Talk about working down to the wire.

Part I of the “Lost” season finale is on Thursday, and producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse confess that they only finished editing the sucker a few DAYS ago.

The dynamic duo gave a few scoopy tidbits to Kristin at E! Online after last week’s Locke-centric outing. Among them:

• They’re really, REALLY glad they got that extra hour out of ABC for Part II of the finale because the scope of what’s covered in it is HUGE. They call the May 29 conclusion a “two-hour movie.”

• TV Guide and other outlets are reporting that the next two seasons will have 17 episodes each, up from the previously planned 16 (making up for two hours, um, lost due to the writers’ strike). But the producers say nothing is official.

• Christian is dead!!! But is Claire? Lindelof and Cuse were coy on that question, which is the  hot topic in “Lost” fandom. They consider a more appropriate quesition to be, “What is dead?” (Sheesh, boys, the show’s confusing enough as it is…)

• Yes, the Losties are definitely time-travelling.

• As far as the Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle goes, the producers say they’re both Skaters and Jaters. How diplomatic! But they DO actually know who Kate ends up with … and no, they’re not telling.

• Thank goodness “Cane” got cancelled. Well, Lindelof and Cuse didn’t SAY that, but since Richard Alpert’s going to be featured much more prominently down the road, I’m guessing they’re happy Nestor Carbonell needs a paycheck.

• More Penny and Desmond! Lindeof noted that there’s a lot more to tell about that relationship. Like, duh! But he did add that he hoped viewers “will have a better sense of that over the summer.”

Does that mean a Pen-Des reunion before the season ends? (Tune in here on Thursday for our weekly “Lost” debate and I’ll give you my personal theory on that one.)

(Photos courtesy of ABC) 

You can consider this my The Office video blog post, because the interwebs have been alit with visual fodder since “Job Fair” aired Thursday night.

First off, here’s the complete episode. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. If you have, watch it again. If you watched it on TV and aren’t already in love with Hulu, definitely push play.

Next up are the deleted scenes. This first one here, I can see why they cut it out. I’m not sure why they posted it at all, in fact.

And here’s deleted scene #2. It’s pretty awkward, but the kid is right. Selling paper isn’t sexy.

Feeling spoilery? Read more of this entry »

TV Guide recently interviewed the fabulous Michelle Trachtenberg, who was once best known as Buffy’s little sister, but is now out-bitching the best on “Gossip Girl” as the evil Georgina Sparks.

And Michelle hinted that Serena’s big secret may not have been completely revealed yet.

Like there’s something bigger than, “I killed someone?!?”

Yup.

Michelle says that tonight’s episode, which has Serena self-destructing, will deal with the “who, what, when, where and how” of the scandal.

Of course, Georgina’s got her Chanel-covered rear end in the middle of it all.

While Michelle claims she has no idea whether she’ll be back next season as Georgina, she does know all about next week’s season finale. (Can you believe “GG” has been on the air for only one season?)

Here’s what she had to say about next week’s cliffhanger:

There are a bunch of punched-in-the-face moments where you’ll be like, ‘Oh, god.’ Not everyone’s storylines will be tied up with a nice little colorful ribbon. They’ll absolutely make you want to tune in next season.

Tune in here tomorrow, boys and girls, for a recap of tonight’s installment! XOXO…

(Photos courtesy of the CW) 

Last week’s Reaper episode wasn’t utterly impressive, thought it advanced elements of the series’ underlying mythology.

Bottom line of what I believe to be the case:

The page of the contract that damned Sam’s soul to hell, which Sam’s father burned once upon a time, explained the out Sam had: To stay a pure soul.

Despite the fact that Sam is a bounty hunter for Satan, he is still a pure soul. Can such a soul ever truly belong in Hell?

If that were not the case, why else would the Devil be working so hard to try to make Sam kill Greg?

Sam’s use of his get out of hell free card to free Greg’s soul from Beelzebub’s grasp pretty much surprised the Dark Lord. But it was in complete character for Sam to use it for someone else; even if that someone else was his girlfriend’s ex who sold his soul to the Devil in order to regain the love of said girlfriend.

Even if one sells one’s soul to Lucifer, can that soul truly go to hell if the that soul is pure?

Tomorrow, we won’t find out the answer to that question, but we find out that, just like CTU, Hell has a mole. A particular soul keeps escaping from Heaven; Jerry (aka Satan) realizes there’s a mole at work and orders Sam to investigate.

But who is the mole?

SPOILER ALERT: Read more of this entry »

A riddle in numbers.

An opera house.

The Cylons split even further; schisms within schisms.

The constant prattle of a hybrid (a hybrid between human and Cylon), resetting and guiding an utterly damaged ship, guarded by a lone Centurion whose only mission is to keep her alive.

The missing three will get you the five who have come from the home of the 13th.

The final five Cylons.

The missing (model) Three, a boxed D’Anna Biers.

D’Anna has looked upon the face of the five; indeed is the only Cylon that knows who they are. That is why she was boxed; whoever programmed the Cylons made that a rule. The Cylons must never think about the Final Five, never mind know who they are.

Why is that?

So that only once the humans and Cylons can actually come to a truce and understand one another and accept one another and live in (relative) peace and harmony (I mean, c’mon, neither race has proved capable of living in true peace and harmony within its own race, we can’t expect rainbows, hearts and flowers when you bring the two races together) that they are allowed to know the Final Five and, by extension, the location of Earth?

Is Kara the one to bridge that divide because she is married to a Cylon, because a Cylon is truly, deeply, madly in love with her? Or is that even just beside the point? How did Leoben know Kara Thrace was the special one, the one who could bring them all to Earth? None of the other models, until now, seemed to believe his obsession was anything more than an obsession.

After a week’s break, the good folks over at the SciFi Channel resumed giving us recap clips of the last Battlestar Galactica episode. So I present you with this, a quickie recap of The Road Less Traveled:

Download:

And meanwhile, to prepare you for tonight’s episode, called “Faith,” check out this interview Beliefnet did with BSG exec prod Ronald Moore about “The Souls of Cylons.”

Here’s a snippet:

At the beginning, I sort of assumed that the Colonials —  the human beings —  would have a belief system, probably polytheistic. In the original, the “Lords of Kobol” were referred to several times. But it wasn’t until the development of the miniseries when I sort of randomly gave the Cylons a belief system. I was creating the characters and working on some lines for Number 6 and I thought it was interesting if she professed a belief in a single God. I had really given her a belief in a singular God almost by accident.

I compared that with the polytheistic religion of the colonials, I started to realize that an interesting pattern was developing —  the Cylons believing in the one true God and the Colonials having an older, multifaceted system of deities that was obviously patterned on the Romans. As the series went on, I started to believe that the Cylon belief was going to be a guiding principal.

Have you ever faced the problem of being at work and obsessing about a coworker’s tongue—being in your mouth? It’s a conundrum that could happen only on “Grey’s Anatomy.” That’s what Meredith was going through, even when she and McDreamy were injecting a virus into a guy’s brain. Must have been tough concentrating about both subjects at the same time, right mer? Her pining over him was quite pathetic until the end, when Der confessed that he was thinking of her during his recent horizontal tango with Nurse Rose. So perhaps there is a another chapter of Deredith on the horizon. (Has anyone else noticed some puffyness in Ellen Pompeo’s cheeks—as if she has the mumps?)

Cristina Yang’s being deeply bothered by something and then verbally sharing those emotions? Hell has indeed frozen over. But Preston Burke’s winning that prestigious medical award and Cristina getting zero mention about it would have ticked even Mother Theresa off. And you always must give Cristina credit for her honesty, telling the Chief that she does not wish Burke well. I bet that snooty Mama Burke wouldn’t disapprove of her son’s selfishness.

The sex survey storyline was quite amusing, although I highly doubt that any employees’-rights organizations would have approved. Talk about an invasion of privacy! Call the ACLU! And doesn’t all that delving into the employees’ sex lives the total opposite of why Izzie can’t tell Karev that Rebecca is lying about being preggers: patients’ privacy rights? (If I were Izzie, I’d tell Karev about the lie anyway, which would save him grief over Rebecca’s deceit and save herself from having him being mad at her.)

What a shame that soldiers Darrin and Todd couldn’t show their true emotions before Darrin died of encephalitis, although I can understand why Darrin’s father, a military-career man, would disapprove of it. In this particular case you could say, “Don’t ask, don’t tell and don’t look.”

I bet that Sloan, who FINALLY realized what a slut he is, has a zillion STDs and has spread them to most of his sexuel conquests. The odds against that possibility? Not good, man-whore!

(Photo courtesy of ABC.)

JBAD, of course, is Jack Bauer Appreciation Day, observed on the ninth day of May every year, even when our beloved, and beleaguered, Jack Bauer is not on the air.

Who declared it?

Why, Blogs4Bauer, of course, which is the (unofficially officially unofficial) arbiter of all things 24. And Jack Bauer. And Kim Bauer.

Anyway, the rules are simple:
• Say “Dammit!” at the end of every sentence.
• Keep insisting there’s no time to finish even the simplest of tasks.
• Commandeer a vehicle (and if the cops stop you, explain that you’re commandeering, not stealing it, natch).
• Shoot someone in the knee.
• Give someone your word and keep it. Unless your president needs you to abrogate it.
• Whisper everything. Or shout. Alternating, if at all possible. Keeps people on their toes.
• Take out the mole in your office. And by take out, we mean “kill.”

Add your suggestions for other rules below.

How can it be over so soon? A five-episode mini-season after a five-month hiatus is way too small a 30 Rock  fix.

But over it is, and after 472 A-list guest stars—including the episode’s eponymous character, played by Matthew Broderick—explorations of pornography, parenthood, geopolitics, corporate power struggles, old boyfriends and a dashed Olympic dream, summer is upon us.

We learned Liz is ready to be a mom, even if it’s to the Beeper Prince. Jack is ready to fight for control of GE, even if it means turning the entire Pentagon gay. Tracy is the father of the year because he found a way to combine video games and adult movies. Also, Kenneth is fluent in Chinese.

The contrast was stark between The Office, where not much happened and the laughs were drown out by unfulfilled anticipation, an 30 Rock, which never, ever has an off episode.

I’m completely divided on what I thought of “Job Fair”, last night’s penultimate episode of The Office.

When it was all over, I felt like nothing much had happened and a handful of awesome opportunities for plot development and characterization — Pam’s old school, Dwight and Angela alone all afternoon—had been tossed aside.

And yet the online fandom is abuzz with developments between Jim Pam, even though they shared very little screentime before that passionate kiss at the end.

What I think it comes down to is we were just handed a set-up, a springboard for some serious action in next week’s hour-long finale. Jim’s job is at stake. And while he seemed to save it, something tells me Ryan isn’t interested in judging his performance on merit. Pam, meanwhile, now has visions of New York or Philadelphia dancing in her head, and I don’t know how they can keep her behind reception in Scranton much longer.

There’s a proposal coming soon. And a Dwanela reunion. Ryan’s headed for a fall, and Toby’s headed for the door. Michael, somehow, has traveled a long road to end up not too far from where we met him three years ago. Where the pieces land one week from now, I won’t even venture to guess.

Poor John Locke.

Born premature to a teen-age mother. Dumped into an unloving foster family. Picked on in high school.

Conned into giving up a kidney to his (supposed) birth father, who tried to kill him by tossing him out an eight-story window. Stuck in a wheelchair.

Survived a plane crash. Gut shot and left for dead in a grave full of rotting corpses.

And now he’s ghost whispering in a creepy jungle cabin.

To quote that dastardly Benjamin Linus:

Destiny, John, is a fickle bitch.

Uh, or is it?

Because John Locke’s life seems to have been totally engineered by Richard freakin’ Alpert!!!

Last night’s episode, “Cabin Fever,” was an old-fashioned “Lost” show, with only flashbacks, and no time-trippy flash-forwards to contend with.

It didn’t make the hour any less confusing though, with good ol’ Dr. Alpert popping up throughout Locke’s life without aging a nanosecond. And don’t get me started—not yet anyway!—on the Christian-Claire encounter in Jacob’s Kooky Cabin.

Still, this episode wasn’t exactly Excitement City. Quite frankly, this and last week’s installments seem to have been merely set-ups for the rockin’ season finale, “There’s No Place Like Home” (which kicks off Part I next week).

But that doesn’t mean there’s not plenty to talk about. Light a lantern, grab an Apollo candy bar and let’s dive into a Dharma pit of questions…

Some simply perfect news this week: Esai Morales has been cast in the Caprica pilot/telemovie as Joseph Adama, father of William Adama (now played by Edward James Olmos).

Morales most recently played, of course, our heroic Maj. Beck on Jericho. Given the different schedule of cable and network shows, one would hope that when (not if, when) Jericho gets a Season 3, he’d be able to work out both?

Paula Malcomson (remember Trixie from Deadwood?) will be Amanda, described in multiple spots as a surgeon who works as a double agent. But she’s also the matriarch of the Greystone family, the rival to the Adamas.

So what is Caprica going to be all about? Check out this post, this one and this one.

Wired had this interview with SciFi network exec veep Mark Stern, in which he discussed the science of BSG, sci fi in general and talked about how the network has high hopes for Caprica as more than just a pilot.

Esai Morales photo courtesy of CBS; Edward James Olmos photo courtesy of NBC Universal. Can you see a family resemblance?

From being a sore loser after the Quickfire Challenge to blaming his teammates and snapping at Gail Simmons at the judges’ table, Dale Talde did not have his finest public relations moments on “Top Chef” last night. But one of his confessionals about his inferior teammates (presumably including Nikki Cascone) yielded a rude but accurate quote—one of dozens of amazing sound bytes in the season’s most quotable episode:

Why are you still here?

As I said after last week’s episode, Nikki had been “coasting in the middle (bracket) for the bulk of the show.” When her brick of macaroni of cheese was somehow deemed better than Erik Hopfinger’s soggy corn dogs at the losing judges’ table, I was disappointed. But when she opted for pre-packaged sausage and ran out of food before the judges could sample it on a show called “Top Chef”—and still survived—those egregious moves were sufficient for me to call for her elimination sooner than later.

Arguably the weakest remaining contestant is Evangelos “Spike” Mendelsohn, who thrives at both making soup and ticking people off. And while nice-gal Nikki appeared at the judges’ table twice for good dishes (compared to Spike’s one time for said soup skills), Nikki’s culinary offenses far outweighed Spike’s occasional lack of social graces.

Now that Nikki is finally gone, the remaining seven contestants on “Top Chef” might just be the best top seven contestants in the series’ four seasons. I, by no means, consider Spike a weak link. And every other remaining cheftestant has won at least one Elimination Challenge.

After the break is my episode synopsis, which includes all of my favorite direct quotes from last night’s show including Spike’s bride commentary to Andrew D’Ambrosi’s culinary (ahem) lust, head judge Tom Colicchio’s description of Lisa Fernandes’ battleship cake, Richard Blais’ supposed floral expertise and Dale’s snippy reply to Gail Simmons at the judges’ table.

The body may take a vacation, but the mind can’t, not when the tube is 24/7.

I happened to have a week off during a busy news cycle — the Rev. Jeremiah Wright tirade, the Miley Cyrus/Vanity Fair flap, the death of Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby, the return of Mick as a sexy vamp on CBS’ “Moonlight.” (OK, maybe the last wasn’t so newsy.) But you get the idea. It was quite the week.

I don’t know why I turned on the Kentucky Derby. I’ve always hated animal acts, zoos and even nature shows. I can’t help but feel that animals belong in the natural word, even though the natural world is no less cruel than our own.

The tragedy of Eight Belles reinforced everything I hate about animal entertainment. In a sense, it was foreshadowed by an incident moments earlier when another horse was spooked by the crowd’s applause and threw its jockey. As an arts critic, I recognized this for what it was: Some have the temperament for performance. Some don’t. However, it’s one thing to note this about a ballplayer, an opera singer or a politician. It’s quite another to say it about a Barbaro, who did not choose to run even if he seemed born to do so.

With Jason Castro being kicked off “American Idol” last night, I kind of feel like yesterday’s Remote Access post about him summed up my feelings in a way that would be almost redundant at this point. But I’ll add a couple of quick thoughts.

For a one-hour results show that has so much unnecessary filler—possibly the dullest call-in segment to date, a horrific group number for “Reelin’ In The Years,” etc.—even I was a little upset time ran out on Castro’s farewell performance. If the results show doesn’t give its departing contestant the goodbye he or she deserves, why bother with the filler segments?

As a result of the snoozer of a results show running over, viewers missed this classy moment of David Cook triumphantly raising the arm Castro, who flashed the winning smile that had been stifled these last few weeks.

The Dreadlocked One seemed more comfortable, likable, relaxed and chatty than ever last night. Whether he was joshing with Ryan Seacrest about not revealing the results halfway through the show, or shown in his farewell montage harmonizing with wacky contestant Renaldo Lapuz (pictured far right) at the initial auditions, Castro finally showed some  personality to match the camera-ready mug that so many teenage girls squealed at for weeks on end.

I’ve been tough on Castro for most of his run on “Idol.” He’s not a terrible singer on a casual basis, and most of “Hallelujah,” “Forever In Blue Jeans” and “Fragile” were quite tuneful and pleasant. But he never should have made it further than vocal powerhouse David Hernandez, who finished 12th.

Even Castro, who murdered Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff” and forgot the words to “Mr. Tambourine Man” a night earlier, seemed resigned about his departure:

There’s three songs next week. I don’t know what I would have done.

Tonight is the last new episode of 30 Rock until fall, which is particularluy lame given that the season was interrupted for five months by the writers strike and the fall premiere is four months off.

That’s five new episodes in 10 months for those of you scoring at home. In other words, enjoy it while it lasts and DVR it for repeat viewing if you can. Here’s what’s on tap tonight…

Cooter: Jack assumes a new political role in Washington, DC. When the job is not what he expected, Jack partners with another government employee, Cooter, to scheme on how to get fired. For his plan to work Jack must enlist the help of former girlfriend C.C. . Meanwhile, Liz is slowly adjusting to life without Jack as a daily sounding board – especially when she has a pregnancy scare involving Dennis, the “former” Subway Hero. Kenneth is preparing his personal essay for an application to be a page at the Summer Olympics in Beijing, but Donny, the head page gets in his way. Finally, Tracy (Morgan) is in the advanced stages of the invention that will be his legacy to his children.

And then there were two episodes left.

A wise Office fan commented online the other day that the last two second-to-last episodes of the past two seasons had a lot to do with jobs—Jim’s interview for the Stamford job two years ago and last year’s Survivor-like competition for Michael’s job that led Jim and Karen to seek Jan’s old job.

So the episode title for tonight’s penultimate installment, “Job Fair”, looks like the continuation of a trend. Judge for yourself…

Jim hits the links with Andy and Kevin to try and land his biggest client ever. Meanwhile, Michael sets up a booth at a local job fair, which happens to be at Pam’s alma mater, to find “the best and the brightest” for Dunder-Mifflin’s summer internship.

Pam, on the other, hand—well let’s just say it’s still not any little girl’s dream to grow up and be a receptionist. At her alma mater—not sure if that’s her college or high school—she’s bound to run into old teachers and maybe even a job recruiter, either of whom seems likely to remind her she’s still not making much of her art. What she does with that kind of confrontation would have a significant bearing on Jim’s engagement plans.

We shall see tonight, but I bet I’m not far off. Read more of this entry »

Two weeks ago, when Claire survived a rocket-propelled grenade attack on her Othersville home with little more than a cut on her pretty forehead, I wondered: Is “Lost” venturing into soap opera territory?

Come on, how on earth could she come out of that explosion alive?

Um, maybe because she didn’t?

I’m not the only one thinking that Aaron’s baby mama may no longer be among the living.

Entertainment Weekly’s “Lost” guru, Doc Jensen, floated that theory in his recap of last week’s outing. So did J. Wood over at Powells.com.

And it’s pretty popular in online forums: Plenty of fans—like this one—are on board with the notion, too.

After all, do we Lost-philes really think that the masters of this show—who know that we’ll examine every minute detail —would resort to an “All My Children” technique?

It’s hard to believe that the writers would blow up Claire’s house just to ramp up the drama, hoping that the viewers would chalk up her unlikely survival to dumb luck.

Everything on “Lost” means something.

So that brings us to this week’s debate topic:

Is Claire dead?

There’s certainly lots of clues that point to it. But I don’t know if we’re looking at Ghost Claire.

I think that—like Christian Shephard—Claire is now undead.

Not in a vampire sort of way. More like she’s trapped in limbo, with the island preventing her spirit from “moving on.”

Perhaps that’s because, like Jack and Locke, she’s “got work to do?”

Stick with me here, people. Read on for more of my convoluted explanation…

I think I’d actually enjoy hanging out with Jason Castro, the person. He seems like a mellow, upbeat kind of guy who’d pick up his guitar and strum some basic chords at a party with adult beverages (which he’s been able to do legally since March 25, when he turned 21).

But I’ve never really understood the appeal of Jason Castro, the singer, at least as far as a potential “American Idol” is concerned. Even an unconfident Castro recently admitted his inferiority complex in so many words, according to a Jessica Shaw piece published in the latest edition of Entertainment Weekly:

It’s the fact that I have a weaker voice than the rest.

Fast-forward to his decisions last night to do a subpar karaoke version (meaning subpar, even for karaoke) of Bob Marley̵