* It might be a bit meta for a lead, but I can’t help my happiness that Roger Ebert has been named person of the year by the Webby Awards people. I’ve been a big fan of his writing for a very long time and always thought he was the best straight-up writer of any of the major critics, but recently he has really emerged as an inspirational figure. He’s also been one of the most generous supporters of film writing on the web in a million different ways. It’s not really bragging when I mention that he’s thrown some small nods my way as well as some occasionally very funny e-mail responses over the years. He’s done the same for countless others.
And, if that wasn’t cool enough, the great cinephile social networking and blog site, the Auteurs also won an award. Well, done, folks.
* In actual movie news, remember that item last week when I said that Matthew Vaughn, most recently of “Kick-Ass,” was not going to be directing the next X-Men movie? If not, you can just keep right on forgetting because, it turns out, he is directing the film they’ll call “X-Men: First Class” — a prequel. I’m a big fan of Vaughn, though not so much of the X-Men films so far, so I find this intriguing. Some of you may remember, Vaughn departed from “X-Men 3” and the film that was, as per Cinema Blend, Matthew Vaughn, and I, almost definitely the worse for it.
* More really good news from my point of view, one of my favorite actors currently working, Chewitel Ejiofor, has been cast as definitely my favorite Afro-pop musician — okay, the only African musician I can think of that I’ve ever actually bought an album or CD by. Ejiofor will be starring in a biopic of the legendary maestro Fela Anikulapo Kuti in a film to be directed by Steve McQueen of “Hunger.” This film is not related, except by topic, to the musical “Fela!” which just got eleven Tony nominations. The cool part is not only that the Ejiofor, a first-generation Brit born of Nigerian parents, is the actor to play the part, he’s also apparently learning to play piano and saxophone (Kuti’s instruments, I believe) and had, we’re told, become quite good.
In the words of Hurley: “Whoa.” Just when it looked like tonight’s episode was going to be yet another week of unfortunate filler, that happens. And by that, of course, I mean Smokey’s devious plan to sneak a bomb onto the submarine in order to kill all the Losties in one fell swoop. I was under the impression that Smokey couldn’t harm any of the candidates (Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Sawyer and Sun/Jin), but apparently, that isn’t the case. Sure, one could argue that he didn’t directly kill any of them, but that’s kind of like saying that bullets kill people – not the ones who pull the trigger.
The events leading up to the explosion weren’t particularly engaging, either. In fact, it was more of the same stuff we’ve been hearing for weeks now. Smokey rescues the Losties, Jack tells Smokey that he’s not leaving the island, Sawyer tries to double-cross Smokey because he doesn’t trust him, yadda yadda… only for Smokey to get the upper hand in the end. So how was Smokey able to do it? I’m a little curious to hear the explanation for that one (as well as how he was able to survive a dip in the water when he couldn’t even travel by boat a few episodes ago), but go ahead and add four more Losties to the death tally while we wait.
Lapidus was knocked out by a steel door when the water came rushing through, and Sayid (after informing Jack of Desmond’s whereabouts) sacrificed himself by absorbing the bulk of the blast. At least he died honorably. The same could be said of Jin, who refused to leave Sun to die on her own after she became trapped under all that wreckage. Of course, the fact that the writers would do this only a week after their half-assed reunion is pretty damn mean. If there was anyone I was hoping would get off the island safely, it was those two, but now that they’re goners, I really couldn’t care what happens to the rest of them. Jack clearly doesn’t want to leave, Kate has become as useless as an asshole on an elbow, Sawyer is a selfish prick again, and Hurley, well, he’s just unlucky.
It’s gotten to the point that a happy ending on Earth-2 just isn’t going to be enough anymore. I love these characters (at least, most of them) – I don’t want to see them all die. Unfortunately, that’s the way it’s starting to look with only a few episodes remaining. Stay on the island or die trying to leave. Hopefully, that won’t be the case, because then what would have been the point of telling their story? There has to be something that makes all this worthwhile, but I don’t think we’re going to get a hint of what that could possibly be until the finale. For now, it looks like we’ll just have to keep guessing as the pieces slowly come together. The fact that Jack is starting to notice the strange connection between everyone on Earth-2 is certainly a start, but while it’s fun getting to see the different paths that each character has taken in the mirror universe, I’m left wanting more. Here’s hoping the writers can deliver whatever it is we’re expecting.
Bledsoe: “You won’t take the shot, it’s too risky! I’ll kill her before you…” Jack: *Blam*
Seriously, that was one of the best deaths in “24” history. Here was Toepick, trying to act all intimidating, when Jack was a mere five or six feet away. He may as well have had the gun on Toepick’s forehead. Heck, I’m pretty sure Jack has made that shot across a windy rooftop with a pea shooter in a previous season.
As Jack continues to thwart I.M. Weasel’s nefarious plans, Logan’s conversations with Allison remind me of a “Simpsons” episode – in full disclosure, it should be noted that pretty much everything reminds me of a “Simpsons” episode – where Apu is trying to get out of his arranged marriage to a family friend, and Homer suggests that he pretend that he’s married to Marge, and Bart and Lisa are his kids. When the plan continues to go wrong, Apu finally grows tired of Homer’s wacky schemes:
Apu: Is it me, or do all of your plans involve some horrible web of lies? Homer: It’s you.
Logan is Homer. Allison is Apu. Only she’s still going along with Logan’s ridiculous suggestions, even though each one is riskier and more conspicuous than the last one. Again, the woman who sent her own daughter to prison is authorizing Logan to put his assistant (official “24” nickname: Dominic, from his “Dollhouse” days) in charge of the hunt for Jack at CTU. Because that doesn’t look at all suspicious that you’re putting someone in between Jack and Chloe. Yumpin’ yiminy.
“Well, I say he does have to shoot me now! So shoot me now!”
There was a time when I hoped that they could come up with a way to take the bad guys down without getting Allison’s hands dirty, but as she continues to acquiesce, I am running out of patience with her. She’s had more than enough time to realize the grievous error in judgment she’s committed, but the problem at this point is that she can’t go back, so the web of lies expands. Still, go back to the beginning of this subplot, and think of Logan and Taylor as exes. Would you take ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ assistance from an ex – a known liar, to boot- even when they assured you that none of it would come back to haunt you? Of course you wouldn’t, because the two of you broke up for a reason, remember? There isn’t a parallel universe on this or any other world where Allison would accept that kind of help from someone like I.M. Weasel, and I’m growing tired of seeing them continue with the ruse.
Now let’s get to the other great death in tonight’s episode. Was anyone else shocked at the remorselessness Jack showed in dispatching Starbuck? Yes, she could not be trusted, and yes, she had killed several innocent civilians in order to facilitate her escape, as well as conceal her cover. And yes, Jack is going to have hell to pay from Buffy, even though Starbuck spared his life when hatching her Plan B to go off the grid. But for someone who said he was only interested in justice, Jack killing an unarmed Starbuck seemed a bit dark, didn’t it? How about chaining her to something and having the police deal with her? If the Russians kill her before she gets processed, so be it. She had her chance to escape on Jack’s terms, and she reneged. But just deciding that she had to die…that’s not going to help his case when he sees what’s on the video file and tries to make his case for, well, overthrowing the government. It seems the smarter play would have been from the Richard Kimble playbook, where you try to keep as many people alive as possible, even when they mean you harm. You’re trying to make a big, big case; it’s a lot easier to do that when there is no blood on your hands.
Only four hours left. I traded messages with onetime “Prison Break” blogger John “You Must Suspend Disbelief” Paulsen about the perils of blogging TV shows, and he told me that when “Prison Break” went off the air, he threw a party. As much as I’ve loved watching this show and writing this silly, silly blog, I’m harboring similar plans. I am grateful to all six of you who have stuck with this blog until the very end, but I’m officially at the point where I cannot wait for this show to be over. And with any luck, our colleague Will Harris will find himself in the same room with Cherry Jones at the next TCA gathering, and I can ask him to get her to talk about how she felt about getting lobotomized mid-season. Hey, at the very least, we might get a good off-the-record story from her on the subject.
In the meantime, I leave you with this clip from the Cranberries’ first album. It seemed to fit, given that Jack put Starbuck down like a dog, but not before putting Toepick down like a rabid dog. Plius, I have been sitting here for about an hour trying to find a clever lyric as a subtitle for this week’s blog, and I’m tired, man. Cranberries it is. Good night.
This show is going through one of those periods where you hate to call any episode out as being the best of the season, not because it wasn’t…because, brother, you’d better believe it was…but because you find yourself saying it so many times during the season that it feels like you’re damning it with faint praise. I mean, in essence, what I’m saying is, “Holy shit, that was the best episode since last week!” Which it was, but…oh, never mind, let’s just get started.
It was funny to start the episode with that flashback, seeing that one of the cousins was a crybaby back in the day. I knew the whole “I wish he was dead” comment was going to come back into play; I just didn’t think it would happen quite so quickly. Say, does anyone know if Tuco’s uncle has written a text on child rearing? I feel like he may have a couple of lessons to teach me beyond what we saw tonight.
But let’s get serious, shall we? Holy shit, I knew Hank was going to go ballistic on Jesse, but…wow. To say that that scene was everything I expected would be a lie, because it never occurred to me that he’d give him quite that level of beatdown. That was a full-fledged, no-holds-barred pummeling, with absolutely no restraint whatsoever. Whew. You better believe Internal Affairs is going to want a word with him…
Of course Saul is going to be at Jesse’s bedside, taking pictures and trying to get the money shot. The Rocky joke was good, but the Beatle quip when Walt walked into the room was better: “You’re now officially the cute one of the group. Paul, meet Ringo. Ringo, meet Paul.” It was absolutely stupid for Walt to sneak in to see Jesse, even if he was concerned about his condition. Yeah, he could’ve explained his presence away with the old “he’s my former student” line, but that’s got to be getting pretty hoary by now. I have to admit that I didn’t expect Walt to express guilt over the situation, but once he did, I certainly wasn’t surprised that it lasted for only a couple of seconds before he had to remind Jesse, “But the plan did work…” Personally, I thought Jesse’s speech was a little long, but, shit, you couldn’t really argue with much of it…which is why I didn’t expect Saul to flip and suggest that Jesse might actually want to go a different direction. Nor did I expect Jesse to be quite so bitter toward Walt. (“You’re my free pass…bitch.”) I did agree with Walt’s theory that if Jesse didn’t give up the ghost during Hank’s “interrogation,” he probably never will, but I certainly couldn’t ignore Saul’s ominous suggestion about “options.”
“Daleks. I sometimes think those mutated misfits will terrorize the universe for the rest of time.”
Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor, following yet another skirmish with the cockroaches from Skaro, uttered the above quote near the end of his reign as the Time Lord. If he’d known then that he’d still be dealing with them in his Eleventh incarnation, he may well have decided to forego his impending regeneration, and just gone ahead and called it a millennium. Many “Doctor Who” fans would likely have sympathized with him had he done so. Having been writing these recaps for five years now, I am exhausted by Daleks as well. What else is there for me to say about them that I haven’t already said, or hasn’t been said by countless others time and again? And yet here I am, once again backed into a corner by some angry pepperpots demanding that I find something fresh to say on the subject. Of course, if the series can’t be bothered to do so, I don’t really see why I should, either.
Surprisingly, “Victory of the Daleks,” written by Mark Gatiss, is drenched in promise at its start. Surprising not only because all ground concerning the Daleks seems so thoroughly trod at this point, but also because the last thing Gatiss wrote for the series, “The Idiot’s Lantern,” was a forgettable misfire. The idea of subservient, benevolent Daleks isn’t a new one. It was first explored in Patrick Troughton’s first story “The Power of the Daleks,” but since that serial was junked by the BBC ages ago, only the most hardcore of fans are going to care about this. For all intents and purposes the idea is new, or at least new to us. And the show has a field day with the notion for about ten minutes. Professor Bracewell’s (Bill Paterson) Ironsides are going to win the war against the Nazis, and they’ll serve you tea as well. Just the notion that the Daleks will become this story’s Inglourious Basterds is a fun one, since the Nazis are what the Daleks were based on in the first place. With “Victory of the Daleks,” on some obscure meta level, the entire concept of the Daleks has seemingly come full circle.
