A Story of the Year soron következő új lemeze, ‘The Constant‘ címmel 2010 február 16-án jelenik meg Európa szerte. Ez ugyan még messze van, de egy új dal, a ‘To The Burial’ csak egy kattintásra, méghozzá itt a tovább mögött:

“The Variable”

April 29th, 2009

I will admit right now that I feel sort of like a low rent Daniel Faraday right now, my attempts to put myself on a different sleep schedule in a way not that different from Daniel’s attempt to realign himself with another time. This means that while I had planned on writing this review about five hours ago when I woke up from a short nap designed to prepare me for an eight-hour night shift this evening, instead I’m writing it after six hours of sleep and will have to skip Thursday night television in order to try to find some nap time.

I share this story not just because of my recent tweet about potentially mixing more personal anecdotes with blog posts, but also because it’s an example of providing some greater context to events, which is essentially the point of “The Variable.” The episode really only has two functions: it serves as an escalation of the “plot” (remember that thing?) that has been mostly dormant since our cast ended up in the 1970s, giving us a sense of how the end of the season is going to develop, and it serves as an answer to the question of what Daniel Faraday has been up to since we last saw him trapped in 1974 with everyone else and nobody is really talking about him.

Perhaps it’s the weird sleep schedule, or that I wasn’t feeling great when I watched the episode, but I was kind of disappointed by this, the show’s 100th episode, at least on the latter point. At times feeling like another drop in the “parental neglect” bucket for the show, the tragic journey of Daniel Faraday was strong in isolation and yet when applied to the rest of the episode and the rest of the series felt too inorganic. Yes, I empathize with Daniel, primarily thanks to Jeremy Davies’ strong performance, but at the end of the day it felt as if Faraday’s storyline was tied so closely to the island that his individuality, and its connection to our other characters, was lost in the plot.

I understand that this is the entire “point” of the episode, but I found it a little bit clumsy in its execution even if I feel they’re ramping things up at the right pace as we march towards the finale.

These episodes are always tough, because it was all about piecing together scenes and events that we’ve seen before and putting them together into parts of the larger puzzle. I say tough because, even when you do manage to answer all sorts of questions, there’s no guarantee that you’re going to actually piece together those answers into some sort of cohesive image, if that’s even what you’re trying to achieve. In this case, you have Daniel in the Orchid station from the season premiere, Daniel’s reaction to the plane crash from last season’s “Confirmed Dead,” the purpose of the eponymous hydrogen bomb in “Jughead,” and even Desmond’s fate from the shooting in “Dead is Dead.”

On this level, I feel as if the show was actually quite successful, as the actual events of those episode in the “present” were quite strong. I think it’s safe to call it the present, by the way: Faraday seems to be more certain about time travel now, and indicates that this is without question the present for our characters: any of them can die, their scars being new scars that won’t be there when they meet. This isn’t a new revelation, but coming from Faraday everything sounds more definitive. But looking entirely at the on-island narrative, what we saw here was all about putting the pieces in place for the rest of the season.

First and foremost, we have the revelation of why Faraday, if not everyone, has returned to this particular period. Faraday has realized that everything that has happened to all of these characters all goes back to one single event, the initial release of the electro-magnetic energy at the Swan station that results in the creation of the button, the 108 minute countdown, Desmond being remiss in pushing the button and Oceanic Flight 815 falling out of the sky. Faraday’s plan, not entirely clear in the episode, is to use Jughead (the hydrogen bomb) to counteract the impact of the electro-magnetism, wiping it away and leaving behind an island that won’t eventually have them on it.

It’s a good plan, but it is predicated on his theory (which he seems to have missed before because it was too simple, not because it was too obscure) that all of his talk of not being able to change destiny, to change the future, was forgetting about the all-important variable of human agency. Here is where, for me, the episode kind of hits a brick wall, at least as it relates to Faraday as a character. For me, the on-island episode needed more of the way Sawyer reacted to Faraday, which is as if he were crazy: there needed to be a skeptic in the room during these conversations, someone to call Faraday out on the fact that humanity was a pretty silly variable to forget, and that for all of his genius he seems to have been a little slow on the uptake.

I say this not because I don’t understand why Faraday had not pieced this together, but rather because the episode spent so much time showing us as viewers how his mother had planned out his life knowing that she would eventually shoot a grown Faraday in the back in 1977 that the tragedy of that moment seemed as if it was seeping into how the other castaways were treating him. For us, as viewers who have clearly fallen for Faraday as a character, his tragedy was quite effective: seeing him struggling with a life of forced singular purpose, dealing with a mother who feels as if she is unable to display any affection considering what Faraday is going to discover in 1977 and seeing the effects of Faraday’s initial time experiments render him without memory and without any sense of time or place, was hard for us as viewers considering how attached we have become.

But I felt the episode needed to do more in terms of emphasizing that the castaways shouldn’t feel the same way, or at the very least the episode shouldn’t have had the people who knew Faraday more (Sawyer and the 1974 gang) trust him less, considering that he is obviously the one who best describes time travel. We’re getting to the point in the season where individually focused episodes like this are problematic, because there’s rarely one character’s story that can encapsulate or speak to why all individuals make certain decisions. Faraday’s story may work in isolation, but in the episode itself there wasn’t enough time spent on why everyone else would follow along. Other than the rather vague notion that Jack is quietly but desperately searching for a reason for his return to the island (which Faraday stokes with his claim that Eloise was dead wrong) and that Sawyer is content to stay on the island and therefore not open to Daniel’s crazy theories, we don’t get a real reaction to Faraday, and part of it felt too simple.

And there’s the reason why I think throwing “The Variable” in with “The Constant,” as either a divergent path or as a brother episode, is more than a bit premature. It is not that it was unentertaining, but rather where the latter felt as if it was opening all sorts of doors, this one felt like it was actually just pointing the way. I tend to feel as if it was all almost too simple, that the question it left us with is the exact same question we’ve had all season as opposed to something fundamentally new. Daniel’s story didn’t really reveal anything, or introduce any new concepts, and while Davies was amazing as always there was something about his entire storyline that seemed as if it fit too nicely, that flashback and on-island life both happened to align for Faraday’s optimism to carry him to the point where it would all be wiped away by a single gunshot and an apparent death.

Yes, I too love the questions that this raises, but I guess I’m frustrated with the questions that it answers (if that makes any sense). I like where it puts us in terms of our “present” in 1974, as it leaves the castaways in a position where Jack and Kate know Daniel’s plan, where the Others (especially Ellie) are going to have to make a decision based on Daniel’s ravings and likely the input of the castaways, and where the Dharma Initiative views them as traitors but also have their own problems to deal with in terms of the construction of the Swan station. If the beginning of the season was about how time travel operates, the show has definitively shifted into a scenario where temporality is a constant and now we’re starting to see how it will effect these individuals.

And while the episode had some strong moments along the way, I guess that I wanted it all to be a bit less clean, for the rising action to feel a little less definitive and a bit more loose and unpredictable. It may have found its way to an exciting place, and it may have spoken to a lot of the season’s key questions, but in a sense the message it gave was that those questions were futile, and that the answers were always set in stone regardless. That’s a fine message for Faraday’s tragedy, which was decidedly effective, but I don’t know if I felt the same sense of effectiveness from its application to the rest of the season. I just needed to see more from the other castaways in this episode that wasn’t them lining up perfectly to fit into Daniel’s story.

Perhaps, though, this was inevitable: because Faraday was one of the Freighter characters, and the one most connected with the main narrative, this episode was likely fated to play out in a manner which felt manufactured in a sense. As he hasn’t been around as much as other characters, the connections this episode made were almost too broad. It felt like a checklist at the end of the day: there’s Faraday’s scene warning a young Charlotte, there’s Faraday bumping into Peter Chang, etc. Even the storyline with Eloise showing up at the hospital to visit with Penny as she waits for word on Desmond felt as if it was checking off “Show us that Desmond is okay” and “Confirm that Widmore is Faraday’s father.”

Any episode that takes this structure is taking a risk, because answers are not a surefire way to improve the quality of the show. Some of these elements were already presumed, so they have largely no effect, but when so many of them fall in a single episode like this it doesn’t feel organic, something about it just not feeling right. And while the effort to theme the episode in such a way as to make this fact become justified due to Daniel’s childhood narrative being entirely inorganic, his mother breeding him to die at her own hand in 1977, Faraday’s arc on the show is so isolated to the last few seasons that it didn’t work as well as I think they thought it did.

At the end of the day, I like what this episode accomplishes: any Lost fan in their right mind is excited about what is going to happen following Faraday’s apparent death, and about how these three groups of people are going to deal with the pending threat. And the questions that we’re left with are very interesting: was Faraday’s plan really going to fix anything, and is it even possible for the plan to go forward with him shot and with perhaps Jack and Kate in the lead position? Eloise admits to Penny that, for the first time, she doesn’t know what’s going to happen: is this to indicate that the Oceanic Six returning to the island was not something she had anticipated, her knowledge only going to the point of the Freighter? And why did she blame Faraday for Desmond being shot considering that Penny is quite right to blame Ben for, you know, shooting him?

I’m likely sleep deprived and delirious to expect otherwise, but I guess I just thought the episode cut too many corners and was too blatant in its plotting to feel as if these questions were created by the episode itself as opposed to simply dropped in by the writers. “The Variable” was actually quite a good episode, but for an episode that dealt with a favoured character and the concept of time travel something about it just didn’t add up for me.

Cultural Observations

• It is possible that one of my points of frustration may be as simple as the fact that Daniel’s story was kind of more boring than I had hoped. I had this image of a time-traveling Faraday running around trying to solve this problem, and part of me was hoping we would get that story tonight. The mundane nature of this three-year absence (at Dharma headquarters in Ann Arbor) is strange considering that Faraday’s departure has been treated like some hushed secret amongst those who stayed behind in 1974, and you’d think at some point when asked someone would just say “Oh yeah, he left for headquarters, we don’t know why.” Part of me wanted to see those missing years, and instead we got the message that those missing years didn’t matter since he’d always end up here anyways.
• From what I’ve read, the Desmond/Penny inclusion was made since they saw this episode as a counterpoint to “The Constant,” which I note above is not the best comparison for any episode, this one in particular. I kind of wish we had spent that time, while well-acted and emotionally effective and everything else Desmond/Penny sequences always are, on the island, as there is where my real interest lay.
• I will presume that Miles and Hurley will be lumped in with Sawyer/Juliet pretty soon, which won’t be that big of a reunion after this week’s scene where almost the entire cast was together discussing their plan. It was the one scene that made the episode feel like the show’s 100th, and was effectively memorable.
• I don’t read episode descriptions to avoid spoilers, but the big ol’ giant shot of Hurley’s guitar would seem to indicate to me that we’re going to be getting his story amidst “316″ soon enough, which is exciting. Considering its location in the season, it seems possible also that on top of this week’s connection to “The Constant” we may be getting Hurley’s equivalent to “Greatest Hits” considering who the guitar seems to symbolize.
• For a few perspectives a little bit more positive and that delve a bit further into some of the big questions, head to Sepinwall and Poniewozik.

Hat tip to a fellow Tubular Lost poster for finding this very clever shirt from BustedTees.

I am particularly fond of the description: “Looks great anytime, especially in the future.”

Alright, so I need to write about the rest of my vacation and post my amazing photos, but it can wait, because LOST is on tonight!

If you haven’t seen last week’s episode “This Place is Death”, then do NOT read on because some huge things are discussed.

Below, a picture of Desmond and Mrs Hawking in Season 2, Episode 8 “Flashes Before Your Eyes”

Read my theories after the jump…

Last week, as the episode concluded, Ben Linus identified Mrs Hawking (now confirmed to be Dan’s mother by Desmond’s appearance at the church) as Eloise Hawking. Eloise being the name, I think we can safely assume, is short for Ellie. Ellie, who we last saw walking around on the Island in 1954, looked strangely familiar to Dan as he inspected the Island’s hydrogen bomb.

Well, this would explain a lot. Dan’s mom got interested in time-travel when she met a scrawny scientist and his friends in 1954 who claimed they were time-traveling. This a) influences her desire and apparently Charles Widmore’s desire to later fund Dan’s research into the matter and b) blows a huge hole in Dan’s theory that you can’t change a THING in the past. Obviously, we already know that Dr. Richard Alpert shows up at Locke’s birth in 1956 because Locke told him what day and what hospital to visit him at.

Maybe Desmond isn’t so special after all. Maybe the Losties interactions with the past really do influence some things in the future.

Anyway… my big theory:

Ellie and Charles left the Island at the same time, along with several others- Miles, Dan and Charlotte. My guess is that it all has something to do with the Dharma Initiative and their more than forceful expulsion from the Island.

A question long unanswered in our favorite sci-fi fantasy show- HOW did the Dharma Initiative find the Island? The Island just doesn’t get found. It draws people who have a hard time getting off the Island once there, or finding it again if they leave. The only people that ever seem to be able to go seamlessly back and forth is the people in power: Ben and Alpert- to our limited knowledge.

My theory is that Charles Widmore, after seeing an old bald guy talk about time travel and the mysteriously disappear, realized there was a lot more power to the Island than what he was previously told about. Even Ageless Alpert seemed to be unaware of the Island’s time-traveling abilities (or pretended to be unaware) when Locke shows up in ‘54. I think Widmore used his connections as Jacob’s prior chosen one, to bring people from off the Island, using connections from wherever he came from to profit from the Dharma Initiative.

When the DI’s techy ways started pissing off Jacob, Alpert began looking for a new leader. Locke, still unwilling to accept any recruitment from the Island (Season 4, “Cabin Fever”) was not ready- but a young Benjamin Linus was (Season 3, Episode 20 “The Man Behind the Curtain”). Alpert met him in the jungle and told him he could come with him, eventually. We flash forward a couple more decades and the Dharma Initiative is gassed and Ben assumes his role as the new leader.

But where was Charles’ ousting? And how does someone who grows up on the Island leave as an adult, only to make a smooth transition to being the head of a multi-national, powerful business? All available clues point to Alpert not knowing how to handle the removal of Charles Widmore and the Dharma Initiative. Widmore was involved somehow in the Dharma Initiative knowing how to find the Island and being able to establish a camp there. The hostiles had to have been kept at bay while they built all their hatches- the hostiles can handle ALL intruders. The fact that the Dharma Initiative survived makes me think someone (Widmore) must have held the hostiles (Others) back while the DI was getting set up. But then the Dharma Initiative began to strike against the hostiles, taking more and more land than previously agreed upon. This led to Alpert/Jacob making a decision to start working against Widmore and the Dharma Initiative, very similar to how Alpert began working against Ben when Jacob decided Ben’s usefulness was almost at an end.

So somehow, Widmore, Ellie, Dr Chang and perhaps others, fled the Island with some of the children (Miles, Dan, Charlotte, and perhaps Annie?) and escaped the Purge but have worked tirelessly, while making a way from themselves out in the world, to get back to the Island. But somehow, Ellie and Widmore had a falling out, which is why she’s now helping Ben instead of Widmore, to get back to the Island.

To prove Ellie and Widmore’s connection in bringing the Dharma Initiative to the Island even further- where is tonight’s episode being set?

An off-Island Dharma station that Eloise Hawking has access to. Oh, and what does her son Daniel know ALL ABOUT?

The Dharma Initiative.

(A shot of Dan’s notebook- don’t forget that the kids knew about all the hatches, and the Purge when they arrived. Further evidence that Widmore may have stuck around through Dharma and been involved with its existence on the Island)

We’ll see tonight if any of these theories are correct, but I’m thinking that Widmore and Ellie were profoundly affected by the Losties flash back into the past, and that Widmore’s bringing the DI to the Island is what led to his ousting. This would be BIG in explaining a lot about the Dharma Initiative, and even bigger in debunking the time travel theory that nothing can be changed. If I’m right, things look a lot more cyclical than anything else.

/ geek post over!

Two Blondes watch their TiVo and ramble about themselves:

JESSICA SAYS:

NOTE:  This is less a ‘review’ of the episode and more my stream of consciousness while watching it…
“You know that sound you’re hearing, you know, that boom? That’s my mind blowing.”
(That’s a quote from another JJ Abrams-related project.  Bonus points if you know which one.)

Seriously folks.  With the words, “Previously, on Lost,” my excitement is at a level not reached since…last night watching the President and First Lady take their first dance.

Is that an aged Sun in the bed with mystery man?  No, I don’t think so, but they look similar.  OK, I think they are telling us we are in the past, what with the lack of a microwave and the presence of a record player.  Dr. Candle is the mystery man!  Orientation film tells us the Dharma Initiative was trying to spy on the natives.  Interesting.

Faraday is in the past!  Oh, I get the feeling this season is going to keep me on my toes, what with the time traveling plots.  Apparently the guy who died drilling the holes into the wall suffered to something similar to what was going on with Desmond in “The Constant” because it looked like he died of a nosebleed.

I don’t like future-Jack.  He’s a total downer.  At least he just shaved of the depressing beard.

OK, I don’t want to jump the gun here in our ‘review,’ but I LOVE THIS SHOW.   Faraday tells us he was ‘inside the radius,’ so apparently the freighter and the helicopter were not.  The weird donkey has apparently taken them back in time (cue Huey Lewis).

As a major fan of My So-Called Life, I am delighted to see Tom Irwin has joined the cast…for at least two episodes, according to IMDb.  If you want to see a great story about the relationship between girls and their dads, you must check out the “Father Figures” episode of MSYCL (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0654950/).  Note ‘father figures’ is a recurring theme on Lost too.  See how I tied it all back together there?  I can review and watch at the same time!

I liked the little nod to Hitchcock and North by Northwest with the smuggling plane flyover Locke.  This is a question I would like to pose:  Who has creepier eyes, Ben or Ethan?

Ahhhhhhh!  Light bulb moment!! Could the ‘skipping through time’ be related to the whisper voices on the Island?  As in, some sort of people stuck in another dimension kind of thing?  Think about it.

Things I have learned from Lost:  If you suspect evil people might be after you, load your dishwasher with the knives sharp end up so you can whip open the door in the middle of the fight with said perpetrators and push them on the knives.

OK, right I’m supposed to be reviewing.  Reviewing…
How long will Sawyer be shirtless?  Is it too much to hope the answer to that is three more seasons?

Now Charlotte is suffering from the nosebleed disease too.  Uh oh.

Why does Hurley see dead people?  Are they really just figments of his imagination?  I like Ana Lucia’s fringe.

*Tick, tick, tick…what’s that noise?  I’m counting down how long Neil/Frogurt (http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Neil_%22Frogurt%22) stays with us considering he’s basically a sock (‘sock’ is what the producers call the background players http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Background_cast).

Ha ha!  I was right!!  Frogurt just took a flaming arrow to the chest.

I knew Ms. Hawking was going to be important to the show.  Fionnula Flanagan is too great an actress to be wasted in a tiny role.  Although I didn’t dig the fact that the scene between Ms. Hawking and Ben felt like it was out of The DaVinci Code.

OK, it just ended and all I can think about is how I feel like I need to watch the show three more times.

ALISON SAYS:

The second the 2 hour premiere of Lost ended, I literally sat up and yelled out “No” at the TV, because I am so eager to see what happens next. If you are not watching Lost, then I am very, very sad for you and think you should reevaluate your priorities in life.  Lost is the of the culmination of great television.  I can’t imagine any show reaching the pinnacles of storytelling that this show has reached.  And the season 5 premiere did not disappoint.  Also, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof were adorably charming during the 1 hour recap before the new episode, especially when they described Jack going downhill in Season 4 and growing a bad beard.

I don’t want this review spoil any plot points, so I won’t go into too many details.  The opening sequence and reveal of who we’re watching was just an incredible beginning to what is sure to be an incredible season.  Sawyer being without his shirt for much of the beginning of the episode didn’t hurt either.

During the premiere, we spend some of our time in the “real world,” and it must be noted that Ben is just as scary a bad guy off the island as on the island.  Seriously, when does Michael Emerson get his Emmy and/or Golden Globe?

Cartel promocional del inicio de la quinta temporada de Perdidos

Ya se acabó. Ya nos vamos a poner en serio. No voy a comentar nada de la esperanzadora y coherente iniciativa de Obama de congelar los sueldos de los altos cargos del gobierno estadounidense. No, hoy no toca. Tampoco voy a dar vueltas a la cercanía del All-Star Game y la posibilidad de que dejen fuera, de manera completamente injusta, a Pau Gasol, para dar entrada a algún jugador medio-qué tipo Ron Artest. Por mucho que me interese hoy no toca. Ni siquiera voy a cebarme con esa “personaja” llamada Aguirre (si los norteamericanos necesitan Esperanza, nosotros se la regalamos “por todo el gañote”), de la que sabíamos que era una trepa de cuidado, pero que nos vuelve a sorprender con una de las suyas (http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/Gobierno/Aguirre/espio/consejero/afin/Rajoy/elpepuesp/20090121elpepunac_17/Tes). Por más ganas que le tenga a esta “señorita”, hoy no toca.

Hoy sólo existe Lost. No tenía ni ganas de escribir y con la carga que llevo encima hasta se me iba a pasar, pero algún mecanismo de éstos de los que has oído alguna referencia, como el sistema límbico o reptiliano, aunque no tengas ni puta idea de a qué coño (¡coño!, otra vez) se refiere, me ha lanzado una señal. S.O.S., Message in a Bottle, “I send an S.O.S.” Y me veo como loco buscando las fechas de inicio de la quinta temporada de Perdidos y la promo en español de la temporada (http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=2k7iEKu-u0c).

Miércoles, 21 de enero de 2009. Doble episodio: Because You Left y The Lie. Jack, por fin, decide volver a la isla, aunque para ello se tenga que arrimar a su segundo archienemigo, Benjamin Linus. La muerte de John Locke (empirismo), su paradójica antitesis, que se nos presentó al final de la cuarta temporada con el nombre de otro filósofo inglés (Jeremy Bentham -utilitarismo-), supuso la toma de conciencia definitiva del doctor Shephard de la necesidad de regresar a la isla, tras su tormentoso regreso y la farsa mantenida por “los Seis del Vuelo de Oceanic”. El sentimiento de culpa, la responsabilidad característica de este personaje, que vimos cómo iba autodestruyendo a Jack durante la cuarta temporada, lo arrastrará nuevamente a la isla (vamos, lo mismo que le pasó a U2 tras sacar aquel esperado y terrible Pop: All That You Can´t Leave Behind).

En esta temporada, veremos pasarlas putas en la isla a los que se quedaron: a Locke, a Sawyer, a Juliet… Y el enfrentamiento entre los que ansían volver a aquel mágico/horrible lugar (Linus reveló que era necesario el regreso de “los Seis”), con Jack a la cabeza, y los que se han asentado tras el retorno, con su amada Kate al frente de la contrarrevolución… No te digo “ná” y te lo digo “tó”. De Locke versus Jack podríamos pasar a un Jack versus Kate (?)…

La mejor serie de 2008. No lo digo yo, lo dicen los críticos seleccionados por mí (¡viva Cánovas del Castillo!) en una encuesta realizada anteriormente. Seamos serios, también la revista Time eligió un episodio de Perdidos como el mejor episodio de una serie de televisión de 2008: The Constant (http://www.time.com/time/specials/2008/top10/article/0,30583,1855948_1863367,00.html), aunque está claro que muchos podrán argumentar que eso tampoco tiene excesivo valor.

Lo que sí es diáfano es que volveremos a ser miles de personas en todo el mundo las que, por quinta vez, sigamos una serie en V.O.S. semana a semana, polemizando, cuestionando, sugiriendo, especulando, buscando detalles y dándole significados que deben hacer que se estén partiendo de risa los guionistas… Eso sí que tiene mérito. Eso sí que es imaginación. Eso sí que es creatividad. Y todo ello, por supuesto, por cortesía de nuestra venerada “mula” y afines.

Supongo que, por fin, alguien habrá tenido las suficientes luces para darse cuenta de que puede ser rentable ofrecer una serie de culto subtitulada para los seguidores más fieles, lo cual sería novedad. Yo, desde luego, no voy a verla “vía taquilla”: sería ir en contra de la tradición y de los principios. Pagaré su merecida cuota a los creadores de la serie cuando saquen el DVD, como todos los años… Y mientras tanto, que le vayan dando a todos los que yo me sé.

Once again, I’m not cool enough to get screeners before the shows air, so I’m stuck waiting for the Lost Season 5 premiere just like everyone else.  Now that I’ve re-watched some key episodes from the first four seasons this weekend, I’m fully prepared for the new season to air.  Here are the episodes I checked out to get ready for the new season:

Season 1 – Pilot (2 parts), Exodus (3 parts, season finale)

Season 2 – The Other 48 Days, What Kate Did, Lockdown, ?, Live Together Die Alone (2 parts, season finale)

Season 3 – Through the Looking Glass (2 parts, season finale)

Season 4 – The Constant, The Shape of Things to Come, There’s No Place Like Home (3 parts, season finale)

If you still need some Lost chatter to fill the hours between now and Wednesday night, here are a few good stories (with little or no spoilers) to check out.

Talking about Lost - Great commentary about living as a Lostie.

10 Questions we hope get answered in Season 5 – (only spoilers if you aren’t through season 4)

TV Squad’s Season 5 Early Look (limited spoiler info at the end of the article)

Previously, on Lost: The mysterious nerdy people from the mysterious and ominous freighter finally show up, promising rescue and seeming to know more than they let on. Seeking some answers, Desmond and Sayid take off on the helicopter with Frank Lapidus (You have no idea how much I would love a spinoff with these three characters)(Oh, and Naomi’s body is in there too)(You wanna throw her in the spinoff? Fine. Weekend At Naomi’s!) to go back to the freighter, but they left a day ago and according to the stuntwoman on the phone, the helicopter never arrived…

Which brings us to our #3 on this list of top episodes of Lost: “The Constant.”

When Benjamin Light and I were first sat down (like two days ago) to discuss what our pick for top five episodes were going to be, the first one I thought of was this one. Time magazine agreed with me. Probably because as complicated and as magical as everything on this show is, the heart of the show as slowly become the love story between Desmond and his lost love, Penelope.

And this episode is one of the first appearances of what would appear to be the theme of the upcoming season 5: Leaving something is easy, but it’s the going back that’s hard.

A quick summary may be difficult (especially knowing me), that’s why I’d definitely point you up to the link up above which gives you a fantastic recap of all the wonderful stuff going on here. But suffice it to say, the main plot deals with Desmond traveling off the island (perhaps on the wrong course, as given to Frank Lapidus by Daniel Faraday) and due to the buildup of electromagnetic radiation in his system (from the implosion of the Swan), he becomes unstuck in time, Billy Pilgrim-style.

Rather than being himself in 2004, when the present day segments of the episode are set, he’s instead his consciousness from 1996, traveling back and forth between 1996 and 2004 in his own body.

Seeking help for this (the shifting back in time will eventually kill Desmond, we realize), we get one of the nerdiest and coolest moments of the entire show: Present day Faraday on the Island (via sat phone) tells 1996 Desmond that when he travels to the past again, he needs to hop on a train and head down to the Oxford college. Go to the Physics department there. “Because I need you to find me,” Daniel tells him.

And find him, he does. The Daniel Faraday of 8 years earlier is a professor at Oxford (the first time we see him in this time period, he’s chewing out a student with “You do understand the concept of original, the opposite of derivative?”) who seems to be in a little more possession of his mental faculties (remember, the first time we ever see Faraday, he has a caretaker watching over him). This younger, angrier Faraday thinks that Desmond’s talk of being from the future is a prank being pulled on him by his fellow faculty members, but thanks to some future knowledge supplied to Desmond by future Faraday, he quickly understands that it’s for reals.

TIME TRAVEL IS FOR REAL!

Faraday of Oxford has been doing these experiments on just that notion, you see, firing his purple radiation laser (that sounds filthy, doesn’t it? Good) at rats and having them run mazes. This particular rat, Eloise, runs the maze perfectly. You know what’s so cool about that? The maze was just built that morning and Faraday isn’t going to teach Eloise how to run it until an hour from now. The rat is shifting back and forth in time just like Billy Pilgrim and Desmond and Fisher Stevens (from Short Circuit)!

From 1996 Faraday, Desmond learns something important (by the way, Eloise the rat died, from an aneurysm, because time and space are no place for stupid rats), something vital: The chronological bouncing back and forth will continue until the point he dies until he makes contact in both time periods with something he really, really cares about. A constant, Faraday surmises, because that’s what every equation needs to balance it. And Desmond asks, “Can this constant be a person?”

Oh, it most certainly can. The reunion of Desmond and Penny via the technology of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison after two years of waiting and building was nothing short of fantastic. If this didn’t take a nice little tug at your heart strings, then… well, go get a fucking heart transplant. Yours is obviously broken, you robot.

There’s four things I really want to bring up from this episode, and the first is the character of Faraday himself, whom I think, even as interesting as he already is, will only become more interesting. He’s easily become one of my favorite characters, which is bizarre considering how much Jeremy Davies bugs the shit out of me in just about every other single thing he’s done.

Keamy! This is the first time we see Keamy, who’ll go on to become this season’s thuggish and seemingly unstoppable (ironically, or maybe not so much, Light tells me that the guy who plays Keamy will be the Blob in the Wolverine movie) big bad character (much like Mikhail was in the previous season). It’s a very interesting dichotomy, the mega-homicidal Keamy from the season finale matched with this episode’s Keamy who’s all like, “Oh, hi there, crazy time hopping Desmond. I’m Keamy and this is my good buddy, Omar. Care for some tea and bear hugs while we wait on the ship’s resident saw bones?”

Sayid! He’s basically just watching out for Desmond in this episode but has a great moment in the communications room at the end, looking at the trashed radio (thanks to the saboteur, Kevin Johnson), and when a dismayed Desmond asks if he can fix it, Sayid just nonchalantly says, “Give me a moment,” and then goes to work.

The Black Rock/Charles Widmore! A great little fuck you of a tease to the fans. Widmore, who has now shaped up to be some kind of grand evil (or so we’re supposed to believe)(if one who opposes Ben could actually be considered evil), willing to do whatever it takes to get the Island back is at an auction in London buying the journal of the first mate of the Black Rock, for sale by Tovard Hanso (of whose family has been the only one privy so far to it’s contents). Speaking of fuck you moments, Widmore has another one with Desmond, not as great as the one in “Flashes Before Your Eyes,” but not bad.

Oh, and how can we forget that killer of an ending?

And then: The Tempest and the birth of Jin and Sun’s baby. Michael returns and Jack and Kate (very briefly, very tragically) enjoy something nice back home. The Monster is summoned, Charles Widmore changes the rules, and, “You can go now, Michael.” Ka-boom! Break out the DHARMA rum and, “Jack… I said all of you. We’re going to have to bring him too.”

See you in another blog post, brotha!

I’m watching “The Constant” right now, arguably the best episode of LOST’s season 4, and debatably the best episode of the entire series.

Theory:

You can’t help but think that Desmond’s adventure through time and his desperate attempt to connect with Penelope Widmore is going to be integral to the series finale, and tie up the entire show. If you’ve seen the episode, you’ve got to wonder if this is not just a charming sci-fi love story, but something more. A foreshadowing of the time/place shift that perhaps the Island has now gone through.

The island moved when Ben released the same kind of electromagnetic energy that occurred when Desmond unlocked the fail-safe down in the Hatch. Desmond, after surviving the event, became unstuck in time (his first experience in this is not his flashes, but in the episode “Flashes Before Your Eyes” (Season 3, Episode 8). Leaving the island aggravates this and without a constant, Desmond’s sanity unravels until he can reach Penny in the future.

At the end of season 4, the island moves. That same electromagnetic energy that unsticks Desmond in time has moved the Island. If in the episode “The Constant”, it’s revealed that when things become unstuck in time they need constants, that could be a VERY IMPORTANT clue as to why the Island requires all that left the Island to return to it together, as a Constant for the Island.

Just a thought.

I love this episode. The editing, acting, music, and the importance the story itself carries, not just for two characters but for the overall schematic of the show, is incredible. And the fact that every LOST fan I know cried at the end of this episode speaks something about the ability of the show creators and the writers to make us care for the characters in the cast who we’ve seen maybe the least over the last four years, but who feel like maybe, by the end of the show… they may end up being the most important characters of all.

I could watch this episode over and over, and yet…

I know that because they put so much dramatic emphasis on Penny and Desmond’s separation and their promises to stay true, constant and find one another…

I am pretty such they will be disrupted soon in season five and driven apart. We know Ben is looking to kill Penny, and Widmore really hates Desmond, and would like nothing more than to use Desmond’s knowledge of the island and then dispose of him.

5 days until the new season begins. CAN. NOT. WAIT.

LOST
4ª TEMPORADA | EPISÓDIO 05
THE CONSTANT

CURIOSIDADES
__________________________

Gerais

* Este é o primeiro episódio a não conter flashbacks nem flashfowards. Além disto, Desmond está consciente de que está viajando entre 1996 e 2004 no contexto da narrativa do tempo presente.

o No espisódio centrado em Desmond Flashes Before Your Eyes também há uma “viagem no tempo” mas através de um flashback muito lúcido.

* O número de telefone de Penny em Londres é 7946 0893.

o 020 7946 0893 é uma pista bônus da Temporada 4 no ARG Find 815 (Find 815)

o Apesar de parecer um número de telefone do Reino Unido em Londres é um número inválido (Ofcom especifica que números iniciados com 020 7946 0 são para fins artísticos [1]).

* O endereço de Penny é 423 Cheyne Walk em Londres.

o 423 Cheyne Walk é uma pista bônus da Temporada 4 no ARG Find 815 (Find 815)

o É próximo do local onde foi tirada a fotografia de Desmond com Penny. Além disto a Widmore Industries tem escritórios na mesma vizinhança. (“Flashes Before Your Eyes”).

o Cheyne Walk é uma rua famosa de Londres conhecida por seus moradores famosos. Dentre os residentes encontram-se Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, George Eliot, Dante Rossetti e Henry James (que escreveu The Turn of the Screw).

* Queen’s College, Department of Physics e Southfield é uma pista bônus da Temporada 4 no ARG Find 815 (Find 815)

* O diário de bordo que Charles Widmore compra no leilão é o mesmo diário a que se refere Oscar Talbot no capítulo 5 do ARG Find 815. Talbot trabalhou para uma divisão da Widmore Corporation e disse que seus empregados possuiam o diário.

* O vendedor do diário de bordo chama-se Tovard Hanso.

* Após o leilão do Diário do Black Rock, alguns percentes de Charles Dickens são oferecidos para lances.

* De acordo com o calendário na parede, assim como o próprio Desmond, os eventos em tempo real deste episódio acontecem no dia 94 (Véspera de Natal) quando Sayid, Desmond e Frank deixam a ilha. Isto acontece enquanto é Dia 94 no Cargueiro e é Dia 96 na Ilha.

* Camp Millar é uma pista bônus no ARG Find 815 (Find 815)

* Kevin Durand, que representa Keamy, esteve no filme Smokin’ Aces com Matthew Fox e Nestor Carbonell. Esteve também no filme Wild Hogs com M.C. Gainey e Walking Tall Michael Bowen

* Na Bíblia, Daniel, como Daniel Faraday, é conhecido por suas habilidades na interpretação de sonhos (Desmond diz ao Sargento que teve um sonho).

* O telefone que Sayid conecta à bateria é um Lineman Handset (parece com um Harris TS22).

* Jeremy Davies, que representa Daniel Faraday, também representou Tom-Tom, personagem principal no dilme “The Million Dollar Hotel.” Tom-Tom é apaixonado por uma mulher chamada Eloise. Da mesma forma, o personagem de Davies, Faraday, é intimamente relacionado a outra Eloise: a ratazana de laboratório.

* Minkowski menciona que na Sala de Rádio do navio havia uma luz piscando indicando chamadas de Penny, muito semelhante às que apareceram na sala de comunicação da Looking Glass.

* Desmond tenta prender a atenção de Penelope e diz como esteve (está) perdido num marco no mar é remanescente do The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

* Fisher Stevens (George Minkowski) representou Chuck Fishman no programa Early Edition. O programa era sobre um homem, Gary Hobson, que “pega o jornal de amanhã hoje”. Hobson tentava prevenir acontecimentos ruins do dia seguinte de acontecerem.

* Fisher Stevens, que representa Minkowski, participou em 1985 do filme de ficção científica My Science Project, que era sobre outras dimensões e viagem no tempo.

* Fisher Stevens também estrelou na adaptação para o cinema de Super Mario Bros. que era sobre dimensões paralelas.

* Assim que o helicóptero se aproxima do cargueiro uma placa próxima a área de aterrissagem indicava o nome do navio: ‘Kahana’.

* A maioria das anotações no quadro de Daniel e seu bloco de anotações são notas (introdutórias) sobre Teoria Restrita ou Especial da Relatividade e Teoria da Relatividade, com algumas referências a mecânica quântica.

o Teoria Restrita ou Especial da Relatividade trata sobre contrações e dilatações do espaço e do tempo

o Teoria da Relatividade trata sobre a curvatura do espaço e do tempo

o Há evidências de Relatividade Geral e Especial na Ilha – Faraday as apontou (e seu experimento com a carga), há uma contração do tempo quando se entra ou se sai da Ilha, talvez devido ao efeito relativo (que não se compreende ainda). Os autores também podem estar construindo uma idéia de “buraco de minhoca” (vile vortices?), que devem ter relação com Relatividade Geral.

* Michael Faraday foi um químico, físico e filósofo do Século XIX. Foi um grande estudioso do eletromagnetismo destacando-se neste campo e ficando conhecido mundialmente.

Notas de Produção

* Ben, Claire, Hurley, Jin, Kate, Locke, Michael, Miles, Sawyer e Sun não aparecem nesse episódio.

* Esse episódio mostra o menor número de personagens originais até hoje – apenas Jack e Sayid aparecem. Também nesse episódio, aparecem apenas 6 personagens principais, junto com “The Man from Tallahassee” e atrás de “A Tale of Two Cities”, “Not in Portland” e “Stranger in a Strange Land”, que tem 5 personagens principais cada.

* As cenas no campo militar foram filmadas em Diamond Head.

* O cachorro visto na Universidade de Oxford quando Desmond encontra Daniel parece ser o mesmo cachorro usado para a pintura do quadro de Jacob.

Erros de Gravação/Continuidade

* No mapa do helicóptero você pode observar duas versões diferentes do cargueiro no mapa. A segunda das versões tem duas linhas desenhada.

* Em 1996 os números de telefones em Londres tinham apenas 7 dígitos (eles mudaram para oito dígitos quando os códigos de área mudaram de 0171 e 0181 para 020 no ano de 2000)[3]). Assim em 1996 o número do telefone de Penny seria 946 0893 (ou 0171 946 0893).

* Na lousa do escritório de Daniel podemos ver um a equação de Schrodinger para o tempo de evolução da função de uma onda. Porém, esta equação tem um erro. A equação deveria ser :math, ao invés de: math.

* Quando Desmond está na cabine telefônica e olha para sua mão, você pode ver que seus dedos estão murchos, um efeito que não pode acontecer apenas por chuva natural.

* O mapa até o cargueiro parece conter várias formas de medidas: 40 Milhas N @ 305, 7 Kelvin Leste.

* Quando Desmond deixa a casa de Penny ele é mostrado indo embora enquanto está ligando para Penny no barco ao mesmo tempo. Por continuidade, ele deveria ter caído na rua ao invés de continuar andando.

o Seu problema com o tempo pode ter sido curado nesse ponto. Pois ele havia conseguido fazer contado com a sua constante.

Temas Recorrentes

* Desmond viajou pelo tempo entre 1996 e 2004 — 8 anos de diferença.

* Penny mora em Cheyne Walk, 423 (4-23 ou 42-3)

* A frequência que Faraday dá a Desmond é 2.342 (23, 42)

* O número do lote do leilão do Diário do Black Rock é 2342.

* Faraday diz que, enquanto Desmond estava catatônico em sua sala em Oxford, 75 minutos se passaram. Desmond teve a sensação de se passarem apenas 5 minutos. A razão 75:5 é equivalente à 15:1.

o No leilão, Widmore possui o número 755, o mesmo número da razão acima.

* Outro número no leilão, 887, é um número primo. Somando 8+8+7 dá 23.
* Somando o número de Widmore com esse outro número: 755+887=1642.

* Charlotte obteve seu doutorado em Oxford. Daniel lecionou lá.

* Minkowski é incapaz de achar uma constante e morre por isso. Por outro lado, Desmond é capaz de achar a sua constante (Penelope) e evita a morte. (Vida e Morte). A constante de Minkowski, também chamado de Teorema de Minkowski, é o fundamento da teoria geométrica dos números.

Referências Culturais

* VALIS: Nesse romance de Philip K. Dick, visto no episódio anterior, o personagem principal Horselover Fat (uma versão do autor Philip Dick), fica exposto a um laser rosa que dá a ele conhecimentos entendidos como sendo de Deus. Essa ‘informação realista’ revela detalhes do futuro.

* Slaughterhouse Five: Desmond confidencia os sonhos militares dele para o amigo militar Billy. Billy Pilgrim é o personagem principal em Slaughterhouse Five, o segundo capítulo começa com o narrador, “Escute: Billy Pilgrim tornou-se solto no tempo.”; Daniel disse que irá soltar Eloise no tempo.

o Billy Pilgrim vê o futuro e até mesmo prevê a própria morte; Desmons previu a morte de Charlie e outros eventos da Ilha.

* Charles Dickens: Após o leilão do diário do Black Rock, alguns objetos pertencentes a Charles Dickens foram colocados a leilão.

* Bíblia: Desmond diz ao sargento que teve um sonho. Como Daniel Faraday, o profeta bíblico Daniel é conhecido por ter habilidade em interpretar sonhos.     * O Hotel de Um Milhão de Doláres: Nesse filme do ano 2000, o personagem de Jeremy Davies está apaixonado por Eloise. Aqui, o nome do animal de estimação de Jeremy Davies é Eloise.

* Cloverfield: Quando Minkowski sai da sua paranóia, ele diz que estava em “uma roda gigante”. Isso pode ser uma referência ao filme produzido por J.J. Abrams e escrito por Drew Goddard, Cloverfield, que termina em uma roda gigante.

Técnicas Literárias

* Esse episódio é o primeiro a não ter nem flashback nem flashforward. Ao invés, a consciência de Desmond viajando entre 1996 e 2004 junto com o contexto presente da narrativa.

o O episódio central de Desmond, “Flashes Before Your Eyes” também teve viajem no tempo, mas no contexto de um flashback de dura quase todo o episódio.

* Minkowski diz que ele não pode voltar.     * Em 1996, o oficial de Desmond pergunta por que ele demorou tanto para chegar em sua marca, o que é uma relação direta com o presente, ao helicóptero estar demorando muito para chegar ao cargueiro.

* Em 1996, Daniel deseja saber se o seu “futuro Daniel” sabe sobre o encontro com Desmond, ao que Desmond diz que Daniel provavelmente esqueceu. Daniel responde sarcasticamente, “Sim, como isso iria acontecer?” Daniel sofreria de perda de memória mais tarde.

Fonte: Lostpédia

“The Constant”

Season Four, Episode Five

Airdate: February 28th, 2008

It should come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog, or watched Lost’s fourth season, that “The Constant” makes it into Cultural Learnings’ 2008 Television Time Capsule. The story of Desmond Hume’s altered state, trapped between his time on the island and a period years earlier shortly after his breakup with Penny, the episode is the very definition of what made the fourth season of Lost one of its best.

The reason is found in the episode’s seamless integration of heavy science fiction subjects (radiation-driven time travel) with the show’s most powerful love story. Ever since his flashes began, Desmond has been the character most often directly involved with the science fiction, and on some shows such characters feel like tools, less characters than tools of exposition. But at the same time, Desmond unrequited love with Penny has been one of the show’s most enduring storylines.

The two storylines meet in near perfect harmony in “The Constant.” They each alter one another in the right way: the element of time travel is made more understandable when their relationship is caught in between it, while their relationship, although already compelling, becomes even more remarkable when it is able to transcend both space and time.

While there may be some disagreement about whether or not the show’s finale delivered on the season’s promise, I don’t feel as if anyone could argue that its most emotional moment called back not to Jack and Kate’s flashforward but rather this episode’s pivotal moment, the phone call that will go down as one of the show’s most powerful sequences.

YouTube: The Phone Call

And, as a result, “The Constant” shall enter the Time Capsule as a sign that Lost has continued to evolve: always a science fiction show driven by its characters, those two parts of its identity had never been in such stunning partnership before this episode. As we prepare for the show’s fifth season (which starts January 21st on ABC), I have perhaps an unreasonable confidence that this is the benchmark towards which Lindelof and Cuse will again strive.

Let’s hope I’m right.

Related Posts at Cultural Learnings

• Cultural Learnings’ Coverage of Lost
• Assessing the Contenders: Lost – “The Constant”

[For more details on the Cultural Learnings 2008 Television Time Capsule, click here!]

La revista Time ha elegido a “The Constant“, el quinto episodio de la cuarta temporada de Perdidos, como el mejor episodio de la televisión norteamericana en 2008 en una de sus habituales listas.

Daniel y Desmond en 1996

Por una vez estoy de acuerdo con el premiado de este Top Ten. Sin duda, “The Constant” es el episodio más sorprendente de toda la serie y el primero en confirmar lo que todos sospechábamos durante los meses previos al estreno de esta temporada y que tantas páginas generó en los foros: los viajes en el tiempo. A eso le añades una importante carga dramática y un final intrigante, y ya tienes el mejor capítulo de la televisión norteamericana del año.

No os cuento más detalles del capítulo para no hacer spoiler (si no lo habéis visto, hacedlo), aunque arriba tenéis el enlace a Lostpedia en español para los curiosos.

Visto en alt1040.

These are my personal favourites of what I think are the best TV episodes of the year.  The pattern continues because all choices are only from two shows.  Though they are my favourite two TV shows at the moment.  You might find these choices bias but I don’t think anyone can deny that these episodes deserve to be on a list like this.  Remember these do contain spoilers.

5) Parricide – The Shield

If you read my review of the episode you’ll know what I felt about this episode.  I raved about how it was the best episode of the season and it was up until that point.  It is one of the finest episodes of the show.  It keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout as you see Shane trying to fix the situation he has caused.  The acting in this episode is phenomenal, especially from Walton Goggins.  This is the moment that lays the foundations for the remaining episodes of the season.  This is the beginning of the end of the remaining members of The Strike Team.

4) There’s No Place Like Home Part 2/3 – Lost

I know these are two episodes but they were aired in one go so I’m including this as one episode.  Watching them separately would have been agony but they were written to be viewed together so I’m classing it as one episode.  The finale of season 4 of Lost is full of action, emotional and answers to questions we’ve had for a while.  The culmination of my favourite season of the show.  Lost knows how to do season finales well and this is no different.

3) Possible Kill Screen – The Shield

The penultimate episode of the show sets up the finale brilliantly.  You’re exhausted by the end of the episode.  Michael Chiklis and CCH Pounder are exceptional in this episode.  Vic confesses all of his past deeds to Olivia so he can get his immunity.  While Claudette walks in and finds out the man she’s been trying to send to prison will walk free of all his past crimes.  You won’t find better acting from Chiklis in his confession scene.

2) The Constant – Lost

Time put this choice at number 1 and well my number 1 choice they put at numer 2.  I thought hard about these final two episodes and wondered what positions they would get.  I loved both of these episodes.  I shed tears at both of these episodes.  Lost’s fifth episode of season 4 was exceptional.  My favourite episode of the enitre show.  This episode will leave you emotional while confussing the hell out of you as you try to figure out what you just watched.  Exceptional television even if you’re a fan or not.

1) Family Meeting – The Shield

You’ll know my feelings on the final episode if you’ve read my review.  There’s not much else for me to say as why this is my number one choice.  It’s The Shield, this had to be my number one.  One of the finest series finales to one of the finest television shows in history.  Everything was wrapped up beautifully while some things we left open to our imaginations.  By the end you don’t feel sad that it’s over, you feel privileged to have been part of a wonderful TV show.

These are my personal choices of films and television shows that emotionally drained me as  a viewer.  Some of these choices are quite typical and probably not unexpected from previous statements I have made.

5) The Wire Marathon

I had never seen a full episode of The Wire before this year.  I once in 2007 viewed the first twenty minutes or so of the pilot episode and didn’t think much.  I vowed to myself to get to watch it because of all the praise the show had gotten.  I had it in my head that this was just a show that was overhyped.  I started to watch the first season and a few episodes in, I started to believe I was right.  Nothing stood out to me as this being the “best TV show in history.”

Once I was done with the first season, I knew this show wasn’t overhyped.  The praise the show got was deserved.  I went on to season 2 and loved it more so than the first.  I couldn’t get enough of The Wire.  Over the summer I just ploughed through all five seasons back to back.  It was a great experience but one which drained my emotionally.

4) Lost Season 4 Finale

The final of season 4 was amazing.  Epic was the right term at the time.  Everything came together beautifully.  We got the answers of how the Oceanic 6 got off the island.  We witnessed a reunion in which we never expected to happen so soon.  Plus we found out who was in the coffin.  An action packed finale which was great to watch.  Though once it was over you just wanted more.

3) The Constant

The best episode of Lost season 4 and probably my favourite episode of the entire show.  Everyone who finished watching this episode was emotionally drained.  If you didn’t at least tear up at the phone conversation between Desmond and Penny then you are a robot.  One of the finest hours of television I have ever watched, an hour I never wanted to end.

2) The Dark Knight

I try to go to the cinema often, over the past year I’ve frequented the cinema more so than ever in my life.  I’ve seen many films and I consider I have a decent opinion when it comes to films.  Most films I go and see at the cinema nowadays disappoint.  Many of my favourite films are from the 80’s and 90’s.  Not many films made now can rival those movies.  After the credits rolled, I walked out of The Dark Knight and I was at a loss for words.

Here was a film that I had hyped up for months beforehand but somehow those expectations I had were supassed.  I honestly cannot remember when the last time that happened.  The sheer ballsiness of the film reminded me of when I finished watching Terminator 2 for the first time.  Here was a sequel that was superior to it’s original and I loved Batman Begins with a passion.  I saw heart and soul in The Dark Knight.  That heart and soul came from Nolan and all of the actors who wanted to make this film great.  An amazing cinema experience.

1) The Shield Finale

I try not to put Shield related things in my number 1 spot in all of these but I’m only being honest and I”m not showing any favouritism.  If we’re talking about being emotionally drained then this has to be my number 1.

You can name every emotion and I felt them all while watching the final episode of The Shield.  Once that final song comes on along with the montage, it got to me.  I’m quite an emotional guy anyway but that set me off and I had tears in my eyes.  Call me a wuss and I honestly don’t give a fuck.  Those were tears of joy because of how fucking awesome this show was.  Seven years coming to an end, it’s always sad to see your favourite television show finish.  Seven years of emotion coming to an end.

Last season, we were treated to the concept of constants. Desmond and Daniel …seemingly, Ben and Widmore…perhaps Jack and Locke and Aaron and Claire. Now, another possible “team” has come to mind : Michael and Jin.

Michael and Jin were very antagonistic to each other from minute one. They had their share of fist fights and “misunderstandings” . However, they eventually became very close friends. But was it more than that? Did they “need” each other, according to ” The Rules”? Were they each other’s “constant”?

Jin’s devotion to Michael was strong. He had risked his life on several occasions for his friend. This steadfastness even interfered with his marital relationship with Sun. So, when Jin wouldn’t leave the freighter when it was packed with explosives, was it because of something more than “loyalty” (especially considering Michael’s “indiscretion” of murdering Ana Lucia and Libby) ? And is this why, if they are both dead, that they met their demise simultaneously? (And thinking along those lines, were Ana and Libby each other’s constant?)

Considering this poses another question: Do constants have to be in reciprocating “pairs”? Now, Daniel wrote in his book that Des is his constant. And we assume that Penny is Desmond’s constant. But, if “they all have to go back” , maybe Daniel is Desmond’s constant too (or perhaps his only constant) ? Maybe Mrs. Hawking is right about Desmond not marrying Penny and that the only great thing that he will ever do is push that button (and “saving the world”). That would be heartbreaking, because I love their relationship. But if this is the case, the “death” of Des&Pen may be another “sacrifice that the Island demanded”.

So, if constants or ” Our Mutual Friends” is how it works, are all the Losties “paired up” for survival? And, out of necessity, can they switch constants? Can you have multiple constants…or does that defeat the purpose and urgency of being a constant? What happens if you lose your constant? If you do, is there a constant “warrantee” that you can replace the one you have if something goes wrong? And if you do become a constant, do you have to invest in 80’s skinny ties (or being a lady, perhaps aerobic workout headbands)?

So many questions…so many more questions coming in January.

Woo Hoo! LOST has racked up 7 Emmy nominations this year. They are as follows….

1.) Best Series, Dramatic : LOST

2.) Best Supporting Actor in a Dramatic Series : Michael Emerson as Ben

3.) Outstanding Cinematography for a One Hour Series: Lost * ” The Constant” * ABC *ABC Studios, John Bartley A.S.C. C. S.C., Director of Photography

4.) Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing for a Dramatic Series: LOST, ” There’s No Place Like Home (Parts 2 & 3), ABC * ABC Studios
Henk Van Eeghan , Editor
Robert Fiorio, Editor
Mark J. Goldman, Editor
Stephen Semel, Editor

5.) Outstanding Music Composition For a Series (Original Dramatic Score) Lost * The Constant* ABC* ABC Studios, Michael Giacchino, Music By

6.) Outstanding Sound Editing For a Series : Lost * The Shape of Things to Come* ABC * ABC Studios
Thomas deGroter, M.P.S.E , Supervising Sound Editor
Paul Fairfield, M.P.S.E., Sound Editor
Carla Murray, M.P.S.E. ,Sound Editor
Maciek Malish, M.P.S.E , Sound Editor
Lloyd Jay Keiser, Sound Editor
Joseph Schultz, Sound Editor
Jim Bailey, Foley Artist
Cynthia Merrill, Foley Artist
Alex Levy, Music Editor

7.) Outstanding Sound Mixing For a Comedy or Drama Series: Lost * Meet Kevin Johnson* ABC * ABC Studios
Robert Anderson, Production Mixer
Frank Morrone, Re-Recording Mixer
Scott Weber, Re-Recording Mixer

Update: Listening to Ryan and Jen of The Transmission podcast ( and I believe they also mentioned it on LOST Unlocked podcast) that LOST Mobisodes were nominated for an Emmy in a new catagory specifically for this new media. I didn’t see it on the official Emmys list when I was typing it up. But I must have missed it. So, congratulations on another nomination!

When people predict the Emmy Awards, they predict the big awards: the ones with names we recognize, the ones that we’ll see on TV, and the ones that we’ll remember when the show is over. However, there are dozens of Emmy Awards given out each year, and when the nominees are announced Emmy fantatics like me will be poring over the epic list looking not just for the usual suspects but rather some of the trends that emerge elsewhere.

And it’s really a question of trends more than individual categories – I can’t possibly predict a category like Best Direction in a Comedy Series, but I can tell you who is likely to be kicking around and what kind of shows will perform well in the category. It’s one last bit of Emmy coverage before we head into tomorrow, where I’ll have live coverage of the nominations themselves followed by the full list of nominees and full analysis of how things went down. In the meantime, let’s discuss the “Other” awards, ranging from writing to directing, guest acting to individual performance, and everything in between.

Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series

Trend: The category is usually used to represent the best in episodic television along with the year’s standout pilots. It’s considered one of the best categories, mainly because of said high quality.

Changes: Unlike last year, there’s no show that is going to dominate with a large number of episodes in the tradition of The Sopranos – only Mad Men has a chance at that.

Watch for: Lost’s “The Constant” seems like a lock unless something goes hideously wrong (Even last year, with the show snubbed, they won a nomination for “Through the Looking Glass,” while the Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Damages pilots might represent new series on the list.

Repeat Offenders: Ronald D. Moore was a surprise nominee for Battlestar Galactica last year, so he could be back. Meanwhile, since three Sopranos episodes made the cut last year, there’s room for some returns – David Simon is likely back in the race for the finale of The Wire, for example.

Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series

Trend: A huge, expansive category representing quality drama pilots and standout segments of established series.

Changes: We don’t know if we’ll see yet another seven nomination kudos list, but if we do it means more of the same from the Academy.

Watch for: In terms of the year’s pilots, it’s a pretty safe bet you’ll see cinematic Damages and intoxicating Mad Men on this list (Alan Taylor, who directed the Mad Men pilot, won for The Sopranos last year). As far as other series go, expect Lost’s Jack Bender to pop up again.

Repeat Offenders: Battlestar Galactica could see another nomination here, but Heroes and Friday Night Lights are likely both going to miss the cut. There could be other series, however, that would be more than willing to step in and fill the gap (The Wire and Dexter, in particular).

Outstanding Guest Acting in a Drama Series

Trends: We’ve got the Actor Top 10, but Actress remains a mystery, but it’s the usual: few if any performers are under 50, and the chances of a relevant win seem unlikely.

Changes: Not much, although as usual there’s a lot of turnover considering the expanse of the categories.

Watch for: Although the actors remain stalwart, there’s room for some younger actresses – Amy Ryan is competing here for The Wire, and then you have two House women. Anne Dudek deserves recognition for her amazing work as Amber on the series, while Mira Sorvino feels a safe bet for her turn in “Frozen.” On the male side, Robert O’Toole’s hammy turn on Mad Men and Keith Carradine’s steely FBI man on Dexter seem likely nominees.

Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series

Trend: A large number of episodes from televisions most successful sitcoms combined with the usual love for showy pilots.

Changes: Considering that 30 Rock and The Office dominated last year, this will be more of the same – the two shows remain stalwarts in this category although there’s room for a bit more new blood.

Watch for: Pushing Daisies is the category’s biggest lock, a fantatic pilot script from Bryan Fuller that really drove the pilot’s success, and there’s an outside chance of a show like Californication breaking into the race. However, I’m be happier to see them follow drama’s lead and represent less Emmy-driven series like How I Met Your Mother.

Repeat Offenders: In terms of 30 Rock and The Office, expect episodes to include “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Cooter,” “Greenzo” for the former while the latter should see “Goodbye, Toby” as its main contender.

Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series

Trend: Single-Camera comedies with either gimmicks or popularity break into this category, along with a pilot or two.

Changes: Don’t expect to see Scrubs back considering it doesn’t have a big musical episode to submit, but otherwise the rest of the candidates from last year (Office, Entourage, Betty, 30 Rock) seem like contenders.

Watch for: Again, Pushing Daisies is the frontrunner here with Barry Sonnenfeld’s expansive and wondrous work on the pilot episode. Elsewhere, this will be a real test of Betty’s staying power in the face of shows like Weeds.

Repeat Offenders: Curb Your Enthusiasm is totally different in tone, with its improvisation and all, than anything else on the list, so expect it to find a spot here in this category (And since it kind of represents both writing/directing in one for the show).

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series

Trend: Usually, it’s a selection of Extras “As themselves” nominees combined with guest stars on otherwise spurned shows like Monk and My Name is Earl.

Changes: But that all changes, with Extras out of commission, right? Wrong, probably – Monk still expects strong representation, although 30 Rock has all of the buzz at the end of with its strong stable of performances.

Watch for: Of the 30 Rock contenders, Will Arnett and Matthew Broderick feel like locks, but watch for fan favourite Dean Winters and David Schwimmer as well. Meanwhile, Victor Garber is a potential nominee for a rather lame little Ugly Betty role, and I don’t mind – he never won for Alias, give the man an Emmy.

Repeat Offenders: Alfred Molina could be Monk’s contender on the evening, while Beau Bridges should be back for his turn as Earl and Randy’s father on My Name is Earl.

Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series

Trend: From last year, it’s a lot of seasoned performers and a few flashy names doing showy work on series that either aren’t straight comedies or leave plenty of room for drama.

Changes: But this is all about to change with the domination of 30 Rock and the backlash against Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty seen in other categories.

Watch for: The 30 Rock trio of Edie Falco, Carrie Fisher and last year’s winner Elaine Stritch seems unstoppable, although I’d argue Fisher is the weak link. Elsewhere, I’ll be downright angry if the Academy ignores the amazing work of Amy Ryan on the Office finale.

Repeat Offenders: Still, there’s no counting out the various Desperate Housewives mothers and someone like Annie Potts, who has a hammy turn on Ugly Betty (Which logged two nominees in this category last year).

Outstanding Variety Series/Performance

Trend: The best of Late Night for the former, with the best of elderly concert performers in the latter.

Changes: Not much, although this year’s likely concert nominee is much younger – Justin Timberlake looks like the spoiler.

Watch for: Tracey Ullman has a showy cable series in play, and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert remain contenders alongside Bill Maher and David Letterman.

Repeat Offenders: And while everyone is talking about Heath Ledger, George Carlin is likely to grab his own posthumous Emmy nomination for both his special and his performance – he’s been nominated before, and the respect for the man should get him represented here.

Other Awards

• When it comes to art design, art direction, special effects, and all other similar awards, Pushing Daisies is expect to rack up an enormous set of nominations that will look great in press releases.
• Outstanding Music and Lyrics, won last year by “Dick in a Box,” could see a repeat comedy winner with either of the Jimmy Kimmel/Sarah Silverman/Damon/Affleck saga songs, although expect fantastic Flight of the Conchords to rack up the most nominations in the category for the original material written for the series.
• As far as Music Composition in a Series goes, any TV watcher who gives a damn should be frustrated if Michael Giacchino (Lost) and Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica) aren’t on the final list – their work this year has been superlative, and the TV community hopefully is taking notice.
• Speaking of BSG, expect it to pop up in the Visual Effects category again, especially for some of the continued amazing work seen in the Fourth Season (Even if, unfortunately, the amazing work in “The Hub” aired after the nomination period, the early season space battles will be more than enough).
• I’m ignoring Miniseries/TV Movie here mainly because I just have no idea, but expect representation from HBO’s John Adams – for me personally, I really enjoyed Recount, and am rooting for Laura Dern and Kevin Spacey.

Lost (ABC)

Episode: “The Constant”

During its resurgence in creative vision during the latter portion of its third season, Lost had a number of highpoints. “Flashes Before Your Eyes” was a complex journey into the series’ murky but fascinating science, “Greatest Hits” was a character piece capable of completely changing the audience’s view of Charlie, and “Through the Looking Glass” used the show’s own conventions against itself for one of the most effective season cliffhangers in a long time.

And yet I think “The Constant,” the fifth episode of Lost’s fourth season, is better than all of them.

Now, I don’t make this statement in spite of those other episodes, but rather out of appreciation: “The Constant” borrows all of their various elements but manages to weave them into a single, cohesive hour of television. It is an episode that, although capable of standing on its own outside the context of the series, also represents the various parts which define the series’ high quality. It is what everything was building towards, the kind of episode that a show can only earn with hard work and practice.

And the final product of all of that work is Lost’s Emmy Submission this year, and it might well be the deciding factor in getting the show it’s second nomination or win in the category.

I never got to review “The Constant” when it aired – Lost’s return sadly coincided with a period in which I was working diligently on my thesis, and as a result was watching more than writing when it comes to television. However, I remember watching the episode for the first time and knowing that I was watching something special.

In terms of being an episode of the series, it’s a fascinating combination of the above cited themes and ideas. If “Flashes Before Your Eyes” was too much theory for its own good, a point I’ve seen argued with varying success, then this was the better use of those ideas. Rather than feeling like anything close to an information dump, here Desmond’s flashes were integral story points and were allowed to fully drive the episode’s momentum. Yes, they contained confusing pieces of science fiction in terms of Faraday’s time travel discussions (Which I’ll get into below), but it feels like a result of its setting versus the purpose of it.

YouTube: Desmond meets Faraday

And unlike “Flashes,” where Desmond was mostly playing around with his flashes, these ones had that dramatic momentum.  Like “Greatest Hits,” which framed Charlie’s flashbacks in a way that made them feel far more important than the admittedly quite bad ones in Season Two, it was about creating a story that would serve both the character and the nature of their flash structures. It creates a journey for a character in a single episode, and Henry Ian Cusick was more than up to the challenge in this example.

That journey is one of my favourite in the show’s history, the stunning and fantastic emotional journey of Desmond and Penny. It’s hard to imagine, when we first met this character in the Season Two premiere, that he would be the emotional centerpiece of the entire series. The relationship between this lost soul and the woman desperately searching for him is pure romance, long lost loves who share a connection. The episode is a journey into their relationship, and the dramatic weight of the idea of her being his constant, the thing that grounds him in reality and saves him in a time of need, is a perfect stepping stone for these characters. When the end of episode phone call takes place, it is amongst the show’s most emotional moment.

YouTube: The Phone Call

And he really is the entire episode: more than any other example, this episode is hinged on Desmond’s journeys into the past. They are the plot, the setting, the character development, and everything else you could imagine. The flashforwards had already revitalized this construct, but “The Constant” set a new bar. Here, they are literally holding one of our characters hostage, in danger of losing his life to the same fate as the boat’s radio operator – that kind of integration is something the show improved upon in the fourth season, particularly in the episode in question.

YouTube: Past and Present in “The Constant”

That Cusick didn’t make the Top 11 candidates in Supporting Actor is a real shame – he’s in almost 90% of this episode, and every single scene is knocked right out of the park. You buy everything about this character, from his insomniac concern over his surroundings to that amazing final phone call. Cusick is one of those cast additions that was just pitch perfect from beginning to end, and it’s a real pity that voters never got a chance to see his amazing work in this episode.

But some of them will – as mentioned, Lost’s producers submitted “The Constant” as its episode for the Best Drama Series race. While there is some argument whether it is the season’s best episode (Some argue, perhaps rightfully, that “The Shape of Things to Come” is the stronger episode of the series overall), I truly believe that this is the best possible submission that the show has ever had.

Now, some disagree with this: the episode features a rather complex theory of time travel, grounding itself in science fiction more than most episodes of the show, so some think that voters would be “confused.”

First and foremost, I would argue that the emotional core of the episode is stronger than its scientific background, and would win out in voters’ minds at the end of the day. However, at the same time, I also think that confusion is actually the point of the episode: whereas past submissions have been more dependent on knowledge of the show, here our protagonist literally knows nothing about anything. Our window into the episode is in the same position as those poor panelists who aren’t watching the series to begin with. In other words, the episode has a built-in framework for new viewers.

And we need to give Lindelof and Cuse some credit here: although not simple by any means, I thought their definition of time travel (Here being “Stuck” in time) was fantastic, and really worked in the episode. Unlike the show’s previous examples of this, this was practically shown and given real ramifications, rather than a mystical old woman waxing poetic about it. Voters see the theory work before their very eyes, something that should help ease any of those concerns.

But this isn’t an episode about time travel, but an episode about an epic love story and a character’s highly personal journey. It isn’t an episode that furthers the season’s overall plot, but rather an episode that displays the series’ ability to create a compelling story that adds to the overall mythology without relying on it. With amazing work on technical aspects from Director Jack Bender and composer Michael Giacchino, “The Constant” looks and sounds like one of the best episodes of television all year.

And they don’t lie: with any justice, it’ll also be the episode that gets Lost back into Emmy’s biggest category.

Cultural Observations

• I also have to acknowledge a great performance from Jeremy Davies, whose work as Faraday was pretty much fantastic all season. He never got a real showcase episode, robbed by the strike-shortened season, but this is a character I can’t wait to see more from in the future.
• Next up for Drama Series is Mad Men, which is finally a submission that I’ve review on the blog before and can thus get up fairly quick. I’ll be doing Comedy tomorrow.

La interesante industria de Hollywood tiene como heredera hoy en día a la televisión estadounidense. La gente que antes adoraba a Marilyn Monroe o a Humphrey Bogart, hoy perseguiría a Sarah Jessica Parker o a Hugh Laurie. Los actores más listillos del cine hacen su éxodo a la televisión, y a los de las series no les cuesta demasiado conseguir sus papeles en las películas más tontunas, esas que les dan dinerillo.

Y a mí me encanta esa industria, por supuesto, más en estas fechas, cuando adquiere mayor protagonismo. Y es que la ansiada palabra “renovación” es el premio para las series más exitosas entre una masa ingente de productos mediocres (he dicho industria, y eso es lo que es, al más puro estilo Hollywood). Claro que hay excepciones, no todas las series son “normalillas”: otras son malas. Y las hay buenas, claro.

Pero sean como sean, son lo más interesante que llega del otro lado del charco en productos audiovisuales. Os voy a hablar de las series que he visto esta temporada (estadounidenses, ya lo digo, las británicas me las dejo en el tintero, porque están en otro nivel), una temporada marcada por la catastrófica huelga de guionistas que ha causado temporadas incompletas, cojas, malas y cortas:

• HOUSE

Sería una tontería decir que no veo esta serie. De acuerdo, no me la descargo, como todas las demás, ni la sigo a ritmo USA ni nada… Pero pocos son los capítulos que me he perdido en Cuatroº. Y de hecho ya sé cómo termina la temporada. He de decir que me dio buena espina desde el principio el cambio de rutina que habría en esta cuarta entrega del doctor más carismático de la televisión. Cambiaría a sus ya caducos tres pupilos (nunca fueron santo de mi devoción) por un “casting” de ayudantes, a lo Risto-Sádico-Mejide & triunfitos. Se sabía que, cantasen bien o mal, House maltrataría a sus “pretendientes”, y eso podría ser muy divertido. Y de hecho lo ha sido.

Las aburridas historias autoconclusivas y predecibles (nunca sabes qué enfermedad va a ser, pero sí está clarísimo que lo descubrirán a última hora y salvarán al paciente SIEMPRE) se han hecho más dinámicas, gracias a esos juegos entre personajes que siempre han sido lo mejor en la serie. Un 8 para la 4ª temporada de House. Y por supuesto su indudable renovación.

• GREY’S ANATOMY

El culebrón médico se está agotando. Es su cuarta temporada, y el dramatismo que ha adquirido no ha gustado nada a los fans. De hecho, éstos llevan mosqueados desde que acabó la 3ª temporada, con ese genial final que dejaba todas las tramas colgadas, y al espectador a lágrima viva (gracias a Sandra Oh, absolutli). Pero los fans mandan, y la creadora Shonda Rhimes no tardó en prometer una 4ª temporada divertidísima, pa troncharse.

Pa troncharse la promesa, vamos. Y es que, tras un final así y unas tramas tan críticas, era imposible hacer una comedia como lo fue su buenísima 1ª temporada. Había que redirigir el barco. Y aún así, buenas carcajadas me arrancaron los primeros episodios de la temporada. Introdujeron algún que otro personaje bastante bueno (para mí, la hermanastra Lexie ha sido todo un acierto, no así para los fans), recondujeron alguna trama. Pero siguieron conviertiendo a la protagonista en un personaje subnormal y crispante. Han jugado con su evolución, algo que se supone que debe darse sutilmente y sin que el espectador se dé cuenta hasta el final. No, hicieron que lo rogásemos. ¡Por favor, evoluciona! Y no fue hasta tras el parón-huelga, que nos brindaron con esa evolución, forzada, por supuesto.

También han perdido mucho interés muchas de las historias médicas. Atrás quedaron tramas que enamoraban al espectador, tramas como la de Denny Duquette y su transplante, o el Dr. Burke y el problema de su mano para operar. No quiero ni acordarme de ese doble capítulo con el que entramos en la huelga, aburrido hasta la médula. Sin embargo, he de decir que ha sido una temporada irregular. Si bien la serie ha bajado su listón de calidad, sí ha habido muy buenos capítulos, sobre todo al principio y al final. Aunque hayan sido 3 de 17. Le doy un 6 a la temporada, y un ¡Vuelve, Addison! muy fuerte. Y acojo su renovación con el deseo de que se produzca un milagro y vuelvan a brindarnos con la genialidad de sus dos primeras temporadas.

• DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES

He aquí una de mis series preferidas por excelencia. Me encantó desde el primer anuncio que vi en TVE1, y aguanté sus dos primeras temporadas en la televisión pública como un campeón, con sus cambios de horario y todo. Con la tercera temporada fui más listo: descubrí que en versión original, siempre es mejor. Todo ventajas.

Si obviamos su original tratamiento, esta serie tiene dos puntos de interés: el culebrón, y el misterio de cada temporada. Si los misterios te aburren, puede gustarte el culebrón. Si no te gusta el culebrón… bueno, escoge otra serie. ¿Qué ha pasado en la 4ª temporada? Que el misterio era ya más de lo mismo. Si en la primera nos encontrábamos con una historia muy bien trazada, y además era la novedad, en la segunda aún no nos había dado tiempo a cansarnos de ello. Y en la tercera montaron una genial historia que incluía además a varios personajes principales.

Y de repente llega la cuarta. Una antigua vecina que vuelve, con una hija que no recuerda nada de su infancia en Wisteria Lane (quizá no es su verdadera hija, nos dice la intuición) y un padre desaparecido que creó algún que otro problema. Los personajes eran buenos, como siempre en esta serie. Pero el misterio no acababa de cuajar. Y tenía una evolución irregular. Un capítulo que daba un pasito pa-lante María, y dos capítulos en los que nos olvidábamos de ello. Así no había quien se interesase, oye.

La parte del culebrón ha tenido sus buenas tramas. El no-embarazo de Bree, la drogadicción de Mike, el cáncer de Lynnette… El tornado. Eso fue un soplo de aire fresco. Y entonces llegó la huelga. Y tras ella, un capítulo aburrido. Qué miedo me dio. Entonces lo empecé a notar. Cansancio. Las desesperadas tenían que ofrecer algo nuevo, o morirían. Hay series que, por su propia naturaleza, pueden durar más que otras. Ésta no es una de esas. Los culebrones venezolanos duran dos o tres meses, y con esa estructura mantienen a las abuelas pegadas al sillón. Los nuevos espectadores no necesitamos mucho más en realidad: sólo tramas interesantes y bien tratadas. Y si no dan para tanto, que no den.

Supongo que Marc Cherry, el creador de la serie, se dio cuenta. Y no tardó en anunciar una gran revolución en la serie: situarían al espectador cinco años más tarde, para la próxima temporada. Eso sí que me aterró. Se hablaba de flashbacks a lo Lost, de misterios del pasado, de lagunas interesantes. Y yo hablaba de suicidio. Sin embargo, cuando vi la season finale, me alivié: el salto en el tiempo está bien metido, el misterio de la temporada habría dado para mucho más, pero estaba bien finiquitarlo, y se presenta una nueva temporada interesante y divertida. Gabrielle (Eva Magnum Longoria) tiene dos hijas gordas y feas que le roban el maquillaje y la ropa de lujo. Así que me entregaré a ciegas a la 5ª temporada, tras una a la que le pongo un triste 7 (sigo insistiendo: es una de mis series preferidas).

• HEROES

Quizá una de las temporadas más decepcionantes. Si bien es cierto que no aburre, y que los personajes nuevos me interesaron, la trama no podía ser menos interesante. Empezando por Hiro en el pasado (cuántos minutos valiosos de mi vida desperdicié viendo esas escenas) y terminando por Claire y su noviete, sin olvidarnos del matrimonio Matt-Mohinder y su hijita.

De hecho, lo que más me gustó de la temporada fue la historia de Maya y Alejandro, con unos poderes que, sin duda, se podrían haber aprovechado mucho más.

Lo peor: ese final de Nathan, un déjà vu teniendo en cuenta que en la tercera temporada seguirá estando vivo. Que lo maten o que lo dejen vivir, pero estupideces como esa, no. Le doy un 4, un suspenso que los responsables de la serie saben que necesitaban, pues según ellos, están preparando una 3ª temporada genial. A ver si la renovación vale la pena.

• PUSHING DAISIES

Una de las revelaciones de la temporada, una serie que pinta interesante, y capaz de entretener y hacer pasar un buen rato. Las historias exentas de cualquier realismo del “tartero” que puede resucitar a los muertos durante un minuto (o atenerse a las consecuencias), enamorado de su primer amor, a la que resucitó pero no puede volver a tocar porque moriría al instante, siempre te hacen pasar unos 40 minutos divertidos. Además hay algún que otro número musical, y hay un toque a lo Tim Burton que siempre resulta interesante. Los nueve capítulos de la temporada, víctima de la huelga de guionistas, me supieron a poco, y veré la 2ª temporada, aunque tengo la sensación de que la idea no va a dar para mucho más. Un 7.

• HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER

Cuando acabé la 2ª temporada de esta comedia creía que ya no me gustaba. Ya no me reía tanto como al principio. Pero llegó la tercera, y supe qué estaba pasando: el doblaje. Como suele ocurrir con las comedias, las voces originales de Ted y los demás eran algo crucial para disfrutar de la serie.

Aunque también, quizá, la 3ª temporada haya sido la mejor de la serie. Desde el principio, se empezaron a dar pistas de la madre, la mujer de la vida de Ted, y eso significaba que se acercaba el momento. Todo parecía mucho más interesante. Robin y Ted tenían que reforjar su amistad tras terminar su relación, y además, que ellos se abrieran a más personas ha resultado ser beneficioso para la serie. Aunque ello significara darle papeles a Enrique Iglesias y Britney Spears. Marshall y Lily seguían en su línea, y así estaban bien. Y Barney cobraba más protagonismo, lo que se agradece, porque, sinceramente, él es el alma de la serie.

Un 8 para una temporada divertidísima, y una ansiada renovación, gracias a la Britney. Algo se le puede agradecer.

• DEXTER

Y empezamos con la genialidad. Tardé en descubrir a este asesino en serie que es amigo de todos, pero más vale tarde. Creo que vi las dos temporadas de una, y de hecho el mismo adjetivo les puedo poner a las dos: b-r-i-l-l-a-n-t-e. Cuando terminé con los primeros 13 capítulos, pensaba que lo siguiente no podría ser mejor. Pensaba que gracias si llegaba a la altura. Y sin embargo, ahí llegó la segunda temporada, con una historia que, cómo no se me ocurrió, era inevitable.

Iban a pillar a Dexter. Y de hecho, el personaje protagonista ha estado marcado toda la temporada por el estrés, las dudas, el miedo y el caos. Se han roto todos sus esquemas, desde el primero hasta el último. Gente de su círculo ha descubierto su terrible secreto, la trama ha ido de capítulo en capítulo ganando en intensidad e interés. Los nuevos personajes eran necesarios y carismáticos. No ha habido absolutamente nada que fuera peor que en la primera temporada. Y en conjunto, ha sido una mejor temporada.

Lo mejor de la temporada: Doakes.

Le pongo un 9, y no llega al 10 por pequeñas diferencias personales con la resolución de la temporada, cosas que no me gustaron: que Lila tuviera que irse a París para que Dexter la matase, me parece innecesario, y que Dexter al final se haya aceptado a sí mismo tal y como es. Yo es que soy muy convencional en el fondo, y quiero que acabe siendo una personita normal. Si en realidad lo hago por Rita, que la pobre no podría soportarlo.

• LOST

Esta noche acaba la mejor temporada de Lost. Tras una primera temporada genial, una segunda interesante, y una tercera desesperante, los guionistas aprendieron que no podían tener así a medio mundo mucho más tiempo. Tenían que darnos respuestas, tenían que contarnos lo que había pasado, lo que estaba pasando, y lo que iba a pasar. Y vaya si lo están contando. Dios bendiga al flashforward.

¿Lo mejor de esta cuarta temporada? ¿Además de que es trepidante, acojonante, interesantísima y que nos da respuestas y respuestas? Los nuevos personajes siguen atrayendo. Siguen siendo misteriosos y emotivos. Las nuevas tramas, que más que nuevas, son las tramas que tenían que llegar algún día, esas que no fuimos capaces de soñar en nuestras mejores noches: el carguero, la Orquídea, la cabaña… LA CONSTANTE. Uno de los mejores capítulos de televisión. Uno de los 40 minutos mejor gastados de la historia, vamos.

Lo peor de la temporada: que acaba ya, que hasta enero no tendremos más, que sabemos que nos dejarán con la boca abierta muchos meses, babeando y epilépticos. Un 10, y una renovación, porque si no fuera así, mucha gente de la ABC moriría asesinada. Que solo quedan dos temporadas, y además tenemos la promesa de que serán tan buenas como esta.

Me dejo para el final las dos revelaciones de este año para mi calendario de series: Damages e In treatment. De ellas ya hablé bastante, y poco más que decir: que estoy enamorado de ellas, que cómo puede haber productos tan perfectos dentro de una caja tonta. Le pongo un 20 a la de Glenn Close y un 15 a la del psiquiatra y sus pacientes.

Y me dejo en el tintero dos buenísimas series británicas: The IT crowd y Skins. Ya hablaré de ellas.

Todos os episódios da atual temporada de Lost,apaguei os post’s velhos e juntei tudo neste.

4×00 – Special: Past, Present & Future -> Gigasize
4×01 – The Beginning of the End -> Rapidshare 01,02
4×02 – Confirmed Dead -> Filefactory - Rapidshare 01,02
4×03 – The Economist -> Megaupload - Filefactory
4×04 – Eggtown -> Megaupload - Sendspace – Filefactory
4×05 – The Constant -> Megaupload - Sendspace - Filefactory
4×06 – The Other Woman -> Gigasize - Filefactory
4×07 – Ji Yeon -> Megaupload
4×08 – Meet Kevin Johnson -> Megaupload - Filefactory - Rapidshare 01,02
4×09 – The Shape of Things to Come -> Megaupload - Sendspace – Filefactory
4×10 – Something Nice Back Home -> Megaupload - Sendspace - Filefactory
4×11 – Cabin Fever -> Megaupload - Sendspace - Filefactory
(novo) 4×12 – There’s No Place Like Home (1) -> Megaupload - Sendspace - Rapidshare 01,02