Who the Hell Is Nikki? LOST, THE WALKING DEAD, and MORE

- On last night's LOST:

On one hand, I really, really admired what this episode was trying to do. I loved the Twilight Zone / Alfred Hitchock-ish ending, and I appreciated the attempt at being quirky in a Daren Morgan-on-X-Files kind of way. Still, this episode felt like it had too much padding, and never quite broke through from the realm of merely "entertaining" into the category of "brilliant." Part of it was that Nikki and Paulo just weren't that great a pair of characters. Sure, there's only so much fleshing out that can be done in one hour, but I just never really "got" why, even after being stranded on an island for months, Nikki was willing to kill Paulo over a bunch of diamonds. Okay, she didn't kill him, just threw a paralysis-inducing medusa spider at his jugular. But still, the sentiment was there. Some of this ambiguity about the characters has to be attributed to the actors, who never really elevated the writing in any meaningful way. Nikki was never really shown as anything more than a conniving, D-list golddigger, and Paulo was, well, I really have no idea what Paulo's deal was, why he hid the diamonds, or why he ever agreed to go along with Nikki's con to begin with (other than her obvious, um, assets ...). I will say though, that it was pretty clever how the show's new favorite power couple was woven into many of Lost's "greatest hits" moments. In doing so, we got a few cool new insights into prior plot points. Especially interesting was the scene of Paulo listening in to Ben and Juliette's machinations in the hatch (except, remind me again why The Others at times dress like they're in a school play of Robin Hood?). My one big complaint with these types of scenes though (and I had the same issue with Smallville a few weeks ago) is that we are often forced to re-view long sections of past episodes just for the sake of inserting these new characters into them. Look! It's the Lost pilot justl ike you remembered it the first time, except that this time, Nikki and Paulo are there! See, they WERE there all along! This is what comic book fans commonly refer to as a "retcon," a retroactive alteration of a story's continuity for the sake of making new plot elements fit into an already established backstory. Now, while this retcon did give us a few cool scenes, and brought back fun characters like Shannon, Boone, and good ol' Artz (and who knew Artz was such a horndog?), it wasn't exactly subtle in its premise that Nikki and Paulo had been key players in the Lost mythology all along. And since they weren't especially compelling characters, and since their motives on the island weren't all that interesting (finding a sack of stolen diamonds), many of these flashbacks kind of dragged. Luckily, we had the present-day mystery of N and P's apparent deaths, and in these scenes we got Josh Halloway in rare form as Sawyer. His opening exchange with Hurley was classic. "Nikki's dead." "Okay, but who in the hell is Nikki?" That oddball sense of humor set the tone for the rest of the episode, although the quirkiness and humor was never really maintained throughout. In terms of humor and cleverness, this was no "Jose Chung's From Outer Space," or "Small Potatoes" (to cite some of the classic "quirky" X-Files episodes). Sawyer and Hurley had some great lines, some interesting randomness in the form of Billy Dee Williams as himself, and yes, I got a kick out of Paulo's $%&#-taking ways finally being explained. Still, this felt like an episode where many of the cool moments were padded with filler. I will say though that the sheer coolness of the buried-alive ending really helped redeem the episode for me, and made an otherwise decent episode into a much more memorable affair. I'd also caution those who think this was a purely standalone episode, because I have a feeling that we haven't seen the last of these two. As Locke said, nothing on the island stays buried for long.

My Grade: B

- And next week on Lost ... Catfiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight~!

- Help save Veronica Mars. Vote on E! Online's poll right now!
http://www.eonline.com/polls/full_page_poll.jsp?pollID=6084

- Quick Sunday night FOX thoughts:

a.) The SIMPSONS was okay, and had some of the funnier lines in a while, most relating to the A-plot of Homer becoming an amateur member of the papparazzi. Still, it took like 15 minutes for this plot to get into gear, and overall things felt very uneven. In the glory days, this would have been a story that started in the first act and given time to develop. My Grade: B

b.) KING OF THE HILL was pretty damn funny, and I welcomed its return to TV with open arms. Who wouldda thunk it - Tom Petty is brilliant on this show as slow-talking Lucky. Lucky's oral history of his family's quest to uproot a rare tree stump was flat out hilarious. And Hank HIll remains one of my favorite characters in that you can't help but love his simultaneous weariness of Luck and his childlike glee at the prospect of goin' stumpin'. My Grade: A -

c.) Man, FAMILY GUY continues to suck. It's so sad to watch. This episode had barely one joke that even registered as remotely funny, and the flashbacks seem to get more random and unfunny with each passing week. My Grade: D

OTHER STUFF:

- I don't think I've yet mentioned this, but the deleted scenes on the BORAT dvd are amazing! Two scenes in particular - one with Borat in a massage parlor, and one where Borat hassles a grocery store clerk, are possibly more funny than anything in the actual movie! I'm STILL laughing over that grocery store scene two weeks later.

- This morning I somehow recived like 5 phone calls between 8 and 8:30 am. Who calls at that time? Unless it's an emergency, don't call me then! I freak out and think it's someone from work calling to tell me I missed an early meeting or something. People -- be mindful of someone's schedule. If you IM me at 6:55 pm, I'm most likely at work and desperately trying to leave. Not a good time to catch up. Word.

- More and more rumblings about a second X-FILES movie, with David Duchovny claiming a deal will be done as soon as this week. As a diehard X-Phile, I would love to see this happen before the show's two stars are using walkers and eating out of tubes. Realistically though, this is probably the last and only shot they'll get to do more X-Files, so if it happens, it had better be good!

- YES! I just read that a new edition of FLETCH will be released on DVD in May. One of my all time favorite comedies, and movies in general. Also, greatest soundtrack ever.

- Speaking of 80's cult classics, Kurt Russell on why no one else should play Snake Plissken but him: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20015465,00.html

- Some quick COMICS stuff:

- THE WALKING DEAD is simply an incredible read. Several months ago I blew through the first three volumes but had yet to purchase Volume 4 until recently. And once again, as soon as I began the latest chapter in this story of a band of ragtag survivors in a world overrun with, well, the walking dead, I couldn't stop reading. Writer Robert Kirkman does an amazing job of putting the focus squarely on his characters, and making them into living, breathing creations. Imagine a show like 24, where it's established that no character is safe from biting the big one, where virtually anything can happen at anytime. Now imagine that same atmosphere of intense, life or death drama, except in a story where every character, from A to Z, is completely three dimensional and where, as a reader, you have a huge emotional stake in their well-being. Anyways, Volume 4 is where things kind of reach a boiling point. The group has already suffered heavy losses, but until now the core characters have at least had each other's backs. Here, Rick and Tyrese, usually like brothers, erupt into an all out brawl as the simmering tensions between them come to a head. The amazing thing here is that Kirkman clouds even the quiet moments with an impending feeling of dread and danger. Whenever characters go on a scouting mission, we never know if it will be just another routine outing, or the catalyst for some unforseen diasaster. As with all great horror movies, reading the Walking Dead, even through the character bits and interpersonal drama, has you on the edge of your seat, waiting breathlessly for the other shoe to drop. In addition, the artwork by Charlie Adlard is deceptively simple, but always effective, perfectly complimenting the writing and giving each character a distince and immediately identifiable look and personality.This is a must-read, one of my favorite pieces of fiction I've read in years - and this is coming from someone who's never been all that into zombies or even horror fiction as a whole. Forget all that, this is one of the best character-driven suspense dramas you'll find.

My Grade: A

- Have I mentioned how awesome God of War II is?

- Alright, I'm about done for today. ROCK.