The Killers: Lost Recapped

I'm certainly not ready to give Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse a pass for the continuity flaws that have plagued this season--the latest one, over Charlotte's age, reeks of laziness, carelessness and just plain incompetence--but "He's Our You" felt like a big middle-finger to all of those Lost fans who thought we would never see how Sayid got on the plane. So to the untold number of irrationals fools who forgot what show they've been watching for the past four seasons, I give you a hearty raspberry. Whatever thought processes you use to watch Lost, try doing the opposite from here on out. I look forward to seeing how Kate and Hurley got on the plane in the coming weeks.

Moving Pictures: The Music of I Love You, Man

One thing I neglected to mention in my review of I Love You, Man was the music cues, which seemed culled from my own personal iTunes library. Everything from Vampire Weekend to Beck to The Flaming Lips to Spoon to The Cars to, of course, Rush. Really well done stuff, even if some of the choices (cough, Vampire Weekend) might feel dated in five years.

The soundtrack is available on iTunes, but unfortunately you can only buy the "entire album" instead of individual songs. Get worse. Of course, the fact that you probably own most of the songs makes this a bit easier to take. However, if you don't, you can just go find them on iTunes by looking at the actual artists. (In your face, Apple!)

For a treat, here's Paul Rudd and Jason Segal covering Rush's prog-rock classic, "Limelight". It's about as awesome as you'd hope.

Limelight - Paul Rudd & Jason Segel

I Really Like You, Man: I Love You, Man Reviewed

Thanks to the winning combination of Paul Rudd and Jason Segal, plus a ridiculous supporting cast that features nearly two dozen hilarious comedic actors and actresses, I Love You, Man is movie that's "critic proof". Like Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist before it, John Hamburg's film is aggressively likeable--you will leave the theater with a smile on your face--and, as a result, it's possible that 2009 has already found its feel good movie for the year.

The Dirty Garage: Funny or Die Parodies Mumblecore

The Dirty Garage - watch more funny videos

I don't usually just post videos without six-hundred words accompanying them, but this is too good to pass up. This complete evisceration/deconstruction of the mumblecore movement is perfect.

Having just seen Alexander the Last a few weekends back, and having had the misfortune of previously watching Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation, I can pretty much attest that this parody is exactly like a real mumblecore movie. Only maybe the acting is a bit better.

Somewhere, Joe Swanberg is shaking his head, earnestly wishing he had thought of this first.

Thirty Years Earlier: Lost Recapped

On the roller coaster that has been season five of Lost, "Namaste" would probably be placed amongst the good episodes. It wasn't flawless (I'll get to that in a moment), but it had enough thrills and laughs and interesting moments to make up for the fact that so much of the show still feels like wheel-spinning--if you can think of any other way to describe the Sun subplot, I'd be interested to hear it. But otherwise, "Namaste" seemed like yet-another-pilot episode: everything is different now, reset. Black is white. Up is down. Past is present. And I'm so dizzy at all the developments that I can hardly tell whether this is good storytelling or bad. After it ended, I just wanted to sit here and mutter in my best Hurley voice, "uh, what?" But I think that's a good thing.

Is Three Years Long Enough to Get Over Someone?: Lost Recapped

In case you were wondering: No, "LaFleur" did not rectify any of the gaping continuity errors that took place during "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham". (Thankfully the crazy maniac known as Herc over at Ain't It Cool News is one of the few other people on the internet who seems justifiably upset with those turn of events.) And while the latest episode of Lost could easily appear on Lostpedia under the heading "Filler", I still enjoyed it pretty much straight through. That's because after seven episodes, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse seem to have finally realized that there is only one person left behind on the Island that anyone actually cares about: Sawyer.

Your 2009 Spring TV Preview

I'm in the print edition of the New York Observer this week with brief preview of all the new television shows airing this spring. Spoiler alert: you have a lot of stuff to start DVR'ing. Here's an excerpt!

If you’re in the market for a more traditional police procedural, check out John Wells’ Southland (NBC, Thursday, April 9, 10 p.m.). After his ER shuffles off this mortal coil for good on April 2, the super-producer will return to the airwaves a week later with this ensemble drama about a group of Los Angeles police officers (one of whom is played by our beloved OC scoundrel, Benjamin McKenzie).

Ryan Atwood for life!

You can read the rest here. Or just go out and buy a newspaper.

Hunky Dory: The Life on Mars Series Finale

As it turns out Life on Mars wasn't "a god-awful small affair", but it clearly wasn't a "best selling show" either. ABC finally dropped the axe on the lowly rated time traveling cop show last night, and, as a fan, I couldn't be more excited.