Television thread

[Nevermore]

Eh. It's one of those chicken and egg things. Desmond had saved him 4 times previously from being killed.

Which is why he didn't need to die that time either, the way it was written.  Now don't get me wrong, Charlie was annoying and I don't mind seeing him go.  It just seems that the scene could have been written much, much better pretty much from top to bottom.

[Abagadro]

But him not dying changed outcomes. He was convinced his death was necessary for the quid pro quo of Claire getting rescued. It might not have needed to happen that way, but that was his mindset for the last two episodes.

[tazelbain]

I am miffed that the purpose of the Others has not been revealed even after a whole season of hanging out with these people.

[El Gallo]

I get the whole "Charlie thought he had to die in order to save Claire & little whatshisname" thing.  Still, I would have liked it better if they had put him in some situation where he had to get himself killed in order to flip the switch or to save Desmond from dying.  They way they played it (hey, I could easily just swim out of here to the surface even if there weren't scuba suits lying about [after all, I swam down here], and even though we've accomplished everything we came here to accomplish and my death won't further any of our objectives, I'm going to commit suicide because Desmond told me he had a vision that I'd die after flipping the switch) lacks intuitive plausibility.  Sure, it could be the case that if Charlie went back to the surface he would somehow fuck things up to prevent "rescue" by whatever nefarious group Naomi works for, but it's just unwieldy when you could easily put him in a situation where his sacrifice makes some evident sense.  His conversion is also hard to square with the fact that just a couple hours earlier, when he thought he could save the day and stay alive after realizing the station was full of air, he was ecstatic about it.  I don't think it was a huge problem, I just think it was too distracting and not in step with the rest of the show. 

On the "who is dead" thing, I have to imagine the lost people knew internet fans would see the obituary, so I think it's probably a red herring.  Did we ever learn Ben's full name?  If not, I'm going with Jeremy Bentham to keep up the British philosopher theme and underline Ben's brutal utilitarian calculus.  I though the guy in the coffin was Ben from the start (or possibly Sawyer, if he does something bad to Kate later on), so I'm naturally inclined to buy theories that jibe with my preexisting beliefs :)

[HaemishM]

Overall I liked the Lost season finale. Charlie might have been able to save himself, if he waited with the air until the chamber filled up, then tried to swim out the hole. He was wee enough to fit I think. I hated that he died, even though the writers pretty much told us all along that he was going to die. I was just hoping they'd find a way to "change the future."

Based on Charlie dying, I think the future we see with Jack at the end is a certainty. It's bizarre, though. Kate is obviously with Sawyer. Did Jack say "He died?" I would have thought it was Juliet otherwise.

[schild]

Ads are starting to pop up for the new season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

[SnakeCharmer]

Thought about making a thread of its own...

Anyhoot, this looks  a w e s o m e.

June 17, 2007.  Gotta remember this.

[HaemishM]

That is going to kick so much ass.

[Zonk]

Based on Charlie dying, I think the future we see with Jack at the end is a certainty. It's bizarre, though.

I would agree, and I find it more than a little bit frustrating. I hate the idea of watching a story for the first time where I already know the ending. WWII movies aside, the ultimate reason I didn't enjoy the Star Wars prequel trilogy is because all the 'tension' was moot: I knew how things turned out.

My hope is that the flashforward we saw was just one possible future, and next season will be spent trying to stop that from happening. I'm glad they're going with the 'set timetable, only a few episodes a season' HBO approach from now on. Lost really needs that kind of focus.

[Triforcer]

There is no way that is the definite future.  Being overweight and growing a beard is the one sure television sign of a dystopian future/alternate universe that must not come to pass.  I stand by my theory that future dystopian Jack time travels or somesuch, like Desmond. 

[Margalis]

It's not hell and it's not purgatory. Too many people in the outside world interact with it.

I'm waiting for them to find a can of Ubik.

[Merusk]

In case you haven't been watching History Channel for the last week or so, there's a 2-hour special called "Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed" on tonight.  Think of it as a visual Joseph Campbell book, but aimed exclusively at Star Wars.   There's also a "Star Wars Tech" (in the Modern Marvels paradigm) show that will show before and after the special.

[Margalis]

How is anyone not incredibly sick of Star Wars at this point?

[Merusk]

How is anyone not incredibly sick of Star Wars at this point?

Same way others aren't sick of Star Trek, Anime or MMOs I imagine.

[Yegolev]

How is anyone not incredibly sick of Star Wars at this point?

Easy.  I have only seen Star Wars about three times, which is about one more than the number of times I have seen The Star Wars holiday Special.  Did not play SWG.  Did play the KotORs.  Did not watch any Star Wars Cartoon.  Did not have any of the toys.  So I figure the Robot Chicken version will be a hoot.

[Margalis]

Sorry, to clarify I think the Robot Chicken thing will be a hoot too, I was talking about the history channel specials.

[Yegolev]

The History Channel thing could go either way.  I would be mostly interested in learning about Lucas' source material.

[Merusk]

The History Channel thing could go either way.  I would be mostly interested in learning about Lucas' source material.

T'was nifty.  Like I said was more of a visual Joseph Campbell dissection of the entire 6-movie arc than anything else.  Lots of people (Kevin Smith, Tom Brokaw, Joss Whedon, JJ Abrams) talking about their views on SW's cultural impact, interspersed with academics who would talk about the literary and mythological parallels. 

The Tech thing was just your usual examination of, "Oh this wouldn't work because of physics" (sound in space) and "well, we're damn close to having this" or "we've got a working miniature version, so as the tech develops, it's entirely plausible we could see something like that." (mentally/ nerve controlled robotic limbs and Plasma shields/ space "windows")  Still, if you enjoy examinations of sci-fi science it was as good as the Star Trek one they did a few months back.

[Nevermore]

So did anyone else watch the season finales of The Shield and/or The Riches?  Did anyone else feel like both of them felt very... unfinished?  Now Heroes and Grey's Anatomy both had great season finales, I thought.  Both of them wrapped up most of the season's storylines while adding in some forshadowing to next season.  The Sheild finale just felt like a typical episode.  It advanced plots but didn't really resolve anything.  The episode itself felt complete, but it certainly didn't feel like a complete season. 

The finale for The Riches was even worse with respect to wrapping up the season.  I guess it was trying to go for some kind of cliffhanger, but it ended up feeling like the episode itself just had the end chopped off.  I was really surprised to see ending credits start up where there should have been at least 10 more minutes of episode.  I enjoy the show in spite of the fact that the plotlines are pretty far fetched, mostly because I really like the characters.  The good news is that it's been confirmed it's been renewed for another season.  It was just a very unsatisfying way to end the season, in my opinion.

[El Gallo]

I don't think I have ever experienced so much anxious anticipation for a TV show as I am for the Sopranos finale since Twin Peaks season 1 back when I was an angsty teenager.  I think this season has been almost perfect thus far.  I can't believe they got Silv like that, without bringing anyone down with him

[Sky]

Only thing we've been watching lately is Stewart and the Showtime series the Tudors. Tudors is a bit misguided, a lot of bad subplots. Overall it's not too bad, my girlfriend is a historical fiction buff so she likes it a bit more than I do. The biggest downfall is the shitty casting of Henry, the lead character. He and Lord Suffolk have the acting prowess of a pile of dirt. Luckily, almost every other actor and actress is well-cast. The Queen is amazing, easily the best, and Wolsey is good. The Princess, who just died (yay) was awful, some vapid supermodel and I simply couldn't stop obsessing on her freakish collagen-injected freak lips.

[HaemishM]

I haven't watched the Shield season finale yet, but did they get renewed for another season? I was surprised at how quickly the finale came. It didn't even seem like the normal 13-episode run.

[Nevermore]

This 'season' was actually originally the second half of last season, iirc.  It's supposed to be on for one more season, but I don't know if that's refering to a full season or these new half seasons.

Edit: Dirt was also renewed for another season in case you want to watch more Courtney Cox masturbating with a vibrator.

[schild]

Edit: Dirt was also renewed for another season in case you want to watch more Courtney Cox masturbating with a vibrator.

Nice. i need to catch up on it.

[Signe]

The last episode of The Sopranos seems to have already been leaked on the retardweb.  Also, someone leaked the winner of Gordon Ramsey's cooking competition show, Hell's Kitchen even though it the first episode was only aired on Monday.  Sheesh. 

[MrHat]

The last episode of The Sopranos seems to have already been leaked on the retardweb.  Also, someone leaked the winner of Gordon Ramsey's cooking competition show, Hell's Kitchen even though it the first episode was only aired on Monday.  Sheesh. 

You sure do know alot about leaks.

[trotski]

The last episode of The Sopranos seems to have already been leaked on the retardweb.   

Part of me is praying the leaked ep is some sort of red herring...but who knows, I will be very disappointed if it is indeed how the show ends.

Regardless, I am unbelievably stoked for the last episode, and I'm having a Sopranos Finale Party at my house...Italian food, wine, and Sopranos.  Probably somewhat stereotypical, but meh, it'll be a good time.

[Sauced]

I loved the end of The Shield, but it was definitely a setup to a final season epic shitstorm.  Going to be a long wait.

[Evil Elvis]

Yeah, what the fuck is up with them splitting the shield seasons into two parts?

[WayAbvPar]

The last episode of The Sopranos seems to have already been leaked on the retardweb.   

Part of me is praying the leaked ep is some sort of red herring...but who knows, I will be very disappointed if it is indeed how the show ends.

Regardless, I am unbelievably stoked for the last episode, and I'm having a Sopranos Finale Party at my house...Italian food, wine, and Sopranos.  Probably somewhat stereotypical, but meh, it'll be a good time.

I think you should do an Entourage party instead- fast food, Cristal, pot, blow, and tons of high class call girls.

[Margalis]

Scifi channel is going to be showing Anime on Monday nights, it looks like every week will be eps from 3 different series, including Macross Plus.

[sigil]

CBS signed off on another seven episodes of Jericho after fans of the show shipped 20 tons of peanuts to the HQ.

I kinda liked the show. Not a bad spin on what would be the mother of all coups. It suffered from  the usual TV shortcomings, but I'm not disappointed to see it get one more shot.

[MrHat]

CBS signed off on another seven episodes of Jericho after fans of the show shipped 20 tons of peanuts to the HQ.

I kinda liked the show. Not a bad spin on what would be the mother of all coups. It suffered from  the usual TV shortcomings, but I'm not disappointed to see it get one more shot.

From the very brief preview I gave it, it seemed like some high school drama but in the future.  Am I totally off base?

[Merusk]

From the very brief preview I gave it, it seemed like some high school drama but in the future.  Am I totally off base?

Uh... yeah.

Like Hrose talking about LOTRO off-base.

Jherico was about a small town in Colorodo dealing with the aftermath of a nuclear strike that wiped out lots of major cities in the US.

[sigil]

Kansas, but it would have made more sense to be in Colorado, since they could actually see the mountains, which ain't happening in that area of the world.

Imagine if tomorrow afternoon, ten to 15 Nuclear weapons went off at various locations around the US.  Infrastructure shuts down, except for small pockets. The US Breaking up into five or six separate nations. Mass Chaos and devastation.

Now, film seventh heaven  in the middle of it.

There was a bit of Who's a good guy  or bad guy, Some love interests, and a home wrecker that made me give up on it for a while. The First third (shit blows up but we don't know how much) and the last third of the season (bad things happening and finding out how bad things really are) are decent. Heroes was ten times the show, but this was worth the half hour a week it took to watch it  with tivo.