Thursday, May 11, 2006

Toss Up: Lost vs Veronica Mars week 16


And we are down to possibly the last regular season Toss Up between the best two shows on television (click to download last night’s episode, ?) and . Over the summer I’m sure I’ll get around to a season long version, as for next year, we still need to wait for conformation for a third season of Veronica Mars (although my sources say “It’s a done deal”). If they continue to be on separate nights, I may do what I did last night, and run a preview version of my Veronica Mars analysis on my sister site, Scooter McGavin takes pictures then the regular Toss Up on Thursday. Now onto the Toss Up:

Dream Sequence
Lost: Eko sees Ana Lucia and his brother who both tell him to harass Locke about the ?. Coincidentally Locke also sees Eko’s brother in a wheelchair and Eko falling to his possible death.
Veronica Mars: Veronica dreams about the perfect graduation that includes not-sheriff Lamb in a crime dog costume, Dick going commando (and graduates), and Lily’s lesbian experience.
Winner: Veronica Mars


Flashbacks
Lost: Eko, for some reason in Australia, is sent to verify a miracle claim.
Veronica Mars: Veronica takes Beaver through his diabolical plan.
Winner: Veronica Mars


Dead
Lost: Ana Lucia didn’t make it out of Michael’s rampage from last week.
Veronica Mars: Mayor Goodwood blows up, Aaron gets what’s coming to him, and Beaver, after failing to take one plunge, is able to take a different one.
Winner: Veronica Mars


Not Quite Dead
Lost: Libby and Michael make it out of his rampage last week. Um, wait, strike that first one.
Veronica Mars: Lamb actually saves Keith’s life with his latest ego trip.
Winner: Veronica Mars


Losing Faith
Lost: After finding the Pearl hatch, Locke loses his faith in the island and his life in general.
Veronica Mars: After Aaron gets off; Veronica loses her faith in Santa, the Easter Bunny, angels among others.
Winner: Veronica Mars


Nicknames
Lost: Sawyer calls their escaped prisoner the artist formally known as Henry Gale.
Veronica Mars: Dick calls Beaver and Ghost World 12th Level Dorks.
Winner: Veronica Mars


Mastermind
Lost: Michael gets away with murder even though he missed Libby with a kill shot.
Veronica Mars: Beaver would have gotten away with it had it not been for that meddling Veronica.
Winner: Veronica Mars


Taking a Fall
Lost: Eko falls off a cliff; well at least he did in Locke’s dream.
Veronica Mars: Beaver takes the plunge off the cliff after he has nothing left to live for.
Winner: Veronica Mars


Back From the Dead
Lost: Eko’s brother appears to him in his dream. And if you believe flashback girl’s story, her too.
Veronica Mars: Lily appears to Veronica in her dream.
Winner: Veronica Mars


Back, But Not From the Dead
Lost: I don’t have confirmation, but I think it’s safe to assume that flashback chick’s father was Claire’s father.
Veronica Mars: Wallace’s mom shows up at graduation, but has no contact with Keith, and seems to be missing her other son. Could Wallace’s real life brother be broiled in contract disputes?
Winner: Lost


Where's Gia and MadisonMIA
Lost: Jin, Sun, and has Claire been on since her flashback episode?
Veronica Mars: Jackie, Gia, and Madison are no where to be found at their graduation.
Winner: Veronica Mars


Young Love Dashed
Lost: Libby dies before her and Hurley could go on a first date.
Veronica Mars: Beaver dies after failing to deflower Mac.
Winner: Veronica Mars


Comic Relief
Lost: No laughs from Hurley because his girlfriend dies.
Veronica Mars: Dick wears a “Trust Me I’m Rich” t-shirt to graduation, slaps Ronnie’s butt and goes commando in Vee’s dream.
Winner: Veronica Mars


Hiding Spot
Lost: Sawyer successfully kept his stash buried in his tent.
Veronica Mars: Principal Clemmons unsuccessfully hinds his password under his stapler.
Winner: Veronica Mars


Brotherly love?  I don't think soBrotherly Love
Lost: Even though he was responsible for his death, Eko’s brother helps him find the Pearl Station.
Veronica Mars: Dick constant harassment most likely help Beaver’s decision to jump and doubtfully will help Dick posthumously.
Winner: Lost


TV Viewing
Lost: Locke and Eko watch Jack wonder around the hatch.
Veronica Mars: Woody watches in his underwear.
Winner: Veronica Mars


Companionate Evil Dude
Lost: Michael constantly checks up on Libby’s condition.
Veronica Mars: Beaver lets her call her dad to say goodbye.
Winner: Veronica Mars


James Bond Moment
Lost: After having sex, the hot chick dies.
Veronica Mars: Before killing the hero, the villain lets them explain their plot.
Winner: Veronica Mars


?
Lost: The name of the episode.
Veronica Mars: What we were left with plenty for next season.
Winner: Lost


Not really that fair this week with the Veronica Mars finale going up against a regular Lost one granted I bet more went on during the one hour Veronica Mars finale than will go down during the three hour Lost finale. This week on Lost we open with the repressions of last week’s rampage. Ana Lucia’s dead, Libby’s close to it, and Not-Henry is nowhere to be found. Nothing really interesting happens with this whole storyline as basically waits around to see whether or not Libby dies except Kate learns where Sawyer was keeping his stash.

The meat of the episode surrounds Eko being told by Ana Lucia and his brother to get Locke to telling about ?. I wonder if the monster is involved in all of this because it did scan Eko and supposedly Locke and they both saw Eko’s brother through dreams. ? turns out to be yet another hatch, this one Pearl where the habitants were to watch the people in the original hatch. Much like the people in the original hatch, the people in this hatch aren’t privy to any information and are supposed to blindly follow directions and once done they were catch a ferry somewhere. To where, I don’t know, but wherever it is I bet they have a hand written map there. The most important information here is that the orientation had a copyright of 1980 (or close to it). So this has been going on for at least twenty five years. The Pearl was suspiciously empty though so maybe the conductors of the experiment stopped long ago. I was surprised they didn’t find Desmond down there as I fully expect to see him again this season.

In the flashback I pretty sure we see Claire’s physic who fully admits to being a fraud. I fully expected to see him again sometime, but I was shocked that it was under that condition as I originally thought we’d see more castaways patron his business. Now I’m wondering if his last minute advise that Claire give her children up for adoption in LA was bought and paid for someone who wanted her, or more specifically Aaron, on the island.

Now we have yet another death with Libby before we even get a back story from her. But this death does reek of character issues for the actress even though the producers said they had no more storylines for her. Hello, she was in the same mental hospital with Hurley. Really she didn’t even have any storylines this season either so why have her character anyways? Maybe this is all a hoax, and if her pilot doesn’t get picked up, maybe the whole evil twin sister theory that has been floating around the internet will be real and evil-Libby may just turn out to be the He the Others talk about. (Mmm, who is He? Sounds like a good Oddsmakers. Keep an eye out for that.)


Veronica graduatesAs for Veronica Mars, first off I want to point out that even though I was way off on who crashed the bus, I totally called Jackie with child, Weevil being picked up at graduation, Veronica getting Le Clap from someone who raped her at the infamous Shelly Pomroy party, and Aaron Echolls getting killed. Granted I did pull back on the last one after suggesting there would be a “Who Killed Aaron” mystery next season with it being revealed that a not so dead Lynn Echolls did it. Then I realized that no one would care who killed Aaron because everyone would just be happy he was gone. But the writers were smart enough to solve that dilemma by going ahead and telling us who did it right away, leaving no mystery.

And speaking of Aaron’s death, Duncan and Clarence’s exchange, “CW?” “It’s a done deal” has to be an admission that Veronica Mars will be on the CW schedule next season, right? Rob Thomas isn’t going to put that that line in if it wasn’t, in fact, a done deal or if the powers that be at the network gave him the go ahead, would he? Even though I haven’t believed any of the speculation or supposed insider information, thanks to that line, my hopes are official raised for a third season. The only potential problem though is that the line was a blatantly stolen from ’s (I actually discussed with Rob how great the show was and he also admitted that Big Dick’s shredding exit scene was an homage to that show) “It’s Showtime” line and see how that turned out.

I, indeed, (Heart) BeaverThen of course there was the whole bus crash thing and it looks like sales of “I (Heart) Beaver” t-shirts will be on the decline. But then again Duke lacrosse gear went through the roof lately. (If you want yours, check out Ducky’s site.) I’m still not entirely sold that the Beav would kill a bus load of innocent people just to get two people. Then I totally missed how Veronica jumped from seeing Beaver’s name not pictured to figuring out he was a murderer. Then why after all these years living with it, why kill Mayor Goodwood? And why after finding a bomb under his car would Woody not sweep everything in his hangar too? But anyways.

On the subject of Mayor Goodwood, how great is it that he watches Dukes of Hazzard? If that’s the last television show I see before I die, at least I’ll die a happy man. And the throwing of the deer head was classic; that would be something Officer Mahoney would do as a last line of defense.

Then we had yet another dream sequence in what may of happened had Lily not been murdered thus daddy’s still sheriff, mommy’s still around and sober, and Lily is still a dirty, dirty slut. One thing I missed though is that I never realized that Lily was older than everyone. For all this time I thought she was Duncan’s little sister yet at the same time the same age as Veronica. Oh well. I was disappointed that Logan turned out to be her dream boyfriend. But at least Dick made the cut in her dream. And what does it say about Ronnie that she had him going commando in her dream. And the best part of the episode is when Dick slapped Vee’s butt after graduation. Seriously how long until she gets a little Dick in her life?


Next week on Lost, the first hour of the three hour finale starts with Michael leading the everyone to the Others. I smell a set up. And who was the black chick in the previews, she does look familiar. Next week on Veronica Mars they are showing a repeat of season two première, and best episode of the year contender, Normal is the Watchword. Would they show repeats of a show that is not coming back next year? I noticed that was conspicuously absent from the WB’s schedule this week and next after last week's finale. We will find out the winners and losers next Thursday when the inaugural CW schedule is announced. But keep in mind a reliable source of mine said “CW? It’s a done deal.”



2 comments:

  1. Veronica Mars was excellent! I didn't see that one coming. Verry well done. I had a minor pick with an editing sequence toward the end, but overall, fantastic shooting.

    BTW, One Tree Hill's season ended last week. That's why you don't see them on. They won KV's Save One Show poll, so who knows what the CW will do....

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  2. I agree there were some spacing issues after they killed off Aaron and had to watch it again to understand what was going on.

    What I was getting at with the OTH was that VM is going straight into repeats after their finale while OTH has been completely off the WB's schedule after it's finale. Giving people a second chance to watch VM's season and not OTH's previous season just may be a hint on what will be on the CW's schedule.

    Plus I hold no weight on the KV SOS vote because that just boiled down to whose fans created the most phony e-mail addresses. I think the USA Today poll is a little more accurate as you could only have one vote per computer and VM came in second (behind Scrubs) with 50% save, while OTH had only 27% save against 30% kill leaving 43% indifferent which isn't much of a vote of confidence.

    But anyways. We will all find out next Thursday for sure.

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