I had high expectations for the series finale of LOST.  That’s because I’m an addict – I’ve seen every episode (yes, including Season 6’s brutal What Kate Did) several times; I’m a subscriber to LOST magazine; I read Doc Jensen at EW and Doc Arzt at DocArzt.com; I had to keep myself from looking at LOST spoilers on a regular basis over at DarkUFO. 

[SPOILERS COMING] 

Immediately after watching the series finale, I came away angry.  I wasn’t angry for all the reasons most people were.  I understood that Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof couldn’t answer all the questions they had posed in the series, and that to do so would actually take away the mystery of the show.  I wasn’t angry because Jack ended up with Kate, though I admit that I would have liked to see Kate plunge from a cliff in a ball of flame a la Denethor from The Return of the King (Good Lord, woman, it took you six years to make up your mind?!).  

I was angry because I felt that the end of the show embodied a rather depressing underlying philosophy.  At the end of the show, we find out that the alternate reality of Season 6 has in large part been a ruse.  It wasn’t a different timeline created by Juliet’s nuke at the end of Season 5; it was a purgatory state created jointly by many of the Oceanic 815 survivors where they could find each other and remember their lives before passing to the next stage, presumably heaven.   (more…)

Big news for Top Chef enthusiasts: Bravo’s spin-off series featuring celebrity chefs competing for charity debuts Wednesday night at 10pm ET.  I still have a bad taste in my mouth from last season, largely due to Hosea’s undeserving triumph, so I’m eager to see if the cooking franchise will redeem itself.

Here’s the skinny on Top Chef Masters, courtesy of the LA Times:

The cooking competition spinoff — this one featuring “world-renowned chefs” — has recruited a star-studded lineup of guest judges.

They include Neil Patrick Harris, Zooey Deschanel, Morgan Spurlock, “Lost” writers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, “Flipping Out’s” Jeff Lewis, and all of the previous “Top Chef” winners. Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons will also appear. (more…)