After watching the BBC/Discovery produced Planet Earth series on TV a few years ago, Heather and I just started watching the follow-up Life on blu-ray through Netflix last night.  The series contains some of the most unique and astonishing wildlife footage I’ve ever seen in breathtaking high-definition.  Having finished the first disc yesterday, I don’t see how one could spend much time watching the show without coming away in worshipful awe at the creativity of God displayed in the world he has made.  Here’s a peek at the series.

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t watched the final episode of Lost and plan to do so spoiler-free, then why are you even on the internet right now? Quit reading immediately and go crawl under a rock somewhere until you’ve seen it.

So, after six years of smoke monsters, polar bears, time travel and some of the best characters ever to grace the small screen, Lost came to an end last night. Heather and I hurried home from community group, put Jordan to bed and curled up on the couch to see how it would all end.

My initial reaction last night was that the finale was a fantastic episode on an emotional and character level that didn’t really pay off with its big final plot twist. I loved the countless payoffs for these characters we’d come to love over the past six seasons, especially the “a-ha!” moments that would jar their memories in the flash-sideways world, triggering a flood of recollection about the events and people that shaped them back on the island. The closure that most of the characters received felt pitch-perfect, especially the reunion of Sawyer and Juliet, probably my favorite couple from the show. However, when the show made the big reveal with about 10 minutes remaining that all the characters gathered in the alternate-reality chapel were actually dead, Heather and I weren’t sure we liked the twist.

Initially, we both thought that everything we’d seen, events on the island included, was just some sort of afterlife test before moving into the great beyond. That just felt cheapening to many of the events that had taken place and it seemed like a bit of a cop-out, since it was basically the oldest Lost fan theory in the book. However, after reading the consensus understanding that only the flash-sideways was an afterlife, while the events on the island were very real (if largely unexplained), and rethinking some of the final moments, we actually warmed to the ending. It’s not the way I would have written it and its obviously rife with theological problems, but it was actually a rather poetic ending that feels like it fit the tone that Lost carried throughout its run.

So, Lost was six years of great drama and the finale was two-and-a-half hours of fantastic TV, but what else can we take from it? I think there are several things the show teaches us about ourselves. First up, we’re fascinated with the idea of redemption. Lost is a show that ultimately, beginning to end, is about redemption. The search for it is the thread that ties every one of its characters together. As human beings, we know we’re broken and we desperately want to be fixed. That’s a chord that Lost strikes again and again throughout its tale. Secondly, I think the show exposes a sort of paradox that exists in our culture right now. On one hand, postmodernism and its focus on narratives rather than truths is alive and well in our culture. It’s plainly evident that the show’s writers sought a finale that would deliver an emotional conclusion to the stories of these characters rather than focusing on answering the countless mysteries that surrounded the island. Even the church where the characters end their journey contained a mash-up of just about every religious symbol imaginable. However, despite the great postmodern, mysterious bent of the show, the fan reaction to the finale also serves to point out that we as a culture still crave answers. It won’t take long looking around the web to find fans who are infuriated that the finale didn’t really say anything about what the island was or why it was so special. Even for fans like me who found the final episode rather satisfying, it is a bit irritating to know that it all revolved around some unexplained light fountain that Jack had to stick a cork in to prevent a giant cloud of smoke from ending the world. There’s something in the human heart that longs to know the answers to the questions that plague us. This is where Lost, I believe, demonstrates that our culture is begging a question that only the gospel can answer. The gospel is a beautiful story with a perfect ending, but it is much more than a story. It also answers the questions that we have about who we are and, more importantly, who God is. Sure, we may not get the answers to some of the little peripheral questions than nag at us, but we do get a deeply satisfying look into the author of the story who is trustworthy, true, and is most certainly not trying to string us along to boost his ratings.

I’d be interested to hear your take on the Lost finale and on the show as a whole. Personally, I really enjoyed the conclusion, and the whole tale was a great ride. It was a fantastic story, and it also serves as a great reminder of and pointer to the greatest story ever told.

Last night, Heather and I finished up season 1 of the 2004 reimagining of Battlestar Galactica.  The series – which aired on SyFy and just ended its run last year – follows the last band of humans traveling through space after their colonies and civilization were nearly wiped out by a race of machines called the Cylons.  The series has been great so far, with an interesting cast of characters, a well-crafted visual style, and a premise that’s far more interesting than it first sounds (the robots-destroying-humanity thing is a little more played out than it was when the original show aired in the 80′s, but they somehow make it feel fresh here).  One of the ways I like to identify really good sci-fi is by seeing whether or not my wife likes it.  She usually doesn’t care for the genre, so when she really enjoys it (a la Firefly), you know it’s good.  She’s been just as hooked as I have, and the two of us have spent many late nights recently concluding a great episode with an exchange of the phrase, “One more?”  If you’re looking for a TV show to check out, let me suggest tracking this one down on DVD and watching the three-hour miniseries that serves as the show’s premiere.   I think you’ll find yourself coming back for more.

For the Lost fans out there – someone with a really keen editing eye and way too much time on their hands put together this clip showing the final fateful moments of Oceanic Flight 815 in real time from every perspective imaginable.  Pretty cool.

Last night, the long-awaited final season of Lost kicked off on ABC.  Heather and I spent the last six months getting all caught up on the show thanks to Xbox Live and ABC.com so that we can watch the final season as it happens (something we’ve never done with Lost before).  Last night’s premiere packed a lot into it’s two-hour running time, and I’ve got a few comments to make on the whole situation.  So, SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t yet watched the episode, and if you have, I’d love to get your take in the comments.  Here’s what I thought…

1.  The big question from the end of season 5 was whether or not Farraday’s H-bomb plan would work.  From last night, it would appear that it did and didn’t.  The episode followed two different realities, offering no explanation for what was happening (other than Juliet’s cryptic postmortem “it worked”).  It would appear that we’re seeing two alternate realities, one in which the survivors are still on the island and one in which they never crashed there at all.  I must confess, this has me feeling a little disappointed.  Is J.J. Abrams really all out of ideas?  His other current TV show Fringe is exploring the whole alternate reality thing, as did his take on Star Trek last summer.  Both have been good, but sooner or later using the same plot device over and over just starts to get a little old, especially when it’s used in an attempt to be thought provoking.  Now granted, the whole setup hasn’t been explained and Abrams and Co. may well do something really cool and fresh with the concept, but for now I’m just not sure it was the best move – and I’ve been onboard with all the time-travel/flashback/flashforward craziness of the first five seasons (which, seeing it all presented together in that hour-long recap special, you realize is completely nuts).  I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt though. 

2.  That CG sequence of the island at the bottom of the ocean was just awful.  Obviously, TV budgets just don’t allow for CGI that matches what we’ve come to expect from movies, but if used wisely it can still blend somewhat seamlessly into the experience (see Firefly for proof).  Plainly put, if you don’t have the resources to do it really well, then don’t try to do a huge, epic shot.  Better small and good than big and bad.  Those fifteen seconds were just a mess.

3.  The best part of the episode?  The Jacob/Man in Black material.  Terry O’Quinn is doing a superb job portraying Bizarro Locke/Smoke Monster/Man in Black.  He’s really taken on a terrifying new persona, and his acting chops really shine when you watch a scene of this new character shortly after a scene of old Locke chatting with Jack in an airport.  He keeps this up, and an Emmy may be in his future.  It’s going be really interesting to see just how this story unfolds.  Heather was talking last night about her hunch that the two of them are a play on the God/Satan motif, and I can definitely see the parallels.  The religious imagery has been pretty blatant for a while, and it was kicked up a notch last night with a giant ankh (an Egyptian symbol for eternal life) being pulled out of Jacob’s guitar case.  I’ll be interested to see the point of it all unfold.

All-in-all, the premiere was just OK for me, but obviously it was just the beginning of the unraveling of the Lost mysteries.  Perhaps I expected a bit too much.  I’m certainly looking forward to seeing where they go from here.  What did you think?

Heather and I have enjoyed a couple new shows lately – one you’ve probably heard of, one you probably haven’t.  The first show is ABC’s remake of the 80′s sci-fi miniseries V, about an alien race known as The Visitors who arrive at Earth and greet us with peaceful and philanthropic promises but hide a sinister agenda beneath.  The series features a few actors who will be familiar to sci-fi fans, notably Elizabeth Mitchell from Lost and Morena Baccarin and Alan Tudyk of Firefly/Serenity fame.  We’re three episodes in (the fourth – and last until the spring – aired last night) and enjoying the ride so far.  Here’s a preview…

The second show isn’t actually a TV series but a web series.  The Guild is about a group of gamers playing an online RPG (think World of Warcraft) and actually (gasp!) meeting each other face-to-face for the first time.  Hilarity and awkwardness ensues.  The episodes are about 4-8 minutes in length, so each season clocks in at about an hour.  We just finished the season three finale last night, which was very funny.  Heather and I have absolutely loved the show, which will bring out your inner nerd like no other.  Episodes can be watched for free at www.watchtheguild.com or on Xbox Live’s Zune Marketplace (the Xbox Live versions are bleeped, the ones on the official site are not, for those interested).  The audience for this one may be a little more niche, but there’s enough just-plain-funny moments to make it appeal to more than just the geek crowd.  Here’s a look, and happy viewing!

I make no secret about the fact that I think the greatest TV show of all time is one that FOX canned after only half a season and you’ve quite possibly never heard of.  However, if you’ve ever caught an episode of Firefly (or the movie it inspired, Serenity) you know just how fantastic it was.  One of the show’s stars, Nathan Fillion, now has a very good show on ABC called Castle, and during this week’s Halloween episode he threw a bone to the many fans who will forever know him as Captain Malcolm Reynolds.  Enjoy, Firefly fans!

Who will take home the Idol crown tonight?

In case you missed it, the pilot episode of the new J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias) show Fringe is now available to watch via Fox.com. You can watch it here. If you’re a fan of Abrams’ thrilling breed of storytelling, you owe it to yourself to check this one out. The show has the mysterious feel of Lost wedded to subject matter reminiscent of The X-Files. Fans of The Lord of the Rings will get the added bonus of watching John Noble (who played Lord Denethor in Return of the King) in a starring role. Heather and I really enjoyed the pilot last week, and we’ve got the second episode recorded on our DVR to watch when time allows.

Heather and I join legions of 24 fans eagerly anticipating the return of Jack Bauer this year. Here’s a sneak peak at this fall’s 24: Exile, a TV-movie which will act as a prequel to January’s season 7 of the hit show.