Emmy Post-Mortem: Well That Was a Weird Show Wasn't It?

So the Emmys are over. I have to say that was one of the more entertaining Emmy telecasts I've seen in a while. Also, my predictions were way, way off. I was 4 for 10 for the major categories, but to be fair, some of those acting wins were total "WTF?"s, so I don't feel too bad. Plus, one of my "should win"s did win, which makes me feel nice. Let's look at each race in turn.

Supporting Actress, Comedy: I called Jane Krakowski as my should and will win, and alas, she did not. Kristen Chenoweth from Pushing Daisies took home the award and she could not have been a more gracious winner, so I really can't complain. Also, that funny glasses bit with all the nominees was a hoot.

Supporting Actor, Comedy: I called Neil Patrick Harris as my should and will win, and he didn't. Jon Cryer from Two and a Half Men did. I know what you're thinking. You're asking yourself, "Wait, I thought he was just kidding about the Two and a Half Men guys having a deal with the devil? He is kidding right?" Damned if I know. All I do know is that I hate Two and a Half Men and I cannot understand the Academy's interest in it when in almost all other categories its tastes skew more highbrow. NPH was robbed. ROBBED.

Lead Actres, Comedy: I called Tina Fey as my should and will win, but she didn't. Nope, Toni Colette took home the trophy, which would be surprising except for one little fact: Colette plays a character with multiple personality disorder, and awards shows go ape shit for the kind of stuff. The only thing more effective is when pretty actresses make themselves "ugly" for a role (i.e., gain weight, wear prosthetics). So congratulations Toni, but Tina, you're still my girl.

Lead Actor, Comedy: Alec Baldwin was my should and will win, and he DID. Woo hoo! Well deserved, Alec.

Comedy Series: How I Met Your Mother was my should win, 30 Rock was my will win, and 30 Rock did win. I wasn't surprised, but there was a small part of me that thought the Mother upset might happen. Perhaps now that the show is on the Academy's radar, next year it might be able to do it.

Supporting Actress, Drama: Chandra Wilson was my should win, I had no idea as to who would win, but Cherry Jones did win. She's great, I'm sure it's well deserved, but can we give Chandra Wilson an award one of these days, please?

Supporting Actor, Drama: Michael Emerson was my should win, William Hurt was my will win, but in the end Emerson did indeed win. Can I get a woo hoo? Dude deserved it. He has created one of the most terrible and complex television villains in Benjamin Linus. He seemed a little subdued during his acceptance speech, though, so I hope he's perked up so he can enjoy his night.

Lead Actress, Drama: Glenn Close was my should and will win, and she did win. Was anyone surprised? She's fantastic. I know some of you out there were pulling for Moss, and I'm sure she'll get hers one day, when Glenn Close isn't nominated. I love that Close called Patty Hewes the "role of a lifetime" because given some of the memorable characters she's played over the years, that's saying something. (I still have nightmares about her sitting in the corner turning the lightswitch off and on.)

Lead Actor, Drama: Jon Hamm was my should and will win, but Bryan Cranston did win. I've got to start watching Breaking Bad to see what this guy is all about, because winning back to back awards in this day and age is very difficult to do. Kudos.

Drama Series: LOST was my should win, Mad Men was my will win, and Mad Men did win. Again, not shocked, but hoping that the Academy gave the award to Mad Men this year so that they could honor LOST's final season next year. Please?

Also, NPH was fantastic as host, and a tremendous improvement over the 5-host tag team from least year, and it was nice to hear Jeff Probst, who was part of that fiasco, say so. I also really liked the format change of doing all of the comedy awards together, all of the miniseries awards together, etc. because (1) it made easier to see how dominant some shows are (i.e., Mad Men, 30 Rock) and (2) it let me switch over and watch the Giants game while they handed out awards in categories I didn't care about.

All in all, it was a pretty satisfying and entertaining evening, even though I was wrong most of the time.

Check back tomorrow for a review of the How I Met Your Mother premiere.

Emmy Breakdown: Outstanding Drama Series, or a Mad Men Redux

Hello all! I hope you've had good weekends. The Emmys are just a few short hours away, and with that it's time to a take look at the last major category: Outstanding Drama Series. The nominees are:

• Big Love
• Breaking Bad
• Damages
• Dexter
  
• House
• Lost
  
• Mad Men
  

This is the fourth nomination for House, the third for Lost (one win), the second for Damages, Dexter, and Mad Men (one win), and the first for Big Love and Breaking Bad. I'm going to make this post a quick one, so first time nominees, thanks for playing, and I hope you've enjoyed the attention you've gotten, since you're probably not winning. Same goes for Dexter and House. Damages, if you're second season had been as good as your first, you might have a shot, but it wasn't, so you don't. That leaves Lost and Mad Men as viable contenders. The shows have differing strengths: Lost blends mind-blowing plot twists with the strength of its ensemble cast, while Mad Men's lush cinematography lets its characters deliver subdued yet powerful performances. Who you think should win this category depends on whether you prefer your TV with a side of whizz-bang-boom-OMFG-did-that-just-happen? or with a dose of thought provocation. I like both, but I think that Mad Men's second season got a little confusing toward the end, whereas Lost's fifth finished super, super strongly (Even four months later, WTF JULIET??!!!). So, for me......

Who should win: Lost
Who will win: Mad Men

Check back later this evening for a recap of the awards, or follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/dvrrulesmylife) as I share my thoughts and reactions in real time.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Prepare Yourselves for a New Beginning

Because this time I'm not going anywhere:

I Just Got a Nosebleed Because My Brain Can No Longer Keep Up With This Show

Ok so things I need to cover before I jump into this week's episode: (1) JIN IS ALIVE and (2) No one ever thought Faraday's mother was the woman in the bed, aside from me, which I will chalk up to my general confusion surrounding this show. Ok so having covered that, let me say: I have no fucking clue what is going on. Additionally, the time travel stuff is creating a lot of headaches for me, because I do not have any good answers. Ok so here are the big questions this week:

• What the fuck is that wheel thing? Locke returned to the Orchid or the Well or whatever the fuck we're calling the place Ben went to move the island and I have to tell you, shit got trippy. He fell down a well to get there, which disappeared during a time jump, thus leaving him trapped underground. It's ok though, because JACK'S DAD REAPPEARS AND TELLS HIM HE WILL HAVE TO SACRIFICE HIS LIFE TO SAVE THE ISLAND. Yeah. Also, the fucking wheel thing is all off it's magical hinges, which seems to be causing all the time jumps. Locke puts it back though, which makes me wonder if the time jumps will stop now, and additionally if that means the islanders will be stuck in whatever time period they are in.
  
• If Sawyer saw Claire and Kate in the woods, doesn't that mean there's another version of himself running around the island too? And this ladies and gentleman, is where my brain starts to hurt, because by jumping to a time after the crash, we jump to a point in a time where multiple versions of the same character exist, which means.......well I don't know what the fuck it means, but I hope it doesn't that they're going to start running into each other because it would have had to be something we would have already seen. And I'm pretty sure according t science fiction time rules you can't coexist with yourself in the same time period without the universe exploding........or at least my brain exploding from being so confused.
  
• Are we ever going to find out about Smokey the Monster? Because I'd really like to know (1) what it is---and don't give me that security system bullshit because I will fucking punch in the face, and (2) how old is that temple it lives in, because it sure looks pretty old with all those hieroglyphics in it. It obviously came from the same people as that fucking wheel in the ground, but I would like to see them soon.
  
• How awesome was it to see Rousseau's back story? Pretty awesome, although I don't remember if we ever knew she killed her husband. That's probably what drove her over the edge, that and Jin.
• How do we feel about Charlotte dying? Pretty indifferent. I never attached to those frieghter folk, mostly because I think anyone that wasn't a main cast member during season 1 is doomed to die before the series finale (for examples see: Ana Lucia, Libby, Mr. Eko, Carl, Alex, Naomi, all of those crazy freighter people from last season, etc.). I hope that Desmond, Ben, and Juliet are exceptions to that rule, though, because I like all of them way too much. That aside, I was happy to find out that Charlotte grew up on the island because it's interesting and totally fits. Now I will ask the question: WHO'S HER DADDY? And she thinks she met Faraday in the past? Prob because when Locke fixed the wheel it stuck the island in the past. (Also: wheel = wheel of time, just realized that). What does that mean for our favorite characters? And how the Oceanic 6 fix it by going back? No fucking clue, just thought I would ask. Additionally, when Charlotte said she only just remembered something, I wonder if the reason she only just remembered it was because the timeline was being reset within her brain as a result of the impact that the moves through time are having on the timeline. What's that? I'm not making sense again? Ok I'll move on.
  
• On a scale of 1 to touching, how good was the phone call from Sun's daughter? It was very touching. And now because I'm starting to get tired, one last question:
• Anyone else think the show is becoming to plot heavy? The thing I love about LOST is seeing how the character's backstories (or forward stories) provide context for the way they act in the main timeline of the show. Now that it seems the show has somewhat abandoned that premise to instead make an on/off island split, I feel like we might have lost (no pun intended) some of that character-driven stuff that made the show so great in the first place. I'm happy we're getting answers, don't get me wrong, I just would like more of the character stuff again. (I think this may also have to do with my own personal preference for shows sticking with the formal conventions they set up, or reinventing them, rather than just abandoning them, but that's just me).

Ok, I will stop there. I will leave to you to discuss other questions or propose other answers by using the comments. I will respond to any good ones.


Ok here you go. Is Sun going to kill Ben? Jin is alive! And it's Ji Yeon?

Aaron and Ji Yeon will play together. And that totally killed he resolve, or maybe not.

Will she believe him? How will Ben prove it?

Jin is alive! The numbers being broadcast over and over again. 1988, wow.

I love French accents. And young Rousseau is easy on the eyes.

And isn't he totaly fucking with the timeline? I think he is.

I need to stop asking the temporal questions, or else I'm totally going to confuse myself.

Les Autres. or another flash. Or smoke monster.

Smokey the bear. This explains Rousseau's craziness.

This is the it, the it that killed them.

Who knew it killed them all so quickly.

OMG they pulled off his arm?!!!!!

This is ridic

So this is when she takes up her rifle And there's a temple on the islanf? I've never see that one before.

Clearly covered in hieroglyphs. Decaying arm.

The smoke on the beach, that's either the day they took Alex or the day Rousseau lit the fire on the beach.

Music box?

And what do the other people see when the time travelers disappear?

Decaying dead bodies.

OMG she killed her husband.

And Jin keeps flashing too, but is he flashing to different palces than the others are.

They reunited!

Why you bring her back?

Sun now working with Ben, too much switching of sides I think?

And Locke is going to leave island now?

She speaks Klingon? And what with the season premiere and Faraday watching the Other?

Now we're getting little Blair witch, and what was the point of doing them back to back if not to kill off

Woah Rebecca MAder, you are scary, you totally have a career in remakes of Japanese horror films.

THis place is death, that's creepy.

What? I'm so confused.

What is The Well? The Well of Knowledge? Well of Time?

We knew she grew up on the Island? We knew it...........who is her Dad? WHO IS HER DAD?

WHAT DOES SHE REMEMBER?!!!!! CRAZY MAN THAT SCARED HER!!!!!!! IF SHE CAME BACK SHE WOULD DIE!!!!!! CRAZY OLD MAN WAS FARADAY!!!!!!

I wonder if there's sme kind of magic on his promise. Like a magic seal.

Oh Jin you are a good husband. You love your wife.

Locke is a crazy old man.

That happened way too quick.

And Charlotte is dying. So if Daniel went back in time.

How can his mother help?

She died. You had a good run Rebecca Mader, we will miss you. This death has none of the emotional impact I would have expected.

Ewww Locke has protruding bone.

Oh Christian Shepherd. SO CREEPY!!!!!

Oh he's so creepy............ok here was the emotional hook. Eloise Hawking.

Push the wheel back onto its axis.

Can you help me up? This feels really biblical.

Ben tring the wheel made it not work.

Locke put the wheel back in place. Does that mean the flashes will stop.

Mrs. Hawking's church?

Desmond.........about freaking time.

And why does she live at a church?

This adds to the creepiness.

Clip of the Day (Night): Perhaps a Bit Unrealistic, No?

Because the woman's voice kind of makes the whole thing seem like a joke ("there's a smoke monster, polar bear..."), which makes me want to kill her:

In-Laws Are Such Pains in the Asses

For many people, having in-laws means awkward holidays, hearing stories about your spouse's exes, and long extended visits at your house. For Desmond Hume, it means needing to sneak back into the country because god forbid your crazy ass father in-law finds you because he'll probably try to interrogate you about the crazy ass island you escaped from three years ago because all he wants to do is get back there. Back there you say? Yeah, Widmore was on the island 50 years ago. Even better, WIDMORE WAS AN OTHER. What does that mean? Well, boys and girls, I think that will be our first question for the evening:

1. What are the implications of Widmore being an Other? I know I should have asked "How did Widmore become an Other?", but I'm assuming that will be revealed. Here's what we know. Widmore was on the island once, and reported to ageless other Richard Alpert. Current Widmore only wants to get back to the island. I'm guessing in the intervening time, Widmore does something to get himself banished, either killing one of his own people (we've seen him display quite the penchant for violence), or revealing some secret about the island. It's hard to be sure. I'm also betting the guy gains some knowledge of the future before he leaves (heck, it may even be the thing that gets him thrown off), which is why he's probably so rich in the 2004 time period.
   
2. Where is Faraday's mother? There are three possibilities: (1) Faraday's mother is the woman lying in the bed and Widmore is lying. (2) Faraday's mother is not the woman lying in the bed and Widmore is telling the truth and she's in Los Angeles. (3) Faraday's mother is neither the woman in the bed or in Los Angeles and as such here whereabouts are unknown. If scenario 1 is true, the questions becomes why Widmore would lie to Desmond, which is easy to answer: he either wants him out of the way, like he said, or he's planted a woman in Los Angeles and is going to use Desmond as a way to get back to the island, which kind of seems like something he would do. If scenario 2 is true, then the question is who is the woman in the bed and where did she come from and why are people pretending she is Faraday's mother? In this case, I'm betting they are part of the same group as Crazy Old White Haired Lady, a.k.a. Mrs. Hawking. The question then becomes why would they try to pretend she is Faraday's mom, to which I do not yet have a good answer. If scenario 3 is true, then why are both groups lying and where is the real Mrs. Faraday? What does she know that would force her to need to disappear? Is she even alive? And why would both groups pretend she is? I still have a sneaking feeling that Faraday is somehow related to Mrs. Hawking, even if he isn't her son. Additionally, what made Desmond think that the people at the house were lying? Did I miss something? Also, WHY WOULD DESMOND GO STRAIGHT TO WIDMORE AFTER PENNY TOLD HIM TO AVOID HIM? Thankfully Desmond did not mention the child.
   
3. Why does the 1954 version of Alpert not know Locke? The other version of Alpert did seem to know him last week, although we do know that that time period was much later on than this one. (Btw, it's getting really hard to keep the "this" and "that" straight with all of the time changes.) We know that Jacob is some kind of god/prophet to the Others, but why? And why does Alpert take Locke at his word? The other interesting thing here is that we may have just seen Locke create his own time loop, since he tells Alpert to visit him as a child after he's born, which we know he does. Which JUST REMINDED ME OF SOMETHING: Alpert forced young Locke to pick between a few items when he visits him as child (Season 4 episode "Cabin Fever"). The compass, which Alpert gave him last week and Locke gave back to him this week, is one of the items (Lostpedia just confirmed that for me). When Alpert visited young John, he asked him to pick up the item that was already his, which I thought was a weird question at the time, but now makes more sense, since Alpert is just giving Locke back his own compass again. I have a feeling these compass exchanges are going to happen more often. What does the compass mean though? Where did it come from? And is Locke the one telling Alpert to test his young self? I have soooooo many more questions now.
   
4. How did the US Army find the island? I thought the island had protections against detection. I'd imagine that the Army would have carefully selected it's test site for the H-bomb and would have made sure to know where it was. Additionally, does anyone else think that perhaps leaked energy from the H-bomb gives the island some of its unique characteristics? Or maybe even it's the reason the women can't carry babies to full term? (The children are dying of radiation posioning in utero).
   
5. Why do the Others have to learn Latin? I don't buy the answer Juliet gave, but I bet it totally has something to with Alpert and how old he is. I know the show has entered time travel sci-fi land, but what if perhaps there's also a fantasy element as well and Alpert is actually some deity from Mount Olympus banished to live among the people. Or he could be some kind of long-lived alien here to shepherd the human race along (similar to the First Ones in Babylon 5--yes I watched it, and not you can't judge me) by teaching small groups of them, and he makes them all learn Latin since it's the best thing he thinks they can know. Juliet did call it Others 101 after all. I'm a little hesitant to believe my own alien hypothesis because the show seems so Earth and Island centric, but who knows?
6. Why is Faraday all of the sudden the new Jack? I don't like him being a main character. He's a little annoying. And if he did do some crazy thing to some girl at Oxford like that janitor (who may not even actually be a janitor, but instead part of the Widmore-Hawking conspiracy) said, then I certainly don't like him. Even more, I don't trust him. I want to see more of what's in his journal, because I think he knows way more about what's going on than he is letting on.
7. Why did Penny and Desmond name the baby Charlie? Well this is an easy one---because of poor, dearly departed Charlie--but it does give me the opportunity to talk about how much I love Penny and Desmond. I love that she totally knew he was lying at the end and that the easiest thing to do would just be to have them do it together. Thank you, show, for giving us more of them.
8. Where did the next jump take us? Well I guess we're all just going to have to tune in next week to find out, won't we? And with that I leave you.
   

So, I Have No Idea What Just Happened, And Quite Frankly I Don't Care. THAT WAS AWESOME!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Ladies and Gentlemen, LOST! IS! BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What does that mean? I have no fucking clue. What is here really? Or there? Or now? Is now actually happening now? Or has it already happened and we're just experiencing it again? Do you have no idea what I'm talking about? Don't worry, neither do I. For my LOST posts, I'm going not even going to try to recount the things that pass in the episode because it would just be way too hard. Instead, I will ask and then try to answer a few key questions each week. Let's begin.

1. We are now firmly in the land of time-travel, so what the fuck does that mean? Ok, so let me first try to summarize what Faraday said. Time cannot be changed: people can move back and forth through time, but things will always play out the way they are supposed to. This sort of flies in the face of a lot of the comic book sci-fi stuff which has a lot of alternate universes, etc., but it does stay pretty true to the show (see the Charlie dies plotline for more information), so I'm ok with that. One thing that really confuses me though: if the island is jumping around in time, how can Locke be dead? Because conjecture would hold that there will be points in time where dead Locke coexsits with live Locke on the island. Also, how do we measure time for the individuals who are still there? It's not really linear since they will keep jumping from time period to time period, but it probably seems linear to them, since their memories will stay intact. Does that mean we're operating on two different timelines, one for the world of the show and one for the characters of the show? I think yes, which also adds so many layers of complexity I can't see straight.
   
2. Ok so if there's time travel, why are only some characters affected and not others? Again, I have no idea. The Others don't seem to have been affected, but the 815ers and the Freighter Folk do. But where did the Others go? And why aren't they affected? We'll have to revisit this one.
3. Who else liked all the references to past events in the show's history? I'm talking specifically about the drug filled plane (a Season 1-2 plot point), the Expose TV show (remember Nikki and Paulo from Season 3?), the Hatch intact and crazy Desmond, and probably a bunch of other stuff I can't remember right now. It was a nice touch. Oh, and also so happy to see Dr. Marvin Candle again, that crazy old coot.
   
4. Why do they have to go back? Obvious question, no good answer.
5. What happened between Ben and Sayid? Sayid was working for him, but not anymore. Why?
6. Is Mrs. Hawking, the old lady with white hair, Faraday's mother? I say yes.
7. Who hired those lawyers to find out about Aaron's paternity (or in this case maternity I guess)? I see one of two possibilities: Sun to try to get Kate to join her on her quest to destroy Ben, or Widmore to try to get Kate to reveal the location of the island.
8. Does the time warp have anything to do with the sky going purple (end of Season 2)? I'm going to guess yes, although I have no clue why.

So those are all of the questions I have off the top of my head. Does anyone else out there have any that I might be able to answer for you?

Clip of the Day: The Purge

Because Ben is a bad, bad man:

Clip of the Day: And So It Begins

Because you must remember where you came from to understand where you're going:

Clip of the Day: "Because, You Have Work to Do"

Because WTF?!!!!!:

Clip of the Day: System Failure

Because I'd still like to know (1) why this happened and (2) what it means for the physics of the show:

Clip of the Day: "They're All Dead"

Because, well, I'm still not sure how the fuck they managed that, but then again I'm not sure I'm ready to either:

Clip of the Day: "Where Are We?"

Because I've decided that I'm just doing LOST clips until the premiere next week. If you're not a LOST fan, well then too bad for you:

Clip of the Day: Soon, My Friends, Very Soon

Because that crazy Doc Jensen over at EW.com has restarted his weekly Lost columns, which has got me all different kinds of excited. Big spoiler warnings attached to this one if you're behind on the show:

Clip of the Day: Get Ready

Because there's just 12 days until it returns:

Set Your DVRs.....

....LOST returns Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 8 p.m. with a two-hour event. Can you say excited? I can. Here's a little something to hold you over until then (spoiler warning, if haven't seen the season 4 finale, do not watch):

For My Fellow Lost Fanatics

I love LOST, but I'm not a fan of LOST spoilers. I think there's something wonderful about just letting the show unfold in its magical, mysterious way without knowing what's going to happen. It makes all of the WTF moments that much better. That being said, Ask Ausiello from EW.com has revealed the titles of the first six episodes, and since LOST like is pretty much and epic novel with episodes as chapters, I don't think there's anything wrong with passing those along. Chapter titles are supposed to tantalize without revealing too much, right? In any case, here they are. Read them if you want to, or don't if you don't. It's not like the Island's fate depends on it or anything.

Episode 5.01 - Because You Left
Episode 5.02 - The Lie
Episode 5.03 - Jughead
Episode 5.04 - The Little Prince
Episode 5.05 - This Place is Death
Episode 5.06 - The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham


Excited yet?