LOST Weekly Recap: S05E09

Caution! Major spoilers ahead. Read only if you’re caught up to season 5, episode 9 of LOST!

LOST Recap: S05E07

Caution! Major spoilers ahead. Read only if you’re caught up to season 5, episode 7 of LOST!

LOST Recap: S05E06

Caution! Major spoilers ahead. Read only if you’re caught up to season 6, episode 5 of LOST!

Lost Recap: S05E05

Caution! Major spoilers ahead. Read only if you’re caught up to season 5, episode 5 of LOST!

LOST Recap: S05E04

Caution! Major spoilers ahead. Read only if you’re caught up to season 5, episode 4 of LOST!

LOST Recap: S05E03

Caution! Major spoilers ahead. Read only if you’re caught up to season 5, episode 3 of LOST!

LOST Recap: S05E01-02

This season started off with a bang, and just like I predicted, it set this season up for more of an adventure story than the mystery/drama that the show started as.

Caution! Major spoilers ahead. Read only if you’re caught up to season 5, episodes 1-2 of LOST!

Chronicles of a Threevue Actor: LOST Edition

I’ll be doing an episode recap here in a minute, but I had to get this post out as soon as I saw it.

It was prophesied, and now it’s come true. Our very own Mark Hill was in last night’s season premiere of LOST (well, the second episode, really, but it was a 2-hour event). Because the scene is slightly spoilerific for anyone not caught up to this season, I’m leaving the pictures for after the break. But I must warn you, the temptation to click ahead is great – because there’s an action shot!!

…And Found

As you probably already know, Lost is back on the air with some hot freshness tonight. Do me a favor, though, and don’t tell me what happens. I’m still not caught up from the last season two seasons, and I hate spoilers.

BUT!, if you do watch it, keep an eye out for a handsome gentleman wearing a dark suit in the background of a hotel scene. He may look familiar.

Editor’s Note: Sorry about the unimaginative title, that’s all I could come up with.

Dudes. And Dudettes. You Better Get Caught Up.

Season Five of LOST is quickly approaching. Matter of fact, she’ll be here on January 21st. This is a warning to all LOSTies to get yerselves caught up, because I plan on doing a weekly episode recap/rant like I did with Battlestar Galactica earlier this year.

You can watch episodes for free on ABC.com or here on surfthechannel.com.

Keno Tips

Wife and I flew in from Vegas this afternoon with a little change in our pockets. I learned two important facts while out and about, both concerning the game Keno, which I had never even touched until yesterday.

Keno, by the way, is a numbers game where you pick a bunch of numbers (the average/standard is 6) and the computer selects 20 random numbers. If all 6 of your numbers come up, you hit the jackpot; if 5 of your numbers come up you win significantly less, etc, and if you only get 2 numbers you don’t get anything. At least, that was the rules on the machine we played.

1. Chinese fortune cookies often have 6 Keno numbers on the back of the actual “fortune”. We ate at a buffet where they had cookies for the taking, and my six numbers didn’t net me any dough. Which leads me to think that maybe the Chinese aren’t very good at Keno anyway? I mean, why are we deferring to them for our numbers?

2. The LOST numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42) would be the ideal Keno numbers, since there’s six of them, and somebody already won big off them. I, however, won diddly squat from them.

Review: LOST: Via Domus

There are several games I’ve suffered through for the sake of cheevers: TMNT and King Kong come immediately to mind. I thought that LOST: Via Domus would be equally unfun; but in the end, I think there was enough good in this game that I didn’t have a bad experience.

First and foremost, don’t even consider playing this game unless you are familiar with the LOST canon. This is really a game that only a fan could love, it has that many unexplained references to the show. It plays like an adventure game, broken into six “episodes” that all follow the same general setup. You play as a guy who isn’t in the show, and who has amnesia. Each episode has a “flashback” moment where you learn a little about your past, which you then use to your advantage in that episode. That’s about it.

There’s lots of random-item-collecting, and two pretty fun chase scenes, and I used my gun a total of four times. The black smoke monster is all over the place, and most of the characters aren’t voiced by their actual actors, which is no fun. It was an easy 1000 achievement points, with about four hours of actual gameplay. At the beginning of the game I was talking to everyone and exploring every nook and cranny; but by the third episode I was already over it, and I would only go and talk to the people who I knew would advance the plot.

The main character is a morally-inept piece of garbage. I felt some satisfaction whenever he died (usually thanks to the somewhat unresponsive controls). The ending is the only real thought-provoking part of the whole thing, and it’s pretty sweet.

LOST: Via Domus

So I bought LOST: Via Domus last night. It wasn’t terribly loved (it scored a 5.5 out of 10 from IGN.com) but I always knew I was going to buy it eventually, once the price was right. That price, by the way, was $29.99 new at Gamestop. Could I have bought it cheaper? Hell yes, it’s only $20 right now on Gamefly. But I was strolling through the mall, stuffed full of Sizzler and I couldn’t be bothered.

It looks like I can breeze through this game in a few days, but knowing my gaming schedule, it’ll probably take longer. The controls seem okay, maybe a little loose, and the graphics are just alright. My only real complaint is that the voice-acting wasn’t done with the actual actors, and it’s weird. I’m a big fan of the show, so something like that is really noticeable for me. Speaking of the show, if you haven’t seen it I can’t imagine that you would understand what the hell is going on. The game has so many unspoken elements to it that the show becomes required viewing beforehand.

I’ll give a full review when and if I ever beat it.

Review: Fringe Pilot

Fringe is an upcoming drama from J.J. Abrams, creator of Alias and another little show I like to call LOST. It features that tried-and-true story of an FBI agent confronted with all sorts of paranormal activity, deception, and conspiracy. Yeah, I know, sounds like X-Files. I never really watched it, so I don’t know.

There’s a fair amount of blood and gore, more than I expected. Despite that, the show’s feel seems tailored to a more mainstream audience; it definitely has more universal appeal than LOST.

The premise itself seemed interesting enough, but I have one gripe so far. LOST slowly and painstakingly introduced new elements and each one was a punch in the gut – Fringe, on the other hand, throws so much information at you that I was a bit overwhelmed. Let’s hope every episode isn’t this jam-packed with data. I realize that it’s the pilot and they’re trying to introduce everything, but save some for episode two, mkay?

Thursday Nights, Glued To A TV? No Thanks.

Whose bright idea was it to run Lost, My Name Is Earl, and The Office all on the same night? Granted, Earl hasn’t been exactly must-see-TV for quite some time now, but I liked it better when the shows I liked were spread out across the entire week, not jam-packed into one night. Next I’ll hear that House is moving to Thursdays, too.