Top 3 TV Shows to Look Forward to in ‘09
It’s great to use the time before TV shows return to catch up on TV shows (helllooo five seasons of the Wire), but here’s what I’m looking forward to returning in ‘09:
1) Lost: Season 5, returns Jan 21
Come on Cuse and Lindelof – it’s been a great Season 4, don’t fail us now.
2) Burn Notice, returns Jan 22
No other show on the air right now blends is as fun to watch as this one, making it my new favorite show. I was skeptical at first, but I burned through twenty-some episodes (Season 1 and half of Season 2) in several days because it was that good. You can’t say no to Bruce Campbell.
Connecting the Dots: Harold Perrineau
Remember Harrold Perrineau aka “Michael” from Lost? Here he is killing folk on Lost circa 2006:
BTW – Don’t you miss Ana-Lucia’s crazy gun-toting, let’s go after the Others with the vengeance of a 1000 bloody suns ways?
Then, on the recommendation of my neighbor, I watched the 2000 Penelope Cruz movie “Woman on Top.” Not a bad premise, but boring in execution and rather flat. Yeah, it was not good. But lo and behold, here was Michael circa 2000:
Then I checked IMDB and found out he played Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet and Link in Matrix 2 and 3. If he hadn’t gotten his breakout role in Lost, I wonder if he could still develop a niche within the character actor universe for drag. Perrineau’s done it once in Woman in Top and then in Romeo & Juliet when Mercutio’s all dragged up at the ball. Yeah I made it a verb, what up!
I’ve Seen That Name Before!
One of the signs you watch a lot of TV/movies? You start making connections like, “Hey! I know that person! He was that extra who was in that show five years ago!” (e.g. Paul Giamatti plays a hotel employee in My Best Friend’s Wedding who tells Julia Roberts smoking isn’t allowed in the hotel, only to join her. Paul Giamatti!)
Anyways, I just realized that Michael Giacchino, who wrote the scores for The Incredibles and Ratatouille, writes the music for Lost! Yeah, the same guy who set the tone for a sweet movie about a rat overcoming the odds is the same person who writes that oh so lovely, creepy score. Is that range or what?
Catching Up on Lost
I was 6 episodes behind on Lost thanks to a combination of a shoddy ABC player and a shoddy Internet connection. I know the ABC player and CBS player suck because Hulu.com streams perfectly well.
Now I’m only 3 episodes behind, and boy have I missed this show.
Except for Desmond and Ben, the post-first season characters still don’t draw me in. Just finished the Juliet-centric episode, and she’s had her moments in this series but I still don’t really care for her storyline. Because they were integrated really well in an action-heavy ep, I still want to know more about Miles, Farraday and Charlotte. Part of the draw is I get a nerdy kick everytime I hear the name Farraday.
Memorable quote of my evening Lost marathon:
“How come we don’t know about this [a secret sanctuary]?” -Carl
“Well it wouldn’t be a sanctuary if I told everyone about this, would it?” -Ben
Hee. Snark.
La Lohan, The Women of Lost
May Sweeps! May Sweeps! May Sweeps!
Seems like Ugly Betty is trying to pull out all the stops, and for that I am grateful. Check it, they finally closed the deal for LA LOHAN’s six-episode stint. I’ve got a soft spot for the troubled starlet since she did well on some of my favorite “replay all the time” sort of movies – Parent Trap and Mean Girls. Yeah, Parent Trap. It was cute, don’t judge! So let’s hope she still remembers how to act. Hollywood loves nothing more than a redemption arc.
Speaking of women on TV, this article makes a good case for what has happened to the women on Lost? Seriously, they used to be pretty bad-ass. I tend to give the writers a lot of leeway mainly because writing is damn hard and they do a great job most of the time, but 1) I haven’t completely forgiven them for killing off one of my favorite characters and 2) I hope the writers don’t get so caught up in the Lost mythology they forget to work on the womens’ characters. Hats off to the Lost writers though, I don’t envy their and the Heroes crew’s pressure to live up to their fanbase’s expectations.
Lost is BAAACCCCK!
It’s BAAAAACCCK! ABC’s Thursday lineup is back tonight after the writer’s strike. And if the episodes before the strike were any indication, the rest of season 4 will wipe out the malaise of season 3 and kick. ass.
Since JJ Abrams is off doing his movie thing and Star Trek and all that jazz, the series’ direction really rests on Damen Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. Here’s both a NYTimes article and an interview they did with the AV Club. Well, them and these crazy kooks:
What I would give to be a fly in that writers room.
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