Lost's Labor's Lost

Tonight's the season finale before the final season of Lost. Given the show's history, the past couple of episodes and J.J. Abrams love of time travel (see Star Trek) it will likely be a head scratcher.

Which is just fine with me. The question is often asked if the writers are making it up as they go along and the answer is, of course they are. That's how good writing is done — you have to see where it take you. If the whole series managed to wrap up without a few ponderables left over, I'd be very disappointed. You want answers to everything? Then don't ask any questions.

That being said, if you want a group to mull those questions and elusive answers with, there is no better place than Nik at Nite who, with her loyal readers, read the entrails of each episode and take you places you didn't know you were going. Highly recommended.

And if you want to hash over who and how characters have been killed off, look to Topless Robot's The 10 Most Shafted Characters from Lost. I totally agree on Libby and Walt, but who defends Paulo and Nikki?

As for the above image (via In Web We Trust) I once again have a cool, yet unattributed image. Anyone seen it before?

Previously on Popped Culture...
Who Observes The Observers?
Lost: The Musical
Lost Cake Flashes Before Your Eyes

Kirk & Spock 2.0: Star Trek Superbowl Spot

The latest Star Trek spot is airing during the Superbowl which, to my disappointment, is not a contest of wills between two opposing, superpowered bowls. Oh well, enjoy for the few hours it lasts until Paramount put the boots to it. It is crazy full of action.

Star Trek: The Remixed Generation

The new trailer for J.J. Abrams reinvention of Star Trek (a la Batman and 007) only hit theatres last weekend, but it has already been subjected to numerous remixes, mashups and fan edits.

I figure a perfect nerdstorm is accounting for the quick turnaround. Trek fans feel an incredible sense of ownership over the characters of Kirk, Spock, et all; there is much trepidation about the use of young actors and any re-envisionment in general; and they are all pretty much online.

So hence we get the trailers for Star Trek 90210, Top Trek and, to my amusement, The A-Trek (above) among others, which you can see over at TrekMovie.

I don't know if this bodes well for the film. Trek fans were already going to see it, so nothing lost, nothing gained, but if people are already turning to parody, I'd be a little concerned. Or maybe awareness is all that matters. In any case, it made me laugh, which is all I care about anyway.

(link via Topless Robot)

Fall TV Predictions

It's webgrrl again, one of the guest editors filling in for Popped Culture as he continues to avoid anything resembling work (bitter, party of one?). So, here's the deal. I have a job that, like any job, has its ups and downs. But this time of year, there are some definite ups. Namely, starting in July, networks start sending us screeners of the television pilots they're basing their schedules on in the fall. I've seen some stinkers (hello, Shark!) and some shows with potential (Six Degrees, Brothers & Sisters). But there are three that stood heads and tails above the pack. Here, I'm counting down the new dramas that should (and hopefully will) become this season's biggest hits:

3) Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
From West Wing creators Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlame comes a drama about the behind-the-scenes workings of a SNL-type show. In the pilot, a twitchy network censor demands a sketch be pulled, causing the Lorne Michaels-esque character to fly into a rage and interrupt the opening monologue, thereby getting himself fired. The network's brand new president (Amanda Peet) devises a plan to hire an acclaimed writing duo (Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford) and save the show. But dudes have got mad issues. Chandler just dumped the show's lead comedienne, while Josh is a coke-head. (Ok, so their names aren't really Chandler and Josh. But don't you wish they were?) The pilot wasn't flawless, but it hooked me enough to add it to my PVR's list.

2) Heroes
An excellent, excellent new show with a lame-sounding premise. It's sort of like X-Men on the small screen, with a handful of people waking up one day and realizing they've developed superpowers. Unlike some of the other new ensemble dramas (particularly Brothers & Sisters), the pilot episode didn't leave me confused about everyone's backstory, even though it introduced more characters than most. Plus, it's got Jess from the Gilmore Girls. Lickable!

1) The Nine
J.J. Abrams strikes again! The Alias & Lost creator is back with a new drama about nine people who are taken hostage in a bank robbery. The heist begins and ends in the pilot, though the audience isn't privy to what happened during those two days inside the bank. The show will spend the rest of the season slowly revealing what really went down. It was a great, great setup. After being released, the hostages kept saying things to each other like "That was a heroic thing you did" or "We shared a moment in there," leaving me shouting at the TV “What the hell happened in that bank?!?” And, unlike J.J.'s other shows, which tend to get bogged down by an ever-expanding mythology, The Nine should remain pretty self-contained. (Assuming there wasn't a second group of hostages tied up in the basement or shape-shifting black smoke monster hiding in the vault.)

Happy viewing!
webgrrl

Mission: Alias

Ethan Hunt is Sydney Bristow and Mission: Impossible III is a two-hour episode of Alias, at least that’s what I got out of it.

The similarities are, um, impossible to miss. The opening scene started in the thick of the action with Hunt (the always toothy Tom Cruise, who was not horrible) in peril. How did he get there? Flash back to the beginning. This is a classic Alias scene and exactly how director J.J. Abrams began the Jennifer Garner series.

Next we see Hunt at his engagement party where nobody is aware that the purported traffic engineer is actually a spy for the super-secret IMF, much as Sydney is thought to work for a bank and not a black ops section of the CIA. The double life is a central theme of Alias and Hunt and his partners spend a considerable part of the film debating the difficulties of living a “normal” life.

Part of Hunt's team is a geeky, fast-talking techno nerd Benji -- on Alias his name is Marshall. There were many more team parallels, including Luther (Ving Rhames) as Dixon, Declan (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) as Sloane and Owen (Philip Seymour Hoffman) as the evil Sark. And of course there was a cameo by Greg Grunberg who plays Weiss on Alias (and has appeared in every Abrams series.)

No that there is anything wrong with that. Alias always felt like Mission: Impossible so I can see why Cruise brought him on to direct. Of course now he may not have anything left for the Alias movie.

Popcorn Flicks

With a stumbling couch leap, the summer movie season has begun. Mission: Impossible III debuted this weekend with $48.025 million, almost $10 million lower than the previous installment as viewers decided Tom Cruise was just a touch crazier than they were interested in seeing on the big screen, despite decent reviews.

Which leads me to my mini guide to summer in the cinema. I love summer movies – big explosions, over-the-top themes, pure entertainment. There are sure to be some huge hits, some colossal failures and somewhere in there a dark horse that nobody was expecting. So it’s time to turn off my inner art snob until the Toronto Film Festival rolls around in September.

Mission: Impossible III:
While M:I3 makes my list, I view it with trepidation. Cruise has gone way off the scale and while a person’s private life shouldn’t impact my perception of their work, it does. I just watched M:I2 again and it really isn’t that good, despite the direction of John Woo. But we’ve got another chance with Alias and Lost creator J.J. Abrahms at the helm, and how could I miss one of the biggest movies of the summer. (May 5)

The Da Vinci Code:
Like millions of others I’ve read the book and with few exceptions, the book is usually better than the film so I’m concerned but also intrigued to see how the handle the mental work – studying symbols and paintings – in a visually intriguing way. I don’t expect it to be a fantastic film, but it should be entertaining. Just what I want in a popcorn flick. (May 19)

X-Men: The Last Stand:
One of the few superhero franchises that have been consistently entertaining. Great characters and great action – everything a summer movie should be as the mutants must face the prospect of being “cured” of their powers. (May 26)

A Scanner Darkly
Richard Linklater takes on Philip K. Dick’s story "A Scanner Darkly" in the same semi-animated style he shot Waking Life. I’m a huge fan of Dick’s work, which translates well to celluloid – Blade Runner, Minority Report, Paycheck, Total Recall – and like Linklater, but I’m not crazed about the animation overlay. It’s a little clever-for-clever’s sake. Winona Ryder stars – perhaps this is the beginning of her post-shoplifting comeback. (July 7)
Nacho Libre:
Mexican wrestling and Jack Black – what’s not to love? Looks like the best shot at comedy this summer and even better, it’s not a sequel or a remake. Can’t wait. (June 16)

My Super Ex-Girlfriend:
Matt (Luke Wilson) dumps his girlfriend Jenny (Uma Thurman), who turns out to be a spiteful superheroine. An interesting take on the super myth in the hands of director Ivan Reitman – I’ll be there. (July 21)

Of course with the good comes the questionable and the bad:

Superman Returns:
Speaking of comic book heroes, we have the dubious return of Superman, the wimpiest of super pantheon. While potentially the strongest member, Supe has never had any edge – he’s got no personality and no dark side. Call him Mr. Bland. I’m not sure why he needs to be revived on the big screen anyway, as he’s been reinterpreted for years of the small screen. (June 30)

Miami Vice:
This is not a remake of the ‘80s series says creator and current director Michael Mann. Forget what you know of the show says Jamie Foxx, who plays Tubbs. So why bother even calling it Miami Vice or doing a version of it? Are there so few original ideas? The saving grace – seeing a how greasy Colin Farrell as Sonny Crockett can be. (July 28)

Snakes on a Plane:
I’m hoping this is just a huge joke being played by web fans to see what they convince a studio to make – how else to explain so much excitement based on a lame title and premise? What should have been a direct-to-video release is now being pushed by fans as must-see camp. Count me out. (Aug. 18)

Clerks II:
Former wunderkind Kevin Smith demonstrates that his career has as much momentum as his characters, returning to the storyline that made him 12 years ago. I loved Clerks, but Smith keeps making the same film over and over again. Wake me up when he does something new. (Aug. 18)

‘Roid Rage

• Following up on a couple of topics I’ve hit recently, my favourite still has to be Lost hard-ass Michelle Rodriguez. The pugilistic Rodriguez, who was arrested for drinking and driving last December, chose five days in the slammer over community service and has already served her time. When she was pulled over she yelled at the cops, at one point telling them” “Why don’t you just put a gun to my head and shoot me! You’ve already taken my freedom! You might as well take my life too!”

At her sentencing she blamed her behaviour on steroid injections she had been taking to treat allergies to dust and cockroach resin that made her manic. She also claimed to have learned all her driving skills at a car-racing school that she attended for a role. She must have impressed the casting director as much as the police as I don’t see anyone driving roles for her on IMDB. I wonder if she learnt her drunken belligerence for a role as well?

Anyway, word is Anna Lucia isn’t long for the island anyways, with rumours that her character’s grave has been spotted on the set.

• Sticking with Lost, creator J.J. Abrams has taken exception to rumours of his producing and directing the next Star Trek film, but didn’t really deny them.

"The whole thing was reported entirely without our cooperation," Abrams told Empire magazine. "People learned that I was producing a Star Trek film, that I had an option to direct it, they hear rumors of what the thing was going to be and ran with a story that is not entirely accurate." So will it be about a young Kirk and Spock? He wouldn’t say. With the kind of obsessive fans Lost has attracted and the legion of Trekkies in the world, how could Abrams not have expected the interest?

• Why is it that when US Weekly reports that Britney Spears is pregnant with her second child it is taken as truth, but when the multitude of gossip sites who had been speculating on her size for over a month claimed it, that was just a rumour? Just askin’.

Getting Lost

TV execs are worried and rightly so. More shows are being downloaded, legally and illegally and the digital video recorder is changing the way people are watching television.

The biggest way it is changing, especially for me, is how easy it is to skip commercials. We started watching Prison Break tonight about 15 minutes into the hour and were able to fast forward past all of the ads. This is what the execs worry about.

Then along comes Lost to help show them the way. Next month the show will launch a mystery game that will require fans to email each other, call phone numbers and to check out sites, billboards and TV commercials. Mmmm, can you smell the synergy?

The writers and producers are involved in the game, linking it to the twists and turns of the series and is not solely a marketing adventure. "We wanted to tell stories in a nontraditional way," said Lost writer and executive producer Carlton Cuse, "and there were certain stories that Damon [Lindeloff] and I were interested in telling that don't exactly fit into the television show."

"We purposely design the show with a big amount of ambiguity so people can theorize about what a certain scene means," Cuse said. "This allows the fans to participate in the process of discovery."

But just in case you think that this is being done just to add to the storyline, Cuse has one more hint to help you play the game: "Watch the May 3 episode very carefully. You can TiVo it, but don't skip the commercials.”

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Star Trek: So Very Tired

Boldly going where everyone has already gone before, a new Star Trek movie has been announced for 2008. The film, the 11th and the first since 2002’s lackluster Star Trek: Nemesis will center on the early days of James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer-space mission, according to Daily Variety.

This is the only idea that studio executives understand these days: series reinvention. It started with last year’s Batman Begins, which took the franchise back to the beginning. The venerable James Bond series is currently in the process of stripping down 007 to his origins for the upcoming Casino Royale and the next Superman, while not returning to it’s roots, is ignoring some of the sequels.

It worked for Batman and I hope it serves Bond well, but I have great trepidation about revisiting characters that are so familiar. Setting a series at Starfleet could be interesting, but it could also easily become Star Trek: 90210. I remember the episode where Wesley Crusher was at Starfleet, and not at all fondly. And this area has been mined before, maybe not exactly, but the last series, Enterprise, looked back at Star Trek’s past.

I was hoping they would let it lie for a few more years before reviving the Trek universe. There were 18 years between the original Star Trek and the Next Generation. The following series aired back to back and occasionally simultaneously, not giving any chance for a creative breather – something the series and films are in need of.

But if there is any good news in this announcement it is in the choice of J.J. Abrams as producer and possible director. As the creator and producer of Alias and Lost, I’m impressed with his creative abilities. He’s also directed the upcoming Mission: Impossible 3 so we’ll soon see how he handles the big screen too.

For the sake of both Trek and Abrams, I hope he finds some undiscovered country.