My Thoughts on LOST Finale

The Simpsons and Lost: Two great tastes that taste great together! There are a lot of thoughts going to be posted on the finale of Lost in the next few hours, days and weeks. In fact, there are a lot of reactions out there on the web already, mostly positive, but not all.

It was clearly, an excellent episode of television, cinematic in its scope, production and ambition and largely worked on these levels. But, Lost has always been a show that works on miltiple levels, a palimpsest of sort. One of the most obvious different levels of analysis of the text that is Lost is from the perspective of a character-driven narrative versus a plot-driven narrative. All meaningful entertainment has to have both, of course.

I would argue that the finale of Lost was more geared towards satisfying the viewers interested in character than plot (not that there's anything wrong with that!)

However, as a finale to a complex, popular and critically acclaimed television series it was not as satisfying as HBO's Six Feet Under's conclusion, but this is not surprising since the two shows were very different. But even if one tries to compare the finale of Lost to the seminal final episodes of other television series like SyFy's Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis, HBO's The Wire, J.J. Abrams' own Alias I would say that Lost's outshone all of them with the possible exception of The Wire.

So, while there was a lot more about the episode that I like than disliked, here are the main issues I had with the finale:

1. Two words: Dharma Initiative. There was no explanation about how the Dharma Initiative was founded, and what it's goals were. The producers did explain the creation of the stations all over the island during the series but there was never revealed a "grand unified theory" explaining what Dharma was all about and what they were trying to do with the Island.
2. Walt. In Season 2 and 3, a lot of the plot revolved around The Others and their obsession with kids and the mystery of why women who got pregnant on the island would die. This issue was never resolved in the series.
3. The egyptian statue of Taweret. There never was an explanation of why the oldest parts of the island have hieroglyphics everywhere and why they made a 200-foot statue of the Egyptian fertility god. I am glad they explained how the four-toed statue got there, but it is very disappointing that was all we got.

There are more questions, but these are the main ones that come to mind right now.

Another thought I had is that people are saying that the last image of Lost was that of Jack's eye closing (as he dies) which is a nice symmetry to the very first image of Lost which is of Jack's eye opening, but really the last image was of wreckage on the beach. If that is the wreckage of Oceanic 815, what time period does it belong to? 2007, three years after the crash and just seconds after Jack dies, or is it years in the future, or is it showing us that everyone died and there were no survivors (that was my initial thought but I have rejected that possibility becomes it nullifies all the action of the entire series as basically being a figment of Jack's imagination).

What do you think?

UPDATE 07:17pm 05/25/2010:
Apparently the images of wreckage shown during the credits were not part of Damon Lindelof and Darlton Cuse's script for the show and were added by ABC television executives worried about a harsh transition to the news. (hat/tip LA TIMES ShowTracker)

BOOK REVIEW: Neal Stephenson's ANATHEM

Neal Stephenson's Anathem was probably the most widely discussed science fiction book of the year in 2009. It was even reviewed in Nature magazine, one of the top scientific journals in the world.

Stephenson, the author of the seminal science fiction novels Snow Crash (see MadProfessah's review), Cryptonomicon and The Diamond Age has long been regarded as one of the pre-eminent fiction writers in the country, with all of his most recent works spending significant time on the New York Times bestsellers list. He has won (or been nominated for) all the top awards in speculative fiction such as the Hugo, the Nebula, the Locus, the Prometheus, the British Science Fiction Award and the Arthur C. Clarke award.

Anathem has actually not received as many awards or nominations as some of Stephenson's earlier works, with most (but not all!) critics generally showering effusive praise for this latest offering. It did win the 2009 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction novel, but was snubbed at the Hugo and Nebula awards, the most prestigious speculative fiction prizes.

Anathem is a big book, about big ideas. Here is the summary from the book jacket:

Anathem, the latest invention by the New York Times bestselling author of Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, is a magnificent creation: a work of great scope, intelligence, and imagination that ushers readers into a recognizable—yet strangely inverted—world.

Fraa Erasmas is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside "saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe, becoming out of necessity even more austere and less dependent on technology and material things. And Erasmas has no fear of the outside—the Extramuros—for the last of the terrible times was long, long ago.

Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fraas and suurs prepare to venture beyond the concent's gates—at the same time opening them wide to welcome the curious "extras" in. During his first Apert as a fraa, Erasmas eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected." But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change.

Powerful unforeseen forces jeopardize the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros--a threat that only an unsteady alliance of saecular and avout can oppose--as, one by one, Erasmas and his colleagues, teachers, and friends are summoned forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster. Suddenly burdened with a staggering responsibility, Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world--as he sets out an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet... and beyond.

One of the main problems of the book is that it is packed with so many ideas that it is somewhat exhausting to read. Stephenson is a demanding writer. He has compared his work to television shows like The Wire and Battlestar Galactica (two of my all-time favorites) in that they require the viewer to commit their attention for a long time for a payoff that is all the sweeter due to the delayed reward.

Unfortunately, that strategy requires the audience to be entertained during the journey and the destination itself has to be worth the trip. While I was writing this review I was thinking about Iain Banks' Matter, which was released around the same time as Anathem and which I reviewed earlier this year.

I must say that I enjoyed Matter more than Anthem, probably because the latter is nearly 50% longer (900 pages versus 600 pages), but also because Matter is more engaging--it's funny. Anathem is wry, and funny in its own way, but the sense of humor is very cerebral.

It is that intellectual stimulation which makes one glad that one has completed the journey (read the entire book) but I'm not sure it's somewhere one would want to visit again.

TITLE: Anathem
AUTHOR: Neal Stephenson
PLOT: A.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A+.

OVERALL GRADE: A (3.93/4.0).

My Favorite TV Shows of the Decade 2000-2009

Here is my Top 10 list of my favorite television shows from the last decade, broadcast sometime from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2009.

1. The Wire. Probably the best drama on television ever. Sadly, because it was set in inner-city Baltimore and centered around the Baltimore Police Department undercover detective operations (thus the title) it limited its appeal. Each of the five seasons concentrated on a different aspect of life in Baltimore: (Season 1) drug/gangs, (Season 2) unions, (Season 3) , politics/elections (Season 4) the school system, (Season 5) the newspaper/local media. If you watched it once, you were hooked (except for Season 2). Highlight: the instrumental music which plays over the end-credits, Michael K. Williams as the openly gay gangster thug Omar Little, "Hamsterdam" the failed attempt to legalize drugs in Baltimore and the story arc of the quartet of 13-year-old boys who are the focus of Season 5.
   
2. Lost. I started watching Lost from the very beginning because I was a huge fan of his first television series Alias, starring the amazing Jennifer Garner. I was immediately taken in by the huge, multi-ethnic, talented cast and the sheer suspense of the story. I was always more interested in the dramatic aspects of the show instead of the character aspects of the love triangle (or is it a rhombus?) between Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Juliet. I will be very sad when the entire series ends in May 2010 but I am confident that the writers know exactly what they are doing and have been planning this ride for at least a few years, if not from the very beginning. Highlight: The 4th season finale when suddenly we realize we will not only be seeing flashbacks from the past but flash forwards from the future and that the entire story is an enigma wrapped around a riddle involving time-travel.
   
3. Six Feet Under. A family drama about dysfunctional people who run a funeral home in Los Angeles where the patriarch is killed in the first 5 minutes of the pilot? The conceit of Alan Ball's show was that there would be a different, quirky or sad death in the first 60 seconds of each episode. But the glue that held the show together was incredible acting from Lauren Ambrose, Peter Krause, Michael C. Hall as the three adult siblings and their mother, played by Frances Conroy. The guest stars were legendary and always a delight. Highlight: the final three minutes of the show, featuring a coda depicting the deaths of all the major characters set to the song "Breathe Me" by Sia Fuller is the single best conclusion to a television series, ever.
4. Alias. Prior to its debut for what seemed like months all around Los Angeles appeared images of some attractive girl in a bright pink wig with the words "Alias" and the the time and channel. For some reason this sparked my curiosity and was immediately hooked by the central character of a strong, smart female character played by Jennifer Garner and her two impossibly attractive male co-stars, played by Michael Vartan and Bradley Cooper. However, it was the central, complex, intricately woven mythology of the show which made my buy the DVDs and stay with the show through to the disappointing conclusion, when its creator, the now-famous J.J. Abrams, was off working on his next big thing, which turned out to be a little show called Lost. Highlight: Lena Olin as Jennifer Garner's mother Irina Derevko, who shoots her daughter in her very first scene.
5. Battlestar Galactica. Two words: incredible acting. The acting ensemble headed by Mary McDonnell as the President and Edward James Olmos as Commander Bill Adama at some points took your breath away. Calling it a remake of the chintzy late 1970s television series (which itself was trying to appropriate popularity from Star Wars) with the same name does not do it justice. The visual effects were excellent, but always used to forward the story, which was all about survival of humanity itself, after 99.99% of all known human life was extinguished in a nuclear holocaust by cybernetic individuals who are indistinguishable from their victims. Highlight: the Cylon attack at the beginning of the series, as well as the reveal at the very end of the series that the entire series actually took place in humanity's prehistoric past, not our distant future.
6. Sex and the City. How could any gay man not include this delightful HBO comedy about the lives of four women who metaphrically represent gay male archetypes in New York City? Starring Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) as The Writer, Samantha (Kim Cattrall) as The Slut, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) as The Best Friend and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) as The Prude Sex and the City was appointment television for almost half of the decade. The writing was always strong, and it was impressive how many arcs they could get into each 25-minute episode. Highlight: the sheer zaniness and sincere sexuality of Samantha and the matter-of-fact depiction of urban living and gay life.
   
7. The Venture Brothers. How best to describe this cult cartoon from Adult Swim on Cartoon Network? The Venture Brothers are Hank and Dean Venture, who are the sons of Dr. Rusty Venture, an ethically challenged super-scientist who is the son of another Dr. Rusty Venture who was also a super-scientist cum superhero. Other characters include Brock Sampson, an ultra macho bodyguard who kills anyone who threatens the Ventures with impunity and without remorse, The Monarch, Venture's arch-nemesis, The Monarch's wife Dr. Girlfriend who inexplicably has a deeper voice than Brock and Dr. Orpheus, a mysterious magician who rents a room at the Venture compound. You really just need to watch it to understand it. Suffice it to say that it parodies any and every superhero and supervillian trope you have ever seen, while simultaneously being hysterically funny and always entertaining. Highlight: The accompanying music to Dr. Orpheus (voiced by the incredible Steven Rattazzi) whenever he practices magic and the overall story arc which explains the lack of parental empathy Rusty feels for both Hank and Dean.
8. The West Wing. For political junkies, before the rise of the political blogosphere The West Wing was our fix. By depicting the inner workings and relationships involved in the West Wing of the White House, (especially under a Democratic President) with such verisimilitude and vivacity, creator Aaron Sorkin's show made politics cool and a fun escape from the dreariness of the reality of the Bush Administration. Highlight: The rapid fire dialogue between Allison Janney's CJ Craig and Martin Sheen's President Jedediah Bartlett.
   
9. ER. I know, I know, everybody else stopped watching the show years ago. The show limped to an end after nearly 15 years on NBC this year. When ER debuted the country was still in the first Clinton administration! But what kept ER on my list of shows to watch every week for over a decade was the brutally consistent level of excitement and adrenaline combined with a constantly changing array of compelling characters. Highlight: The relationship between Noah Wylie's Dr. John Carter and Eric LaSalle's Dr. Peter Benton and the depiction of physically challenged Dr. Kerry Weaver by Laura Innes.
   
10. The Daily Show/The Colbert Report. This was the decade that brought us the twin joys of Jon Stewart and The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert and The Colbert Report. Both of these "fake news" shows did such a good job of skewering the important current events of the day that many surveys report that significant portions of Americans under age 30 get their take on the news from either Stewart or Colbert. Highlight: So many! "Truthiness." Samantha Bee. John Hodgman. Senior Black Correspondent.
    

And since I couldn't just mention only ten television shows for an entire decade, here are more (not in any order) that should not be forgotten, as well as a few more to keep your eye on in the future.

Honorable Mentions: Survivor, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Desperate Housewives, The Closer, Entourage, 24, The Real World, Frasier and The Office.
Potential, but too soon to tell (but things look good so far for these being on the 2019 list): Glee, True Blood, Stargate: Universe, Damages and Flash Forward.

SCI FI FRI: Battlestar Galactica Ends Tonight!

Once called "the best show on television," the Peabody award-winning Battlestar Galactica ends its original series run tonight on the soon to-be-named "Sy Fy Channel" (formerly SciFi channel).

Sci Fi Friday: Battlestar Galactica is Back!

With the end of Stargate: Atlantis, the only thing to watch on SciFi Friday is Battlestar Galactica, which some have called "the best show on television." During the gap since the first half of the final season, the show aired some webisodes which explicitly revealed that one of the characters was gay, and Queerty calls the show "gay vague." MadProfessah agrees that BSG used to be the best thing on TV, but now that title has been grabbed by Lost after it's amazing season last year. BSG returns tonight, and Lost returns next Wednesday January 21.

"Lost" Soars While BSG Sinks

The fourth season of Lost ends tonight with a two-hour finale which will cap off an excellent (slightly shortened by the writers' strike) season. Battlestar Galactica has been completing it's fourth and final season at the same time, not as successfully.

Mad Professah used to call BSG the best show on television (except for The Wire, of course!) but The Wire did exceedingly well in its fifth and final season. BSG has been disappointing, seeming to turn inwards and involve plots that revolve around the arcane mythology of the show instead of emotional connections between the characters. This is partly because the villains (The machine Cylons) have been given almost equal time in this season as the writers try to end the series by answering deep questions about the nature of evil.

However, Lost is using its fourth season to remain focussed on what has made the show a cultural touchstone for four years so far: great acting, emotionally nuanced characters and talented writing spooling a mind-bending story that takes years to fully unveil.

I'm looking forward to tonight (9pm on ABC)!

2008 Hugo Award Nominations Announced

The 2008 Hugo Award nominations have been announced. These are the awards for the best works of science fiction released in the last year. The nominees for Best Novel this yare:

NOVEL
Brasyl, Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr)
Halting State, Charles Stross (Ace)
The Last Colony, John Scalzi (Tor)
Rollback, Robert J. Sawyer (Analog Oct 2006 - Jan/Feb 2007; Tor)
The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon (HarperCollins; Fourth Estate)

In adddition, there are also categories for Dramatic Presentations.

DRAMATIC PRESENTATION: LONG FORM
Enchanted (Written by Bill Kelly. Directed by Kevin Lima. Walt Disney Pictures)
The Golden Compass (Written by Chris Weitz, based on the novel by Philip Pullman. Directed by Chris Weitz. New Line Cinema)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Written by Michael Goldenberg, based on the novel by J.K. Rowling. Directed by David Yates. Warner Bros. Pictures)
Heroes, Season 1 (Created by Tim Kring. NBC Universal Television and Tailwind Productions)
Stardust (Written by Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. Directed by Matthew Vaughn. Paramount Pictures)

DRAMATIC PRESENTATION: SHORT FORM
Battlestar Galactica: "Razor" (Written by Michael Taylor. Directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá and Wayne Rose. Sci Fi Channel. [televised version, not DVD])
Doctor Who: "Blink" (Written by Stephen Moffat. Directed by Hettie Macdonald. BBC)
Doctor Who: "Human Nature"; "The Family of Blood" (Written by Paul Cornell. Directed by Charles Palmer. BBC)
Star Trek New Voyages: "World Enough and Time" (Written by Michael Reaves & Marc Scott Zicree. Directed by Marc Scott Zicree. Cawley Entertainment Co. and The Magic Time Co.)
Torchwood: "Captain Jack Harkness" (Written by Catherine Tregenna. Directed by Ashley Way. BBC Wales)

Last year, Vernor Vinge won for his novel Rainbows End and Pan's Labyrinth and Doctor Who's "The Girl in the Fireplace" won in the Dramatic Presentation category. I have recently finished reading the 2005 winner (Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) but I haven't written my review for the 2005 or 2007 winner. The 2006 winner (Robert Charles Wilson's Spin) was absolutely excellent. Amazingly, the fourth year in a row, Charles Stross has a nominated novel, so maybe this time he will win since critics seem to like his work but I have never been able to complete one of his books. John Scalzi is another very popular writer, but The Last Colony is not considered one of his better efforts. I know nothing about Rollback or Brasyl and I'm shocked to see Michael Chabon's work on the list instead of Junot Diaz' Pulitzer-Prize winning The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I loved Chabon's first book, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh but I could not even get past 50 pages of his Pulitzer-Prize winning The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Maybe this Stross novel is worth all the accolades it has received; it certainly sounds interesting.

In the dramatic presentation categories I would vote for Heroes, Season 1 and Star Trek New Voyages.

SCI-FI FRIDAY Returns with new Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica returns for its fourth and final season this Friday on NBC Universal's SciFi Channel.

There are many people speculating what we are in store before season four ends but none are as pessimistic as Edward James Olmos: Everybody dies.

Tidbits from Battlestar Galactica Event

You may recall that a few weeks ago MadProfessah blogged about the announcement that Battlestar Galactica would end after the end of the fourth season and the invitation to a free sneak preview attended by several cast members at the Arclight Cinerama Dome on Wednesday June 6th at 8pm.

Well, I did go and it was pretty cool. I got there around 7pm and magically was able to find street parking about two blocks away. I was surprised to not find a huge line around the block in front of the theater (only about 30-40 people). The staffers working the event behind the rope line and near a cloth-colored table said that people had started lining up around 8am this morning and that those people were currently seeing the final episode of Season 3, "Crossroads, Part 2" on the big screen. However, they gave everyone waiting in line a very cool black t-shirt with the words "Frak Off" in red. Finally, we were let in to the Cinerama Dome and castmembers Edward James Olmos (Admiral William Aldama), Mary McDonnell (President Laura Roslin), Jamie Bamber (Lee Aldama), Katee Sackhoff (Kara "Starbuck" Thrace), Lucy Lawless (D'Anna Biers) plus producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick. The event was emceed by Lawless, who opened the event with a shout out to "the noble Cylon race."


Some blogger called Flipit has an incredibly detailed minute-by-minute recap of the event posted at tvgasm.com so I won't say much more about the actual comments made by the attendees but I will include some of my impressions.

Lucy Lawless -- sounded like she must have had a cocktail
or three before the event, but managed to be funny and foolish at the same time
("space opera, what a cool term, did you just invent that?") all the whole
looking amazing in a too-tight dress.

Mary McDonnell -- was also in a dress that also seemed too
tight, but looked great. She was probably the most animated member of the panel
and pobably had the most fun.

Jamie Bamber --
shorter than I expected, but still very handsome. However, his thick British
accent was a huge shocker. He wasn't shy about saying that he was happy that the
show was ending.

Edward James Olmos -- was basically acting like the
crotchety grandpa of the set, complaining about the network (a division of NBC
Universal) cancelling the show due to low ratings. He
questioned the ratings procedures by A.C. Nielsen, saying that it is well-known
they under-count African Americans and Latinos and Asians. In addition, due to
the geeky intelligent nature of BSG's fans they are more likely to download the
show on ITunes and other places and to use DVR to skip the commercials. He came
across like the head of the cast, which I suppose was fitting since he played
the head officer on Battlestar Galactica.

Katie Sackhoff -- was pretty quiet and a bit giggly when
she spoke. She kept on needling Olmos and McDonnell about her relative youth ("I
wasn't born yet when the first Battlestar series was airing") which was
sorta cute but got sorta annoying after awhile. She also didn't seem too upset
about the end of the show since she has been cast in the new Bionic Woman.

Ronald Moore -- was very laidback and seemed very
respectful of the fans. He also had seen all this rabid fan energy before,
having been the central force behind at least one Star Trek series
(Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and heavily associated with best of another Star Trek: The Next Generation). He didn't seem overly upset about the demise of BSG, since he will be involved wth production of the show for the next 12 months or so, and is looking forward to the production of the pilot of the spin-off prequel Caprica.

David Eick -- was also pretty laidback and seemed pretty
comfortable playing bad cop to Moore's good cop. He has a show picked up on NBC
for the fall, Bionic Woman in which Sachoff is playing a recurring role
as a villain. He provided some interesting details about the genesis of BSG
since he was the primary executive producer on the original 4-hour
miniseries.

After the panel, they showed a too-short highlight reel of scenes from the 2-hour movie airing in Fall 2007 called "Razor" which covers the story of the Battlestar Pegasus told in flashbacks. The entire cast of Battlestar Galactica will appear, as well as Michelle Forbes (Ensign Ro from Star Trek: The Next Generation) starring as Admiral Cain.

All in all I was glad that I went.

Oh, Frak! Battlestar Galactica To End After Next Season

Following the producers of Lost by a few weeks, the producers of the best drama on television (Battlestar Galactica) have announced that the fourth season of the award-winning science-fiction show will be the last for the series. Apparently 20 of the final 22 hours of original programming of the series will be devoted to Galactica with a 2-hour movie devoted to Pegasus will be aired this Fall to coincide with the arrival of the 3rd season of BSG on DVD.

For those of us in Los Angeles, there will be a special sneak preview of the fourth season of BSG which is scheduled to air on NBC Universal's SciFi Channel in early 2008 this Wednesday June 6th at 8pm at a free screening (open to the first 500 people) at the Arclight Cinearama Dome at 6360 Sunset Boulevard.