LOST: Top 10

So at this point the Lost finale has been discussed ad nauseum. But come on it was pretty awesome. Not quite as epic as "Through the Looking Glass" but even more emotionally evocative (minus Charlie's poetic death scene that is, I still get sniffly just thinking about it). "No Place Like Home" was the perfect capper to dare I say it, a perfect season of my crazy show. Without further adeu, my top 10 moments.

1. Penny/Desmond reunite. This was quite possibly the most rewarding scene the powers that be at Lost have ever given us. I spent most of the finale pleading with the tv gods to spare my favorite time-travelling Scotsman from some horrific death, so seeing him live and get his happy ending---at least for the moment was an embarrassment of riches.

2. Sawyer gets to be the hero. I'm not as diehard a Sawyer fan as most Lost fangirls, but I've always thought he was one of the most interesting characters on the show. I have to admit even I swooned when Sawyer kissed Kate before leaping from the helicopter allowing our gang to make it the freighter.

3. Juliet drinks rum. Oh Juliet, how do you break my heart all the time? Sitting on the beach drinking rum watching her last hope of leaving the island go up in smoke was one of those quiet aching moments that Lost does best. When a wet Sawyer comes swimming out of the ocean calling back to that glorious scene in "Whatever the Case May Be", my brain may have started dreaming about a Juliet/Sawyer pairing.

4. Sayid and Keamy throwdown. In a year full of awesome new cast additions, Keamy managed to be one badass standout. Getting to watch him go at it with our resident badass? Priceless.

5. Ben. I can't pick one moment. Emerson plays them all to perfection. From the comedic (Locke must have too busy hanging out in his locker to study botany) to the serious (Ben kills Keamy...and everyone else on the freighter) to the seriously creepy (Ben moves the island. With a frozen wheel.) It was a terrific night to be Benjermin Linus.

6. Jin misses his plane. Sun sounded as if some essential part of herself was being ripped away as that helicopter flew away leaving her husband to die on the freighter. Not that I believe Jin's dead.

7. Sun makes a deal with Widmore. Future Sun proves to be awesome...and kind of scary.

8. "Checkmate, Mr. Eko." Sayid shoots a guy and then busts Hurley from the asylum, but not before Hurley beats the late Mr. Eko in a game of chess.

9. Daniel says goodbye to Charlotte. Let's face it, I love Daniel Faraday. And Daniel Faraday loves Charlotte. Therefore I love Charlotte (and Miles--let the man eat his peanuts, Rose). Finding out Charlotte was born on the island? Cool. Being forced to spend the next nine months wondering if my sweet, gravelly voiced physicist was on the good or bad side of the island move? Not cool, Damon and Carlton. Really, really not cool.

10. "You can go now Micheal." The actor may not be pleased with his send off , but as a fan of the character since the beginning seeing him get some measure of redemption was pay off enough for me. A ghostly Christian Sheppard allowing him to shake of his mortal coil was just the creepy icing on the cake.

Bonus: I have to mention seeing a downward spiraling Jack listening to his emo and breaking into the funeral home for his late night rendevous with Ben. And of course the reveal of Locke in the coffin, unlike last year I didn't figure this twist out before it happened.

Is it January yet?

Things That Are Cool

1. The trailer for the Lee Pace film "The Fall". It looks gorgeous and it's playing with my favorite genre: the fairy tale as nightmare. I just read one review that likened it to "The Lady in the Water" and I may be the only person on the planet who would take that as a ringing endorsement. You think less of me now, don't you?

2. TV friendships. Booth/Bones, Bones/Angela, Donna/The Doctor, Leonard/Sheldon, Barney/Robin, Betty/Daniel, Sawyer/Hurley. I kind of want to squish them all.

3. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. For some reason I waited ages to read this book, now I can't put it down.

4. Daniel Faraday. The Lost gods may have taken away my sweet Charlie, but they gave me an adorable bumbling, time-travelling physicist to help the healing process along. And it's totally working.

5. Corner Gas. It's Canadian and completely charming and the only reason to watch WGN unless you happen to like watching grown men run around a diamond. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a staycation to get back to.

Cool Fictional Women

March is Women’s History month, so in honor of that I want to talk about some cool fictional women. We look to fiction to both reflect and shape our culture. When it comes to women, fiction can sometimes get it wrong. Whether that’s improbably busty heroines always in need of rescuing or make over queens ala She’s All That, fiction often leads us to believe that being a woman means we must be hot and slutty but demure and needy. Cause that makes sense. But every now and then a female character comes along that’s so fully realized she could be your mom or your best friend or even you. Each day this week I’m going to showcase five of my favorite female characters from television, books, and films. Let’s start the week off with five of my favorite ladies currently on television.



1. Liz Lemon, 30 Rock
As portrayed by the hilarious and talented Tina Fey, Liz has quickly become a hero to
geeky girls everywhere. How can you not relate to Liz when she whips out a Heroes
reference at a swanky party where oxygen is actually on the menu? Besides a love for
pop culture, Liz also happens to be the head writer of her very own comedy sketch
show. She’s funny, quirky, talented, but most certainly not flawless. And she wears
glasses. Liz Lemon is paving the way for all of us who would rather watch Lost than
go shoe shopping.



2. Juliet Burke, Lost
Speaking of Lost, is there a female character in all the land as kick-ass as Juliet? Back
in those dark days before Elizabeth Mitchell made her entrance set to the tune of Petula
Clark’s “Downtown” the ladies of Lost were all a bit, well lackluster, compared to
their male counterparts. Yeah I love Kate, but she spends a wee bit too much time
waffling between Jack and Sawyer to be truly cool. Sun’s pretty awesome but she too
often fades to the background. Claire? Too irrational and whiny. Ditto Shannon. Ana
Lucia was a bit too much like a rabid pit bull. But Juliet? She can knock out Jack, run
complicated double crossing schemes, have sex with Goodwin, and make a mean
grilled cheese sandwich. Awesome.



3. Miranda Bailey, Grey’s Anatomy
Bailey’s been the most awesome of all the Grey’s ladies since day one. She’s tough,
ambitious, and hey, even a mom. She can be vulnerable (see her interact with her old
high school crush) and still rule the interns/residents with an iron fist (see her put the
smack down on Izzie, et al. post Denny). She’s perhaps the most real charcter on the
show. And despite their attempts to bust up her marriage she’s also the most normal.
She’s a damn fine doctor, a good mother, mentor, and friend. We should all aspire to
be like Miranda Bailey.



4. Pam Beesly, The Office
Last year was The Year of Pam. That was the year she dropped her dead weight
boyfriend Roy, started dating, got her own apartment, held an art show and oh yeah,
walked on fire. We saw our girl Pam grow up before our very eyes, learning to stand
on her own two feet and finally speak her mind. By the time Pam triumphantly ran
across hot coals before proclaiming her feelings for Jim all without one ounce of
embarrassment I knew Pam had arrived. This year she’s finally got her guy, but the
best part was watching her find herself.



5. Betty Suarez, Ugly Betty
Occasionally Betty walks into glass doors or trips over her own feet and I inwardly
groan because that may be the worst of the I’m a cutesy girl clichés but then I
remember what Betty looks like. Bushy hair. Glasses. Braces. Unique fashion sense.
Pretty much me if I started dressing myself in the dark. The fact that Betty can look
like that and still do the cutesy girl pratfalls is actually kind of uplifting. Because Betty is
the cute girl. She’s not the goofy sidekick; she’s the main event. Add to that her big
heart and confidence and you’ve got one of the most important female characters to
hit television since a certain tiny blonde started saving the world. The best part? She’s not just
a moral compass, Betty has flaws, she screws up, she makes bad choices. This just
makes her all the more beautiful.

Honorable Mentions: Temperance-Bones, Peggy-Mad Men, Robin-How I Met Your Mother, Olive-Pushing Daisies, Nora-Brothers and Sisters, Martha-Torchwood/Doctor Who, Lynette-Desperate Housewives, Rita-Dexter, and Wanda-Corner Gas

Dear Lost,

Thanks for erasing any need for me to watch the inevitably crappy film adaptation of The Time Traveler’s Wife, Penny and Des will do just fine thanks.

Oh Lost. I want to post coherent and unbiased analysis for you but how can I when you fill me with so much awe and glee? How can I offer up cold-hard analysis of a scene like
Des and Penny’s Christmas Eve phone call that it so clearly the definition of poetry in motion? The sheer epicness of their relationship means I cannot speak about it in the cynical manner I usually use when talking about the dreaded "star-crossed lovers".

And Sayid with his old school season one MacGyver skills! And looking after Desmond! And slamming Doctor Man against a wall!

And there was time travel. Honest to God time travel that was explained well sans paradox---well mostly. (Sidenote: Shouldn’t Desmond have already possessed the memory of meeting Daniel in 1996?) And “Desmond is my constant”. There should be a t-shirt, yes?

And Daniel Faraday: time traveling super genius for the win! Oh and thanks for making my brain spin crazy theories about Eloise (She’s his ex-love who died tragically! She’s his ex-partner who he accidentally trapped in the fourth dimension! She has a restraining order against him because he’s really a creepy stalker! She’s his time traveling lab rat….wait, what?).

Well you see why I can’t have rational thoughts about you. I guess I’ll just have to settle for channeling my squee-filled inner fourteen year old on Thursdays. I hope you’re happy.

P.S. If you hurt one hair on Juliet’s head next week I swear I will post unbiased and completely coherent analysis about you, don’t look at me like that I’m not kidding.

P.P.S. To ABC actually, feel free to run that Iron Man preview on a continual loop if you like. MMM…Robert Downey Jr.

Lost "The Economist"

When Lost is good it’s better than pretty much everything on television with the exception of Mad Men. When Lost is really good it’s better than pretty much everything, ever. At this point you’re probably thinking overstatement much, but join me as we discuss “The Economist” and I convince you that as in all things I am right.

The first sign that this episode was going to rock was the part where it started with Sayid. That’s always a good sign my friends. On the superficial side Naveen Andrews may very well be the most attractive man on the planet. Outside of that he’s one of the finest actors working today (even if he often makes truly terrible movies). It’s like he has this fire in his performance, a passion that can’t help but bubble over into his work. It’s the reason the man has palpable chemistry with everything from his costars to the floor he’s standing on. That’s why I love his episodes, whenever the rest of the cast stands back and lets him go he commands the screen. It’s always breathtaking.

Thursday’s episode may have been his finest to date. In “The Economist” we discover that Sayid gets off the island becomes a hitman, falls in love yet again, has love end in tragedy yet again, and is working for Benjamin Fricken Linus. Throughout it all Sayid ran the gamut from terrifying (shooting that dude on the golf course) to vulnerable (lying with his head on guest star Chloe Bell’s stomach) to broken (breaking down in Ben’s office). Yes, in the end Sayid seemed to be every bit as damaged in the future as the other members of the Oceanic 6.

And can I just say, what an ending that was? From Sayid shooting his latest lady love and crawling across the floor to close her eyes and remove her bracelet in a perfect mirror scene to the beginning of the episode to the reveal that Sayid had “sold his soul” and was now working for Ben it was tragic and aching while still managing to be completely tantalizing. (My crazy theory: The death Ben uses to recruit Sayid to do his dirty work is Nadia’s. Anyone else thinking she might be working for these freighter folks? She was working for a pharmaceutical company was she not? And I’m sorry but I’m not buying a future where a post-island Sayid doesn’t make a beeline for her.)

And what about the on-island action? That shot of Sayid looking out the island as the helicopter rose into the sky was one of the most beautiful Lost has ever given us. Right up there with Sun dropping her shawl in a quiet declaration of freedom back in season one. Also I think I’m falling for Daniel the way I fell for Juliet last year. His stuttering, bumbling genius makes him difficult not to like. I love it when new characters actually work, in fact I’m a little enamored with all of the freighter folk. And what about that experiment? Time moves differently on the island? Or was it a little more sciency than that?

Finally, Sawyer convinces Kate to play house. Oh, Sawyer she’s going to break your heart so bad sweetie. Line of the night goes to Hurley, after Miles calls him tubby he sighs, “Oh great, the boat brought us another Sawyer.” Oh, Hurley.

In conclusion: Lost > everything else.

Join me next week when Kate deals with the stalkerazzi.

Things That Are Cool:

1. Doctor Who season 4 cinematic trailer. I loved the Bride! And dude, there are giant wasps. How is that not terrifying?
   


2. Writer’s Strike over! New Shows Imminent.
   


3. More importantly via Ausiello, Damon and Carlton have promised five additional episodes this season. They also promised the three cut episodes will be added on at some point.
   
4. Lost is moving to the post-Grey’s slot meaning ABC’s Thursday night line up will be Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost! Win.


5. Diane Sawyer. Just cause.