The SomethingSomethingCast

Look.. let’s face it.. Hatton and I feed off each other’s creativity.  Hatton makes a blog last week referencing LOST.. and it sits in my brain until I have to let it out.  I’d make some pithy joke about it being like entering The Numbers into Desmond’s computer, but.. I liked Desmond, and this post is about the other side of things.

19 years later, these are my Top 5 Unanswered Mysteries from LOST

5 – What the hell was the Cork in the Pond in the Cave?

Out of all the things I WASN’T expecting to see in the ‘Heart of the Island’.. was a kiddie-sized wading pool carved out of rock with a big cork stopper in it.

I mean… what?

Was this an analogy for the writers being so pent up with unanswered BS from previous seasons is was akin to a stopper in the pool of their creative brain?  I mean, that would have been a better explanation than whatever they had for.. whatever that was.

4 – Annie

No, not the redheaded, pupil-less orphan, I’m talking about the only friend a young Ben Linus had while growing up in the Dharma Initiative.  Did you forget about her?  So did the show.  Lindelhoff and Cuse went so far on the DVD commentary for “The Man Behind the Curtain” to say that she was going to be a ‘huge part of upcoming storylines’…. SO big apparently, she was mentioned in one episode ever and then promptly never heard from again.

3 – Horace’s Cabin

I was convinced we were going to get some kind of answers about the island once the survivors found this… the circle of ash around it.. the person in the chair.. but, much like a lot of the rest of the show, it got ‘weird’ without ever being really explained.  Some of the biggest ‘huh?’s.. why could it move around the island?  What was the circle of ash keeping in (or out)? Who broke the circle?  Why… 19 years later do I care?

2 – Libby

I thought Libby overall as a character was great, and I enjoyed that she was a love interest for Hurley.  Hurley did keep mentioning that he felt like he knew her from somewhere, and it turns out they were both in Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute at the same time.  Why did they not remember each other?  Was it the same reason Ben Kenobi didn’t recognize R2?

1 – Walt being ‘Special’

The BIGGEST “wtf” letdown of the show in my opinion.  They tease up Walt being special, even show us him (apparently?) telekenisis-ing birds into a glass door… he ‘seems’ to be able to make things he thinks about happen, but we’re never given proof that it’s not more than coincidence.. I mean.. he MUST be right?  Why else would Hurley and Ben convince him to go back to the island to ‘help Michael’ even though Michael is dead?  According to Lindelhoff, Walt is special “because he is”.  Thanks Damon…

What about you?  What are some of YOUR biggest unsolved issues with LOST?  Let us know at all the usual places!

– PCR

A love so strong, the show is mentioned amongst some of the greatest romantic television shows of all time. It also held the record for having one of the most comically long onscreen makeouts ever.

Does it hold the test of time? It’s a mystery that is probably left to be solved by a babyfaced Bruce Willis and a career relaunched Cybil Shephard in the romcom-meta of Moonlighting.

Ahead of its time or just a relic of its era.  You will only know on The End – Moonlighting!

Ok, here we go, Mr. Falcon!

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Look, it’s a well established fact that the Somethingcast has a loved/hate relationship with Lost. It’s the sort of sad kind of relationship you read about in the first half of tawdry romances when things are so beautiful… the fair buxom maiden meets the constantly oily broad shouldered man and they make sweet love on an island where a plane crashed in one of the greatest television openers of all time. Then the pair reveal their history piece by piece, the mysteries getting ever thicker. The questions ever deeper…

…and then it’s revealed that the hunky man actually was the same bloated corpse of a guess you had in the first season and he wastes three seasons of his life plodding over garbage like how he got his tattoo.

Yes, I know this metaphor fell apart two paragraphs ago. Yes, I am also aware we are the buxom maiden in this.

The point is – Lost invited a lot of copycats. Shows that were built around a solitary mystery or weird happening that we have revealed excessively small detail at a time.  And yet.. for some reason.. I watch them thinking that they will be different and the reveals will justify the incomprehensible journey.  The fact is, once a show like that goes longer than a season, if the mysteries were amazing in the first half, the only way to keep your attention once you have the answer is to create mysteriouser mysteries. And yet… I watch.

Here’s a few shows I’ve given at least one season and the show I’m currently engaged with and looking forward to the moment it lets me down.

Persons Unknown – 2010 – Starring Alan ‘Cameron, Ferris Bueller’s Friend’ Ruck and a young Chadwick Boseman, a handful of people wake up in a weird hotel filled with puzzles only to escape and find out they are in an almost empty 1950s town except for all the weird people with weird puzzles run by a weird corporation called ‘The Program’. It ends with them “escaping” … but they only wake up in a weird hotel.  Weird. Not really.

I-Land – 2019 – A shockingly recent entry into the ‘We Learned Nothing From Lost’ novel of failed television shows, a bunch of people wake up on an island with amnesia and are assholes to each other until they find out that they’re in virtual reality prison for some reason. You’ll ask ‘..but why..’ a lot, but since it had a 3% Rotten Tomatoes rating, you’ll never find out the answer.

The Wilds – 2020 – Even more recently, a bunch of women get stranded on an island due to a plane crash and say ‘fuck’ a lot. Oh, and also there’s a secret experiment by a mysterious overseer and we learn all about how they’re interconnected through flashbacks. Were they even trying!?

And now, The Manifest – 2018 – The elevator pitch here is ‘Ok, what if we have a Lost show, but the plane doesn’t crash’. Instead, the passengers jump five years ahead in time and have to deal with the world as a mysterious magical, mystical, scientific, religious, historical voice (no, seriously, all of those) tells them to do things to fix the world. There are also flashbacks and logic jumps so mind boggling, I don’t know how I’m in the middle of Season 3 and the last part of the show got picked up by Netflix.

Maybe one day I’ll talk about the ones that don’t suck. Sound off on your favorites and thanks for enjoying my pain.

Yeah, sure – when you think of romance movies you think of star-crossed lovers or unlikely opposites attracting or doors that can clearly fit two people bobbing in the Arctic… but do you ever think about what would happen if you pit a series of romance films against another series?  Like who would win in a fight? When Harry Met Sally or anything with Matthew McConnaughey leaning against something? What if Matthew had a knife?

Alright alright alright, that’s a tangent for another day – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t what today’s episode is about. The Wheel gives us our hardest draft yet – and one of our favorite folks as judge, the Squeeequeen herself, Alexis Torres!

Two romance enter – One romance leave!

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Hey Somethings! PCR here!

I’ll start by saying, if you’re a member of our Patreon you can HEAR our blogs now!  If you’re not, head over and check it out, help support our show, and get your Something early, uncut and unedited!

So, there are a LOT of movies coming our in 2023.  Honestly, it’s been a while since I’ve seen one in the theater… but I do have a list of movies that I’m hyped to see (either in theater, or streaming) and some that… I’m not so hyped about.  Let’s get to it!

Ant-Man and The Wasp : Quantumania (Hyped)

The first Ant-Man movie to me was… ok.  Wasn’t great, wasn’t terrible.. but fun.  Ant-Man and The Wasp was a bit of a better offering, but I still feel the strength of that movie was in the moving along of the greater MCU narrative at the time.  I don’t think Quantumania will be any different.  I’m predicting an “ok” movie what will be amazingly overshadowed by setting up Jonathan Major’s Kang flexing as the MCUs next Big Bad.

Air (Hyped)

You don’t have to be a huge basketball fan (I’m not) to know the name “Michael Jordan” and what he did for the sport.  Directed by Ben Afleck and staring Ben, Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Viola Davis, Chris Tucker, Chris Messina and Marlon Wayans, this is the story about how a sneaker company struggling to find it’s identity went all in on a rookie who just would just happen to turn out to be the GOAT.

Fast X (Hyped)

Not crazy about it being “the first part” of a two part story wrapping up the Fast and Furious franchise, but whenever you get Dom and his crew together, you know two things going in.  1) You’re going to see some 0utlandishly entertaining stuff and 2) It’s all about family.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Hyped)

I hope this is Ford’s last crack of the whip.  Crystal Skull was… not good, and I’m hoping this instalment rights the ship before finding a way to move on for the future.  Based off Ford’s on comments on how impressed he was with the ‘de-ageing’ footage, I’m hoping to see equal parts current and flashback to avoid the suspension of disbelief of an 80 year old Indy still adventuring.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Not Hyped)

Wasn’t a fan of the second movie, it kind of felt uninspired to me.  I enjoy Pratt as Star Lord.. but in small doses.  We’ll see how this one fits in to the new arc the MCU will be taking, but I don’t feel the urge to run right out and see this though I’ll likely catch it on streaming once it’s out… eventually.

The Flash (Not Hyped)

Fun Fact : I dislike Ezra Miller.  I didn’t like his Flash in either version of The Justice League, and I could honestly care less about his solo film.  The ONLY thing that will make me possibly watch it is the return of the best Batman ever.  If I watch this, I won’t be watching a Flash movie, I’ll be tolerating The Flash in a Michael Keaton Batman movie.

What are some movies YOU’RE looking forward to (or not)?  Hit us on our socials and let us know!

– PCR

Thor – Master of Thunder. Wielder of Mjolnir. Rider of Slephnir. Master of 80s Glam Metal?

Well, the Somethings are back, and we have friend of the show Erik Hall with us as we take a look at our loosest ‘Love’ episode of the month. Did Marvel’s favorite Norse God wield his trilogy with a hammer or did we have to run across the rainbow bridge to get away.

And if you enjoyed Erik, you can find him on Simply SCAdian 

Find out our thoughts on Thor: Love & Thunder

Ok, here we go’din!

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When we discuss The Who – what do you think of?  Pinball Wizard?  Baba O’Riley?  The Kids Are Alright?

All fine choices, and nobody can argue that The Who will go down as one of the greatest, or at least most influential, rock bands of the 20th century, and for good reason.

Yet, even though they will go down in history as greats, and they deserve all of those accolades and if Behind Blue Eyes come on, you better not press ‘Next’… none of that is what comes to mind for me when I think of The Who.

I can’t stop myself from thinking of a song that The Who didn’t do specifically.. Pete Townsend did, but not The Who.  For years, I just assumed every movie that featured a comedic bent on a love story needed this song to even be considered a good film. In the movie in my head, the end credits must be overlaid with Let My Love Open The Door – even if the movie is a tragic apocalyptic horror film.. perhaps specifically in that instance.

I don’t know what happened in the late 80s, but starting somewhere around Look Who’s Talking, this song became synonymous with ‘An unlikely pair find love’ and ever since then it has been featured in a list of movies that, upon doing research, is every movie ever made. Pete Townsend surely lives quite well for himself, but is it because he was the lead guitarist of a band of legends or is it because when a boy meets a girl (can we make this any more obvious…) and sparks fly, the only song that is in your head right now is Open The Door.

Is that Townsends real legacy? Not a rock opera. Not the 1976 Guinness Book of World Record’s Loudest Concert. Not the fact that he wrote almost the entire Who discography…. but that he created a song that became a pop-culture saturated meme of a song long before people put impact font on cat pictures… and still, if it came on the radio right now, I would still bop to it.

What do you think?

♫ Love is in the air…. you can feel it everywhere ♫

It’s February, and the Somethings are not known for their rampant discussion of movies about Matthew McConaughey leaning against something, or movies where he is a rough and tumble patent clerk who has lost nothing.. except love. We aren’t the type to wax poetic about the romantic ‘You Complete Me’ and ‘Can’t Quit You’ and ‘Torgo wishes for one wife, Master’ tales of the heart.

But this month.. that’s all about to change.. for this month.

So join us as we discuss great movie couples and why we love ’em.  I assure you, Matthew McConaughey is not leaning anywhere within this episode.

Ok, here we uwu..

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…to hate.

So, this blog was GOING to be about some of my favorite TV villains, but then I shifted it a bit to be some of my favorite TV villain ACTORS.. and that was when I came to a realization and had to make this about one man, and one man alone.

The man I love to hate.

The man who.. even when he plays ‘one of the good guys’, your brain keeps asking you..”But… is he?”

One man holds that distinction.  Regardless of if you know him as Harold Finch, Morton Norton, Leyland Townsend, or Benjamin Linus…  Michael Emerson will ALWAYS be someone who, when he shows up on my screen, I’m expecting him to be the worst of humanity.

Other actors do very well at playing ‘both sides’.  I loved watching “Oz”, and J.K Simmons and Christopher Meloni play some iconic villains there that defined their careers at that time, but they’ve also moved on to play some great non-villain characters as well.  Sure, J. Jonah Jameson may be a douchebag.. but no one sees him come on screen and think “Yeah… he’s definitely going to eat someone though”.  With Emerson, that always seems to be on the table regardless of who he’s playing.

He’s a brilliant actor who has made playing smart and socially awkward terrifying, and I urge anyone who hasn’t yet seen him to watch something with him in it.. be it Lost or Person of Interest or EVIL or anything else he’s been in.

– PCR

When there are 5 weeks in a month, which makes more sense? The Somethings taking the week off because you don’t deserve 5 weeks of episodes? Or them deciding to just record anything and seeing what pops out of their mouth?

Obviously, the answer is the latter – so please, enjoy this Something FreeForAll, January 2023 Edition!

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