As an American, I have proudly watched hours upon hours of television my entire life. In fact, I’m pretty sure I was at least listening to television while still in the womb. From The Wonder Years to Darkwing Duck, from Happy Days to Mork and Mindy, from Law and Order to Matlock, I have seen some great shows over the years. In fact, when I look back on all the shows I have seen over the years (taking into consideration the ones I have completely forgotten about), I’m actually not sure how I was able to have a social life growing up gien all the hours I put into the tube.
The 21st century has brought a slew of great new shows, some which have been embraced by audiences, others that have not been. The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, The Sopranos, Deadwood, Carnivale, The Shield and many others are already classics in my opinion, but do you notice something about that trend? (hint: they all are on Cable TV) It’s true: Generally, cable channels are developing better television shows than the networks are, for a variety of reasons: expectations for audiences are less and, more importantly, there are less regulations as specified by the evil FCC. (more…)
I hadn’t heard anything one way or another about the new season of Lost (Lost: Season 4), but it looks like Lost is arriving on TV as planned on January 31, 2008. Having written that sentence, I looked up the show on Wikipedia and found that Lost has indeed been hit by the writer’s strike – which means we get an eight episode season. This was the same trouble that the show ran into last year, so we’ll see how it fares. What is unclear is whether the other eight episodes that have not yet been filmed will appear at a later time, or if the writers – when they return – will simply shorten the three 16-episode remaining seasons by eight.
Anyway, the preview for Lost: Season 4 is now online, and I must say it’s quite impressive. After not liking the season three finale all that much, I’ve grown to appreciate it a lot more over the last few months. Obviously the writers have something clever up their sleeves, and, as it is quite clear, the rescuers aren’t Heaven-sent as the survivors think they are.
Lost: Season 3 comes to DVD next Tuesday, and with it another very good season of Lost adventure -thankfully without the three month gap partway through. Sure, nothing can quite compare to the mysticism of the first season, but Lost is a great entry in the series, and one that answers many, many, many questions that fans have been wondering about – and of course raises even more.
Some fans weren’t overly crazy about the first eight episodes of the show, which focus exclusively on Jack, Kate and Sawyer and just about ignore the rest of the cast. This was a major departure from the past two seasons, where each episode focused on a different character, but these episode still do a lot: they set the stage for what is to come, they introduce us to The Others and give us some insight into the truth about the island. The series starts off great, with a shockingly suburban scene, and the first half of the season ends great as well, with the amazingly tense scene where Jack holds Ben hostage and orders Kate to run. From there, the show returns to its more ordinary format, focusing on different characters as it sees fit to develop the story. Still, there are a lot more of The Others, and now, instead of making them an elusive shadow people, they are themselves people and characters who just happen to have twisted morals. The introduction of Jacob (if you can call it that) is terrific, and there are plenty of other highlights in the series as well. While there are a few stumbles (Hurley’s van episode), but hey, no one’s perfect.
The DVD, as you might imagine, has a lot of little bonus features, all of which are gathered onto Disc 7. Much like with Lost itself, you have to work to find the features, as the DVD lacks labels for the most part. While I normally don’t like this approach, it fits in with the theme of the show, and also gives you a chance to explore for easter eggs, of which there are several. Some of these easter eggs are pretty lame (one where various cast and crew members talk with sentiment to everyone who has made the experience so great), but there are a few that are entertaining.
The real meat of the special features are these:
The World of the The Others
A look at different aspects of the revelations about the bitter enemies of the survivors. Fans will be delighted that the cast and crew reveal a lot of little tidbits you may not have thought about.
Lost Flashbacks Nothing too spectacular here. There are a couple additional flashbacks that provide a little more detail into certain stories, but there’s nothing that wasn’t removed without a purpose.
Lost On Location This is an entertaining featurette that explores several episodes from behind-the-scenes. There are a lot of cast and crew interviews and looks at how sequences were filmed. The most interesting part is where we see how the original crash scene is reconstructed to add in new actors that weren’t around in the first season.
The Lost Book Club Watch this one. The writers reveal that every book shown in the show has significance, and they let slip a few details about what’s to come. There are definitely a few things in here that had me wanting the fourth season to come along right now.
Lost in a day This is a look at 24 hours in the day of the production. I honestly can’t remember if I found this one insightful or not, but I think I did.
Deleted Scenes
There are a few decent deleted scenes, but, of course, there’s nothing too spectacular to be found here.
Bloopers
Hey, who doesn’t like bloopers?
I’m not quite sure where this is on the DVD – it may be an easter egg – but the best part of the features is a brief instructional video a la the Dharma Initiative. Does this explain the truth behind Lost? Read more here.
One of the special features on the Lost: Season 3 DVD may not answer all of the questions of the mysterious show, but does it reveal a good chunk? If you click on the fourth screen you can actually click on, you’ll see an entry for “Orchid Instructional Video”, which has that Asian scientist guy preparing to shoot an instructional film. He’s getting makeup applied to reduce the shine, and is also holding a bunny rabbit.
However, the video is quickly disrupted – and by that I mean that the scientists begin to freak out – when a second bunny rabbit appears. What’s so strange or notable about these events are these:
The bunny rabbit that the scientist is holding has a “15″ branded on its side. When the other bunny appears, it too has “15″ on its side.
The scientist shouts in desperation, “Keep them away from each other!”
The scientist then asks an assistance how far “the shift was set?” She responds, “Minus twenty.”
Um… so what the hell does this mean? Cloning? That would explain the “15″ on both bunnies. But “keep them away from each other”? Does that mean alternate realities? Time travel? This instructional video definitely raises some questions and possibly answers them, but of course we won’t know for sure. Near the end of Season 3, it is revealed that rescuers found an airplane they believed to be the survivor’s flight at the bottom of a deep underwater chasm, with all bodies on board. If this airplane is indeed the correct flight, then how are the survivors still alive? Are they alternate versions of themselves? What the heck?
As an American, I have proudly watched hours upon hours of television my entire life. In fact, I’m pretty sure I was at least listening to television while still in the womb. From The Wonder Years to Darkwing Duck, from Happy Days to Mork and Mindy, from Law and Order to Matlock, I have seen some great shows over the years. In fact, when I look back on all the shows I have seen over the years (taking into consideration the ones I have completely forgotten about), I’m actually not sure how I was able to have a social life growing up gien all the hours I put into the tube.
