Programming Note; Also, Did Life Unexpected Meet Expectations?

I really enjoyed Life Unexpected. Love the “non-traditional family” dynamic, Lux seems like a solid teenage protagonist with a brain (unlike the Gossip Girl-types), and both Cate and Nate/Baze seem to be well-drawn (if somewhat stereotypical) characters as her biological-now-somewhat-real parents.

So, to all of you Gilmore Girl fans (or Everwood fans, for that matter), I’d urge you to tune in and give it a chance….I think it gets a re-broadcast on Wednesday night.

Also, I’ve heard from numerous critics (Alan Sepinwall, Ken Tucker, Maureen Ryan) that the show’s pilot is the weakest of its episodes, which is saying something, since I found the pilot pretty charming (albeit not groundbreaking).

Thank you so much for mentioning Everwood, because I would never have looked at this show if you hadn’t. I have freinds who raved about Gilmore Girls but I never really got into it, but I did dig Everwood for the “damn you Berlanti!”* vibe and the round characters.

* I think the phrase “damn you Berlanti” belongs to Television without Pity–from before it was eviscerated. I really miss the TWOP of the good old days.

I’d actually say it’s much more Everwood than Gilmore Girls. Gilmore Girls was more about the rapid-fire, pop-culture laden dialogue, the quirky Stars Hollow characters, and the “best-friends but actually mother-daughter” relationship between Lorelai and Rory. Life Unexpected, like Everwood, is based in a more “real” universe where people do not talk with quite as much wit/rapidity as Lorelai and Rory (although they still speak with humor and brains), and where the familial relationships (or, in this case, the unconventional family relationships) have more of the Everwood-esque “we love each other but we conflict with each other” vibe….

Really, this is where the CW should be going….many of the WB’s shows were ahead of their time in a fashion (Gilmore Girls and Everwood, among them, although I think the best examples might be Buffy and Veronica Mars), so the CW’s path to success might not be with rebooting old pop culture shows that no one needed to see again (i.e. 90210 and Melrose), but actually turning back towards their own “ahead of their time” shows that were moderate successes/cult classic failures (much as they’ve been able to do successfully with the Buffy-esque Vampire Diaries, although the latter is not tonally identical to Buffy, and lack’s much of Buffy’s charm).

(In fact, in light of CBS announcing plans to remake Hawaii 5-0, the whole re-make idea brings up an excellent point from Bill Hader of Saturday Night Live: why remake successful shows? Why not remake something that was a clever idea but never really worked the first time?)

I thought the critic pull quote of “It’s Juno meets Gilmore Girls” was kind of strange. I thought Juno and GG were similar in style and tone with all the pop culture references. This didn’t have a lot of that type of dialogue. I liked the show. I just don’t see the comparison between GG and Juno.

Just curious, is the king-sized assignment going to be on Late Shift II or are you finally going to make the case in a thorough, exhaustively researched and argued piece that Donal Logue is the best actor on televison? You can tell us.

While James is working — we are two weeks from the start of the final season of Lost.

So….Lost Discussion Group, anybody? At least, let’s start gearing up some questions for James to use….I’ll start:

1) Lost season premieres are known for their awesome first scenes….so, how will the final season start? Describe the opening scene of Season 6 as specifically as possible.

2) When will we as an audience “know” what happened after Juliet hit the bomb with a rock? By that, I mean — pick an episode (or a point in an episode) where we will get a definitive answer of what happened in lieu of the cliff-hanging ending to Season 5.

3) Who lives, and who dies? (And remember, no spoilers — only guesses based on what we’ve seen on the show so far, and what characters’ arcs have finished).

4) Pick a favorite character, and tell us — what would be a satisfying resolution to their character arc? (This question may be key, since Lindelof and Cuse have focused on wrapping up characters, rather than mysteries, as the endgame of the show in interviews…)

Any more?

I’ll take a crack at 1)

Interior shot of a bedroom, all white. Giant room length window above a bed with white sheets. Sun is streaming through. We see a low shot of a woman’s bare legs first getting out of the bed,, then her naked back as she puts something on. That angle shows someone lying on the bed, a man, we see his arm. The woman has blond hair.

Tracking shot of her going downstairs, into a big, upper middle class kitchen. Then tight shot of a cabinet being opened, coffee taken out. Cut to the machine starting. Shot of a stereo remote as the woman picks it up and aims it a stereo. Music blares (This is an opening scene of Lost, after all). The record is People Get Ready, There’s A Train Coming by Curtis Mayfield.

The woman, with her back still to us, makes the coffee. We then have a shot of her in front of the sink, drinking coffee and staring out a kitchen window. The house faces a beach, but the kitchen is the second story so there’s still a view. It appears to have trees and sand, and an endpoint. It appears to be an island. Cut to the woman’s face. It’s Claire. As she is listening to the music, there is an ironic smile on her lips.

Just then, arms envelop her waist and the face of the man who sat with Jacob, the one we call Esau nuzzles hers. He asks “Did you sleep well?” Claire: “Ummm,” She appears very normal and alert and still with that smile on her face. Then she turns around and they have a long kiss. End Scene. Cue title.

Two weeks? Maybe I need to queue up Lost on the Netflix. I’m a Lost virgin, and I wanted to wait until the thing was all over, then watch it all at once. But if I do that, I’ll definitely see spoilers by accident, so maybe I’d better get with it now.

Hopefully neither.

Actually, continue scene. While they kiss, a big boom goes off. The utensils rattle. Both unlock, startled. Then shot of Esau with a knowing look on his face. They both turn to the window. Vantage shot from window of a faint white object getting closer. Reveal of an airplane, going down. But it is still far away from them. The plane goes under the trees, enveloped in green. Close up of Claire, scrunched face, hopeful eyes. She says “Will it have him on board?” Plaintive voice. Esau-”No, not this one. I guess this one means I have to go.” Claire-”Oh, right. How will you…” trails off. Esau understands and simply says, “Locke.” Cut to him going downstairs and out the door. Claire sits at the kitchen table, slurps her coffee, and says to no one “Serves him right, the bastard.” End. Cue title.

Yeah, it might be a little tough to break down 100+ episodes in 2 weeks. Still, you could probably make it through in 4 weeks of intense watching, then catch up on the first 3-4 episodes of this year via Hulu or your DVR???

I, for one, will be watching the finale live, so as to have nothing spoiled…

Rosseau — I love the crazy way your mind works. If that’s the start of the show, what the HECK does that all mean?

I’m going to need some time to figure my opening out….but it definitely wouldn’t have been as mind-bending as yours.

Chaddogg-Thanks brother. And what a great party game you came up with. I had fun with it. Can’t wait for whatever actual opening they have.

[...] do you think the first scene/image of the premiere will be? (A couple of you took a stab at that in the comments last week; feel free to repost [...]