Daily Archives: January 14, 2009

Previously, on Lost…

Posted by Benjamin Light on

As the Best Show on Television is about to return next week, we here at Counterforce thought it a good time to throw a little love Lost‘s way. First, I went and watched the opening to The Economist and got a boner, then I started writing. Marco and I argued and clawed our way to compiling what we consider to be the Top 5 episodes of the show, but before we get to those later in the week, I thought I’d talk to the intertubes about the episodes that just missed the cut, and why they’re awesome.

Before the episodes, though, a quick, bold, declarative statement: Lost has the best title sequence on TV ever.

Simple. Brilliant.

Simple. Brilliant.

Anyone want to dispute that? Name one better. Never has a simple type effect and an ominous chord so effectively captured the essence of a show. Okay, the best of the rest (in no particular order):

Exodus - Season 1 finale

The first, tantalizing glimpse of Cerberus?

The first, tantalizing glimpse of Cerberus?

Great because: Dr. Arzt gets esploded, they open the hatch, Locke meets the Monster a second time, with unexpected results, WAAAAALLLLLLLTTT!, the flashbacks could still reveal character moments without feeling stale, Sayid staunches Charlie’s wound with gunpowder, etc.

Famous reveals: The Smoke Monster, The Black Rock, The Others.

Lockdown – Season 2

The mystery deepens.

The mystery deepens.

Great because: “But still I did not believe it to be true, so I dug up that grave.” Sayid fucking owns.

Famous reveals: The Map, The Lockdown, Henry Gale is an Other.

Pilot – Season 1 premier

What an opener. Most expensive pilot ever filmed, at the time.

What an opener. Most expensive pilot ever filmed, at the time.

Great because: This is the best pilot episode in the history of television. Ever. Think about some of your favorite shows and then think of the pilot episode: sure, some of them are decent, but usually shows take a while to find their footing. Lost hit the ground a fully-formed masterpiece.

Famous reveals: The Monster, The Polar Bear, The fucking Plane Crash, The French Woman, etc. etc. etc.

Confirmed Dead – Season 4

It doesn't scatter quite right.

It doesn't scatter quite right.

Great because: We finally see the outside world’s reaction to the crash of Oceanic 815, Faraday and Miles especially are excellent new characters, the Boat People become even more ominous.

Famous reveals: Miles the Ghostbuster, The Polar Bear in Tunisia, Oceanic 815 at the bottom of the ocean.

The Shape of Things to Come – Season 4

It's a little known fact that white picket fences are bulletproof.

It's a little known fact that white picket fences are bulletproof.

Great because: “Oh, so you do speak English?” Keamy actually executes Alex, the hilarious red shirt slaughter/Sawyer ducking for cover behind a barbeque, possible death of Claire, Ben confronts Widmore, etc.

Famous reveals: Did I mention Ben summons the fucking monster? And Time Travels? And has a shotgun in the piano seat?

Exposé – Season 3

Razzle freakin' Dazzle

Razzle freakin' Dazzle

Great because: A controversial pick, but this remains the only thing close to a stand-alone episode of Lost and the writing and winking ret-con acrobatics are genius. “Who’s Paulo?” This is one of those episodes, like Buffy’s season six ep “Tabula Rasa,” where the writers are clearly having tons of fun and just tossing off gold at the audience.

Famous reveals: Mr. Lashade is the Cobra!

The Economist – Season 4

Please, let me repay you.

Please, let me repay you.

Great because: Sayid is a hitman in the future, James Bond-style. Faraday’s rocket hints at time anomalies on the island.

Famous reveals: Naomi and Elsa’s bracelets. Sayid is one of the Oceanic 6, and working for Ben. The Rocket Clock.

The Man Behind the Curtain – Season 3

The Purge

The Purge

Great because: We finally get the back-story of the mysterious and tastefully-named Benjamin Linus, and learn what happened to the Dharma Initiative. Oh, and we kinda meet Jacob.

Famous reveals: The Mass Grave, Dharma in general, The Ageless Richard Alpert, Jacob’s Cabin.

Orientation – Season 2

Welcome to The Swan

Welcome to The Swan

Great because: This could really be a shout-out to the first three episodes of Season 2, since they all take place more or less concurrently. But Orientation holds a special place because of Desmond, the Orientation film, and:

Locke: Why do you find it so hard to believe?

Jack: Why do you find it so easy?

Locke: It’s never been easy!

As well as Jack’s underrated “I married her!” Jackface off the charts. I still get shivers.

Famous reveals: The Tailies, The Button, details of the Hatch, Dr. Marvin Candle, and the purpose of the…

Numbers – Season 1

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42

Great because: This is when the show really started introducing elements that encouraged the audience to look closer and search for hidden meanings in the text. To get millions of fans obsessing over numerology is no small feat, and the story of Hurley and the numbers had the timeless fatalistic quality of a good Greek myth.

Famous reveals: The Numbers, Hurley’s a millionaire!

That’s all for now. Starting tomorrow we’ll start counting down the Top 5, and then after we get to #2, we’ll do a recap of what we’ve said so far, just like on all those annoying list shows on TV. Booyah.

Off with their heads!

Posted by Marco Sparks on

According to Wikipedia: One of Carl Jung’s favorite quotes about synchronicity was from Through The Looking Glass, where the White Queen says to Alice: “It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.” So true. I’ve written just a little about the works of Lewis Carroll here before but I should mention that synchronicity is something I will, on occasion, find myself very interested in.

And no, I don’t mean that superbly awesome album by The Police.

I’ve mentioned my love for it before, but synchronicity’s something that heavily affects a lot of the splendid and tasty nuggets of bloggery that you get from me here at this mad tea party that is Counterforce. I could go into it more, give you my personal answer for it, but a question I always find myself wanting to ask the various bloggers that I read and love is a simple one: Where do you get your ideas from?

But to me, once you have a formula, even a formula that works brilliantly (and if I’m thinking about this about bloggers online whose work I actually read and enjoy, then obviously their shit works just fine)(unless they’re walking, talking trainwrecks, and in that case, it works just fine too, only in a different, and probably more enjoyable sort of way), then I ponder about one’s regiment and the question of variety. The mixing it up, on occasion, if you will. And then I read something this morning that fit perfectly into those thoughts.

From Scribbles and Lies:

Let’s face it. You’re in a blog rut.

Most of the time, you write about more of the same kinda stuff that you usually write about.

Maybe it’s your day-to-day life, the stuff you did. Maybe it’s topical news response. Maybe it’s short fiction. Maybe it’s re-linking random stuff you see on the internet. Maybe it’s LOLCAT porn. (I hope it’s not LOLCAT porn.) Maybe it’s here on LiveJournal, or it’s over on Vox, or Blogspot or Blogger or Blogblog or Postablogablowablow, or WordPress or Facebook or Facepress or FacePlant or maybe it’s just your Twitter account. It’s what you’re comfortable with, I know, I know…

…but why not try doing something different, just for a day?

Two weeks from today, Tuesday, January 27th, is Lewis Carroll’s 177th birthday. Carroll, you’ll recall, wrote about a girl who fell down a rabit hole and found herself in a place where all the rules had changed. In two weeks, on Lewis Carroll’s 177th birthday, you should do the same.

That’s right: the 5th Annual Rabbit Hole Day is coming.

When you wake up on the 27th, instead of writing about your usual work and school and politics and friends and news and stuff, experience life down the Rabbit Hole and write about the work, the school, the politics, the friends, the news, the stuff that you find there instead. Travel through time. Turn into an animal. Flee from assassins. Talk to your goldfish. Conquer Greenland. Sprout some extra limbs. Learn how to walk on water. Marry an insect.

Take a break from Every Day and write about your Rabbit Hole Day. Your normal life will be waiting for you when you get back.

Very interesting. Very, very interesting. But at the risk of appearing just completely bereft of ideas, I want to throw it out to you, o mighty readers of Counterforce. I know there’s got to be a few of you out there. Some of you have left comments or dropped me a line saying you read us and actually like us and you know what? We appreciate the shit out of you. But for Rabbit Hole Day, what would you like to see us do differently, even if for just one day? We’re dying to know what you think.

Our operators are standing by, desperately awaiting your call. Or comment, email, etc. Let’s crack open our heads together and see what’s inside.