I don’t really know what to write… all I know is that last night’s episode of Lost was great. It was interesting to see what the Oceanic 6 had to go through after being “rescued.” I also enjoyed what was going down on the island. This new hatch called “The Orchid” seems cool and I am curious to see what will happen there. This episode really delivered and I absolutely can’t wait for the season finale. Hopefully we will get even more answers before the season ends. Check back for my full thoughts after the season finale on May 29th. Score 9.5/10
Cabin Fever opened up more questions than answers, so many that I’m starting to lose track and not even care if I get answers. This is a problem, I want to care. Lost is not the same show that it used to be, this isn’t necessarily bad, but I do want my answers! In this episode we learn more about Locke and find out that he was a pretty gifted kid when he was younger. We also learn that Richard never ages or that he might be time traveling somehow. Overall the episode was good but I found the most interesting parts were on the boat. I like the idea of the island being in the “future” and the happenings on the boat being in the past…or something like that. Who knows why Jack’s father is sitting in the cabin like he owns the place. I can’t seem to get into that whole thing anyways. I’m ready to see how they get off of the island, I feel like they’ve been dragging it out for too long. SCORE: 7.0/10
Like I wrote in the last episode I really wanted to see another Jake flash-forward soon. After seeing the “Next week on Lost” teaser I was pretty confident that this next episode would be about Jack. For some reason Jack brings back the old memories of Lost. With all the new characters it is Jack that reminds me of the first and second seasons. In this episode we find out that Jack is sick and needs his spleen removed. I honestly cannot stand Juliet one more minute. I’m not sure if it is bad acting or what but I really do not like Juliet and she is my least favorite character, even behind the extras that don’t even speak a word. In the flash-forward we see that Jack does end up hooking up with Kate. At one point I wanted Kate to hook up with Sawyer but I no longer believe they should and I am happy to see Jack and Kate together like old times. Does anyone else think Sawyer and Claire should hook up? This episode brought a very eerie feel along with it and overall I thought it was great. I often find myself getting too overwhelmed with all the new questions, characters, and places so this was a nice break from all of that. It brought us back to Jack. SCORE 8.7/10
Thursdays are back to being my TV watching days. With Survivor at 8:00 and now LOST at 10:00 I have a nice little hour in between to gather myself for LOST. The Shape of Things to Come was the first episode of the return of Lost giving us a nice view of Ben and his life post-island. We learn how he gets Sayid to do his dirty work and we also see a pretty brutal side to him. After watching this episode I am realizing that Ben is just as much a threat off the island as he is on the island. It was interesting to see how the “Ben’s daughter being held hostage” ordeal turned out. No spoilers here Anyways, the outcome of that ordeal was well thought out and it made Ben’s story a lot more interesting. What are these “rules” he was talking about? My speculation is that Ben and Mr. Widmore may have known each other before this whole island thing. Maybe one would even go as far as to say they were good friends at one point. I guess we’ll see in episodes to come. I’m hoping we’ll get another Jack flash-forward soon. I thought it was funny when Jack asked Dan “You didn’t come here to save us did you?!” and Dan says “No..we didn’t.” I felt bad for Jack being the last one on the face of the planet to find that out. Everyone knew that about 3 years ago. Overall the episode was interesting but not amazing. SCORE 8/10
Kurt’s View:
YAY! Lost is back, and it is back! I’ve been waiting for this episode since the 3rd season finale. It’s about time we got some gunplay and action on the island! Ben’s nuts, Kate cracks me up, and they mowed down innocents like it was GTA! The smoke monster scene was nice. This episode bodes well for the final episodes being strong as a result of the strike break. ABC and the creators deciding to end the show at a specific point has made this show even better.
SCORE 8/10
I just thought I’d take the time to let you guys know what I’ve been playing, listening to, and watching over the past few weeks:
What I’ve Been Playing:
1. Rainbow Six Vegas 2 – I finished the game but have been working on some of the achievements. Kurt and I finally got the “Beat Every Terrorist Hunt on Realistic Difficulty” which I feel was a great accomplishment.
2. Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds – Great game. I think I’ve played through it far enough to let you guys know my final thoughts. Expect a post in the next week.
3. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 – The wife and I are veterans of GRAW but we haven’t played for a while. I finally decided to go back to it and I am hooked again, we are playing every night now.
4. Rainbow Six Vegas – Going back with Kurt and getting the Terrorist Hunt achievements for this one now.
5. Peggle – Finally downloaded Steam and got myself some Peggle. Highly addictive. Expect my full thoughts on Steam in the next week or so.
6. Command and Conquer: Decade – I splurged and got Decade because I really wanted to play some C&C and Red Alert. These games were the only reason I played PC back then.
7. Call of Duty 4 – On my pile of games I really wish I was playing. I played a few matches on live over the weekend.
What I’ve Been Listening To:
1. Vampire Weekend – Love the whole CD, this band is very talented. Favorite songs would be “A-Punk”, “M79″, “One (Blakes Got a New Face)”, and “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance.”
2. Dave Matthews Band – I never really appreciated DMB as much as I should but recently got hooked on songs like “What Would You Say”, “Ants Marching”, and “Too Much.”
3. Jack Johnson – I really like his new CD and can’t wait to see him in concert on August 6th. My favorite song on his new CD would be “They Do, They Don’t.”
4. The 1UP Yours Podcast – Listen to it at work every week when updating the company’s project list. Great stuff!
5. Maroon 5 – The B-Sides Collection. Specifically “Miss You Love You”, “Until You’re Over Me”, and “Infatuation.”
6. Modest Mouse – absolutely love the songs “Dashboard” and “Missed The Boat.”
7. P.O.D. – Enjoying the recently released When Angels and Serpents Dance. Favorite songs include “Addicted”, “Condescending”, and “Kaliforn-Eye-A.”
What I’ve Been Watching/Watched:
1. Top Chef – Great show on Bravo. Makes me want to work in a restaurant again.
2. Stir of Echoes – Came with the free Blu-Rays I got for buying the PS3, decent movie.
3. The Prestige – It also came with the free Blu-Ray movies. I really liked it and recommend it to anyone.
4. Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites – The season started off slow but the wife and I are addicted once again.
5. 21 – Saw this at the theater over the weekend and really enjoyed it. Very interesting!
6. The 1UP Show – make sure to get my weekly dose.
7. Here Come The Newlyweds – The season finished last week. I’m guessing it was just a filler for the writer’s strike but it was still interesting. I was happy with the couple that won the money.
8. Desperate Housewives – I don’t care what you say, this is a great show. The season finally returned this past Sunday.
It is official “Patriots and Tyrants” is the last episode of Jericho we will ever see. Jericho was given a second chance because the fans just wanted more but that second chance is up and it’s time to move on. Luckily I was never really attached to Jericho the way I am with LOST so I’m not too sad to see it go. I just have nothing to watch on Tuesdays now. As for the season finale, it was a good season finale. They did a good job tying up the loose ends in the short time they were given and still kept it up in the air in case the show did awesome and returned for a 3rd season but as we now know, that isn’t going to happen, at least not on CBS. “Patriots and Tyrants” was an interesting episode but nothing that blew me away. It did what it came to do and that was end the season. Hats off to the crew behind Jericho. Check out the full episode here. SCORE: 8/10
I was very excited for last night’s episode because I wanted to see exactly what happened to Michael all of this time. I have to admit I was a little let down. I was hoping it would start from where we last saw him (leaving the island on the little boat) and the whole process it took to get him here. While we saw most of it, it was all very predictable which isn’t like Lost. I expected some crazy stuff to be going on but instead we got a story that we all could have guessed. Michael is disappointed in what he did on the island and so he told Walt, therefore Walt is mad at him. Michael wants to kill himself but the island won’t let him. I predicted that was the case before it was ever made clear. What’s the deal with Tom being gay? That wasn’t necessary. Anyways, I thought it was wrong how Sayid turned Michael in at the end. I know the guy messed up by killing two innocent people but at least he is making an effort to sabotage the boat to save everyone else. Oh well. Lastly, I heard talk before this episode that there was some “huge cliff-hanger” at the end of it and again I was disappointed. It was pretty lame. SCORE: 7.0/10
Kurt’s Side:
Another lame episode! Ouch. I’m starting to think I should have waited until the dvd came out like the other season because this shows has become very inconsistent, and more easily forgivable when you sit and watch 4+ episodes at a time: they all blend together. With this 5 week break we will then see the ‘new’ episodes that were done post-writers strike. Hopefully having to condense more into less makes the remaining episodes better. I agree with Pat- who needed to know Mr. Friendly was gay? Don’t care much about Walt/Michael, it’s been to long. Is our cavewoman really dead? SCORE: 6.0/10
And so continues my love/hate relationship with Jericho. Last episode was the best of the season, this episode just wasn’t that great. First of all I really think Stanley was stupid for shooting Goetz. I think everyone agrees on that one. Next we have Jake taking the blame and being locked up. Beck is trying to restore order and I believe he is truly a nice guy but Jake has to cause this unnecessary revolution to happen. I feel like this revolution has no point. Also they were trying to make Jake’s “punishment” really intense but it did nothing for me. The whole show feels neutral to me. Yes Jake was locked up for defending Stanley and yes he looked pretty messed up but I honestly didn’t care. All I saw was Jake going out of his mind for no reason just because he was locked up a few days. I don’t know, I think the writers get lost trying to make it so intense. However it was interesting that the guy that was speaking with Hawkins on the phone was actually the person who planned the attacks. Next weeks episode does look interesting I just hope they don’t mess it up. At least we have answers in this show unlike Lost. That’s probably the only good thing about it besides the one or two episodes worth watching. Check out the full episode here. Score 6.5/10
I knew before the episode started that it was going to be about Sun, the question was if Jin would be involved too. It only took until the 2nd “flash-forward” to see that Jin is involved (or so we thought). He is buying a Panda for someone we think is Sun. I had a feeling since the very beginning that there was some reason they weren’t together. Following the the tradition of people being unhappy off the island I was waiting for the big reveal. All-in-all the episode was good, nothing amazing up until the big reveal and that is what I love about LOST, you always get that mind-blowing twist right towards the end that makes you realize this show is amazing. I enjoyed it, finally seeing who was the last of the “Oceanic 6.” I have to say that I don’t like Juliet to begin with and she really made me mad when she told Jin about the affair. But I guess it was for the best as neither Jin nor Sun would have gotten off of the island if it wasn’t for her. It’s funny that they revealed Michael in this episode, I sorta thought that they would just start out an episode with him or at least let him be the cliff-hanger. Because of them revealing him sooner instead of at the very end I knew that there was going to be some great twist to end this episode on. We all knew Michael was the spy since the beginning of the season and I’m glad to see him back. I can’t wait to see what he has been up to until now. I guess we’ll find out next week. SCORE: 8.5/10
Kurt’s Side:
Solid episode. Not much in the way of action or plot advancement, but we had good time spent on the island and some on the freighter. Sometimes it seems like the writers throw darts at a wall and just make stuff up, but props for the structure of this episode. I sure as heck didn’t see the timeline split coming! Sun and Jin have always sorta been just off to the side for me, straddling that line of major/minor characters, but it took this episode to make me realize how much I really liked Jin. He’s the man. Maybe I’m alone in my thinking but I really could care less if we ever saw Walt and Michael again, it’s been too long and I don’t remember a thing about either of them. Having Hurley see Sun in the forward part made me think that once they get off the island maybe the show will be ok after all. With the mini-break coming soon they need to kick it into gear! SCORE: 8/10
This episode was great. Too great to really talk about the episode as a whole so I’m going to recap on things I’ve noticed thus far and my thoughts on the episode. Right from the beginning this episode was intense. The opening segment had me siked for the rest. One thing I noticed is Jake likes to think with his anger over anything else. He’s a great lead character but too many times we have him acting out of anger. Another thing I’ve noticed is Goetz is a jerk. They do a good job of making you hate him. Anyways, a part that really stood out for me in the episode was when Hawkins could tell something suspicious was going on and snapped that J&R guy’s neck. Hawkins rules. I also thought it was cute how Stanley was signing to Bonnie even when she was dead. That was a great scene. The way they planned out the hospital “escape” was a great idea too, I didn’t even think of that. Goetz definitely gets punked when he finds out that he was fired but it didn’t matter because Stanley puts a bullet right through his head anyways. That was kind of messed up because now Jake is going to have to take the heat for that. My prediction is Stanley will eventually stick up for his act and face the consequences. All-in-all this was the best episode of Jericho yet. It really impressed me and I wish all the episodes were that good. It’s the first episode that I was engaged throughout. Great stuff! Catch the full episode here. Only two more episodes to go! SCORE: 9.5/10
If you read my other posts you’ll know that I watch tv on dvd, not tv on tv. (other than ‘Lost’ which is proving to be a mixed experience)
‘Complete Series’ dvd sets can be a mixed bag, you either get a nice little package of 23 or less episodes that serve as an excellent story, or depending on how far into the series run they were canceled, a lot of unanswered questions that we’ll never find answers for. I’m proud to say that ‘Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip’ is one of those gems that is a true joy to sit through for 23 solid episodes. While sad that we never got another season, what we did get was one of the most well directed, well acted, fully fleshed out character story arc driven series I’ve seen.
The premise of the show is the lives of an ensemble late night comedy show cast and what goes on behind the scenes and in their lives that are all so intertwined. There is a really neat show-within-a show aspect where we see the actors acting and rehearsing comedy sketches and all the logistics that go into what seems like a simple sketch..and what can go wrong. It is an intense week long process, and it seems like the writers and cast are in the studio all hours of the night pitching ideas, and timing the sketches is so much more complicated than I ever realized. It’s a fascinating look at what can go wrong in a studio system, the politics, and the frustration of always working against a clock that restarts after each live show is over. Based heavily on Saturday Night Live, everything about this show is top notch. The show is executive produced from the creator of the critically acclaimed West Wing series, and starring Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, Steven Webber, and Bradley Whitford.
Bleh, that was the taste I had in my mouth after watching Lost last night. There is one person on that island that I just can’t seem to warm up to and that is Juliet. She is my least favorite character so when I found out the episode was about her I wasn’t too happy but I was willing to give it a chance. About halfway through the episode there was still nothing even worth writing about. I just don’t care about Juliet, whether they try to give her an interesting story or not. We did however find out that Penelope’s father, Charles Widmore, really wants to find the island. One of my friends actually predicted that and I just brushed her off because I thought that would be stupid. But here we find he really is a bad man and not just to Desmond. It was funny to see Ben happy in the kitchen scene as we’ve never seen him like that before. He is becoming even more weird to me after dropping the “You’re Mine!” line. That’s something I could expect from Ben though. Basically that was it, the episode never really did deliver. I was waiting patiently for the second half to really catch my attention but it didn’t. I felt like they just made up some random story about some deadly gas just to give Juliet something to do on the island while they told us this lame back story about her love life. Jack needs to lay off Juliet, we already know he is in “love” with Kate from the flash-forward so why is he even messing with Juliet? Not cool. Even though the ending wasn’t really a “cliff-hanger” it was still funny to see Ben acting like he is everyone’s friend now. It made me laugh. All-in-all the episode was pretty lame and I am very disappointed as watching Lost is one of the highlights of my week and this one just didn’t do anything for me. SCORE: 5.0/10
Kurt’s View:
YAY! We are back on the island! I agree its kinda disappointing to see the more minor characters being the focus of an episode but I got a kick out of seeing Ben being happy, and Juliet’s secret boyfriends backstory tying into season 1. I don’t mind Juliette, I just can’t figure her out enough to say if she’s actually good or not. I will say this though, with the person that we’ve learned Kate to be- I would rather see Jack with Juliette. With the games she plays, Sawyer can have Kate. I still can’t stand any of the new characters except for Daniel. What truly saved this episode for me was being on the island. The writing of this episode was particularly rough too (“…she’s my wife”?) I’m waiting for them to reveal that they are genetically engineering dinosaurs and plan on opening a theme park
In all honesty NOTHING has happened this season and based on the past 2 weeks the show was going down the drain quick. I hope the last couple episodes that they are shooting now after the strike are better then these that were done before the strike. (They have to be, they are condensing the story arc by a few episodes to meet the season finale)
Was this episode great? No, but it was a turn back in the right direction. (I have no intention of ever watching ‘The Constant’ again, when the dvd comes out I will skip that episode) I score this episode higher than the last two because it made me forget about everything related to the freighter and time travel. SCORE: 7/10
*Make sure you vote on the poll located in the right sidebar so we can settle this conflict of opinions once and for all.
Let me say this upfront. I don’t watch television. Yes, I watch tv shows on dvd as seasons, but I do not actively engage in watching television. I used to have a nice cable package, but like my home phone, it was a waste of $ and I now have the basic 22 channel setup with the major networks. Here is how little I watch tv- my friends are laughing at me because for the first time since watching the X-Files in Jr. High I am keeping current with the short run of LOST after catching up on the dvd releases. Anyhow- that’s just the setup for my rant, lol.
Coming out of the shower having left the tv on from the news I caught a few minutes of a show called ‘The Moment of Truth’ on FOX. (It’s a shame what the writer’s strike has caused to an already creatively barren tv landscape.) The show places a contestant with friends and family and are asked questions where honesty is rewarded with cash. You can bail out between questions if you want, but if you lie you lose it all- game over. The family can stop a question from being answered by tagging a buzzer as well. These questions pull no punches, are incredibly personal, and delve into areas that should remain secret. So that night I saw a woman admit that she was still in love with an ex on her wedding day, admit that she thinks she should have been married to someone else, and admitted to engaging in some ‘extracurricular activities’ with someone other than her husband after they were married. Then they asked her if she thought she was a good person to which she responded ‘yes.’ Well, she apparently isn’t and lost the $125,000 she had accumulated by ruining her marriage and relationships in her family. It’s a sad state of affairs, welcome to America. Those 5 minutes I watched reminded me why I don’t watch tv.
The American public rewards networks with ratings for airing trash where we are ‘entertained’ by watching people potentially ruin their lives, the lives of others, and act immoral? Yep. We’ve become a youtube happy voyeuristic society and I can’t imagine it getting any better. It’s scary to imagine what the next level of ‘reality tv’ might become.
Just another reason on a long list of why I think I should have lived in another era. Disagree? Come fight me in the forum! :End Rant:
Last night I finished Lost: Via Domus. I didn’t want to believe it when I heard it was a 4-6 hour game but it pretty much is. I guess if you really want to check everything out then it might take you 8 hours at most. LVD is definitely not a game for anyone who hasn’t watched the show as it is absolutely filled with inside jokes and lines from the show. I felt like they just threw each characters best line from all the seasons into their dialogue even if it wasn’t relevant. Even though I was disappointed that not all of the characters were voiced by the actual characters themselves it was still funny to hear someone trying to impersonate them. I do have to admit it would have felt a lot better had their voices been the real characters. The graphics looked good, the beach was really cool to see from that perspective and they had the hatch down to a T. That was probably my favorite part, just chilling in the hatch. Was it just me or did everyone really come of as rude. Jack had an annoying voice which reminded me of the little boy with glasses in Polar Express and that made it hard to believe he was actually the leader. Locke really got on my nerves with the “Brand Spanking New” line that he pulled half way through the game. He never really would have said that in the show. I feel bad for anyone who has never watched the show and may watch someone play this, it would probably make them hate the show, but us fans can just laugh at it because we know how it really is. I was also really freaked out by Desmond. He kept doing the same exact movements with his head over and over through our whole conversation which made him look like a creepy robot. It was like they had his movements on a loop. Check it out if you missed it. He is in the jungle on your way to the hatch for the first time. Overall I just felt like the game was moving at too fast of a pace. One minute we crashed the next minute Jin and Michael were on a raft trying to get home and the hatch was blown open. I only shot about 3 bullets the whole game and luckily the cave was only a short segment of the game. I didn’t enjoy that. The way they handled flashbacks kind of reminded me of XIII and also the sound from the circuit boards seemed like it was taken straight out of BioShock. It was nice to have the powerful music of Michael Giacchino in the background so that was a huge plus for the game because the music really makes the show good. Even though I was disappointed to hear the game was so short I don’t think I would have enjoyed a longer game at that quality. The last hour or so I just wanted it to end. In no way do I regret buying the game, I think that it is something all Lost fans/gamers should experience. There are some nice behind the scenes looks and a pretty sweet ending if you ask me, which was expected for a game based on Lost. The only thing I’m not happy about was the $60 price tag. This game is easily worth $30 to $40 at the most. I already see it on Amazon for PC for $20. It’s a short enough game that I probably wouldn’t have missed playing it on the 360 if I would have went for the PC deal. All-in-all I am happy they made the game and I recommend this game to any Lost fan. Just please don’t buy it at full price.
Last nights episode of Jericho was interesting just like the previous one. It’s hard for me to give a nice in-depth review of the show as it is easily forgotten the next day. But there were a few moments in this episode that really stood out to me. First off is when Dale Turner gets taken in by Jennings and Rall. We can clearly see that J&R is using this national crisis to their benefit, acting as if they are law enforcement now. Obviously we know that Goetz is using the $10,000 either to get Mimi fired or to use it for his own evil plans. I also like the fact that Hawkins is slowly preparing Col. Hoffman to hear the truth about the government conspiracy and maybe he will even tell him about the bomb, who knows. Of course the part of the show that really caught me off guard was when Bonnie pulled out the shotgun and started blowing holes through all the J&R guys. It was very intense. They sure deserved it for trying to cause trouble for no reason. I was surprised to see that Bonnie actually died. I guess it was best she did because she didn’t really have proof to show that she was doing it out of self-defense. Plus J&R would have had her in prison within the next hour anyways. I’m glad that they threw that intense moment in there at the end because now I am siked to see what happens next week. It wasn’t exactly a cliff-hanger but it was close enough. You can watch the full episode here. SCORE: 8.7/10
I had figured the next episode was going to be about Desmond because of some of the stuff I had heard around the net but I just didn’t know how they were going to pull it off. I was talking with my wife in the car and we weren’t sure how they could do an episode about Desmond, with all the flash-forwards and him not actually being on the Oceanic flight we had no idea how they were going to pull it off. I must say I was impressed and intrigued throughout the episode. When they first flew up to the boat it was hard to realize that they were actually off of the island in present time for once. At first I didn’t really like that Desmond had no idea where he was and I was dreading this being a multi-episode ordeal but they managed to get the job done in the time allotted. I am a big fan of Dan so I was happy to see him as one of the main characters in this episode. My favorite moment of the episode was when Desmond asked for Penny’s number and told her he wouldn’t be calling her for 8 years. Very intense. All-in-all I really enjoyed the episode. It was one of the better ones this season. I can’t wait to see what next week is all about, the preview looked crazy. SCORE: 8.8/10
p.s. It wouldn’t surprise me if Michael was on the boat too…
Kurt’s Pain:
Remember the preview for this week looking good? What happened? I’m on the other end of the spectrum from Pat on this one. Hands down worst episode of Losts 4 Seasons so far. (Heck, I’d take Nikki and Paulo over this) I mentioned before that I’m scared they’ll ruin the show by leaving the island too soon and changing the dynamic of the show too much, it’s becoming a soap opera. I enjoy the ‘lost at sea’ and Robinson Crusoe angle too much. Unfortunately this episode was another step in the wrong direction following last weeks low point. Dan is great, but this episode almost felt like a filler episode where at the same time they tried to cram everything they could about the space time continuum mystery which we all knew was coming. Put me back on the island trying to survive and revealing mysteries. Still love the show, just really bummed with this episode. Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel I expect a lot from each episode…SCORE: 4/10
I picked up the long-awaited “Lost: Via Domus” yesterday after work. I, being a huge fan of Lost, knew that I had to get it no matter if it bombed or not. If your not a fan of Lost then you can stop reading now as the game will probably be of no value to you. I could see how maybe playing the game would get someone interested in the show but this game is more for people who know what is going on as it doesn’t really explain anything if you don’t already know it. I was very excited to play this game because I thought it would be fun to be able to walk around the beach and see everything I’ve seen in the show. So far I am about 4 episodes in and I am really enjoying it. The controls are easy but a little wonky at times. This game isn’t the greatest but being a fan of the series you will automatically look past that and just think “sweet, I am playing a Lost game!” The voice work is impressive, it’s pretty convincing most of the time except Locke and Sawyer who sound a lot more redneck than they should. I really like how they made the game similar to the show by breaking the gameplay up into episodes. The game is set up exactly like you are watching the show but also playing it. I also like the way flash backs are handled. You are put into a “black and white” flash back and you have to use your camera to take a certain picture that will help you remember some more about your past. You only have a certain amount of time to take the right picture so you have to work fast. Once you take the correct picture you will actually take control of your character in the “color version” of the flashback. While you are there you are required to investigate 3 things, once you do this you will be brought back to present time. You could easily cut this game down if you wanted but I think that most “Losties” will just be siked to be able to talk to Sayid and Hurley and such. So far I really like the game and I can’t wait to see what else is in store. I can’t wait to break into the hatch! Come back for my full thoughts on the game once I finish it.
*Tip: I noticed some people being directed to the site because they googled “How to take the picture of Locke” and I just wanted to help you guys out because I had trouble too. You have to take a picture of all 3 people and make sure the focus is perfect…at first I was taking a million pictures of just Locke and then looked at the reference picture and realized I had to include everyone…I just ended up getting lucky then. Make sure you look at the ripped up reference picture.
I don’t know what it is but for me it’s hard to get excited about Jericho. It’s always a “sure we’ll watch it” kind of thing. Last nights episode started out like that but eventually became the most interesting episode this season. During this episode we learn that Goetz, the old Ravenwood leader, is now the new town Administrator. We also learn that Jennings and Rall are above the law and always have been. We find this out from Jake who used to work for them over in Iraq. I like this episode because it wasn’t too hard to follow. A lot of the time I have no idea what is going on but this episode wasn’t too hard to follow. Probably because I was actually paying attention. I’m siked that the major is turning out to be a good guy after all. I thought he knew more than he was saying but now we can see he is open for finding out the truth behind this government conspiracy. I thought that the Hudson River Virus ordeal was going to take more episodes to clear up but it seems that it was just another side story to make the show interesting. Props go to Jake for getting the job done right this time. I’m actually very interested to see how the next episode pans out. Jericho continues to surprised me with it’s great episodes every now and then, this was one of them. Watch the full episode here. SCORE 8.8/10
I was a little disappointed to see that they weren’t revealing another one of the “Oceanic 6″ this week. We were brought back to learn more about Kate. Although we saw her in Jack’s flash-forward during the Season 3 finale we never really did get the proper “Flash-Forward” from her. It was interesting to see how things panned out. I did think the present-day happenings weren’t as interesting as the flash-forward though. During this episode we find out that Ben may be more of an interesting person than we thought he was. I thought it was funny how Miles just wanted to blackmail Ben into giving him money. I have to admit that I was very interested to see what/who was Kate’s son. Like all LOST episodes we were given a nice cliff-hanger at the end of this episode where we find out that Kate’s son is actually Aaron. One would assume that this is Claire’s son. My only questions are why does Jack not want to see it? Does he find out that Claire is his step-sister? I have to say that I’m not a huge fan of Kate but I enjoyed this episode more than the previous one. My predictions for the last two of the “Oceanic 6″ are Desmond, Locke, or Michael. SCORE: 8.5/10
Daria’s notes: I really liked the cliff-hanger at the ending. It surprised me that Ben is more than we imagined, being off the island now and supposedly rich. My predictions for who could be the last two of the “Oceanic 6″ include: Locke or Desmond. 8/10
Kurt’s notes: Great show just keeps getting better, and knowing that there is a specific amount of time left for the series makes it that much more rewarding. I hate Miles and Ben. Miles is just an awful actor and character, but Ben is just so great at playing a truly hateful manipulative villain that I hate him in a good way. I’m not sure we needed a Kate centered episode, she has become a bigger flip-flop than John Kerry in the last election. “I’ll keep you safe..” that’s all it takes? wow. My heart goes out to Jack, he can’t help but be a tool….anyone else think Kate is cuter on the island? I’m rambling, forgive me
I’m curious to see how the timeline falls into place with Kate’s mom thinking she was dead for 4 years….what happens to Claire…who are the other 2 of the ‘Oceanic 6′? I don’t think Locke will leave the island, at least alive or of his own free will. I think Sawyer might have a chance, but it’s interesting that he doesn’t play a part in Kate’s post-island life. Desmond shouldn’t really count as one and neither should Claire’s baby….what happens to Claire? 6/10 I also recommend subscribing to the official Lost podcast from the creators, they answer/confirm things and add insight.
This week the 4th “Oceanic 6″ member was revealed to us as Sayid. This was very unexpected as I couldn’t imagine Sayid off of the island. I always thought of him as one that would stay. The first scene we see of his flash forward is him playing golf on a beautiful course, another very unexpected surprise. I didn’t take Sayid as much of a golfer. We then find out that he is a “head hunter” and is using a German girl to get to his next victim. Later on we find out that the German girl knew who he was all along and was using him. I thought Sayid was done with his torturous ways. I guess not. (more…)
Season 2 of Jericho premiered this past Tuesday. After a little time off we are brought back to the town of Jericho where a big battle was going on between neighboring towns. The season 1 finale did itself good so I was excited to see the rest of the battle. The way they decided to go about the beginning of the premiere was interesting. Almost going the way of LOST’s flash forwards we have a flash forward that was actually the present, so we were being flashed back to the battle that already happened. Got it? Good. (more…)
Survivor takes on a totally new twist with the “Fans -vs- Favorites” theme. I think this is a great idea and can’t wait to see how it pans out. I’m happy to see James back from last season and the few familiar faces from the previous seasons. I can’t say any of them were really my favorite ever but that Yau-Man guy is pretty funny. It was interesting to see how everyone worked well together and focused on making shelter right away. Usually the survivors are in shock and are trying to get to know each other before doing anything conservative. We also have the Fans which I knew would end up beating the Favorites for immunity. They had it coming to them. Honestly right now I am rooting for the Favorites for some reason. I wasn’t a big fan of all the romance going around the Favorites’ camp though and hopefully some people get ousted because of it. Also I was very disappointed that Johnny Fairplay opted out. I would have never expected that. It just took away from the episode and made it a lot less exciting. With all of that behind us now this season is going to be very interesting and I can’t wait to see how it pans out.
This episode of lost captured me right from the beginning. I always wonder how they are going to get me interested but this week I knew right from the first 3 seconds of the episode. This episode shows us the lives of 4 select few which were sent to the island to find Ben which we find out in the last 5 minutes of the episode. I have to say I usually hate when they introduce new characters in fear of them being annoying but these people were actually interesting, each one in their own way. I especially like the character of Dan because during the previews I thought he was more of a threat but we can see that he is just an ordinary guy. I’m not too hot about the guy who speaks to ghosts with a vacuum cleaner and then steals their money. Nothing special about the other 2 but they were interesting none-the-less. This episode definitely raises more questions than anything but I guess that’s okay as long as they answer them this time. I like how at the end Locke asked Ben “what is the monster?” as if we might actually get an answer out of the battered guy. But it’s funny because that would probably be everyone’s first question to Ben. Of course then Ben interrupts Locke and we hear some random unimportant information about the girl who parachuted in. The episode was interesting but I sort of wanted to see more flash forwards of the “Oceanic 6.” I guess we’ll have to wait until next week for that.
SCORE 8.0/10
Kurt’s View: My reviews will be shorter than Pats, because he does a great job recapping the episode mixed with his opinions. While this is consistently the best looking show on television, even better looking than most movies, this season is starting with me frustrated. 2 episodes into the 8 we will get and we only have more questions. Like Pat, I really like the Dan character and the pilot, but can’t stand the redhead or Miles. (Please don’t enter the realm of superpowers, etc- there’s a reason I quit watching ‘Heroes.’ The show has always been a slow boil, but the pressure is on, let’s get the ball rolling! 7/10
I had mixed feelings about Lost coming back for 8 episodes. I actually was leaning towards them not even airing it until we get a full 16 episode season but I’m glad they decided to do otherwise. For some reason I went into this episode thinking that it wasn’t going to be anything that great. Mainly because it was the first episode and things usually take a while to get up to speed. But I was wrong, this episode was a great season premiere. Of course it didn’t answer any questions but more or less created more, which is fine with me because that was what got me interested. I am at a point now that I no longer care about all previous seasons’ questions and am now focusing on all questions that have been created for this season. You sort of have to put all the other ones aside and start from here. The episode stays faithful to the flash-forwards and this time it’s Hurley’s turn. Hurley is found in a similar state as Jack’s flash-forward but thinks he is going crazy because of seeing Charlie appear. This flash-forward is obviously taking place before Jack’s flash-foward as we see Jack in good condition and beardless. This is also confirmed by Jack’s “I’m thinking of growing a beard” statement. All-in-all this episode confirmed that Season 4 is going to be a very interesting and unique season unlike anything we’ve seen thus far.
Not only are we going to only have 8 episodes of Lost, but my comedy favorite ‘Scrubs’ (ending this season) may suffer a worse fate. From Dr. Dorian: “If the strike goes on too much longer there is a good chance the final episodes of Scrubs will never be written or shot and the series finale will remain in the mind of our show’s creator, Bill Lawrence…“
That’s some crap. I don’t care if we don’t get a Transformers sequel for 2 years, the Justice League movie never happens, or if there are no Golden Globes or Emmys’ this year, but you mess with Scrubs, it’s on!
I am a big time LOST junkie and when they announced there was going to be a LOST video game coming to consoles I was immediately siked. Even if it sucks I will still love and cherish it. If you’ve picked up Season 3 make sure you check out the 4 minute concept-art preview which sheds light on new details about the game. The game is slated for release a month after the Season 4 premiere. For anyone who has been living under a rock until now…check out the trailer.
My wife bought me two great games for Christmas this year. One being Assassins Creed and the other Call of Duty 4 for DS. I had made my mind that I wanted Assassins Creed because of all the things I had heard about it and I really wanted to get COD4 for DS because it is the first FPS for DS since Metroid Prime Hunters and the recently released Dementium and also Garnett Lee spoke highly of it on the 1UP Yours podcast. I played about 30 min to an hour through Assassins Creed and so far I love it. I was absolutely blown away by the way the game looks. It is stunning. There is no doubt in my mind that this is one of the best looking games on the Xbox 360. I know a lot of complaints came from the repetitiveness of the game and I have only played the beginning so I cannot comment on that. I still think that this game is going to be great as I just love to jump and climb on everything in sight. In my opinion Altair’s movements are so smooth that they almost look like a cinematic. I can’t wait to start playing the rest of the game and I will post my full thoughts on Assassins Creed once I finish. As for Call of Duty 4, this game is great too. The controls take time to get used to but you will get used to them as you play so there is nothing to worry about there. I found myself tweaking the sensitivity to make the controls less sensitive only to change them back once I got used to it because I realized they weren’t sensitive enough. I really like being able to play an FPS on my DS and COD4 really delivers. My only complaint about the game is not including online multiplayer. The game includes local multiplayer but it would have such a high replay value if you could play against other people online over wi-fi. Check back for my full thoughts on the game once I finish it. Click the thumbnails below for a larger image.
3 months after airing their season finales, USA Network has pulled the plug on 2 of their best shows: 4400 and The Dead Zone. Not sure why it took 3 months to announce they were canceled, but it probably has to do with the strike. Dead Zone wasn’t the most consistent show, but was one of the best- and 4400 showed us what ‘Heroes’ could have been…
ABC announced their schedule for the new year. LOST will be now shown on Thursdays at 9:00pm. The 8 episode 4th season will premier January 31st. ABC decided to go with the 8 episodes instead of nothing deal even after Carlton and Lindelof suggested that they don’t. There is word that episode 8 ends with a huge cliffhanger. No word on when they rest of the season will pick up. Maybe we can count on a 24 episode 5th season to pick us back up. Read the IGN article to get the full scoop on the rest of the shows.
Geez Amazon you are killing me!
Today is HBO Series Rome- Both Seasons for $59.99 This is crazy- they are normally about $60-$70 EACH. Make it even sweeter by using the “DVDSAVE5″ coupon to get it for $54.99 when using your Amazon Visa Card. Looks like I know what I’ll be doing part of Xmas break…
This episode brought a very eerie feel along with it and overall I thought it was great. I often find myself getting too overwhelmed with all the new questions, characters, and places so this was a nice break from all of that. It brought us back to Jack. 
Anyways, the outcome of that ordeal was well thought out and it made Ben’s story a lot more interesting. What are these “rules” he was talking about? My speculation is that Ben and Mr. Widmore may have known each other before this whole island thing. Maybe one would even go as far as to say they were good friends at one point. I guess we’ll see in episodes to come. I’m hoping we’ll get another Jack flash-forward soon. I thought it was funny when Jack asked Dan “You didn’t come here to save us did you?!” and Dan says “No..we didn’t.” I felt bad for Jack being the last one on the face of the planet to find that out. Everyone knew that about 3 years ago. Overall the episode was interesting but not amazing. SCORE 8/10
This episode was great. Too great to really talk about the episode as a whole so I’m going to recap on things I’ve noticed thus far and my thoughts on the episode. Right from the beginning this episode was intense. The opening segment had me siked for the rest. One thing I noticed is Jake likes to think with his anger over anything else. He’s a great lead character but too many times we have him acting out of anger. Another thing I’ve noticed is Goetz is a jerk. They do a good job of making you hate him. Anyways, a part that really stood out for me in the episode was when Hawkins could tell something suspicious was going on and snapped that J&R guy’s neck. Hawkins rules. I also thought it was cute how Stanley was signing to Bonnie even when she was dead. That was a great scene. The way they planned out the hospital “escape” was a great idea too, I didn’t even think of that. Goetz definitely gets punked when he finds out that he was fired but it didn’t matter because Stanley puts a bullet right through his head anyways. That was kind of messed up because now Jake is going to have to take the heat for that. My prediction is Stanley will eventually stick up for his act and face the consequences. All-in-all this was the best episode of Jericho yet. It really impressed me and I wish all the episodes were that good. It’s the first episode that I was engaged throughout. Great stuff! Catch the full episode 
Let me say this upfront. I don’t watch television. Yes, I watch tv shows on dvd as seasons, but I do not actively engage in watching television. I used to have a nice cable package, but like my home phone, it was a waste of $ and I now have the basic 22 channel setup with the major networks. Here is how little I watch tv- my friends are laughing at me because for the first time since watching the X-Files in Jr. High I am keeping current with the short run of LOST after catching up on the dvd releases. Anyhow- that’s just the setup for my rant, lol.
Last night I finished Lost: Via Domus. I didn’t want to believe it when I heard it was a 4-6 hour game but it pretty much is. I guess if you really want to check everything out then it might take you 8 hours at most. LVD is definitely not a game for anyone who hasn’t watched the show as it is absolutely filled with inside jokes and lines from the show. I felt like they just threw each characters best line from all the seasons into their dialogue even if it wasn’t relevant. Even though I was disappointed that not all of the characters were voiced by the actual characters themselves it was still funny to hear someone trying to impersonate them. I do have to admit it would have felt a lot better had their voices been the real characters. The graphics looked good, the beach was really cool to see from that perspective and they had the hatch down to a T. That was probably my favorite part, just chilling in the hatch. Was it just me or did everyone really come of as rude. Jack had an annoying voice which reminded me of the little boy with glasses in Polar Express and that made it hard to believe he was actually the leader. Locke really got on my nerves with the “Brand Spanking New” line that he pulled half way through the game. He never really would have said that in the show. I feel bad for anyone who has never watched the show and may watch someone play this, it would probably make them hate the show, but us fans can just laugh at it because we know how it really is. I was also really freaked out by Desmond. He kept doing the same exact movements with his head over and over through our whole conversation which made him look like a creepy robot. It was like they had his movements on a loop. Check it out if you missed it. He is in the jungle on your way to the hatch for the first time. Overall I just felt like the game was moving at too fast of a pace. One minute we crashed the next minute Jin and Michael were on a raft trying to get home and the hatch was blown open. I only shot about 3 bullets the whole game and luckily the cave was only a short segment of the game. I didn’t enjoy that. The way they handled flashbacks kind of reminded me of XIII and also the sound from the circuit boards seemed like it was taken straight out of BioShock. It was nice to have the powerful music of Michael Giacchino in the background so that was a huge plus for the game because the music really makes the show good. Even though I was disappointed to hear the game was so short I don’t think I would have enjoyed a longer game at that quality. The last hour or so I just wanted it to end. In no way do I regret buying the game, I think that it is something all Lost fans/gamers should experience. There are some nice behind the scenes looks and a pretty sweet ending if you ask me, which was expected for a game based on Lost. The only thing I’m not happy about was the $60 price tag. This game is easily worth $30 to $40 at the most. I already see it on Amazon for PC for $20. It’s a short enough game that I probably wouldn’t have missed playing it on the 360 if I would have went for the PC deal. All-in-all I am happy they made the game and I recommend this game to any Lost fan. Just please don’t buy it at full price.
Last nights episode of Jericho was interesting just like the previous one. It’s hard for me to give a nice in-depth review of the show as it is easily forgotten the next day. But there were a few moments in this episode that really stood out to me. First off is when Dale Turner gets taken in by Jennings and Rall. We can clearly see that J&R is using this national crisis to their benefit, acting as if they are law enforcement now. Obviously we know that Goetz is using the $10,000 either to get Mimi fired or to use it for his own evil plans. I also like the fact that Hawkins is slowly preparing Col. Hoffman to hear the truth about the government conspiracy and maybe he will even tell him about the bomb, who knows. Of course the part of the show that really caught me off guard was when Bonnie pulled out the shotgun and started blowing holes through all the J&R guys. It was very intense. They sure deserved it for trying to cause trouble for no reason. I was surprised to see that Bonnie actually died. I guess it was best she did because she didn’t really have proof to show that she was doing it out of self-defense. Plus J&R would have had her in prison within the next hour anyways. I’m glad that they threw that intense moment in there at the end because now I am siked to see what happens next week. It wasn’t exactly a cliff-hanger but it was close enough. You can watch the 
I had figured the next episode was going to be about Desmond because of some of the stuff I had heard around the net but I just didn’t know how they were going to pull it off. I was talking with my wife in the car and we weren’t sure how they could do an episode about Desmond, with all the flash-forwards and him not actually being on the Oceanic flight we had no idea how they were going to pull it off. I must say I was impressed and intrigued throughout the episode. When they first flew up to the boat it was hard to realize that they were actually off of the island in present time for once. At first I didn’t really like that Desmond had no idea where he was and I was dreading this being a multi-episode ordeal but they managed to get the job done in the time allotted. I am a big fan of Dan so I was happy to see him as one of the main characters in this episode. My favorite moment of the episode was when Desmond asked for Penny’s number and told her he wouldn’t be calling her for 8 years. Very intense. All-in-all I really enjoyed the episode. It was one of the better ones this season. I can’t wait to see what next week is all about, the preview looked crazy. SCORE: 8.8/10
I picked up the long-awaited “Lost: Via Domus” yesterday after work. I, being a huge fan of Lost, knew that I had to get it no matter if it bombed or not. If your not a fan of Lost then you can stop reading now as the game will probably be of no value to you. I could see how maybe playing the game would get someone interested in the show but this game is more for people who know what is going on as it doesn’t really explain anything if you don’t already know it. I was very excited to play this game because I thought it would be fun to be able to walk around the beach and see everything I’ve seen in the show. So far I am about 4 episodes in and I am really enjoying it. The controls are easy but a little wonky at times. This game isn’t the greatest but being a fan of the series you will automatically look past that and just think “sweet, I am playing a Lost game!” The voice work is impressive, it’s pretty convincing most of the time except Locke and Sawyer who sound a lot more redneck than they should. I really like how they made the game similar to the show by breaking the gameplay up into episodes. The game is set up exactly like you are watching the show but also playing it. I also like the way flash backs are handled. You are put into a “black and white” flash back and you have to use your camera to take a certain picture that will help you remember some more about your past. You only have a certain amount of time to take the right picture so you have to work fast. Once you take the correct picture you will actually take control of your character in the “color version” of the flashback. While you are there you are required to investigate 3 things, once you do this you will be brought back to present time. You could easily cut this game down if you wanted but I think that most “Losties” will just be siked to be able to talk to Sayid and Hurley and such. So far I really like the game and I can’t wait to see what else is in store. I can’t wait to break into the hatch! Come back for my full thoughts on the game once I finish it.
I don’t know what it is but for me it’s hard to get excited about Jericho. It’s always a “sure we’ll watch it” kind of thing. Last nights episode started out like that but eventually became the most interesting episode this season. During this episode we learn that Goetz, the old Ravenwood leader, is now the new town Administrator. We also learn that Jennings and Rall are above the law and always have been. We find this out from Jake who used to work for them over in Iraq. I like this episode because it wasn’t too hard to follow. A lot of the time I have no idea what is going on but this episode wasn’t too hard to follow. Probably because I was actually paying attention. I’m siked that the major is turning out to be a good guy after all. I thought he knew more than he was saying but now we can see he is open for finding out the truth behind this government conspiracy. I thought that the Hudson River Virus ordeal was going to take more episodes to clear up but it seems that it was just another side story to make the show interesting. Props go to Jake for getting the job done right this time. I’m actually very interested to see how the next episode pans out. Jericho continues to surprised me with it’s great episodes every now and then, this was one of them. Watch the 
I was a little disappointed to see that they weren’t revealing another one of the “Oceanic 6″ this week. We were brought back to learn more about Kate. Although we saw her in Jack’s flash-forward during the Season 3 finale we never really did get the proper “Flash-Forward” from her. It was interesting to see how things panned out. I did think the present-day happenings weren’t as interesting as the flash-forward though. During this episode we find out that Ben may be more of an interesting person than we thought he was. I thought it was funny how Miles just wanted to blackmail Ben into giving him money. I have to admit that I was very interested to see what/who was Kate’s son. Like all LOST episodes we were given a nice cliff-hanger at the end of this episode where we find out that Kate’s son is actually Aaron. One would assume that this is Claire’s son. My only questions are why does Jack not want to see it? Does he find out that Claire is his step-sister? I have to say that I’m not a huge fan of Kate but I enjoyed this episode more than the previous one. My predictions for the last two of the “Oceanic 6″ are Desmond, Locke, or Michael. SCORE: 8.5/10
