commentary | Spectacularry.com

IT’S NOT SO MUCH A MATTER OF WHERE WE ARE, BUT WHEN WE ARE

Posted on 01 February 2012 by Larry

I really, really want to like Alcatraz, but it’s just not the English major Super Bowl that LOST was. One of the drawbacks of the Alcatraz set-up is that it’s the anti-LOST. The reverse of the LOST premise. Instead of wondering what’s happening to all the pretty people on the mysterious Island, we’re wondering what’s happening with the premise. Instead of cluing in on approachable characters, who the audience roots for to solve the mystery that unfolds in puzzle pieces, in Alcatraz the audience is presented a mystery and then doled out characters who themselves are puzzle pieces in the strange goings-on. If these two shows were desserts, LOST would be a great big cake with a gooey inside, and Alcatraz would be a collection of eggs, flour and sugar on the counter which will be a tasty cake someday with a little application of effort. I’m not saying it’s not a cake; it’s just not a cake yet. Which I suppose is appropriate for a show that hinges on time-travel of some sort.

Alcatraz, Television

VOTE FOR ME

Posted on 25 January 2012 by Larry

One of the easiest ways to get the audience on your side right away is to put a little kid into jeopardy. Parents will freak out and join the story right away for obvious reasons, and everyone else recognizes the drama inherent when there is an innocent in trouble. But it’s a cheat. It’s like Brad Pitt showing up on Friends during sweeps week; it’s like having a 20 year old Dominican pitching your Little League game. It happens, and the that’s how the world works, but folks paying attention find it distasteful nonetheless.

Alcatraz, Television

THAT’S MORE LIKE IT

Posted on 17 January 2012 by Larry

One of the things that most Lost wannabes fell short on was the big splash in the first ten minutes. When the inciting mystery of The Event could be figured out just from the marketing in the months before the show aired, that doesn’t really bode well for mystery fans. Threshold, Surface… there was so much odd stuff happening before I knew anything about the characters it was just hard to see anything in it other than show runners trying to parse why everyone loved Lost so much. It’s the smoke monster and the time travel and onion-layer of the mystery, right? Where those previous shows missed the boat is obvious: they were trying to replicate the commercial success of Lost without understanding why the story resonated with the audience, first.

Alcatraz, Television

LOOSE CANON

Posted on 11 February 2011 by Larry

The trailer for the new X-Men movie was released yesterday, and it actually looks quite good. This doesn’t tell any long-time readers of my stuff anything, though, because it is well-known that I am easily entertained. I know how hard it is to produce a good story in a collaborative medium, and I know well-intentioned creators don’t wake up in the morning, enthusiastically greeting the day so they can half-ass some story for you. So I try to find things to like in even obviously weak or failed entertainments, because somebody was working hard even if it all doesn’t come together at the end.

Movies

DAHNAH NAH, DAHNAH NAH, DAHNAH NAH, DAHNAH NAH, DAHNAHNAH DUHNUH-DAH! DAHNAHNAH DUHNUH-DAH!

Posted on 03 January 2011 by Larry

The missus and I were commenting on how great the teaser is in the structure of most Doctor Who episodes, and what really makes it work is the awesome eeeeeoooorrrooowww sting that caps the scene and starts the theme song:

Television

TWO GUYS SITTING AROUND EMAILING EACH OTHER ABOUT INCEPTION

Posted on 11 August 2010 by Larry

Faithful readers of the Lost-era Spectacularry will well remember EJ Feddes, he of the erudite mien and scapel-like deftness of pen. Having traded a bunch of emails with the lad, I felt confident enough after having seen Inception to send him a missive unto the ether and tell him he’d probably love it, too:

Movies

OLEANDERS GROWING OUTSIDE HER DOOR

Posted on 06 August 2010 by Larry

I’m still trying to decide how I feel about the last episode of Lost, what that means for how I interacted with Season Six as an audience member, and how that colors how I feel about the series as a whole. Superficially, I can tell you I still enjoyed my time with it, but as of right this second I feel like my pal John Singh: “it’s beginning to get me really upset that the Lost folks have turned their back on the whole thing. They (the producers) won’t talk about it, won’t admit that they didn’t cover basics (like, ‘Why Tunisia?’) and won’t cop to any sort of acknowledgement of the disappointment some of us feel. So, rather than build my devotion and faith in Lost, they’re losing it by leaving it to the fans to sort this all out with even MORE wild theories, none of which will ever be supported (or disproved) by anything they say, apparently. SIMPLY PUT: I was in love. They changed and became something I couldn’t recognize. I am resentful of this, and I don’t know if I love them anymore.”

LOST, Television

ENGLISH MAJOR SUPER BOWL

Posted on 24 May 2010 by Larry

On September 22, 2004, a TV show began with the lead character flying home with his father’s coffin. I’d been flying back and forth to Georgia as my father was dying of cancer, and, ten days later, he did. So of course with Lost‘s overt themes of life and death, parents and children, and rampant spirituality, it made a strange sort of sense that I’d become immersed in a show that seemed to be addressing many of the challenges I was living through at the time.

LOST, Props, Television

AND NOW A MASSAGE FROM THE SWEDISH PRIME MINISTER

Posted on 19 May 2010 by Larry

Is it just me, or does everyone think they are getting coded messages from the Lost writers and producers in the dialogue of this show? Last week it was the Nonsense Monster telling us to not worry about asking questions because that only brings up more questions that we won’t get answers to, and this week it was every other character telling someone to just “try and let go.” I am alternately filled with dread and relief that this damn show is over Sunday night. So, yeah, have at it:

LOST, Television

SAY “WHAT” AGAIN! I DARE YOU! I DOUBLE DARE YOU! SAY “WHAT” ONE MORE GODDAMN TIME!

Posted on 12 May 2010 by Larry

Here at the end, the show doesn’t much lend itself to analysis anymore. Especially so last night’s ep, which explained a lot of the mythology and yet had no members of the regular cast. I think that was a ballsy and awesome storytelling choice, and if you disagree, you probably didn’t like the end of The Sopranos, either. So instead of some analysis, here’s just some observations:

LOST, Television