March Madness

The NCAA Basketball Tournament beings….now! And honestly, I couldn’t wait much longer. These next four days have to be my favorite sports weekend of the year. The buzzer beaters, the upsets, the bracket wagers, this weekend’s got it all. Of course I’ll be rooting on my Texas Longhorns to make it to Houston for the South Regional Finals and eventually San Antonio for the Final Four, but even if they don’t make it to the third weekend of the tournament I’m sure there will be some compelling story lines to get us through the month. I’m interested in seeing which team Cinderella’s slipper attaches itself to this year.

Lost Wednesdays

Michael is back and all is right with the world! You know the rumor was that the creators of Lost wanted Michael back last year, meaning he would have never missed a full season, except they couldn’t work out a contract for his return and then Harold Perrineau was cast in the horror movie 28 Weeks Later, which conflicted with Lost’s filming schedule. What is interesting about that rumor is that it is completely rebuffed by an excellent interview with the actor posted on CNN yesterday. According to the article:

The 44-year-old actor from New York tenses up when he talks about the third season. Perrineau was the only one of the 14 original "Lost" cast members to not appear in a third-season flashback, mind-bending vision or otherwise. He says he "wasn't so happy" about the creative decision to leave Michael and Walt off the island and focus on others.

"I was hurt, really hurt," said Perrineau. "I told myself I had to watch the show, so I at least knew what was going on in case I was brought back, but then I was like, 'Why?' I never knew what was going on before. Why should I start trying to figure it out now?"

Instead of waiting by the phone to hear if his character would return to the series, Perrineau moved on to other projects, including a part in the film "28 Weeks Later" and a role in the CBS pilot "Demons." When "Demons" didn't get picked up, that made room in Perrineau's schedule to get "Lost" again. (link)

You know this really contradicts everything I had heard about the creators of Lost wanting to bring Perrineau back to the show and it really frustrates me. It angers me that we were force fed Nikki and Paulo when the executive producers could have just sucked it up and gotten Michael back to the island faster. But, the longer wait may have given more mystery as to what struggling single father Michael Dawson has been up to during these past three months of “island time.” I guess as long as they give Michael some quality screen time and a reasonable explanation as to why he’s working with Ben all will be forgiven.

According to the same interview, many of our questions as to where Michael and Walt have been will be answered in tomorrow’s Michael-centric episode "Meet Kevin Johnson." The article promises tomorrow night’s episode will not only explain to us in Flash Backs where Michael’s been, but “will [also] feature flashbacks detailing what happened after Perrineau's character shockingly gunned down fellow passengers Ana-Lucia and Libby in order to release seemingly evil Ben and retrieve his son Walt from captivity.” (link) I have always felt bad for Michael in that he always seems to make the wrong decision that just keeps getting him in deeper and deeper trouble. You’d think with his and Walt’s escape from the island while leaving his friends behind and killing Ana-Lucia and Libby in the process would weight heavily upon him. Heavily enough to eventually bring him back to the island, and here he is.

The last two tidbits from this week’s Lost Wednesdays come from TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello. It seems that who the final member of the Oceanic 6 will not be revealed after all. (link) Carlton Cuse told Ausiello that they’re “not going public with any further clarifications right now,” and that they “don’t determine how ABC promotes the show.” (link) Man that certainly is a downer when it comes to Jin’s ultimate fate, isn’t it? But, Cuse does say that “you have now seen all of the Oceanic Six in this season’s episodes.” (link) If that’s not the biggest non-answer I’ve ever heard then I don’t know what one is. Of course we’ve seen all of the members of the Oceanic 6 this season, we’ve seen every possible member of it this year except maybe Walt, so I guess that means strike him off the list.

Another interesting tidbit about the four toed statue was featured on Ausiello’s blog this week. According to co-executive producer Damon Lindelof the reason we haven’t seen the statue again is that they “got a note back from the network that said, ‘This is too weird,’" (link) Evidently a six toed statue would have been ok, but a four toed statue was just too much for ABC. Hopefully the show’s writers will be able to find a way to bring the statue back into the fray that’s not too out there for the ABC brass. Well that’s all I’ve got for this week, I just wish it was Thursday already so we could get some answers and maybe even a sneak peak at just how tall Walt’s gotten.

Battlestar Galactica News - Season 3 DVD In Stores, Prequel In Development and Stars To Present Letterman Top 10 Tonight

The Blot has been waiting months for this day, the release of Battlestar Galactica Season 3 on DVD. I was admittedly behind on the whole Battlestar Galactica craze and jumped on the bandwagon last summer after being persuaded by a friend to finally give it a second try. You see I loved watching repeats of the campy original Battlestar as a kid, but after watching half an hour of the show’s original mini-series I had to turn it off. I just couldn’t watch a show that would desecrate the greatness that was Lt. Starbuck by turning him into a woman. How could you do that to the A-Team’s Faceman (a.k.a. Dirk Benedict)!?!?


After a second viewing of the mini-series I realized the error of my way and the greatness that is Katee Sackhoff’s Starbuck. There is so much more to this show than the hot, evil Cylon robots or the starship battles in space, the show has actually great storylines. While many people are probably turned off by the science fiction aspect of BSG, the show really is as much about politics, political intrigue and the same types of issues facing America as another one of The Blot’s favorite shows, The West Wing. Yes I know it’s hard to compare a show about the Oval Office to a show about a spaceship, but it really does work.

Once I finished the initial Battlestar Galactica mini-series I rushed out to purchase the Season 1 box set and haven’t looked back yet. What sucked was the fact that Season 3 was going on as I was still watching Season 2 & 2.5 on DVD. So I waited, and waited, and waited for almost an entire year for NBC/Universal and the Sci-Fi Channel to get their act together and finally release Season 3 on DVD. Now that I’ve purchased the third box set I’ve got to figure out how I’m going to find the time to watch the entire season before BSG’s fourth and final season debuts Friday, April 4th at 10/9 central on the Sci-Fi Channel. Damn you March Madness!

As the final season’s debut approaches the show is doing all it can to promote its fourth season. The first stop of their never ending PR tour for the show is The Late Show with David Letterman where The Daytona Beach News-Journal is reporting that tonight several of Battlestar Galactica’s stars will be presenting the daily Top Ten list. (link) The actors rumored to appear “include Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, Tricia Helfer and Lucy Lawless.” (link) While the article doesn’t say what the topic of the Top Ten list will be, I’m sure it’ll be pretty funny with the cast sure to be making fun of the science fiction/unrealistic aspects of the show.

Another bit of exciting news for fans of BSG came out yesterday in that the Sci-fi Channel finally announced at their upfront presentation Tuesday that “it has greenlighted a two-hour back-door pilot” Caprica, “which had been in development for two years.” (link) Finally! The much talked Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica seemed to have been in limbo forever, but the show seems set to finally see the light of day. Caprica, “which is set 50 years before the events in the departing Battlestar,” sounds to be following in the footsteps of primetime soap operas of the past. (link)

The television movie and subsequent series is set to “revolve around two families: the Adamas and the Graystones. Joseph Adama, father of future Battlestar commander William Adama, is a renowned civil liberties lawyer who becomes an opponent of the artificial intelligence/Cylon experiments wrought by the Graystones, owners of a large computer corporation that builds the first Cylons.” (link) While the story sounds interesting, I don’t know how it will translate to fans of the current Battlestar Galactica since there is something to a story in which the human race is all but extinct and fighting for its existence. Nevertheless I’m sure I’ll give Caprica a shot when it debuts next year.

You can purchase the two Battlestar Galactica propaganda posters seen here and other cool BSG merchandise (including official Battlestar Galactica dog tags and additional posters) at Quantum Mechanix. (link)

Lost - Ji Yeon

Wow, our first Flash Back and Flash Forward in the same episode. But first let’s get to the real shocker from last week’s episode. For about a year now I’ve been waiting for Michael’s reappearance. The worst kept secret on Lost has been the return of Harold Perrineau to the island. I really don’t understand why Lost went and ruined what could have been such a huge revelation for all of us Lost fanatics. Not only did Lost creators reveal before the start of the current season at Comic-con that Perrineau would be rejoining the cast, but they added a new Michael wallpaper in the download section of the official Lost website and his name has been appearing in the opening credits all season long.

For a show that is so secretive about every single detail of its characters, why did Lindelof and Cuse not work harder to hide Michael’s return? Obviously Michael’s working for Ben as a spy on the freighter was kept relatively secret, but come on…anyone who either knew of Perrineau’s return or read one of a million articles spoiling his reintroduction into the Lost mythos could have figured it out. Regardless, Perrineau has been one of my favorite actors since he stared on HBO’s Oz as the wheelchair bound Augustus Hill. Hopefully his character Michael Dawson will not be stuck on the freighter for the rest of this season and we can see the reaction his return to the island gets from the rest of the Losties.

Ok, now on to what has the internet really spinning, the Flash Forward/Flash Back of “Ji Yeon.” This past summer rumors were abound about the revelation of the Oceanic 6 and which character would be getting off the island. Every “insider” had the same list and as this year’s 7 episodes played out it seemed as though their list of characters were right, Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun and Jin. And yet, maybe that list wasn’t as accurate as we all thought. You see ABC has been saying all along that by the end of the 7th episode we would know who the Oceanic 6 were, and yet we don’t.

Is Jin really dead? Did he die on the island or once the Oceanic 6 returned to the mainland? Does this mean Aaron is one of the Oceanic 6 or should we be counting Michael? Then again, if Michael counts shouldn’t Walt be included on the list as well? This is oh so confusing. Maybe the secrets being kept by the Oceanic 6 are being done so to help protect Walt from outside forces? Arrhhh, so many questions and so few answers. At least Thursday we should get a few answers as it appears Sayid will be going postal on Michael in the final episode of this season's intial run of 8 episodes, "Meet Kevin Johnson."

I thought it was a surprising and nice twist that the big reveal last week wasn’t Michael’s return but the death (or supposed death) of Jin. The love story between Sun and Jin has really had its ups and downs, and after this past week their relationship seems to have hit an all time low. Thankfully we know Sun survives and eventually gives birth to a beautiful baby girl, Ji Yeon. While we finally had another, albeit brief, appearance of Flash Forward Hurley, the best cameo of the week was Bernard’s who gave some very timely advice about love and relationships to Jin while the two of them were fishing. I just hope Jin survives long enough to make it to the final season of Lost. Unfortunately I'd imagine our favorite fisherman's son is living on borrowed time for the rest of this season.

And now on to our last subject of the epsidoe. The last question I need answered is "Is the freighter captain to be trusted or not?" If you subscribe to Ben and Michael’s point of view that Captain Gault is not to be trusted then most of what he told Sayid and Desmond was a lie. While we know Ben and Sayid are not the most truthful characters on Lost, I still would prefer to side with them on this one. If we do believe them, then what was Captain Gault lying about? The black box? Who planted the fake Oceanic flight 815 and bodies in the ocean? Or what is the real connection between the freighter and Charles Widmore? Needless to say, I am sure these questions will be the focal point of many episodes to come. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for a final answer.

Barney-ism Of The Week

Open your brain tank bro, cuz here comes some premium 91 octane knowledge. There’s three rules of cheating:
1. It’s not cheating if you’re not the one who’s married.
2. It’s not cheating if her name has two adjacent vowels
3. And its not cheating if she’s from a different area code.
You’re fine on all three counts.

"How do you know she’s from a different area code?" – Ted

She’s 516. She might dress like she’s 718 and act like she’s 212, but trust me she’s 516. Oh, and her husband letting her out alone on St. Patty’s Day? If that dude’s not 973 I’m 307…Wyoming.

- Barney Stinson

"No Tomorrow"

How I Met Your Mother

Barney-ism Of The Week, Pt. 2

Alright, I didn’t want to tell you this in front of Marshall and Lily because they’re old and married and it’s too late for them already, but Ted the world is going to come to an end tonight.
Yes, think about it: End of the world → Nostradamus → Notre Dame → Fighting Irish → Irish → St. Patrick’s Day.
This is it bro, Bro-pocalypse Now, Bro-mageddon.

- Barney Stinson

"No Tomorrow"

How I Met Your Mother

The Return of the Barney-ism Of The Week

No! No! Unacceptable, that's so not Raven!

- Barney Stinson

"No Tomorrow"

How I Met Your Mother

How was that for a super sized, 3 part edition of The Blot’s Barney-ism Of The Week to get us back on track? Last night’s episode was so great, it really reminded me of everything I love about the show. How I Met Your Mother is all new for the rest of the spring, so set your DVRs now and get ready to hopefully find out just who is the mother of Ted’s future children! Plus, next week is the Britney Spears/Sarah Chalke episode so you know that’s gonna be a good one.

The Final Sawyer-ism Of The Week

“Kevin this is…” – Doctor on Freighter (Marc Vann)
“Sayid” – Sayid Jarrah
“Desmond” – Desmond Hume
Kevin Johnson
“Nice to meet you Kevin.” – Sayid Jarrah

- Kevin Johnson
(Michael Dawson)
introducing himself to Sayid
and Desmond on the Freighter

“Ji Yeon”

Lost

Well after three weeks of sub-par Sawyer-isms due mainly to the unexplainable disappearance of 85% of the show’s cast, including The Blot’s favorite character James “Sawyer” Ford, this weekly feature is coming to a swift and abrupt end. But fear not loyal The Blot Says… readers, because every end marks a new beginning! Thankfully CBS moved swiftly to restart their highly rated line-up of Monday night comedies, which can only mean one thing…the return of The Blot’s Barney-ism of the Week! Tonight was a true return to form for How I Met Your Mother and hopefully marks the show’s eventual renewal. So while I won’t be forcing lame Lost-isms on you anymore, be on the look out for some hilarious Barney-isms tomorrow. I promise it'll be legend, wait for it...

Houston Rockets Take Consecutive Winning Streak To 22 Games With Defeat Of Lakers

Well to say The Blot was disappointed in the ending of the Rockets vs. Lakers game on Sunday is an understatement. Without Pau Gasol the Lakers looked anemic and very weak in the front court. Considering the team they were playing only gets 15-20 min out of their center makes the loss even more discouraging. But, I have to give the Rockets and the city of Houston credit in that it was by far the loudest and most excited regular season NBA crowd I have ever witnessed. The stadium erupted with every made basket and the crowd was truly electric.


The rockets have now extended their winning streak to 22 games, just 11 behind the all time record, and must face at home the top team in the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics. What a great matchup this game turned out to be with the Rockets now owning soul possession of the best record in the Western Conference. The Celtics will be without their All-Star guard Ray Allen, but I still expect this match-up to be a hard one for the Rockets with Celtics forward Kevin Garnett nearly unstoppable.

At this point I would love to see the Rockets continue to win, if for no other reason than it makes watching Rockets games actually watchable, especially since The Blot cares so little for the team. Regardless, I still see it highly unlikely that Tracy McGrady and the Rockets make it out of the first round of the NBA playoffs this year. Why have it be any different than every other season of TMac’s career? But, if the Rockets can hold on to the top spot in the Western Conference then maybe, just maybe, they have a shot to beat a team like Golden State or Denver.

Dominic Monaghan - Happy Accidents… A Photography Exhibition

I thought this was pretty cool when I read about last week so I thought I’d share it with all of you. Dominic Monaghan, who most of the world knows as either Charlie from Lost or Merry the Hobbit from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, has a photography exhibition currently running at the West Hollywood art gallery Hamilton-Selway Fine Art. The photo exhibit entitled Happy Accidents… is on display from now until March 27th and you can see the entire exhibit here.

The photos are excellent and some even include former cast members from both Lost and The Lord of the Rings. 20% of the proceeds will benefit the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation and you can contact the gallery at 310-657-1711 for sizes and pricing of the artwork.