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penny December 6th, 2005

Ajay just gave me a lot of work to do. Psychosomatic or not, I’ve had the flu for 2 weeks and a day, and coughing has kept me awake for the last few days. I’m alright with it, I have Lost DVDs (from Ajay) to keep me company. Just 5 more episodes til the pilot season finale, and, as always, I’m taking it slow now that the DVDs are almost finished. Apparently, Lost is getting good raves and TV awards for casting, writing and directing. Figures, since it is really good TV. Hehe. The mini-plots about each character layer the story so thickly, and because strangers are forced to try to get along in a deserted island, the many clashes of Man vs Man, Man vs Nature inevitably occur. Each character is built-up as stories of each one unfold. It’s more than just a soap opera on a deserted island. There is more depth to it, and it can get any idler like me hooked.

Like I said I’m liking the series a lot, and being the actor-buff that I am, I’ve been meaning to do some research backgrounders on the cast members that I have no info on. Apparently, the first-billed Naveen Andrews is the Iraqi guy, Sayid. All this time I thought it was Jack Shepard (Matthew Fox), the doctor. I was like “What the hell, why is he first-billed?” I wasn’t keen enough to notice the alphabetized billing. Haha.

Matthew Fox has been sooooo vaguely familiar, and then I found it… he’s Charlie Salinger in the late 90s TV series Party of Five. Remember it? It’s about five siblings who lost their parents in an accident. I never got to see the entire series, but I know it was really good writing. (This series also introduced me to Jeremy London and Jennifer Love Hewitt.) Matthew Fox has analogous roles with his roles as Lost Jack and Party of Five Charlie, being the natural leader of the pack in Lost and the surrogate father in Party of Five.

Ian Somerhalder (Boone Carlyle, stepbrother to Shannon) was Adam Knight in Smallville season 3. (He’s my age!! hehe.) This actor has the brightest blue eyes on camera, and a face so effortlessly full of expression, that he could be acting while just standing still. I just found out he was first to be casted in Lost. (Which is ironic…) Ian was first a model before an actor, and has posed for the Guess? label in the past… his rough features are indeed Guess?-worthy. Pretty-bad-boy-with-a-crooked-smile.

Dominic Monaghan, of course, would be immensely familiar to anyone. It’s weird how it’s hard to shake off this image of Dom as *LOTR Meriadoc Brandybuck. Any LOTR actor has this typecasted curse for that matter. But well, he’s a terrific actor, and all the while I was thinking his character Charlie Pace wouldn’t last long. (SPOILER! Ajay told me someone would die in Season 1, honestly, I had been waiting for it to happen since he said so, and Charlie was first suspect. But no, it wasn’t him. END OF SPOILER)

Evangeline Lilly plays Kate Austen, female fugitive. This actor is strikingly pretty. It is everything from her bone structure to her long soft curls to her eyes. She also appears in Smallvile, in season 1 as the girlfriend of Wade in episode 13 (Kinetic) where there were these guys with Kryptonite tatoos. Recent rumor is she is engaged to Lost co-star Dom. Evi, I found out, has been doing missionary work in the Philippines some years ago. She has a degree in International relations.

A short-lived guesting of Mackenzie Astin as past love of Kate, Tom Brennan, was really fun to watch, having not seen this actor for so long. Mackenzie is brother to Sean Astin (LOTR Samwise Gamgee), and is the blue-eyed David Shrader in the 90s flick Dreams for an Insomniac. I saw that movie more than I can count on cableTV, coz staring into David Shrader’s big blue eyes was simply, and positively… dreamy.

Nominations and awards for acting have been handed out to Naveen Andrews and also to Terry O’Quinn as the eerie boarhunter John Locke from many award groups, though most of the Emmys and Golden Globes for the actors (Dom, Matt, and Evangeline Lilly) are just nominations. Lost did win the 2005 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series, Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore), Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series (Single-camera is repeatedly used in Lost and it is sooooo fantastic! You know how the camera turns a 360 degrees over and over again while the actor/s stands still? ), and Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series.

Final note: Lost is being shot in Hawaii.

Ok, I’ll stop here.

For those who are as hooked as I am, here’s a list of funny and memorable quotes and goofs from Lost.

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Another promising addictive TV series is Numb3rs. Rob Morrow (from Northern Exposure) is lead alongside David Krumholtz. More on Numb3rs some other time.
*LOTR=Lord of the Rings

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