The Mysteries Deepen in LOST's Third Season

It's been a long wait between the season three finale of LOST back in May and tonight's season four opener. Eight months, during which we learned that the already short sixteen-episode season would probably be cut down to eight courtesy of the Writers' Strike. In November, we finally got a little something to tide us over with the mobisodes, brilliant little scenes first sent to cell phones and then posted on ABC.com a week later. Each of these nuggets has been pure gold to me, whetting my appetite for the excitement to come. I'm especially intrigued by the revelation in the 13th mobisode, though my favorite probably remains King of the Castle, in which Jack squares off against Ben in a game of chess and shrugs off suggestions that he might not really want to leave this island for good.

This month, we got the fantastic www.find815.com, an interactive website whose contents I still have not fully explored. It allows fans to follow the journey of Sam Thomas, former Oceanic employee and longtime boyfriend of an 815 stewardess named Sonya, who decides to conduct his own search after Oceanic gives up on finding the fallen airplane. Filled to the brim with fascinating tidbits, it no doubt offers some hints about the upcoming season.

But there's nothing like the show itself, so I was eager to pick up season three, which came out in mid-December, though I waited until January to buy it. I've heard and read a lot of complaints about its unevenness; most reviewers seemed to agree that the last few episodes had saved a substandard season. Maybe it made a difference that I saw the first six episodes close together, so I didn't have to wait such a long time to see what had happened to everyone after the season two finale, but I had few of those frustrations with the season.

Oh, sure, it was aggravating to see Kate and Sawyer stuck in bear cages and Jack in a shark tank, unable to roam freely and being manipulated by the Others. I worried that they might not make their way back to the beach, but in my heart of hearts, I figured they would. I think the writers could have given one of the second season's key characters a more graceful exit, and two of the third season's most superfluous characters a more natural entrance. But for the most past, I found the season absolutely riveting, and I was thrilled to be able to watch it in real time at last.

Season three is very focused on the Others, who are mostly hinted at in the first season and still shadowy in the second. We get to know the deliciously creepy Ben, formerly known as the sniveling Henry. Michael Emerson's exceptional Emmy-nominated performance kept me hanging on Ben's every word and gesture. Ben is especially compelling in conjunction with Jack (Matthew Fox), who gets intimately acquainted with the Others this season, and John (Terry O'Quinn), who despite long absences manages three centric episodes, the intensity of which were enough to score O'Quinn the Emmy.

Our castaways are very fragmented, particularly at the beginning, with Jack, Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) in captivity; Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) and Sun (Yunjin Kim) in decoy Otherville; Hurley (Jorge Garcia) wandering through the jungle; Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), John and Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) unaccounted for and the rest of the gang back at the beach - save Michael (Harold Perrineau) and Walt (Malcolm David Kelley), of course, who have skipped the island in the Others' motorboat. As the season progresses, the fragmentation continues as the characters shuffle around, but in the entire season, we never see all of the castaways together in the same place - though we come close at one point, with only John off on his own, becoming more embroiled in the mysteries of the island and demanding answers from Ben.

Because the Others are now a prominent faction, there are many scenes, especially toward the end of the season, that don't involve the castaways at all. Much of the action hinges on the loyalties of Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell), a fertility specialist brought to the island because every pregnancy in recent memory has ended with the death of both mother and baby. Controlled by Ben for three years, all she wants is to get home to her sister and the nephew she's never met, and she's willing to do anything to facilitate that escape. She seems to have bonded with Jack, but is it all an act?

Richard (Nestor Carbonell), a soft-spoken man with heavy eyeliner who "looks fair but feels foul," recruited Juliet with some wheedling words and a little help from the dearly departed Ethan (William Mapother), who, like Christian (John Terry), has a habit of popping up frequently even though he died in the first season. Richard seems to be Ben's advisor, and quite possibly a scheming one at that, while Tom (M. C. Gainey), hitherto known as Mr. Friendly, is his lackey who is not nearly as intimidating without his beard. My favorite of the secondary Others, Tom is known for his congeniality, and in this season he generally comes across as a regular guy without as many sinister underpinnings as his cohorts.

Cohorts like Mikhail (Andrew Divoff), affectionately known as Patchy. This one-eyed Ukrainian first pops up on a television screen in the surveillance hatch. A loose cannon, he lives reclusively on a farm equipped with communication devices and shoots at anyone who comes to visit. He's surly and unpredictable, and he's much more important to the season than it at first appears. And then there is Jacob, the enigmatic leader of the Others who no one but Ben seems to have seen. Supposedly he calls all the shots, but does he even exist, or is he just another way for Ben to exert control over others?

The mysteries pile up in this season, but some compelling questions are answered, among them What is the Dharma Initiative, and how does it relate to the Others? Who is the original Sawyer? How is it that polar bears are wandering around on a tropical island? How did Locke get in the wheelchair? Some less intriguing questions receive an unwarranted degree of attention, most notably What's the deal with Jack's tattoos? But I'll forgive that debacle of a back story because the episode also focuses on the teenaged Karl (Blake Bashoff), who may be Luke to Sawyer's Han Solo and who shares a gorgeous Somewhere Out There moment with Alex (Tonya Raymonde), unhinged island resident Rousseau's (Mira Furlan) long-lost daughter, as the episode closes.

Sawyer certainly is one of the most riveting characters of the season. Though he hasn't grown any less snarky, he seems to be advancing steadily in his maturation process, and Jack's absence is doing him some good as it gives him the opportunity to step up and take some responsibility, with a little help from the wise Hurley. But this is Sawyer we're talking about here; can it be long before he backslides? All of the characters face new challenges this season, but the one I couldn't keep my eyes off of was Desmond, who we only really got to know during the season two finale. Now he's a regular part of the gang, though all that time in a hatch didn't do much for his social skills. He's a loner, but as he spends the season haunted by disturbing visions foretelling the death of Charlie (Dom Monaghan), the pair remain predominantly in one another's company, which is lovely for me, since they are two of my four favorite characters.

Charlie's supposed doom comes to light in Flashes Before Your Eyes, an episode whose format is unique among all those we've seen so far. Framed in the present, the bulk of it takes place at a key moment in Desmond's past - or is it? With its mind-bending premise and epic overtones - not to mention a terribly romantic storyline for a show that aired on Valentine's Day - it firmly establishes Desmond as a key player in the third season and makes the question of Charlie's survival a principal concern. Expose, on the other hand, disposes of two much-maligned characters and is widely regarded as a wasted episode, but the light-hearted tone and alternative perspectives actually made it one of my favorites of the season - though I am cross when I realize that while we are putting up with Nikki (Kiele Sanchez) and Paolo's (Rodrigo Santoro) pointless shenanigans, we could be getting some more time in with the fantastic Rose (L. Scott Caldwell) and Bernard (Sam Anderson), who are missing in action for the vast majority of the season.

LOST just keeps getting more and more complex, and it's nice to know that the writers now know exactly how much longer they have to wrap up the series. Presumably, this provides assurance that we're actually going to unlock most of the show's mysteries - though no doubt some will be left for us to discuss long after LOST has ended. I wish I could say that the show seems to be building toward the optimistic conclusion indicated by the first season, which was largely an idealistic study in how flawed people from disparate backgrounds can learn to live together peaceably. If you discount those killed upon impact in the plane crash, there are about twice as many deaths in the third season as in the first two combined. I certainly hope that trend doesn't continue. But whatever the case may be, I know exactly where I will be on Thursday night at 9 p.m., even if it is only for the next eight weeks. LOST has lost none of its appeal for me. I can't wait to see what Damon and Carlton have in store for us next!

Bride and Prejudice Colorfully Reimagines Austen

If I were to categorize this year in terms of my prevailing preoccupation, I would have to say that 2007 has been the Year of Harry Potter. Just behind the boy wizard, however, were several other fictional fancies, prominent among them the hit ABC drama LOST and Jane Austen's enduring classic, Pride and Prejudice. When I learned that a marriage, however tenuous, between the two could be found in Gurinder Chadha's Bride and Prejudice, a splashy Bollywood adaptation of Austen's novel, I couldn't wait to attend the ceremony.

It was Naveen Andrews, better known to me as (mostly) reformed Iraqi torturer Sayid, whose inclusion in the cast pushed this cinematic take on the Elizabeth and Darcy saga up to the top of my must-see list. Sadly, the happy-go-lucky (and marvelously fleet-footed) Balraj Bingley doesn't get a lot of screen time, but he's sufficiently lovable for this gal who harbors suspicions that, delicious as Darcy is, she may be more of a Bingley devotee at heart. And Martin Henderson is, alas, no Colin Firth, nor is this Darcy written to be nearly as interesting or intoxicating as the original.

Few of the other cast members were familiar to me. Alexis Bledel, whose role in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants I enjoyed, puts in a sweet performance as Georgie, good-natured little sister of the inscrutable William Darcy, and Ashanti makes a rather random appearance. Otherwise, while I recognized the characters, I can't say the same for the actors playing them. The cast is solid, however, from Indira Varma, who plays the high-falluting, flirtatious Kiran Bingley, sister to Balraj and pursuer of William, to Nitin Ganatra, the insufferable Mr. Collins-like Mr. Kohli who could give Fran Drescher a run for her money in a most-annoying-laugh competition.

Most of the characters have names that are similar to the Austen version, but before they were properly introduced it was fun to point to them and guess which character they corresponded to. I was impressed by how many of the characters remained relatively intact; obviously, since the bulk of the film takes place in modern-day India (with brief forays into London and California) rather than Georgian England, there are going to be changes, but the basic nature of the characters is pretty similar.

The Bakshi family is very much like the Bennets, with an easy-going dad (Anupam Kher), a hilariously high-strung mom (Nadira Babbar) and four unmarried daughters. Poor Kitty, who never was very distinctive, is excised entirely, but Elizabeth is present in all her feisty glory, though this time her name is Lalita (Aishwarya Rai). Her older sister Jane becomes Jaya (Namrata Shirodkar), whose charitable personality isn't as developed as Jane's but who still is perfectly likable. Maya (Meghna Kothari) is Mary-like primarily in one scene in which, instead of a tedious musical performance, she subjects guests to a poorly performed snake dance. Lakhi (Peeya Rai Chowdhary) is the irresponsible Lydia through and through, though her fling with Johnny Wickham (Daniel Gillies) turns out quite differently than in the book.

The most striking aspect of this film, even more than the setting, is the fact that it is a musical, and an incredibly eye-catching one at that. The first half of the movie is loaded with extended, vibrant dance numbers, most of which do little to advance the story, though they are roughly in keeping with the emphasis the novel places on dance. Of course, this is dancing of a very different sort, and even the liberal Elizabeth would likely blush at some of the rather immodest displays - though it's all beautifully coordinated, and still much more tasteful than the half-dressed gyrating of From Justin to Kelly. It's fun to watch, what with the dazzling array of fabrics and the unique cultural dances, particularly those involving sticks that the dancers slap together, and there's an entertaining Matchmaker, Matchmaker-style derisive ode to Mr. Kohli, but most of the songs went on a bit longer than I thought was necessary, and I was rather relieved when the second half focused mostly on character development and dialogue.

If you're a fan of Jane Austen, you're in for a treat with this unique re-telling of Pride and Prejudice, and if you're lost without LOST, prepare to be doubly delighted!

I Don't Have Enough Patience For The English Patient

This past Christmas, my aunt brought several boxes of videos along with her to the traditional family gathering. Having switched over to DVDs, she was running out of space, so all those movies she'd taped over the years were fair game for the rest of us. We took her up on her offer, snagging 50 or so tapes. Among the movies was The English Patient, about which I'd heard glowing reviews, particularly during a college class I took on colonial literature. Going into the film, I was intrigued; coming out, I was confused, and after a great deal of puzzling, I'm still not sure just what to make of it.

The English Patient opens near the end of World War II when a French nurse named Hana (Juliette Binoche) takes a severely burned man (Ralph Fiennes) under her wing, letting her comrades leave her behind so she can care for him in what she assumes are his last days. He doesn't seem likely to recover from his injuries, yet there is life and spirit in him still. He has a story to tell.

So he tells it, in bits and pieces, and we watch his tragic tale unfold in flashbacks that show him as the handsome young Hungarian Count Laszlo de Almasy, who comes under the spell of a beautiful woman named Katharine (Kristin Scott Thomas), who is married to Geoffrey Clifton (Colin Firth). The Cliftons work with the Count on some of his archaeological expeditions, and initially Katharine and Laszlo don't get along so well, but their passionate sniping leads to passionate other things, and when Geoffrey finds out, life gets a whole lot harder for both of them.

Throw into the mix Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe), who shows up one day shortly after Hana takes on the role of hospice nurse. We don't really know why he's there, but he obviously has a deep personal connection to the man lying helplessly in the bed with bandages all over him, eerily prefiguring the faceless Voldemort, whom Fiennes portrayed in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Late in the film, we see first-hand what happened to Caravaggio to make him so bitter, and it's probably the most grotesque sequence in a film with its fair share of violent moments. It's one of those scenes that I would retreat to the kitchen for if I watched the movie again, my hands clenched over my ears to block out Dafoe's blood-curdling screams.

Creating a quartet in the present day is bomb disarmer Kip (Naveen Andrews), a Sikh with whom Hana becomes smitten. Polite and quiet, he treats Hana with respect, though her regard for him seems much stronger than his for her, at least initially. I've seen most of the members of this cast in other roles but was especially excited to see Andrews, since my only familiarity with him was from LOST, which, like Lord of the Rings, provided me with a long list of actors to watch out for in other projects. I enjoyed his role here, which was a bit less complicated than the others since there wasn't so much back story to deal with.

Oddly, three of the actors in this film - Fiennes, Dafoe and Jurgen Prochnow - have played Jesus. (Now, if only Henry Ian Cusick had made it into the movie somehow, we could've had someone who both played Jesus and stars on LOST...) I assume this is mere coincidence (especially since Fiennes' portrayal came four years after this movie), though the film certainly explores religious themes such as redemption and sacrifice. That said, I wouldn't consider any of the characters a Christ figure. In fact, while Hana and Kip are likable enough, I don't find Laszlo, Katharine, Caravaggio or Geoffrey all that sympathetic. We watch all of them endure great suffering, and we feel sorry for them, but... I don't know. The movie stretches on for nearly three hours, and the minutes tick by ever so slowly. By the time it ended, I was just glad it was over, and I can't say it had much of an emotional impact on me. The ending left me feeling cold, and none of the gradually unveiled secrets of the past made much of an impression on me.

I think this is the sort of movie that's best watched twice if one wants to get a proper appreciation for everything that's happening. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll be delving into the movie further; my list of movies to see continues to grow, and I just don't have time to re-watch films I didn't like much to begin with. It takes a very patient viewer to embrace The English Patient.