Monsters of Television

Here at Monsters of Television we value one trait above all else: snark. Sure, we have to be able to write intelligently and put TV shows in academic and societal contexts, but why do it if you’re not going to be witty about it? So in tribute to both television and snark, I have compiled a list of 10 of the snarkiest, wittiest characters on television. I’m including pictures and videos for all of you out there who don’t read so good. See? Snark. Here we go. Read more »

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Aside from Noel’s review, each of the writers for Monsters of Television will provide their takes on Lost, from their own perspectives. Below are some brief thoughts about how the series, as a whole, meant for Greeney, our newest writer.

There has been much made of television and its domesticity. Great works of television studies, including Lynn Spigel’s Make Room for TV and Anna McCarthy’s Ambient Television, specialize in a contemplation of space. But equally important is the issue of time. Certainly, long-form narrative is one of television’s specialties, but in particular, I would like to discuss the joy of experiencing a show in tandem with one’s own life. Read more »

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“We could go Dutch.”

Aside from Noel’s review, each of the writers for Monsters of Television will provide their takes on Lost, from their own perspectives. Below, Matt discusses the nostalgia the finale engaged and the love of his life, regardless of when or where, Juliet.

We the audience should approach our relationship with Lost the same way Sawyer and Juliet decide to treat their sideways date: meet in the middle. Of course not every question is going to be answered and no not everyone is going to be completely satisfied. We all have to give a little up but we’re sure to receive in return.

Before I dive in it’s probably important to note that I did enjoy the finale. Was it perfect? No. Was it what I expected? Hell no. It was different. After thinking about it and talking through it with members of my viewing party I realized the brilliance and forgave the things that I thought would make me rage. Perhaps I’m too much of a fanboy. But again I say it wasn’t perfect. My thoughts on “The End” can best be broken down into three words: nostalgia, unexpected, and Juliet. Read more »

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“There is no now here.”

Aside from Noel’s review, each of the writers for Monsters of Television will provide their takes on Lost, from their own perspectives. Below are some brief thoughts about why the ending wasn’t responsible for tying it all up in a pretty bow by Nick.

Half past eleven last night was met with a flurry of questions sent into the ether from the viewing party I attended. They weren’t directed at anyone in particular but they weren’t rhetorical either. And though they weren’t necessarily asking me specifically, I, as keeper of the Island for my small community of friends, felt obligated to come up with answers and felt a little like Jacob trying address loose ends, trying to explain the forest when people only really wanted to know about the trees.

That’s been a running theme for this season, trying to convince an eagle-eye audience, trained to pick up on small clues that have enriched its viewing of the series, to dull their visual sense because it was obfuscating the message, to look through the painting and not at the individual brush strokes. That metaphor of “the house was not built for the murder but tbe clues are in the house” was especially apt. Besides, this was the showrunners’ bus and we were just on it. How many ways am I going to figuratively explain this thing before I get to the point? Just enough for me to get to the jump.

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“All of this matters.”

As this season has proved, Lost doesn’t answer questions very well. Either off-handedly provided (the whispers) or just never exactly satisfying (“Ab Aeterno” and “Across the Sea”), the answers seemed not to matter as much. Indeed, Damon Lindelof’s assertion that “Across the Sea” is how the show does answers indicates this. And, if anything, the finale only reasserts the claim that the answers aren’t ultimately what’s important.

Because there really weren’t any answers (except, for maybe, what the flash-sideways were all about), and I suspect that was the point. The answers, ultimately, don’t matter. Why pregnant women die on the Island isn’t answered. What the Others thought they were doing there (because Ben clearly didn’t have a clue) isn’t answered. Why/How Eloise seemed to know, well, everything, isn’t answered. Who was shooting at Sawyer and the gang in the outrigger isn’t answered (I know many of you were looking for that). Those are just off the top of my head.

But the finale provides a sense of closure, and that’s ultimately what finales tend to do (or at least, it would seem, what people expect from their finales). Closure, however, is a tricky thing in a show like Lost where expectations are different, where it means so many things to so many people. Much ink, actual and digital, will be spilled over this finale, concerning what it meant, how it worked, and whether or not it was a satisfying finale, and as a result, the idea of whether or not the show provides a sense of closure will be the debated issue. Read more »

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“Did you say there were some other people to kill?”

It almost seems like “What They Died For” and “Across the Sea” should’ve been aired on one night, and perhaps in that order. It might’ve made a bit more sense narratively and emotionally (and perhaps many of would’ve been a bit kinder to “Across the Sea”…maybe). But providing any solid commentary on this, the penultimate episode of the series, seems like a bit of a fool’s errand. It implies guessing what’s going to happen this Sunday, and I’m not one to guess about these things any longer.

“What They Died For” is, thankfully, a solid stepping stone into the finale though. Indeed, the 3 main arcs in the episode, Jack, Ben, and sideways-Desmond, are all very nicely paced and help build back that momentum that “Across the Sea” kind of let fall apart. And I won’t lie: Michael Emerson’s return to the screen made me giddy as a polar bear in a tree. Read more »

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Matt Owens was lucky enough to secure one of the last tickets to LOST Live: The Final Celebration that was last night in Los Angeles. In the Royce Hall at UCLA, the event featured Michael Giacchino, the composer of the series’s score, leading an orchestra in a rendition of a number of pieces from LOST. The event also screened next week’s new episode “What They Died For.” Below, Matt recounts his experience, sans spoilers.

September 22, 2004.  18.65 million people tuned in to the series premiere of LOST. I was not one of those people. I had no interest in the show. I’d heard the hype, listened to the attempts at convincing and the pleas, but I didn’t care. A friend of mine gave me his season 1 DVDs to borrow. They sat in my desk drawer. For three years. It wasn’t until I read the events of the season 3 finale “Through the Looking Glass” in an issue of Entertainment Weekly that my interest was finally piqued? “Wait. They get off the island? And they have to go back? And that was a flashFORWARD not a flashBACK!?” My brother Jordan and I promptly power-watched seasons 1 and 2 on DVD. And I was hooked. Read more »

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Oh, it’s like they’re talking us about our expectations of and reactions to the show!

So glad we don't have chess clocks for this game

“Across the Sea” has been a fairly polarizing episode. And as Damon Lindelof has sagely pointed out: “Wait. ‘Polarizing’ is a BAD thing?” And he’s right. Polarizing isn’t a bad thing. It encourages discussion and debate and argument (and people to leave rude comments on major TV critics’ blogs) that helps us, in theory, come together about an issue or text. Sure it can start flame wars, but it can also aid in understanding, and I like to think we’re all civil enough to engage in these types of discussion, even on the Internet (despite the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory).

Indeed, the reaction to “Across the Sea” has been as varied as I imagine the reaction to “Exposé” was. And that’s great. These types of episodes ultimately help us figure out what we expect the show to be about. Mythic archetypes or personal stories? Running through the jungle, shooting and exploding things or sitting in the jungle, contemplating the nature of man? It’s these types of episodes that tell us, ultimately, more about ourselves than it tells us about the show.

Me? I was just bored. Read more »

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“Because it’s going to be you, Jack.”

Dammit, Lost.

I knew an episode like this had to be in the pipeline, and I wasn’t totally looking forward to it from a reviewer/critic perspective. Maintaining a level of analysis while still getting wildly emotional about what occurs in an episode is not an easy thing to do, so I apologize in advance if this piece veers back and forth between sobs and discussion.

I’ll start with some general thoughts about the episode, and then dive into the nitty-gritty of the character movements (at which point, if I were reading this aloud, I’d probably start cry-talking like they do in Community). It’s going to be a long-ish piece, so settle in. Read more »

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“You’re with me now.”

It is a moving the pieces episode, as Jason Mittell noted. I’m not going to gripe about it, though a part of me really wants to. I defended “Recon” when it aired, but that was in large part because the episode was both narratively and emotionally needed, a breather episode as I called it, a way to regroup after the havoc in previous episodes.

“The Last Recruit” lacks the emotional necessity that made “Recon” work. Without the emotional attachment, “The Last Recruit” feels like narrative vegetables, something that’s good for the story, but that I don’t really want. Did we have lingering questions? Yes (well, question, really, and that was Desmond’s fate down in the well), but there wasn’t much else hanging in the air that we needed to recover from in the previous episodes. So “The Last Recruit” may serve, as Mittell notes, as the first hour in the show’s two-part finale structure (tramping through the jungle, getting onto transportation, things exploding) before settling into the thrilling conclusion. Read more »

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