Lindelof revealed the real reason the four-toed statue has yet to be seen again on ‘Lost’: “After the monument first appeared “we got a note back from the network that said, ‘This is too weird,’” he explained. “I was like, ‘Do you watch the show? This is too weird?’ Essentially, they said, ‘Could it be a six-toed statue?’ I was like, ‘Someone explain to me why a six-toed statue is less weird than a four-toed statue?’ And they’re still noodling on that.”

A few days ago I mentioned that I watched for the first time “Arrested Development” (AD) at Hulu.com. I decided to watch it not only because it’s one of the most watched series at that site, not only because of its extremely high 9.7/10 IMDb rating, but also because I had indeed heard good things about it (some call it the “smartest sitcom ever”). Although, I got to say that when the show was on FOX, I avoided it because it felt cheap to me.

Five days later after re-discovering though, I have finished watching all 3 seasons (hopefully Comcast won’t cut us off for excessive bandwidth usage).

The series is sitcom-like, but at the same time very different from your usual Hollywood stuff. The only series that come close to its style are “Curb your Enthusiasm” and “The Office”. It’s shot with cheap digital cameras (first episodes just used the $5000 DVX100), it has no DOF, it’s shot in 60i like most soap operas, and it’s cheap, cheap, cheap. But the writing is unbelievably good.

The first season is the best of the three, and every episode is guaranteed to make you laugh loud many times during the 22 minutes of runtime per episode. The second season is not as good, but still watchable, and the third one is a bit of a disaster. That was when it was canceled. However, the first season alone makes up for some of the best television you will ever see in your life. Ok, it’s not as funny as “Fawlty Towers”, but it’s close. I also like that it had a very serialized plot, instead of self-contained episodes.

While watching the series, I kept having this feeling that this kind of “situation comedy” felt familiar. It took me three days to realize that the comedic style of AD is similar to most sitcoms on the Greek TV. It’s just that AD does it much better. The writing is unbelievable good, as it has so many references to things or older jokes. Some of the jokes are very subtle, but at the same time very clever that require extra brain power to process. And of course, words like “fuck” are a daily treat, this is not a wussy sitcom.

My favorite character in AD is Tobias Fünke, an Analyst and Therapist (his business card’s title reads: “Analrapist”). Tobias is a gay man in denial who hasn’t come to terms with his sexuality (he’s married to a woman).

One day he walks in to that sex shop that he has visited so many times before.
Transvestite Store Clerk: Are you going to actually buy something this time, or are you just curious?
Tobias Fünke: Well, let’s just say that I’m buy-curious.

On another occasion, Tobias tries to pick up his (straight) lawyer, Bob:
Tobias Fünke: So, what are your plans for this evening?
Bob Loblaw: I thought that maybe I would stay in and work on my law blog.
Tobias Fünke: Ah, yes. The “Bob Loblaw Law Blog”. You, sir, are a mouthful.

Hilarious.

Hulu, NBC’s answer to iTunes and YouTube, is now out of beta. Users out of USA can also use it when using a VPN client. I got to say that I like Hulu a lot. Its quality is not HD, it’s definitely not as good as Vimeo HD for example, but it’s better than YouTube or Revver. They offer a lot of well-known TV series to watch free of charge (very few commercials), and the site is pretty well designed. If they add more series, go HD (it’s on their plans), and make it possibly more community-like, they have a good future. Me likes.

I watched “Arrested Development” for the first time today (I heard good things about it). The whole 3 seasons are available on Hulu for free.

And speaking of “Arrested Development”, the whole thing is shot with a digital camera in 60i. No depth of field, no 24p nonsense, no “cinematic look”. And it works.

I wrote a few days ago that RIAA must follow a Netflix-like model with a standard $5 per month fee that gives unlimited access to their catalog. It seems that they are thinking along the same lines, but they still don’t want to give up their old business model. They now want to surcharge all internet users with $5 via the ISPs, but of course, this is not the way to go. It really seems to me that RIAA knows how to proceed and do the right thing, but they are afraid to do so. They are definitely no idiots though.

One of the true artists in the “American Idol” competition (rather than just a strong voice), Josiah Leming, released a new song as a free legal download. More songs of his here.

On YouTube he said that this March he will be talking to various labels, and hopefully sign and have an album soon. That’d be awesome. Such a nice kid.

The following 4 minute part is my favorite in all of “Lost”. It’s a kind of scene that only the writers behind “Lost” could have written. Deliciously creepy. Have a look and tell me what you think (even if you have never watched “Lost” before). Pay attention towards the end, as there’s a figure appearing for a split second, out of nowhere.

I stumbled upon Malcolm David Kelley today on the net, the young actor who plays “Walt” on “Lost”. I seized the opportunity to carry out a small Q&A with him. Thanks Malcolm!

1. How did you start acting? Was it something you always wanted to do?
Malcolm: Well, I was 5 so I really didn’t know much except from what I saw on TV. I just wanted to have fun like the kids on the commercials and I told my mom we got a manager and agent and everything started taking off.
2. How do you manage both acting and school? Is it difficult to do both at the same time?
Malcolm: Well I’m home schooled and its easier this way but I do miss public school. But I see my friends all the time so that makes up for it.
3. Do you find the show-biz industry too competitive? Do you feel secure-enough taking on acting full time after school?
Malcolm: Yeah, a little bit but mostly your are making friends throughout everything. I think I do I have thinking about that question all the time so I’m coming to a conclusion and I think I do want to continue.
4. You portrayed “Walt” in ABC’s “Lost”, mostly in the first season. Do you still watch the show as intensely?
Malcolm: Yeah, I try to watch the show as much as I can but you know its hard to catch every episode. Then if you miss something in the show you miss a lot so I try to keep up.
5. Are we going to see more of “Walt” in “Lost”? If yes, would you personally prefer “Walt” to be in the midst of intense sci-fi plots, or as as regular kid in his age?
Malcolm: Idk lmao can’t say.!!!! And it really doesn’t matter to me I take all challenges, lol, it’s up to the writers how they want to bring me back and I’ll deliver.
6. Who do you like hanging out with the most from the “Lost” team?
Malcolm: Um… To be honest everybody on that set had a big part of making that set so fun. But who I hung out with the most probably was Harold who plays my dad on the show and Dominic who played Charlie on the show.

Here’s a ‘drug’ that can help you get over your addiction to “Lost”.

Only problem with the otherwise funny commercial: people still credit J.J. Abrams for “Lost”, while he only worked for very few episodes in the beginning. Lost is what it is because of Damon and Carlton, not J.J.

Everything is so damn relative in this world. Nothing can be set to stone as truly “good” or “bad”. I won’t give a real-life example on this, but I will utilize my favorite subject, “Lost”.

Last night’s episode, “The Other Woman”, was a so-so episode. Not a fantastic episode, but not crap either. At the end of each episode, DarkUFO (biggest “Lost” fan site online), posts a poll to rate it. Options include: Awesome, Great, Ok, Poor, and Awful. Then, after a few hours, it is compared towards older polls of older episodes. There are thousands who vote on these polls, and so this is the closest you can get to an accurate viewer’s rating of an episode.

“The Other Woman” has a very low average scoring (3.68/5) compared to most other episodes. But here’s the kicker. If you read the comments on the episode comparative chart, you will see that the vast majority of the viewers felt that the episode was judged way too harshly. And I agree with them. The episode was much better than some other episodes that occupy the bottom of the list. Not only that, but we got some real answers too (e.g. Widmore is the “bad” guy, the ‘Tempest’ station was used by the Hostiles to kill the Dharma employees, Charlotte might be aggressive but possibly not a villain). So why was it judged harshly?

The reason is simple: Because the previous episode, “The Constant”, was one of the best “Lost” episodes ever. Viewers did not judge “The Other Woman” to a generic TV entertainment threshold, but they judged it compared to their previous “Lost” experience. “The Constant” has just raised the bar, and it was too recent to not take into account the pleasure viewers got from it.

So basically, “what’s best”, or “what’s worse”, is not necessarily judged compared to an abstract generic value, but compared to other concrete values that serve as reference. Everything is relative.