If anything, last night’s season finale of Lost made two things crystal clear to me: (1) The show is coming to an end pretty soon, finally; and (2) Josh Holloway is definitely the best thing about Lost’s top-notch acting ensemble. Apropos of both points, then, here’s my question for the guy who plays Sawyer/James/LaFleur: Isn’t it about time you became a big star already, my man? C’mon! Get on with it! The show’s ending, game on!

I’m serious here — besides being the justifiable subject of many a woman/man crush (sure, I’m guilty as charged), Holloway proved in this breakthrough season that he really is a terrific actor with depth and charisma to spare. I mean, why did everyone respond so well (and so quickly) to the out-of-nowhere Sawyer-Juliet romance? Why did it seem to resonate so much more than pretty much every other love affair on Lost this side of Rose and Bernard? As Jon Lovitz would say, “Acting!” (Yes, credit is also due to Elizabeth Mitchell, though we already knew she was great.) All season long, Holloway totally sold it, making us believe that Sawyer truly is a lover and a fighter. And in the season finale he completely cemented his status as a leading man-to-be.

This guy has got to become a movie star. And now, with one year remaining on Lost, it’s the perfect time to begin. Holloway had once been slated to appear as Gambit in Wolverine, and while he’d be a good choice for most any superhero character, I can see him in a range of movies — from romantic comedies to thrillers — playing good guys and bad. Certainly, he has what it takes to be the show’s big breakout; after all, none of the other actors have managed to seriously capitalize on their fame.

Don’t you agree, PopWatchers? What should be Holloway’s next move? Think maybe George Lucas should consider starting up a Han Solo spin-off franchise for him?

source : EW

Her second column on that episode, focusing on the references back to “The Shape of Things to Come” and continuity errors with the bearded Jack in season 3, is here.

Lost is back in less than a week!

And to promote the best little island show since, well, ever (sorry, Gilligan and Ricardo Montalban) the show’s big bosses Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse just showed critics episode three of the new fifth season, and ponied up scoop!

So what do you need to know? Well, for starters, the time travel-kookiness is off the charts in season five.

But that’s OK. They’re making it up to us.

How? Well, according to Carlton: “It’s the season of Josh.” Yes, to counteract the hard-core sci-fi/physics/time-travel-loop-the-loop stuff this year (Daniel Faraday knows all and boy does he tell all), the writers making sure that Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and his time-travel-loathing testy redneck temperament are front and center to soften the blow. His shirtless chest will also be featured prominently, but let’s focus, shall we?

So what extra Sawyer goodness are we getting this season? Read on for that, a sneak peek at episode two and some tease-y goodies about episode three!

According to Carlton, “Sawyer has a lot to do this year.” Given that there is so much heavy mytharc development going on, they felt it was important to balance that out element with some character-centric stuff.

“It’s important that Sawyer is not a huge fan of time travel,” says Carlton, noting that Sawyer will deliver many lines throughout the season criticizing time travel as a concept in general and as an influence on his own life. ”Josh is doing a lot of amazing work this year. You could say this was the season of Josh Holloway.”

And, yes, the season of time travel. “It is a veritable mine field to do time travel,” Carlton admits. “But it’s also incredibly exciting. We didn’t want to have season five just be a stall. We’re going to take some risks, but if we make some mistakes, that’s okay. We would rather take the risk and continue to do exciting storytelling.”

“Hopefully as season five unfolds you’ll realize that time traveling was in the DNA of the show for quite some time,” Damon explains. “This time travel reflects a plunge toward the [series] ending.”

Meanwhile, when asked if we’ll see more of Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert) this season, Carlton says “You will,” while Damon reveals, “He does not wear mascara. No eyeliner.” “The true mystery of Lost,” adds Carlton, “is Nestor wearing makeup.” (Hee.)

And what about the always intriguing and haunting Benjamin Linus (Michael Emerson)? “Who Ben works for is probably Ben,” Damon says. “But the fact is that he is obviously involved with other people, as you’ve seen in the first three episodes.”

“You will see more of [Charles] Widmore,” adds Damon, “and part of what we hoped to give the audience this year is some greater sense of the island’s history.”

So what about the Losties that appear to be no longer living? “You will definitely see Jin this year,” promises Carlton. “Claire is not a series regular this year, but her story is by no means over. You will see more of her in season six. Jin will be back. We’re not saying he is currently alive, though.”

As for episode three, here’s what we can spill:

• This episode is an Oceanic Six-free zone. There are no appearances by Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, Sun or Aaron.
• The title of the episode (”Jughead”) refers to a thing not a person.
• One Islander declares his love and the object of his affection seems surprisingly elated about the announcement. Guesses?
• Charles “Big Bad” Widmore pops up three times in the episode and each appearance is more surprising that the last.
• Is Desmond your hero? If yes, you will be greatly pleased with this outing of the show, in which he totally kicks ass and takes names, even while he largely fails to achieve his declared goals.
• At least two new foreign languages are used in this episode, which means more subtitle funtimes. Apologies in advance to all the dyslexics out there.
• The following is not a line from the episode, but it could be: “Did you come back for your bong?”

Only five days left! (Lost returns this Wednesday.) Can you stand the excitement? Post your joy in the comments!

source : http://www.eonline.com

What we do know is that we, the “ Lost” couch potato castaways, saw Ben turn the wheel hidden in a room below the unfamiliar Dharma Orchid Station, the sky white out, and the island vanish. All of this culminated a time-traveling, Emmy-nominated season of past and future stories that split up the “Lost” tribe — rescuing some people after 108 days, leaving some to linger on the island, and killing others.

If none of the above makes sense to you, yes, it’s too late to pick “Lost” up now. That’s what DVDs are for.

For four seasons, viewers have flashed back and forward through a maze of puzzles. When the penultimate season of the ABC hit premieres on Jan. 21, executive producers promise that answers will come our way, but it might take fans a moment to notice — because the fifth season takes viewers on yet another narrative roller coaster.

“Although the show occupies the same world, we’re always driven not by rules but by what is the best way to tell stories in any given season,” executive producer Carlton Cuse said. “Viewers will have to adjust to a little bit of a different mode this year, but we think that in that challenge also is the excitment that keeps ‘Lost’ fresh.”

First, we got to know our castaways through flashbacks of events that happened before Oceanic Flight 815 crashed in the South Pacific on Sept. 22, 2004. Then, viewers caught glimpses of them in the future, a future that revealed that some of them were rescued. The groundbreaking storytelling then took another turn when viewers became privy to future events that predated the future they’d already seen.

This season, the flashbacks and flashforwards will still exist, but another storytelling approach will dominate. And in classic “Lost” tradition, the producers won’t explain what they’re doing ahead of time.

“We’re really happy with the scripts that we’re writing, but at the same time, there’s this complete sense of fear and second-guessing in terms of whether or not the audience is going to groove on what we’re doing,” co-creator and executive producer Damon Lindelof said. “The show is taking on a new model in terms of the way we tell stories and finding a balance between what’s happening off the island and on the island. Are the characters having an emotional experience no matter how crazy it is? That’s the part we’re focused on.”

The first seven episodes will focus on the aftermath of Ben’s (Michael Emerson) pronouncement to Jack ( Matthew Fox) in the last scene of last season that the Oceanic 6 must all return to the island, including Locke (Terry O’Quinn), who has died. Jack’s challenge is to enlist the rescued castaways to go back, but that will prove tricky since he and Kate (Evangeline Lily) have broken up; Sayid (Naveen Andrews) is trotting the globe, killing people for Ben with Hurley (Jorge Garcia) in his custody; and Sun (Yunjin Kim) has gone rogue.

Viewers also will see what’s happened to Penny (Sonya Walger) and Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) after she rescued him and learn how Locke left the island and later died. The story of Walt (Malcolm David Kelley), who left the island two seasons ago, will continue, though his father, Michael (Harold Perrineau), died attempting to return to the island in the season finale. Sawyer (Josh Holloway), Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) and Charlotte (Rebecca Mader) survive on the island.

“The conventional thinking might be that we’re going to spend the entire season telling the story of how and if these charcters are able to make it back to the island,” Lindelof said. “That’s not what we’re doing. Not by any stretch of the imagination.”

Since death on “Lost” is a relative term, as Cuse likes to say, fans can expect to see more of Jin ( Daniel Dae Kim) whether he survived the freighter explosion or not; the mysterious Christian Shephard (John Terry), whose death caused his son, Jack, to be on the doomed airliner; and Rousseau (Mira Furlan), who was shot to death. The ageless Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell) will pop up again. Although fans do not know what happened to Claire (Emilie de Ravin) — the actress does not have a regular role this season, mind you — she will appear during the season.

For that matter, so will Vincent the dog, the only character the producers have committed to keeping alive for the entire run of the series.

source : latimes.com

Finally, at 10 p.m. last night, with exhausted family passed out, I sat down and broke the seven-month Lost fast with the first two helpings of season 5. Both went down well, one more so than the other. A few thoughts in advance of a more thorough discussion to come, once the episodes air and we’re all on the same page.

Some Spoilers to follow

Lost’s tradition of opening the year with a killer, capture-the-imagination sequence is honored and upheld, though the thing I loved most was how it was brazenly frank (and engagingly funny) about the heady high-concept conceit that will define the season. Almost everything that followed that opening passage was pretty cool, too. Remember the non-linear structure of Pulp Fiction, which toggled between a number of storylines whose chronological relationship to each other is practically a puzzle for the audience to solve? Well, the season premiere is kinda like that. The first two episodes will have the audience — and the show’s characters — trying to make sense of shifts in time. They demand active engagement, and I found it to be a lot of fun. Especially the first hour.

Lots of Sawyer in the first two eps. Lots of his naked chest, too. Lots of Hurley, and as for his chest, it is covered…with a very funny T-shirt. Sayid also has mucho screen time in both episodes, though he sleeps his way through one of them. Literally. And Daniel Faraday emerges as a huge player in season 5. The eps are dotted with cameos and extended cameos from peripheral but important figures crucial to the Lost mythology and much-loved by the Lost fan community. A polarizing character from Lost’s past returns, earns some redemption by participating with wit and humility, and delivers one of the best lines of either episode. Once again, all things Ben just rock. And if you’re familiar with the rather disturbing crush that Doc Jensen happens to have on a certain rarely-seen Lost someone, then you can imagine how I swooned when I saw her re-appear at long last in the second episode.

In short, it was worth the wait, and certainly the perfect tonic for a day at Disneyland. I can’t wait to see if you agree — or disagree — with me when Lost premieres on Jan. 21. In the meantime, tell me: What are you most looking forward to seeing in season 5? What are your burning questions? Let me know…because I’ll be able to soon answer them for you, in the most unexpected of ways…

Good to be gabbing Lost with you again, friends. Look for the first official Doc Jensen column next week. Namaste!

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/12/losts-season-pr.html

http://www.eonline.com/