ABC's sci-fi drama V concluded its first handful of episodes last night with the promise that it'd be back with new episodes in March 2010. But will it?
"The future of V is about as up in the air as one of those giant spaceships hovering over a major Earth city. The day that the show premiered, ABC announced that a new executive producer/showrunner had been hired to helm the series.
That's not a good sign.
Before that, the network had shut down production shortly after it began -- after the second and third episodes were filmed -- for creative retooling. Executive producer Jeff Bell left the show at that point, replaced as showrunner by executive producer Scott Peters, who wrote the pilot.
. . . After getting off to a very strong start with a very strong pilot episode, ratings fell 26 percent for Episode 2. Then they fell another 16 percent for Episode 3 as the show fell to third-place in its time slot."
Will Anna, the disarmingly attractive alien leader who has the ability to put all her followers into a blissful state by cooing to them over a special Visitor intercom thingie, live to see another day? Will Juliet Burke . . . I mean Erica Evans, the FBI agent who's trying to defeat the "Visitors" from trying to kill all of humankind succeed, with an assist from a local priest, WHILE tending to her work-life balance issues?
More bad news on the sci-fi front, the ABC high-concept drama FlashForward, which I think was just starting to get its footing despite declining ratings -- loved the episode about the man who actually changed his future, proving that the flash-forwards aren't written in stone -- has gone on a "temporary" production hiatus and no one seems to know whether this is an omen of certain doom, particularly when the reason for the hiatus was, according to an ABC spokesman, to "boost the writing . . . They want to maintain the high quality of the show, and this gives the writers the opportunity to do so."
Do you think V and FlashForward have futures? Do they deserve to air another day?
Once the world learned yesterday that the 6-year-old Colorado boy, Falcon Heene, was NOT inside that homemade helium balloon which flew 50 miles away from his home and crashed into a field, that the kid was safe hiding in his attic, everyone breathed a sigh of relief . . . after all the cable networks went wall-to-wall with live coverage of the runaway balloon after which the U.S. military sent a Black Hawk helicopter and other aircraft, and for which the FAA grounded take-offs in the area. The child's older brother had told authorities that he thought his younger brother was on board the balloon.
Then we started learning other things about the family, which apparently spends spare time chasing storms and inventing things. Videos of them on the reality show Wife Swap surfaced, as did a "rap video" the three young Heene boys did.
Then it got even weirder.
They went on CNN last night and, when the boy was asked why he hid from his family, Falcon said, "We did this for a show." (The CNN clip is shown in the Today Show segment below.)
This morning, the Heene family did the circuit of morning talk shows. During NBC's Today Show, Falcon threw up. Did the family cut the interview short? Nope. The interview continued, thoug Meredith Vieira offered to take a break and return once the family had gathered itself together, much too late for my tastes. The Heene family also did another interview on ABC's Good Morning America even though their son was physically ill. Diane Sawyer had to suggest to the Heenes that perhaps one of them should go after the 6-year-old who ran away from the camera while puking. After his mother helped him in the bathroom -- vomiting clearly heard over the microphones -- the mom and Falcon RETURNED to sit in front of the camera. Here's the link to the Good Morning America interview.
*Warning, spoilers from the recent episode of Lostahead*
The new Lost episode -- "Follow the Leader" -- was one of those head-scratchers that made me feel confused and clueless, even though I've seen every episode of this show -- multiple times -- and frequent blogs with vigorous Lost fan bases.
Maybe I was tired when I was watching. There ARE two Boston teams in sports playoffs (Celtics, Bruins), plus I was also trying to simultaneously watch the Red Sox. I was also cranky, had a precariously low level of caffeine in my system and truly wasn't in the mood to be required to think this hard.
Now that I've had time to think about the episode, I'm trying to make sense of it. Let me get this straight:
-- Jack wants to carry on dead Daniel's work as outlined in Daniel's notebook which was given to Daniel by his mother who wound up killing him. Jack thinks that by blowing up "Jughead" (the hydrogen bomb buried under Dharmaville -- maybe THAT'S why women couldn't bear children), he'll be restoring the natural order to their lives, putting everything where it should be. The original Oceanic 815 crash will not happen in 2004 because the pent-up electromagnetic energy on the island will have already been released due to the bomb's detonation.
As I pondered this, I kept thinking of the phrase, "Dead is dead." If Jack, Kate, Eloise, Charles W., Hurley, Sayid, Sawyer/LaFleur, Kate, Miles and Juliet are all blown up how could they still be living in the future? Say only a couple of them are blown up, like Jack and Sayid if they happen to be close to the bomb. They'd be dead. They wouldn't be able to be on the plane in the future would they? Unless of course the island heals them, post-blast . . . Could they possibly head off the construction of The Swan and the infamous button?
-- Kate now thinks Jack's a suicidal maniac and prefers to face the Dharma mania to Jack's . . . and winds up on the sub that's evacuating the women and children off the island, along with Sawyer (who, circa 1977, wants to invest in Microsoft and become rich) and Juliet (who's less than thrilled that Kate has joined them). However ABC ruined the suspense for next week by showing a clip of Sawyer back on the island so we know their time on the sub plotting to relaunch their lives is short-lived.
-- Locke impersonates Moses by leading his tribe of followers down an island beach in search of "Jacob," after having provided them with fresh meat (in the form of a freshly killed, sacrificial boar). He tells them that when he finds Jacob -- who asked Locke to help him during last season -- he plans on killing him. Huh? Is Jacob alive and needs to be killed (like Locke "needed" to be killed by Ben) in order to live forever? Is Christian -- whose last name IS Shepherd -- Jacob, or are they separate?
-- There's been a large amount of chatter online speculating about whether Richard Alpert first came to the island on that Black Rock ship that crashed on the island (Richard was working on a ship in a bottle) or is some kind of ancient Egyptian (hence his eyeliner and the hieroglyphics in the Temple) who has been resurrected (hence he never ages). What really threw me during the last episode was that Richard, who always seemed so self-assured, seemed baffled when Locke told him to go meet a time-traveling version of Locke and assist with removing a bullet from his thigh. When Richard asked Locke how he knew that the time-traveling Locke would would be there, Locke replied that the island told him.
-- Which brings us to the question is "the island" Jacob? Does the island have its own spirit and intentions separate and distinct from Jacob and from Christian, who seems to be playing a pivotal role in guiding the time traveling Losties, like giving Sun the photo of the 1977 Dharma recruits?
The ONLY thing that's clear -- other than the fact that Miles' daddy didn't really leave Miles and his mother but was seeking to protect them, hence his picking a fight to make his wife leave -- is that "The Incident" will likely be the focus of the season finale next week, which will likely leave us on a life or death cliffhanger.
Meanwhile, the latest Lost Untangled video (link here) made me laugh with the comical images of Jack & Co. swimming through the tunnels, Sayid's "I am not a killer" line and Locke's grandiose presentation of the dead boar.
What did you think of the latest installment? What are you hoping to see in the season finale?
Who didn't see this coming? The White House's awkward backing off from what Vice President Joe Biden said on the Today Show this morning, that he wouldn't go in any confined area like an airplane or a subway while the swine flu is spreading.
You had to feel badly for WH Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, having to stand there at the podium, on national TV and, with a straight face, BS his way through this quagmire, where the president tells everyone to remain calm, wash their hands and stay home if sick, while the vice president says he for one isn't gonna get trapped in some subway car potentially loaded with people carrying the swine flu.
ABC's Jake Tapper asked Gibbs about Biden's statements and Gibbs talked in nonsensical circles saying that what Biden was really saying was that if you feel sick you should take precautions. To which Tapper replied, "With all due respect . . . that's not even remotely close to what he said."
"I'm telling you what he meant to say," Gibbs said as the reporters guffawed. (Link to the question and answer here.)
Meanwhile, in another development on the swine flu front, the Associated Press reported that a White House aide and his family are being tested for the flu. "A member of the U.S. delegation that helped prepare Energy Secretary Steven Chu's trip to Mexico City has demonstrated flu-like symptoms and his family members have tested probable for swine flu."
Maybe I've been spoiled by all the Lostgoodness that's been aired in the past few weeks. What with time travel, Kid Ben getting shot and my head hurting from trying to figure out what everything means, I've come to expect to be absolutely thrilled by the time a new episode concludes. Not so much with this last one.
It's not that the fact that the episode, "Dead is Dead" was Ben-centric that turned me off. I love Ben Linus. He's one of TV's great villains. Manipulative. Ruthless. Unpredictable. Who could've seen coming him killing an already suicidal John Locke? Or shooting Cesar after convincing him that Locke was a potentially violent loon? Brilliance.
Yet I found myself not really caring what happened to Ben when the kid-loving character was preparing to be judged by the "smoke monster" in an Indiana Jones-like temple complete with hieroglyphics of some sort for which, no doubt, Lost fans will seek out a translation soon if they haven't already (on the Pop Candy blog, some commenters are suggesting that the carvings referenced some sort of god of the dead or of the underworld or souls). Ben wasn't going to die. Not yet anyway. He's too central as the only, long standing villain. Who could replace him and wear the series' big black hat? Charles Widmore? Richard Alpert? No one really could fill Ben's shoes, therefore I didn't expect anything to happen to happen to him in the belly of the temple.
I found Kid Ben compelling because he was just that, a kid who could've been influenced and changed, drawn away from his potential, future evil ways, or at least we could try to understand how and why Ben became sinister. Adult Ben -- who didn't really repent because he believes that the island trumps everything and is the excuse for everything he does -- isn't going to change at this point. Learning that Ben spared Rousseau from death years ago when he kidnapped her baby didn't alter how I feel about him. Seeing Ben pushing cute little girl Alex on a swingset while he was sporting an atrocious hairdo was only mildly interesting.
I did, however, find intrigue in how and why Widmore was banished from the island, in what the "new" plane crash survivors are arming themselves for and in the clearly Jesus-like resurrection of Locke, on the island where previously those who were dead stayed dead.
Meanwhile, ABC's new Lost Untangled video is very funny this week. I love the Locke voice. Quirkiest bit: "Precious Moments with Ben Linus."
I don't care what the title of this episode is. I cannot buy into the notion that nothing that our favorite time travelin' Losties do will in any way change the future. If that's the case, that they can't change anything, then why was it so damned important for the Oceanic 6 (or most of them) to return to the island and, as best as possible, replicate the circumstances around their original crash? If them returning to the island wouldn't change the future, won't save anyone (which was the stated reason for returning) why do it? Why do anything?
A version of the Miles-Hurley conversation went on in my house last night when I paused the DVR and debated my husband, with him playing the role of Miles and me playing the role of the mental patient, Hurley. (Not the best character to be emulating, I know.) Maybe I'm being naive here, but I can't believe that nothing the time travelers do will have any impact on the future. If "whatever happened, happened" then there's no point to anything they do. Taking away the possibility of trying to help prevent bad things from happening in the future (like preventing The Purge and Ben's genocidal ascension) changes the dramatic frame of reference. And not in a good way.
When I wasn't arguing the impact/non-impact of our time travelers' actions with my spouse, I was sniffling while watching Kate's storyline unfold which explained that Kate had befriended Sawyer's baby mama off-island and that Kate had given Aaron to his grandmother before she returned to the island. I always wondered why she never told Aaron's grandmother about the child. One could argue that Kate couldn't tell Claire's mother the truth for fear that the intricate lies that the Oceanic 6 had contrived would unravel. But if Kate was willing to come clean to Sawyer's ex-gal pal, why not with Aaron's grandmother with whom some kind of a deal could potentially have been struck, particularly given the fact that Jack is Aaron's uncle.
The argument that Kate needed to keep Aaron in order to fill a void in her heart, well, I didn't really find that convincing. Don't know exactly why. And the idea that she returned to the island to find Claire? That suggestion left me flat as well. However the scenes where Kate lost Aaron in the supermarket and when she left him with his grandmother . . . tears. Tears and sniffling.
On the Jack-won't-save-Kid-Ben front: While pulling out my season two DVDs to see how Ben/Henry Gale reacted when he saw Sayid for the "first" time provided me no satisfaction, I was reminded that not only did Jack save Ben when he operated on his spinal tumor in season three, but he also saved him in season two when he successfully removed the arrow that Danielle Rousseau had shot through Ben's shoulder while saying over and over again to Sayid, "He's one of Them. He's one of Them."
Finally, the scene with Richard Alpert saying he could save the grievously wounded Kid Ben if he took him into the smoke monster's temple although Ben would lose all his innocence . . . that one I'm still trying to process. Need more caffeine to figure that one out, but I did have this thought: While everyone's blaming Jack for failing to save Kid Ben, had Kate not brought Kid Ben to Alpert, Kid Ben could've died with an innocent soul rather than grown up to be a soulless monster.
Meanwhile, the ABC folks released their latest Lost Untangled video and have added a few new touches: The original Losties who've time traveled are now wearing giant Dharma badges and tent-like jumpsuits. Additionally, the video makers inserted moving lips into character photos when mocking a conversation. I'm not a fan of the cartoonish lip bit. Reminds me of something from Conan O'Brien. These Lost Untangled videos are great when they're action figure/cardboard cut-out based. Much funnier.
*Warning, spoilers ahead from the recently-aired Desperate Housewives.*
Desperate Housewivesis getting . . . what's the phrase, too cute by half? ABC promised a "shocking" incident during the latest installment of the tales of the Wisteria Laners. Technically, they fulfilled their promise. Edie was literally shocked by a damaged power line after she smashed her car into a utility pole in an accident caused by the creepy Orson Hodge. (What's it with this guy and car accidents anyway? Does this mean DH will recycle an old storyline and have Edie be in a coma and lose her memory a la Mike Delfino?)
The official show web site says Edie was "electrocuted by a downed wire" so I guess we're supposed to take it that she's dead. Emphasis on the word "guess," because we all know Nicollette Sheridan is leaving DH at some point soon. But a New York Postwriter wonders if this is going to be a not-quite-dead-yet trick. God, I hope not.
I, for one, wanted BOTH Katherine Mayfair and Edie's characters to be shown the exits. I've grown tired of them both. Alas, I think we're still going to have Katherine Mayfair to kick around some more, unless of course psycho Dave "Dash" Williams decides he simply must forge ahead with giving Mike the ultimate payback for accidentally running down and killing Dave's wife and daughter. Hopefully, Mrs. McCluskey will come to the rescue, as the only other person who knows about the fact that Dave lost a child. She's the one character who's remained fairly consistent on this show.
As for the ski-masked Orson, to quote 30 Rock's Liz Lemon, "What the, what?" When we were first introduced to Orson Hodge way back when, I used to routinely refer to him on another blog I was writing at the time as "Creepy Orson Hodge." His whole odd marriage to Bree rested on a bed of lies and weirdness, until Bree discovered the truth (that Orson ran over Mike with his car and put him in a coma), and forced Orson to turn himself in. Post-jail, Orson seemed as though he'd been tamed, like a kind, family dog whose wild, stubborn ways had been curbed. He wasn't so creepy anymore. He was just a guy who would go out to the patio and grill for his guests while drinking a beer. Then the stealing began two episodes ago, (though preceded by an odd incident when he insisted Bree make him a roast in the middle of the night) after he inexplicably demanded to be paid like a partner and grew enormously jealous of Bree's success. Now he's back to being Creepy Orson again. Nice Orson was just a blip apparently.
I am growing weary of this back-and-forth. The Orson-Bree marriage seems to be on the brink of divorce all the time, that is when they're not having sex on the test kitchen's counter, as they did back at the beginning of the season. When Bree rebuffed his demand to sell her lucrative business in order to return to being a housewife (What financial sense does that make, considering the ex-con can't get a dentistry gig?), Orson's now going to run around Wisteria Lane wearing a ski mask and stealing trinkets?
The last item that bugged me was the whole Lucy-taking-over-the-office-like-a-maniac business. She demanded that everyone, including Carlos, start logging all manner of crazy hours, nights, weekend, in order to land a $10 million account. She told employees, like Lynette, that she didn't care what kind of family or non-work commitments they had, they had to cancel everything or forget about keeping their jobs. Meanwhile, Carlos, the boss, cowered and obeyed, putting a huge crimp in his home and sex life. Why? He was the boss. He could've said, "No." At least the writers were wise enough to have Gabby point out that he was repeating the work-a-holic behavior that ruined their marriage the first time around. Somehow, this comment -- plus witnessing lunatic Lucy in action deriding a janitorial worker -- snapped Carlos out of his haze and gave him the stones to finally say, "No" to 24/7 work days.
On a positive note, the best moment from the new episode: Gabby and Tom gossiping over coffee. Loved that scene.
I'd forgotten how many new shows would be premiering early this winter other than Lost, 24 and Big Love, all favorites of mine, though 24 has to seriously prove itself to me after its lackluster previous season which aired some 27 years ago.
To help goose the critical darling's challenged ratings, NBC first aired the third season of FNL on DirectTV during the fall before unveiling it to the network viewers this winter. I have a particular soft spot for this Texas football drama which isn't really about football. (See my review of last season here, where I muse on the amazing work done by Connie Britton as Tami Taylor -- see photo above -- the high school football coach's wife who just returned to work at the high school after having a baby.)
Then I spotted NBC's Medium on the list. Mediumtends to be dismissed by some as simply a creepy show about someone who speaks with the dead, not exactly something with which most viewers can relate. But it feels down-to-earth because of the performances by Patricia Arquette and Jake Weber, as the show's main married couple and parents of three.
Of course the premiere to which I'm most looking forward is Lost. Will they actually go back to the island this season? Will Sun really conspire with Widmore? Oh the questions!
Been in holiday hell for the past week, thus, no blogging in this space:
Lost too much time trying to load up The Spouse's Christmas gift (iPod Nano) with iTunes as well as songs from the CDs we have in the house that we haven't listened to since the first George Bush was in office. Looking at the Reality Bites and Friends soundtracks was a trip down Memory Lane, I tell ya.
Played happy homemaker (key word played) by baking a ton of cookies, including the batch of peanut butter/chocolate kiss cookies into which I realized, as they were cooking, I'd neglected to add baking soda. (The non-baking soda cookies were like little rocks.)
Attempted to wrap gifts while keeping my sick 10-year-old girl (who had a bad pre-Christmas cold) at bay so she wouldn't get an advanced preview of the gifts.
Lightly prepped the house for my parents' two-night stay. Made dishes for our family's traditional Christmas Eve dinner at my brother's house, then, with The Spouse, made Christmas dinner for parents and brother's family.
Once Christmas concluded -- I always feel a giant letdown after Christmas -- The Spouse and I took the three kiddos to the movies to see Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories, which also featured the luminous Keri Russell. The kids had been dying to see this film since they saw the trailer this past autumn when we went to see High School Musical 4047, The Pepto-Bismol Years and were hooked.
It was typical Sandler fare: Harmless, mildly funny and sweet at times. The two older kids laughed aloud more than once and were particularly fond of the pointless, big-eyed guinea pig named Bugsy, which had essentially no relevance beyond making the kids chuckle. However at several points during the film, our 7-year-old was confused about what was happening and The Spouse attempted to fill him in. It was never really explained, for example, why Adam Sandler's niece and nephew suddenly possessed the power to tell stories about their uncle that would, in some form, later come magically true, such as Sandler getting caught in a hail of gumballs or talking in alien-like gibberish. But hey, it's a family-oriented Sandler comedy, I wasn't expecting a Mad Men-esque tight production.
Once the kids got their movie fix, I got my DVD fix by cracking open the season four LostDVD set The Spouse gave me for Christmas and watched an embarrassing number of episodes back-to-back (suffice is to say that I'm almost through season four). While watching the episodes, which I'd only viewed once during the truncated fourth season, it's amazing how much I've forgotten, including little details I'd missed this past spring.
Watching the eppies is good preparation for the fifth season's premiere on January 21. Speaking of which . . . ABC has uploaded another new sneak peek of the Lost season premiere online, complete with references to John Locke, last seen in a coffin in Los Angeles by a bearded Jack Shephard.
ABC is wisely trying to gradually amp up viewer anticipation for next month's premiere of the new season of Lost, where the entire conceit of the show -- let's get off the island -- has been turned on its head.
Weeks ago, they released a promo that's less than a minute long and doesn't really provide any new tantalizing tidbits.
However the new, two-minute clip featuring Kate and Aaron is packed with intrigue and, as this is Lost, lots of questions. (Link to the video is here.)
