[Televisionary]

Wow. I don't even know where to begin. I'm talking of course about last night's amazing season finale to Lost ("There's No Place Like Home, Parts Two & Three"), which fulfilled the promise of last season's ender by showing just how the Oceanic Six managed to escape the island (along with Desmond and Frank Lapidus) and gave us an oh-no-he-didn't moment when Ben manages to move the island in time and space... before being exiled from the place he's sworn to protect for the rest of his life. Sawyer. Before we get into the crux of the episode, I do feel extremely vindicated that my theory about what would happen to Sawyer played out EXACTLY as I had predicted two weeks ago. When faced with the helicopter losing fuel and none of them making it off the island, Sawyer whispers in Kate's ear (a promise about, oh, tracking down his daughter on the mainland), kisses her passionately, and then sacrifices his freedom for his fellow castaways by jumpi

While Lost has been positively overflowing with mysteries since Day One, when the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 first arrived on that cursed island, one question has seized upon the imagination of the audience and not let go: just who is in that coffin? It's a question that I've asked myself time and time again when watching the fourth season of Lost , which concludes tonight with a two-hour season ender that will likely once again rewrite the rules of the serialized drama and leave those of us obsessed with the series reeling from its implications for the next seven months. (I offered up a theory about one element of tonight's episode involving the notion of sacrifice and, er, fuel loss during my post about Part One of "There's No Place Like Home" two weeks ago. Very curious to see if I am right.) So who do I think is in the coffin? Let's take a look at the likely--and unlikely--possibilities. Benjamin Linus. We now know that Ben managed to get off th

I was literally on the edge of my couch last night, terrified that somehow one of my favorite three contestants wouldn't make it into the final four. After all, there was no way that there would be some divine intervention, some culinary equivalent of a deus ex machina, and the much loathed Spike and Lisa would both somehow get cut from the competition. A boy can dream, can't he? Last night's episode of Top Chef ("High Steaks") definitely raised the bar for Challenges this season, creating a pressure-cooker environment where the five remaining chefs had to butcher some lovely Tomahawk steaks and cook them for guest judge Rick Tramonto and then work on the line in his new restaurant, creating and serving an appetizer and an entree to a fully booked restaurant and the judges, who this week included previous winners Harold, Ilan, and Hung. It was pretty hilarious to see those three former winners back on the series, especially as I think any of the current crop of

Ah, schadenfreude . There is something innately satisfying about watching a terrible pilot project go down the tubes when it was doomed from the very start. And there were few more misguided and foolhardy attempts this past pilot season than that of the US adaptation of UK cult series Spaced . Created by Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes (née Stevenson), and Edgar Wright, the original Spaced was a brilliant and hyperkinetic pastiche: at once a tongue-in-cheek satire of sitcoms, an inversion of social stereotypes, and a collection of astounding sight gags, blink-and-you'll-miss-'em pop culture references, and endearingly quirky characters. It was most definitely a product of its time as well, fused into the fabric of 1990s Gen-X slackers and offering a commentary on both American and British cultural sensibilities of the time. In a word, it was brilliant. Cut to 2008, following a rough development year, in which the stars/creators of Spaced spoke out against the US version of the seri

I always hate it when a three-day weekend comes to an end. I spent mine catching up on some much needed R&R, putting the finishing touches on some last minute wedding plans, and watching some truly horrific pilots. (Seriously, the pilot for the US adaptation of Spaced may very well go down as one of the worst things I've ever screened, but more on that tomorrow.) Due to some overall insanity here the past two weeks or so, I hadn't gotten around to watching the screener that HBO had sent over for their two-hour telepic Recount , written by former Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gilmore Girls co-star Danny Strong, and finally sat down this weekend to take a look. I'm curious to know how many of you tuned in to this intelligent and haunting look at the 2000 US presidential elections; the performances--from as varied a lot as Kevin Spacey, Laura Dern, Bob Balaban, Ed Begley Jr., Derek Cecil (a.k.a. That Guy from Push, Nevada and Pasadena ), Denis Leary, Mitch Pileggi, and

Televisionary is proud to be a member of the TV Blog Coalition. At the end of each week, we'll feature a roundup of content from our sister sites for your delectation. This week, I put on my Pilot Inspektor cap and reviewed the pilot episodes for several new series, including FOX's new J.J. Abrams drama Fringe ("spellbinding television"), ABC's misguided US adaptation of UK series Life on Mars , and HBO's lackluster True Blood . I also shared my sadness that Russell T. Davies would be leaving Doctor Who (and my excitement that he'd be replaced at the helm by Steven Moffat ), my excitement that Arrested Development 's Judy Greer had been cast in the US adaptation of Suburban Shootout for HBO, my confusion over sourpuss Lisa still being on Top Chef , and my complete and utter boredom over the second season finale of Ugly Betty . Elsewhere in the sophisticated TV-obsessed section of the blogosphere, members of the TV Blog Coalition were discussing the

You know when the highlight of an episode is a super-saturated flashback to Betty getting selected as a "human shield" in a high school game of dodgeball that you're in for a snoozer of an episode. Such was the case last night with the season finale of Ugly Betty ("Jump"), which didn't so much as advance the plots as it did end the series' sophomore season with some rather unbelievable "twists" and forced Betty to once again choose between former true love Henry--who, as we all know impregnated his ex-girlfriend and moved to Tucson--or new love interest/sandwich maker Gio, who apparently can afford to pay his rent on his apartment and his prime midtown location-based sandwich shop AND jet off to Rome for a month. (Apparently he keeps down his costs by being the sole employee.) Personally, I wish she'd ditch both Gio and Henry and move in with Christina (Ashley Jensen), who sadly didn't even appear in the season finale. I understand the