JJ Abrams: Lost

I started watching Lost (2004-2010) late in the game (2009). I bought it on DVD and caught up and watched the end with everyone else. Man, that show was excellent. Every episode was a surprise. Twist after twist after twist. The other thing you can count on: hard choices. For these characters, it was always one hard choice after another. I don't know about you, but I was constantly asking myself, "Could I make that hard choice if I had to do it?" Of course, until you walk that mile in those shoes, you just don't know.

This is just one of many hard choices...





Did you watch Lost? Were you on the edge of your seat week after week?

...And He Didn't Even Care

Trying a new thing here. Just for fun, going to post videos from the tube. That would be YouTube covering the Boob Tube. This is a TV blog. Enjoy...



TV Show: Lost
Status: Cancelled

Vampires, Zombies, Supernatural Stuff, and Superheroes

I was reading a blog on writing the other day (shocking!) and a question was raised about vampires: would they ever go out of vogue???   I commented at length over there, but I find myself still thinking about it.  I believe that the truth is many people are fascinated by the supernatural, including me.  That encompasses all sorts of phenomena, up to and including vampires.

Let's talk vamps for just a minute.  I do believe that Dracula was the first story.  I know that it has been made into a movie several times and I have seen at least one of those.  I remember being fascinated by Dark Shadows as a KID.

The Anne Rice series on vampires reignited vampire love among readers.  The movie Interview With The Vampire was one of the best book adaptations I have seen.

Joss Whedon created a successful TV series from a fairly dreadful movie (both by the same name), Buffy The Vampire Slayer that ran seven seasons.  It generated a spin-off, Angel,  that ran five seasons.

And then Twilight scored big for Stephanie Meyers.  Four books and five movies.  As usual, the books were better than the movies and struck a chord with youth (the target audience).

Some would say it was the success of Twilight that made The Vampire Diaries on the CW a success.  I am not one of those people.  I think people are fascinated by vampires and I would watch Ian Sommerhaulder, who plays Damon Salvatore, in ANYTHING.




The CW decided to spin off a show from that series this season aptly called The Originals.

Do I think people are tired of vampires?  Nope.

However, it isn't just limited to vampires.  The Walking Dead is HUGE, even though I don't watch it.  Zombies are possibly the only element of the supernatural world that has no appeal for me.  But, I am a lone voice in this wilderness.  It is so popular that I even kinda sorta know who this guy is:

Zombie Killer Badass, though I couldn't tell you his name...

Do you remember Fringe?  That show was science meets the supernatural.  Crazy good show.

And Lost?  That show contained supernatural elements.  It most certainly wasn't just a plane crash.

The show that covers everything supernatural is, of course, called Supernatural (CW).  I think this is the tenth season of Dean and Sam out there saving the world from supernatural calamity.

Most people who like supernatural stuff also like superheroes.  It is a bit supernatural, after all.  Marvel has been huge at the box office.  The Avengers was so popular that Joss Whedon is back on the small screen with Agents of SHIELD.

Other superhero TV shows currently on the air:  Arrow and The Tomorrow People.  Both on the CW.

Do I know what the next Big Thing will be?  Nope.  But, I don't see interest in the supernatural or superheroes falling by the wayside anytime soon.

Are any of those shows YOUR favorites?  What do you think about vampires and supernatural stories?  Is it flash in the pan or here to stay?  Did I miss anything supernatural or superhero currently running on TV?  If so, let me know in the comments...

MY THEORY ON LOST SEASON SIX

I've been wanting to post on Lost: Season Six for a while now. I keep putting it off to see if the next episode busts my theory or gives it credence. So far, so good. Before I go any further, no matter how LOST winds up, I have to say that JJ Abrams is a creative genius. The first five seasons of LOST have been exquisitely written. Really magnificent. And there is this part of me that wants to go back and break down each one of them and revel in what made each of them so glorious. Alas, another blog(s). Season six is shaping up to knock them out of the ballpark.

Of course, in order to address season six I do have to revisit some of the past seasons because that is how we got here. One of the style choices that has worked so well throughout the show is how each episode is dedicated principally to a character or characters, in the case of Jin and Sun. For most of the show that was flashbacks for the audience to see what these people were like before the plane crash, but it always interfaced nicely with the current events on the island. Like I said, really good writing. Then we went through a period of flashforwards, which was odd, but it worked.

At the end of season five our survivors threw a hydrogen bomb into The Swan to counteract the electromagnetic energy being released. The idea was that it would prevent the necessity for "the button" to be pushed that released all of that built up energy. Desmond was late pushing the button and that caused their plane to crash. If they can change the past, maybe they can change the future, and their plane never crashes. Season five ends with the bomb detonating because Juliet gets pulled into the hole and smacks it until it detonates.

Now that we are up to speed, season six has broken new ground even for LOST! First thing is that everyone on the island is now in the same time/space continuum. That wasn't the case before the bomb went off. We had some people in the 70s and some in the present (from the second plane crash which was intentional). And Juliet was pulled out of the wreckage alive to bid adieu to Sawyer and say these fateful words that went totally over his head, "It worked." And then she died. From where he was sitting, not a damn thing worked. Juliet died and he was still in the jungle and not in LAX. He was not a happy man. Not that Sawyer has ever struck me as happy go lucky. Anyway, everyone was still on the island.

And everyone was on the plane. Now the juxtaposed scenes are not the past and not the future. The juxtaposed scenes are the alternate reality. It worked. JJ Abrams is proposing a theory that an alternate reality is a possibility. I am proposing that this story is going to end with an island ending and a non-island ending. They are both true. One is not more true than the other. They are equally true. Some will say that it is impossible for a person to exist in the same time/space in more than one place. JJ Abrams is bold. He is suggesting that something happened to create an alternate reality. I am not saying that it is or isn't possible. I am saying that it's brilliant.