Titus returns -- a stunning new Lost! (SPOILERS ABOUND)

After last week’s underwhelming episode, Lost came roaring back with a vengeance last night, delivering a mind-blowing backstory saga that ranks among the series absolute best hours. After enduring who knows how many eyeliner jokes, Nestor Carbonell gave us a look at the man Richard Alpert grew out of in a performance that was nothing short of inspired, revealing a man trapped between the forces of good and evil, of reasoned choice and pure faith.

“Fake Locke” has become boring of late and that whole conceit has been growing tiresome. Last night brought the return of the real Man in Black in the person of Titus Welliver, hypnotic and fascinating on many levels. Equally fantastic work by Mark Pellegrino as Jacob, giving us encounters that made us feel we were glimpsing moments of pivotal history and portent, where fate itself is up for grabs.

Last year’s season was heavy on science and the physics of time travel – a season of reason. Last night threw down mythic, Biblical revelations that trigger an avalanche of questions – if, in fact, the stage of this landscape is what Richard believes it is, remains to be seen. Many assumptions are in play. Lost has always mined fertile ground contrasting free will with faith – science with hope and belief – how the science of what’s come before will reconcile with what we seemed to learn last night will be what ultimately defines Lost’s cosmology from here to the story’s end.

An astonishing episode I can’t wait to revisit very soon.

Super new and cool tonight: Justified on FX

Deadwood's Timothy Olyphant is back under the Stetson tonight in the latest edgy action opus on FX, Justified, playing a U.S. Marshall in true Elmore Leonard style. Buzz has this as the best new show of 2010, the equal of FX's Sons of Anarchy & The Shield, in fact The Shield's Walton Goggins (Shayne Vendrell) appears as the heavy. This promises to be a great new series full of modern western mayhem.

On location: Dexter's apartment!!!

View look familiar....?

That's right, it's the tidy and innocuous apartment of everybody's favorite forensic serial killer, Dexter Morgan!

This week found me in Miami, Florida for work, so once all the meetings were behind me, I took advantage of my remaining free time to head out to Bay Harbor Islands in Biscayne Bay, where Dexter's digs lie tucked away on the north tip of the easternmost island, known to residents as the Bay Harbor Club condos...

This is where trophy slides are carefully tucked away, where Dex keeps up appearances, fitting in. While I was there, threatening storm clouds were rolling in and a high wind was roaring through the palms. Curiously, not a soul was around while I visited the key location of one of the best shows on television. If you've not yet discovered this amazing Showtime series, let's just say that once it gets its hooks in you, you're done for...

Yes, that's his actual apartment door -- 10B, just like on the show!

Fantastic news: FRINGE renewed for 3rd season!

Wonderful news for any fan of the ever-fascinating series Fringe -- Fox has picked up the ratings-plagued series for a third season. This is a splendid development, as the show has consistently been evolving and raising the stakes. It's also a pretty good sign that the remainder of the season must just blow the doors off -- Fringe returns on April 1st. They must have really delivered something wild that convinced Fox. Cannot wait!!!

"Oscar wants to kill you and eat your eyes for Jujubees..."

This Sunday Oscar squeezes into his cumberbund and holds his breath.

The Hurt Locker's favorite status has been weakened by producer Nicholas Chartier being banned from the ceremony for sending campaigning emails to Oscar voters, asking them to get behind his movie, saying that “if everyone tells one or two of their friends, we will win and not a $500M film,” a violation of the Academy’s campaign rules. A recent Newsweek essay by Paul Reickhoff of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America also takes issue with the film.

But many voters had already turned in their ballots, so who the heck knows?

I'm standing by my original prediction of a rare split for director and picture between ex-spouses Kathryn Bigelow getting Best Director for Hurt Locker, with James Cameron getting Best Picture for Avatar.

Here's how the rest will play out:

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side (...how I wish it were Meryl Streep)

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, Precious

Up in the Air will get best adapted screenplay, Tarantino will get original for Inglourious Basterds.

The producers promise a leaner, less musically entrenched broadcast with lively hosts.

Here's hoping they deliver and we get at least a few fun surprises!

Buzz, buzz, buzz...!!!

A Prophet

The buzz on A Prophet is white hot. The French thriller about young Arab man's rise to power in prison, won the Grand Jury prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival, and is vying for an Oscar this weekend, going up against The White Ribbon for best foreign-language film.

A blend of prison drama and gangster film, A Prophet is evidently intense and realistic and has been drawing comparisons to The Godfather and Goodfellas. Sounds like this is a must-see for any fan of the crime genre. Can't wait for this one!

Spread the Word day...today!

Today is the Special Olympics-sponsored "End the R-Word Day."

The R-Word is "Retarded, " AKA, “retard,” and in the last couple of years it’s become part of casual speech in an incredibly dismissive way. Whether it’s spoken by Rahm Emanuel, Rush Limbaugh or the girls at happy hour criticizing the new anti-cell phone driving law, “Oh my god, that is so retarded...” the phrase has become this popular adjective to refer to anything that’s not worth abiding by, that they find annoying or hindering…to anything that has no value.

As such, it’s used to casually dismiss. “You’re going to see that? Don’t be such a retard.” And people with Down syndrome or other disabilities actually have to endure the added indignity of not just having to hear this kind of speech, but also the insult of the user justifying themselves with the excuse of “oh, well, that’s not what the word means when I use it. It has a different meaning now,” and then roll their eyes at our seeming need for political correctness. “Here’s another word I have to pussyfoot around using.”

Before the civil rights era, you’d have heard the N-word spoken without a second thought, too. Because it’s that casual usage and need to defend a phrase that’s loaded with hurt that we need to evolve beyond as a society. Anthony is a person with Down syndrome and our fondest hope is that the world he grows up in is on its way to evolving into a more accepting and tolerant one, where it’s not so easy to dismiss someone with a label of hurt. Where he doesn't feel dismissed and where his value is embraced. Where we actually do think twice before ever using the N-word, the R-word, or any phrase or label that robs someone of their worth. Anthony is a person, an amazing, glorious person and no word is ever going to take that away. But don’t we all want our kids to grow up in a world less hateful than the one we grew up in? Don’t we all want that kind of progress?

Sarah Palin has a child with DS, too, and while there are many who wish she hadn’t somehow become “the face of Down syndrome,” it’s so much more important to look at our daily social behaviors and habits firsthand than to let differences of politics cloud our goals of making our culture a more accepting place for any person who is born facing additional challenges. The first step is becoming aware that the word hurts – that’s what this campaign is all about.

John C McGinley, an actor and advocate for Down syndrome awareness, said it really well. “Most people don't think of this word as the language of hate, but that's exactly what it feels like to millions of people with intellectual disabilities, their families and friends. I choose to believe that most of us are fundamentally good and that we're just not aware that the word is offensive and that it hurts."

There's some great information about this campaign out there today, including strong support from the NBA...

http://www.nba.com/2010/news/03/02/special.olympics/?ls=iref:nbahpt1

...and the campaign website itself...

http://www.r-word.org/

Thanks for taking a moment today to slow down and consider this great opportunity we have to retire something ugly from our world. Its time has come, its day is done. Let's make the R-Word a dinosaur and the future a little bit better place. If we each encourage one person to stop using this phrase, imagine what tomorrow might bring?