Lost, Galactica to move

Lost is moving to 9 p.m. central time when it returns in February. This probably a good thing for ABC because it prevents direct competition with American Idol and because Lost's viewers have consistently abandoned whatever show follows it. I'd really rather watch it at 8, but I can live with this move.

Battlestar Galactica is moving to Sundays at 9 p.m. central beginning January 21. My wife and I at times have set our social lives around Friday nights for watching this outstanding show, so this is probably a good thing. I will not enjoy waiting until the end of the weekend for new episodes, but it will make Sunday nights that much more fun for me. I hope this is the right move for Galactica because I think it deserves a larger audience to match all of the critical acclaim it has received.

Staying alive

I ran across two how-to lists this morning: How to survive a plane crash and how to survive a long fall. The former list is actually fairly practical. The latter one is interesting and possibly useful, but under an even more challenging scenario. Here's what I gleaned from both articles:

Surviving a plane crash:

• Wear tennis shoes and long pants.
• Sit on an aisle over the wing.
• Pay attention to the preflight safety speech.
  
• Tighten my seat belt.
• Brace for the impact.
• Keep calm as much as you can.
• Use a cloth to protect yourself from smoke.
• Get as far away from the plane as possible after the crash.

Surviving a long fall:

• Bend your knees.
• Land feet-first, preferably on the balls of your feet.
• Relax as much as possible.
• Cover your head.
  

I found other facts in these articles interesting, too. For instance, the odds of dying in a commercial plane crash are 11 million to one. As many as 90 percent of crashes have survivors. People have survived falls from several thousand feet, but falls from even 20 to 30 feet are frequently fatal. I'm not sure how much of this information would have helped the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, but it does make for an interesting read.

No more Jack?

Would Lost really kill off Jack? One of the reasons I love this show is it's willingness to do almost anything, but I wonder whether the producers would willingly go that far. (Granted, if Matthew Fox bolts to do more movies, there really isn't much they could do to prevent it.)

As I've previously mentioned, my wife and I have an "untouchables" theory regarding Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Locke, meaning that the show will never get rid of these characters. That theory can't cover when stars decide to get out while the show is in its prime, though, so we'll have to wait and see.

Maybe all of this is one reason why the producers awkwardly introduced two new cast members at the beginning of this season by pretending that they had been part of the crash survivors all along. Note to the producers: If Fox or anyone else leaves, please do kill them off or somehow explain their absences. Don't recast the roles. (I don't really think they're that foolish, but it has crossed my mind.)

Lost review: I Do

If you haven't seen this episode, spoilers await below.

I thought last night's episode of Lost was fine. Really, that's about it. As with most of this season's episodes, I enjoyed this installment, but it was not riveting for me the way that previous episodes have generally been. Here are a few of the highlights, according to me:

• Jack to Ben, after refusing to perform surgery to save Ben's life: "At least you won't have to be disappointed [that I refused] very long."
  
• The assessment of Kate's fiancee about his future bride, who thinks her name is Monica: "That's what I love about you. What you see is what you get." Boy, did she have him fooled.
• Eko's posthumous guidance to Locke, via the carving on his staff ("Lift your eyes and look to the north"). Hopefully we'll see where that leads before too long.
• "I love you" and "I love you, too" by Kate and Sawyer.

My favorite element of the episode was Jack's eventual decision to perform Ben's surgery and his bold move to threaten to let Ben die in the midst of the procedure. I loved this retaliation by Jack, and his initial refusal to perform the surgery perfectly concealed his motives from the Others. I do have one gripe, though, with the cliffhanger setup. If I were Ben, I would have had Pickett hold Kate in the observation room with a gun to her head throughout the procedure to ensure Jack's cooperation. It seems perfectly logical for Ben to use this kind of insurance policy, and he has no real reason to trust Jack. It seems like a plot flaw to me that Ben doesn't do this. A simple solution would have been to have Kate and Sawyer escape prior to the beginning of the surgery, so they couldn't have been used as leverage.

I'll keep watching in February to see where all of this leads, but I'm not desperate for more the way I have been previously with Lost. The recent episodes have been adequate, but they are not delivering on the prior seasons' intrigue and excitement in the same way. Success is a tough act to follow, and will see in a few months whether Lost can regain its previous energy and suspense.

Lost: I Do

I don't know what to expect from tonight's Lost mid-season finale episode, "I Do." I love this show, period, but I also really hope that there are some tantalizing revelations this evening. I don't want everything spelled out. I do love the mystery, but I'd like for it to be a progressively evolving mystery, one where some questions are answered and others are raised. That hasn't felt like the case lately.

I have a feeling that we'll be left wondering until February (when Lost returns) whether Sawyer is alive. ABC's teaser brief suggests that Pickett, the member of the Others that Sawyer keeps sparring with, may try to kill him. I hope not because as much as I often loathe Sawyer, I also find myself liking him and his contributions to the show.

My wife and I have discussed Lost at length (our friends may need Losticil to keep up with us), and one thing we love is how well the writers catch us by surprise on a regular basis. Almost anything is fair game (sometimes to a fault), but tonight's episode may test our untouchables hypothesis: Our theory is that Jack, Kate, Locke and Sawyer are exempt from the possibility of being killed off because they are too integral to the show. Many shows have these characters, but Lost has displayed more willingness to dispense with important characters than most, so it's an important distinction that this "core four" may never leave the show. We'll see the latest test to that theory tonight, but I'm not expecting it to be proved false.

The ABC teaser also indicates that Jack will decide about helping Ben by performing surgery to treat his spinal injury. I'm curious to see what he does and to see how much we find out about the consequences of his choice tonight. I can't decide whether Juliet was sincere about her clandestine communications with Jack during last week's episode or whether she was merely testing to see if he could be trusted to perform the surgery.

As an aside, I sure hope someone gives the castaways on the beach something to do. They've been especially dull so far this season.

Lost Action Figures

OK, I'll admit it: These Lost action figures look like fun. My inner five year-old just got giddy. Yes, that's the Hatch in the second photo.

Lost: The Cost of Living

It looks like we'll see where John Locke is headed on his search for Jack, Kate and Sawyer tonight. There's been so much--and so little, as a result--going on so far this season that I'm really hoping we get some substance tonight. Don't get me wrong: I still love all the mystery and confusion, but I do think we aren't seeing enough of events as they develop. The core group of passengers still on the beach are behaving awfully normally for a bunch of people exposed to the hatch meltdown just a few days earlier, and it's gotten a little dull. I realize that the producers want to keep the Others and our heroes separate for as long as they can this season, but the ones still at "home" need something to do. Playing golf and watching Desmond wig out aren't enough, in my opinion.

The impressions I get from ABC's previews are that the show is headed for a suspenseful conclusion prior to its upcoming mid-season break after next week's episode. I sure hope so, but I sure hope we get some answers in the meantime.

Lost: Every Man for Himself

Note: If you haven't seen this week's episode, there are spoilers below.

I have come to love Lost since my wife and I began watching it on DVD this past summer. My initial impressions of this show, based on the preview ads show before its debut in fall 2004, were that the series was basically a serious take on Gilligan's Island: a bunch of castaways stuck in the middle of nowhere, minus the hi-jinks.

Boy, was I wrong. I thought the writers would run out of ideas within months. It's no secret that many fans are tiring of the constant mystery and confusion that Lost displays and it's tendency to generate new questions before answering those that it has already raised. I love that about this show, though I'd be happy to see a few more answers emerge, too. The creativity in storytelling is unique and amazing, and I love seeing them continue to tangle the Web. I can be patient, but my one sincere hope is that, in the big picture, the writers know where this whole mess is going over the long run. I'll only be truly disappointed if they never make an effort to connect the dots, or if their resolution isn't satisfying. Until that day comes, I'm along for the ride and enjoying the breeze.

The psychological torture inflicted on Sawyer last night was fun to watch. (The injection scene in the midst, however, was not. Pulp Fiction 2.0.) The writers continue to give him great lines each week, and his approach to the character makes him a very likeable jackass. (That's my favorite kind.) When one of the Others tries to bait Sawyer into a beating as he's been taken off for a phantom surgical procedure, he says, "Give me a reason [to beat the hell out of you.]" Sawyer's reply, "I thought I just did," is classic and gave me a good laugh. I feel like his character is an adult take on John Bender from The Breakfast Club, and most any show can benefit from that kind of personality when it's done well.

I liked seeing the Others have to call on Jack for help in trying to save Colleen's life. I thought it was powerful that Jack couldn't do it, and that will make for increased tension in this storyline. (It sure did in the aftermath, when Colleen's husband takes out his wrath on Sawyer. Wow.)

The big tease from last night: There are two islands. Whoa! All this season, the writers have allowed us to believe that the Others have been holding Jack, Kate and Sawyer on the opposite site of the island from the rest of the Oceanic flight passengers. We knew Jack was underwater, but I had still assumed he was near the shoreline. Now we know differently, but we still don't know what it means. Oh, and now we know there's a submarine, too.

I sure hope this is all leading up to an exhilirating cliffhanger in two weeks, when the series prepares to take its mid-season break until February. We'll see.