Posted by DarkUFO at 12/20/2009 01:14:00 PM
ABC plans to launch the final season of "Lost" with an advance screening during a special Sunset on the Beach, and stars from the show have been invited.
The event is scheduled for Jan. 30 at Queen's Surf Beach in Waikíkí, and fans from as far away as Ireland and Afghanistan are already planning to come.
The sixth season of "Lost," which has been based in Hawai'i since it began in 2004, will have its national broadcast premiere three days later, on Feb. 2.
The network could not yet confirm which cast members would be there, but previous previews have featured most of the primary stars.
Thousands of screaming fans packed the beach when ABC held advance screenings in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Much to their delight, cast members — including Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Matthew Fox, Daniel Dae Kim and Jorge Garcia — repeatedly broke away from interviews with national media to shake hands, exchange hugs and sign autographs.
For the final season's premiere, the show's executive producers — Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof — are expected to attend, ABC said. Other guests will be announced later.
Mayor Mufi Hannemann said the city was proud to host the premiere because "Lost" was good for the Islands.
"More than any other show, 'Lost' has proven that Honolulu can be an industry production center because the cosmopolitan nature of our great city gives us the ability to double for dozens of places around the world, and we have the talented crew and burgeoning infrastructure to support this industry," Hannemann said.
Alison Gormley and her husband Adrian Hopkins plan to fly from their home in Ireland for the premiere, even though they vacationed on O'ahu last month. Gormley, 32, said she booked their January flight before the event was confirmed.
"We are counting down the days," she said via e-mail. "We arrive in Honolulu the night before the event ... and not even the thought of severe jet lag and adjusting to opposite time zones can take away our excitement."
A fan of the show since it first aired — she said it has taken her on a journey — Gormley is still in shock over the chance "to see our favorite 'Losties' on the red carpet and watch the world premiere on a 30-foot screen under the stars on O'ahu."
Jonine Woods, a former Hawai'i resident serving with the U.S. Air Force in Afghanistan, plans to celebrate the end of her six-month deployment at the event. "Lost" is her favorite show, she said.
"I think it is a once in a lifetime chance to get out of the norms of life and meet other fans of the show," the 27-year-old Woods, a staff sergeant, wrote in an e-mail.
"It is also a chance to not see it on a little TV and experience it in a theater type setting, the way I think 'Lost' should be seen," she said. "Who knows, I might be able to meet a few cast members."
Source: honoluluadvertiser
http://lostmediamentions.blogspot.com/2009/12/abcs-lost-kicking-off-final-season-on.html
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
ODI: Holloway is One of TV Guide's Best Performers for 2009
Posted by The ODI on Monday, December 21, 2009
What a pleasant surprise to find out that a few years trapped in the 1970s Dharma Initiative transformed shifty con man James "Sawyer" Ford" into heroic leader Jim LaFleur. Holloway's delicate shift in character retained Sawyer's rakish charm, but imbued him with a welcome sense of gravitas.
Full List: TV Guide
http://the-odi.blogspot.com/2009/12/holloway-is-one-of-tv-guides-best.html
What a pleasant surprise to find out that a few years trapped in the 1970s Dharma Initiative transformed shifty con man James "Sawyer" Ford" into heroic leader Jim LaFleur. Holloway's delicate shift in character retained Sawyer's rakish charm, but imbued him with a welcome sense of gravitas.
Full List: TV Guide
http://the-odi.blogspot.com/2009/12/holloway-is-one-of-tv-guides-best.html
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
Doc Jensen: 'Lost': Daemon Seed!
Doc Jensen is bedeviled by homonyms: Are demons the key to the Island? Or daemons? Or daimons? Plus: Crack the hieroglyphic code on new DVD for a special treat; a chat with ''Big Mouth''
By Jeff Jensen
Dec 10, 2009
There's been a lot of buzz about the Lost: The Complete Fifth Season DVD, in stores now. Maybe it's because fans have heard a lot about the cool collection of bonus features (like Lost University, only on Blu-ray). Maybe it's because they're excited to relive classic moments like the Sawyer/Juliet kiss, the Locke/Ben strangulation, or the Jacob/Man In Black conversation. Or maybe it's because they're kinky pervs who like to incorporate shiny plastic LOST-stamped discs into the sexy parts of their Jin/Sun or Hurley/Miles or Ana Lucia/Libby make-believe gameplay. Oh yes, I just went there. Good morning!
Personally, I think the acute excitement for the season 5 set is an expression of the nervy anticipation for season 6 in February. Like the lighting of the first Advent and Hanukkah candles, the DVD's release is the first manifestation of the Lost moment — the final Lost moment — that is almost upon us. The product itself stokes that fire by including content designed to tease and frame the show's climactic 18 hours of story. I'm told that Lost University ''curriculum'' — which includes classes in philosophy, physics, and sociology — functions as an intellectual orientation to the forthcoming season's thematic concerns. And then there are the hieroglyphics on the package itself — I'm told that, when decoded, they reveal a season 6 tease. Can't read hieroglyphics? Well, wouldn't you know it, Lost University includes a class on that, too.
Of course, not everyone has a Blu-ray player. And then there are those lazy, silly, uncool people who think that deciphering ancient pictograms is ''not fun'' or ''too much work'' — just one big ''puh-leeeze.'' You know what? I do not like these people. These people are the enemies of progress and they need to be strapped to a chair and have their faces slapped with a wet uncooked hot dog by an emaciated lice-ridden gibbon with loose bowels and halitosis until they are willing to confess their profound wrongness and general lack of good taste. But I have neither the straps nor the hot dogs readily available, and so, my Lost friends, we have no choice but to help the ignorant and stubborn among us by doing their cryptography for them. And by ''us,'' I mean ''you,'' because the labor of concocting Lost theories each week (as well as imagining scenes of icky monkey torture) doesn't leave enough time for genuinely useful work. So here's my proposal:
Get the DVD. Crack the hieroglyphic code. Send me your scholarship at docjensenew@gmail.com. Next week, I will publish a sampling of the results. I say ''results'' because I suspect that the decoding project could yield different answers, or at least different articulations of the same answer. Those who e-mail me their scholarship before 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10 will receive something special. Remember in last week's column, when I told you about the ''Letter of Truce''? I said at that time that I would reveal more of the letter's contents in the coming weeks, including all four of Richard Alpert's ''counters'' and ''addendums.'' Well, those willing to play my decoding game will get that scoop via a promptly returned e-mail. (Don't worry: I'll share that scoop with ALL of you in next week's column.)
Please: Don't make me sick my sick monkey on your less fortunate friends. This Lost advent season, help the Lost-deprived with a small donation of your obsessive Lost energy. You'll be glad you did.
QUESTIONS FOR A SUPER-FAN: ANDREW WILMAR
Also known to his fans as Big Mouth, Andrew Wilmar is a 35-year-old lawyer living in Santa Monica, Calif., who also happens to be one of the most astute and imaginative Lost theorists on the Web. The title of his blog sums up the intensity of his obsession: Eye M Sick. I dig his curiosity, his sincere passion, and his exuberant intellect. And I suspect we share a telepathic rapport. Another journalist recently interviewed me about Lost, and when he asked me what I'll miss most when the show ends in May, my answer was nearly word for word the same one Andrew gave me in the e-mail interview I did with him later
DOC JENSEN: How long have you been posting Lost theories?
ANDREW WILMAR: Since the premiere in 2004. I remember logging onto imdb.com after the pilot and speculating that the distress call was solar powered, and the Monster was some kind of giant ape like King Kong. I posted my first stab at a comprehensive theory of the show two months later.
Which of your Lost theories is your favorite?
''Three Black Swans.'' Since ancient times, Jacob has brought people to the Island to create miraculous events that postpone [mankind's] extinction, an exercise the Man in Black finds futile. Jacob hopes to avert our extinction for good by creating the Omega Point, a kind of global consciousness representing the next step in human evolution. Aaron and Ji-Yeon are avatars of this Omega Point. Everything that rises must converge with a Lost wedding between them before 2031. [DOC JENSEN NOTE: As crazy as Big Mouth's theory sounds in summary, it's actually slightly less crazy when you read it in full.]
What episode of Lost made you go, ''Yep. I'm obsessed.''
''Walkabout.'' Such a perfect balance of character development and mythological advancement. Locke wiggling his gold-tipped toes in wonder after the crash will always be the defining image of the show for me. It raised so many possibilities — everything from cloning to resurrection — that captured my imagination for good.
What character do you relate to the most and why?
Locke. I shave my head and don't appreciate people telling me what I can't do. I still hold out hope for his redemption in season 6, but suspect any such redemption will be bittersweet. And that's exactly as it should be.
How have you been spending your hiatus?
I've taken the opportunity to write about television besides Lost on my other blog, I Hate My DVR. Despite — or perhaps because of — my parents' efforts to limit my consumption, I've been addicted to TV since childhood.
Are you PRO timeline reboot or ANTI timeline reboot?
Both. Miles was basically correct when he said that the [time traveling castaways] had always been the cause of the Incident. But there are currently two possibilities superimposed like Schrodinger's cat. There's the time line depicted in seasons 1 through 5, which actually depends on the bomb exploding. And there's the alternative, where the bomb fails to explode, erasing the time line we know. Someone — my guess is Juliet — will get to choose whether the bomb actually detonates. Ultimately, she will opt to effectuate the future she remembers, rather than reboot it.
What will you miss most about Lost when it wraps up next May?
I'll miss the thrill of discovery. I've learned so much about so many esoteric subjects I might never have studied but for Lost. Everything from theoretical physics to New Age Gnosticism. There's nothing quite like reading about something mind-blowing — e.g., the double-slit experiment in quantum mechanics — for the very first time.
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Ah, yes. The old ''double-slit experiment.'' I remember my first time trying to make sense of that, too... but that's a story for another time. And probably for another blog.
THE ISLAND OF MISFIT MYTHOLOGY
Damon, Daemon, and Daimonic: The Homonymic Convergence
Not long ago, I found myself fixated by the word ''demon.'' Possessed by it, you might say. (Go ahead, say it. I dare you.) Don't ask me why; it's a long, epic story, filled with tragedy, dark magic, and a great deal of goat blood, and while the world was saved in the process, the memories remain tender, painful. (Yes, even my theories about Lost mythology have mythology.) But after recovering, I was left with the thought that perhaps the mysteries of Ghost Christian, the Man In Black, and the Monster, a.k.a. Smokey, might be explained by the concept of ''demons.'' So I began researching. There are the demons of fantasy literature, innumerable and awful. There are the demons of religion and mythology, also countless and creepy. There are also the demons of philosophy and science, although these buggers are few and quite specialized. These ''demons'' mostly exist in thought experiments, like the famous/infamous ''Maxwell's Demon,'' named after Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, which concerns an omnipotent, omniscient particle capable of sorting molecules of different stripes. Very Santa Claus, sorting children into piles of naughty and nice — or very Jacob, sorting castaways into List and Off-List categories. More recently, and less famously, there is ''Morton's Demon,'' coined by its creator, Glenn Morton, a permutation of Confirmation Bias, which describes the tendency people have to filter information in such a way that only affirms their pre-existing opinions and beliefs while rejecting anything that would challenge them. (''Morton's Demon'' is the patron saint of most Lost theorizing: It only lets us see what we want to see.)
And then there is maybe the most Lost-relevant demon of all: ''The Evil Daemon'' of philosopher Rene Descartes, also known as the Evil Genius, a supernatural entity that exists solely to confuse humanity about the true nature of reality. I couldn't tell from my (superficial) research if Descartes' morphing and warping shifty obfuscator was literal or figurative, but still: Very ''Smokey,'' if you ask me. Descartes' ''Evil Daemon'' inspired me to ask one more question: What's up with the funky spelling? In my head, ''daemon'' (also spelled ''daimon'' in other texts) sounds less like ''demon'' and more like ''damon.'' You know, like Damon Lindelof, co-creator of Lost. So I Googled ''daemon'' — and I was left mind-boggled. The words ''daemon'' (from the Latin), ''daimon'' (from the Greek), and ''daimonic'' are super-charged with distinctive Lost possibilities, especially in connection to the Island's ghostly apparitions, long-lived mortals, shape-shifting monsters, and touchy-feely thread-spinning deities. Consider:
DAEMON: A VAGUELY MATRIXY THEORY
In computer lingo, daemons are programs that work invisibly in the background. Some daemons activate the second you start your computer, while other daemons don't activate until certain circumstances trigger them. The application to Lost is pretty simple. We now know that Jacob and MIB always have been hiding in the background of the castaways' lives and their Island ordeal, running and managing and manipulating things. The Matrix Trilogy worked this analogy pretty hard. The Architect, the Merovingian, the Twins, the Keymaker — they're all computer daemon metaphors. I think. I don't know. My brain is still bruised from those damn movies.
THE DAIMONIC JOURNEY
From Wikipedia: ''As a psychological term, [daimonic is] an elemental force which contains an irrepressible urge not only to survive but to thrive. As a literary term, it can also mean the unrest that exists in us all that forces us into the unknown, leading to self-destruction and/or self-discovery.'' The ''daimonic journey'' is very similar to Joseph Campbell's mythological ''Hero's Journey.'' According to Wikipedia, the daimonic journey is marked by a figurative and literal fall or descent (like, say, from an airplane) into ''daimonic reality'' that's isolated from the ''real world'' (like, say, an Island?) where one must confront his or her ''daimons.'' Note the spelling of that word: ''daimons,'' not ''demons.'' The curious spelling tells us that we're not speaking figuratively here: In the daimonic journey, a ''daimon'' is an entity (purely psychological? wholly supernatural? both?) whose purpose is to reflect and embody the hero's darkest parts. (Think: Smokey.) In his or her quest for redemptive self-realization, the hero must then destroy this entity, or be destroyed by it. Wikipedia: ''The glory of the daimonic is in the humble resurrection, though it claims more than it sets free, as many a foolish men are [sic] drawn into its vacuum never to return.'' So: Who and what are these ''daimonic'' entities? Glad you asked!
OF DAEMONS AND DAIMON: A TOTALLY ''GENIUS'' THEORY OF LOST!
Doc Jensen's Madcap Mythology Scholarship Special of the Week!
A long, long time ago, some folks in both ancient Greece and ancient Egypt allegedly believed in a deity named Hermes Trismegistus, a fusion of the Greek god Hermes and Egyptian god Thoth. According to Hermetic mythology, souls en route to heaven first had to pass through a series of realms, or ''spheres.'' But before they got out of the spheres, they first had to tangle with their gatekeepers, known as daemons. Does the Island = a sphere? Do Jacob and the Man In Black = daemon gatekeepers?
Now, lest you think ''daemon'' and ''daimon'' are merely florid spellings of ''demon''...well, they can be. But over the centuries, smarter people than you and I have made many distinctions between the two terms. The contemporary view of ''demons'' — very Judeo-Christian; your garden-variety hell-spawned Satan-serving snake — represents a superficial recontextualization of the older, more sophisticated daimons and daemons of Greek and Roman mythology and folklore. In fact, the Island on Lost — with its scattering of pagan ruins and ancient spirits — is a metaphor for the tragic trajectory of the spirituality of antiquity: busted, rusted, deconstructed ideas marginalized to a tiny, shadowy part of the globe, largely invisible to and mostly disputed by the reasonable, rational masses. Welcome...to the Island of Misfit Mythology. (Coming in two weeks: Doc Jensen's holiday special, featuring my ''Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer'' theory of Lost.)
First, understand that daemons can exist on a wide continuum of significance and power. Some daemons are stronger and older than others. Some daemons exist to serve other daemons, though all daemons are subordinate to the Gods, who created daemons for the purpose of serving mankind. Daemons have specific attributes that can be ascribed to many of the Island's exotic denizens and supernatural entities. Daemons can be the ghosts of deceased heroes (Christian Shepherd?), or mortals who've been blessed by the gods with long life (Richard Alpert). But they are not immortal; they can be killed or destroyed (see: Jacob). Some are capable of changing their shape (see: Man in Black). Some are capable of manipulating lesser creatures, like birds and insects (recall: the chattering Hurleybird from the season 2 finale and the Smokey-controlled spiders from ''Expose''). Some daemons are immaterial, existing as disembodied voices. (The Whispers?) They can dwell within human beings, imbuing them with power or existing as an internal companion, like a voice of conscience or temptation. But unlike the demons of Christian characterization, daemons are not known to require a physical host or physically possess or control human beings, a la Linda Blair in The Exorcist (think: MIB, who never possessed Locke, but rather impersonated him).
The daemons of antiquity were often morally neutral in nature. Still, there were distinct categories of good daemons (Eudaemons) and bad daemons (Kakodaemons). In Roman mythology, daemons were also known as genii (from which we get ''genius''), a term that described the protective spirits of Roman mythology. A very specific permutation of genii, the Genius Loci, walks us right up to Jacob and Man In Black: These are spirits who reside in and rule over a very specific place. Good Daemons were akin to Christian guardian angels or the New Age notion of the ''higher self,'' a pretty trippy concept filled with Lost application that deserves a column unto itself. The daemon's primary job was to protect human souls and prepare them for what awaited in the afterlife. According to the Greek Myth Index, ''We read in Plato that daemons are assigned to men at the moment of their birth, that thenceforward they accompany men through life, and that after death they conduct their souls to Hades.'' Application to Lost: The whole guardian angel concept of daemons fits Jacob's pre-Island interactions with castaways Sawyer, Kate, Jin and Sun, Locke, Jack, Sayid, and Hurley. (Although, as discussed last week, I do wonder if MIB posed as Jacob to Sayid and Hurley.)
But don't let Jacob's touchy-feely empathy fool you: ''Good Daemons'' don't execute their shepherding missions with the gentlest of tactics. Daemons can practice some serious tough love. The research tells us that daemons can be constructive and destructive, gentle and cruel, polite and pitiless. In the season finale, we saw Jacob reading Flannery O'Connor as Locke got tossed from an eighth-floor window. Presumably all-knowing Jacob knew what was about to happen — but he didn't lift a finger to prevent it. Some guardian angel, huh? Yet O'Connor specialized in telling stories in which the path to spiritual enlightenment is accompanied with brutal irony — and ironic brutality. As O'Connor explained: ''I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace. Their heads are so hard that almost nothing else will do the work. This idea, that reality is something to which we must be returned at considerable cost, is one which is seldom understood by the casual reader, but it is one which is implicit in the Christian view of the world.'' O'Connor's fiction doesn't contain too many daemons that I know of. Her gritty stories imply a world governed by God-ingrained rules. So did the mythology of faithful pagans of antiquity — but they took the extra step of believing that daemons and daimons embodied those rules and executed their functions in the world.
To be clear, that aforementioned ''Christian view of the world'' has historically taken a dim, suspicious position on daemons. This was especially true of Jesus' early followers. As Christianity swept away the pagan mythology of the Western world, gods like Zeus and Jupiter were disavowed and their mankind-serving ''daemons'' were...well, demonized. And yet, the most expansive Christian characterization of daemons — St. Cyprian, an infamously narrow-minded third-century Christian leader with zero tolerance for pagan culture — contains a veritable catalog of Lost correlations. Cyprian tells us that daemons were once sinful humans that became prickish poltergeists after kicking the coil — ''impure and wandering spirits'' who ''seek the ruin of others.'' (MIB, mayhap? Maybe even Christian?) Cyprian also says that daemons rule the lottery (Hurley!), provide visions of the future (Desmond!), seed nightmares (Kate! Charles Widmore!), and have their own prophets (Richard!), most of whom tell nothing but lies (Ben!), just like their greater daemonic masters (MIB and even Jacob, if you entertain the theory that Jacob isn't the goody-goody guy he appears to be). A classic daemon tactic: using magic or their proxies to create legit or phony sickness in people so they can in turn give them miracle remedies that inspire belief and loyalty (see: Juliet and her sister; Young Ben; Claire). Cyprian's grouchy take on daemons is very specific about where you can find them: ''These spirits, therefore, are lurking under statues and consecrated images.'' Like, say, giant monoliths of four-toed Egyptian goddesses, perhaps? That's so on-the-nose it makes it pretty irresistible to make too much of this whole daemon thing.
Finally, Cyprian says there's no shaking these devilish buggers — at least, not until the daemons are destroyed or just grow tired of you: ''The only remedy from them is when their own mischief ceases.'' Reading that last sentence evoked the whole idea of Jacob and MIB as god-like game-players, competing against each other by using the castaways as chess pieces — a metaphor richly illustrated by that killer Spanish Lost promo, with narration adapted from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and music from Radiohead's ''Everything in Its Right Place.'' If you haven't seen it check out the video at the bottom of this page. I live to serve.
My bottom line: Lost is lousy with daemons. My theory, inspired by this research, is this:
OLD DAIMONS NEVER DIE. THEY JUST FADE AWAY ... OR KILL EACH OTHER.
Or: What happens when people stop going on Walkabouts.
The Island is a ''sphere'' of ''daimonic reality,'' designed to facilitate ''daimonic journeys'' for mortals who seek it. This realm has a patron daemon, a ''Genius Loci'': Jacob. He is a cog in much larger celestial/spiritual wheel of life and death, redemption and damnation. Jacob is akin to a guardian angel, possibly one of many. He represents hope, second chances, progress — change and improvement.
Now, Jacob has helpers on his daimonic island — entities that are daemons in their own right, autonomous and powerful, but subordinate to him. One of these daemons is the Man In Black, a multifaceted, multipurpose daemon that plays many roles in the Island's daimonic operating system. In fact, like a computer daemon, the MIB daemon activates and begins running the moment new mortals step onto the Island. One of MIB's primary jobs is to test these souls. Hence, he is morally ambiguous and fearsome in nature, because he often must play the role of adversary (sometimes via his own set of willing or unwilling human or supernatural agents; think: the Others or Ghost Christian) or judge.
In more spiritual times (or, if you prefer, superstitious times), the ephemeral, nebulous realm represented by the Island was a widely accessible expanse. However, time has not been kind to Jacob and his daimonic wonderland/underworld. Two thousand years of monotheism has marginalized and demonized them, while the past 300 years of God-denying philosophy and science has produced a faithless world that fails to recognize or even believe in them. As spirituality has shriveled, their place in this world has literally shrunk — to a mysterious Island in the Pacific, a junkyard of old ideas, the last bastion of the Unknown. But Jacob refuses to surrender. Where once mortals actively sought out the eye-opening, life-changing, soul-expanding daimonic journey (a veritable Locke-esque walkabout), Jacob now must scheme and conspire to bring people to him. In many ways, he has a new mission: to remind mankind that their lives are actually heroic journeys — and that the journey is profoundly spiritual in nature.
The problem with all of this is the Man In Black. Subordinate to Jacob, MIB is bound to participate in Jacob's Island schemes and perform his archetypal functions in the Island Mythology Machine. But MIB has grown wary of Jacob's shenanigans. The people he brings to the Island — especially in recent times — always fall short in their heroic journeys, always fail to pass his tests and judgments. Cynical and tired, MIB has given up on mankind — and he really wishes Jacob would, too. And so MIB has turned traitor to the cause of faith. His ambition: to finish what the surging cause of reason has started. The story of Lost, then, is the story of MIB's decades-in-the-making scheme to break free from his enslavement to Jacob and bring the futile daimonic enterprise that is the Island to an end. But it is also the story of Jacob's counter-attack to MIB's revolt. If Jacob wins, the Island soldiers on. If MIB wins, then the twilight of the gods will have finally reached its permanent night.
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Wow. That got heavy, didn't it? But that's Lost for you: A show that inspires pretentious meditations of the spiritual nature of mankind — and also inspires word pictures involving torture monkeys with the wet hot dogs. Yes, I am blameless! I blame Lost for my inappropriateness! I am Mr. Eko: ''I have done nothing wrong!'' But perhaps I should quit while I am only very far behind. Next week, I'll have the results of my DVD/glyph challenge and a couple more cool things I got cooking that you won't want to miss — including a theory that reveals the Man In Black's connection to a real life man in black. Hint: Not Johnny Cash. But don't ''Hurt'' yourself thinking about it — just come back next week!
Namaste!
Doc Jensen
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20325436,00.html?xid=email-alert-lost-20091209-item1
By Jeff Jensen
Dec 10, 2009
There's been a lot of buzz about the Lost: The Complete Fifth Season DVD, in stores now. Maybe it's because fans have heard a lot about the cool collection of bonus features (like Lost University, only on Blu-ray). Maybe it's because they're excited to relive classic moments like the Sawyer/Juliet kiss, the Locke/Ben strangulation, or the Jacob/Man In Black conversation. Or maybe it's because they're kinky pervs who like to incorporate shiny plastic LOST-stamped discs into the sexy parts of their Jin/Sun or Hurley/Miles or Ana Lucia/Libby make-believe gameplay. Oh yes, I just went there. Good morning!
Personally, I think the acute excitement for the season 5 set is an expression of the nervy anticipation for season 6 in February. Like the lighting of the first Advent and Hanukkah candles, the DVD's release is the first manifestation of the Lost moment — the final Lost moment — that is almost upon us. The product itself stokes that fire by including content designed to tease and frame the show's climactic 18 hours of story. I'm told that Lost University ''curriculum'' — which includes classes in philosophy, physics, and sociology — functions as an intellectual orientation to the forthcoming season's thematic concerns. And then there are the hieroglyphics on the package itself — I'm told that, when decoded, they reveal a season 6 tease. Can't read hieroglyphics? Well, wouldn't you know it, Lost University includes a class on that, too.
Of course, not everyone has a Blu-ray player. And then there are those lazy, silly, uncool people who think that deciphering ancient pictograms is ''not fun'' or ''too much work'' — just one big ''puh-leeeze.'' You know what? I do not like these people. These people are the enemies of progress and they need to be strapped to a chair and have their faces slapped with a wet uncooked hot dog by an emaciated lice-ridden gibbon with loose bowels and halitosis until they are willing to confess their profound wrongness and general lack of good taste. But I have neither the straps nor the hot dogs readily available, and so, my Lost friends, we have no choice but to help the ignorant and stubborn among us by doing their cryptography for them. And by ''us,'' I mean ''you,'' because the labor of concocting Lost theories each week (as well as imagining scenes of icky monkey torture) doesn't leave enough time for genuinely useful work. So here's my proposal:
Get the DVD. Crack the hieroglyphic code. Send me your scholarship at docjensenew@gmail.com. Next week, I will publish a sampling of the results. I say ''results'' because I suspect that the decoding project could yield different answers, or at least different articulations of the same answer. Those who e-mail me their scholarship before 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10 will receive something special. Remember in last week's column, when I told you about the ''Letter of Truce''? I said at that time that I would reveal more of the letter's contents in the coming weeks, including all four of Richard Alpert's ''counters'' and ''addendums.'' Well, those willing to play my decoding game will get that scoop via a promptly returned e-mail. (Don't worry: I'll share that scoop with ALL of you in next week's column.)
Please: Don't make me sick my sick monkey on your less fortunate friends. This Lost advent season, help the Lost-deprived with a small donation of your obsessive Lost energy. You'll be glad you did.
QUESTIONS FOR A SUPER-FAN: ANDREW WILMAR
Also known to his fans as Big Mouth, Andrew Wilmar is a 35-year-old lawyer living in Santa Monica, Calif., who also happens to be one of the most astute and imaginative Lost theorists on the Web. The title of his blog sums up the intensity of his obsession: Eye M Sick. I dig his curiosity, his sincere passion, and his exuberant intellect. And I suspect we share a telepathic rapport. Another journalist recently interviewed me about Lost, and when he asked me what I'll miss most when the show ends in May, my answer was nearly word for word the same one Andrew gave me in the e-mail interview I did with him later
DOC JENSEN: How long have you been posting Lost theories?
ANDREW WILMAR: Since the premiere in 2004. I remember logging onto imdb.com after the pilot and speculating that the distress call was solar powered, and the Monster was some kind of giant ape like King Kong. I posted my first stab at a comprehensive theory of the show two months later.
Which of your Lost theories is your favorite?
''Three Black Swans.'' Since ancient times, Jacob has brought people to the Island to create miraculous events that postpone [mankind's] extinction, an exercise the Man in Black finds futile. Jacob hopes to avert our extinction for good by creating the Omega Point, a kind of global consciousness representing the next step in human evolution. Aaron and Ji-Yeon are avatars of this Omega Point. Everything that rises must converge with a Lost wedding between them before 2031. [DOC JENSEN NOTE: As crazy as Big Mouth's theory sounds in summary, it's actually slightly less crazy when you read it in full.]
What episode of Lost made you go, ''Yep. I'm obsessed.''
''Walkabout.'' Such a perfect balance of character development and mythological advancement. Locke wiggling his gold-tipped toes in wonder after the crash will always be the defining image of the show for me. It raised so many possibilities — everything from cloning to resurrection — that captured my imagination for good.
What character do you relate to the most and why?
Locke. I shave my head and don't appreciate people telling me what I can't do. I still hold out hope for his redemption in season 6, but suspect any such redemption will be bittersweet. And that's exactly as it should be.
How have you been spending your hiatus?
I've taken the opportunity to write about television besides Lost on my other blog, I Hate My DVR. Despite — or perhaps because of — my parents' efforts to limit my consumption, I've been addicted to TV since childhood.
Are you PRO timeline reboot or ANTI timeline reboot?
Both. Miles was basically correct when he said that the [time traveling castaways] had always been the cause of the Incident. But there are currently two possibilities superimposed like Schrodinger's cat. There's the time line depicted in seasons 1 through 5, which actually depends on the bomb exploding. And there's the alternative, where the bomb fails to explode, erasing the time line we know. Someone — my guess is Juliet — will get to choose whether the bomb actually detonates. Ultimately, she will opt to effectuate the future she remembers, rather than reboot it.
What will you miss most about Lost when it wraps up next May?
I'll miss the thrill of discovery. I've learned so much about so many esoteric subjects I might never have studied but for Lost. Everything from theoretical physics to New Age Gnosticism. There's nothing quite like reading about something mind-blowing — e.g., the double-slit experiment in quantum mechanics — for the very first time.
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Ah, yes. The old ''double-slit experiment.'' I remember my first time trying to make sense of that, too... but that's a story for another time. And probably for another blog.
THE ISLAND OF MISFIT MYTHOLOGY
Damon, Daemon, and Daimonic: The Homonymic Convergence
Not long ago, I found myself fixated by the word ''demon.'' Possessed by it, you might say. (Go ahead, say it. I dare you.) Don't ask me why; it's a long, epic story, filled with tragedy, dark magic, and a great deal of goat blood, and while the world was saved in the process, the memories remain tender, painful. (Yes, even my theories about Lost mythology have mythology.) But after recovering, I was left with the thought that perhaps the mysteries of Ghost Christian, the Man In Black, and the Monster, a.k.a. Smokey, might be explained by the concept of ''demons.'' So I began researching. There are the demons of fantasy literature, innumerable and awful. There are the demons of religion and mythology, also countless and creepy. There are also the demons of philosophy and science, although these buggers are few and quite specialized. These ''demons'' mostly exist in thought experiments, like the famous/infamous ''Maxwell's Demon,'' named after Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, which concerns an omnipotent, omniscient particle capable of sorting molecules of different stripes. Very Santa Claus, sorting children into piles of naughty and nice — or very Jacob, sorting castaways into List and Off-List categories. More recently, and less famously, there is ''Morton's Demon,'' coined by its creator, Glenn Morton, a permutation of Confirmation Bias, which describes the tendency people have to filter information in such a way that only affirms their pre-existing opinions and beliefs while rejecting anything that would challenge them. (''Morton's Demon'' is the patron saint of most Lost theorizing: It only lets us see what we want to see.)
And then there is maybe the most Lost-relevant demon of all: ''The Evil Daemon'' of philosopher Rene Descartes, also known as the Evil Genius, a supernatural entity that exists solely to confuse humanity about the true nature of reality. I couldn't tell from my (superficial) research if Descartes' morphing and warping shifty obfuscator was literal or figurative, but still: Very ''Smokey,'' if you ask me. Descartes' ''Evil Daemon'' inspired me to ask one more question: What's up with the funky spelling? In my head, ''daemon'' (also spelled ''daimon'' in other texts) sounds less like ''demon'' and more like ''damon.'' You know, like Damon Lindelof, co-creator of Lost. So I Googled ''daemon'' — and I was left mind-boggled. The words ''daemon'' (from the Latin), ''daimon'' (from the Greek), and ''daimonic'' are super-charged with distinctive Lost possibilities, especially in connection to the Island's ghostly apparitions, long-lived mortals, shape-shifting monsters, and touchy-feely thread-spinning deities. Consider:
DAEMON: A VAGUELY MATRIXY THEORY
In computer lingo, daemons are programs that work invisibly in the background. Some daemons activate the second you start your computer, while other daemons don't activate until certain circumstances trigger them. The application to Lost is pretty simple. We now know that Jacob and MIB always have been hiding in the background of the castaways' lives and their Island ordeal, running and managing and manipulating things. The Matrix Trilogy worked this analogy pretty hard. The Architect, the Merovingian, the Twins, the Keymaker — they're all computer daemon metaphors. I think. I don't know. My brain is still bruised from those damn movies.
THE DAIMONIC JOURNEY
From Wikipedia: ''As a psychological term, [daimonic is] an elemental force which contains an irrepressible urge not only to survive but to thrive. As a literary term, it can also mean the unrest that exists in us all that forces us into the unknown, leading to self-destruction and/or self-discovery.'' The ''daimonic journey'' is very similar to Joseph Campbell's mythological ''Hero's Journey.'' According to Wikipedia, the daimonic journey is marked by a figurative and literal fall or descent (like, say, from an airplane) into ''daimonic reality'' that's isolated from the ''real world'' (like, say, an Island?) where one must confront his or her ''daimons.'' Note the spelling of that word: ''daimons,'' not ''demons.'' The curious spelling tells us that we're not speaking figuratively here: In the daimonic journey, a ''daimon'' is an entity (purely psychological? wholly supernatural? both?) whose purpose is to reflect and embody the hero's darkest parts. (Think: Smokey.) In his or her quest for redemptive self-realization, the hero must then destroy this entity, or be destroyed by it. Wikipedia: ''The glory of the daimonic is in the humble resurrection, though it claims more than it sets free, as many a foolish men are [sic] drawn into its vacuum never to return.'' So: Who and what are these ''daimonic'' entities? Glad you asked!
OF DAEMONS AND DAIMON: A TOTALLY ''GENIUS'' THEORY OF LOST!
Doc Jensen's Madcap Mythology Scholarship Special of the Week!
A long, long time ago, some folks in both ancient Greece and ancient Egypt allegedly believed in a deity named Hermes Trismegistus, a fusion of the Greek god Hermes and Egyptian god Thoth. According to Hermetic mythology, souls en route to heaven first had to pass through a series of realms, or ''spheres.'' But before they got out of the spheres, they first had to tangle with their gatekeepers, known as daemons. Does the Island = a sphere? Do Jacob and the Man In Black = daemon gatekeepers?
Now, lest you think ''daemon'' and ''daimon'' are merely florid spellings of ''demon''...well, they can be. But over the centuries, smarter people than you and I have made many distinctions between the two terms. The contemporary view of ''demons'' — very Judeo-Christian; your garden-variety hell-spawned Satan-serving snake — represents a superficial recontextualization of the older, more sophisticated daimons and daemons of Greek and Roman mythology and folklore. In fact, the Island on Lost — with its scattering of pagan ruins and ancient spirits — is a metaphor for the tragic trajectory of the spirituality of antiquity: busted, rusted, deconstructed ideas marginalized to a tiny, shadowy part of the globe, largely invisible to and mostly disputed by the reasonable, rational masses. Welcome...to the Island of Misfit Mythology. (Coming in two weeks: Doc Jensen's holiday special, featuring my ''Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer'' theory of Lost.)
First, understand that daemons can exist on a wide continuum of significance and power. Some daemons are stronger and older than others. Some daemons exist to serve other daemons, though all daemons are subordinate to the Gods, who created daemons for the purpose of serving mankind. Daemons have specific attributes that can be ascribed to many of the Island's exotic denizens and supernatural entities. Daemons can be the ghosts of deceased heroes (Christian Shepherd?), or mortals who've been blessed by the gods with long life (Richard Alpert). But they are not immortal; they can be killed or destroyed (see: Jacob). Some are capable of changing their shape (see: Man in Black). Some are capable of manipulating lesser creatures, like birds and insects (recall: the chattering Hurleybird from the season 2 finale and the Smokey-controlled spiders from ''Expose''). Some daemons are immaterial, existing as disembodied voices. (The Whispers?) They can dwell within human beings, imbuing them with power or existing as an internal companion, like a voice of conscience or temptation. But unlike the demons of Christian characterization, daemons are not known to require a physical host or physically possess or control human beings, a la Linda Blair in The Exorcist (think: MIB, who never possessed Locke, but rather impersonated him).
The daemons of antiquity were often morally neutral in nature. Still, there were distinct categories of good daemons (Eudaemons) and bad daemons (Kakodaemons). In Roman mythology, daemons were also known as genii (from which we get ''genius''), a term that described the protective spirits of Roman mythology. A very specific permutation of genii, the Genius Loci, walks us right up to Jacob and Man In Black: These are spirits who reside in and rule over a very specific place. Good Daemons were akin to Christian guardian angels or the New Age notion of the ''higher self,'' a pretty trippy concept filled with Lost application that deserves a column unto itself. The daemon's primary job was to protect human souls and prepare them for what awaited in the afterlife. According to the Greek Myth Index, ''We read in Plato that daemons are assigned to men at the moment of their birth, that thenceforward they accompany men through life, and that after death they conduct their souls to Hades.'' Application to Lost: The whole guardian angel concept of daemons fits Jacob's pre-Island interactions with castaways Sawyer, Kate, Jin and Sun, Locke, Jack, Sayid, and Hurley. (Although, as discussed last week, I do wonder if MIB posed as Jacob to Sayid and Hurley.)
But don't let Jacob's touchy-feely empathy fool you: ''Good Daemons'' don't execute their shepherding missions with the gentlest of tactics. Daemons can practice some serious tough love. The research tells us that daemons can be constructive and destructive, gentle and cruel, polite and pitiless. In the season finale, we saw Jacob reading Flannery O'Connor as Locke got tossed from an eighth-floor window. Presumably all-knowing Jacob knew what was about to happen — but he didn't lift a finger to prevent it. Some guardian angel, huh? Yet O'Connor specialized in telling stories in which the path to spiritual enlightenment is accompanied with brutal irony — and ironic brutality. As O'Connor explained: ''I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace. Their heads are so hard that almost nothing else will do the work. This idea, that reality is something to which we must be returned at considerable cost, is one which is seldom understood by the casual reader, but it is one which is implicit in the Christian view of the world.'' O'Connor's fiction doesn't contain too many daemons that I know of. Her gritty stories imply a world governed by God-ingrained rules. So did the mythology of faithful pagans of antiquity — but they took the extra step of believing that daemons and daimons embodied those rules and executed their functions in the world.
To be clear, that aforementioned ''Christian view of the world'' has historically taken a dim, suspicious position on daemons. This was especially true of Jesus' early followers. As Christianity swept away the pagan mythology of the Western world, gods like Zeus and Jupiter were disavowed and their mankind-serving ''daemons'' were...well, demonized. And yet, the most expansive Christian characterization of daemons — St. Cyprian, an infamously narrow-minded third-century Christian leader with zero tolerance for pagan culture — contains a veritable catalog of Lost correlations. Cyprian tells us that daemons were once sinful humans that became prickish poltergeists after kicking the coil — ''impure and wandering spirits'' who ''seek the ruin of others.'' (MIB, mayhap? Maybe even Christian?) Cyprian also says that daemons rule the lottery (Hurley!), provide visions of the future (Desmond!), seed nightmares (Kate! Charles Widmore!), and have their own prophets (Richard!), most of whom tell nothing but lies (Ben!), just like their greater daemonic masters (MIB and even Jacob, if you entertain the theory that Jacob isn't the goody-goody guy he appears to be). A classic daemon tactic: using magic or their proxies to create legit or phony sickness in people so they can in turn give them miracle remedies that inspire belief and loyalty (see: Juliet and her sister; Young Ben; Claire). Cyprian's grouchy take on daemons is very specific about where you can find them: ''These spirits, therefore, are lurking under statues and consecrated images.'' Like, say, giant monoliths of four-toed Egyptian goddesses, perhaps? That's so on-the-nose it makes it pretty irresistible to make too much of this whole daemon thing.
Finally, Cyprian says there's no shaking these devilish buggers — at least, not until the daemons are destroyed or just grow tired of you: ''The only remedy from them is when their own mischief ceases.'' Reading that last sentence evoked the whole idea of Jacob and MIB as god-like game-players, competing against each other by using the castaways as chess pieces — a metaphor richly illustrated by that killer Spanish Lost promo, with narration adapted from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and music from Radiohead's ''Everything in Its Right Place.'' If you haven't seen it check out the video at the bottom of this page. I live to serve.
My bottom line: Lost is lousy with daemons. My theory, inspired by this research, is this:
OLD DAIMONS NEVER DIE. THEY JUST FADE AWAY ... OR KILL EACH OTHER.
Or: What happens when people stop going on Walkabouts.
The Island is a ''sphere'' of ''daimonic reality,'' designed to facilitate ''daimonic journeys'' for mortals who seek it. This realm has a patron daemon, a ''Genius Loci'': Jacob. He is a cog in much larger celestial/spiritual wheel of life and death, redemption and damnation. Jacob is akin to a guardian angel, possibly one of many. He represents hope, second chances, progress — change and improvement.
Now, Jacob has helpers on his daimonic island — entities that are daemons in their own right, autonomous and powerful, but subordinate to him. One of these daemons is the Man In Black, a multifaceted, multipurpose daemon that plays many roles in the Island's daimonic operating system. In fact, like a computer daemon, the MIB daemon activates and begins running the moment new mortals step onto the Island. One of MIB's primary jobs is to test these souls. Hence, he is morally ambiguous and fearsome in nature, because he often must play the role of adversary (sometimes via his own set of willing or unwilling human or supernatural agents; think: the Others or Ghost Christian) or judge.
In more spiritual times (or, if you prefer, superstitious times), the ephemeral, nebulous realm represented by the Island was a widely accessible expanse. However, time has not been kind to Jacob and his daimonic wonderland/underworld. Two thousand years of monotheism has marginalized and demonized them, while the past 300 years of God-denying philosophy and science has produced a faithless world that fails to recognize or even believe in them. As spirituality has shriveled, their place in this world has literally shrunk — to a mysterious Island in the Pacific, a junkyard of old ideas, the last bastion of the Unknown. But Jacob refuses to surrender. Where once mortals actively sought out the eye-opening, life-changing, soul-expanding daimonic journey (a veritable Locke-esque walkabout), Jacob now must scheme and conspire to bring people to him. In many ways, he has a new mission: to remind mankind that their lives are actually heroic journeys — and that the journey is profoundly spiritual in nature.
The problem with all of this is the Man In Black. Subordinate to Jacob, MIB is bound to participate in Jacob's Island schemes and perform his archetypal functions in the Island Mythology Machine. But MIB has grown wary of Jacob's shenanigans. The people he brings to the Island — especially in recent times — always fall short in their heroic journeys, always fail to pass his tests and judgments. Cynical and tired, MIB has given up on mankind — and he really wishes Jacob would, too. And so MIB has turned traitor to the cause of faith. His ambition: to finish what the surging cause of reason has started. The story of Lost, then, is the story of MIB's decades-in-the-making scheme to break free from his enslavement to Jacob and bring the futile daimonic enterprise that is the Island to an end. But it is also the story of Jacob's counter-attack to MIB's revolt. If Jacob wins, the Island soldiers on. If MIB wins, then the twilight of the gods will have finally reached its permanent night.
+++
Wow. That got heavy, didn't it? But that's Lost for you: A show that inspires pretentious meditations of the spiritual nature of mankind — and also inspires word pictures involving torture monkeys with the wet hot dogs. Yes, I am blameless! I blame Lost for my inappropriateness! I am Mr. Eko: ''I have done nothing wrong!'' But perhaps I should quit while I am only very far behind. Next week, I'll have the results of my DVD/glyph challenge and a couple more cool things I got cooking that you won't want to miss — including a theory that reveals the Man In Black's connection to a real life man in black. Hint: Not Johnny Cash. But don't ''Hurt'' yourself thinking about it — just come back next week!
Namaste!
Doc Jensen
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20325436,00.html?xid=email-alert-lost-20091209-item1
TVGuide.com: With the final season of Lost approaching, what are you feeling?
TVGuide.com: With the final season of Lost approaching, what are you feeling?
Carlton Cuse: I think we're doing something new in this final season narratively, so we have that combination of fear and giddiness. The fear is, oh, what if people don't like it, what if the audience doesn't like what we're doing? The giddiness is, like, we always feel like we have to be bold with our show and if it works, and if people like it as much as we do, we feel like the final season will be a success. When there's a draw though, we stand by our decisions. We're not playing it safe in the final season.
Damon Lindelof: I think at this point, the nervousness is more based on how we're so deep into this season, that by the time the audience sees it, we're committed to our path. It's been like that ever since we started premiering in January and February. It's like it's too late to turn back now. We're feeling very confident about executing what our plan was, and that's all you can ever do.
TVGuide.com: What do you say to fans with such high expectations for your last season?
Cuse: I think it's like anything in life. I think that you have to have realistic expectations. We're going to do our best version of the show, but there's still going to be some mystery and magic and intentionally ambiguous things that emerge at the end of the show. We're going to answer questions, but at the same time, we're going to tell the story the way we want to tell it. We feel like, all we can do is make the version of the show that makes Damon and I happy. If we do that, hopefully enough people will like it.
Lindelof: Ditto.
Full Interview @ TV Guide
Carlton Cuse: I think we're doing something new in this final season narratively, so we have that combination of fear and giddiness. The fear is, oh, what if people don't like it, what if the audience doesn't like what we're doing? The giddiness is, like, we always feel like we have to be bold with our show and if it works, and if people like it as much as we do, we feel like the final season will be a success. When there's a draw though, we stand by our decisions. We're not playing it safe in the final season.
Damon Lindelof: I think at this point, the nervousness is more based on how we're so deep into this season, that by the time the audience sees it, we're committed to our path. It's been like that ever since we started premiering in January and February. It's like it's too late to turn back now. We're feeling very confident about executing what our plan was, and that's all you can ever do.
TVGuide.com: What do you say to fans with such high expectations for your last season?
Cuse: I think it's like anything in life. I think that you have to have realistic expectations. We're going to do our best version of the show, but there's still going to be some mystery and magic and intentionally ambiguous things that emerge at the end of the show. We're going to answer questions, but at the same time, we're going to tell the story the way we want to tell it. We feel like, all we can do is make the version of the show that makes Damon and I happy. If we do that, hopefully enough people will like it.
Lindelof: Ditto.
Full Interview @ TV Guide
Season 6 Finale Confirmed for 3 Hours!
Posted by The ODI
Thanks to Sl-Lost for the heads up on this snippet from Carlton about the Season 6 Finale and the fact that it will be 3hrs, split over 2 weeks.
Will 18 hours be enough for the last season? (By the way, Season 6 will consist of a two-hour season premiere, 13 episodes and three-hour series finale that will air over two weeks -- but as Cuse joked, "I’m sure the network will sell it as a six-part finale if they can.") Cuse: "For us, [18 hours] is just about right. I mean, we aren’t sitting here feeling like, 'Oh my God, we need a ton more hours to tell the rest of our story.' It feels like it’s going to work out just fine. It will have been the right length."
Source: Full Interview @ chicagotribune
http://the-odi.blogspot.com/
Thanks to Sl-Lost for the heads up on this snippet from Carlton about the Season 6 Finale and the fact that it will be 3hrs, split over 2 weeks.
Will 18 hours be enough for the last season? (By the way, Season 6 will consist of a two-hour season premiere, 13 episodes and three-hour series finale that will air over two weeks -- but as Cuse joked, "I’m sure the network will sell it as a six-part finale if they can.") Cuse: "For us, [18 hours] is just about right. I mean, we aren’t sitting here feeling like, 'Oh my God, we need a ton more hours to tell the rest of our story.' It feels like it’s going to work out just fine. It will have been the right length."
Source: Full Interview @ chicagotribune
http://the-odi.blogspot.com/
ODI: Emerson Praises O'Quinn and Holloway's Performances in S6
Posted by The ODI
Here is an interview from TV Guide with new Golden Globe Nominee Michael Emerson. It is nice little read and he mentions that both Terry O'Quinn and Josh hollway's performances in Season 6 have impressed so far.
Enjoy!
How did you find out you were nominated?
"I'd turned the phone off when I went to bed last night here in Hawaii, so I woke up this morning to a whole lot of messages and texts."
Have you heard from any of your co-stars yet?
"I see here on my computer screen a message from Jorge [Garcia, who plays Hurley] just popped up. He's always very sweet. It says, 'Nice job. We'll be rooting for you.'"
Here is an interview from TV Guide with new Golden Globe Nominee Michael Emerson. It is nice little read and he mentions that both Terry O'Quinn and Josh hollway's performances in Season 6 have impressed so far.
Enjoy!
How did you find out you were nominated?
"I'd turned the phone off when I went to bed last night here in Hawaii, so I woke up this morning to a whole lot of messages and texts."
Have you heard from any of your co-stars yet?
"I see here on my computer screen a message from Jorge [Garcia, who plays Hurley] just popped up. He's always very sweet. It says, 'Nice job. We'll be rooting for you.'"
ODI: Bad Robot Team Talks LOST, Alias, Fringe and More
Posted by The ODI on Thursday, December 17, 2009
Here is the first part of GQ Magazine's Interview with the Bad Robot team, including JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, Bryan Burke, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci.
It is a great read and I love this promo pic as well!
GQ: JJ, is there anything in particular that you learned from the Lost experience that you brought to Fringe?
Roberto Orci [writer/executive producer, Alias; co-creator/executive producer, Fringe; executive producer/co-writer, Star Trek]: We needed Damon and Carlton.
JJ Abrams [co-creator/executive producer/director, Lost, Fringe and Alias; director/co-writer/executive producer, Star Trek]: And they weren’t available. No—my involvement with Lost really ended within the first season. And so a lot of what I learned from Lost was what people watching the show learned, which is what great characters and story looked like. I think the work that Damon and Carlton do on that show is obviously a high-water mark for TV, and the ambition. In terms of this show, it’s a very different show. Every show’s a different show. It’s easy, in retrospect, to make comparisons, but when you’re in the thick of it, when you’re working on something, even if it’s the same people, it’s suddenly a whole new nightmare challenge. And you scramble the best you can to do your best work, and it’s especially difficult when you’re doing a mythology show that’s also aspiring to be a standalone show. Lost was very lucky early on to get really good ratings. So the network was okay with mythology, and the show’s never apologized for it. Fringe, up front, said, “Hey, it’s a standalone show, and every week you’re going to get your own little separate mystery.” But the fans who come back to watch the show– and tonight, fingers crossed, that happens again– are the people who typically like the mythology. So there’s a weird dynamic that goes on that I still haven’t learned, from Alias to Lost to Fringe, how to necessarily solve.
Here is the first part of GQ Magazine's Interview with the Bad Robot team, including JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, Bryan Burke, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci.
It is a great read and I love this promo pic as well!
GQ: JJ, is there anything in particular that you learned from the Lost experience that you brought to Fringe?
Roberto Orci [writer/executive producer, Alias; co-creator/executive producer, Fringe; executive producer/co-writer, Star Trek]: We needed Damon and Carlton.
JJ Abrams [co-creator/executive producer/director, Lost, Fringe and Alias; director/co-writer/executive producer, Star Trek]: And they weren’t available. No—my involvement with Lost really ended within the first season. And so a lot of what I learned from Lost was what people watching the show learned, which is what great characters and story looked like. I think the work that Damon and Carlton do on that show is obviously a high-water mark for TV, and the ambition. In terms of this show, it’s a very different show. Every show’s a different show. It’s easy, in retrospect, to make comparisons, but when you’re in the thick of it, when you’re working on something, even if it’s the same people, it’s suddenly a whole new nightmare challenge. And you scramble the best you can to do your best work, and it’s especially difficult when you’re doing a mythology show that’s also aspiring to be a standalone show. Lost was very lucky early on to get really good ratings. So the network was okay with mythology, and the show’s never apologized for it. Fringe, up front, said, “Hey, it’s a standalone show, and every week you’re going to get your own little separate mystery.” But the fans who come back to watch the show– and tonight, fingers crossed, that happens again– are the people who typically like the mythology. So there’s a weird dynamic that goes on that I still haven’t learned, from Alias to Lost to Fringe, how to necessarily solve.
Dexter, Glee and Modern Family Among Golden Globe Nominations
Benjamin Linus and Arthur Mitchell face off in the supporting category.
by Eric Goldman
December 15, 2009 - The nominations were revealed for The 67th Annual Golden Globe Award this morning.
In the TV realm, some categories were very consistent with last year, but a few new series and actors also were included. The Drama series category was almost completely the same as a year ago, with HBO's Big Love replacing the same channel's In Treatment. However, two new series made it into the Comedy section – Glee and Modern Family, both of which are riding high on a lot of positive buzz. Glee also was a major player in the acting categories, with Matthew Morrison, Lea Michele and constant scene stealer Jane Lynch all nominated.
by Eric Goldman
December 15, 2009 - The nominations were revealed for The 67th Annual Golden Globe Award this morning.
In the TV realm, some categories were very consistent with last year, but a few new series and actors also were included. The Drama series category was almost completely the same as a year ago, with HBO's Big Love replacing the same channel's In Treatment. However, two new series made it into the Comedy section – Glee and Modern Family, both of which are riding high on a lot of positive buzz. Glee also was a major player in the acting categories, with Matthew Morrison, Lea Michele and constant scene stealer Jane Lynch all nominated.
My autograph from Jorge Garcia
So I've been following Jorge Garcia's (Hurley on Lost) blog for a little while now and a few months ago I noticed that he added an mailing adress for autograph requests. So I thought that it would be cool if I sent him a copy of my Room 23 Sketchbook and a set of Trading cards (which are going on sale in January). Well a week ago he left a comment on my art blog here!http://paulburrows.blogspot.com/2009/05/random-creatures.html
Well I checked my mail today and there was a big envelope which was adressed by Jorge! I opened it and inside was an autographed phot of him along with a cast photo with his signature! Looking at it closely I believe that all the other signatures are printed, but its still pretty awesome!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ARG Art Gallery Event
I arrived in line at about 7:15pm and was in line until about 8:15pm. This was the line at the time. If you watch G4's report I was right next to the woman in her final bit.
ARG Art Gallery Event
Damon Lindeloff and Carlton Cuse were at the event signing posters. I gave Carlton a Room 23 Sketchbook and a set of Trading Cards (which will go on sale in January) (I give Damon a set at his Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk signing) and got a picture taken with both of them. Then I asked Carlton if Cindy's story was over or if we would get her story and he said that we would see her in the premiere. I asked the same thing about the children Zack & Emma and he said the same thing!
ARG Art Gallery Event
This is definately my favorate painting besides The Crash. I left the image files big so that you can click on them to study everything. Sorry about the flash light.
ARG Art Gallery Event
These Maquettes or Statues were being sold for $500 dollars each. I believe they light up.
This is Paul Sheer and I standing in front of the velvet paintings after I gave him a copy of my Room 23 sketchbook. He actually didn't do the paintings, some woman with pink dreadlocks did.
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