The Long Con

So some quick thoughts before I pass out from exhaustion ...

-- Tonight's LOST was, easily, the best episode of the season. This was the first Lost in a LONG time where I was glued to the TV the whole time. Even with the Grammys on one channel, the NBA on another, and Veronica Mars (being taped of course) on UPN, this Lost held me captivated for the entire hour. Things HAPPENED. There were twists, turns, and unexpected surprises. The producers took things in a pleasently dark and uncompromising direction, turning Sawyer from a sanitary, FCC-approved and ultimately likable badass into a total, 100 % no-good bastard, a con-man through and through. And the transition worked brilliantly, and for once the flashbacks were actually compelling in their own right and mingled nearly seamlessly with the main plot on the island. If previews are any indication, the writers have finally decided that it's time for business to pick up on the show, and if so I wholeheartedly approve. Great acting all around in this ep. Plot-wise, it's very smart of the writers to recognize that we as viewers are getting sick of Jack, who has become annoyingly self-righteous and whiny. So to see Sawyer put him in his place and assume control of the island was a great turn of the screw. The brilliance is that even as, on the surface, Sawyer becomes the real villain on the island, Jack too becomes a darker character in his insistence on finding the guns on the island. And of course Charlie showed new sides to himself as well. Yeah, it's been a while since I've cared enough about this show to analyze it in this kind of detail. But I'll give 'em credit - this episode gave us something to think about. My grade: A

Quick Hits:

- WHY does it take so long to hear from jobs that one has applied to? Basically it's like this: right now I am either counting down to a new job, or counting down to unemplyment. Either way, it's a matter of weeks for good or ill.

- I hear Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are writing an episode of the US version of The Office? Hmmm ... could be weird, but these are two of the funniest men on the planet so I have faith that they'll bring the funny. And when is that Ricky Gervais-penned Simpsons episode scheduled for again? At the rate that show is going, it will likely be the best episode in years (though on a sidenote, last Sunday's ep wasn't too bad at all, actually).

- Once again, I need a job.

- I think I may just find a rare blue flower that only grows in remote Himalyan mountainsides, ascend to a remote Tibetan hidaway, present said flower to a warrior-monk who guards the inner fortress, fight off a secret clan of mystical samurai, and earn my right to train as a ninja warrior under the tutelage of a gruff but wise one-legged ninja master, so that I could join his tribe of clandestine ninjitsu urban vigilantes. Yep, I think that that actually WOULD be easier than actually finding a job in the entertainment biz. And the pay is probably better.

- Good talk today given to us Pages from Rick Ludwin, head of all Late Night Programming at NBC. Lots of interesting comments and anecdotes - well worth attending.

- Ok, I'm off to become a ninja-master. End transmission.