What is the Island? The LOST series finale...

LOST ended last night in an emotionally draining 2 and 1/2 hour episode that still has me scratching my head while drying my tears. What happened? What is the island? Where is Walt?

And more than those simple questions, what did I want to see? Did the show need to answer all questions definitively, and if they did, would it still have the same impact? Last night, as I dreamed of LOST, and this morning as I woke up thinking about it, I realized a few things:

1) LOST will be in our collective consciousness for years to come.

2) The creators let the show get too big to control and they had no way to answer everything and make everyone happy, so they chose to not really answer anything (which made a lot of people not happy).

3) The show forced a generation of people too familiar with boring plots and say-nothing movies to think. To explore what an artist is trying to say about life, love, and forgiveness. About fate, destiny, and choice. Forcing people to think, decide, and discuss (aka: argue, scream, and fight) about the show was the greatest thing about it.  

After last night I also realized that:

4) Jimmy Kimmel sucks. Three alternate endings? That wasn't funny.

In the coming days I will continue thinking about the series and the final episode. And I will continue to ask questions:
Was the show all about Jack?
At what point did the Island end up under water?
How long will Michael be forced to roam the Island whispering to people?
If Michael can't be redeemed for killing Libby and Ana Lucia, how come Ben is let off the hook?
Was Walt supposed to be the next Jacob?
How come babies can't be born on the island?
Are Nicky and Paolo also whispering on the island?

And the main question I'll be asking is what is more important? The question or the answer?

WEZ SEZ: LOST is like a work of art. You can love it, or hate it, but you will never understand it fully... only what it means to you.

Nicollette Sheirdan slaps Marc Cherry with a lawsuit...

Nicollette Sheridan (46) has slapped the creator and producers of Desperate Housewives with a $20 million dollar lawsuit. Sheridan played Edie Brit on the show for 5 years before being killed off last year. Although it seemed that all had parted ways amicably, she is not going quietly. The suit was filed on Monday in the Los Angeles Superior Court and accuses the show's creator, Marc Cherry of assault and battery, gender violence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful termination. She also named Touchstone Television, ABC Studios, and ABC Entertainment group in the suit. She is requesting a jury trial for the case. Here is more information from radaronline.com:

Sheridan alleges that “on September 24, 2008, during a rehearsal for the show, when Sheridan questioned Cherry about something that was in the script, Cherry took her aside and forcefully hit her with his hand across her face and head." The suit says Cherry “created a hostile work environment for the cast, crew and writers who work on the show, and Sheridan in particular.”
Sheridan says Cherry later “begged for forgiveness,” and although she reported the incident to ABC, “Cherry’s abusive and aggressive behavior towards (her) not only persisted, it worsened.”
The suit also contends that when Cherry discovered Desperate Housewives’ co-star Teri Hatcher went over Cherry’s head to speak to ABC executives about him, he said, “I hope Teri Hatcher gets hit by a car and dies.”

Sheridan says that in February 2009, she was informed that she was being terminated from the show, and that her character would be killed off. Her suit claims her firing cost her millions of dollars in future earnings.

WEZ SEZ: Nicollette Sheridan - Loved her as Edie Brit and always wondered why they got rid of her. The show just isn't the same without her. Could this be the explanation?

Read the original story at radaronline.com

The LOST Supper...

Brand new promo shot for season 6 of LOST

With the last season of LOST premiering on ABC less than a month away (on February 2nd), THR sat down to talk to Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse about their hit show. Read some highlights below (including the fact that Ian Sommerhalder and Dominic Monaghan will return), and be sure to read the full interview on THR HERE.

Lindelof: The definitive edition of "Lost" ends this May on ABC, and that is the story that we have to tell. It has a beginning, middle and end. That ending will not have cliffhangers, or be set up in such a way that people will be saying, "Clearly they're going to make more of these."

Cuse: We feel tonally it's most similar to the first season of the show. We're employing a different narrative device, which we feel is creating some emotional and heartfelt stories, and we want the audience to have a chance in the final season to remember the entire history of the show. So we have actors coming back like Dominic [Monaghan] and Ian [Sommerhalder]. We're hoping to achieve a circularity of the entire journey so the ending is reminiscent of the beginning.

Lindelof: Look, it would be nice to look back and say, "We love every episode of 'Lost,' and every episode turned out the way we wanted it to." There are shitty episodes of "Lost" that we wish we had never written. But had we not written them we would be in a different situation now, because we ran out of ideas, we stalled, then the network realized what we had been saying from early on -- that "Lost" needed an end date. And now here we are six years later on broadcast with a show that is -- not what it once was [in the ratings] -- but still performing, and we're ending it on our own terms because we had shitty episodes. 

ABC rings in the new year with gay sex on One Life to Live...

Scott Evans and Brett Claywell on ABC's One Life to Live

ABC, the same station that censored Adam Lambert's now infamous gay kiss, has set a new milestone in daytime television history: gay sex. That's right, One Life to Live now features a prominent gay love story, and on December 30th's episode, the two took it to the sheets. The scene is very tasteful and treated like any other love scene for soaps. Watch it after the jump...

Kelsey Grammer to star in a comedy that is actually funny...

Things may be looking down for Kelsey Grammer (ABC canceled Hank), but don't count him out. Well actually he will be out. On stage that is. The producers of the Broadway revival of La Cage have just announced that the star of Frazier and Cheers will be headlining the production as the gay cabaret owner "Georges" next spring. This will be the second revival of the musical in only five years (the last revival closed in June of 2005) which is making many wonder: Why? Why is it necessary to bring a show back to Broadway that was just here? Hmmmm... will we ever know? The revival will be a transfer of the critically acclaimed 2008 West End production. Here's hoping it's better than the last one (the 2004 version was widely panned by both critics and audiences).

When asked about his latest sit-com, Hank being canceled, Grammer claims he was the one who pulled the plug on Hank. "Honestly, it just wasn't very funny... We finished and I was like, 'Oh boy, there wasn't a laugh in the house on this one.' And I called the president of Warner Brothers... and I said, 'Listen, when can we put a bullet in this thing?'" Even though this is obvious PR, it's a smart move that makes you want to forgive him for the bad material. This is fail number two for the funny man counting last year's Back to You. 

Grammer may be over-due on a break from TV, and it seems like a good time for him to return to the Broadway stage. He last appeared on Broadway in 2000 starring in Macbeth. His previous credits are from the 80's and are also Shakespearean: another version of Macbeth and "Casio" in Othello. He sang live as "Henry Higgins" in the New York Philharmonic's My Fair Lady in 2007 which made him "long to perform in a musical on Broadway." He released this statement about playing Georges in La Cage:

"Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein's wonderfully funny and touching show is about being true to yourself and the challenges you face as a parent, as a spouse and as a family. I cannot wait to work with Douglas Hodge and to sing these magnificent songs every night."

Of all the TV to Broadway actors, it seems like Grammer may actually have what it takes to make his role come to life, and it will be great to see him in a comedy that's actually funny again.

LOST news...

ABC announced that the Final Season of LOST will debut on Tuesday, February 2nd at 9pm! They will kick off the season with an episode entitled "LA X" (the space obviously means something sneaky)...

The series regulars have also been announced and for those wondering what happened to Claire, it looks like we will soon find out as she will be a regular on the show once again. We're only a 70 days away from ending 6 years of mysteries and smoke...

Jay Leno may be guest starring on Eastwick...

"The Jay Leno Show" on NBC and "Eastwick" on ABC

ABC has pulled the plug on its tragic series, "Eastwick". Reports came flying in when people who saw the show (and it wasn't very many) began clawing their faces off. One person was quoted saying, "I just needed to escape. The show was so bad - I had to take my mind off it." One has to wonder why they resorted to defacing their bodies instead of changing the channel...

Speaking of changing the channel, Jay Leno's 10pm show can't keep people from doing just that. Last Friday it hit an all time low of only 5million viewers and was beat by a re-run of "CSI: Miami". NBC caused a big stir when they announced that they would replace scripted shows in the prime 10pm slot with Leno's talk show. The studio wanted to save money on the scripted shows, as they haven't had a hit since "Heroes" and "ER" ended last season (these shows can cost upwards of 4million an episode). NBC may be regretting this bold move all the way to the bank, as the numbers continue to dip on "The Jay Leno Show". By trying to save money, they may end up losing it.

Meanwhile, Jay Leno has begun to use his un-watched 5 hours of TV a week to send out a plea for a new job. He has expressed interest in guest starring on "Eastwick" as the warlock of the ladies suburban coven of witches. It's a shame that ABC didn't see this request before they axed the show... Oh wait, no one did.

WEZ Sez: The Jay Leno Show - Sugar Free