(Display Name not set)December 2005 Archives

Rabid fans of ABC's "Lost" have many suspicions about the meaning of the show, fueled by their examination of myriad clues in exruciating detail. And while I was just as curious about things like where those numbers came from, I was more interested in knowing about the minds behind this hit show, which tells the story of the survivors of an airplane crash on what seems to be a deserted island.

From its very beginning, ABC's hit has been awash in a sea of faith. Early theories speculated that the mysterious island setting was actually purgatory. The first season introduced us to John Locke, who had been confined to a wheelchair until he miraculously regained the use of his legs following the plane crash. Even the name of the nefarious Dharma Initiative--a project of the Hanso Foundation, which seems to be conducting some form of experiment on the island--and the foundation's logo--a variant on the bagua, a series of eight trigrams often surrounding a yin-yang sign and commonly associated with Taoism--have spiritual connotations.

As fans know, before Season 2 ramped up the collision between Locke, the man of faith, and Jack, the man of science, the show's fundamental spiritual disputes really hadn't crystalized. (And I'm not even going to get into Locke’s faith in fate vs. Mr. Eko’s biblically-based faith.) That's where executive producers, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse come in. Creator J.J. Abrams may have given "Lost" its body, but Lindelof and Cuse have given the show a soul.

According to Entertainment Weekly's "Best of 2005" Issue, the Jack vs. Locke storyline was inspired "by the worldviews of Lindelof (Jewish and empirical-minded) and Cuse (Catholic and willing to leap beyond logic)." EW continues:

"The collision of our perspectives plays out on the show," says Cuse, who cites [C.S. Lewis' "Narnia"] as one touchstone for the kind of fantastical otherworld "Lost" is trying to create. "Both of us are searching for the answers to the bigger questions of how you lead a meaningful life, and we've chosen to use the show to explorethose questions."

Narnia? So that’s where the polar bear came from…. (Yes, yes. I know all about Walt’s comic book.)

Biblical exegesis meets the Billboard Hot 100 in the January/February issue of Blender magazine. Kelly Clarkson--Blender's Woman of the Year, winner of the first "American Idol," and singer of the ubiquitous and insidiously infectious "Since U Been Gone"--considers herself a Christian, but is no "holy roller," notes Blender. Having a couple of drinks at an after-concert party she says, "I don't sweat it. Jesus drank. It came straight from the Bible that he had a glass of wine. Actually, I don't know if it says he actually drank it, but whatever."

After all, the Bible is a little bit ambiguous about Jesus' highly-debated drinking habits, though he does say to his Disciples at the Last Supper, "Drink this in rememberance of me, or whatever."

Nip/Tuck delivered early Christmas gifts this year, both figuratively and literally. The usually sordid plastic surgery doc-opera revealed a more spiritual side in last night’s episode--while still managing to keep the “ick” factor high.

Mrs. Kringle--one half of a Santa-and-Mrs.-Claus team--comes into the doctors' office to get a little liposuction before the big mall season. The Kringles, who changed their names legally, feel that a fat Santa and Mrs. Claus are sending the wrong health message to America’s children. So they have lost a combined 200 pounds, though now Mrs. Kringle is looking to surgery to shed those last, impossible 15 pounds. But while performing the lipo, Drs. Troy and McNamara run across an anomaly and discover that Mrs. Kringle is carrying a lithokelyphos--a petrified fetus--in her abdomen. After its removal, she asks to see her child and is handed a swaddling blanket that surrounds the specimen jar it’s floating in. It’s an absolutely heartbreaking scene, mirroring, in a sad, round-about way, the Virgin Birth. The Kringles, it turns out, had been told that they would never be able to have kids, leading them to embrace the Claus personas as a way to celebrate the holidays with children.

But there’s a lump of coal in this stocking. As it turns out, Mr. Kringle is the one with the procreation problem, weak sperm; Mrs. Kringle, who was fertile all along, had a one-time fling with Mr. Kringle’s 18-year old assistant some 15 years ago. Mrs. Kringle doesn’t like being jolly all year round, and longs to be a normal, middle-aged, sometimes-grumpy wife, with a man who pays attention to her and not just to all the children who adore him. She and Mr. Kringle end up parting ways, but Mr. K finds himself a 20-something elf who shares his Christmas spirit, whom he rewards with some double-D implants to stuff her stockings, so to speak.

In a different storyline, Julia, ex-wife of Dr. Sean McNamara and owner of the De La Mar spa, finds out she’s pregnant with her ex-husband's baby, and schedules an abortion for Christmas Eve. Sean drives her to the clinic, yet they decide to keep the baby--mirroring the “birth” theme established with the Kringles.

The show keeps the Yuletide 'tude going with its third storyline, which focuses on Matt, the somewhat-estranged son of Julia and Sean (though regular viewers know he's actually Christian Troy's kid). Matt’s white-supremacist girlfriend is disgusted by an African-American crèche displayed at their high school, in which all the figures are dark skinned. She feels they need to “defend” the story of the birth of Jesus. She and Matt--who feels the whole Christmas story is a made-up fairy tale but begrudgingly helps her anyway--kidnap the figurines, paint them white, and return them to the school. The show ends poignantly, with a heavy rain washing the white paint off the members of the nativity.

Talk about your crossover artists! Matisyahu, born Matthew Miller, has been taking the reggae world by storm--which might not be so unusual, except for the fact that he’s a Hasidic Jew who sings/raps about the Jewish experience. Check out the lyric to his hit “King Without a Crown”: "Torah food for my brain let it rain ‘til I drown, Thunder! Let the blessings come down!"

Described as combining the sounds of “Bob Marley and Shlomo Carlebach,” Matisyahu has been enjoying heavy rotation on both MTV2 (MTV’s alternative brother) and MTVu (MTV’s college-going brother) for the past few months. But, last night Matisyahu made it to the big leagues and was the featured artist on the “10 Spot Drop.”

For those of you unfamiliar with “The Drop,” several of the artist’s songs and/or videos are featured as 5-10 second “bumps,” which lead into or out of the main program. In this case that main program was “Real World Austin: The S@#t They Should Have Shown,” which provided a truly surreal experience for the viewer.

Wedged between scenes the "Real World" producers once thought inappropriate to show-- Rachel peeing in her bed while drunk, Melinda running around naked buck-nekked, and Wes being attacked by Johanna while he was on the toilet--were fruit-stripe gum, rasta colored, animated snippets of Matisyahu singing, rapping, and talking about Judaism and Israel. Perhaps the bizarre nature of the evening is best illustrated by the following juxtaposition: A Matisyahu bump, wherein we see him in full Hasidic garb, is followed by an ad for "The Gauntlet," in which one girl starts screaming about how she "manhandled on the island of Tabago.”

Matisyahu’s next album is due in stores at the end of January.

I’ve heard of conversion by sword, but conversion by chainsaw?

As another devoted fan of “Invasion,” I was stunned by last night’s episode, in which Deputy Lewis Sirk is convinced by Sheriff Tom Underlay--who is looking more and more like the head alien--to cut off his miraculously regenerated left arm by telling him that “people don’t like change” and that he was going against God’s plan.

Earlier in the episode we learn that Sirk, who lost his left arm in battle, is a devout Christian. He says he “prayed on” a decision to tell a possibly-murdered girl's birth parents that she was dead. Sheriff Underlay questions why he would do such a thing, why he would go around his authority like that. Sirk responds that he’s “loyal to someone else first," that someone being God. Sure, it’s cliché, but we know which camp he’s in--and it doesn’t seem to involve glowing creatures with acidic blood.

The Sheriff and Sirk meet later that night at an inlet to check out some possible illegal polluting. The Sheriff doesn’t seem too surprised when one of “the lights” (a.k.a. the aliens) grabs Sirk, drags him out to sea, and proceeds to implant its suckers in him. Props to the director for including the gratuitous closeup of the cross around his neck right before he goes under.

The next day Sirk shows up at Underlay’s house dazed and with two arms! The Sheriff doesn’t seem alarmed to see Sirk alive, but is very disconcerted that he has returned with a new limb. Sirk proclaims that it’s a miracle from God. As Sirk joyously shoots basketball hoops, Underlay discusses the “miracle” with Father Scanlon (also an alien?), who heads the creepy survivors-support-group at his church. The Father recommends that Underlay suggest to Sirk that his miracle should be kept to himself, that it is “a private communion with God.” But Sheriff Underlay thinks "a greater sacrifice is needed." Oh no you didn't!

Taking Sirk out to an abandoned poacher’s shack, the Sheriff explains that, ”This isn’t God’s plan... He took your arm for a reason son, to challenge you. It defines who you are now. Wasn’t that his plan?” The Sheriff must certainly be using some kind of alien mind control because any right-minded person would refuse to chop off a brand-new arm, but Sirk falls to his knees crying, looks up to the sky in one final moment of tormented confusion, and then walks into the cabin with the chainsaw revving.

Is Sirk now a born-again, born-again Christian so to speak? And, is the Sheriff scared that the new limb would stir up too much curiosity, or does he really feel that it’s best for Sirk to lose his arm--to stay with God’s original plan, since he knows that the new arm is part of the aliens’ plan and Sirk will become a totally different person? Maybe it’s both.

That’s the beauty of “Invasion,” you’re never quite sure what’s real and what’s not.