Jorge Garcia Blog

Lost co-star Jorge Garcia (Hurley) has joined our noble ranks (bloggers, not gays... though, really, what's the difference?)

Check it out here.

2007 Emmy Nominations

For the most part, the usual suspects snagged Emmy noms this morning.

But... lo and behold... there are some genre shows among the Outstanding Writing--Drama category nominations!

No, really.

Ron Moore scored his first-ever writing nomination for the Battlestar third season premiere "Occupation/Precipice" -- his only solo writing credit on the show since the first episode of Season 1 ("33"), and arguably the best episode *since* then.

So good for him! Let's hope he writes more of the final season than he has of the series-to-date. (To be fair, he probably rewrites almost every episode to some extent, and is certainly involved in breaking every plot in the writers room -- but that's not quite the same thing as a solo writing credit.)

And Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof were nominated for the brilliant, paradigm-shifting season finale of Lost, "Through The Looking Glass."


The Sopranos took up the other three slots in the category, with David Chase scoring two nominations himself (nothing new there). And he will probably win (again, nothing new there)... though with luck, the vote will be split, letting Moore or Lindelof & Cuse squeak out a victory.

For God's sake, honor a sci-fi show in this category just once!

In the comedy category, (my beloved) The Office and (my be-liked) 30 Rock scored two nominations each.
Office showrunner Greg Daniels was nominated for the hysterical episode "Gay Witch Hunt," and 30 Rock creator/showrunner/star Tina Fay for the "Tracy Does Conan" ep.

Ricky Gervais & Steven Merchant were nominated for the Daniel Radcliffe episode of Extras Series 2 (which, to my mind, was probably the least of that season's episodes... The Orlando Bloom seg was clearly the funniest and best of the series).

***

Anyway, among the other notable nominations was:

Felix Alcala for directing Battlestar's "Exodus Part 2"

Michael Emerson (Ben Linus, Lost) for best supporting actor--drama (though, sadly, not Elizabeth Mitchell for Juliette--maybe next season)

Judith Light (Claire Meade, Ugly Betty) as guest actress--comedy (by far, the best actor on that show)

Martin Landau (Bob Ryan, Entourage) as guest actor--comedy (now, that's something I might be interested in)

However, Deadwood failed to garner nominations in anything other than technical categories -- which is fucking criminal. (Cocksuckers.)

Anyway, find the full list of noms here.

Lost Season Finale Obit--SPOILERS

That spoiler warning is specifically for Chas. Dude, do not read this post. Just move right along. Now. I mean it.

So, obviously I'm late to the party talking about the utter brilliance that was the Lost third season finale, so I won't spend too much time rehashing what everybody else has been saying. Instead, here's the text of the obit that caused Jack to almost jump off a bridge:

The body of John Lantham of New York was found shortly after 4 am in the 4300 block of Grand Avenue. Ted Worden, a doorman at the Tower Lofts complex, heard loud noises coming from the victim's loft. Concerned for tenants' safety, he entered the loft and found the body hanging from a beam in the living room. According to Jaime Ortiz, a police spokesman, the incident was deemed a suicide after medical tests. Latham is survived by one teenaged son. Memorial services will be held at the Hoffs-Drawlar Funeral Home tomorrow evening."

BTW, Hoffs-Drawlar is an anagram for "flashforward," which--for the record--I totally did not catch.

My reaction to Kate showing up at the airport, reprinted verbatim: "What?! Oh, they're not gonna try to say that Kate and Jack knew each other before--Oh. Oh, oh, oh my god!"

Update: smart money seems to be on Michael (obviously under an assumed name) as the Lostie in the box. Sounds right to me, from the details in the article: from New York, the teenaged son, living in a loft (he's an artist, remember).

Lost To End After 6 Seasons

Kristin from E! Online says:

ABC is set to announce that Lost will end production after two more seasons.

That's excellent news. If they have a firm endpoint to move towards, we'll have less filler to put up with.

Updated: It's official now, but it's technically 6 seasons, not 5, so I'm modifying the thread title.

Thing is, the order is still for 48 episodes, they will just be broken down into three rather than two seasons. (The show's seasons to date have been 24 episodes each; hereafter, they will be 16 each.)

The Lost series finale will be episode 119. It will air in May of 2010. ABC's press release reliably informs us that the series finale will be "shocking."

Lost 3X17: "CATCH 22" by Jeff Pinker & Brian K Vaughan

This was Brian K Vaughan's first produced work on Lost -- and, for that matter, in TV. Vaughan (whose blog is linked at right) is one of the best comic book writers working at the moment. His two creator-owned books, Y: The Last Man (which is winding down after about 5 years) and Ex Machina are particular favorites, though the Pride of Baghdad graphic novel is his best work.

Anyway, with that little bit of pimping out of the way, "Catch 22" was--I thought--quite good. The script (written with series vet Jeff Pinker) did a great job of making us feel Desmond's dilemma: he believed that in order to make his vision come true, he had to make every part of it come true... including Charlie's death.

Was he wrong? The visitor (Naomi) is alive, and clearly knows who he is, so she is connected to Penny and her search for the island. But, still, she's *not* Penny. Desmond probably thinks that if he'd let Charlie die, it would've been Penny under that visor.

The fallout from his actions should be interesting. I wouldn't blame Charlie for hating him, but if he tells Des to beat it, he loses his protector. (Charlie's flashback is the penultimate episode of the season. He is widely expected to die in that episode, though I'm sort of hoping it's a colossal misdirect meant to stop us guessing the identity of the real casualty: Jack.)

Meanwhile, though I loathe both actors, I'm starting to feel for Kate and Sawyer. I hope he realizes how badly she's gonna hurt him.

Lost Season 3 Finale Spoilers & Speculation

Ausiello: (Major spoiler alert) Get ready to clutch your pearls: I'm told there will be at least five — count 'em, five — deaths on Lost during the month of May.

I have a feeling there's truth to this. It's obvious the season will end with the long-promised "war" between the Castaways and The Others. It's been something like 30 episodes--a month, their time--since Jack first decided it would be a good idea to raise an army (and have Ana-Lucia train them--Remember?)

Looks like the conflict Jack foresaw is about to materialize.

I'm OK with them killing off anyone and everyone, but if they harm a hair on Juliet's head (or on Ben's, for that matter), I'll ... Well, honestly, what I'll do is faithfully tune in for the very next episode. And the one after that. And so forth.

But, dammit, I'll be *pissed*. Along with Terry O'Quinn, Elizabeth Mitchell and Michael Emerson are, by far, the best actors on the show. They really class up the joint.

And, for that reason, I guess I wouldn't want to see them get rid of O'Quinn, either... Provided they are ready to move beyond the whole "and then, oops, Locke blows it up" trope. But it does seem like they're about to take it to the next level:

Carlton Cuse: "Let's just say the end of the season features a showdown between Jack and Locke...

That's been in the pipeline for longer than the war, but Locke's defection still managed to catch me by surprise. I think Locke is the real heavy on this show--He just didn't know it til now.

Lost 3X16: "One of Us" by Cuse & Goddard

This was an *awesome* episode.

Great scrpit by Cuse & Goddard. Questions were asked -- Not answered, for the most part, but at least they were asked, and that's something.

Great acting -- Those highly-charged scenes with Mithcell and Emerson (especially the scene where Juliet knocked the glass out of Ben's hand). The bit with Sayid--"If I told you, you'd kill me." "What do you think I'll do if you don't?"

Hurley's threat to Juliet was especially creepy -- given the source. "We buried [Ethan] over there."

No surprise that Juliet's there on assignment, but I like the way they're approaching it. They've had spies in the camp before, of course, but the twist is that, this time, we know about it from the start. They're approaching it as suspense, not surprise. The tension is over the question of what she's there to do, not *whether* she's there to do something. (There's also the question of whether she'll ultiamtely go through with it, since her feelings for Jack are not part of the ruse.)

I especially liked the way Jack articulated the true difference between the Losties and the Others: the Losties want to get off the island. The Others don't.

And, on that basis, he *is* right about Juliet, even if she is still working for Ben. (And why is she still working for Ben? Because she doesn't want to live on a beach for the rest of her life? Or because, on some level, she believes in what they're doing?)