Half Past Noon

“I think one of the under-recognized strengths of Lost is how the structure of the storytelling reflects what the show is about. Long before the characters started traveling through time, we were traveling through time, via flashbacks and flash-forwards. And now it seems that this season—in which the story is split between two realities—is going to be devoted to alternate realities within the two realities. Choosing a side in the coming island conflict isn’t just a matter of allying with friends against enemies. It’s also about subscribing to a worldview. It’s about picking a reality to live in.” Noel Murray

Lots of spoilers ahead. If you haven’t seen Lost, what are you waiting for? There are only 75 hours of TV to catch up on.

I haven’t read what I’m sure are hundreds of theories on the Lostpedia for this past episode, because I wanted to come up with a theory of my own first.

Last season we had time travel, and the nuclear blast that stopped the uncontrollable flashes seems to have created an alternate universe.

My theory is that while the Losties on the island fight Esau and come into their own as island dwellers, the Losties off the island will realize something is up (coffins are missing, etc) and play a pivotal role in setting things to right on the island.

I still haven’t finished Avatar, but I love Appa. Old drawing.

Speaking of Ayn Rand, sort-of (really, you have to look at that dating site)… big-time objectivist fantasy novelist Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth novels have been turned into a TV show by Sam Raimi (of Spiderman, Xena and Hercules fame). Early reviews say it’s not as fun as its precursors, but it’s shot in Australia so it looks neat and it’s succeeding in syndication in first run. I’m gonna check it out.

I’ve been pretty disappointed by this TV season (looking at you, Fringe and Pushing Daisies!), which has me rooting all the more for Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. There’s a new trailer and it looks pretty good, as TV trailers go.

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While looking at that trailer, I saw a preview for another mid-season Fox skein called Lie to Me. The show looks pretty bad, but has a song Frank and I have been listening to quite a bit the past few months. The title also reminds me of one of the most amazing and angsty Joss Whedon penned Buffy episodes. At the end of a harrowing day Buffy and Giles wait over the grave of their friend, who has been turned into a vampire. Buffy asks Giles if life ever gets easy. Her friend emerges from the grave and Buffy summarily kills him.

Giles: What do you want me to say?

Buffy: Lie to me.

Giles: It’s terribly simple. The good-guys are stalwart and true. The bad-guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats and we always defeat them and save the day. Nobody ever dies… and everybody lives happily ever after.

Buffy: Liar.

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Remembering Michael Crichton: The first Michael Crichton book I read was Sphere, and immediately after chewed through his entire bibliography. The conclusion was at the same time startling and satisfying, like no other novel with a ‘twist’ ending that I had read. I’m sure he had his duds (I’ve deliberately skipped a number of his movies, including the movie version of Sphere and Congo) but Michael Crichton clearly had a rare mastery of storytelling with books, movies, and television. My boss at the library told me that when she finished Andromeda Strain she couldn’t sleep for days afterwards. Everyone seems to have at least one story of a Michael Crichton story really affecting them.

Michael Crichton had his personal problems, and I noticed that his novels began to read more and more like movies in recent years. But perhaps I was just getting older, and the quality of his output remained the same? If so, thank goodness I discovered him early! His books stand with Robert Louis Stevenson and the best genre writers, and I certainly hope that after he has been dead for a sufficient period of time he will enter the literary canon. He was not a Christian, but like Dickens he was damned smart. It will be interesting to see if his common-sense objections to anthropocentric global warming will be vindicated by history.

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While looking for a decent Michael Crichton obituary (the search continues), I was surprised to see an obituary for Yma Sumac. More surprised to see that she had died so recently – her persona was so larger-than-life that I assumed her to be from another time. She was a sensation in the US in the 1950s, a novelty act perhaps comparable to Josh Groban in our time. She had a reported 5 octave range, the largest in the world. I’ve posted a song to the music player so that you can experience it.

Five Reasons Not to Like J.J. Abrams’ new show Fringe

[5] Joshua Jackson. Need I say more?

[4] It’s yet another big government against terrorism-which-is-really-big-business-which-is-intertwined-with-the-government show. And a poor one at that. Olivia Dunham is not a convincing FBI agent, nor does her setup feel authentic. I’ve only watched the Pilot, but does she really have that little authorial oversight? And is the FBI really that stupid? Nobody realizes who the double agent is until *way* into the episode. Why can’t somebody portray the FBI—even as bad guys, perhaps—as intelligent? Make them conniving, shrewd, nigh-unstoppable bad guys for all I care. Just don’t make them dumb!

[3] This TV series is the epitome of fearmongering. I don’t see how this show will be at all compelling except for managing to convince us that we’re re-entering the Cold War, only this time with extremist terrorists. There’s no way to get any real character development into this story because the plot is so choked up with fear. Oooh! Biological terrorism, nasty big businesses, weird science! What???

[2] It’s a “modern” show in a “postmodern” world. What do I mean, and why is it important? Well, I simply don’t believe that a mad scientist can be a hero in our postmodern times. We’ve already learned that science is not as objectively awesome as scientists wish. And the mad scientist who saves the day has no personality. He’s insane, crippled by poor social skills, and he saves the day by being a cold, calculating, perfectly scientific experimenter. (His use of LSD in the Pilot is a fantastic example of his superhuman science abilities.)

[1] None of these people are real people. The whole father/son dilemma (between Joshua Jackson and the mad scientist) is a farce. It’s cliche, way too old, and they get used to each far too fast in the Pilot. Similarly, Dunham exhibits a need to be loved, and that’s fine: I don’t mind having that as a plot device. But what happens in the end? She ought to be scarred, she ought to be broken, and yet she’s as calculating and mathematic about everything as the mad scientist.

To put it bluntly, I just don’t find the show believable. And not in a, “Wow, I wish that we could have a show about real, ordinary people for once.” I just don’t think that Fringe gets humanity.

“And I think Dollhouse… I will never answer your question, by the way. Dollhouse is the question. I’ve said before: Movies are an answer, TV shows are a question. Because if you give a definite answer, what the hell is your next episode about?” – Joss Whedon

I like TV better than movies for a lot of reasons… and this quote from Joss Whedon adds another to the list.