Getting "Lost" again Pt 2 of 5

***if seeing on Facebook please go to http://bradsasylum.blogspot.com/ instead, facebook never publishes these the way i want and messes up the pictures. Also for those of you that are Lost Virgins, this contains spoilers.****

In my ongoing mission to re-watch all the seasons of Lost before the final season drops on Feb 2nd, I officially have a little over a month to watch the next 3 seasons. Fortunately, season 3 is the last of the long seasons, so seasons 4 and 5 will be easy. This season for me was a little under-rated, for some it's the worst season, but it's the season that gave us Eko, Ben, and Desmond so it could be argued as one of the most important seasons.

Once again, I'll start off with the top 3 episodes of season 2.

23rd Psalm
Easily my favorite episode thus far in Lost history. This episode makes me sad that Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje didn't want to stay on the show because I'd love to have seen more Mr. Eko episodes. Darleton had big plans to make Eko stick around longer and to even be the recipient of the visions Desmond gained in Season 3 ( such a shame.) This episode is by far one of the best stories in Lost. Eko being a merciless drug dealer turned priest was every bit surprising as it was good. We even got to see Eko 1-up John Locke's Season 1 staredown against the smoke monster... Plus that plane that rid us of Boone? Yeah that was Eko's dead brother's plane!

Two for the Road
I liked the shock factor at the end of this episode. For the most part I didn't care about Ana Lucia being chaperon for drunk Christian Shepard in Australia (even though it showed us that Claire and Jack are half-siblings). Funny as it was, I wasn't surprised about Sawyer and Ana Lucia's fling (which Sawyer would later so delicately put as "I screwed her" when having a moment of bonding with Jack). The real shock came at the end when Bernard and Eko become the last of the Tail Section survivors and Micheal cements himself as the biggest douche on the show.

Live Together, Die Alone
Finally! We get to see Desmond's story. So many cool parts, Ben being shown as the leader of the Others, Locke getting hit with the Jesus stick and crying about it, we learn why Oceanic flight 815 crashed, the four toed statue is shown and not brought up again until 3 seasons later and finally, The Kurrigan being shown as Desmond's Dharma Hatch buddy....if you didn't catch that reference you need to rent Highlander immediately. (Also did you know that Clancy f'n Brown does the voice of Mr. Crabs???)




Season 2 V.I.P
A very very hard choice, Locke had some great stories, Eko won fans with his backstory and Ben went from being a guest star to a main character with a very awesome line about milk.
Being the indesisive person I am, I can't choose between Locke and Eko. I know Ben had some moments but He really came into his own in the next 2 seasons so we'll leave him off this time. Locke was at the center of all the Hatch mystery moments, had some great moments with Ben/Henry Gale and his incident with the blast doors gave us a cooler map than the one Sayid stole from the French Lady's lair (where he was probably raped...just saying). Eko was a welcome addition and had the strongest and most appealing backstory in the series. Plus it's fitting that the two people who had a stare-down with Smokey and lived share this spot (although Eko doesn't go 2 for 2 later). Finally the Eko & Locke scenes are awesome.

Re-Evaluated Characters

Didn't really have any this season. I did hate Rose & Bernard and got mad that they got their own flashback episode and then I kind of liked them but then again I got more happy about seeing Vincent (the dog) than I was to see them after they were MIA for the full season last year...so maybe that doesn't really count.

Overall, fun season despite the WAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLTTTTT cries. Thankfully that didn't get dragged out into the next season. Best of all this season gave us mysteries such as the food drop that have yet to be answered. Also like WAAAAAAAAAALLLTT, Libby and the flight attendant seems to have a bit of significance, but with only 16 episodes left, kinda doubting that we'll find out what is going on with them.

Now time to kill off Season 3
Brad

A Few Must See Christmas Movies

Lately I've been in the Christmas mood. Between buying movie themed ornaments, gearing up for our trip to Abilene in a few weeks and probably this being our first Christmas married, I'm just a few degrees away from Clark Griswold (but without the lights) when it comes to being excited about Christmas. Plus we get to begin several of our own traditions.

Speaking of Clark Griswold here are some of my recommendations for movies to watch this time of year to get into the Christmas Spirit (which with me movies will always make the traditions list). Plus I'm intentionally leaving out old classics like "it's a wonderful life" and so on..leave those movies for your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles.

Scrooged- Sure you can watch the hundreds of adaptations of "A Christmas Carol" or you can watch Bill Murray in his prime as a very Scrooge-like TV Network Executive. Plus with an abusive Ghost of Christmas Present and a shootgun toting Bobcat Goldwaith, what's not to love about this great flick.


How The Grinch Stole Christmas- Not talking about the Jim Carrey live action movie, I'm meaning the very old cartoon. If you don't watch this you might as well not celebrate Christmas. (on a side note: Have anyone else noticed how stores seem to not have the Mike Myers live action Cat in the Hat? Did they pay a lot of money to make it simply disappear out of embarrassment? I don't even think the Guru is on shelves either, perhaps Mike Myers is more powerful than imagined.)

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation- This is probably my favorite installment of the Griswold's Vacation movies. From the oversized tree to the excessive lights and decorations, all the way to Cousin Eddie showing up. This is probably one of the best Christmas comedies made.


Elf- I almost forgot to add this one on, this is one of the last great Will Ferrell movies and plus in a few years time it could maybe surpass Christmas Vacation.

Home Alone- Yeah yeah this movie was freaking awesome as a kid because it would inspire you to actually make traps like this...I didn't since my mom told me that the robbers would have really died and I wouldn't want that grief on me so i refrained. Now in retrospect, Kevin has horrible parents and the robbers were wusses to get schooled by a 8 year old...or however old Mcaully Cullkin is in this movie.

Nightmare Before Christmas- Before it was a Hot Topic staple, this was a pretty fun christmas movie



A Christmas Story- Ralphie's quest for a Red Rider BB gun is definitely a must see staple for Christmas. In recent years TNT have been airing it on 24 hour straight marathons and as many times as I've seen it, this one never gets old I still laugh at the frozen flag pole dare, the really mean Santa, and "Ralphie's Pink Nightmare."




A Charlie Brown Christmas- Like "The Grinch..", this one is an oldie, but goodie. Plus that poor poor tree always seems to work it's way into holiday conversation without fail (ie: "I wish i had a charlie brown tree, this one we have is too much work..")


And finally my personal pick for the best Christmas movie and a must see:

DIE HARD!!!

Looking at the cover, it looks like a shoot-em-up action movie. But that's not true. It's really a story about a New York Cop trying to go Home to see his family but then some terrorists try to eff that up for him...but this is John "yippi ki yay motherf***er" McClain and that's not happening on his watch. So it's really about family which is what Christmas really is all about. You may want to watch Die Hard 2 after this one because it totally happens again...geeze this family has the craziest Christmases.



Bonus:
"A Star Wars Christmas"


This is a very very hard to find movie, George Lucas became so embarrassed with it, that a dvd or video has not and probably never will see the light of day. Anyone who knows where to find the full length show online will be my hero. From what I gather it's about the Star Wars gang trying to get Chewbacca and his family into the spirit of "Life Day" and Leia sings some stupid song to the tune of the Star Wars Theme. Clips are on Youtube and they are hilarious but man i want to see this trainwreck in it's full capacity.