We're Not Who You Think We Are
Previously, on The Key to Season 6 of LOST
I had a theory, which was mine, and it was all about the relationship of what the show was calling the “sideways” timeline to the “real” timeline. I hadn’t posted in quite a few weeks, because I wanted to see how my theory played out before I declared victory or defeat.
I am now ready to do so, but first, let’s restate my original theory:
WARNING: LOST SEASON 6 SPOILERS TO FOLLOW! Click away unless you’re caught up.
After a couple of mythology-heavy episodes, I thought I would check back in and take a look if there was any movement on my LOST theory.
As you’ve no doubt noticed, things are moving pretty slowly in that regard. You might have noticed people (many of whom waited patiently for the reveal of BSG’s Final Cylon) are whinging about it, even though we have hours and hours to go. Chill out, already, cos you’re missing all of the other cool shit that’s happening!
Because things are moving, and so far nothing contradicts my original theory, and in fact, I’ll even go so far as to say that this week’s Jack-centric ep actually supports it.
Previously, on “The Key to Season 6 of LOST”
Last week, I posited a theory about the parallel timelines that the season premiere had set up, and the nut of theory was this:
WAIT A SECOND! BEFORE YOU READ ANY FURTHER, REALIZE THAT WE ARE BEING PULLED INEXORABLY TOWARDS THE ISLAND OF LOST SEASON SIX SPOILERS!
I MAY HAVE ALREADY SAID TOO MUCH!
“We could get coffee sometime. We can go dutch.”
For those of you who just regained consciousness after an eight-month coma (and if you did so, thanks for dialing up Medialoper!) (How do you like our redesign?), the sixth — and final — season of LOST premiered last night.
And while I’ve read loads and loads of theory-laden recaps about the premiere from super smart people like Noel Murray, Alan Sepinwall and Doc Jensen, I’ve yet to come across anybody singling out what I think is the key to the entire season: the words that I quoted above.
IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING THAT WHAT FOLLOWS ARE SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON 6 PREMIERE OF LOST. OK?
As part of my Medialoper reporting duties, I often venture into the real world to get a sense of what’s happening outside the walls of the Internet. I have set up a little lab to study the media consumption habits of ordinary Americans. In order to keep the science almost rigorous, the group I’ve assembled is pretty much random, much like, well, what you’d find in an average office setting.
Since the dawn of the 2006-2007 Fall television season, I’ve had two conversations relating to traditional motion picture viewing. The first was a rather bizarre discussion about Lost. It started out as a review of the season premiere, but, well, died. Somehow it was a rehash of Season One — which, thankfully, I had seen enough of to fake my way through the conversation. Never let it be said that we don’t go the extra mile here.
[Read more…] about Report From The Field: Nobody’s Paying Attention
With only a month left before the launch of Season Three of what is probably our consensus favorite show around here, Battlestar Galactica, Sci-Fi.com has launched a series of “webisodes” — internet-only episodes with brand-new content.
Obviously, Battlestar isn’t the first TV show to do this, but the webisodes were actually delayed for a month or so because of controversy over compensation. It’s the latest variation of the “new media meets old contracts” meta-issue we’ve seen played out over and over again.
In this case, the legal issue can be boiled down to this: what is a “webisode” anyways? Is it strictly promotional? Or is it brand-new content for a brand-new medium?
A while back, when the first reports of the delay for the “true Video” iPod surfaced, I argued that it might not be such a bad thing for Apple if there were a few months between new iPods.
It seemed to me that there was a possibility of market fatigue with all of the iPods already out there, as well as a bit of a backlash by consumers who discovered that the 60GB iPod that they had just purchased to watch episodes of Battlestar Galactica on a cross-country flight wasn’t the “true” video iPod.
However, there are fresh reports of even longer delays, and we may look back at these delays as the tipping point where the iPod stopped being the center of the universe and started being just another cool gadget.
[Read more…] about Video iPod Delay May Be a Bad Thing After All
Once upon a time, the TV networks gave a rats ass about Saturday nights. It almost seems apocryphal, but there was a fabled season long ago that had this Saturday night lineup: All in the Family, M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show and The Carol Burnett Show. Three solid hours of comedy all-timers.
Slow-forward about 35 years, and what do we have on Saturday nights? As Al Swearengen might say, a huge bag of shit. Sports. Reality. Magazines. Not a single scripted comedy or drama. Saturday night has become a major TV casualty of the overabundance of entertainment choices, and the networks aren’t even bothering to address it.
But isn’t there *anything* they could do? Maybe. But it would involve taking a gamble on some programming concepts that they’ve been slow to embrace, and actually taking advantage of what I will dub “The Spinal Tap Paradox.”
Dear Lopy:
My daughter just gave me a DVD with iTunes videos of the entire first season of Lost. How can I watch these programs on my TV? Is there some way I can burn the episodes to DVD?
Signed,
Waiting To Burn
ABC, who once was blind, now can see.
ABC has announced that Lost, a show that is either (take your pick):
will air next season with no repeats, the plethora of which this season has taken some of the wind from its sails.
Good! Of course, FOX has been doing this with 24 for a couple of seasons now. However, unlike 24 — which derives at least part of its adrenaline rush from the fact that the airing of its episodes is as relentless as the beep-boop! beep-boop! beep-boop! beep-boop! that powers it — next season of Lost will air in two disparate chunks.
Some people see that as a problem. I don’t.