LOST at Comic Con 2011 w/Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse and Marble Rye

Whoa! LOST at Comic Con 2011! All-new video featuring Jacob and the MIB/the Man In Black/The Smokeness/The Smoke Monster/Smoky going back and forth about the various plot points that not only angered fans but made them want the heads of Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse on spikes. If Lindelof and Cuse produce one new LOST video at each comic con, then I will be happy because I've missed LOST.

I had no idea that I missed LOST so much. Of course, I always think about how to write about LOST in The Foot. I've considered a re-watch of a season, fully aware that I wrote about many of the episodes over the summer and fall of 2009 as I prepared for the end of the series. Still, though, I miss the amount of fun I had watching and writing about the series. Truly, no TV series brought me as much joy as six seasons of LOST did.

Imagine my surprise and joy when my mother told me about abc.com's brand new LOST video. Intrigued, I watched the video. I expected something from Lindelof and Cuse, at Comic Con 2011, because of their faux-fight on twitter about "proof" regarding their claims that they had everything planned from season one. Carlton felt Damon reacted too passionatey to George R.R. Martin's opinion of the finale and how he'd like to avoid 'pulling a LOST' with A Song of Ice and Fire. Damon sees no reason to keep the proof from the masses when it'd solve all of their problems.

At the panel, hosted by Jeff Jensen and Dan Snierson, the hosts were going to show a bootleg version of marble rye until Carlton Cuse burst into the room, dressed a storm trooper and vowed to stop the premiere of marlbe rye. Lindelof burst in. dressed in a Dharma jumpsuit, to ensure that marble rye would play. Of course the video played but not before Carlton did a striptease out of the storm trooper costume.

The video begins innocently enough with the iconic scene from "Exodus," when Jack and Locke have a conversation about what brought them to the Island. John Locke believes that the Island brought them together while Jack doubts. The camera pans to the bushes, where the wacky brothers Jacob and Barry (yep...he has a name) bicker. The scene from "Exodus" continues with Locke's unwavering belief that opening the hatch will change everything. Little does he know that a slightly insane and drunk Scottish man awaits in The Swan.

For the next two minutes, Jacob and MIB fight like 12 year old boys, which is great. Mark Pellegrino and Titus Welliver were fantastic together in parodies shot by Kimmel's crew or the Totally LOST guys at EW. Once again, the actors deliver the comedy. I especially enjoy Pellegrino's increasing whininess as MIB points out each and every flaw of his rule over The Island.

Before I highlight the parts I loved, I'll write a few words about the executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. It's no secret that I enjoyed the banter between the co-show runners almost as much as I enjoyed the episodes. Each week, I waited patiently for the newest LOST podcast to drop into the iTunes store (I even wrote a post about the end of the podcast last May). During season six, Lindelof and Cuse starred in webisodes that streamed on ABC's official website. The webisodes were absurd and awesome. I loved them so much that I essentially ripped the webisodes off for my own podcast, and I tried to have the same tone and banter on my own podcast. My podcast, unfortunately, never came close to how great the Official LOST Podcast was. Anyway, Jacob and MIB have their creators voices. It's not Jacob and MIB talking, it's Darlton (just with the wonderful and hilarious duo of Pellegrino and Welliver).

And that's one more reason the video brought a smile to my face. I don't miss the episodes. The series told a beautiful and moving story in their six seasons. I wouldn't want a season or two more that would taint the quality of that story.

I just miss the podcasts, the interviews and the great fun it was listening to Damon and Carlton joke with one another about the show, about ridiculous plot twists they'd never execute (my favorite: Jacob as a fifty being made of fire who can only be stopped by buckets of water). I miss their inside jokes about pants, banjos and Ezra James Sharkington. I miss the whole LOST experience. It really was great, great fun.

Here are the highlights of the video:

--MIB comments that Locke and Jack will be super pissed to find a Scottish guy in the hatch, pushing a button. Jacob reminds his brother that the button's kept each and every person ALIVE. Without someone pushing the button, they'd all be in trouble. MIB turns it around on his bro and wonders if it'd be more trouble than turning into a billow of black smoke that can transform into dead people.

--MIB feels insulted when every one refers to him as a monster because he had no control over the matter. Jacob pushed him into the river of shiny magic light. Jacob reminds Smoky that the shiny, magic light is THE SOURCE. The Man in Black interrupts his brother and pleads he stop explaining the Island through the "Island-is-a-cork" metaphor. Jacob argues that his metaphor is good. MIB wants to see how everyone reacts when they learn their reason for being on the Island (or watching the show) is explained through a metaphor. "People wants answers, Jacob, not metaphors." Oh, Damon and Carlton.

--Jacob's convinced time-travel will make people forgive him. MIB sarcastically responds, "because time-travel makes sense of everything." The brothers fight some more until MIB goes INSANE when Jacob uses his real name. How I miss LOST.

--Jack Bender shot the video on Disney's back lot a few weeks ago.

--So, please watch the video at the top of the post. Read Alan Sepinwall's blog post about the panel. He includes actual quotes from the Q&A.

Ah, it was good writing about LOST again.

Jacob's Foot: Answers Won't Make or Break LOST

NOTE: I wrote this in August and it ran in an online-only version of The Quad in August two weeks for the first print edition of the semester was released. It probably would've been more effective to post it now rather than in August but oh well. Heck it might even be a better idea to re-post it on Feb. 1 or Feb. 2 but, you know, it's already available on wcuquad.com so it doesn't really matter. So, if anybody actually reads this, please read it. It's decent prose. I'll post an all new entry tomorrow or Friday. It won't be too exciting. I've got some ideas floating in my head for next week so keep checking back, if anybody actually reads this, for there will be new content up to and through the sixth season which is now less than two weeks away. WOOOOHOOO! Oh, and don't forget ABC will be re-airing The Incident on January 26 at 9PM.

Originally printed (digitally): August 17, 2009

One the finest aspects of LOST is its mystery. I know many fans will be clamoring for answers and will feel like they've been following the show for six years for nothing if Lindelof and Cuse don't provide a satisfactory amount of answers to the abundance of questions raised during the show's run.

The problem with this, as noted by Doc Jensen, is the subjectivity of the audience. What are the most important questions? Depends on who you ask. Some want the nature of the Numbers unearthed. Others want to know about the Monster. Those stuck in 2004 are still puzzled about polar bears.

But really, the endgame of the show will not be constructed on what the audience wants. The endgame of the show is going to reflect the vision Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have worked five plus years to create

In the end, LOST is a story. It's not a complicated math problem that needs to be figured out and solved. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end like any other story. It's a story about these characters, their problems, their weaknesses, their past. It's a story, like all of the great stories in Western literature, that touches on the big questions in life: death, life, religion, philosophy, relationships, uncertainty, and destiny.

The evolution of television programming has lost the art of storytelling. Reality television is devoid of it Those shows are a series of happenings stringed along by a 'theme.' Scripted television also suffers from a lack of storytelling. There's barely a whole picture now at the end of a season. What happened in the beginning of a season has no bearing on the conclusion of the season. There's no cohesion, no building towards a climax. The end of Buffy marked the beginning of the end of serialized, story-based storytelling. The fifth season premiere of Dawson's Creek marked the end of any hope for honest storytelling in a teenage drama and these procedural dramas have no idea what a season of television entails.

The blame can be placed on the television industry of course. It's hardly a safe haven for storytellers. A new show exists on an episode-by-episode basis. Money drives everything. Advertising runs television. Commercials are responsible for three minutes being trimmed off an hour long drama. However, to blame the industry for a world of hollow storytelling is to make the industry a scapegoat when blame can placed on the shoulders of creators and showrunners. While the current structure of the television landscape is not in the best interest for a series, it is still the responsibility of the creator to have some sort of vision apart from the pilot and the first batch of episodes.

Take for example Joss Whedon, a veteran of the television business. He's run two successful television shows (Buffy, The Vampire Slayer and Angel). His one abrutly cancelled television series, Firefly, ended up on the big screen in 2005. His secret to success? A plan. He believes in what I like to call 'The 5 year plan.' In interviews he gave following the cancellation of Firefly, he repeated that he had five years of story for his show. Likewise, prior to the debut of Dollhouse, he said that he also had five years of story for Dollhouse. Of course he made a critical mistake of starting off the series terribly slowly but, that aside, when the story really kicked into gear, when the show found its focus, it took off creatively and made waves critically. And is still on the air.

The viewing public can sense this focus, this sense that there's actually a story. The most remembered television series of the last decade won't be any lousy police procedural or reality show. The most remembered shows will be shows that told a damn good story like The Wire, Mad Men, The Sopranos, and, of course, LOST.

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, on numerous occassions, have compared the structure of LOST to that of how Charles Dickens published his novels. Dickens published his novels in a serialized fashion, in increments. In addition to their love for Dickens, they have constantly alluded to great works in Eastern and Western literature. The battle between science and faith as represented by Jack Sheperd and John Locke was represented in a season two episode by the authors Ernest Hemingway and Fyodor Dostoevsky (and used by Ben (under the guise of Henry Gale then) to mess with an already fragile psyche). The Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Lord of the Flies, Watership Down, The Little Prince, and Ulysses among many, many more novels have been alluded to throughout the series. LOST knows how to tell a story.

Consider then that some of the mysteries are meant to remain just that--mysteries. Consider: maybe it's better to not know who the skeletons in the cave are (personally, i would like to know because i think it would be a very satisfying). Consider maybe that it's best for the skeletons to remain a symbol of the long history of The Island. Consider that it IS better to not know the mystery of the Numbers or who ran over Nadia or why people who are dead appear to our favorite characters on The Island. The most important thing with all of the mysteries and intrigue is that they led to excellent character development and helped progress storylines.

Nestor Carbonell (Richard) echoed a sentiment that I myself agee with: there has to be some mystery at the end. Yes, they need to provide answers. We need to know why Claire disappeared, we need to know what the Others are definitevely, we need to know the deal with the whispers as well as why Richard doesn't age. They will indeed provide answers.

Simply, do not judge the worth of the show on answers alone. First and foremost, the show is about the characters. Their struggles, weaknesses, problems, their destiny, and biggest of all, the show is about why these characters were brought together on an Island of miracles. And remember, it's Damon and Carlton's show, and that it's a story and not a math problem that needs to be solved.