The MOTHER of all Lost Season 2 finale reviews
Satisfied?
I am. I didn’t find the finale OVERwhelming, but it was far from UNDERwhelming like last year’s cliffhanger. I thought it was nearly perfect. There was so much going on it’s still sinking in for me, but I’ll try to get through everything as quickly as possible and then on to the big talking points. Spoilers ahead! Continues after the jump »
Lost: Eko and Locke take a trip
Eko and Locke take a tour of the island, and discover even more of its secrets.
This review is pretty heavy on the summary, but I’ve put together a few pretty good observations. We’ve got pictures aplenty for your forensic pleasure. The usual spoiler disclaimers apply, so if you haven’t seen it yet, I’d stay away. Otherwise, dig in! Continues after the jump »
Michael returns with a bang to ‘Lost’
Wes is off this week for finals, so I’ll be filling in. If you haven’t watched this episode yet, and don’t want it to be ruined, just stop reading. Any complaints about how now the episode is ruined for you will only serve to get you mocked. With that said, here we go… Continues after the jump »
When Bernard met Rose
S.O.S. - 2.19
Rose-Bernard Centric
Rose and Bernard got their moment in the sun with a backstory revealing how they came together, Rose’s bad timing, and how they ended up on Oceanic Flight 815. And it was okay. Review! Continues after the jump »
Hurley loses his mind
2.18. - Dave
Hurley-Centric
Why are the cute ones always so crazy?
It’s been awhile since we’ve had a Hurley episode, and it’s been longer still since we first found out he was in a mental institution. A lot of Hurley information was finally revealed in this episode, along with some new bits egarding “Henry” and the hatch. But first, review! Continues after the jump »
Lost: Season 2, Episode 17 review
Fool me once, Henry Gale, shame on you…
Fool me twice and Sayid is going to drop the Iraqi Hammer on that ass! Review! Continues after the jump »
Lost: Season 2, Episode 16
I waited three weeks for that?
Okay, so Lost wasn’t exactly up to par last night, but next week looks sweet. And with any luck the week after that will be sweet, then we’ll only have to suffer through one more break before a season-ending string of weekly episodes to carry us into the summer break. Continues after the jump »
Catching Up on Last Week
This week’s mailings included Takeshi Kitano’s Brother, Visconti’s The Leopard, and the final discs of Nip/Tuck Season 2.
Brother is Takeshi Kitano’s last, though probably not final, gangster pic. As always he writes, directs, and stars. This time he plays a laconic lone wolf Yakuza (hard to believe, but true). The twist is that it takes place mostly in LA. After his gang in Tokyo is decimated, Kitano relocates to the US to reconnect with his younger brother, now a small time drug pusher. In a matter of weeks, the trigger happy Kitano takes over a good chunk of LA. He also becomes blood brothers with Omar Epps, learns a few words in English, and ventilates dozens of mobsters. Things end typically for a Kitano movie, but he’s definitely upped the entertainment factor with this one. Films like Sonatine and Hana-bi are deeper, but there’s no denying the joy of seeing Epps and Kitano fuck with a old Mafia boss. One warning, the US version has been trimmed to remove some bloody effects. Thanks MPAA for keeping the art house safe for kids. 4 out of 5
WTF was that poem on ‘The Sopranos’?
Though my father and brother tried their hardest to spoil the first episode of Season 6 of “The Sopranos” through an email discussion, I was able to thwart their attempts with sheer will. Now that I’m all caught up, I don’t think it would have mattered if I read their e-conversation. If anything, it might have made me overanalyze it and confused the hell out of me.
A lot of cool stuff went down in the Season 6 premiere though, of which I won’t go into detail to spare those who are behind. But I do want to highlight the opening scenes (after the “Woke up this morning” jazz), which my brother informed me was a piece from late author William S. Burroughs referencing the “Seven Souls.” A discussion of the use of the passage can be found in the Tampa Tribune. Continues after the jump »
Melodious Mistake
Last night’s Oscar telecast introduced a new twist to the evening, one that was not welcome by most. This year, music was played in the background, while the winners provided their acceptance speeches. The Hollywood Reporter’s Ray Richmond commented today, “not only was this monumentally distracting, it was also supremely disrespectful – rather akin to being played offstage from the moment you get there.” Richmond has a point, although it seemed strange to me that the cue to exit the stage would be music, when music is already playing. According to a source I spoke to at Capitol Studios, the music was only for the home television audience, and not played in the Kodak Theater. Either way, this is one feature that future telecasts should do without. This should join the other departed “innovations” of years past that have been abandoned, like the “Matrix” style camera movements used for pro football, or unbiased truth in Fox News reporting.
Lost Season 2, Episode 15 in-depth review
- Episode 15: Maternity Leave
- In a very Claire-centric episode, we find out that there may be more to The Others than meets the eye.
Hey readers, say hello to new contributor Wes Bain!
Massive spoliers follow, so if you haven’t seen the episode yet, you might want to come back later once you’ve seen it. Unless, of course, that’s why you’re reading.
— Chris
After a somewhat slow start to the first half of Season 2, the powers-that-be who govern Lost have finally given us something to cheer about. Continues after the jump »
NBC Blows Goats…I Have Proof
We all know the NBC telecasts of the Olympics are an over-produced, tape-delayed monster. NBC shows the sports in prime time, when most viewers are available to watch. In addition, the time difference between the United States and Italy is a convenient excuse for such coverage. And while this annoying trend has been going on without much incident for these games, today it hit a snag for me. The Gold Medal Women’s Hockey game between Canada and Sweden had been said multiple times today, to be “coming up, live”. Much to my dismay, I discovered online that the event was NOT live, and had already happened. I called my East Coast source, and learned that the game had been on TV there, but hours earlier. So perhaps it was live for the east coast audience, and now us out west hear are just getting the 3 hour delayed version.
Okay, I get it. I live in LA, and this happens all the time. Obviously, Saturday Night Live is not technically “live” for the Pacific Coast audience. But for some reason today this really got me thinking about my disdain for NBC. Once they were the pinnacle of sports broadcasting (think around 1994ish), and now they make me want to punch someone in the face. NBC’s annoying “athlete profiles” have been used less in these games, but today made me angry again. It brought me back to 1996, when the Women’s gymnastics finals were delayed, even though they were in the bloody USA. I unintentionally heard the results before they were broadcast on NBC. Kerri Strug’s leg ripping vault should have been an amazing sports moment. Instead, it was an inevitable bore.
I love the Olympics, I want to watch. But NBC is driving me away, much like John Madden drives me away from football when he covers it. In a perfect world, a sporting event could be, like most news events, covered by many networks, and then we would see in the ratings which coverage was preferred by audiences. As the system is now, monopolies of coverage are hard to judge. If NBC is the only one showing the games, and American Idol beats them, how is this explained? Does this mean that people prefer singing to skating? Or, like in my case, are people fed up with the patronizing NBC style, and simply want to tune away from the annoying robot that is Bob Costas? There is no good way to answer this. I am jealous of residents of places like Buffalo, where they can snag the Canadian coverage as well. I guess folks in Vancouver got to the see Gold medal game 3 hours before the Americans in Seattle, who live behind NBC’s iron curtain.
Nip/Tuck Season 2, Disc 2
- Nip/Tuck Season 2, Disc 2
- Secrets from as far back as last season are finally revealed in this block of episodes centered around fatherhood.
Christian fights for his adopted son and Sean has a near-death experience which prolongs his neverending midlife crisis in this block of three episodes. Meanwhile, Julia finally releases the secret she’s been holding onto for 17 years, and Matt gets a life coach (Famke Janssen). Spoilers after the jump.
Nip/Tuck - Season 2 Disc 1
- Nip/Tuck Season 1 Disc 2
- Season 2 continues with Drs. Troy and McNamara turning 40. Don't worry, there's still plenty of blood and sex.
Before we get started, let’s get something out of the way first. I will not be checking the comments for this piece. Paranoia has gripped me since I saw the first episode of Nip/Tuck about two months ago —- I must not find out who The Carver is. I gotta make it all the way to the end of season 3 without seeing any spoilers, so talkbacks are a definite no-no.
Bad Tasting Beer Produces Ad in Bad Taste
Of course no one is reading this site right now; they are all watching the Superbowl. And thus they probably just saw the new Bud Light commercial. In said commercial, a grizzly bear is chasing two men through the woods. One man offers the bear a Bud Light, which the bear seems to like. But before the bear can accept the gift, the other man steals the beer, leaving his friend to certain doom.
It was immediately apparent that the producers of this commercial chose an actor that bears (no pun intended) a striking resemblance to Timothy Treadwell. Treadwell was killed by a grizzly in October of 2003. He was the subject of the recent film GRIZZLY MAN. 
There is no way Bud Light can claim that they had no idea about this resemblance. So logically, they must have planned it this way on purpose. I am going to say flat out that this is not a funny choice. This man was eaten by bears, and the implied joke is that maybe a Bud Light could have saved him? And for those who say that this is all in good fun, I suggest you watch the film GRIZZLEY MAN before making such an assertion.
If you have a soul, you can voice displeasure to Anheuser-Busch here. And don’t forget to tell them that the ad also simply wasn’t funny. As Terry Bradshaw would say, “Not funny not funny not fun-nay!”
UPDATE: Here is a link so you can watch the commercial for yourself.
Stay and watch, or don’t
- #1 Single
- E!, Sundays @ 10 p.m.
- Singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb needs a man and needs one fast, so she's enlisted a camera crew to help her find one.
Why, out of all of the mid-season replacement shows, am I reviewing “#1 Single”? Because it was on last night and nothing else was. And because Heather’s Graham’s new sitcom got canceled before I even had a chance to pick up the remote.
Nobody would have predicted Lisa Loeb to be a reality TV star since she hasn’t been relevant since her hit single “Stay” was released in 1994. (1994?!? Holy shit I’m old) But what the fuck, Hulk Hogan has his own show, right brother?
Loeb’s been out of the public eye for a while, even though she continued to crank out albums about love and breaking up and stuff. But now that she’s back, it seems like she never left. Lisa’s still wearing those black-rim glasses that make her look like a Starbucks barista. But I have to give her props for wearing them long before it was trendy and sticking with them. Continues after the jump »
LOST, New Episode, Wednesday, January 11- “The 23rd Psalm”
Welcome back, Lost lovers. Tonight, we get two full hours of Lost material. The first hour, titled “Lost: Revelation” will recap everything we already know about both groups of survivors, but will put it in perspective by lining the events up chronologically so that we can see the unwitting intersection of the tailies and the survivors from the fuselage.
Before we get to the brand new episode, let’s refresh our memories on what happened on the last episode, way back in November.
Continues after the jump »
J Lo’s new TV show opens to… reviews
Here are some reviews of “South Beach,” a new UPN drama produced by Jennifer Lopez (I’m sure she worked hard on this and didn’t just slap her name on it) set to premiere tonight at 8 p.m. EST.
Tawdry, empty and inept, South Beach is UPN’s too-late-in-the-game attempt to transfer The O.C. to the other coast. It’s the kind of new UPN show that used to make viewers dread new UPN shows, back in the days before Veronica Mars, Everybody Hates Chris and America’s Next Top Model helped the network turn the critical corner.
‘Office’ wars
For some reason I had the urge to watch “The Office: Special” DVD the other day. Probably because Christmas is on the horizon and it’s one of my comfort DVDs — a good watch whenever I’m bored.
It’s flawless. The special, and the series. I’ve claimed ever since completing the first season that the British phenomenon was the second best thing to ever hit TV, behind only “The Simpsons.” It’s the perfect mix of drama and comedy.
The last episode I watched of the American version coincidentally was also its “Christmas show.” So it hit me it was time to compare the two. Continues after the jump »
LOST: Wednesday, November 30
The end of last week’s episode of LOST made me put down my half-eaten chicken wing and gasp. How’s that for an intro?
If you don’t want to know, don’t click below.
Continues after the jump »
The Anthony Bourdain experience
- Anthony Bourdain:
No Reservations 
- The unconvential chef/writer shows Rachael Ray how it's done with his food travel program.
- Travel Channel, Mondays, 10 p.m. ET/PT
I have no idea why I enjoy food TV shows so much. I never cook and I tend to eat the same things over and over, although I do try to experiment as often as I can.
For a while I was hooked on “$40 A Day”, in which Rachael Ray, who hosts around 57 shows on the Food Network now, travels to different locales and tries to spend $40 or less on meals in one day (if you didn’t figure that out by the title already). It’s a cool idea, but I got sick of it for two reasons: 1. I started seeing repeats and 2. it’s hosted by Rachael Ray. She’s just way too fucking perky. She’s so fucking perky that there’s even a Rachael Ray Sucks Community, which explains its position like this:
Rachael Ray is annoying for many reasons but here are a few: she is repetitive, she talks with her hands way too much, she giggles incessantly, she puts olive oil and chicken stock in everything, she wears really ugly clothing, she talks out of one side of her mouth like she’s had a stroke, she looks like “The Joker” when she smiles, and she can’t stop talking about her family.
That pretty much sums up Rachael. It’s good to know I’m not alone. Continues after the jump »
Lost: Wednesday, November 23
It’s Wednesday again, and it’s time for more discussion about ABC’s LOST. If you don’t want to know, don’t look below.
LOST: Wednesday, November 16
I’ve ready many reviews of last week’s episode of LOST that suggest that people were disappointed in the new episode. I, on the otherhand, was very satisfied with it. I’d even go so far as to say that it has been my favorite episode of the second season thus far.
As always, read no further if you don’t want to know what happened or what’s coming up tonight.
Continues after the jump »
A little more on ‘The Boondocks’
It’s been brought to my attention that maybe I was a little too kind to The Boondocks when I reviewed it last week. Looking back, I think that’s probably accurate.
I think it’s fair to say that I reviewed the potential for the show more than I reviewed the actual episode itself. I think the comic strip itself is pretty consistently good, although admittedly, I haven’t read it regularly in quite some time.
That’ll change in two week, but until then, I still live in one of the most ass-backward parts of the country that doesn’t end in -tucky, -bama, -ippi, -ansas … well, you get the idea. Continues after the jump »
LOST: New episode tonight, November 9
Resident female and TV enthusiast Danielle here to share my recap on the last episode ABC’s hit series Lost and my insights into tonight’s brand new episode.
After a torturous three week break, LOST is back tonight and the previews point to serious action. But first, a recap:
If you are not caught up on the most recent episodes, or don’t want me to spill the beans on tonight’s episode, read no further. Continues after the jump »
Look out, Republicans, it’s The Boondocks!
- The Boondocks
- Huey, Riley and Granddad move to a small town. White people live there. Huey says things they find offensive. Funny/controversial stuff ensues.
- Sundays @ 11 p.m. on Cartoon Network
In case you’re not familiar with the daily comic strip, or you haven’t seen Adult Swim any time in the last four months, you might not be familiar with The Boondocks.
If you fit into this small segment of society, I’ll fill you in. The Boondocks is a political, yet consistently pretty funny daily strip focusing on the struggles of two black youths in a white man’s world.
With a decidedly lefty slant and no fear of taking on on hot political and cultural topics, the strip has found itself moved off the funny pages and into the editorial section of more than a few newspapers in the U.S. Continues after the jump »
HUMOR ALERT: ‘The Colbert Report’ is lethal satire
- The Colbert Report
- Monday - Thursday @ 11:30 p.m. on Comedy Central
It’s not that I think that “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” is getting stale or anything, even though it peaked a few years ago. But I’m ready to declare “The Colbert Report” funnier already.
Maybe it’s because the “The Daily Show” has gotten too damn popular to be hip anymore, and I’m trying to be ahead of the pop culture curve by claiming its demise in the face of “The Colbert Report.”
One thing’s for sure: Stephen Colbert, who hosts “The Colbert Report” after a long run as the straight-faced reporter on “The Daily Show,” is a lot funnier than Jon Stewart, the host of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” There’s a reason why Stewart struggled in show biz before landing his current gig — he’s not very humorous on his own. Sure, give him good writing and a forum to display his above-average intelligence (as far as comics go) and you’ve got a successful formula. But have you ever laughed at his stand-up routines, or his forgettable movies? Continues after the jump »
