ausiello reports that:

9:11: Regarding ABC's decision to air Lost next season in two uninterrupted chunks, six in the fall and 16 in the spring, McPherson says, "We really listened to the audience about the repeats." And yes, you read that correctly — just six episodes this fall!

at least we won't have to deal with the endless stream of repeats. but just six! that's crazy.

but! in good news: "J.J.'s going to be directing episodes of Lost this year!"

Yeah, they've got me onboard for another season.

Yes, it's true. I dove back into Lost last night. Sommer had missed last week's episode too, so she came over and, along with Charles, myself, some beers and a bit of morningroundupering, caught up on what's been going on on the Island.

Short answer: serious shit. They revealed another research station! They killed two characters — and ones whose backstories we were merely somewhat tired of, instead of totally fucking bored by. They inserted a twist! And Ana Lucia and Sawyer played several variations of "hide the pistol". There was lots of stuff going on, and at a pretty good decent pace. I was pleased.

I was even more excited to see that the powers that be have started placing fake Hanso Foundation commercials in the middle of Lost's regular ad breaks. "Paid for by ABC" flashed in the corner of the first one ever-so-briefly, but otherwise it seemed like a low-budget but generally plausible commercial for one of those organizations that doesn't actually sell, make or do anything, yet still feels compelled to purchase TV spots. At the end: dial 1-877-HANSORG for more information.

"Wow!" I thought to myself. "Now that's a good use of Asterisk."

Since we were still working off the Tivoed copy of last week's episode, the phoneline wasn't jammed. We put it on speaker and heard some floaty music and instructions to dial our party's extension or select another option. We hit 1 for general information and got a looping clip of somebody speaking French. Hmm. Pretty intriguing. I mashed the star key a bit and somehow ended up hearing a rap extolling the virtues of Sprite. Er. Okay. Somebody has to pay the bills for this sort of unconventional storytelling, I suppose.

Then it was time for this week's episode. As I said, pretty satisfying. And they ran the same commercial again, except this time the momentary flash said "Paid for by Sprite", and they showed a URL along with the phone number: www.sublymonal.com. If you follow that link you'll find it contains a flash animation of a bunch of TVs showing static, arranged around the word "OBEY".

First of all: this is not a great site for a nonprofit, Mr. Hanso. It's flash-based, there's no action, and the navigation could use some work. You're never going to build your list this way.

Second: it all started falling into place. I think Sommer may have been the first one to put it together. SubLYMONal.com. As in "the only one with lymon (dot com)". And what should we be obeying, anyway? Our thirst, perhaps?

This does not sit well. I don't mind being sent down blind alleys, but I don't expect to find soda machines at the end of them. This ad campaign demonstrates that the show's producers not only don't have a grand vision for the show, they also don't particularly give a shit about whatever it might turn out to be. I fully expect the Others' next onslaught to be warded off by the sight of a CapitalOne card.

I find this particularly crappy because I was completely and totally ready to jump back onboard the Lost bandwagon. As Catherine mentioned, I even decided to waste some time in Illustrator and make a vector version (PDF) of this bitmap of the Dharma Initiative logo. I figured it looked kind of cool, and might be good for some money on SpreadShirt. But after the Sprite Revelation I've pretty much lost interest in the project, to what I'm sure is Catherine's great relief.

a brief conversation that illustrates why i probably will never come around to lost again:

Thomas: they've started running hanso found. ads during the lost commercial breaks, which is cool
me: no! it's uncool!
that's the show's problem
they spend time thinking up shit like hanso fdtn ads
Thomas: yeah
me: instead of figuring out what's actually going on
Thomas: well, I'm gonna put a hanso found. shirt on spreadshirt
but in general I agree
me: you are?
10:48 PM Thomas: sure
I want one
me: you're going to make a hanso foundation shirt?
to wear in public?
Thomas: sure, well it's subtle
10:49 PM just this one
http://lostpedia.com/wiki/Image:Swan_logo_closer.jpg
I think it's understated
and I'm gonna do a black print on an already dark color, like maroon
10:50 PM hopefully only other weirdos will notice
me: tommy
that is the dorkiest thing i've ever heard
10:51 PM Thomas: come on!
you don't want one?!
me: i'm seriously embarrassed for you
Thomas: awww
I just like the design
me: uh huh
Thomas: haha
well now that you say it, it does sound bad

this is lost's major problem. 1) they spend more time on commercials than the show and 2) they inspire people to MAKE T-SHIRTS IN HOPE OF T-SHIRTLY COMMUNICATING WITH OTHER LOST NERDS, except there are approximately 7.8 million people who are lost nerds, so that's going to be a lot of t-shirt communicating.

i know i don't watch lost anymore, so i can't actually speak accurately to the show's terribleness in terms of stupid, totally pointless stuff like, uh, plot, or character development. but the cripe. i'm not past admitting that i will probably start watching again next season, because i hope now that JJ abrams is done with his mi3 duties, he can come back full-time. but i still retain serious doubts.

i forgot we have a whole category for this now-craptastic show.

what did you think?

well, lost is on hiatus till january 11 (my birthday! hurrah). and all i can say is: lucky for you. now you can spend your evenings watching a far more deserving and far better and far more satisfying show: veronica mars. and in its honor i am giving it its own category.

i know i've been harsh on lost, and i will continue to be so, but i can't help it: it was such a great first season, and the second one has essentially been, in my opinion, a big ole pile of poo. every episode moves at a snail's pace, barely anything happens, and even less is resolved. we're about, what, halfway into the season, and what have we seen: shannon died; the tailies did their thing and found the front section's camp; locke decided everybody has to push a pointless button every few hours; and, ooh, the missing piece of film for the dharma initiative said to not use the computer for any communication purposes. the thing with walt typing through the computer at the end was pretty awesome and freaky, but the rest of the episode crapped. does anyone actually think jack and kate have chemistry? how terribly sucky and unimaginative was kate's flashback? so terribly sucky and unimaginative that EVERYBODY PREDICTED IT LAST SEASON.

in my opinion, lost is performing the kiss of death: it's making me NOT CARE ANYMORE. honestly, whatever the mysteries are aren't so exciting that i will wait around several seasons to receive any gratification whatosever. last season was great because there was a) one thrilling, overarching mystery and b) small mysteries that took place and were resolved within each episode that were interesting in their own right and often connected in unexpected ways to the island and the overarching themes/mystery.

this season, all we've got is still the Big Mystery, on which we will never get any answers/hints, because the producers have no idea what the Big Mystery actually is and are not dealing with it in any coherent manner...and that's it. every episode now moves slowly (is it just my imagination, or is there a lot more silence/characters speaking incredibly slowly this season?) and very few things actually happen/are resolved within each episode. and what happened to the stompy monster?!?!

on the other hand, you have the excellently-edited, fast-moving and always satisfying veronica mars (though i haven't seen last night's episode yet, so please don't spoil it for me!). trust me: this show is the best show on tv right now. i wouldn't have said so at the beginning of this tv season, but now i'm positive that it is superior to lost. it's got attractive characters, tons of conflict, romance, one Big Mystery that i am CERTAIN the producers know how to resolve, one smaller mystery that i don't doubt ties into the Big Mystery (with grace and her abusive father, and everything else that is going on with meg), episodes that give you clues towards the Big Mystery every week, secondary storylines for every episode that are normally resolved in a satisfying and believable manner, interesting and plausible tensions (race and class dynamics in the community) and great, witty, hysterical dialogue.

please, please, do yourselves and the creators of VM a favor: watch it for the next six weeks (i'm not certain every episode will be new, but there should be at least a few fresh ones in there, and if there are reruns you can catch yourself up). lost draws billions of viewers every week; VM only gets a couple of million, and i don't think it's in danger of being canceled, but every bit helps. it deserves your viewership, and you deserve a non-frustrating show that gives you what you expect out of a top-rate series. UPN, wednesday, 9/8 central. WATCH IT OR DIE!

UPDATE: greg proves that there are still plenty of people out there who are enjoying the show.

UPDATE II: for random hints/tidbits that probably mean nothing but are fun anyway, check out this photo (look at the tv in the background).

for anyone who's dying to know who kate kisses this week, you can click here, go to the canadian real player link, and find out. personally, i think it's muy disappointing, especially with her extra-hot kiss last season with you-know-who.

another spoiler behind the cut...

Lost is here. You might need RAR software to uncompress it before playing it.

Veronica Mars is here (I think).

from a ew.com article:

The Tailies and their new friends, Michael, Jin, and Sawyer, were hiking towards Forward-Section camp when they came upon a steep embankment. They began to scale the rise, dragging Sawyer (feverish from his gunshot wound) on a makeshift stretcher. Bringing up the rear of their little caravan were Libby and Cindy. Now here's where things get interesting: By the time they reached the top of the ridge, Cindy was gone, presumably ''taken'' by the Others. How did this happen?

With Libby's help.

I'm calling it: Libby's a plant. She's the Ethan of the Tailies' camp.

First off, go to the tape. Libby's the last one to interact with Cindy. And Cindy's carrying a large blue knapsack. By the time they've climbed to the top, Libby's carrying the knapsack. You're telling me she took the knapsack from Cindy and then proceeded to forget all about her? This is a ridge, not K-2 — you don't just ''lose'' people like that. Also notable: Cindy hands Libby a walking stick of some sort, just before we lose track of her completely. As this handoff takes place, we see a cavelike opening in the background, right where Cindy's about to pass. And it looks as if there's some sort of shape inside.

But here's my best evidence of Libby's treachery: Tonight, she told Sawyer she's a clinical psychologist. Well, who appears to have designed this tropical house of horrors, according to a certain orientation video? A team of clinical psychologists, that's who. Coincidence? What do you think? Is there such a thing as coincidence in the world of television drama? Consult the little Locke on your left shoulder (as opposed to the tiny Jack on your right).

All in all, a satisfying episode of Lost. There was, of course, one major piece of fanservice for both the misogynist and seething proletarian demographics.

But more importantly, there was undeniable haunting! That's right, g-g-g-ghost Walt could be seen by Sayid, confirming that Shannon isn't crazy, just kind of a bitch. I can't remember the last time pop culture has had a solid, unambiguous ghost. A reliable ghost. The kind of ghost they had in the fifties. An American ghost, goddammit. Perhaps ivory tower liberal academia's tyrannical influence on our supernatural entertainments is finally coming to an end. Screw ghost relativism, I say.

Sure, it's fine for the lone hauntee to descend into paranoia as a menace unseen by everyone else draws closer and closer — but only as an excuse for making everyone's eventual deaths that much more grisly. If folks realize they're under otherworldly assault, they won't just naturally wander under that ill-conceived chandelier, after all. Allowances for that sort of thing can be made.

What's not okay is using spectral subjectivity as an excuse for "was it all a dream?"-isms. Nuts to that. Up yours, Henry James! Ghost Walt is now clearly the objective advance guard for something heavy-duty-spooky, and I'm pretty happy about it.

titles are hard, okay?

so, a couple of friends and i are taking bets on who the chickadee who is going to die tonight on lost is. the winner gets the cheapest bottle of wine that we can buy, so there's a lot at stake. here are our choices:

friend 1: determined that it is kate.
friend 2: claire. who needs a baby mama anyway?
catherine: rose. how HEART WRENCHING would it be to have the two plane groups finally reunited, only to have bernard find his wife dead? when they were SO CLOSE?

your thoughts?

Pretty fucking boring, huh? Catherine IMed me a message along the lines of "Oh good a Sun and Jin flashback!" But c'mon — that's unlikely to involve anyone getting impaled by mysterious robomechanical and/or undead castaways. A lost wedding ring plotline? You're not really shooting for the "young males" demo this week, are you?

The teaser for next week was irritating. THIS WILL BE THE ONE YOU TALK ABOUT FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON, it promised. ONE OF THESE CASTAWAYS WILL DIE, it said, while showing shots of the main characters — and lingering on the increasingly gangrenous Sawyer. OH WAIT NO, it was actually a shot of Sawyer walking behind a female character who was introduced two weeks ago. I can't remember what her name is, but that's okay: I've got a feeling that that piece information will become useless in about six days anyway.

Veronica Mars continues to get better, and Kristin Bell continues to look hotter. I'm afraid I'm developing a little bit of a crush — I saw an ad for an episode of "Punk'd" this morning that featured her sassily talking back to a fake cop(!), and for once the sight of Ashton Kutcher failed to send me into a murderous rage.

I neglected to do this last week — Catherine's figured out how to use Bittorrent on her own, but I'll keep it up anyway. Here's last week's Veronica Mars (last night's isn't up yet). Here's last week's Lost. And here's the Lost that aired last night. There are 14,000 people in the swarm! This is extremely exciting to me for some reason.

sawyer is totally going to have to get his arm amputated, isn't he?

UPDATE: an interesting image comparing the others to a few familiar faces from the last ep.

The torrent for this week's episode of Lost can be found here.

The torrent for this week's episode of Veronica Mars isn't up yet, but I'll post it here when it becomes available.

And if you prefer your Lost catching-up to come in text form, head over to DCeiver's place for a full and hilarious recap. Catch it now before TWoP snatches him up and forces him to expand each of these summaries to 20,000 in-joke-ridden words.

UPDATE: Catherine found an S2E02 Veronica Mars torrent here.

a few scattered thoughts behind the cut. yes, sorry, remiss in the blogging lately. i'm busy, writing about budgets and animals in churches and what have you, etc. not to whine, or anything. i knew i'd be busy. it's not like i thought i was signing up for a mediterranean cruise or anything. but i am missing the ability to blog at the drop of a hat.

anyway, unrelatedly: anyone who can whip me into shape to use flash, dreamweaver and improve my knowledge of photoshop will be vastly rewarded. or point me towards things that can do so. email.

Catherine can't get UPN. Susan doesn't have a TV, and if she did it would mostly serve to confuse. How are we going to maintain our shared pop cultural language? Wouldn't it be convenient if someone put up a BitTorrent site offering easy downloads of Veronica Mars and Lost each week? Yeah. Seems like it would.

In totally unrelated news, I've started working on a hacked-up version of Blog Torrent that allows for the creation of private torrents. It won't provide real security — the tracker won't customize .torrents with unique logins, so this is really just security by obscurity — but it should stop those wandering in from the internet from seeing what on offer. I'll release the customized Blog Torrent to whoever else might want this sort of Darknet functionality.

But having thought about it a little more, this is clearly overkill. It'll be useful for DCist since we may occasionally need to ferry large amounts of video among the staff prior to editing it down, and we don't want it to be publicly accessible to everyone. But you lose out on the speed advantage of BitTorrent if your swarm consists of one downloader and one seeder. Plus, I'm running out of disk space. Running my own BitTorrent operation doesn't really make sense.

So: here's what I suggest. It's really simple.

1. Head to DCist Torrents and click on the "Easy Download" link for any of the torrents listed. Let it walk you through installing the software. It'll automatically detect if you're using a Mac or a PC. Once the download starts, you can cancel it. BitTorrent is now installed on your computer.
2. Each week I will supply links to the Pirate Bay pages for the torrents of the two shows. Go to the one you want, click the link that looks like DOWNLOAD THIS TORRENT, specify a save location, and your download will begin. That should be it.

Easy enough? Okay, you might need to install one other thing in order to play these files. But there's no getting around that. If your download is complete but you can't play the file in Windows Media Player (or its Mac equivalent), just go here and download and run the appropriate file.

A torrent for this week's episode of Lost can be found here.

A torrent for this week's episode of Veronica Mars can be found here.

Note to angry MPAA peons: I'm not linking to a copy of the TV show. I'm linking to a website that links to a torrent that links to a copy of the TV show. I can add some additional degrees of separation if you'd like.

i realize that last week i was probably unnecessarily harsh on the season premiere of lost, seeing as how everyone else and their grandma regarded it as manna from heaven. and when i watched the repeat tonight, right before the new episode, it definitely seemed better. that said...

for those who didn't already know, courtesy of a link a similarly-obsessed-with-lost classmate, what walt said when shannon saw him in the jungle last week:

"press the button. no button's bad."

(that's what comes out when you play what he actually said on the show in reverse.)

in an hour: the second episode! we finally get to see the fate of the rafters (and a soaking wet sawyer, yay).

well. huh. i dunno. i am having, how do you say, mixed feelings? i no longer want to kill jj abrams (though smashing his glasses is still an option), but i do not want to make sweet sweet love to his tv skills either. behind the cut...

liveblogging lost, or at least what i can catch:

Diane Rehm and her guests just finished having a conversation about The Lord of the Flies — it should be up at that URL soon. No new revelations, of course (wait... it's about society?!?!), but it sure brought back a lot of memories. I love that book — in part because I like my symbolism glaring, thank you very much. But mostly because it reminds me of my first exposure to weeks-long pseudoacademic bullshitting on a single topic. You know, where the teacher signals how hip she is by sitting on a desk. So bohemiam.

And on a related note, allow me to join the governess in expressing excitement over tonight's Lost premiere. My crazy karma machine theory isn't looking too hot based on the plot rumors I've heard. But falling silent just because you're wildly unqualified to speak about something would run contrary to everything I know and love about blogging. So, to that end, Catherine and I have created a new category just for posts about this season of the show.

So: you've had a few months to ponder it. What do you think's in the hatch? My money's on g-g-g-ghosts!