- Okay, won't waste any time here and will just jump right into last night's LOST. Wow, now that was an episode. I have to say though, it really is amazing how any given episode of Lost can inspire such a wide variety of opinions. I think Lost has had a couple of truly canonical episodes that everyone can agree are among the series' best, but it seems like the more standard-issue episodes can prove to be pretty divisive. I mean, I was shocked to see The AV Club rate last night's episode a "B." To me, after a couple of very good episodes that ultimately felt like they were treading water to some degree, last night's ep really delivered a lot of the emotional payoff we've been waiting for.
As I was saying to someone earlier, sometimes Lost has its characters act in ways that don't quite make sense given what they've been through. Last night though, I really thought the writers did a brilliant job of rationalizing each characters' choices, taking into account what they've slowly begun to learn about the rules of time-travel, fate, and destiny. That topic in and of itself has been dealt with in a fascinating manner, and I loved Miles and Hurley's geeky conversation about the laws of space and time last night - tongue in cheek so as not to be too jarring, but at the same time really giving voice to the same questions that we the audience have been asking. I don't buy the argument that it was too expository, because the conversation was presented in a way so as to lightly poke fun at the inevitable questions that Lost's time-travel plotlines have inspired.
The great script was helped by some amazing acting from the always-great cast. I think this was the best acting job we've yet seen from Evangeline Lilly - she completely sold everything in this episode - and helped make the grocery store scene in the flashback legitimately terrifying. And man, just the look on Michael Emerson's face in that final scene when he woke up to see Locke alive and well - holy crap, so awesome.
I even thought they did a fantastic job fleshing out Ben's father a bit - for the first time he got a chance to be slightly sympathetic, and you really did wonder what might have happened had Kate and Sawyer not brought Ben to Richard and the Others. You have to wonder what kind of craziness awaits young Ben at the hands of the Others, and you also have to wonder if older Ben might now have any recollection of his previous encounters with Sayid, Sawyer, Kate, etc.
Again though, I was just seriously impressed with how tightly this episode dealt with all of the twistiness of time-travel in conjunction with some real character evolutions for the likes of Jack, Sawyer, Kate, and Juliette. Jack's decision not to personally intervene to help save young Ben makes sense, but it's also true that it represents a real shift in his character that's been building for a while now.
So to me, this was the best Lost episode in several weeks. Awesome stuff. And by the way, I was on record as saying there was nooo way Ben would be dead, and also predicted that Sayid shooting him would lead to Ben being taken under the care of the Others. Hate to say I told you so, but ...
My Grade: A
- Alright, while I'm talking about Lost, I may as well talk about a work that helped to inspire the show in some ways, WATCHMEN.
WATCHMEN: TALES OF THE BLACK FREIGHTER Review:
- One of my favorite parts of the Watchmen comic is the story-within-a-story, Tales From the Black Freighter. So much of Watchmen is about deconstructing the history of comic books, and the grisly comic read by a young bookworm in the Watchmen universe is a great tribute to the violent and controverial EC Comics of the 1950's. The violent, sexual, and ultra-pulpy EC comics of that era, like Tales From the Crypt, were made a target of the government and were singled out as being subversive and inappropriate for children. The attacks on EC and the implementation of a Comics Code that limited what kind of content could be in the books ultimately led to the company going under. But their legacy lived on, in movies, TV, and via Watchmen, which even features former EC contributor and pulp comics master Joe Orlando as a sort of meta-character within the narrative. Suffice it to say, Tales From the Black Freighter works as a parallel story in Watchmen for a number of narrative and metatextual reasons ... but beyond that, it's just plain cool and certifiably badass.
So I was really excited to see how Zack Snyder and co would adapt it, and I rushed out to buy the Tales From the Black Freighter DVD, which featured the animated pirate adaptation along with a faux-documentary, Under the Hood, that includes a lot of the supplemental content from the graphic novel that helped to give the world of Watchmen its historical context.
The Tales of the Black Freighter animated piece was really well-done. Gerard Butler's gravelly voice is a perfect fit to provide our grim hero's ominous narration. Overall, the animation is well done, and the imagery is as disturbing and haunting as it was in Alan Moore's comic. I did think that the art style felt a little too generic given the material. It would have been awesome to see the animation done in a manner that truly paid homage to the likes of Joe Orlando's old-school EC Comics art or Dave Gibbons' original Watchmen illustrations, but what we get feels like a slightly darker version of the old Don Bluth animation or something. Not that that's inherently bad, but it didn't quite evoke the old pulp comics in the same manner that Dave Gibbons was able to do in the Watchmen comic.
Overall though, I quite enjoyed the animated piece and I am really excited to see it cut into the actual Watchmen film, hopefully in conjunction with some additional footage of the comic's old newsman and the kid who frequents his stand. The behind-the-scenes featurettes indicate that there is more footage featuring both characters, so again, can't wait to see how this important aspect of the graphic novel ultimately makes it into the Director's Cut of the film.
On a final note, it was cool that the song "Pirate Jenny" from the Threepenny Opera was used as the end-credits theme here. It's well known that the original version of the song helped inspire Alan Moore's story, but I had never actually heard it before. Suffice to say, the haunting rendition here by Nina Simone is a great way to put an exclamation point on the morbid tale of the Black Freighter.
As for Under the Hood, there is some really cool footage to be found in the faux-documentary, and I loved the 70's-style presentation, complete with period-appropriate ads. We even get a cool ad for "Nostalgia," the Adrian Veidt-conceived brand that is featured so prominently in the Watchmen comics.
There's not a ton of meat to the documentary though, and the featured cast is a bit all over the place. Steven McHattie does an awesome job as Hollis Mason, and really excels at acting in an improvisational way that stays true to the documentary format. When he tells tales of the old days fighting crime with the Minutemen, and talks about the mysterious Hooded Justice or the trials before the House of Un-American Activities, you can't help but be fascinated. Carla Gugino and Edgar Jacobi are decent as Sally Jupiter and Moloch, respectively, but neither is quite as good doing the improv style acting as McHattie. On the other hand, a couple of the featured actors are way too over the top, like the guy playing a former colleague of Dr. Manhattan's.
I guess with both pieces, there is a lot to like, but both are short enough that they feel more like a snack than a full meal. As someone who was dying to see how Tales of the Black Freighter would be adapted, I'm glad I picked up the DVD. But I'm definitely happy I got the bare-bones DVD version - this is not one that justifies a deluxe edition or blu-ray purchase. There's a nice behind-the-scenes piece and the first episode of the Watchmen motion comic thrown in as well, but still, there is not a ton of content.
That said, this is a worthwhile pickup for the hardcore Watchmen fan.
My Grade: B+
- Alright, so long for now and "welcome to the land of the living."
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