A Lost Gem: Confidence Man

Earlier this week, my roommate started watching my favorite television show of all time, Lost. Lucky for me, her headphones broke so I've gotten the pleasure to listen along. Last night, we watched episode 8 from season 1, "Confidence Man," as I requested viewing privilege. And, while I may be biased as the episode featured my favorite character Sawyer, it settled all those silly notions in my head that shows I currently love are better.

The always sexy Josh Holloway, who is starring in a new CBS drama Intelligence that comes out in January. Everyone should watch.

The simple plot of "Confidence Man" is that Shannon has an asthma attack and is in dire need of her inhaler, which she lost during the crash. Jack and Sayid torture Sawyer, as it is assumed that he's hiding it. In the end, it's revealed that he doesn't have it. However, the episode encompasses a lot more than just that.

As always, the episode is filled with flashbacks from the featured character's past. We dive into Sawyer's life as a con artist. Another show that uses flashbacks is Orange is the New Black. I hated the way OITNB did their flashbacks. They kinda pulled me out of the story as opposed to bringing me further in and it's one of the main reasons I stopped watching after a couple episodes. Watching Lost reminded me how flashbacks should be done. They connect to the given storyline on the island, although the connection may not be obvious until later in the episode. In "Confidence Man," Sawyer's flashbacks explain why he takes punches from Jack and torture from Sayid instead of telling them the truth - that he doesn't have Shannon's inhaler. When he forces Kate to read the letter aloud, we think that Sawyer's con in his flashbacks is the con that killed a little boy's parents. However, we later discover that he wrote the letter when he was a little boy and it was his parents. He takes these punches and torturing as punishment he believes he deserves for becoming like the man who ruined his childhood.

My poor baby being tortured.

Keeping with flashbacks adding onto the island storyline, the transition from island to flashback is awesome. Just generally, the score in Lost is absolutely fantastic. Seriously, go listen to it if you haven't already admired the score of the entire series. Well done, Michael Giacchino. Also, they always use a close-up on the featured character for the transition, which gives the idea that it's the character who recalls these moments. We then are brought back to the island and see the character make actions based off of recalling that moment from their past.

And still, the episode does more than the main plot and flashbacks. Every second in the episode is essential to the story. They move every plot at least a tad bit further whether you realize it or not. For instance, when Michael gives Sun the plants she is looking for and Jin calls out to her from behind. That tension planted in the pilot continues to build. Another example is Claire and Charlie. A seed is planted in this episode: Charlie and Claire's relationship. In the beginning of the episode, she says she'll move to the caves if Charlie can find her peanut butter. He comes back later in the episode with an empty jar and pretends to eat peanut butter with Claire. Too cute.

"This is the best bloody peanut butter I've ever tasted."

It's only now, after I've gone through the struggles of writing "Cracked," that I can appreciate how much is in every episode of Lost. It's truly a talent to be able to fit so much into 43 minutes. Every episode is just as jam-packed as the last, but it doesn't feel that way watching it at all. Until you sit down to write a blog post and realize how well written and timed the whole thing is and find yourself marveling over how unbelievably talented Damon Lindelof is (and all the other show writers).

As a whole, I have to say that Lost knows how to handle an ensemble cast better than any other show I've seen. Each character's story is intriguing and re-watching has made me realize how many seeds they plant without the viewer realizing. Example: In a different episode, when Walt beats Hurley in backgammon, he says "Hey, you owe me $20,000!" and Hurley replies "Don't worry, you'll get your money!" And of course we think haha oh Hurley, you always crack me up. But give it maybe 5 or 6 more episodes and we discover that Hurley won majorly in the lottery in his past. It's these little seeds, that I'm only able to appreciate now that I'm seeing it all again, that make Lost so genius.

Lost holds a special place in my heart. It's the reason I'm going into the television industry and attending Ithaca College and taking this course and writing this blog post. Lost sold me on this medium of storytelling, because they incorporated everything I was looking for. And for this reason, it will always be my most influential television show.

Batman vs. Superman: not just a 2015 event

There's been a lot of buzz going around recently about the new 'Batman vs. Superman' movie coming out in 2015. Much of it has been directed at Ben Affleck, who was just confirmed as the new Batman. These two characters are getting a lot of attention right now with the Dark Knight series well on their way and the Superman series just starting up again. Their history goes far beyond the last 5 years though, and I'd thought it'd be fun to take a quick peak at what these characters have gone through in the past.

Firstly, let's go back to the dinosaur ages of 1966. Phrases like "gee wiz" were actually said, as you'll notice only 4 minutes into this episode from the Batman TV series:

The series was never viewed as especially good though, and they clearly had a struggling budget. 

Okay, maybe they were struggling with a little more then their budget. But before this show even existed, there was the "Adventures of Superman" TV show that started back when the pyramids were being built. AKA 1952. 

Moving way ahead in time though, this cartoon was released just last year and features an epic battle between Batman and Superman. I feel like this may give us a good idea of what to expect from the new movie coming in 2015, except instead of a cartoon it's real people and a sh*t load of special effects. 

Kiefer Sutherland

     My single favorite show of all time is 24.  The show follows the character Jack Bauer who is a federal agent that stops terrorists from destroying the country.  The idea of the show is that this terrorist attack takes place within the course of 24 hours.  Each episode is an hour long and the show builds on itself with worse and worse things happening while Jack Bauer saves the day whether he gets into trouble or not.  The character of Bauer is an extremely well trained fearless person who will do whatever it takes to save his country which rarely thanks him or pays him back.  The show is extremely well casted and should go down in television history as one of the best.
     The show first aired in 2001 on Fox and was an immediate hit.  I started watching the show during its second season and I fell in love.  The show aired for 8 seasons over the course of 9 years because of the writers strike in 2007-2008.  This was Sutherland's break through TV show that received 9 awards for through many different ceremonies and 7 of the awards were for Sutherland's performance.  The show also received countless nominations for awards especially during seasons 4 and 5.

     Since the show ended in 2010 Sutherland has been playing small roles in a few movies and has made some cameo appearances.  His latest work is staring in a new television series called Touch which is also aired by Fox.  I have not seen the show yet but maybe I will start watching the second season and love it just like 24, I highly doubt something like that will happen but I love Kiefer as an actor.

Arrow pilot

On October 10, 2012, the world premiere of the new show Arrow was aired on the CW.  Arrow is a new tv show about a superhero, and is based off of the fictional character "Green Arrow" from DC Comics.

There has only been one episode released so far, but I feel like I already know the storyline for the rest of the season, or maybe even seasons.  The main character, Oliver Queen, played by Stephen Arnell, is a found billionaire playboy.  He is found on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean after his yacht was shipwrecked.  He returns home and you find out he has developed almost superhuman capabilities on the island.  I have never read the comic, so whether there is more to the story (which there probably is) I am unaware of it at this point.  He plans to use these abilities to become a Bruce Wayne/Batman-esk vigilante.  He sets up his "bat cave" or headquarters in an abandoned warehouse and proceeds to start his take-down of what seems to be a corrupt corporate world in his city.

The story also has many sub-plots as well.  There is the typical romance with the woman who cant get to close because he is dangerous and has broke her heart and all that.  There are also obvious family issues that he must resolve and survive.

Overall I thought it was pretty good.  Executive producers and developers are Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg.  I would recommend you watch the pilot because it would help explain pretty much everything even though you could probably grasp it if you decided to jump in.  It aires Wednesday nights on the CW.