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LOST: the best show in a generation

A lot of people like television. I’m not one of those people. In fact, until my fiancé moved in with me, I hadn’t had a TV for almost 10 years. And why should I watch TV? When I want news, the internet is a better source. When I want entertainment, I watch a movie, play a game, or chat with friends. I find most TV programs to be insultingly bad. Two shows have broken through my dislike of television though: The Daily Show, a satirical news show, and LOST, the best drama on television. I’ll write about The Daily Show in another entry. Today I’ll write about LOST and tell you why it's the best show in a generation.

LOST is the story of a group of people who struggle to survive after a plane crash on a mysterious island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The first season had about 12 main characters. Here are some of them: Jack, a doctor, Kate, who was running from the police, Charlie, an ex-rock star, Claire, a young pregnant woman, Sawyer, a small-time criminal, Jin and Sun, a Korean couple, Hurley, who had won the lottery, and Locke, a crippled man somehow restored to health by the island. At first the story is about their survival on the island as they wait and hope to be rescued, and the conflicts between them and the “native” inhabitants of the island, but quickly the characters realize that the island is a mysterious place where strange things happen and they are tied up in a larger story of the island’s destiny.

I started watching the first season as a way to study Japanese, actually, but became too interested in it. My fiancé and I would borrow the DVD from Tsutaya and watch it first in English, with English subtitles for her to practice her English. I would write down the difficult vocabulary for her to review later. Then we would watch it again in Japanese with Japanese subtitles, and I would practice my English. We did this for the first two seasons and really enjoyed it. Eventually we got too wrapped up in the story and we wanted to watch more episodes faster, so we just watched them in English. One night we went to Tsutaya three times to get more DVDs because we couldn’t stop watching it!

What is it about LOST that makes it so exciting? The first thing is that we never expect what will happen next, so we’re always surprised. Main characters sometimes die unexpectedly, so we are always worried that they might die at any time. The second exciting thing is the timing. Every episode ends with a cliff-hanger, so we always want to find out what happens next. The third thing that makes it exciting is the intricate storyline: every episode is packed with mysterious details that we want to know more about, like reoccurring numbers or interconnected characters. The story is larger than just the 40 minutes that it is shown each week because all of the events are connected to each other through back stories. Now that the characters are traveling through time, the story has become even more intricate because the events that are happening in this season are making the story that we watched in the previous seasons! Confused? That’s how every non-fan feels. But for the fans, that’s just part of the fun.

I’m not the only hardcore LOST fanatic. You can see for yourself –just check the number of pages on Wikipedia about it: every episode has its own page, as well as each season, character, and event. Along with that there’re hundreds of websites and podcasts dedicated to discussing the show. There’s enough information to fill a library of books, just about this one TV show. It’s a social phenomenon, and best TV program in a generation. Most of what’s on TV is garbage, but LOST is different. Start with season one and see for yourself.

Vocabulary:

satirical = a kind of comedy used to talk about serious issues

generation = the group of people at the same age (people in my generation are 35-45 years old)

struggle = try hard

pregnant = about to have a baby

conflict = fight, argument

destiny = fate, your future

wrapped up in = really interested in

unexpectedly = without notice or warning

cliff-hanger = a very exciting moment, like when a character is hanging on a cliff

packed with = full of

reoccurring = happening again and again

interconnected =connected to each other

intricate = detailed, complicated

hardcore = serious

fanatic = a crazy fan

phenomenon = an amazing thing

Samorost: still the best little game on the net

I want to introduce you all to a great little indie game called Samorost. It's actually been around for years, but it's still as playable now as it was when Amanita Design put it out in 2003. For online games, six years is long, long time, but the game that taught the world that art and fun can come together will still give you 30 minutes of good play.

Samorost is a puzzle game in which you have to help a gnome save his home from being destroyed. At each stage of the game you click on the right spot on the screen to help the gnome continue on his mission.

Funky ambient music and natural sounds accompany you as you move through beautiful scenes made with close-up photographs of plants and natural environments.
You can see how each piece of artwork has been lovingly made.

They have more at Amanita Design, so you don’t have to stop with Samorost 1. There’s a sequel, Samorost 2, and if you’re up for a challenge, try Questionaut. Check out the game here: http://amanita-design.net/samorost-1/.

If you get stuck and need directions to solve the game, send me an email.

vocabulary
indie = independent studio, a small film, music, or game company that is concerned more about making good products than making money.
it's been around = it has existed
playable = fun or easy to play

put it out = put it on the market; made it available

gnome = a small person, the character in this story
funky = cool in an unusual way
ambient music = music that plays in the background

accompany you = go with you

to be up for X = to want to do X

12 Monkeys

There are some films you watch and soon forget, some that you rent two or three times, and some that you watch so many times you have to own them. If you’re a fan of the dark side of science fiction, 12 Monkeys is one of those films you’ll need for your collection. The film stars Bruce Willis as James Cole, a prisoner from a grim future who has volunteered to travel backwards in time to the year 1995. That’s when a mysterious disease destroyed humanity and forced everyone to live underground. His mission is to discover how who created the disease and stop them.

Unfortunately for Cole, the science of the future is not perfect. The scientists accidentally send him too far back in time, to the year 1990. He is captured by the police, who think his is crazy because he says he’s from the future. He is taken to an insane asylum where he meets a mentally ill but likable young man named Jeffery Goines, played by Brad Pitt. He also meets the psychiatrist Dr. Railley (Madeline Stowe) who eventually realizes that Cole is telling the truth. But Cole is disappears back to the future, is interrogated, and is sent back in time again -this time to the 1914! Finally he is returned to the “correct” time of 1995, where he once again meets the still-crazy Goines and Dr. Railley. He teams up with her and they try to discover how the virus started.

I won’t write more about the plot, as I don’t want to spoil the film for anyone who hasn’t seen it, except to say that the story is dark and psychologically frightening. Sometimes Cole can’t tell if he is sane, and neither can we. The movie is a great mess, jumping back and forth in time and confusing to everyone, and that is exactly what I like so much about it. Both Willis and Pitt give superb performances -Pitt won a Golden Globe for his role- and the cinematography and soundtrack are so good that you’ll watch it again and again. You don’t even need to be a science fiction fan to enjoy this film, just someone who likes a good story with an ending that’s like nothing in Hollywood. Watch it once and it’ll soon be part of your collection.

vocabulary

mentally ill = having mental (mind) and/or emotional problems

psychiatrist = a doctor who helps people with mental or emotional problems

sane = having a "normal" thinking; not crazy