Finished watching the third episode of season 5, Jughead, tonight.

Thoughts:

Who else is excited about the new Vampire Diaries episodes? I gotta admit that I was suprised when they stopped showing new ones without any warning. I just hope that they keep the rest of the show clean.

Season 8 of 24 begins this weekend, with 2 hours aired both Sunday and Monday nights. It'll be interesting to see how they resolve the cliffhanger that ended last season. This season begins in New York.

Apparently there was a lot of concern among Lost fans (expressed online on Facebook groups and Twitter) that the State of the Union address might be scheduled to preempt the season 6 premiere February 2. The White House has announced that the address will not occur that evening. Read more in this Toronto Star article.

Stargazer, here's a nice bit of satire on the whole Obama vs Lost debacle. It plays on the idea (okay - reality) that many Lost fans pull apart the smallest details to find answers.
http://thevertexblog.com/cortex/what-ob ... about-lost

I'm looking forward to 24 too. I just hope this season improves on the last two.

Well,
I'm getting ready to begin this year's season of American Idol

Aww, is it already time for that again?

American Idol is awesome. This season is Simon Cowell's last sadly though

That article is pretty humorous, Warrior. Thanks. It definitely is a tongue-in-cheek look at the way Losties look for significance in just about every tiny detail.

Today my rewatch brought me to episode 5.11, "Whatever Happened, Happened." This line has become the time travel mantra of Lost, already having been quoted a couple times by the Island's resident physicist.

A couple things I liked were the

Yes, the geek moments make it so worth it!

Lost: Final Season cast spoiler:

I'm getting antsy about Lost after I read an excerpt from some official blog online where Cuse and Lindelhof say in so many words that there may be "a lot of people who don't like how the show ends", and that not all our big questions will be answered. My teeth are literally grinding. I'm hoping they don't opt to do some artsy-fartsy lame-o ending to the series. My wife just got me all 5 current seasons on DVD and if they pull some idiotic "the journey is more important than the destination" routine as an excuse for a goofy ending I'll put the whole set on eBay and they (Cuse & Lindelhof) will earn my enmity. Don't drop the ball, boys.

If my fingers cross any harder they'll fall off from oxygren deprivation.

I remember reading awhile back that they said they didn't plan on revealing all of the answers to the Island weirdness. I believe the analogy they used was when George Lucas revealed the existence of midi-chlorians in Episode I and turned the Force from this mysterious mystical thing into something people can use because they have weird little creatures floating around in them. I don't think learning why the Island can do all it does would ruin anything, but that's just me.

Yes, I'm a bit nervous but I think we need to have faith in these guys. They haven't failed us yet (except several moments in mid-Season 3). I think what they mean is that people have so many theories about what could happen and once the show has finished there will a definite ending (and not all will be happy with this).
Damon and Carlton have said they will answer all the big questions but that fans have made big things of some things that they never intended to answer (or needed answering). I seriously doubt that they're not trying their best but in the end it's their vision and they will tell the story how they've always intended. Can't please everyone.

I just hope we find out why Aaron is so important.

I'm one of those people who prefers the 'mystical' explanation of the Force (in the original movie) to the silly midi-chlorian business. But I understand what you mean.

On the whole, the series has been very good, and season 5 among my favorites, so I am optimistic that it will go out well.

Damon and Carlton have said they will answer all the big questions but that fans have made big things of some things that they never intended to answer (or needed answering).

Definitely true! An example they cited was the death of a character (I don't recall which one) which was presented in a straight-forward fashion on screen but fans sought deeper meaning to. Their response was that there was no deeper meaning intended.

Another example is the Numbers. They've commented that while they've had fun going crazy putting them in everywhere, there's no great meaning to them beyond what's been mentioned before...so fans expecting some additional explanation of them will be disappointed.

I'm reminded of other shows in which fans have attached meaning to scenes not originally intended to be deeply significant by the writers. An example well-known to Gargoyles fans came in an episode called "The Gathering," in which one character whispers something in another's ear. What she said was never revealed, perhaps (at least in part) because the show was prematurely canceled. But the series creator has been repeatedly asked what was said, and he's never revealed it, indicating that no matter what it was, fans would be disappointed after asking about it all these years.

(Incidentally, when Sawyer whispered something to Kate in the Lost season 4 finale, I couldn't help thinking of the Gargoyles scene and wondered if we'd find out what it was. In this case, we did).

Oh, I don't like midi-chlorians either.

Me either.
I feel that they will leave the questions about the mystical/scientific properties of the Island largely unanswered but that they will answer what they feel needs answering. And that's the way it should be because getting all the answers to the pertinent questions would be great but a certain level of mystery/of the unknown is what makes LOST so fascinating and enthralling. Knowing that midi-chlorians are what powers the Force (or whatever) takes that awe away. We don't want that to happen to LOST.

I feel that the Numbers have already been answered for those who want it, referring to The Valenzetti Equation - the equation that predicts the countdown to the end of the world (not in the show itself but in the LOST Experience segments). I don't need any more of an explanation.