Narrative Junkie

For Albert Brooks fans

 If you're really into Albert Brooks, Saturday Night Live, season 1, features short films by Brooks, before he started making features. Now rentable.

Cloris Leachman unleashed

Great interview on Fresh Air today.

Brilliant in its way

• "The Wire" with a laughtrack

Star Trek outrage

So the Star Trek reboot is good, they say. I will certainly see it, but word of the new film's disregard for certain key plot points from the 40-year history written into previous shows and movies has definitely made me less inclined to commit myself utterly to the fictional universe that I had previously given, oh, hundreds of hours over 35 years to.

And that, my friends, is why I'm officially a dork.

"In Treatment" season 2

I loved "In Treatment" last  year, and this season is just as good. Each episode unfolds like a one-act play, but still manages to build on what's come before.

Listen to Gabriel Byrne talk about his role in the show as well as his entire career, on Fresh Air.

Kristin Chenoweth interview

Pretty interesting chick. Liberal Christian gay rights supporter who got in trouble with fans for going on the "700 Club." Interviewed by Terri Gross on Fresh Air.

"In Treatment" is back

I was this close to giving up on HBO. But "In Treatment" is returning, and I thought that was top-notch.

Mysteries of "Lost"

"Lost" is not exactly a masterpiece, but as a writer I do find its byzantine plot compelling enough that the show's got me hooked. I am also fascinated by how the writers must now attempt to fill in the seemingly bottomless hole they dug themselves into the first few years. Now that's pressure, trying to tie up all the loose ends of what at one point was surely a story spun with all the foresight of a Bush administration crisis management plan. (And for anyone who says they had a master blueprint from the start, I have some AAA-rated securitized sub-prime mortgage bonds to sell you.)

Here's a rough list of all the mysteries, large and small, they have to solve and explain in a satisfying enough way that a fan-based lynch mob doesn't develop. It strikes me that if you don't know the show, these will sound like the rantings of a lunatic.

1. Who is Jacob?
2. What is the smoke monster?
3. What is the significance of Hurley's lottery numbers, why were they the numbers that had to be punched into the computer to avoid a catastrophe, why did they bring Hurley bad luck, why were they the numbers on the side of the survivors' crashed plane, and who was the man broadcasting them in the middle of the Pacific that someone heard once?
4. What is the "game" and what are the "rules" that Ben referred to when he came face to face with Charles Whitmore? 
5. What was the purpose of the lists of names that the Others had?
6. What is Damon's role as a person who seems to travel back and forth in time?
7. Why is Hurley seeing dead people?
8. What is the role of Jack's dead father in all this?
9. Why was Claire seen with Jack's father in the invisible Jacob's cabin? 
10. Why is it so hard to have children on the island?
11. Why are the Others so interested in children?
12. What is so special about Walt, and what is his role in the overall scheme?
13. Who is Faraday's mother and what calculations is she making in that weird room with all the numbered charts?
14. Why did Ben kill Locke when Locke mentioned Faraday's mother?
15. How is it that Libby was a mental patient at the same institution at the same time as Hurley? 
16. Being that he worked at a box company, where and how did Locke learn all his survival skills?
17. Who are the Others and what are they doing on the island?
18. Who is Richard, how is it that he's ageless, why was he present at Locke's birth in 1956, and why did Richard reject Locke as a child when he administered a test to him in which Locke was asked to pick out a familiar object?
19. Why did the DHARMA initiative come to the island in the first place, and who is Dr. Marvin Candle, the head of the group?
20. What happened to Claire's son, Aaron?
21. Why did the psychic tell Claire that no one else must raise her child?
22. Who killed JR? (Oh wait, different show.)

Either all of these questions will be answered in the 40 or so episodes left, or I believe - and if this comes off  a little strong, you'll let me know -  the writers should be put to death.

Linkateria:

• Lostpedia

Ron Moore explains "Battlestar"

I thought the series finale of "Battlestar Galactica" was terrific. Ambiguous but not too, spiritual but not really, if you think about that line of Baltar's: "It doesn''t like to be called that."

That's pretty brilliant. There's a God, but he/she/it is just an entity experimenting with creating life forms to see how they end up. Nicely done.

Here's an interview with series creator Ron Moore, answering some questions people might have about what the frak happened.

Certainly the best sci-fi TV show ever, and that includes the numerous iterations of "Star Trek."

Project Runway dish

Fans of the show will no doubt remember Kenley, who is now in trouble with the law after attacking her boyfriend with a cat. (Maybe it was a challenge from Heidi: Create a men's shirt using fur. )