses. Jacob can make people immortal. We never saw the origin of any of those powers, and I am satisfied to say that Walt had some supernatural abilities, and he was trying to use them help his friends on the island.

"Raised by another"
Aaron seemed fine being raised by Kate. Maybe Claire's mom just paid that psychic to convince her not to give up her baby for adoption or something.

The numbers.

How did the lighthouse numbers end up in so many places? How did the Dharma people get them? I guess they didn't mean anything more than the degrees on the mirror in the lighthouse. We did win at Keno playing them on Saturday night though, so I think they must mean something.

What's the deal with the four toed statue? Who built it?
Jacob maybe? I don't even really have a theory for this one.

Time travel?
Narrative-wise I think the time travel story was enormously successful. It explained a lot about Dharma, Widmore, Ben's origins and gave us Sawyer/Juliet. I still don't really get why the Island time traveled though. Or why it stopped. The time travel thing seemed so important in Season 5, and even though I think it delivered in a lot of ways, it seemed not to mean much this season.

Did the hydrogen bomb make the purgatory world thing?
And if so...huh?

Libby.
Some people really want to know more about Libby, why she was in the mental institution with Hurley and why did she give Desmond the boat. I am not one of those people.

What happened to everybody not dead?! (before they were dead)
Did Desmond get home? Did Kate, Sawyer, Claire, Miles, Lapidus and Richard make it?! Did Kate and Claire raise Aaron together? Did Desmond and Penny get another awesome reunion that I was deprived of? What did Hurley and Ben do on the Island after everyone left? How long were they on there for? Is Ji-Yeon still super cute? I of course know they did this on purpose, but still, I want to know.

So there are questions unanswered, plot holes that can only be filled with crazy theories and narrative threads dropped. I admit that. But I still think that finale was pretty much amazing. The character stuff just worked for me totally, and I am a huge sap so I cried a lot. The reunions and flashbacks were pretty much uniformly amazing. The best ones?

Sawyer and Juliet- This is pretty much what I have been waiting for all season. I know some people don't watch this show for love stories and character studies, but those people need to stop being such robots and have a heart. The Juliet/Sawyer love story in Season 5 was one of the best and most surprising storylines, and it was so amazing to see them together again. Had I been alone, when he said "It's me baby, I'm here." I probably would have made the most terrible sobbing noise. Josh Holloway and and Elizabeth Mitchell sold it. Even the doubters knew at that point, Juliet and Sawyer belonged together.

Jack and Locke- To see John Locke again! The real John Locke, whole, with all his memories. That kind, gentle smile he gave Jack from the hospital bed made me so happy. I think that the purgatory/heaven angle of the story was most satisfying for me because of Locke. I needed to see him find out that he was right all along, and that he was special. Terry O'Quinn is an amazing actor, and if some network doesn't pick up his buddy cop show with Michael Emerson, I'm gonna take out a loan and film in my parent's backyard or something.

Charlie and Claire-This is where the full on crying started. They have been apart for so long, and Charlie dying to try and rescue them was so sad. I was just really happy to see them together again. And the way Charlie looked at Aaron...with such love. I am choking up right now! Right now!

Other moments that destroyed me emotionally:

-Jack and Kate saying goodbye on the cliff. Sniff. Jate forever!!!

-Jack passing on the mantle of Island protector to Hurley.

-Hurley asking Ben for his help, and Ben accepting beautifully. Michael Emerson is so good.

-Jack telling Desmond that he had done enough and he needed to go home to his family.

-Jack dying with Vincent by his side, looking so happy that his friends had made it off the island, and completely ready to go. Great work by Matthew Fox in that scene. It was brutal, and I am actually kind of crying again thinking about it.

Best Cinematography goes to:
Jack jumping at the Smoke Monster on the cliff. Sometimes the visuals can be cheesy on Lost, but that scene made up for it, because it looked awesome enough for pretty much the rest of the series.

For me this show was always about the characters first, and the mysteries second. Despite the unanswered questions, I think the creators served the characters they created incredibly well. From the joy on Jin and Sun's faces when they realized who they really were to the fact that Jack was the last to accept he was dead, the characters were spot-on. For a show with such ambitious plots, Lost never lost track of who the people we were rooting for really were. It's not a perfect show, but that's a rare achievement in such a long running TV series. So yay Lost!

P.S.

I seriously could not pictures up on this, because it was making me sad looking at them.


Thursday, May 20, 2010

A darker side of West Bev.

90210-Naomi.<span class=
Naomi (AnnaLynn McCord) is having a really bad night. And her hair looks like someone's mom's.


Well, the finale started all sweetness and light, with everyone's (ie. my) favorite couples reuniting all sweetly and stuff. But let me tell you, once the clock hit that 8:35 mark, things went downhill FAST! Here's your finale scorecard!

Reunited:
Ivy (Gillian Zinser) and Dixon (Tristan Wilds)- Twice actually. These two were super cute tonight, and I loved that Ivy was totally embarrassed yet touched by Dixon's dorky planetarium show. Hopefully Deb (Lori Loughlin) and Harry (Rob Estes) will be too busy getting divorced and dealing with Annie to even notice that he's gone, and these two can have a great time in "Allstrailia" (that's how Dixon says it.) and continue their cuteness next season. In an episode where almost everything turned pretty sour at the end, these two got a happy-ish ending, even if Dixon has to bail on the trip.

Teddy (Trevor Donovan) and Silver (Jessica Stroup)- Silver tried to resist getting back together with Teddy for some unknown reason, but eventually she caved, probably because he looks like a Ken-doll, is pretty smart, sweet, rich and plays pro-tennis. Or, "tiniss" as Silver calls it. They were pretty much the only two people on the show who didn't have some kind of bummer ending, so when I start to get sad about all the awful things that happened, I just think of the pretty and smile.
90210-Dixon-Ivy.<span class=
This is the exact kind of attitude I would have had at a lame "passing the torch" school ceremony thing. Which is why I love Ivy (Gillian Zinser).


Navid (Michael Steger) and Adrianna (Jessica Lowndes)!- Yay! My favorite teenage couple is back together! And they are awesome as ever! So great right? Fine, no problem, everything is great? But no, of course not, because that would be boring or something. Not to me, but to viewers who aren't interested in seeing a show exclusively about how awesome Navid and Adrianna are, and how they do and say cute and funny things. So that means stupid Javier has to ask Ade to go on a world tour with him. For a year. She better not go. Or better yet she should go, and then see that Javier is just a creep trying to get with her, and then she can come back and run into Navid's arms! There. I just wrote Season 3's Navid/Adrianna arc for you 90210. You're welcome.

Broken Up:
Liam (Matt Lanter) and Naomi (AnnaLynn McCord). Because Naomi is the world's worst girlfriend if you want someone to talk to or help you on a regular basis. Sometimes she can really come through in a clutch, but most of the time, she is just a self centered idiot. So he dumped her, pretty rightfully. Bummer for Naomi.

Harry and Deb! Pretty much. That is obviously what is going to happen. Mostly because Deb seems to hate Harry with her entire soul and since her kissing a hottie yoga teacher didn't do it, she's gonna harp him into hating her back. Have a fun summer Wilson kids!

Getting Closer:
Liam and Annie (Shenae Grimes). I want to like this couple, I really do. They could be the Brenda/Dylan of new 90210. But oh, Annie. You are so annoying.
90210-Annie-Liam.<span class=

Fired:
Harry! For the whole covering up for Dixon thing, which I find totally unrealistic because school administrators do things like that all time. I think it is part of the reason people want power. So they can use it to help their family and friends, right? The superintendent was probably a woman who hated Harry, because all women do.

Setting an awesome boat on fire:
Jasper. What a jerk. I love seeing him hobble away on his crutches though. He is one dedicated arsonist.

Beating the crap out of Jasper:
Liam! Don't kill him dude! Even though your boat is awesome, he is so not worth it! On the brighter side, maybe his parents will forget all about the whole "stealing coins" thing. I know I practically have.


Pregnant with a drunk's baby!

Well that would be Jen. Good for her.

Drunk!
Well that would be Ryan Matthews, teacher extraordinaire. He stole a shuttle van, drunk drove that to his own car, failed to help Naomi and then hit the sign, causing fire to spout out of it and then follow his car in a line. It was beautiful. I have to be on Jen's side here when she says she doesn't want him around her baby. And to think, he's not even the worst teacher in town!

Worst Teacher in Town:
Mr. Australian or British guy or whatever that Naomi accused to sexually harassing her. The final scene with him and Naomi was awful and really scary! I hope something happens or someone saves her at the last minute because it would be terrible if that creepy teacher raped her. Too dark 90210! Too dark!

Next Season:
Um, it turns out Liam's boat is fireproof, Jasper goes to jail forever, Ethan comes back and saves Naomi, Annie gets facial reconstruction surgery and comes back looking like Katie Cassidy, Navid and Adrianna go on world tour together, Teddy wins a tennis championship thanks to Silver, Dixon and Ivy have a boss time down under, Ryan's drunk driving is not discovered and he goes to rehab, the baby inside Jen temporarily gives her a soul, and she kills herself while giving birth because she doesn't want to go back to being the soulless creature she once was, and a newly clean Ryan cutely raises the baby, with lots of visits from Auntie Naomi. Oh and Harry and Deb move to China. It's gonna be awesome!

Monday, May 17, 2010

However Long I Stay: Treme, Season 1 Episode 6, "Shallow Water, Oh, Mama."


Before I check back in on HBO's "Treme", I want to point anyone who is a fan of the show to the Times-Picayune and Dave Walker's great "Treme Explained". He does one for each episode, and it really helps put some of the storylines into context as well as explaining some of the throw away comments the characters make. This week, learn why Davis's mom was so horrified that he was working with Jacques Morial, who plays Antoine's mentor, some background on the real Davis, what the title of he episode means, and more. Check it out!

Unlike Dave Walker, I am not an expert on New Orleans or Katrina, but I still think that David Simon and Eric Overmyer's "Treme" gives me plenty to talk about. This episode is the beginning of the back half of the season, which is where Simon generally likes to pick up steam, plotwise. The stories they are telling us here are the small ones, not a grand tragedy like you see on "The Wire" but the way the little, everyday tragedies of life become so much worse when living among the ruins of a place that you love.

Some of the little moments I loved in this episode:

Delmond feeling overshadowed by the tradition his father loves, and yet completely unable to resist the pull of the Indians once he is among them.

Creighton, torn between his career and the fear that he could become something he hates, just another elite exploiting New Orleans.

Toni, in an amazing performance by Melissa Leo, push push pushing so insistently, so quietly, to get the information she needs to find Daymo. The thing I love most about Toni's character is that she is so dogged and persistent in her search for Daymo, because the more she uncovers, the more she sees the horror this poor guy must be going through, yet so patient and sweet with almost everyone she talks to about it. She knows that every person she is bothering about this has a thousand other tragedies to deal with, so she just gives them that little shove to make sure they help her figure out this one.

Davis with his rich, racist family, showing us what he is rebelling against and giving us a reason to root for him.

Antoine, taking care of the man that's taught him everything, and getting a scary glimpse into his own future at the same time.

Janette, trying and failing to ask her staff to work for free, realizing that even though she is amazing at what she does, she is just too far behind to do it anymore. The look on her face as she realized that her dream was done, at least for now and maybe forever, was a great piece of acting from Kim Dickens.

And of course, that silly, ridiculous only-in-New-Orleans parade, with Toni loosening up and being part of the "family of sperm" with Creighton and Sophia. Creighton and Toni's conversation sums up the series so far, with all it's little triumphs and sadnesses.
"Where else could we live, huh?"
"No place else."

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

90210, don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

You know that I love 90210, but I gotta say, there were so many things to hate in this episode! It was killing me man!
90210-Silver.jpg (Silver sits alone, after deciding that a dude who tried to buy her off is probably right.)


With only one episode left until the season finale (thanks CW promo people), the writers of this show decided to do as much as possible to annoy the crap out me, including:

-The name of the episode. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't find the fact that Adrianna (Jessica Lowndes) is dating some famous singer to be that important to episode, besides in the way that it thwarted my dreams of a Navid/Adrianna reunion. Other than that, who really cares about 'Javianna"?

-Not showing us any aftermath from the whole "Drunk Ryan Matthews" debacle (aka, the greatest thing that has ever happened on this show).

-Jen. (Sara Foster) Being there. (Do not even get me started on the whole pregnancy thing. My actual reaction was "JIGGA WHAT?!" There is documentation of this.)

-Silver (Jessica Stroup) listening to Teddy's (Trevor Donovan) jerkface of a dad (Ryan O'Neal) (who Teddy told her was a jerk like two scenes before) and breaking Teddy's heart because he lost his tennis match. (This is the kind of thing that happens when you demand to meet a dude's parents. Sometimes they're cagey about it for a reason ladies!) Also, the way she says 'match' really annoys me for some reason. So there's that.

-Dixon (Tristan Wilds) and Silver kissing. LET'S NOT GO THERE AGAIN PEOPLE. I did not like the face Dixon made when he and Ivy (Gillian Zinser) made up. Don't even think about it. Just go to Australia and have a good time. At least you get to be away from your awful parents!
90210-Ivy-Dixon.jpg (Is it so wrong that I just want these two to stay together?! And go to Australia?!)

-Jasper returned. Man that kid is a weirdo.

-The fact that even though Navid (Michael Steger) and Adrianna are basically in the same group of friends, neither of them ever talked to the SAME person about how they liked each other, so no one could just go "Oh, well he/she totally likes you too, you should just go and talk to her/him about it, like a normal person."

-Navid's crackpot plan. Plans like that should just be titled "I'm going provide the object of my affection with as little information as possible and then feel all heartbroken and crap when they don't get that I love them."
90210-Navid-Dixon.jpg (I know that Dixon WANTS to tell Navid his plan is dumb, but he just doesn't have the heart.
)

-Deb (Lori Loughlin) and Harry (Rob Estes) were at their crazy-awful worst tonight! Lying to each other, using their children to manipulate each other, gen I have to say you can tell which one of them is leaving the show, because Harry was at least 1000 notches more horrible than Debbie, and she was terrible.

There were things I actually liked though, so don't worry!

Aww the scene with Teddy and Silver right before they did it was totally cute, and I was really happy for a minute, even though what happened next was compltely obvious and cliche, I still love them.

I am actually really into the "Naomi (AnnaLynn McCord) is an awful girlfriend" storyline, for a couple of reason. One, it is totally consistent with her character that she would want to try to be there for Liam (Matt Lanter), but just be too into her own drama to really be able to be. Also, I think it makes sense that someone like Liam would think he would want to be with someone like Naomi, and then be pretty disillusioned by the reality.

I am also still kind of rooting for Annie (Shenae Grimes) and Liam. There I said it. Again, I feel like characterization is right here, and even though Shenae Grimes' totally grating portrayal of Annie makes it easy to forget, she is supposed to be a sweet, normal, sort of goofy girl, and I can see why Liam would be attracted to her, especially since she is so different from Naomi. (If only she hadn't killed someone! Dammit Annie!)

Stray questions:

Why is Naomi styled like a 40 year old? Her hair especially!

Why does Naomi still go to the beach club even though she knows Jen owns it?

Why does everyone drive cars from the seventies?

How sad was it when Liam realized that he got his maid fired for nothing? Stupid Finn Court! (Such a stereotypical Irish name for a stereotypical Irish loser. Ten to one he has a drinking problem too.)

Where is Ryan Matthews?!

Is there really only one jerk in all of West Beverly High? The same kid: took naked pictures of Annie and let them get all over school, blackmailed Dixon into helping break into the school to steal the SAT's, intimated that he will blackmail Harry over that same incident and made of Jasper for his suicide attempt. What kind of kid taunts someone for trying to kill themselves? The one jerk at West Beverly High.


Next week: Boats on fire! That teacher really is a sleaze!! Deb is yelling!! It's crazytown!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

So many things to love on 90210! (And one thing to hate with a crazy insane passion.)

90210-Ryan-Matthews-Drunk.jpg (This picture of Mr. Matthews (or Mr. Ryan...Matthews, if you prefer) is the one of the best 90210 screencaps ever.
)

Starting with... Ryan Matthews drunk! Oh it was a sight to behold. Mustard stained shirt. Chili dog hands. The sputtering. The "Taxi Driver" quoting. The way he totally horrified his students. Weirdly, I found this drunken version of Ryan Matthews way hotter than pretty much any other version. I don't know if that says something bad about me or the character, but I think you and I both know I'm going with "the character" on this one. Let's be honest, the guy ran into his ex girlfriend and her husband, which might be a perfectly fine excuse to have a drink or two, to even get a little drunk, but the level of homeless person drunkeness that this guy got to just because he talked to his ex for about thirty seconds was a little unnecessary. And also, amazing. It was beautiful. Because it was my favorite thing ever to happen, let's look at it again, real quick:

90210-Ryan.jpg


Okay so now that we are done basking in the glory that is "Ryan Matthews wasted", we can move onto the rest of the episode, which was kind of hit or miss.

More things to love include:

-Dixon and Ivy! Dixon is doing a lot of turnarounds this season, from idiot to cutie and back again, and in this episode, he was definitely rocking the cutie vibe. Mexican Cokes! The dude is a keeper. This week at least. And ivy deserves to have a nice boyfriend who goes to many different taco trucks to prepare a date for her! She's a cool chick!

-Teddy and Silver! Yeah, I'm back on that wagon, even if the "problem every 30 seconds" thing is getting a little tired. After his admission that he was in love with her, I pretty much melted. I've never seen so many people so concerned about the future of a hot, rich white guy though. Listen up everybody "HE'S GONNA BE OKAY!"

-Brace yourselves for this one, because I can't even believe it myself but...Annie and Liam? Maybe? Do I maybe kind of like them together? Maybe. It's probably mostly the Liam factor working for me here, because Annie hasn't changed enough for me to really like her on her own. She still makes an insane amount of weird faces, is a terrible listener (though not as bad as Naomi!) and annoys the crap out of me. These facts will never change. Trust.

-Naomi being a selfish idiot. I feel bad for Liam and everything, but choosing her over Ivy was always gonna end this way. She is who she is man. Also I am not going to even feel bad for her when her boyfriend falls for Annie.

-Oh Naomi screwing Jen over! That was awesome for the five seconds that is seemed like it might possibly be true!

-Adrianna and Navid on the boardwalk! It's TRUE LOVE guys, just admit it.


Things I hated, with a crazy insane passion:

-Jen's return. I hate the way she talks, I hate the weird way she purses her lips and squints her eyes when she's trying to be intimidating. I hate the how she opens her eyes all big and innocent when she is trying to seem nice. I hate her bony shoulders. I hate everything about her, and I hope that she is dropped in a vat of acid at the end this season. That is all.

Things I just sort of wasn't into:

-Adrianna and Javier singing and stuff. You know I love me some Ade, but this storyline just isn't doing it for me for some reason.

-Also, it is super dumb that Navid was all upset and stuff when he heard her tell Javier that "there was no one special" because as far as she knew, he had a girlfriend. 'Oh man, sorry Navid, for not wanting to come off as a desperate loser to some famous guy that I just met an hour ago by admitting to him that I'm still in love with my nerdy ex boyfriend who dumped me for kissing another dude and also has a girlfriend! I totally get why you are all brokenhearted and betrayed. Makes total sense.' Right on Ade! You make him jealous with that famous Jonas-brother like guy!

-Teddy/Silver/Dad- Silver was cute when she met him, and I liked that he 'surprisingly' liked her. (I was not surprised) but I am just not into the whole "forbidden to be together" thing. It just doesn't seem like a narcissistic movie star would even have time to keep his kid away from some girl on a Vespa.

90210-Terddy-Silver-Spence.jpg
(All movie stars like it when you are rudely honest with them. It's a fact.
)

-Ugh I hate that Liam's dad turned out to be a deadbeat! I totally saw it coming and was hoping they were going to subvert my expectations. (What? Come on, it's possible that 90210 was going to subvert my expectations. It is!)

-Liam just trusts anyone who is kind of nice to him doesn't he? That just makes me feel really bad for him. Also, it kind of makes me relate to him a little. Oh dear.

-Harry and Deb. I pretty much don't care, but I have to say that if I had adopted an 8 year old from a drug addict and created a pretty decent home for him, I would not let some hot yoga instructor OR some weird work crush OR some murky undefinable distance between my spouse and I (contract negotiations, maybe), cause me to get a divorce and destroy the only stability he has ever known. Unless it turned out I really didn't like him much and wanted to just give him that final push to be screwed up for life. Which I guess they could feel about Dixon, because he can be really annoying, but I think maybe they've misplaced their antipathy towards Annie onto him. My advice for Harry and Deb? Suck it up for a couple more years, then go and bang all the yoga instructors and guidance counselors you want.

Just in case you forgot what was awesome about this episode, I leave you with one final pic:
RyanAgain90210.jpg (This is one of my faves, because it looks like he was eating out of the trash.
)

Next week: Adrianna + Navid is SO about to = Love again. I can feel it.