Thoughts on Lost 4.03 The Economist

There were two things in last night's Lost that got me a thinking. Well, actually, I've been thinking about this for a while.

It's about time, and how they'll explain Walt's growing.

You see, as some might think, I do believe the creators of the series do know what they're doing, and not making it up as they go along. Between season one and two of the show, speculation from me and my friends centered on Walt. Basically, as days on the island could be spread out over many episodes, how where they going to explain actor Malcolm David Kelly's growth.

During season two, you could see the actor had grown taller, and his face started to thin out. By the end of that season, Walt and his dad Michael had left the island on a boat provided by Ben.

This solved a huge problem for the producers. Getting Walt off the the show meant no one had to explain a teenagers growth when a dozen episodes could be just one day on the island. Even during season 3, when Walt popped up during a many of John Locke's odd symbiotic times with the island you could tell that Kelly had grown.

One theory I had was that the island itself was was seperate from reality, that it could be running -time wise - at a different pace. This seemed to come true over these last 3 episodes, as Locke keeps mentioning that Walt is telling him what to do - a bigger, as in taller, version of the one they left behind on the boat.

Now, on last night's episode, Jack mentions they've been on the island for 100 days, and basing that the events of Lost began on September 24, 2004, it is now early 2005 for Jack and rest of the Losties. Now it's been established that Jack is a baseball fan, a Boston Red Sox baseball fan. There was a joke after the Red Sox's won the World Series back in 2004 that popped up in an episode, and last night Jack asks Frank Lapidus about it, and Frank just says something about not getting him started.

This struck me as odd, and a bit convenient, as the Red Sox's won the 2007 World Series. And I thought that Frank was talking about the 2007 Red Sox's and Jack was talking about the 2004 Red Sox's.

Then there's the whole rocket thing with Daniel. The rocket shot from the boat, arrived 31 minutes later than it should've and provided the largest clue yet that at least the island is not running in the same normal timeline as the rest of us, that for the Losties it's now January 2005, while the crew from the helicopter are from 2007 -or maybe now, 2008.

This will also explain how Walt has grown, by the way. He and his dad Michael (who might be Ben's "man on the boat," I'm also thinking) returned to normal time when they left the island. So when he pops up -and he's bound too considering how the producers and writers are making him such an important link between Jacob and him - Walt (and actor Malcolm David Kelly) will have grown because he's been gone from the island for over two years!

With WGA strike over, networks ramp up for the rest of the season; Paramount shifts Star Trek

Just after the announcement that the WGA strike came to a close, things in Hollywood began again. Most of the networks announced that production on most shows will resume soon, with air dates for new episodes to begin as early as late March, with all of them having new episodes airing by the first week of April.

On the heels of ABC picking up all of its previous shows, freshman drama/fantasy darling, Pushing Daises will be back in the fall, though ABC said the series is done for the season at only nine episodes produced. Meanwhile, NBC has picked up the charming Chuck and Life for the fall, although they too are done for the season, as is huge hit Heroes. Bionic Woman, Journeyman and Friday Night Lights are considered dead in the water, even though NBC has not officially cancelled them.

CBS picked up 11 of its most popular shows, leaving out -at least temporarily - Moonlight and Jericho.

Meanwhile, Paramount made some major shifts in their theatrical schedule, with the JJ Abrams Star Trek reboot now pushed from Christmas Day to May 8, 2009. According to the industry trade papers, the five month delay by Paramount is said to be a move to maximize the box office potential for the sci fi film, which will now open the week after X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the week before Sony has scheduled Angels and Demons. Plus, it seems, it will address Abrams comments that the film will need to be tweaked, and now that the strike is over, those script revisions can happen.

But Star Trek is not the only film on the move, David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which stars Brad Pitt, will now replace Trek as Paramount’s holiday pic, moving it from Nov. 26 to Dec. 19. The Ben Stiller comedy Tropic Thunder is moving from July 11 to August 15, while the Renee Zellweger file Case 39 is delayed from August 22 to April 10, 2009. Meanwhile, Eddie Murphy's Nowhereland moves from September 26 to June 12 of 2009.

Brothers and Sisters creator forced out at ABC

The demographic police at ABC have struck, forcing the creator of the alphabet networks hit series Brothers and Sisters to leave. Jon Robin Baitz was forced out after fighting an apparent losing battle with the execs at ABC over the direction of the series. The writer cites, via two posts on The Huffington, that ABC demanded Baitz to steer the show away from the older-skewing characters and more dramatic stories in favor of the younger cast, and more soapier stories.

Baitz says "I can... only watch as the demographic demands that have turned America into an ageist and youth-obsessed nation (that) drives the storylines younger and younger, whiter and whiter, and with less and less reflection of the real America. I will never again have to do a notes call wherein the fear and seasickness of the creative execs always prevail over taking a risk, resulting more often than not in muddy and flattening or treacly sweet compromises."

While I have only watched the show from time-to-time, Baitz comments, however, strike true where network TV is concerned. It believes that American’s want multiple CSI’s, wants to watch brain damaging programs as American Idol and Dancing with the Stars and thinks the deepest show they can truly appreciate is According to Jim.

With his departure, Brother and Sisters is almost sure to lose a chunk of its audience, which ABC seems not care about anyways. It will become a sad caricature where the older characters will become less and less important, and probably become more stupid and prosaic.

And while some may consider Baitz a disgruntled former employee (he’ll retain his Executive Producer credit) for his rants about his departure from ABC and Brothers and Sisters, we all need to understand that TV is facing a dark time. People claim that they watch shows like American Idol and Dancing with the Stars because they’ve had a hectic day, and watching any show that challenges the mind, the soul even, is just too hard.

In some ways, the WGA has blessed me. I will not watch any of the reality programs the networks will role out between now and September (because, essentially, the TV season is over with) because I understand what is at stake here.

Baitz adds "I cannot help but dream about what my version of Brothers and Sisters would have looked like. A show that could simply hold on the aging and real face of Sally Field, and reflect the sorrow and rage there... reflect the cold and funny sexuality of Patty Wettig's Holly, the perfect reconstruction of the L.A. mistress... hold on the eyes of Ron Rifkin, and reflect the wisdom, joyous childishness and the melancholy. A show [that] could have followed the youngest, prodigal son to Iraq [and] shown his fellow soldiers, dying... allowed Calista Flockhart's character to be actually truly political... go even further in dealing with Kevin Walker's internalized homophobia and his fear of contact with others."

Reading by the light of Stephen King

With the WGA strike making TV even more prosaic, I've decided that reading will also fill my 2008.

In one of his last articles for EW for 2007, Stephen King gave his top 10 books of the year. I think, beyond the ones I already have stacked near me, I'll try to read most of them. I respect King, and have been reading his works since 1980 (though to this day, I cannot even begin The Tommyknockers).

So far, I've read one of those titles, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. There are a few others I was already interested in before this issue came out, and they include Dan Simmons historical superntaural novel The Terror (now out in QP), Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon, who wrote two of favorites: Wonder Boys and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

He also recomends The Ghost by Robert Harris, Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski, Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo (I still have Empire Falls yet to read by him), Hollywood Station by Joseph Wambaugh, The Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson and Twilight by William Gray.

I'm unsure if I can get to them, plus the ones I already have here, but I want to try this year.

Here's what else I want to read:

The nonfiction (which always takes me more time than fiction):

Manhunt by James Swanson
The Glorious Cause by Robert Middlekauff
Orson Wells, Volume 2: Hello Americans by Simon Callow
Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson
The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
Collapse by Jared Diamond

Fiction:

Darkmans by Nicola Barker
Next by Michael Crichton

Of course, this list does not include other titles that will be published in 2008. Stephen King has a new one out January 22 alone.

So with the fall TV season probably more than over, and with only a few new shows I want to watch (The Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles) and the returning (and only 8 episodes) of Lost, if I can turn off the computer, I may actually get to some of them.

And, of course, I got to do all the other things I want to do in 2008.

Jebus, it's going to be fun.

The Wild, Wild West: The Complete Second Season

When I was a kid, growing up in Chicago, Sunday morning was for watching classic TV shows on WGN. There was Rawhide, The Cisco Kid, The Lone Ranger, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and my personal favorite, The Wild Wild West. That show -and possibly the classic series, The Avengers - saw me through the worst of times, and more or less, confirmed my sexuality.

While I always thought Robert Conrad as suave secret service agent James West was a prick, he was hot looking. That tight, compact little body (and shirtless as much as possible) shoe-horned into those tight pants. But it was the late, great Ross Martin I admired. As Atremus Gordon, Martin always looked like he was having fun, especially when he got to dress up in various disguises.

Anyway, I watched the show as much as possible, enjoying the brilliant idea of slapping together the two staples of the mid 1960's, James Bond and the TV Western. The show was pretty wild, even for its times -even though Conrad would later say that if you watched 10 episodes of the series, you’ve seen them all. It’s early season episodes were somewhat straight laced western fair, but like the daytime TV soap Dark Shadows, once it embraced the science fiction side of its plots, the show took off. Sadly, it was cancelled after four seasons, but not because of ratings, but because of the violence (which it was, as West got beat up every week)

The show disappeared from TV for a while, only to show up on the cable channel TNT during the late 1990's, where it ran for a few years. Last year, the show’s first season was released on DVD. Out of the 28 episodes, I think I saw all of them, but it was great to see them uncut for the first time, and in glorious black & white.

Season two came out this week, and it was the first season aired in color. The show also got a boost with its guest stars that season, including Boris Karloff, John Astin, Carroll O’Connor, Victor Bono (who was also in the pilot episode) and legendary actress Ida Lupino. Michael Dunn also returned for several guest shots as West and Gordon’s nemesis, Doctor Loveless. Plus, future Superman director Richard Donner got his start on TV and directed an episode that guest-starred Sammy David, Jr. and Peter Lawford, that led him to the silver screen, thanks to Davis, Jr. and Lawford.

A great series, I my opinion. And I’m hoping that they also release the two TV movie remakes done in the 1979 (The Wild, Wild West Revisited) and 1980 (More Wild, Wild West). They were once out on video, but I don’t think they were ever issued on DVD.

Plus, the theme music rocked. Classic all around.