2010 PALEYFEST COVERAGE: "LOST"

PALEYFEST 2010: "LOST" Panel

As any avid TV lover knows, the Paley Center for Media's 2010 Paleyfest kicked off last Friday night and will continue to run until mid-March. Of the 13 shows being recognized by the institution this year, LOST - in its final and much-hyped season - was destined be one of the more memorable panels. 

 

In attendance last night were series executive producers Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, Eddy Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, and Elizabeth Sarnoff as well as cast members Terry O'Quinn (Locke), Michael Emerson (Ben), Zuleikha Robinson  (Ilana), and Nestor Carbonell (the seemingly ageless Richard). 

 

Highlights of the panel included some teases of what's ahead for the series and its characters, as well as some insight into what might've been different had the creators not run into certain actor availability issues while shooting the series.

 “We’re not writing a novel where the characters will do whatever we ask them to”, explains Damon Lindelof. “When we write something, the actors give so much back [so] we’re sort of interested in not making off-the-rack suits [but] tailoring suits. The fun part is doing the alterations constantly.”

So have how have these unforeseen circumstances affected the initial narrative of LOST that Cuse and Lindelof had planned years earlier?

 “We’ve talked in the past about the fact that Eko would’ve had a much more prominent role in the series beyond the beginning of season three when we killed him off – primarily because Adewale didn’t want to be on the show anymore”, begins Lindelof. “That definitely changes the initial plan but sometimes it happens in a positive way where you bring an actor on for 2 or 3 episodes, like Ben, and Michael [Emerson] comes in and does what he did and then you know, that guy’s going to be in the finale.”

 

When asked how intentional things like the names of characters or the books seen on the show were, Lindelof set some limits to the Easter Eggs the writers regularly place within the series. 

“We obviously try to name the characters with some degree of intention and we pick books on the show for very specific reasons and there are some Easter Eggs that we hide but the minute we start feeling like we’re really smart…well, down that path lies destruction.” Admitting, “we’ve had to accept that the audience is infinitely smarter than us and they’ve proven to be, so anything we include, we want them to get.” A character’s name that might have historical, philosophical, or culture relevance is “not an accident”, but “the reality of our lives is that every ten days we have to generate a 55-page script” so regularly including some of the extreme “Easter Eggs” fans have hypothesized about” (like the Jack Bender painting for instance) is not an option.

Relating the question of character names to the new season, Carlton Cuse admitted that the naming of ‘Dogen’ (played by ) “was an intentional choice”. “We felt like that’d be a cool piece of Japanese history to attach to the character.”

“All I have to say”, joked Lindelof, “was that when I was taking Intro to Philosophy 101 I was like, I’m never going to use this - I was wrong.”

 

In one section of the panel, the producers were asked to respond to a series of questions with a ‘Yes’, ‘No’, or ‘Pass’ and the results were quite revealing:

Have we already met the person Jack was married to in his flash-sideways? YES.

Was Jacob telling the truth, is somebody coming to the Island? YES.

Did the Smoke Monster manifest itself as the bus that killed Juliet’s ex-husband in “Not In Portland”? NO.

Will we get an answer to why women can’t give birth on the Island? PASS.

Will get answers about Libby and her connection with Hurley? YES.

And perhaps the most pressing of all: Will we ever get Vincent’s back story? Choosing to ignore the aforementioned rules of the section, Lindelof sarcastically chimed “Talk about daddy issues”. Clarifying things a little, Cuse promised that, “we will see Vincent again”.

Other tibdits of the panel included an 'N-O' to the series ever being released in chronological form and a baffling ambiguous clue about the series' final three episodes, from Lindelof himself - the singular word of 'water' will no doubt lend itself to thousands of varied fan responses in the coming weeks. 

 

But before the panel came to a close, Darlton were able to finally answer one of the more pressing questions in the fan community: 

With LOST being such a diverse show - why the lack of LGBT characters? The sole LGBT character featured on the series being that of Tom Friendly, played by M.C. Gainey, whose sexuality wasn't revealed until almost a year after the character's death!

Beginning his response to the heavy question on a much lighter note, Lindelof joked: “I think we’ve definitely killed more straight characters than gay”. After laughter from the packed-audience, Lindelof addressed the question in greater detail. "One question we get asked all the time is - what are you guys going to do with the love triangle in the final season? There are these inherently romantic concepts [on the show] but it's also a very chaste show. The fact that the characters are thinking sexually or acting sexually is not something that very often manifests itself in the writing unless it's very specific to the Sawyer/Juliet dynamic or whatever. We haven't paired off a lot of the other characters and there might be other characters on the show who are gay or lesbian or bi, it just hasn't been us getting up on our soapbox and saying so."

This is not to say the producers are without their regrets, however. "This is certainly one of the regrets we have in terms of saying, looking back at the broad base of the show, should we have had more lesbian and gay characters? Should we have had more African American characters? Should we have had more arabic characters? Absolutely but you know this is what we did and this is our best shot. So we apologize but at the same time, that's what it is."

Further information on the Paleyfest can be found at: www.paleycenter.org ; 

Photos, Coverage, and Story by Derek Boeckelmann

LOST 6.03 Review

LOST: "WHAT KATE DOES" REVIEW

 

8.3/10

The Good (+) :

Of all the interesting developments the episode had in it, by far the one that’s got me the most excited is the return of Claire. I didn’t really miss her that much in Season 5 but now that we’ve lost Charlotte and Juliet (and the series never did really go anywhere with the short bad-ass Sun plot of early Season 5), the series is really lacking kick-ass female characters with Kate and the criminally-underwritten/utilized Illana being the only candidates. Yet in her brief cameo, Claire certainly looks like she’s about to fill that void. 

Just based on her physical appearance, it’s clear that the mundane and sweet Claire we had grown accustomed to – which sometimes made her a somewhat boring character confined to the role of a damsel-in-distress – has died and a much more interesting character has been born in her place. The uncanny parallel to the character of Danielle Rousseau makes me believe that this transformation might have something to do with the illness that struck Danielle years earlier and that Sayid has recently been diagnosed with. Interestingly, it seems the writer’s might have been planning this character connection for a while seeing as Claire’s narrative and character development is merely a reflection of Danielle’s. Both women become stranded on the island whilst pregnant, are forced to give birth whilst on the island, lose their child’s father figure (Charlie/Robert), have their child taken from them and raised by someone else (Kate/Ben), are eventually abandoned or betrayed by their fellow survivors, and ultimately must learn to survive in the jungle by themselves.

If one scene stood out in particular this episode, it was the dock scene between Sawyer and Kate. This scene accomplishes something I never thought possible in the way that it manages to both give a respectable send-off to the Sawyer/Juliet pairing while also reminding the audience of the Sawyer/Kate pairing that had been absent in much of Season 5. On paper, it shouldn't have worked - it should've come across as forced, inappropriate, and cringe-worthy. Yet thanks to the incredible acting from both Josh Holloway and Evangeline Lilly, the end result was an effective and emotionally-resonant scene that's sure to be one of the more memorable moments of the series. 

It was just a really elegant scene that served a lot of purposes as it somehow managed to pay respect to the Suliet shippers, please the Skater shippers, and satisfy the non-shipper fans (in the way it seems to put the relationship-aspect of the series on the back burner). For the Sawyer/Juliet fans, this episode cleared up a lot of the doubts with their relationship as it became very evident that Sawyer truly loved Juliet and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. For the Sawyer/Kate fans, the scene showed that while Sawyer and Kate are both emotionally unable to embark on a relationship at this point - Sawyer's grieving the loss of his potential fiance and Kate's busy trying to give Aaron the life she wants for him - there is hope for this pairing much much further down the line. 

The acting from was really top-notch throughout the entire episode but none of the performers manage to shine more than Lily and Holloway. Evangeline Lilly once again proves that she's a very gifted actress, able to really deliver during the more emotionally-demanding scenes. Her scenes on the dock with Holloway are some of Lily's finest and her performance in them manage to stay with you long after the episode ends.

 

Yet despite the episode being Kate-centric, the real star of the episode is Josh Holloway who continues to deliver exceptional performances in every scene he's in. Without a doubt, Holloway is the one of most gifted actors on the series and the writers certainly haven't wasted his talents for a single moment this season - giving him some much darker and emotionally-heavy material to work with. Sawyer's in a very dark place this season and Holloway has really managed to convey this in the past couple of episodes. 

The Bad (-) :

There seems to potentially be a major inconsistency in the Ethan storyline. In this episode, we see Ethan on the mainland – which makes sense because we know that all the women and children of the Dharma Initiative were evacuated from the island before the bomb went off. So Ethan, being born the same year as Miles, would’ve been one of the infants taken off the island along with Miles and Charlotte. However, if what Daniel said was true – that what happened happened – and Ethan, Charlotte, and Miles ALWAYS left the island, then how was Ethan back on the island in 2004 when the plane crashed in the original timeline? A lot of people just assumed that he and his mother (Amy) just defected into the Others but this seems a bit unlikely. Did they somehow return to the island after the Incident and somehow join the Others before the mass gassing of the remaining Dharma Initiative members? This seems a bit unlikely considering Miles and Charlotte never returned.

The storyline involving the Temple, while interesting, is also moving a little too slow for my liking. It has a little bit of been-here-done-that vibe as it seems to merely be a variation of the introduction-of-a-new-group storyline that’s been done every season (i.e. Season 1 – The Oceanic 815 Middle-Section Survivors; Season 2 – The Tailies; Season 3 – The Others; Season 4 – The Freighter Folk; Season 5 – The Dharma Initiative/The What-Lies-In-The-Shadow-Of-The-Statue Group). They always start out mysterious and morally ambiguous (are they good or bad?) but ultimately turn out to be relatively good (minus a select few that challenge the others in their group i.e. Danny Pickett, Martin Keamy, Phil, etc). It just feels like with so few episodes left, the series really shouldn’t be wasting so much time setting this story up.  I’m also a little annoyed that we’re being introduced to even more characters when we’ve barely received proper characterization for Ilana, Richard, and Frank (ALL of whom are series regulars this season). 

Also it’s a little disappointing that we didn’t get any follow-up to the Richard kidnapping and Flocke/Sun/Frank/Ilana storyline. Yet it does make me even more excited for next week – which is already an agonizing and torturous wait week-after-week.

Vampire Diaries 1.12 Review

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES: 

"UNPLEASANTVILLE" REVIEW

8.3/10

“Another great installment that continues to build on the series’ expanding mythology while deepening our emotional investment with the characters."

Wow. The Vampire Diaries is shaping up to be quite the series. Who would’ve thought that a series based on such an unoriginal concept could’ve become this engaging? The series started out rough with some uneven episodes but ever since “Haunted”, the series has had consistently strong episodes and this latest instalment certainly doesn’t break that pattern.

“Unpleasantville” picks up almost immediately after the previous episode with Elena, having returned from Atlanta, being stalked by the new vampire in town. As Damon and Stefan race to uncover the identity of her stalker, Elena and her friends prepare for their school’s 1950s-themed dance.

The Good:

There were so many things to like about this episode that it’s actually difficult to choose what to praise first. I really enjoyed the introduction of several new vampires into the series’ mythology and Mystic Falls. With Damon recently getting a more sympathetic portrayal, the series is in desperate need of a villain and hopefully these new vampires can provide this. It’s also refreshing that these vampires aren’t just interested in Elena but are also using Bonnie and Jeremy to achieve their goals.

The episode also featured several suspenseful moments with two being particularly noteworthy: (1) Noah’s attack on Elena at her house and (2) Elena’s later confrontation with Noah at the school. Both scenes were nicely shot and effectively racked up enough tension to keep us engaged despite their predictable outcomes.

Particularly impressive was the director’s use of long wide shots during the confrontation scene in the cafeteria. The wide shots – typically a device used to take us away from the action and place us in a spectator-type position – is here used to demonstrate and emphasize just how alone Elena is. Just as we (the viewers) are distanced from the action, Elena is distanced from her support group. She might have her friends, family, and the Salvatore brothers to support her, but sometimes Elena’s going to have to fight her battles alone. 

It’s a nice moment for the character as Elena acknowledges this and instead of playing damsel-in-distress, fights back. What’s nice is that Elena is proud of her actions when she discusses the events with Stefan later in the episode. Elena’s always been a very proactive heroine and that’s why I like her more than Twilight’s Bella, so it’s nice to see her stepping up even further to the plate and fighting back. It was also nice that Elena wasn’t able to kill Noah on her own – after all, she’s not super-powered like Buffy or Sookie – so for her to have been able to kill him so easily would’ve felt like a bit of a cheat and would’ve been inconsistent with the information the series earlier established about a vampire’s strength. The writers should really be applauded for finding such a perfect balance between an empowered female and a damsel-in-distress.

It’s amazing that such a simple scene can accomplish and convey so much. All in all, it’s a tense and exceptionally shot sequence that also provides Elena with some nice character development. I can only hope we can get more scenes like this in future episodes.

Another aspect of the episode that really deserves some praise is the Alaric/Jenna storyline. When I first heard of Matthew Davis joining the series, I was sceptical on whether or not he could pull off the role – having not been charmed with his performances in “Legally Blonde” and “Urban Legends: Final Cut”. Surprisingly though, Alaric has turned out to be a strong addition to the cast. Davis and Canning share an undeniable chemistry and their budding relationship is definitely one the episode’s strong points. Translation: Someone needs to start a petition to have Matthew Davis upgraded to series regular status next season. It’s also nice that writers are finally integrating Jenna into the show’s main storylines. The reveal that Alaric’s wife might be a descendant of Katherine and Elena’s birthmother was a great twist that no one could’ve seen coming.

However, Elena/Stefan and Alaric/Jenna didn’t get all of the romantic attention this episode. The relationship between Caroline and Matt is really starting to progress with the couple overcoming its first major obstacle. Although the budding relationship is a little predictable and dull in comparison to the other couples on the show, they’re a sweet pairing and the series needs a stable couple without all the supernatural issues to pry them apart.

The Bad:

Oddly enough, one of the episode’s strongest elements was also one of it’s weakest. As much as I enjoyed the introduction of several new vampire figures, it seemed a little obvious that they would turn out to be the new bartender and Jeremy’s new friend. I’m glad we’re getting more vampires, I just wish their identities would’ve been a little more shocking a reveal.

And on a sidenote: Where is Tyler? The character has really been neglected lately and it’s shame because it seemed like the writers were trying to bring the character back into the spotlight a few episodes ago with the allusion that he might be a werewolf. Yet since this reveal, Tyler hasn’t been seen or heard from on the series.

 

Conclusion:

With "Unpleasantville", the series has proven once again that it has the ability to be both entertaining and emotionally resonant. The directing, writing, and acting were all spot-on this week making it the series’ best instalment to-date and the first episode since “Haunted” to really exceed expectations and demonstrate what the series is capable of. With only ten episodes until the season finale, the series is really shining. The Vampire Diaries is clearly the surprise hit of the 09-10 Television Season.