LOST finally returns next week, to wrap up it's reduced fourth season, and presumably answer a whole heap of questions regarding the overall mythology at the sametime. It's sad, because while up until now we've all been craving answers, as the show enters it's final years -and over-arching mysteries are answered weekly with subtle answers- there's still that recurring craving for more mystery. Hopefully these next six episodes can provide on that front, while providing a cliffhanger that will hopefully keep our minds interested and mangled for the best part of a year. We'll see soon enough.

Either way, here's a list of my six favourite episodes, non-ranked. I've seen some other sites doing this while we're on hiatus, so I thought i'd have a go myself. And hey, if it means DVD rewatching these episodes again, it's all win.

Deus Ex Machina

This was the seventeenth episode of the first season, and to this day, still remains perhaps my all-time favourite. In their continued efforts to get the hatch open, Boone and Locke go on an island-prompted adventure and discover a crashed Beachcraft suspended in the trees- complete with radio communication to the later revealed character of Bernard and numerous links to that of Mr Eko, who would also make his debut the following year. The plane would end up falling with Boone still inside, killing him shortly afterwards, but Deus Ex Machina marks the beginning of so much more, with the subsequent birth of Aaron, a minor introduction of 'Desmond', and the first real beginnings of hate between Jack and Locke- a rivalry that very much still exists today. For the first time ever we're introduced to Locke's father, and via island surrealism throughout the episode, Deus Ex Machina ends with one of the saddest, yet iconic scenes ever in the show's history. Boone's death is undoubtedly a MacGuffin, but the episode, as a whole, is pivotal viewing.

Maternity Leave

Though being a mid-season episode in the second year, Maternity Leave deals a lot with some of the issues and questions of the year before, in particular the period of Claire Littleton's capture at the hand of The Others. Still a relatively unknown group back then, Maternity Leave rewards viewers with plenty of new information on the group, while still tantalisingly omitting core information. Claire is still the most underrated character on LOST, so what makes this flashback all the more special is it's slight detour from convention, as the scenes featured are actively memories and bad reminders from Claire herself- at the start it's a flash-jumble of images, but as the episode progresses these faces and places begin to make more sense, before resuming to standard flashback procedure. Recurring scenes with Season 1 favourite Ethan Rom, only help make the episode all the sweeter.

Live Together, Die Alone

The season finale for the second season, LTDA is a real shock to the system. Things in this episode get wickedly surreal, and here, more than ever, the show loses it's genre tag as simply being 'drama'- this is where it goes undoubtedly sci-fi. With the Swan hatch interior having dominated the season, here it's simply blown up in an explosion of purple, as Locke and Eko discover what really happens when the button isn't pushed. Elsewhere, the party of five led by Michael get ambushed and captured by The Others -setting up for a big story arc the next year- and Desmond is reintroduced as full-time cast, as well as given his own flashback. It's a story of love and island mutiny, and we're shown his circumstances that led him to the island in the first place, as well as his first three years, alongside a previously introduced flashback character the thought of which, still surprises. More than this, the island's true age is hinted at with the reveal of a foot statue- a part of the mythology yet to be revealed fully, but easily, one of the most twisted and insane discoveries on the show that is just so deliciously out-there.

The Constant

The Constant is the most recent episode in my list, and once again breaks flashback convention.The fifth episode of the fourth season, it sees Sayid and Desmond heading to the off-shore Kahana, out of curiosity and interest, as to who these people here to 'rescue' them, really are. Things don't go to plan though, and on the way there upon hitting turbulence, Desmond has flashbacks to his life in the army. Except, he's really there, and his consciousness randomly floats between present day and 1996- time-travel without moving your body. It's incredibly daring, and the prospect alone feels, to begin with, as if the show's jumping the shark. But if you've made it this far, you've passed those kind of hurdles before, and the idea is so flawlessly executed that it makes complete sense, and additionally, continues the theme of true love integral to Desmond's backstory. Being relatively recent, it's an episode I won't spoil, but it's so detached from the rest of the current plots and characters that it's immedieately striking and unique. It's a very special story and episode, so isolated and self-contained, that there really is no excuse to not watch it.

The Other 48 Days

With the thirty epiosdes before it focussing entirely on the survivors of the 815 main section, The Other 48 Days shifts interest towards that of the tail-section, and their harrowing experiences at the hands of The Others. It is, as the title suggests, the experiences of the last forty-eight days from an entirely different perspective, and with it, an hour of television with only cameos fom the regular cast. Because of this substansial shift the episode is pretty exciting, and seeing entirely new characters and the crash from their perspective is incredibly rewarding. While nothing new is revealed to an enormous extent, the small ties that exist between this episode and the past forty-eight days of the main story and characters are so deviously subtle they're easter eggs themselves. Genius- as with the proper crash in the Pilot episode, the opening minutes of this episode are epic.

Through The Looking Glass

Through the Looking Glass is an incredible episode. As the finale to last year's third season, the episode seemingly has everything that makes LOST so good in the first place. Mystery, surrealism, romance, death, and most excitingly, mindfuck. Here, as with every finale, the survivors are split up, all heading off on their own adventures and journeys of redemption, discovery and revenge. The core castaways finally head to the radio tower to call for help, Sayid, Jin and Bernard sacrifice their own personal safety for that of their friends, Juliet and Sawyer make the most unlikely on-screen duo ever, and finally, Desmond and Charlie head to the Looking Glass underwater station to complete the cycle of events that will lead them all home, minus Charlie after his heroic destiny. Additionally for two whole hours the episode's centricity flash seems baffling and minus effect-it's dreary Jack in his ever-dreary past. Or is it? Because the ending of this episode and indeed third season moves the show forever forward, changing the game entirely and not only wrapping up the previous three seasons, but setting up the big story arc for the next three. Jack and Kate are off the fucking island. Is there more? How did they escape? Where's Claire, and best of all, why-o-why does Jack want to go back there of all places? It is, without exaggeration, the perfect midpoint and episode of the show's first three seasons.

Will this selection of episodes be completely different in three years time? Lets hope so.

 LOST: This hiatus is killing me #1

 

A delivery came today, at 9.30, following a momentarily earlier wake-up from some Jehovah's Witnesses at the door. They brought bad news, but the delivery man brought good news- the Futurama figures I ordered a while back, finally arrived.

 

The figures are produced by Toynami, with the first wave consisting of Fry and Zoidberg released September last year, while the second wave -and the Leela and Brannigan figures- was released in January. I'm late to the party sure, but once i'd discovered them I was pretty intent on getting a set for myself, and overall, i'm pretty pleased with them. By and large the figures aren't really posable, with the obvious exception of the Fry figure, interestingly, the worst of the lot. The design and painting is kind of ruined by the numerous articulate joints, and even though he can move his limbs, you can't have him standing unless those legs are in the default position. Additionally- why include props if the figure can't hold them? Poor show.

 

The other three are thankfully a lot better, especially the weighty Zoidberg and Zapp figures, generally devoid of posing, but at the same time, the figures that look most spot on with their animated counterparts. Leela's great too, but unless i'm mistaken, i'm pretty sure she was a lot 'curvier' than what she is here. No biggy. The figures come with props too though -in the case of the Zapp figure it's an awesome Nixon head- but also components to build another figure, the Robot Devil, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. It's only half completed currently, with the remaining parts coming with the Wave 3 release of Kif and Bender. Understandably it's not as well built as that of the regular figures, but I know i'd still prefer seeing an Amy/Hermes/Farnsworth figure instead, or even in the future, though that may mean waiting a while. Presumably the number one fear of the distributors is that these characters won't sell as well, but I know that beyond that i'd love even more 'obscure' characters like the Hyperchicken and Elzar. Ok, maybe now i'm getting a little ambitious.

 

With the Futurama TV series prematurely dead, and only the remaining promise of DVD movies it's undoubtedly the case that as great as Futurama is, the franchise is regrettably past it's prime. That said, i'm already planning on pre-ordering more of the figures, and i'm sure, it's something that numerous other fans will be doing as well if these first figures are anything to go by.

 

 Wireless joypads.

 

You wait your entire childhood waiting for wireless joypads, forever cursing tangled cables, and wishing they become standard. Then they do, and they sap away all the batteries in the house. Before long, you're back to your old ways and using joypads and wires you've come to despise.

 #1

Mario Kart Wii is a random occurrence- a Nintendo game released in Europe before the US, and even better, a Nintendo game with an online mode, a rare combination that no-one could've imagined from a mile off, especially with Nintendo's current track record of simply producing non-game tat like Wii Fit and Brain Age. MKW is by no means revolutionary, and to be brutally honest, there's no real innovation here compare to the other titles in the series. What MKW does do however, is simply remind you of why you used to love Nintendo, by building on the foundations of the Mario Kart series, and then some.

For much of it's development the title's been relatively low-key, with a real abundance of promotional work during these stages other than a few screenshots now and again, interestingly, a pretty similar dynamic to that of Super Mario Galaxy last year. Okay, so comparing it to that will make it out to be better than it really is, but Mario Kart Wii is thankfully a lot of fun, that doesn't disappoint. As ever it's got the staples of the other titles in the series- fast karts, weapon power-ups, grand prix etc modes and the usual lot of characters you've come to expect- but an early strength for the game is the new track design. With the new ability of being able to perform tricks in mid-air (and naturally, receive speed boosts upon landing) the new courses are littered with kicker ramps and half-pipes laden with speed boosters. It's obvious immediately of the improvement compared to past designs, and overall i'd say they're a lot more memorable.

The Mario Kart franchise though has always been about multiplayer however- no matter what feeble attempts Nintendo include to make the game a single-player experience, most of the lifespan comes from the multiplayer aspect, be it racing competitively with others directly or sharing time-trial records. MKW thankfully builds on this area remarkably with the inclusion of online features, that are, surprisingly for Nintendo, robust. Obviously the game is devoid of voice communication (surprisingly, a blessing in disguise) and friend codes remain, but the racing is just as fast as the single-player mode, with no noticeable lag or problems with the framerate. Additionally, the only way to quit out of online races is to physically switch the console off, meaning that while seemingly lacking to begin with, the online experience can be a lot better than that of certain Xbox Live matches. Continuing the new features even further, a continental and worldwide ranking completes the experience, while time-trial ghosts of champions and Nintendo staff can be downloaded to race against.

For a game that's seemingly come out of nowhere, Mario Kart Wii is surprisingly enjoyable. As the generational iteration of the Mario Kart series it's obvious immediately that 'Wii is better than it's Gamecube predecessor, but a comparison to it's DS cousin is a little harder to judge accordingly. While many will mark the game down on it's obvious lack of focus towards graphics, Mario Kart Wii is continued proof that Nintendo can expand it's game franchises to the interest of non-gamers (thanks in part to the funky Wii-wheel controller attachment, again, highly underrated) while still expanding the frameworks of game design by including an online mode for the 'hardcore' gaming audience. Finally proof that the Wii can do online successfully, and also, that it can compete with it's now-gen bigger brothers the Xbox360 and PS3, on multiple levels.

Season 4 of LOST got off to a great start. Since the finale last year the show has seemingly completely moved into new directions, and four years in, character development still continue to surpsise, amaze and shock. Eight fantastic weeks later from the premiere, and the show's on hiatus because of the WGA Strike- four weeks on nonLOST until the next batch of episodes are ready. I've seen a couple of blogs doing lists of the blogger's favourite episodes, and while that still might be something I do, today, it's a video, summing-up the last three years and sixty nine episodes with one single question-

'What?'

(Via Eye of Polyphemus )

 

Muxtape is the new thing. Like Flickr, Digg, Facebook and Twitter before it, it's the new site that everybody seems to be buzzing about. It's loosely similar to Last.fm in that at it's centre is a fan population of music love, but muxtape makes things altogether more simple and minimalistic. From you're music folder on your hard drive you're allowed to upload 12 songs (under 10mb each), put them together, and link them to everyone else for them to stream- a digital revolution of the physical mixtape.

 

The idea's fun, and it's execution is even better- you can leave your questions behind, because you won't be needing to ask any. Small niggles arise in the fact that the site currently only accepts the mp3 file format-if you've got your entire music library on something like Windows Media or ITunes, obviously you're going to run into some problems until -if- the site allows their respective file types. But that aside, it's still relatively easy to get those songs into mp3s for uploading.

There's no better way to try it out than actually create one of your own. I made a playlist earlier today with ten songs all of the rather loose theme of 'songs I like at the moment', but for compilations of a certain genre the site feels it was made for that kind of thing, and presumably i'll be following with those following compilations in the coming weeks/months/years. For now though, here's what i've got:

1. Rilo Kiley- Spectacular Views
2. Band of Horses- Is There A Ghost
3. Bat For Lashes- Bat's Mouth
4. Union of Knives- I Decline
5. LCD Soundsystem- All My Friends
6. Damien Rice- Delicate
7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Mysteries
8. Arcade Fire- Une Année Sans Lumiére
9. The Chemical Brothers/Flaming Lips- The Golden Path
10. The Secret Machines- It's A Bad Wind That Don't Blow Someone Some Good 

You can stream 'The RichardAM Muxtape' here, and i'll be changing it in a few weeks time- so go give it a listen!