MTV Australia Awards

First off, just wanted to say that the GTA: IV available in NZ is NOT the unedited version, it is infact the Aussie version. Stupid Take Two submitted the Aussie version to be classified. So it's not the NZ censor's fault, it's bloody Rockstar!

But anyway, the awards.

Absolutely horrible. We'll start with the beginning. That is Mischa Barton introducing the show and the host... "Wyclef Gene." [sic] From that moment on, it was destined to failure. Next came Wyclef's failed attempts at trying to connect with the Aussie audience. Then awards, and failed humor, performances, and more awards and everything all over again until it finished.

Highlights of the night:

• Scribe - It was pretty obvious Scribe would win, hell he was sitting right there with Sir-Vere. But the best part was his drunken speech. F***ing o-sum!
• The voiceover dude from Mythbusters - You know that voice that would come out of no where to announce a performer or a presenter? That's the dude that does the voiceovers on Mythbusters! The narrator. Robert Lee.
• Juliette Lewis and the Licks performance - No, I didn't put this as a highlight because it was great. It was okay... up until the extended, full-band drum solo, or whatever it was. I had to change the channel, then change back, then change away, and then back, many times. Finally it seemed over, until Juliette proclaimed that we thought we knew her. Then the madness went on for about another minute or so. So satisfyingly horrific, I wouldn't be surprised to find it on Youtube one day soon.
• Potbelleez performance - The only performance that seemed to really connect with the whole crowd.
• Swearing - 'Nuff said.
  

Lowlights of the night:

• The Veronicas having their mic's turned off - At the beginning of the performance, they had their mics turned on, but their voices kept on being drowned out, so the directors or whatever decided to turn down their mics and turn up the pre-recorded vocals. And the tell tale sign was when they came together and walked to the front of the stage. They were saying things in the mic, but nothing was coming out :D
• Wyclef hosting - Dude's a great performer, song writer, all that. I'll give him props. But dude can't host awards shows. Get someone who knows what they're doing.
  
• The whole freaking concept! - Sports, acting, and karma awards, etc.? What the hell happened to best R&B/Hip Hop? Best Rock? Album of the Year? Way to go MTV Australia, you devalued all of your artists by not giving them something to go up against, just themselves. And you devalued the NZ artists. You completely fail at awards.

It had it's moments, but mostly it was just a study into the depths of mediocrity. Let's hope next year they get their act together and do a proper awards ceremony.

Lost Theft Auto: IV

Only a few more hours till Episode 9 of Season 4 finally hits our screens! I'm planning on rewatching all of Season 4 so far tomorrow, and finish it off with the new episode. I hope it lives up to all this hype :D

Also, I preordered GTA:IV. Thank god New Zealand has an R18 rating, unlike Aussie. That's right, UNEDITED! Woo! April is a month of greatness!

Lost - Midseason Break: Week 3

Well, it's the end of our 3rd week without Lost, most of my withdrawal symptoms are fading, and I'm just generally looking forward to seeing some more Lost.

As of this moment, only 14 more days left to go!

Okay, so I lied, I'm dying for a Lost fix. I'm so tempted to buy the Lost season 3 dvds, but I really want to get them on Blu-ray, and they're not available on Blu-ray over here. So I'm forced to rewatch Season 4 so far, again. Did any of y'all catch the changing machines and the different breathing apparatus of that dude when Michael was in the hospital and he dreamed about Libby? I thought that was strange.

But anyway, not a whole lot of info. According to DarkUFO, there may be another hour of Lost this season! So that takes it from 5 remaining hours to 6!

What are y'all doing to sate your Lost cravings?

Lost - Midseason Break: Week 2

Read my brief re-cap of the first 8 episodes of Lost's 4th Season.

Hey there Lost fans. Well, we're heading into week 2 of the Midseason Break. As of this moment, there are now only 25 days till Lost returns. There's lots of things you could be doing right now to fill up your new found time (or should that be Lost time?).

You could be watching whatever show is filling that time slot in your area.

You could be playing Lost: Via Domus (DON'T! It's not worth the time or money).

Or you could be doing something awesome like re-watching Lost from Season 1 all the way through to Season 4 Episode 8: Meet Kevin Johnson, having scheduled it all out so that the second that Meet Kevin Johnson finishes Episode 9: The Shape of Things to Come starts!

If you're not awesome enough to do something like that (heck, even I'm not that awesome), then in the meantime you can drop us a comment and let us know one reason why you think Lost is the greatest show of all time. And you DO think Lost is the greatest show of all time... right?!

Lost - Midseason Break

Just thought I'd mention first to any New Zealanders reading this, it contains spoilers. If you follow along the American schedule, then you're all good.

Wow. What an action packed 8 episodes. I've hesitated to post anything about the episodes in here because I've been discussing the episodes indepth over here (It's a small forum with about 4-5 regular posters). But this month long break gives me a chance to recap some significant events.

Lets start with the obvious/easy stuff first. Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun and Aaron are the Oceanic 6. The producers have confirmed it (in so much as they confirmed the promos), and we've seen them all off the Island. They get off, but they have to keep a secret, supposedly what Jack said in court about Kate, though he stopped before he could finish, and we don't know if he's the cause of the lie, or if someone external force is the cause.

Kate is raising Aaron! Claire's Aaron. Wtf?

Michael is Ben's spy on the freighter. He DID make off the Island, but couldn't deal with what he did to achieve this, so tried to kill himself. All his attempts fail, and he's contacted by Tom on behalf of Ben. He jumps through some hoops, and right at this point he's standing in front of the captain of the freighter having been outed by Sayid.

Widmore is in fact the person behind the freighter! It seems both Penny and her father have been looking for Desmond. The big question at the moment is who is more evil, Ben or Widmore, and who needs to win in order for this whole thing to end?

The sub isn't required to get off the Island. However only a certain few are able to (according to Tom). Ben proves this in Sayid's flash-forward episode, where we learn Ben has recruited Sayid to kill a bunch of people to protect his friends (but from who? Ben or Widmore?). If only Sayid knew... he wouldn't have taken such drastic measures with Michael :D

These new people aren't there to save the Losties. They've made that very obvious, and given the last episode, it seems they're there to kill all the Losties instead. They were chosen for their specific skills or knowledge, and I hope we are privy to their studies/findings.

Desmond can travel in time, though only his conscious. It seems that Daniel can as well, and perhaps others. And it also seems like there is a bubble of timewarping goodness around the Island as well.

It is official, Ben is the best manipulator in the world. He manipulates people emotionally, mentally, and physically. He can get you to think you're hurting him when in fact you're just giving him what he wants. Ben is definitely the most interesting character in the show right now.

And Jin is going to die (or be left on the Island). Jin is one of my favourite characters, so that's a sad thing to know. I'm hoping he's just alive on the Island, and Sun and the rest just think he died.

That's about it for the significant stuff. Other things include Juliet was a ho (but an awesomely cool ho), Ben is obsessed with Juliet, Rousseau and Karl have been shot, Tom was gay (everyone knew that already, though), and, um... that's all I can think of right now. Suffice to say, Lost is the greatest show on t.v. right now.

John Campbell Going to Jail?

I first saw this story on Stuff.co.nz. Apparently Campbell's interview with the medal thief has landed the TV3 news team and Campbell in a bit of hot water. The police questioned them over the identity of the guy, but being professional journalists, they said they won't reveal their sources.

Now, I've been fairly critical of TV3 news and John Campbell in the past, especially John Campbell... the guy just irks me, but I have to say I'm proud of them for sticking to their guns. They struck a deal with the guy to get the story and they stuck to it. I'm actually really surprised at how they did it, because it's fairly ingenious. They taped the interview with the real guy, transcribed it, destroyed the original tape, and then got an actor to read the guy's answers.

This does kind of conflict with my personal sense of morality, because I'm dead-set against thievery/burglary, and I do have a sense of patriotism, so stealing war medals that were awarded to soldiers who fought for our country does sting. Hell, it more than stings. But this is about TV3's choice not to give up a source, and I think that is more important in this case. Now if this guy had committed a violent crime, then I definitely think TV3 would have contacted the police.

So, I know TV3 won't read this, but this is just to show a bit of support. On ya TV3! Now, if you could just fire Campbell and Dobbo, I'd have no qualms with you.

Lost

So, Lost is back. For those of you in New Zealand, you won't see the episode for another week or so unless you happen to watch it online. If you don't plan to watch it online, though, then it's probably best to give this post a miss unless you want it spoiled.

All I can say is "Wow." What an amazing episode. It was emotional, it was creepy, it was confusing. All things that make up a great episode.

It was Hurley centric, and we find out that Hurley is one of six who have managed to get off the Island via a flashforward. We know that Kate and Jack are also off the Island, so that leaves us with 3 people unaccounted for.

In the flashforward, Hurley keeps on seeing visions of Charlie, and ends up back in a mental institute. While in the institute, he sees Charlie again, who basically gives him the message "They need you," before Hurley makes Charlie disappear. He's also visited by a man calling himself Abbadon asking if "they" are still alive, and by Jack who, while he says is there just to check up on Hurley, seems to have ulterior motives. Hurley, mentions to Jack that he's sorry for going with Locke, and that he should have gone with Jack. He also says that he thinks they (him and Jack) made a mistake, and that he thinks "it wants [them] to go back" to the Island.

So from that, we're introduced to a new character, Matthew Abbadon. Charlie seems to imply that people are still left on the Island, and that they're alive, and in need of help. So Ben's prophesy of everyone dying are false. We also learn that the people who went with Locke aren't necessarily excluded from the Oceanic 6 (Hurley being proof), and we get a brief glimpse that the Oceanic 6 are hiding something from the rest of the world.

Back on the Island, Naomi isn't quite dead as she crawls off into the jungle. Jack is still pissed at Ben and Locke, but is happy that people are coming.
Meanwhile Desmond gives us the Losties at the beach Charlie's message, but they're afraid to radio Jack incase the boat people are listening, so they go trekking to tell him.
Jack takes off to find Naomi with Rousseau and Ben, who unhelpfully neglects to tell Jack that Kate took the satellite phone and is actually off to find Naomi herself.
While trekking, Hurley starts to fall behind, and eventually gets lost and comes upon Jacob's hut. While peeking inside, he sees Christian Shepherd sitting in the rocking chair, just before an eye comes out of nowhere (possibly Jacob's?), causing him to run for help until he came to a clearing where Jacob's hut appears again. He makes it disappear by counting, and encounters Locke.
Kate finds Naomi who's managed to pull herself up a tree and drops in on her. The satellite phone calls and Naomi doesn't tell them about Locke throwing a hunting knife in her back just before she dies.
Hurley and Locke find the rest of the group. The exodus group meet up with the beachies, and then Jack comes and spoils the party by trying to kill Locke. Locke and Jack say there piece, then the voice of reason, Hurley (who ironically enough believes he's going crazy), tells everyone about Charlie's message. And because of that, some people (including Hurley and Sawyer) decide to go with Locke to the Dharma barracks, while the others stick it out with Jack (there it goes again, that theme of there being "Others").
To finish it off, a helicopter (that looks in serious danger of crashing) drops off a dude who asks if Jack is Jack.

And that's it. I really hadn't intended to give a recap, but there you go.

Questions:
What the hell is Christian Shepherd doing in Jacob's hut?
Why was Locke so close to Jacob's hut?
If Hurley did indeed see Jacob, then is he the chosen one Ben was talking about?
Was Ben talking about a chosen one? (:D)
Why the hell must their only be 8 episodes this season?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Anyway, it was a great episode.

And in order to fully appreciate what happened with Hurley and Jacob's hut with Christian Shepherd in it, you need to see the very last mobisode.



Courtesy of DarkUFO.

WTF? Am I right?