My Reactions To This Year's Emmys Concluded: Outstanding Limited Series Et Al

 

As we come to Limited Series, once again I am disappointed by the fact that the Emmys remain stuck on five nominees in the major categories. I’m not much happier not only on who they decided to nominated but who they ignored. I will get to the specifics very quickly but I am outraged beyond words that The Patient, which was nominated for acting awards by every major critics group was completely shut out as well as White House Plumbers and the near total exclusion of Love & Death. And in quite a few cases, who was nominated in their places, truly makes me question the process. Let’s get started.

 

OUTSTANDING LIMITED SERIES

Beef more than deserves to be here. I’m starting to understand why Fleishmann is in Trouble is here. I understand why Dahmer was nominated and I’ll get to Daisy Jones and the Six which seems interesting.

But Obi-Wan Kenobi? Seriously. Forget the ones that were completely shut out. Obi Wan Kenobi received no nominations in acting, writing or directing. Why was it nominated  instead of some of the series that a got several of those nominations? Black Bird is by far the most obvious candidate, but so was George & Tammy, Welcome to Chippendales and Tiny Beautiful Things. The nomination of Obi-Wan Kenobi to me is as inexplicable as the recognition of Inventing Anna last year over Maid and Impeachment. If this isn’t an argument to at least expand this category by one nominee, I don’t know what’ll take.

 

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE

Well Steven Yeun, Michael Shannon and Taron Egerton more than deserve to be here; I advocated for them. It is more than logical that Daniel Radcliffe is here for Weird and it would have been bizarre if Evan Peters, who took the Golden Globe last year, wasn’t here.

However, I question the wisdom of Kumail Nujani for Welcome to Chippendales in this category. I will probably end up watching the series later are on – there are too many nominations for me to ignore it – but the decision to nominate him over Steve Carell for The Patient or Woody Harrelson for White House Plumbers boggles the mind. Those were powerhouse performances, and it is clearly not at the same level. At least that is my opinion right now. I may change my mind later. (I’ve seen much of Under the Banner of Heaven, I now understand why Andrew Garfield got his nomination. I’ve been wrong in this category before.)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES

Ali Wong and Jessica Chastain I have no problem with. I hoped that Kathryn Hahn would be here. I have seen more of Fleishmann is in Trouble; I’m now inclined to agree Lizzy Caplan’s earned her spot. I can understand why Riley Keough is here. I’m actually inclined to give Dominique Fishback the benefit of the doubt for Swarm; there was a fair amount of love for it from the critics awards before this, and I’m not certain I truly had a better candidate.

I just don’t understand why Elisabeth Olsen was ignored for Love & Death. And I have to tell you, I’m not entirely thrilled that they chose Caplan over Emily Blunt for The English. Still, this is a better group than I expected.

 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE

I wouldn’t argue the presence of Paul Walter Hauser or Ray Liotta for Black Bird. I’m disappointed that my candidate for Beef wasn’t nominated here but few would question the work of Young Mazino or Joseph Lee. I’m glad that the Emmys was willing to acknowledge Jesse Plemons at long last, and at least give Love & Death something.

All right, I have no problem with Richard Jenkins or Murray Bartlett being here in principle. Where I do have a problem is the inexplicable decision to ignore Domhnall Gleeson for his brilliant work in The Patient. Justin Theroux I can wrap my head around, but Gleeson was nominated by the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice; to ignore him is one of the most grievous oversights of the Emmys this year.

 

OUTSTANINDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE

This is interesting. I am thrilled to see Maria Bello here. Claire Danes has more than earned her spot in my opinion for Fleishmann. I’m glad to see Niecy Nash-Betts as well.

The rest I’m still deciding. I have always loved Annaleigh Ashford and Juliette Lewis as actresses and I’m overjoyed they’ve been nominated. (For Lewis, this must be a partial balm for being shut out for Yellowjackets.) I have always loved Merritt Wever in almost everything she has done, I thought it was criminal she was overlooked for Unbelievable her last major limited series; so I’m fine with her being nominated for Tiny Beautiful Things. (I’ll get to that too. ) Camila Morrone has been nominated by the HCA for her work in Daisy Jones & The Six by the HCA, I think she might have been a possibility. My larger issue is the decision to overlook both Lena Headey and Judy Greer for their superb work in White House Plumbers. Headey in particular had been a heavy favorite to be nominated in this category so its odd she was excluded.  Still many of these performers are among my favorites, and I’ll be watching more of their series in the weeks to come.

WRITING AND DIRECTING

Beef  and Fleishman is in Trouble are the only series that have nominations in each category. Dahmer received two directing nominations (so did Beef) and Swarm was nominated in writing. Interestingly enough, the rest of the writing and directing nods went somewhere they mostly haven’t for the last several years – TV movies. Prey was nominated in both categories and Weird and Fire Island were nominated for writing. Considering that all three received nominations for TV Movie this year, that race may actually be more than the side note its been for the last few years. Perhaps the Emmys might move it to the main ceremony.

Some random thoughts. The separation of Late Night into Talk and Sketch is a good choice. I’m glad to see Seth Meyers finally competing as well as Jon Stewart back in the hunt against his proteges Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah. Considering that John Oliver dominated this category for seven years, it will be interesting to see who wins. It will be equally intriguing to see whether Jon Oliver can triumph over Saturday Night Live – his show has always been closer to that than The Daily Show and traditional late night. And of course, as a loyal Jeopardy watcher I am thrilled to see Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik nominated for Best Game Show Host and hope the show can win Best Game Show in prime time.

I still think the Emmys are going to happen and in due time, I’ll be dealing with my predictions. By that time, I’ll have watched a lot more of the series in my backlog and I will speak from a place from greater authority. Stay tuned.

 

Support the WGA and SAG-AFTRA!

 

R.I.P. Richard Belzer: A Special Edition of My Homicide Retrospective

 

Several months ago Richard Belzer, the legendary standup comic and actor who was practically inescapable from the character he portrayed for more than twenty years on countless series, passed away from cancer. I am told his last words included a twelve-letter obscenity which would have been completely in keeping with both him and John Munch.

I have dealt with the passing of several actors in recent years who have been critically connected to Homicide most significantly Yaphet Kotto and Ned Beatty, but it’s taken a lot more time for me to find the effort to write about Belzer’s. passing. In a large part, it’s because his death hit me far harder than any celebrity in recent years with the sole exception of Michael K. Williams. Williams’ death hit hard because it was shocking; Belzer’s shouldn’t have been because he’d been out of the public eye for awhile and had clearly been ill. But it doesn’t make it hurt any less. And that’s because John Munch may be the most iconic character not merely in the history of Homicide or even police procedurals, but television altogether.

He certainly showed up in so many places. When Law and Order decided to crossover with Homicide back in 1996 Belzer immediately had a rapport with Jerry Orbach, who had already begun to make Lennie Briscoe one of the most iconic cops in that franchise history. Munch was essentially a secondary character in that crossover, but in the two that followed, Munch would take the lead in both episodes of the series, and his banter with Orbach was incredible. I think few would have objected to a spinoff just featuring the two of them together as a private eye team. Instead when Homicide was cancelled in 1999, Dick Wolf cast Belzer to play one of the lead characters in the first spinoff of the series Special Victims Unit. (One of the fundamental reasons I disliked that show so much was not only as to how poorly Munch’s character was utilized but how the writers basically destroyed every element of the backstory the writers of Homicide had created to fit him into the world of SVU.)

By that point John Munch was beginning to show up everywhere. Even before the second Law and Order crossover aired, he had guest starred as Munch on an episode of The X-Files. (The episode took place four years before we first met Munch; perhaps the best joke of the story was that the conspiracy that unfolded was too much for him to believe.) Belzer would appear in every installment of Law and Order  except for Criminal Intent. He showed up as Munch in comedies – Arrested Development, 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. And even when it wouldn’t have made much sense considering the reality of it, we actually saw John Munch in a brief scene in the final season of The Wire, David Simon’s follow-up. The scene takes place in a bar and he never identifies himself, but we can tell it’s him because it’s a cop bar and he’s telling the owner that he doesn’t know the first thing about running one.

John Munch may have been a regular on SVU more than twice as long than he appeared on Homicide but for anyone who truly loves the procedural, Belzer will always be associated with Homicide first and foremost. He was not the most iconic character of that series – Frank Pembleton and Tim Bayliss will always be on that list ahead of him – but he may be the most quintessential one, because it’s impossible to separate the actor from the role. Even Belzer admitted while the series was still on the air that Munch was as close to what he would be if he ever had been a cop. And that made him one of the most memorable characters in TV history. This is extremely ironic because Munch’s role on Homicide was never front and center the same way so many of the other characters were, even though he was one of only four actors who stayed with the show from beginning to end.

That somehow fit Munch. We were never sure how old John Munch was. Belzer was 48 when the series began but he looked like one of those guys who had been born in his fifties. Yet even as younger detectives entered the squad, he was never given deference, never given respect by his bosses. That was fitting because while Munch was never a bad cop, from the start of the series you got the feeling he was never a great cop.

I don’t just mean in the sense of his clearance rate (although freeze frames of the board often showed he barely cleared more than half his cases during his stint in the Homicide Unit) It’s that Munch seemed to give the impression most of the time he was on the job that he wasn’t taking it seriously. He was always telling stories in the squad room that frustrated his colleagues by their inanity; he was always telling inappropriate jokes over dead bodies or when detectives genuinely seemed interest in doing their jobs (which irritated many of his partners to distraction) and he was always kvetching about something. Complaint seemed to be natural state; he was not mad at the world or even frustrated at it, just slightly irritated.

All cops on Homicide were cynical by default; Munch never seemed capable of turning it off. That was particularly interesting when the writers developed a perfect back story for him early in Season 1. Munch had been a member of the counterculture, a sixties radical who was a revolutionary. (One of the more wonderful jokes in the series history came in the final season when he finally managed to find his record using the Freedom of Information Act and saw the government never took him seriously. Naturally, he thought it was another conspiracy.) Munch believed in every government conspiracy imaginable, from why marijuana was illegal to his suspicion as to why Pope John Paul I died so suddenly and mysteriously. Which is why, as he mentioned to Lewis in Season 5, that his decision to become a cop was just another example of the supreme irony of life. (Lewis, who was trying to clean up the aftermath of a bar brawl that left a man dead in their bar, either ignored him or dismissed it as background noise.)

Munch was always as much the source of the comic stories on Homicide as anything else  but there was a darkness to him and genuine rage. This was made clear in our introduction to him in the Pilot where Munch is questioning a suspect who is telling a story that is particularly unbelievable. Bolander (Ned Beatty) has walked off to make a phone call, and after taking as much of the story as he can, Munch delivers one of the greatest monologues in the show’s (and TV history):

“Oh, I get it. You’re saving your better lies for the other guy. I’m just a doughnut in the on-deck circle. I’m Montel Williams. You want to take to Larry King…I have been a murder police for ten years, when you lie to me, you lie to me with respect. What is you don’t like my haircut…Don’t you ever again lie to me like I’m Montel Williams, you understand. I am not Montel Williams, you hear, I am not Montel Williams!”

When this beleaguered suspect asks: “Who’s Montel Williams?” Munch just says: “I’m not Montel Williams.”

For those of you who don’t remember Williams was a syndicated nineties African-American talk show host who happened to film his shows in Baltimore. (He was obscure even in his own time; Bolander didn’t know who he was either.)

Munch’s cynicism also reflected a more depressed air that we saw in one of the final scenes of the pilot where he talks with Lewis and Crosetti about the futility of their jobs and getting out of police work into something more rewarding. While this is going on, these detectives clearly make a young man who is eying them at wants to hold them up. They’re not inclined to arrest him; they’re actually annoyed that this kid doesn’t know that they’re cops. Finally Munch walks over and shows him his badge: “We’re murder police. Go rob somebody else.”

There are few moments in the series that more clearly define the kind of cop show Homicide was going to be that Munch’s tired reaction. They don’t frisk him for weapons or drugs. They don’t arrest him to help the good citizens of Baltimore. They don’t ask him what made do this. All of these things would have expected if not mandatory in any police drama before that. Munch just tells this guy to go away. It’s not even as if they have better things to do. They just don’t want to deal with the paperwork.

What is interesting about Munch is perhaps more than  any other detective on the show, he wore his heart on his sleeve. It’s never been clear how many women he married before the series began – we believe it’s only been twice at the start, but halfway through its up to three. In the first two seasons, he has an on-again, off again relationship with Felicia, who we never meet, and it finally ends in disaster in Season 2 just when he seems about to propose. Halfway through Season 3 we see a reference to Brigitte (Valerie Perrine) his girlfriend from his free-love phase, who shows a photo of him in all his unadorned glory. In Season 4, he falls in love with ME Alyssa Dyer (Harlee McBride, his wife) but ends up bedding her cop roommate before their first date. That relationship ends in disaster. In the final season he begins an affair with Billie Lou (Ellen McElduff) the bartender at the bar he owns and they get engaged. They get married in what would be the series finale, but he never consummates the union. By the time SVU begins they are divorced, though Munch is an unreliable narrator as to why. Having seen the women he falls in love with, the only explanation seems to be that women do like men who make them laugh.

Munch shows a similar devotion to his partners. This was particularly true with Bolander, who he constantly tried to win over and would always rebuff him. When Bolander was written out of the show in Season 4, his character was initially suspended but Munch spent much of that season desperately trying to get Bolander to see him or even answer his messages. During Season 4 , he would partner with the newly demoted Megan Russert (Isabella Hoffman) and initially try to win her approval, but she continued to reject him as sloppy. Even in partnerships when he was the elder statesmen, as in the final two seasons he would try to be a friend but receive little respect.

The thing was, despite Munch’s attitude, he cared. In the middle of Season 3, while serving a warrant with Bolander, Howard (Melissa Leo) and Felton (Daniel Baldwin) gunshots rang out. Munch was the only one who wasn’t hit. Throughout the three episodes that followed, Belzer did some of his best work, utterly detached in the hospital waiting room, and then bursting into tears as he realized ‘their bloods on my shoes.” His cynicism was detached when he kept hearing about Bolander “when he wakes up.” “They mean if,” he told Giardello. He spent the next two episodes by Bolander’s hospital bed and went into apoplexy when Bolander crashed after coming out of surgery. As the investigation into the shooter, believed to be Gordon Pratt (Steve Buscemi, in the first performance I recognized him in) a virulent racist, stalled he took out his frustration on Pembleton and  the two got into a shoving match. Pratt would end up dead at the end of the episode – and Bayliss, who investigated the murder, would always believe that Munch had killed him. Munch never admitted it, but he didn’t mourn Pratt and seemed happy that his murder had been unsolved.

When Pembleton had his stroke at the end of Season 4, Munch was frantic when the doctors refused to initially take him to the hospital. When Season 5 began, he was particularly unpleasant as to how everyone seemed willing to bend over backwards to let Pembleton rejoin the squad, saying no one would have done the same for him. (Sadly, that is very possible.) He baited Frank from the moment he came back, and then revealed a bitter truth. Throughout Pembleton’s recovery he had called his hospital and him dozens of times – and Frank had never gotten back to him once. Frank rarely admits he’s made a mistake about anything, so it was odd to see his reaction. Sheepishly, he tells Munch he didn’t think it would matter. Munch holds a grudge for the next episode – then when he sees Frank struggling with his memory, writes down phone numbers where he will always see them. Things are fine with them from that point on.

John Munch was a cynic among cynics, a misanthrope before such characters would become popular throughout the era of Peak TV. But no one ever found John Munch repugnant, no one ever got tired of watching him for more than a quarter of a century. Perhaps it was because of the fundamental nature of how Belzer played Munch, which was no doubt close to his own philosophy of life. You can’t take anything seriously, not even murder. Life is not a melodrama, its tragicomedy. And given how so many of the murders on homicide occurred, Munch was in the right place for his philosophy was writ large.

I will do a follow-up to this article later on, to showcase some of the highpoints of Richard Belzer’s career on Homicide. In all candor Munch should have gotten far more work to do on the show: I only remember his character having a critical role in investigation in barely 20 percent of the show’s 123 episodes and very few of them were centered on him. Belzer never objected to his lot in life; and was always thrilled to be working on such a classic as Homicide. (Some of his co-stars over the years were never as pleasant about it.) To give this performer and character his due, I intend to deal with some of the best moments he had, some of which showed that he was more than just the comic relief.  In another era, Munch might very well have gotten his own series. But considering Belzer’s nature, maybe he would have turned it down. Both he and his iconic character were always contrary.

 

A 1980s SNL Sketch Presaged Today's Pop Culture Wars - Everyone Involved Needs To Hear The Punch Line Again

 

 

In one of the greatest episodes of Saturday Night Live which aired in the fall of 1987 the show foreswore its opening monologue for a sketch that ranks among the greatest in history. It also foresaw the future, however inadvertently.

William Shatner tells the audience a story about the time he went to a Star Trek convention. The audience is made up entirely of white males wearing glasses and taking the cliched form of the sci-fi nerd. Phil Hartman, the moderator, introduces what would later be called ‘red shirts’ to oohs and aahs. Then Shatner comes on stage. The audience tries to ask him trivia questions he does seem to know. Then he takes on a jovial tone: “You know I’ve been attended these conventions for nearly twenty years and there’s something I’ve always wanted to say: Get a life, you people!”

The laugh and applause Shatner gets at the delivery is one of the great moments in the show’s history and it continues at that level as he lays waste to their pretensions. “It’s just a TV show,” he says. Then he degrades the fanbase. “You there, have you ever kissed a woman?” The fan looks down. “Move out of your parents’ basements. Get a real job. It’s just a TV show.”

A dubious fan – I don’t know whether he’s portrayed by Jon Lovitz or Kevin Nealon gets the courage to ask: “So, you’re saying we should pay more attention to the movies?”

Shatner shouts back: “No.”  At this point, the moderator gets to a dumbshow argument with Shatner while his assistant desperately tries to do damage control. At some point, a man who is clearly supposed to be Shatner’s agent comes on stage and whispers into his ear. It’s not clear what he’s saying but Shatner then immediately goes to the microphone and says: “Of course, that was just an imitation of the evil Captain Kirk.” His agent has to whisper in his ear not only the episode title but where it is in canon and the fans immediately relax and start laughing.

This sketch is a classic by any standard even if went to every cliché not only of the Star Trek fans but all sci-fi fans in general. However, when you look at so much of what discussion of pop culture is on the internet these days, you realize that so much of the world is in an eternal Star Trek Convention and no one will just speak truth.

Now let me be clear. I am not mocking fandom in any form; I would be a hypocrite if I did. As someone who spent so much of his teenage years obsessed with The X-Files, his twenties – and beyond – with Lost, and these days makes his living arguing for the series he is sometimes unabashedly a fanboy for, to bite the hand that feeds him would be a bridge too far. The difference, however, between a critic and a fan these days is crucial. A critic has to sometimes separate their love for a show and face its reality when it comes to quality. The fan will defend their show to the death. And in the age of the internet, these battles have become nearly as toxic as everything else in our society.

Trying to figure out when exactly this became an endless battle may be impossible to determine. However, we are celebrating the 20^th anniversary of one of the most famous remakes in the history of television – a show considered by critics as one of the great shows in recent history -  and one where it’s pretty clear the opening shots were fired.

Like so many of our pop culture wars, it started with something truly terrible. I have seen a few episodes of the ‘classic’ Battlestar Galactica and its truly wretched.  The special effects are horrible, the costumes unrealistic, the acting and writing miserable. It’s kind of amazing it lasted a full season. There are far better shows from that era that would have deserved a remake – The Invaders, Kolchak: The Night Stalker – and other syndicated series later on that did a better adaptation – Alien Nation, War of the Worlds.

But fans did not let go of it and it kept getting considered being brought back for more than two decades. Finally what was then known as the Sci-Fi channel ordered a reimagining by producers Roland D. Moore and David Eick. They made clear early on they had no intention of doing that version.

While there were references to the original characters  - William Adama, Apollo, Gaius Baltar, -  Moore and Eick had every intention of making their version of Battlestar Galactica different. The world that it took place in would involve a realistic depiction of the War in Terror. They would have a female president: Sharon Roslin (Mary McConnell). They would have robot Cylons but there would also be human models. Most importantly – and unforgivably in the minds of some fans – they would flip the gender of Starbuck, played by Dirk Benedict in the first version; Katee Sackhoff in the second.

From the moment the series began in 2003, there was always a base of fans who virulently protested it. They would come up with the term “GINO” to refer to it (Galactica in Name Only). Moore and Eick actually said some of their most frequent viewers were those who chose to hate watch it and tell everybody how inferior it was.

As I have said in numerous articles I have never been the sort to outright dismiss a work of television or film simply because its origins are in a comic book or franchise that is considered mainstream. That is my job as a critic, and to many of my ilk outright condemn them without thinking. What has always been impossible for me to get my mind around for more than twenty years is the ridiculously fan base devotion to the idea that any variation to the theme of a show or a movie that they grew up watching has ‘ruined it.’ I made this point very clear in my rave about Andor two weeks back so I won’t go into the details again; you know the arguments are they don’t.

However, there’s something I find just as infuriating. It’s the counterreaction by the other side – yes, those on the left – every time the ‘traditional fan bases’ starts reacting badly to any new variation on the series. This was particularly clear with Rings of Power and Wheel of Time  but I could give too many examples of this. They seemed determined to shout louder than the trolls that they were upset because people of color were playing elves or that their were female Ghostbusters then whether the series they were so busy cheerleading actually had any artistic merit or indeed deserved to exist in the first place. As someone who is exhausted – truly exhausted – from seeing so many articles about the fact that one of the new crew members of the Enterprise is gay or that if you don’t like Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, you’re part of the patriarchy,  I really wonder why we keep having these fake battles when there are so many real ones. Not the least of which is that eighty percent of every movie or TV show these days is a remake of something and we can’t get anything genuinely original these days. Do you think I really wanted to even look at The Mandalorian, let alone be forced to compare it artistically to Better Call Saul or The Crown? But apparently that’s what now has to be considered great TV because everybody in the world wants these battles.

And I’m not alone in this. Anthony Hopkins just told the New Yorker that he didn’t consider his work in the Thor films acting. In the final season of Barry, Bill Hader sent a very clear message to the world when he had Sian Herder – the director of CODA – essentially directed a Marvel movie and really hating herself. In a subtler joke, that film became a franchise. That’s the world we live in.

So this is me, playing William Shatner. And I’m going to yell at both sides equally.

First, to those of you who are devoted to canon. How does having an African-American storm trooper or a female Jedi ‘ruin’ Star Wars? You’ve spent the last fifteen years shouted that the prequels ruined the franchise but apparently the idea of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi is apparently now an improvement over the final three episodes! Ghostbusters was not a classic comedy the way that The Princess Bride was; it was a silly eighties movies that Bill Murray managed to carry. (He was a jerk to everybody in that movie, by the way.) Captain Marvel was just a lousy movie,  but it’s not like the MCU was ever at the level of Casablanca or Bridge on the River Kwai.

And the source material is not ruined. The holy trinity can be found on TV really anywhere without having to look that hard. You can read your old comic books if you really are that desperate to see the real Supergirl or Ant-Man if you really need to. Watch the DVDs of the original Battlestar Galactica if you somehow thought that trying to set in a world you might recognized ‘spoiled it.’ Honestly, you should probably be doing that anyway. Considering that any change in the world of fandom is apparently the equivalent of a desecration of The Mona Lisa, best to stay in your bubble.

And as to all you ‘social justice warriors’ who somehow seem to think that Wonder Woman or Shang-Chi is some kind of victory, give me a break. The world is burning down around us – something that your more political colleagues spend just as much time reminding us every chance they get – and you really think that its some breaking of the glass ceiling if we were to get a black James Bond or that Starbuck is a woman? At best, they are either interesting creative decisions or an example of marketing. Nothing more. I’d be more interesting in fighting for gender equality in studios or networks, but a female Muslim superhero that’s a triumph for equality the world should get behind?

I have spent so much time in this blog arguing the difference between cosmetic change and systemic change. Having an African-American ancestor of a lead from Game of Thrones in its prequel isn’t even a cosmetic change. It’s a marketing ploy. What does that prove? African-Americans are capable of being as manipulative or violent or as sexually deviant as everyone else in Westeros? (Yes, I hate Game of Thrones but its still a valid point.) David Simon has done more for African-American representation in a single episode of The Wire than the entire world of the Seven Kingdoms. It really bothers me that this is a line you’ve chosen to fight on, the same way you do for non-binary Jedis. (Don’t correct me if I’m getting the nature of the character wrong; I’ve never watched Obi-Wan Kenobi; I have no intention of doing so now.)

I am a non-combatant in the pop culture wars because I do not believe this is a battle that I care about or want to spend time in. But every time you decide that a series has to be a battle for social justice versus purity to fandom, it makes the jobs of people like me that much harder. Because whether you like or hate anything in franchises is increasingly no longer dependent on its actual quality but what side of the culture war you’re on. One can’t simply love the new version of The Wonder Years because it is one of the most brilliant shows of the decade; no, the only people who like it our woke. And if you hate Rings of Power because it’s a poorly made series that has no really reason to exist, well, you’re some combination of racist, sexist, homophobic or some combination.

 

I’m not wild that everything in our world has to be viewed by some version of your identity and not by its own merits. I’m appalled that people like me can’t do their jobs and not become subject of loathing by one side, the other or both. Especially when it has to do with things I really don’t care much about like Game of Thrones, Star Wars or Star Trek. I don’t like it that everything’s a battleground; I especially don’t like it when we’re fighting battles that are, by any standard you want to use, meaningless.

In short, to everybody on both sides fighting this, seriously: Get a life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Reaction To This Year's Emmy Nominations, Part 2: Comedy

 

Before I get into comedy, a little advice to the Emmys.  Is there a reason you are stuck on five nominations for Lead Actor and Actress?  All the other categories have room for more than five. It’s not like there’s a shortage of eligible performers in each category.  And you were fine with six or more for nearly a decade? Why are you going backwards? Especially since you found room for six last year?

Otherwise I’m less disappointed here than I was for Drama. I was hoping that the Emmys would find room for Reservation Dogs or Somebody Somewhere but there’s still time for them next year (though no much in the latter case). Mostly I’m fine with these choices.

Here we go.

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES

I predicted correctly that Abbott Elementary, The Bear, Barry, Only Murders in the Building and Wednesday would be here and am thrilled to be right. I am not shocked to see Ted Lasso or The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel here.

The major surprise is Jury Duty, which I’m not sure if it even fits the traditional definition of Comedy series. However, considering that other awards shows – including the TCA and HCA gave it several nominations – I will be watching it later. My bigger objection is that it was nominated over Poker Face and Dead to Me.  Still, this is a better job that usual and they did nominate the cream of the crop. I’m happier with this than with Drama.

 

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A COMEDY

No one would argue that Jeremy Allan White, Jason Sudeikis, Bill Hader and Martin Short don’t belong here. Few would debate the presence of Jason Segel, I wouldn’t without seeing Shrinking. But again, why are there only five when last year the Emmys found room for six? Couldn’t they have found room for Steve Martin, Donald Glover or Bob Odenkirk? The HCA came up with twelve more than qualified nominees but they’re back to six here? For shame.

 

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY

Again, I am troubled by the quantity of the nominees rather than the quality. I am thrilled to see Christina Applegate, Quinta Brunson, Jenna Ortega and Natasha Lyonne here. I have no problem with Rachel Brosnahan being here. But they couldn’t find room for Selena Gomez, Bridget Everett or Linda Cardellini? You’re not helping your cause.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY

I certainly wouldn’t argue against Henry Winkler or Tyler James Williams. By acknowledging Anthony Carrigan, the Emmys is one up on the HCA. Ebon Moss-Bachrach is better than I expected the Emmys to do. I would have been shocked if Brett Goldstein wasn’t here for Ted Lasso and while I’m not thrilled to see  Phil Dunster over Jeremy Swift or Brendan Hunt, I’m fine with him instead of Nick Mohammed.

James Marsden for Jury Duty? Hmm. I’m glad he’s nominated. I would have rather him been nominated for Dead to Me but I’m glad he’s here. I do question his presence instead of Tony Shalhoub or Harrison Ford for Shrinking, but Shalhoub’s already won for Mrs. Maisel and I think Ford will get another chance.  I’m okay with this group.

 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA

Thrilled as always to see Janelle James, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Ayo Edebiri. Was expecting to see Alex Borstein, Juno Temple and Hannah Waddingham back for one last battle.

I don’t know what to think of Jessica Williams for Shrinking. Clearly I now have to see the series and I will do so at one point. It certainly got enough nominations in critical categories to merit. I’m disappointed there is nothing for Christina Ricci or Lisa Ann Walter but they’ll get another chance. Marin Hinkle, story of your life.

 

GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY

I’m disappointed to see Pedro Pascal here, and not Steve Martin and Martin Short. That’s the peak of my problem. Jon Bernthal and Oliver Platt both earned it for The Bear. Nathan Lane and Luke Kirby are previous winners who deserved to come back; I have no problem with Sam Richardson.

GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY

Again we have overkill for Ted Lasso but I’m not going to fault the Emmys for acknowledging Sarah Niles or Harriet Walter. I’m surprised that Judith Light is the Poker Face representative but she was great as always. Thrilled to see Taraji P. Henson here and Quinta Brunson again.  Still, I’m disappointed neither Catherine Zeta-Jones or Jane Lynch is here.

DIRECTING AND WRITING

Thrilled to see Bill Hader double dip; ditto The Bear and Wednesday.  Not surprised to see Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Ted Lasso, though I’m not sure it deserved two for writing. Jury Duty got ahead of writing of Abbott Elementary and Shrinking. Have to watch now.

 

Tomorrow I finish up with Limited Series and TV Movies. My biggest disappointments are here as much for what was excluded but what was included.

 

 

 

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Lost Rewatch: Every Man for Himself

 

Among the opening six episodes of Season 3, this one has perhaps the poorest reputation. Lost Hidden Treasures ranks among the worst episodes of the first five seasons and in Season Three of Finding Lost Nikki Stafford has more than her share of problems with it. I won’t pretend that it’s particularly strong compared to many of the early episodes and I think that the central premise of the episode – the con that Ben runs on Sawyer  -really seems like padding. (The writers themselves may be acknowledging as much; when Sawyer is semi-conscious you can hear Tom grousing to Ben, as if they are admitting ‘should we really be bothering with this right now?”) But honestly, there’s quite a bit to like about this episode and certainly there are more than a few storylines that we hear that will pay off, some this season, some much later on.

Like almost everything that works well this season, the best parts of the episode involve Juliet. We open with Juliet bringing food to Jack and at this point, he now has less patience with her than before.  He now challenges her openly, basically calling her Ben’s lackey and that she doesn’t have any real authority. Juliet shows a rare fleck of impatience and says that the Others make decisions equally, which we know is crap even before Ben comes in and demands her presence.

Of course, in this case, it is an actual crisis: Colleen is brought back, fatally and almost certainly mortally wounded. This confirms that Juliet does have some medical experience. More interestingly, this is the first time we’ve actually seen some unfeigned emotion from the Others.  From the perspective of the survivors, they have always seems cold, brutal and detached and whenever they appear to be showing real emotion, it’s always a cover.  We got a hint that they showed humanity in the teaser for Season 3 but now the writers make it hit home that when you cut them, they bleed.

 And I don’t just mean in the literal sense. Danny Pickett is one of the most brutal characters we see on the entire series, but his anguish and agony when he learns his wife has been shot is very real. After his wife dies Danny loses any real commitment to the cause: all he wants in revenge and he wants to take it out on whichever survivor is near.  I’m remind of Miss Klugh’s dismissive tone to Michael when he asked how to bring Kate and Sawyer here in the first place. “They’ll be mad. They’ll want to do something.” Now, less than a week later, the shoe is on the other foot and Danny wants the same kind of blind vengeance that was driving Jack and Sayid against their better judgment right into the Others hands.

Indeed Danny’s reaction upon the death of his wife is to run right out into the cages grab Sawyer and beat him to a pulp in front of a terrified Kate, demanding to know if she loves him. When Kate yells out yes – and despite what she says, we know she’s not lying – Danny has clearly made up his mind. The woman he loved is dead; he wants to kill one of them in front of someone who loves him.

It's worth noting that while Danny’s action is the most violent of the group, Juliet’s is no less extreme.  The moment Ben sees that Jack has been brought into the operating room, he is clearly appalled by Juliet breaking protocol. Danny and Tom clearly aren’t thrilled by this either, but Juliet carries the day because she is determined to save Colleen’s life no matter what.  Watching the faces in the observation room, you don’t so much see frustration as genuine anguish. Tom is clearly shaken up and even Ben’s façade shows that he is greatly concerned. But despite her control of the situation, you can tell that the one most shaken up  by this is Juliet.

Elizabeth Mitchell is incredible in this sequence as the façade that she has built up over the first two episodes has crumbled. She is frantic, desperate, tries to maintain calm when she tells Jack she’s in over her head. When Colleen flatlines, she breaks a little more when she tells him the defibrillators broken, when it’s clear its over, she falls apart entirely.  Juliet truly seems heartbroken for the first time in her interactions with Jack. (Though when she tells Jack she’s not used to seeing death, it’s worth noting she’s still lying to him.) Ironically Jack who we’ve only seen be overemotional in surgeries that led to death on this show, both on the island and in flashbacks, is the figure of calm, treating Juliet like a professional.

Then again, maybe it’s because while Ben was leaving him to sit with Colleen, perhaps because he thought that this was a way to punish him, Jack has had time to think. He saw the x-rays and knows what they mean: there’s a man with a near fatal tumor on his spine – and he just happens to be a spinal surgeon. Juliet doesn’t tell him whose x-rays they are, but Jack has put two and two together. He knows that Ben wouldn’t dangle a carrot this big in front of him unless he desperately needed something – and saving his life is pretty big.

Ben is harder to fathom in this episode and it’s worth noting this is the first time we question his leadership skills. Considering what’s going on with Colleen, it would hardly seem to be the best time to put Sawyer through this kind of psychological experiment. Then again as we see near the end of the episode, he has been watching Kate and Sawyer and knows they are planning an escape.  Still, the effort he puts through is ridiculously elaborate, even considering the man he's targeting. It might have been far easier just to do what he did at the end of the episode – and show Sawyer that there’s nowhere to go. (It certainly would have saved him the punch in the face.)

In retrospect, maybe he was doing an experiment of his own.  He clearly needs Jack and he needs Kate and Sawyer for that purpose – he needs Kate to manipulate Jack and Sawyer to manipulate Kate.  Perhaps the con is not one he is running on Sawyer, but one he is doing to make sure Kate will do what he wants.  And in that case, it works perfectly.  Kate clearly has an opportunity to make a prison break and when Sawyer says he’s not leaving – entirely to protect Kate – she makes the decision to go back in her cage.  When he tells Sawyer at the end that they didn’t really have to threaten Sawyer, all they had to do was threaten Kate, he’s dead on.  That’s the real reason he tells Tom that Danny can’t kill Sawyer yet – he needs them both alive for the next part to work.

The flashback is not so much interesting as it is yet another in a line of Sawyer’s cons as it is to show a link to a previous flashback, something that we haven’t seen in Sawyer’s backstory so far. Cassidy Philips, the woman he conned out of her life savings in The Long Con, did press charges against Sawyer and that led to his being incarcerated. (There is a wonderful irony when we learn as to who might have convinced Cassidy to follow through that we’ll find out later this season.) But Cassidy has come back to see James because she had a child: Clementine.  Sawyer puts up another one of his false fronts but its clear it’s resonated with him: in the final act, he puts his share of the reward money in a trust for his daughter.  I also think there’s a larger message as to how Sawyer sees himself in how the warden treats him in the final scene. There is little doubt the Warden put Sawyer up to this and everything turned out the way everyone wanted. But the warden’s opinion of Sawyer has not changed one bit: indeed, he seems to think less of him now that he’s helped him get what the government wanted. Perhaps that’s why Sawyer saw no reason to change his ways when he got out of prison: he saw that conning people had gotten him out of jail, maybe he thought if he went back in, he’d do the same.

Of course the biggest con of all is that we haven’t even been on the same island all season. We’ve been on a smaller island just a few miles off shore (it will be referred to in canon as Hydra Island). It explains partly why the Others were so desperate to get the boat away from Sayid, Jin and Sun: they did not want to risk any of the Losties finding the island by accident. (We never understand how the rest of the group hasn’t found it by this point in the series, but we’ll let that go.) We eventually learn that none of the Others really like even being here, and it shows: after this arc of the narrative is finished, we don’t return to this island until the last two seasons. The reason Ben chose it is twofold: none of the rest of the Losties no about it, and there’s no way out if they tried to escape.

And the thing is this works on Sawyer; when we see him again two episodes later, he’s clearly broken as if he knows there’s no way off ‘this rock’ and that it’s likely when they have no use for them, both he and Kate will likely be killed. He’s been in prison before; now he thinks he’s on death row and there’s no federal agent coming to commute his sentence this time.  When Kate utters the familiar phrase: “live together, die alone”, it has no resonance for Sawyer. He thinks he’s going to die one way or the other. We have no reason to believe otherwise going forward. The Others have all the cards and while Jack might have a way out, there doesn’t seem to be much hope for his friends.

 

VHS Note: Watching this episode, I saw some intriguing film ads. The most interesting ones were for Borat,  Sasha Baron Cohen’s film that would officially make him a household name (and win him a Golden Globe the following January) and Stranger Than Fiction an underrated comedy that make contain Will Ferrell’s first good performance as an actor. We also saw an ad announcing the preview of the Taye Diggs’ high concept vehicle Daybreak, which would end up taking Lost’s timeslot when it went on winter hiatus. Just like The Nine, it would die after a few episodes. All things considered that may have been the best thing possible for Diggs’ career on TV.

I Finally React To This Year's Emmy Nominations, Part 1: Drama

 

First, let’s deal with the facts on the ground. No, I don’t think the fact that the Screen Actors Guild strike is going to keep Hollywood at a standstill; if anything, I’m inclined to think the bosses are now going to be more inclined to get a solution.

To be clear, Hollywood is all about self-promotion.  The PR machine might have been able to maintain a hardline against the WGA even though they basically create their product. Now that the actors are on strike, their position got worse.  It’s a lot harder to promote your product when the public faces of it refuse to stand and smile for the camera, when your red carpets are empty, when you schedules have no one to speak for them. The bosses are now fighting against their two most critical fronts and it just makes them look worse saying they don’t need both of them. I predicted earlier this year that the strike would be over by late August; I now given them until the end of that month at the latest before they come to their senses. Those of you who read the post on the last writer’s strike will know why I think that they’ll get there.

Now, on to business.

This year I was less surprised with the Emmy nominations in almost every category than I usually am. I’m actually willing to give the Academy more credit than usual in some of the acting categories as well as a certain respect for acknowledging that they didn’t make the same mistakes. They basically ignored The Handmaid’s Tale and The Mandalorian; they nominated House of the Dragon for Best Drama but gave it almost no other major nods and many of their acting nods, particularly in Best Actress in a Drama showed improvement.  I had a similar level of satisfaction with the comedies.

But I will not take them off the hook because yet again they showed their tendencies to go into excess for so few shows in so many categories. I am particularly aggravated by the domination of the Supporting awards by Succession and The White Lotus at the expense of, well, basically every other drama. I’m not happy at all they’ve decided to stay with five acting nominees in comedy even though I have no problem with all the nominees.  And many of their choices in Limited Series – and particularly their exclusions – really lead me to wonder what they are seeing in some of these series that I am not.  I grant you they did a better job in the acting nominations in these categories, but for the second straight year I question their judgment.

In any case, I will go about my reactions to the nominations. I will start with Drama this year.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES

I am not truly surprised by any of the nominees in this category – indeed, I predicted five of them. Few would question that Succession, The White Lotus, Better Call Saul, The Crown and Yellowjackets deserve to be here. I now agree sincerely that Andor deserves it as well and I can’t argue with The Last of Us or House of the Dragon being here either. Where I draw the line is how the acting nominations broke down, and even here I’ll go to specifics. Am I disappointed Will Trent and The Old Man aren’t here? Yes, but even I would admit they were longshots.

 

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

Again I predicted five of these nominees. Bob Odenkirk, Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, Jeff Bridges and Pedro Pascal all deserve to be here.

Brian Cox, however, is really pushing the term. I know he was heavily favored going into this but it does not change the fact he was only in four episodes of the seasons and was really only a presence in two. The decision to nominate Cox in this category is a questionable one – I am reminded of Jimmy Smits’ nomination for Best Actor in his last year of NYPD Blue, and even in that case, you could make the argument based on how he died. We did not get that with Logan Roy.

Considering how many superior choices there were – Diego Luna and Matthew Rhys are the most obvious ones – this is Succession overkill.

 

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

I can’t argue with Sarah Snook, Bella Ramsey or Melanie Lynskey. Elisabeth Moss was inevitable though no one was happy about it.  As to the last two choices… I have to admit I’m impressed.

I’m not thrilled, to be sure, that Juliette Lewis and Imelda Staunton were ignored, but the Emmys clearly did the work when they were willing to nominate Keri Russell for The Diplomat and Sharon Horgan for Bad Sisters. It would have been easy – too easy – to just nominate Emm D’Arcy for House of The Dragon, but they chose not too and nominated two performers that will likely be around in years to come. I’m irked about the absence of Lewis and definitely Hilary Swank, but this is better work than most of the rest. By which I mean….

 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA

Okay, this is excessive. Did they have to make all the nominees either from Succession and The White Lotus? I’ll grant you Matthew MacFayden and Nicholas Braun, and I’m happy to see Alan Ruck. I was expecting to see F. Murray Abraham. The rest…well, this is a variation on everything that happened with the first season of The White Lotus in Limited Series last year and The Handmaid’s Tale and Hamilton the year before?  The entire supporting cast?

I’m not saying this out of pique that Jonathan Banks and Giancarlo Esposito weren’t nominated for Better Call Saul; in my heart of hearts I knew both were long shots. But nothing for John Lithgow? Nothing for Jonathan Pryce? You nominated Alexander Skarsgard but not his father for Andor? Were Theo James and Will Sharpe really better than all of the nominees I just listed?  This is HBO overkill and not even the kind that makes sense: Matt Smith would have been a better choice. At least some of them will get a chance next time.

 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS

This is slightly better. Rhea Seehorn is here, which is fine. Elizabeth Debicki, of course. No one would question the presence of Jennifer Coolidge, I’m fine with Meghann Fahy and Aubrey Plaza obviously and I’m actually glad to see J. Smith Cameron here one last time?

But again, why is there all this excess for The White Lotus and it’s even more egregious considering who they excluded? Nothing for Christina Ricci or anyone else in Yellowjackets? Nothing for Carol Burnett in Better Call Saul? Nothing for any of the actresses in Bad Sisters? This is the third straight year the Emmys are actually begging for a cap on the number of nominees they can recognize from a given series. The only reason it isn’t five straight years is because there was pause between the last season of Game of Thrones and 2021’s excess for Handmaid’s Tale. I don’t care how much you love these shows; you have to allow room for other series; otherwise we might as well just call these categories for HBO and be done with it.

 

WRITING AND DIRECTING

All right, I’m more forgiving.  There’s only one nominee for Succession and The White Lotus and two for Better Call Saul in writing. I’ll also give credit for nominating Andor and Bad Sisters. As for direction, I was expecting Succession to get at least three nominees. I’m inclined to give more credit for the nominations for Bad Sisters and Andor. Last of Us in both was to be expect.

As for Guest Actor and Actress,  three for Succession, three for Last of Us. I’d be angrier if I didn’t love Cherry Jones and Melanie Lynskey and I’m thrilled to see Anna Torv finally get an Emmy nod.  The Last of Us dominating both categories was actually predicted by many and I’m not going to fault Nick Offerman or Murray Bartlett. Still they couldn’t find room for Aaron Paul or Betsy Brandt? Sigh.

 

I’ll deal with comedy tomorrow.

 

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Lost Rewatch: Further Instructions

 

Note: This is the only episode of Season 3 I did not watch on videotape.

 

Another justifiable complaint about Season 3 is that in the first two episodes we have yet to see anything from the beach and more importantly, the consequences from the hatch detonating. Well, the writers finally give us the answer to what the viewer was most concerned about: what happened to everybody inside?

Further Instructions opens in an exact parallel to the Pilot. We open on the eye of the character who will be central to the episode (this time it’s Locke). That character is lying flat on his back. He gets up slowly and is attracted to movement in the bushes. Here it’s a human figure and it initially appears to be Desmond. Locke reaches out and is greeting by an unfamiliar object: in his case, it’s Eko’s ‘Jesus stick’. Then Locke, like Jack before him walks on to the beach.\

That Locke spend the first act of the episode unable to speak is fitting: he spent much of the first season giving advice and not waiting to hear what people thought. As Season 2 progressed and his faith waned, he stopped listening to people and was shouting over everybody by the finale.  Now he knows he has to start listening – and in John’s mind, that means regaining his communion with the island.

It also, at least for this episode and the first half of Season 3, means letting people back in. That is probably why he goes to Charlie for help because he knows he has to make amends with him. As we shall see Charlie is now more amicable than he was back in Season 2, and while he engages in some sarcasm, the bitterness is gone and he’s willing to help John, not just when it comes to standing guard but for the mission going forward.  By rejecting the drugs for good in Season 2, Charlie has regained his faith – which he will need for what lies ahead.

The session in the sweat lodge is a highlight of Season 3 and the series overall. Locke is feeding the fire, eating the paste we saw him give Boone in Season 1, and then ‘Boone’ appears.  It’s always questionable what the dead on the island represent but Locke’s visions have a way of trying to move him forward. I am not certain that when Boone tells John “he was the sacrifice the island demanded” that actually real or simply what John needs to hear. However, considering what happens in the ‘airport’, I’m inclined to think the island is letting Boone talk to him.

What we see in the airport is a combination of how Locke sees everybody on the island as well as flashes of things to come, as well as things he has no way of knowing. As always, he is in a wheelchair unable to walk, and an observer. Boone tells him someone in this airport needs his help.

First he sees Charlie, Claire and Aaron together acting as a family.  When Locke points at them, Boone says: “They’ll be fine. For a while.” The implications of that will become clear in part in the next few episodes.

Then we see Sun, Jin and Sayid together. Jin seems to be speaking English and yelling at Sun, who is speaking Korean. Sayid is trying to settle it.  The island is clearly showing John a version of what is happening in the boat around this time. Boone tells John when he points: “I think Sayid’s got it.” Considering what happened in the last episode, that’s clearly a misinterpretation.

We then see Hurley, helping everybody on to the plane, typing the numbers into the computer and pushing the button. Boone just says: “Not Hurley.” Locke has clearly realized Hurley is basically everybody’s helper – and maybe subtly his connection to the numbers. (He also seems to know that Hurley is no longer in danger from the Others.)

Desmond appears as a pilot. Locke understandably is concerned about him, but Boone says: “Forget it. He’s helping himself.” In hindsight, Locke is clearly seeing that Desmond has a critical role to the salvation of everybody here, which will begin to play out late in the season.

Locke sees the three people who are still missing. He thinks Kate and Sawyer are a couple and Jack seems alone. (Perhaps this is more based on his vision of Jack than reality.) He then sees ‘Henry Gale’ (that’s the nametag Ben is wearing) working security in the airport and monitoring the three of them. (Is the island telling him how Ben sees himself?) He clearly can make the connection and really thinks these are the people he has to save but Boone tells him. “There’s nothing you can do for them. Not yet. First you have to clean up your own mess.”

And then John is at the foot of an escalator, sees Boone at the top, manages to climb across and finds Eko’s Jesus stick, covered with blood. He’s told he doesn’t have much time, regains consciousness – and sees a bear attack him. He emerges and knows his mission: “I’m going to save Mr. Eko’s life” are his first words when he regains his speech.

Considering not only Locke’s behavior in much of Season 3 but for the rest of the series, its fascinating that he spends this episode clearly trying to atone. It’s more than understandable but he also clearly feeling a lot of anguish over how he felt through much of Season 2.  When he tells Charlie to go back and that “Bad things happen to me when I’m around,” there’s every bad decision he’s made on the island as well as everything we saw that’s happened to him so far in his life. (We’ll get to his flashback in a bit.) He clearly is surprised when Charlie decides to stick with him and given everything that happened last season we’re a little shocked ourselves. It doesn’t help that as he tracks the polar bear that has dragged Eko office, they come across the ruin of the hatch which has either exploded or imploded (the writers are never clear) which is the latest reminder of his biggest mistake.

We also finally see Hurley who has made it back to the other side of the island (it’s been a day since the season premiere, which tracks with how it took to get there) and he’s both simultaneously upset and very puzzled by what’s going on. (I find it hard to believe he doesn’t know anything about the polar bears on the island.) Hurley then encounters Desmond, stark naked (“So…the hatch…blew off your underwear?”) and we officially get confirmation that while the sky turned purple and the island vibrated, no one inside the hatch died. Lost at our joy to seeing everyone intact was a very obvious question: how?  It’s one thing to know that several of the characters in the hatch were important enough that they might get out alive (this is series television) but it’s kind of hard to see how they basically came out unharmed.  Setting aside the electromagnetism there was metal flying everywhere and a giant explosion. Yet somehow, Locke only woke up with the (temporary) inability to speak, Charlie has slight tinnitus, Desmond is naked (well, that’s not the only thing that might have happened, as we see) and we can’t tell how much of Eko’s injuries are due to the explosion or being mauled by a bear.  Again we are reminded of Locke’s speech as how most of the survivors of the crash came away with only minor injuries. And apparently, though this same explosion turned the sky purple, everyone else is just fine. We spent so much of Season 2 dealing with the scientific aspects of the island that we seem to have forgotten the mystical aspects. Is the island protecting the survivors somehow?

If so, the fact that the island chooses to give Locke the ‘further instructions’ that move the action forward would seem to show that he is critical. But right now, it’s not clear if he realizes how that matters. He tells Charlie what he saw in the sweat lodge and Charlie, with no sarcasm, tells him he agreed with Boone. There’s also no judgment when he tells him: “Spoken like someone who’s had a few messes to clean up.” Charlie can’t throw stones because he’s both cleaned up messes and made them in his life.

The flashback we see in this episode is, like all of Locke’s. wonderful to watch. It might not seem as critical because it’s the first without his father, but it actually has resonance. When we meet Locke he picks up a hitchhiker, seems genuinely cheerful when he encounters a cop with ‘guns and groceries’ in his backseat and smiles when Eddie asks him what’s with guns. (Eddie, for the record, is Justin Chatwin, who in a few years would achieve stardom in his role as Fiona Gallagher’s first boyfriend on Shameless, and has worked consistently since then, most recently in the Netflix series Another Life.)

Locke seems unusually happy throughout the episode. He introduces Eddie to Jan and Mike, who appear to be leaders of what we really do think is some kind of religious cult. We saw the guns, we see the fertilizer, we hear the prayers and when you realize we’re in the mid ‘90s we’re inclined to agree with Eddie.  Nor would we be surprised if that was the case. We learn in the last part of the flashback that Locke’s psych profile shows he is ‘amenable to coercion’, which is one of those things that cult members look for – and let’s be honest, we’ve seen the Others, they’re a cult in all but name. (We won’t learn the deity they worship until later in this season.) And we’re kind of shocked when Locke hears Eddie’s suspicion and actually laughs. Because he seems to know better.

And of course, the irony is that even though Jan and Mike aren’t leading a revolution, he’s destroyed them anyway. They are running a grow-op and in the 1990s, weed is very illegal.  The fox didn’t come here looking for this, but he found a henhouse anyway.

In a sense what we see throughout the flashback shows that John is still working off the collective trauma of his family. We hear in the prayer gives, we see just how badly he reacts when Eddie’s mentions that everyone’s looking for a daddy, and how quickly he turns the conversation away from his father.  Locke’s family has filled a void in his heart, and now that’s it’s gone to hell when he confronts Eddie in the final flashback, the rage returns. Earlier in the episode Locke didn’t answer whether he was a farmer or a hunter. It’s worth noting when he says: “I’m a hunter” in the flashback, he hates himself for saying it. We know all too well the memory hunting has for him and that he wanted to be a farmer. That’s why when he has a chance to shoot Eddie in the final moments he can’t do it because he knows the connotations of being a hunter and he doesn’t have it in him.

Now in the last minutes of the episode, he tearfully atones to Eko about his failings.  It’s pretty clear that the island is talking through Eko in the conversation when he tells John he is a hunter, something he couldn’t have known. (It also confirms that Eko is just as much attuned to the island as John is …which makes what will happen in two episodes all the more maddening.)

For now it seems that Locke has decided to use ‘hunter’ to mean ‘protector’. He knows that everyone is looking for leadership and that he has to step up. He gives a speech that is not something we have come to hear from Locke so far in the series. Right now, he is following the island’s message that he has to ‘bring the family back together’. He doesn’t know how yet, but right now he thinks that’s what the island wants.  The thing is Locke has thought the island is communicating to him. What will he do when it sends him another message?

And is Locke the only one communicating with the island? Because for everything Desmond seems to say about waking up fine to Hurley, he gets annoyed and mentions something about “Locke’s speech.” Then at the end of the episode, Hurley hears Locke and looks at Desmond, who doesn’t seem to be paying any attention at all. Desmond, as we shall see, is not telling the truth about ‘just waking up in the jungle like this’  Did Desmond get a vision of his own?