Ninth Day of TV Christmas- Nine Flashes Sideways

In a new tradition here at the Pool, as both a way of summing up the year in television and celebrating the holidays, we will be releasing the first Twelve Days of TV Christmas series leading up to the day where I hope to receive multiple DVD box sets of my favorite shows. Whereas the Poolies celebrate the best television of the season by a number of voters, the Twelve Days of Christmas is my attempt at giving credit to the top series of the year by me and only me. Having said that, a couple of my favorite shows have been left off the list for a multitude of reasons. In the case of Chuck and Justified, it's mostly because I couldn't fit them into a numbered slot as well as some others. With Sons or Always Sunny, I just wasn't as happy with their respective seasons in 2010. So without further ado, here is the Ninth Day of TV Christmas. Feel free to sing along.

On the ninth day of Christmas my tv gave to me...nine flashes sideways, eight minutes breathless, seven kids a studying, six deads a walking, five deeeaaad rapiiiiists, four ad partners, three Jo Bros, two Terriers, and a paper boss in Scranton, PA.

It has been over half a year since Lost aired its series finale, and my love for the show, the final season, and the finale itself has not changed. The season did everything I could have asked of it. Was it as good as say seasons four or five? Maybe not, but it was so much more epic. Every episode I watched, I knew everything was that much more important. Kate's last ep, Hugo's last ep, the deaths of many main characters. There are many people out there who complained about it for God knows why, but the final season of Lost and especially the finale worked like gangbusters. They hit every emotional note I needed, and answered or failed to answer anything I cared or didn't care about. As much as people hated on "Across the Sea," it, along with "Ab Aeterno" answered everything I needed on Lost. As the 2010 version of Lost went along, we watched as nine of our favorite characters flashed "sideways" as we called them, into a purgatory like world. These sideways flashes were ruined for some once the big reveal came around, but I enjoyed them more once I realized what was going on. All in all it will continue to be my favorite television show of all time.

The Sopranos Award- Best Action Series

Named For: Sopranos (HBO) 1999-2007
Awarded To: Best action series from June 1, 2009 - May 31, 2010
Last Year's Winner: Chuck (NBC)

Place. Show (Network) Points (My Vote)

10. Dexter (Showtime) 0 points

9. The Mentalist (CBS) 1 point

8. Justified (FX) 4 points

7. 24 (FOX) 6 points

6. True Blood (HBO) 12 points (5th)

5. Flash Forward (ABC) 16 points

4. Sons of Anarchy (FX) 18 points (3rd)

3. Chuck (NBC) 20 points (2nd)

Runner-Up
2. Breaking Bad (AMC) 23 points (4th)

and the Poolie goes to...
1. Lost (ABC) 36 points (1st)

Here with his thoughts on Lost is Poolie voter, Larry...

There has been so much literature written about LOST it’s kind of annoying to put something together here.  I haven’t read everything out there, but it seems like there is an obligation in every write-up to give your thoughts on the final season/season finale (down on the season, loved the finale). Everyone knows what happened, so that’s all I really want to say about the actual show. I’d rather talk about what LOST did outside its time slot.

To say the show had a cult following would be misleading, because it was actually more intense. With LOST, more than any other show, you were either in or out. I love that. Outsiders hated when a LOST conversation broke out because it seemed like people were speaking a different language. If you found a random stranger who watched the show, you immediately had material to fill up an hour long conversation. Honestly, it’s one of the only ways I could ever enjoy a conversation with a stranger. The show would not have become a phenomenon without this passion. On the internet, the craze spilled over into what seemed like a thousand online forums and even its own wiki-like site.  The resources never seemed to end. You can’t help but appreciate that kind of devotion. Even a contributor to this site found inspiration from the show for his Twitter wallpaper.

So although I was down on the season as a whole, no show came close to entertaining me as much on and off the air. That’s why I voted for it and that’s why I think it is the best network television show ever. I have always said I am jealous of people who still haven’t seen it, because they have 120+ hours of entertainment sitting there, completely new to them. I can’t say that about any other show up for the award, so while this category is stacked, it really wasn’t that close.

by Larry Avitabile

The Frank Pembleton Award- Lead Character Action

Named For: Frank Pembleton played by Andre Braugher in
Homicide: Life on the Street
Awarded To: The best lead character in an action series from
June 1, 2009 - May 31, 2010
Last Year's Winner: James 'Sawyer' Ford- Lost

Place. Character (Show) Points (My Vote)

10. Patrick Jane (The Mentalist) 2 points

9. Jack Bauer (24) 7 points

8. John Casey (Chuck) 8 points

7. Walter White (Breaking Bad) 12 points

6. Chuck Bartowski (Chuck) 14 points

5. Jackson Teller (Sons of Anarchy) 18 points (3rd)

4. Hugo Reyes (Lost) 18 points (2nd)

3. Raylan Givens (Justified) 19 points (5th)

Runner-Up
2. James 'Sawyer' Ford (Lost) 21 points (4th)

and the Poolie goes to...
1. Jack Shephard (Lost)
32 points (1st)

My relationship with Jack Shephard has been a tumultuous one over the past five years. I was a Sawyer guy from the jump, so it was hard to be on board with Jack at the beginning. When I started watching the series with Lar and Mags, the latter was on the Sayid train and the former was the Jack guy. I wasn't really about either of them.

As the seasons went along, whether it was just hate building on indifference or the fact that he actually did get more and more annoying, my hatred for Jack Shephard grew fierce throughout seasons two to five. Now I know I wasn't alone on this because even though I placed him on last year's ballot for the Teri Bauer Award for the Character You Love to Hate in an Action Series, I was not responsible for any of his three total points.

Then came this final season of Lost. While Sawyer was the absolute stud of season five, he took a back seat to Jack as the season came to a close. Jack started the series as a guy who helped everyone survive out of necessity and although he seemed to grow more and more whiny and arrogant as the series went along, season six changed things.

He still wanted to help in any way he could, but at this point he didn't really know what to do. He who once was the man of science, had taken over for the late John Locke as the man of faith. He had faith that he had come back to the Island for a bigger purpose and he spent most of season six trying to figure out what that was.

This willingness to let others lead, and figure things out along the way, was what made him so easy to love in this final season. The character I previously was all about (Sawyer) clammered on about leaving the Island and really had no idea what was going on; therefore I lost a bit of respect for him. Jack, on the other hand, was ready willing and able to take on the challenge that was in front of him.

Don't get me wrong, he didn't lose any of the 'man of action' in him that made many love him in season one. Come 'The End' he started to figure out what he needed to do and took care of business as he pummeled the Man In Black on the cliffs, got the stopper back into the Glowing Cave, and wobbled through the jungle to find a nice place to die.

At the end of it all, seeing him smile once awakened in the Sideways Purgatory was one of the best moments of the show. I've watch it back three or four times now, and although there will always be a special place in my heart for Sawyer/Juliet, Jack reliving life in his mind might be my favorite part of the show. He did so much for all of the people in his life and in the end he saved one of the most magical places in the world from crumbling into oblivian.

I find it so awesome that this character not only goes out on top in the series, but also in the Poolies. As a once hater, I am now a Jack Shephard lover and wouldn't have it any other way. His place in history is set as he leaves the television airways as the holder of the Frank Pembleton Award at the 2010 Poolies. See ya in another life, yeah?

The Titus Pullo Award- Supporting Character Action

Named For: Titus Pullo played by Ray Stevenson in Rome
Awarded To: The best supporting character in an action series from June 1, 2009 - May 31, 2010
Last Year's Winner: Tony Almeida- 24

Place. Character (Show) Points (My Vote)

10. Arthur Mitchell (Dexter) 0 points

9. 'Chibs' Telford (Sons of Anarchy) 2 points

8. 'Opie' Winston (Sons of Anarchy) 4 points

7. Kimball Cho (The Mentalist) 5 points (5th)

6. Eric Northman (True Blood) 6 points

5. Jesse Pinkman (Breaking Bad) 16 points (4th)

4. Devon Woodcomb (Chuck) 17 points

3. Morgan Grimes (Chuck) 29 points (1st)

Runner-Up
2. Benjamin Linus (Lost) 31 points (2nd)

and the Poolie goes to...
1. Desmond Hume (Lost)
41 points (3rd)

Here with his thoughts on Desmond Hume is Poolie voter, Jaydon...

Is there a LOST fan alive that doesn’t love them some Desmond? I’m sure there must be, there are no limits to human lameness. For the rest of us, Desmond was one of the greatest studs to grace not just LOST, but the medium of television.

Think back to the season two premiere. The inaugural season concluded with the first of LOST’s routinely excellent season finale cliffhangers. The hatch was blown open by dynamite. Locke and Jack peered into the abyss. We had no inkling of what would happen next. We could only assume by the ominous numbers emblazoned on the hatch that this was a Pandora’s Box situation. Season two picked up curiously.

We open on a computer screen with a flickering, beeping command prompt. A man gets out of bed, slides over to the computer and enters some unknown data. When he hits “execute”, we hear a shuffling sound. He chooses a record, Mama Cass’s “Make Your Own Kind of Music”, the soundtrack to his routine. He does dishes and laundry. Works out and showers. He makes a fruit shake. All this time, we never see his face. He injects himself with a mysterious solution and is interrupted by an explosion over head. He quickly dresses and arms himself, turns the lights out and investigates the disturbance with a scope rigged to a chain of mirrors. That chain flows all the way to… the bottom of the hatch. Minds were blown. This was perhaps the coolest introduction for a new character that LOST ever did. Immediately after this scene, Des played antagonist to our castaways. He quickly transitioned into a fan favorite and critical darling.

I think Desmond is beloved for many reasons:

1. He’s got a great personality. He’s good-hearted and brave but flawed, a time tested recipe for a likable hero. That awesome accent and his “brutha” catchphrase add to his likability.

2. His relationship with Penny stood out as arguably the most emotionally potent romantic pairing of the series. For me, only Sawyer and Juliet can be mentioned in the same breath as the Humes.

3. He had the best episodes. There were many characters that had strong eps. Desmond trounced them all. “The Constant” alone bests most other characters entire back stories.

4. Desmond was of vital importance to the mythos of LOST.

This last one deserves greater attention. No other character was as deeply enmeshed in LOST lore. The starting point alone is incomparable. Desmond caused the crash of flight 815 and brought the castaways to the island. Beyond that, he was responsible for the button in the hatch and used the numbers. He saw visions of the future and predicted Charlie’s death and was the recipient of the “Not Penny’s Boat” message. He was entangled with Charles Widmore, Eloise Hawking and Daniel Faraday. His consciousness traveled through time, a precursor to an entire season of time travel. He was thought of as special by everyone, including Widmore and the Man in Black. He was responsible for unplugging the energy at the source which led to the martyrdom of Jack, the vanquishing of MIB and the survivors final escape from The Island. He was used as the plot device that connected the earthly and ethereal realities.

Desmond essentially began, ended and reconciled LOST.

This award should be renamed the Desmond Hume Award for Best Supporting Actor in an Action Series. No offense to the lovable brute, Titus Pullo of Rome, but this change would honor subsequent winners in exponentially greater terms. Congrats, Des. See ya in anotha life brutha.

by Jonathan Stuart

The 'Through the Looking Glass' Award- Best Action Episode

Named For: 'Through the Looking Glass' Episode 322 of Lost
Awarded To: The best episode in an action series from
June 1, 2009 - May 31, 2010
Last Year's Winner: no award

Place. Episode (Show) Points (My Vote)

5. 'No More Good Days' (Flash Forward) 7 points

4. 'Chuck vs. the American Hero' (Chuck) 7 points (2nd)

3. 'The Culling' (Sons of Anarchy) 8 points

Runner-Up
2. 'One Minute' (Breaking Bad) 8 points (3rd)

and the Poolie goes to...
1. 'The End' (Lost) 23 points (1st)

Here are some thoughts on 'The End' by non-Poolie voter Cluchey...

LOST was beautiful because it was about an island exactly like mine. Everyone dies, and one day I’ll die, like you, not knowing what this has all meant. We can ask the question (and Charlie put it best: “guys, where are we?”) all we want, but our existence is special because the earth is incomprehensible and magical, and no amount of faith and no amount of science will ever truly enlighten us. If you thought LOST was weird, well, it’s certainly no weirder than life. You think a sentient cloud of electric smoke is over the top? I think the fact that a screen in my apartment is currently showing me a live baseball game being played in Florida is, in a vacuum, no less incredible. Science fiction is relative: if you had never heard of the internet, or giraffes, or rainbows, you’d think those were science fiction too. Of course LOST was strange in its details, but those characters’ fears and moments of wonder were in many ways just like our own.

I love the way LOST ended. It resolved all questions the way they are resolved in our own lives. Dead is dead. Whatever happened, happened. Some things are irreversible, and you can’t fix the past. My favorite moment of the entire series came at the end, in the space between life and death, when Ben and Hugo told each other what a great job the other did as #1 and #2. Like Jacob and Richard, they must have protected the island for wonderful centuries together—and we never got to see it. And we never got to see it because we’re Jack. And the question we always wondered—the question we always will wonder—remained. What is this place, and why were we here? And they answered that too, in the most beautiful way imaginable: you don’t get to find out.

You don’t get to find out. There is fear, and death is a monster, and life is a monster, and there will always be others out there in the woods. But there is love, and we have friends, and as long as we are here we can believe whatever we like and make our choices and find the things that we can. But hail mystery! Some things can’t be found, because the most important things are lost. What is life? The reason we’re here? The thing we fight over, the thing we protect? What is death, and what happens after The End? You don’t get to find out.

So you can let go now, Jack.

by Dan Cluchey

The Zack and Kelly Award- Best Couple

Named For: Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski played by
Mark Paul-Gosselaar and Tiffani Thiessen on Saved by the Bell
Awarded To: The best couple on television from June 1, 2009 - May 31, 2010
Last Year's Winner: no award

Place. Couple (Show) Points (My Vote)

10. Cappie and Casey (Greek) 2 points

9. Jeff and Jordan (Big Brother/Amazing Race) 4 points (5th)

8. Rigsby and Van Pelt (The Mentalist) 7 points

7. Joe and Stella (Jonas) 8 points (3rd)

6. Hank and Karen (Californication) 9 points (4th)

5. Andy and Erin (The Office) 14 points

4. Andy and April (Parks and Recreation) 14 points

3. Chuck and Sarah (Chuck) 26 points (1st)

Runner-Up
2. Mitchell and Cam (Modern Family) 28 points

and the Poolie goes to...
1. Desmond and Penny (Lost)
39 points (2nd)

'Happily Ever After' and 'The Constant' were my seventh and third favorite Lost episodes, respectively. Why were they so good? Because they revolved around Desmond David Hume and Penelope Widmore Hume. These two were so good together. They went together like lamb and tuna fish. Desmond was such a stud since we first met him, so to see him finding his one true love in the sideways universe during 'Happily Ever After' was fantastic. It's a testament to how much the fans love these crazy kids that this was the only episode of the season that the two of them were in together. Henry Ian Cusick and Sonya Walger had such great chemistry on Lost that it hindered my enjoyment of Flash Forward. I really couldn't see Olivia Benford with Mark or Lloyd Simcoe, because all along we all knew she was supposed to be with Desmond. So congratulations on winning the Zack and Kelly Award during your last season together. I'm sure you'll both enjoy the afterlife together.

The Samantha Marquez Award- Female Character Action

Named For: Samantha Marquez played by Vanessa Marcil in Las Vegas
Awarded To: The best female character in an action series from
June 1, 2009 - May 31, 2010
Last Year's Winner: Sarah Walker- Chuck

Place. Character (Show) Points (My Vote)

10. Erica Evans (V) 3 points

9. Teresa Lisbon (The Mentalist) 3 points

8. Ellie Bartowski (Chuck) 6 points

7. Deb Morgan (Dexter) 6 points (3rd)

6. Tara Knowles (Sons of Anarchy) 7 points

5. Ava Crowder (Justified) 10 points (4th)

4. Maryann Forrester (True Blood) 13 points (2nd)

3. Chloe O'Brian (24) 14 points

Runner-Up
2. Kate Austen (Lost) 23 points (5th)

and the Poolie goes to...
1. Sarah Walker (Chuck)
32 points (1st)

Over the past three years we've all loved Sarah Walker because A) she's hot and B) she's kicks the deuce out of bad guys. This season she failed to disappoint on either count.

As awesome as it has been for her to save Chuck time after time early on in the series, this year she played the damsel in distress extremely well. Like Longfellow Deeds, I enjoy that type of girl. When Daniel Shaw kidnapped Sarah and brought her to Paris, we not only loved Chuck for killing Shaw and saving her, but Sarah took a step up as well.

"You saved me."

Before the saving took place during the quasi-season finale, Sarah appreciated Chuck's first attempt and did it in a surprisingly comedic way.

"Thank you for saving me. I appreciate the tank."

We also got plenty of sappy Sarah lines to keep me satisfied throughout. My favorites were of course,

"Once we get back, it's all gonna happen. You and me."

"You're still Chuck. You're still my Chuck."

Sarah Walker wins the first two Samantha Marquez Awards and I don't see that trend stopping until Chuck finishes its run.

Lost- Top 10 Episodes

10. Exodus (Eps 123-124)
The first season finale was so momentous at the time. Sure Walt being captured by Mr. Friendly and Locke et al. opening up the hatch are extremely trivial moments looking back on them, but at the time they were huge deals. When Sawyer, Michael and Jin set off on the raft it was the first of many times the castaways thought that getting off the Island was what they needed to do. They were wrong, but it was fantastic television.

9. Tricia Tanaka is Dead (Ep 310)
Just an extremely fun episode which highlighted the four dudes hanging out with the Dharma Van. There was Sawyer teaching Jin how to say "You don't look fat" in English while chugging Dharma beer. We got Hugo driven to get that darn van to work, even if it took Sawyer and Jin to push him down a gigantic hill. And once it worked the elation that ensued has been hard to top.

8. The Long Con (Ep 213)
This Sawyer ep was outlined beautifully in my opinion. In the flashbacks we followed Sawyer pulling a really long con on his then girlfriend, Matt Saracen's mom or Janette from Treme. On the Island we witnessed a similar long con on all his castaway pals, but we never really saw him doing it. That's why when James revealed that he had all the guns and there was "a new sheriff in town," we were all a bit surprised.

7. Happily Ever After (Ep 610)
At the time it seemed like Desmond was figuring out some sort of way to converge the sideways and the Island universes during this ep. Now we know that he really didn't have a good understanding of what was going on, but that doesn't mean it was an awesome ep as it happened. Any ep that surrounds Des and Penny is gonna be great, but when Sideways Des and Sideways Penny meet at the stadium I almost lost it.

6. Through the Looking Glass (Ep 322)
The third season finale was the first time that the audience really got a sense that this show wasn't about the castaways leaving the Island. The trickery that was the flash forward put Lost on another level. Add the chilling death sequence of Charlie Pace and you have a fantastic hour and twenty minutes of television.

5. Pilot (Eps 101-102)
The one that started it all. Gigantic in scope. Thrilling in action. Touching in moments. The Pilot was a broad idea of what Lost could be. In and of itself it was a great two hour watch. We got one of the most quotable lines of the series in Charlie's "Where are we?" And thankfully we didn't get the death of Jack Shephard, which was the original plan for the series premier.

4. The Incident (Ep 516)
You start the episode with the infamous conversation between Jacob and the Man In Black on the beach, and you end it with Juliet attempting to explode the bomb after falling to her death after losing grip of Sawyer's hand. And in between we got a whole lot of Fake Locke goodness, Jack and company mirking a bunch of Dharmas, and Bejamin being tricked into killing the sacred Jacob.

3. The Constant (Ep 405)
This was probably the first time I completely freaked out about how crazy Lost was and how crazy emotional it could be all in the same episode. Desmond flashing between consciousnesses in 2004 and 1996 really tripped me out. But it was after he went to the love of his life Penny in 1996, told her to pick up the phone eight years from now, and then called her immediately after flashing back to 2004 when I lost it. Truly fantastic.

2. LaFleur (Ep 508)
Sawyer was my guy on Lost. It was in this middle fifth season episode when he got to showcase himself as the absolute stud that he was. A guy that started out as an outcast with the group became the leader. Sure Jack and Locke had left, but Sawyer was getting it done. After nudging his way up the Dharma ranks we see him as the head of security in 1977 and he's living the life. What makes it all that much better is when Jack, Kate etc. come back to the Island and find him taking care of business.

1. The End (Ep 616)
It would be real easy to hate on the final episode of a series you loved because it didn't live up to your expectations. Lucky for me, The End did. It answered all the questions I need from it, it pulled at my heartstrings on numerous occasions, we got to see many of our old friends from seasons past, and the entire group of main character castaways got a fitting send off as they left our tv sets for good.

Lost- Top 20 Episodes

My favorite show is now long since retired and it's time to do a bit of reflecting. Below is the list of my 20 favorite episodes of Lost. I have seen every episode for at least the second time (many of them for a third) in the last four months so I've got the memory to pull this off. Having said that, the later seasons seem to have more eps on this list. Not only do I (being in the minority) like the last three seasons better than the first three, but the further along in the series we went, the more each 42 minute segment meant to me.

20. Par Avion (Ep 312)
If you're a Claire fan you'd probably really like this ep where she tries to catch seagulls in order to send out a message on their tagged legs. It makes my list for the final scene. Jack playing football with The Others is one of, if not the best scene in television history.

19. Orientation (Ep 203)
It was our first introduction to the Dharma Initiative. Desmond, with the help of the orientation video, explain to Jack, Locke and Kate that the button must be pushed every 108 minutes or the world will end. Locke wanting to run it back immediately after it ended was just classic Locke.

18. Dr. Linus (Ep 606)
He who began as a awful human being started his road to redemption in this early final season episode. Linus put forth an awesome performance as both a purgatorian high school teacher, and a fallen leader ready to accept any group that would have him. His cry for help to Ilana was one of my favorite Ben moments of the series.

17. A Tale of Two Cities (Ep 301)
A world that I for one was not expecting. The Others were not scrambling around in the jungle, but living a normal life in houses with bicycles and cookouts. This is when were introduced to my favorite female, Juliet, and we got to see what the crash of Oceanic 815 looked like to Ben Linus.

16. Across the Sea (Ep 614)
The most polarizing episode in Lost history, and maybe one of the most in tv history. I personally loved the episode as its own entity. Maybe it came a little too late in the final season, but I was a big fan of the back story and mythological download that came from watching this ep about Jacob and the Man In Black.

15. The Man Behind the Curtain (Ep 320)
Another ep focusing on Benjamin Linus (these seem to be prominent here). This late third season ep gave us our first look at Linus's back story. How he came to the Island as a nerdy four-eyed kid and how he helped rid the Island of the Dharma Initiative were revealed. In present time Ben put on quite the show for Locke in Jacob's cabin.

14. LA X (Ep 601)
After the huge fifth season finale, and the constant theorizing about what would happen next, the season six premier did not disappoint. We got our first look at the sideways universe and we all had our own ideas about what this world was. On a more personal level, we got to see a lot of old friends (Boone, Charlie, etc.) well and good.

13. There's No Place Like Home (Eps 412-413)
Sure we all knew that the Oceanic Six would eventually get off the Island, but how it happened (the Island disappearing into thin air) was no less than epic. We also knew that Penny was searching for her beloved Desmond for a long time, but that didn't make their reunion any less fantastic.

12. Ab Aeterno (Ep 608)
Richard Alpert was one of my favorite characters throughout the middle seasons, peeking in season five when he was in both the 1970s and the 2000s. Ab Aeterno gave all us Alpert fans what we had been waiting for, a Richard-centric ep. Add in all of the Island/Jacob/MIB information that flooded our brain like a bottle of wine and you got a sweet ep in the middle of the final season.

11. Some Like It Hoth (Ep 513)
Some of the best work we got from both Hurley and Miles. In what could have been a filler ep, where it was basically about Hugo and Miles going out to the the Swan build site, we got one of the funniest eps of the series. Between Hurley writing the script for Empire Strikes Back and all of the interactions between Miles and his dad Dr. Chang, it was incredible.

Top 10 coming soon...

ABC Upfronts- Gut Reactions

ABC came into the year knowing that they were losing one of their most beloved shows, as Lost was in its sixth and final season. There was a good amount of hype around two new serialized science fiction series and neither of them really panned out the way the network wanted. In 2010-11 it seems they are going in different directions. Let's see what is going down.

Canceled: Of course there's Lost, although not canceled is still out of our lives. And then one of the two Lost replacements, Flash Forward also got the axe to the dismay of a few readers of this blog. Long running comedy Scrubs also came to an end as did the short-lived, but critically acclaimed, Better Off Ted. Romantically Challenged, The Deep End, Happy Town and The Forgotten basically were done before they started.


Returning: Well there is the quartet of ladies shows in Grey's, DH, Bros and Sis, and Private Practice that are all back. God help us all. The three sitcoms return, with Modern Family being the only one I consistently watch, but the other two seem to be on the decent side. And to round things out Castle and V are back. Castle seems to be airing this summer though so that's not a good sign, and V isn't on the fall schedule so who knows if it makes it back on the air.

New Shows

I never saw The Shield but have heard good things about Michael Chiklis in it. Him as the head of a superhero family definitely has potential here in No Ordinary Family. Add Rita from Dexter in a role that doesn't seem as annoying and I think we might have something.

Then there are a trio of what some may call comedies that look...interesting. Matthew Perry's Mr. Sunshine may have the most potential, if only for Matthew Perry. Better Together has Joanna Garcia in a starring role, and after her stint on Priviliged I don't think I can say no to that. Then there is Happy Endings with Elisha Cuthbert and the guy I couldn't care less about in Flash Forward. From the trailer I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a comedy or not, but again, it has Elisha Cuthbert.

My Generation looks like a valiant attempt at something quasi-different, but I believe it is a fail. Then there is the garbage that is Detroit 1-8-7, The Whole Truth, Body of Proof and Off the Map. No thanks.

24 and Lost- Live Together, Torture Alone

It is the week of Lost and 24 here at the Quiet Pool Perspective. Today I'll give my thoughts on the pair of long-running dramas and we will be graced with Larry's thoughts at some point in the near future.

I've enjoyed tv all of my life. As a kid I loved watching TGIF on Friday nights and Saved by the Bell on Saturday mornings, but I don't remember much more than that. I got into watching Beverly Hills, 90210 and Seinfeld repeats as I got a bit older. I jumped on the American Idol train come season two, which was my junior year of high school, but none of these endeavors made me realize how rewarding television shows can actually be.

During my sophomore year of college, everything changed. My suite-mate Larry brought some tv shows on dvd from home. What were they? 24: seasons one, two and three. Although he had already seen the seasons, he wanted to share them with me and our other roommate, Mags. We rifled through the seasons, albeit those two quicker than me (I was inexplicably more preoccupied with other things at the time). Episode after episode. Disc after disc.

The three seasons were done. We loved it. Lar did his usual, "I told you this was sweet! How cool am I that I knew about this and you didn't?" But we needed more. With Mags's need to have the fourth season dvds in hand, and his lack of wanting to leave the dorm room, he ordered season four online to be delivered. Of course the fourth installment came as an Asian version with crazy subtitles on the screen. We didn't care. We needed more Jack Bauer.

The action. The torture. The real-time format. It was all revolutionary. And because we watched the first four seasons so quickly, it didn't seem to get repetitive to us. We loved it more and more as it went on.  After watching seasons five through eight live, I will admit that it got a bit tiresome (especially six and this final eighth season).

In anticipation of the January 2006 start of the fifth season of 24, we realized we needed another show to hold us over. Enter Lost. It was a different experience. It had action. It had drama. It had comedy. It had mystery. We were once again hooked. As we sped through the first season we realized the second season was currently airing right under our noses. After The Others stole Walt off of the boat we had to watch season two any way we could.

We got into the tv downloading game real quick. We had to see the seven or eight eps of season two immediately so that we could watch it live with the 15 million others that were on board with watching the castaways fight for their lives.

And that is how my love for current television started. Both shows gave us so much to talk about. One was taken at face value, 24. The other was explored in depth, Lost. 24 gave us guns, explosion, car chases, moles, technology, bad guys, etc. Lost gave us flashbacks, intrigue, questions, character development, etc. They were very different, but both of them shaped the view of television I have today.

It is only fitting that they leave our lives within 24 hours of each other. Although under different circumstances, Lost and 24 had their series finales on Sunday and Monday, respectively. The Lost creators set their end date three years ago in order to stop twiddling their thumbs. They finished things on their own terms. 24, which was once a great phenomenon, was growing tiresome and they decided to pull the plug in the midst of its eighth season. They will now move on to making movies for the franchise.

To 24 and Lost, thank you for showing me that much intellect and creativity can be rooted in this medium of television. Am I smarter because I watch such brain wrenching shows like Lost? I like to think so. Have I become a better writer because these shows have ignited my inner-blogger? I also like to think so. So thank you 24 and Lost for this glorious four year ride I've been on with the both of you.

Damn it Chloe! I'll see you in another life.

Lost- Defensive Specialist

As a tv enjoyer first and a critic second I'm going to try and both understand the implications of the finale and the season as a whole better and defend it as an unbelievable piece of entertainment that achieved everything it needed to. In one of a couple of pieces I'll probably do in the next few weeks, I'm going to address one of the biggest criticisms of Lost as a whole entity.

Just because I absolutely loved the finale and thought it was a perfect ending to my favorite television show since I started becoming an enthusiast back in 2004, it doesn't mean I can't understand when others have differing or even opposite feelings towards it. Sawyer was my favorite character on the show, that doesn't mean I don't get why some people enjoy Sayid the most (who I can't stand). And just because I will now go on to explain why I think Lost benefited from one of its most widely hated aspects, that doesn't mean that I don't agree with those critiques in some way. Everyone watches and understands things differently. This is my point of view as a first and foremost Lost defender.

The biggest criticism I've been hearing and reading since the series ended on May 23rd is that the mythology of the show never added up. In a long Gchat with Jaydon this afternoon he talked about how he loved the show, but if the mythology was even 30% better it would have been in a league of its own. In my opinion, the mythology did exactly what it was supposed to do, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

The mythology of Lost, in my view, has been a vehicle to paint a portrait of these characters and the story they are in. The mystery that arose since the smoke monster was first heard in the Pilot, became a great backdrop to give the audience a great adventure of love, shootouts, revenge, etc. Within each season, and from season to season, new mysteries came about, making the audience ask question after question. While this was a clever way to keep the viewers on the edges of their respective seats, it was never what Lost was about.

Having said that, I still think the mythology all worked out in the end. Across the Sea, although it was questionable in its execution, helped me come up with my own explanation of the mythological aspects. When we were introduced to the Glowing Cave of Light that was the Heart of the Island, I gained a new perspective on the questions I had regarding mythology. Every question I had, in my opinion, I thought I could chalk it up to the Magic of the Island. I knew this was a fantasy show as soon as I saw the Smoke Monster, so I was fine with this magical aspect.

Why were the numbers important? Because the Island is crazy mystical. Why was Walt so special? Because this is a magical, mystical world. So on and so forth.

In a moment during the finale I got a new perspective on things that made me even more of a defender of Lost mythology. When Hugo accepts the position of protector of the Island and signs Ben up to be his number two, Linus conjectures that maybe we can run this Island differently. And in that moment I came up with a new explanation. Jacob was both an angry and crazy man with no real grasp on humanity. I could now chalk a lot of things up to the combination of the magical Light and Jacob running the Island as a complete jerk who really had no idea what he was doing.

Why was there a problem with pregnant women on the Island? Because Jacob ruled the Island that way. Why did it change? Jacob changed his mind on that idea. He never really understood what was the right way to do things and came up with new 'rules' now and again as he protected this place.

Now was there a clever wrap up to any of these burning questions that viewers had? No, but you can easily come up with your own explanation for every single one of them. Now if they had summed up all the mythology in a more concrete answerable way, I argue that the journey could have easily been much, much worse.

The fact that they knew they were going to leave most things unanswered (and up to your imagination), in my case that Jacob and the magical Island were responsible for all of the plot dead ends, they could ignite the viewers' emotions any way they felt like. They came up with interesting story lines, exciting events and burning questions. These were some of the best aspects of Lost. Many of these great moments in the show might not have been attainable if there was a solid mythology involved and the creators knew they were going to have to answer every little thread at the end.

So the way I see it is that when Hugo takes over, the Island becomes a much less complicated place. Sure it is still magical, but because he's such a down to earth guy who loves people, things just make much more sense during his tenure. He helps people out. He doesn't bring people to the Island to kill each other. People can have babies and not die from it. That's just not the story we were watching (although I wouldn't mind seeing Lost 2: Hurley and Linus rule the Island). In our story, these characters were in a battle to survive on this crazy Island that kept on changing as they stayed longer and longer.

So when most current defenders explain it that Lost is a character piece first and the mythology came a distant second, I'll agree to a point. But then again I think the mythology ended up working out, depending on how you watch the show, and in the end it was a way to build great stories. It wasn't just about the characters. The the fantastic action that occurred over the past six seasons was allowed to occur because of the crazy mythological aspects the show introduced. If they didn't all weave together the way you liked the oh well, but for me it worked immensely well.

Lost- See You All In The Next Life, Brotha

Jack Shephard- "All of this matters."

The two and a half hour series finale of Lost was quite honestly the best one sitting watching something I've ever gone through. No other tv episode or movie has ever moved me in such a way. There were so many moments on and off the Island that were of great importance that I can in no way discuss how all of them made me bawl like a little girl.

One of, if not the biggest question of this entire last season, has been what is the sideways universe and how is going to relate to the Island lives we've been watching these characters live for the past six seasons? Well although it ended up being one of the first ideas that people talked about when the season started, I was still a good deal surprised when it became clear that the sideways world was some type of purgatory.

After Juliet died in Sawyer's arms during LA X, Miles relayed her final thought, which was "it worked." Now most people took this and ran with it, thinking it meant that once someone dies on the Island they transfer over to the sideways world where the bomb actually changed history and everyone can live happily ever after with no Island. After a while this theory fell out of vogue as it seemed more and more likely that these two worlds were coming to some kind of convergence.

And technically they were. All of these characters that we have grown to love over the past six years have been living in this in between state of life and the afterlife. In an ironic turn of events, the first major theory about was Lost really was ended up being a major factor in the end game. Not at all in the way people thought four or so years ago, but these people were in purgatory.

Now I am not a religious man by any means, but I was completely satisfied with this ending. I'm curious as to what people of religions that don't have anything resembling this type of life/afterlife situation, would feel about this type of ending to Lost.

Everybody dies at some point. And for our watching purposes, everyone on the Island died at some point. Some before Jack Shephard (Boone, Sun, Libby, etc.) and some long after the good doctor's eye closed in the bamboo forest (Hugo, Ben, Kate, etc.). They all died and somehow they all created this sideways universe in order to find each other, remember, and let go. How they created this world I'm not sure. Was it the a-bomb back in the incident? Or something completely different that we'll never understand?

With the help of one another, beginning with Charlie helping Desmond, which led to Desmond and Hugo helping everybody else, everyone began to remember their lives and let go. In this sideways purgatory they might have thought they were living, but it all seemed like a shallow existence once each one of them remembered the life they once lived. And once they all did this remembering and letting go, they were ready to move on to what some might call heaven.

And it was in these flashes of remembering that I completely lost it every single time. It was almost as if Cuselof figured how they could make the finale in a way that it would be impossible for the audience to not get multiple chills moment, and then came up with doing the sideways universe. This entire season of sideways moments led us to these moments where we got to see these Zombie-like versions of our favorite characters turn back into the ones that we love right before our very eyes.

Whether it was Jin and Sun snapping back to themselves and immediatly learning Enlish after seeing Ji Yeon on the baby monitor, or Sawyer and Juliet crying in each other's arms once all of their memories of each other come flowing through, I couldn't help but be extremely happy. And it was just that. Flash after flash coming at us time and time again until everyone that we've watched over the years had remembered their time on the Island and was ready to move on to the next life, brotha.

But how did this story of our friends finish up on the Island before they all eventually died and met up in purgatory? Well it was in fantastic fashion as well. Before this journey concluded, almost everyone got their 'moment' and that is what I was happy with. Whether all of the intracies of the Island actually make sense to me, I could care less. But the fact that we got to watch Jack sacrifice himself, Kate save the day by shooting MIB, or Hugo take the reins as the new protector of the Island, was a completely satisfying ending to this story.

As the story began to unfold, the Smoke Monster wanting to feel human became a great irony as returning to human form for a few minutes was what gave our heroes the time they needed to kill him for good. In the first of several heroic moments on the Island, Desmond was lowered down the Waterfall into the glowing Light. The MIB thought bringing him down there would help destroy the Island, while Jack believed it would help save the day and kill Smokey. Although they both claimed they were each wrong, they ended up both being right.

After Desmond released the plug to the Light, the Island did start to destroy itself. It also took away Smokey's smokiness. It returned him to a human form which made it possible for Jack to make him bleed when he did a jump punch on the cliffs that would have made Johnny Cage extremely proud. Fake Locke one the battle between the two, as he stabbed Jack in the gut, but the castaways won the war as Kate came up with her heroic moment, shooting MIB in the back.

Now the terrible beast that haunted this Island for a long time was dead, but the Island was still destroying itself and Jack wasn't going to let everyone die. So in the biggest stud moment in television history, Jack decides that he is going to sacrifice himself by plugging the cork back into the light whole in order to save the Island.

But he's the protector of the Island, how could he go on such a suicide mission? We all asked the question, including Hugo. The simple answer. This is what he was supposed to do. He was supposed to protect the Island for one day so that he could sacrifice himself to save it. He would obviously have to pass the torch on to someone else. And how is everyone in the world not happy that Hugo got to take on this new role. And that was the biggest moment of all for me. When Jack said "it needs to be you Hugo" I completely lost it.

So after Jack saved the day by plugging the hole, Hugo took on the job of protector. In a truly epic good guy moment, Benjamin Linus was right there next to Jumbotron, ready to help him accept his new responsibilites. Hugo is scared and Ben helps him understand that he is someone who has always helped people. As the new ruler of the Island he can help as many people as he wants to. He doesn't have to run things the way Jacob did. And in that moment Ben had his redemption, and Hugo makes the whole thing that much better when he asks Dr. Linus to be his #2.

So Hurley and Ben rule the Island for who knows how long after that moment. Sawyer, Kate, Miles, Claire, Lapidus and now an aging Richard Alpert leave the Island on the Ajira plane. Rose and Bernard will continue to camp out like Robinson Crusoe. Desmond is still hanging out on the Island, but I'm assuming Hugo found a way to get him off the Island quickly so that he could spend the rest of his life with Penny and baby Charlie. And this part of the story ends in a complete full circle moment. Jack is spit out by the waterfall and travels around the jungle until he lays down in the bamboo forest and dies as his eye lid closes ever so slowly.

Thank you all for a great six years. Through it all, Lost was the best television series I've ever watched. And it ended in a way that I am completely happy with. I will re-watch this show from The Pilot to The End many times over to enjoy the journey time and time again.

Other Thoughts

-There were more Sawyer jokes in the first segment of this episode than the rest of this entire season.

-I loved that we got a couple of Star Wars lines from Hurley..."He's worse than Yoda"..."I got a bad feeling about this."

-I honestly don't think I could have been more excited than when I heard Juliet's voice say "am I interrupting?"

-The quick moment when Miles pulls a grey hair off of Richard's head was so poignant because of how good Ab Aeterno was in showing us the man that Ricardo was.

-As Locke, Desmond and Ben meet Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Hugo in the field we got a classic encounter as UnLocke claims, "well this is gonna be interesting" and then tells Jack what we've all been thinking "you're kind of the obvious choice don't you think?"

-Even though Desmond says none of it matters, in fact like Jack said "all of this matters." They are living life, and although they get to end up with the ones they love in the afterlife, the current life still matters. And saving the Island is a major achievement. Why does Desmond think that they can just go to the sideways and live happily ever after. It seems like he knows exactly what's going on in the sideways, but doesn't really seem to have a grasp on what the sideways is while he's on the Island.

-Almost a comical moment by MIB as he tells Jack "if there was a button down there to push we could fight about whether or not to push it. Just like old times" Doc then gives Locke his heroic moment in giving him almost all the credit for Jack saving the day, "turns out he was right about most every thing. I just wish I could've told him that while he was still alive."

-Why are Linus and others not ready to move on? Does he have a different group of people he needs to move on with? Unlike Faraday and Charlotte who haven't quite flashed, Ben seems to remember everything and still isn't ready to leave? Interesting.

Lost- Fireside Chat

Jacob- "You should get your friends...we're very close to the end Hugo."

It's as if Cuselof were sitting back and enjoying all of the criticism that came from Across the Sea, because they knew that everyone and their mother was going to love What They Died For. Like it or dislike it, the back story of both Jacob/Man In Black and The Island Light completely enhanced the pleasure of this fantastic penultimate episode of Lost.

The whole episode had more of a 'we're leading up to the end' feeling than anything I've ever seen. In both timelines we got everyone coming together to start the formation of what the finality of Lost is going to be.  What that actually is, well that's yet to be determined.

In the sideways we got Desmond doing his best 'get the band back together' roundup as he pushed Locke towards Jack, before turning himself into the police for running Locke over with his car and beating up Dr. Linus. Everything in that parallel seems to be leading to this concert in which Kate will be wearing a pretty dress. After Desmond figured out a way to sneak Kate and Sayid out of police custody (paying off Ana Lucia with Hurley's money), the gang of fools was on their way to the concert. How awesome was Hugo when he pulled up in his Hummer with all of his Island memories asking if Ana Lucia was coming too?

On the Island it was MIB and a Widmore-killing Ben on their way to find the remaining candidates so that Ben could kill them too. MIB says this is to get him off the Island and allow Ben to have it all to himself. Is Ben going along with this or is he now pulling some sort of hoax on old Smokey in order to help bring him down?

On the other side of the Island little Jacob shows up to steal big Jacob's ashes from the tubby Hugo. I'm still a little fuzzy on this because when Hugo runs him down, he finds big Jacob sitting next to a fire. What was up with that transition?  This whole section of the episode was one of the best moments of all time. After telling Hugo that the ashes are in the fire and once it goes out he will be gone, he explains to Hugo that the end is near and he needs all of his friends to come.

"Come and sit down and I'll tell you what they died for," Jacob tells Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hugo. Powerful stuff here. Hugo asks why he brought them to the Island and Jacob explains that they are all flawed and weren't good people off the Island. He talks to them about protecting the Island because one of them will have to start doing it. Instead of picking one of them, he gives them "the one thing he was never given, a choice." (Another moment that is amplified by the great character story of the last episode) Of course Jack volunteers for the position unwittingly. After all, he is supposed to do it. Absolute stud moment for the doctor. What were the other three thinking in that moment? (well we know Hugo was just happy it wasn't him) Jack drank the holy water that Jacob gave to him as he proclaimed, "now you're like me." I could feel all of that Island power flowing through Jack at that moment and it was glorious.

Now we have a new Protector in Jack, an old one's ghost that claims to be disappearing in front of our eyes, and still this feisty Smoke Monster coming to kill everyone so that he can go home. This final two and a half hours has the potential to be masterful.

Other Thoughts

- Who is Jack's ex-wife in the sideways? By not showing or mentioning her the entire season it has to be someone important right? Juliet? Kate? Could it still be Claire Dunphy?

- Again we get reference to how special Desmond is. In an ironic choice of words MIB explains to Ben that he is Jacob's fail safe. He is Jacob's last resort to save the Island just in case MIB kills all the candidates. Is this important because all of the candidates are going to die? Yikes.

- Kate was only crossed off the list because she became a mother. She shouldn't be relegated to a life on the Island if she has a baby to take care of. Didn't stop him from keeping Kwon on the cave wall though.

- Jack stitching up Kate at the beginning of the ep was a great call back to the Pilot when Kate stitched up Jack.

- "We insist. Even if we have to kidnap you," Rousseau explained to sideways Linus. Funny how a bunch of these lines come out the other way around in this parallel universe.

- Did the MIB as the Smoke Monster kill Richard. I thought that wasn't possible. He asked to never die, not just never age.

Your thoughts?

Lost- Changing the Rules

It has been three days since the airing of what I think was a fantastic episode of Lost. What made Across the Sea so good was that it was so very polarizing. So many people either really liked, or really hated this episode. Anything that is close enough to the median where the majority of people are thinking it's just okay, it obviously is the wrong thing. As James Poniewozik of Time said, "'Awesome' and 'awful' are actually closer to each other on the continuum of quality than either is to 'meh'." What an ep like this does is get people to talk about the show. For better or for worse, it was an epic episode.

A few more things about the substance of the episode. A question has been raised about whether the Fake Mother is actually the protector of the Island or actually a previous version of the Smoke Monster. Well first off, maybe she's both. But in the favor of protector are that she talks about it like she is (although we've seen what a liar she can be), we never saw her take the form of the smoke, and she accepted her death just as Jacob did in The Incident. Reasons she could be Smokey are that she destroyed the Roman Others and filled in the well so quickly and easily, she may have been using smokey to appear as dead Claudia, and she might have wanted to die to get out of the terror of being a monster.

Speaking of Smokey. Another question out there is about whether or not the Light went out once MIB was flushed down the chute and came out as Smokey. It is hard to tell if the Light actually went out when Smokey emerged from the cave. It most certainly could have been put out, but it also could have been that the smoke coming out of the tunnel was blocking our view of the Light. The Light shouldn't have been put out, because isn't the Light what helps turn the donkey wheel into a transporter? We've seen it get used for such a thing a long time after Smokey emerges. But if the Light did go out, does that mean that the Smoke Monster took all of its energy and now is the Light in which Jacob is protecting (hence why Jacob can't let him leave)?

So how about all of the rules? The Mother keeps talking about all the different rules she put in place. The fact that Jacob and MIB can't hurt each other or the fact that MIB can never leave the Island. Or even the idea of the Light and someone needing to protect it. Did we ever actually see either of them try to kill each other? Did MIB ever attempt to leave the Island and fail? We know that the Mother is a liar. What if she was lying about all these rules? And these two boys just never tried to disobey any of them, because they were continually looking for ways around them. This has really been a recurring theme in Lost. Whether it was Ben, Widmore, Locke or Jack, they've all used manipulation to get what they wanted.

So what's the end game gonna look like with Lost? Across the Sea showed us that the game has been played for a long, long time. Stealing babies, manipulating, trying to leave the Island, crazy mothers. In other words, "They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same." Well in Ryan McGee's Lost Podcast he thinks that it will either end with a new iteration of the game beginning, or the destruction of the game for all of time. Although the ending scene of Jack and Locke sitting on the beach talking about how much they want to kill each other would be great, I think I'd rather see our favorite characters be the reason this horrible game of senet came to an end.

You see as Jacob said, "It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress." I thought they were epic words at the time and I can't disagree with myself now. Just as Smokey has been spending an eternity manipulating people into getting what he needed to win the game versus Jacob and get off the Island, Jacob too has been structuring everything just right so that he can win and end this thing so that it never happens again. You see when MIB made up the rules to their game of senet, Jacob complained and was told by his brother that some day he'd be able to make up his own rules. I think he did.

Maybe MIB has been playing by an outdated set of rules this whole time, so killing Jacob and the rest of the candidates isn't really going to help him get off the Island. Jacob made his own set of rules and is making it so that whatever Jack, Hurley, Sawyer, etc. do in the next few hours will stop all of the horrible Island stuff from happening to anyone ever again. It will be very satisfying to see that our favorite characters are the ones that help save the day.

I'll come back after this Tuesday's episode and apologize to myself for how wrong all of this is.