LOST!! GHOSTBUSTERS!! SNL!! BSG!! GHB!! JUSTICE LEAGUE!! TREMORS!! RESCUE ME!! SGU!! HercVault!!

I am – Hercules!!

Lost’s time-travel saturated fifth season may have been its best yet, and because of Disney’s boneheaded decision to broadcast all ABC programming in muddy 720p instead of crisp, beautiful 1080i like CBS, NBC and The CW, this new Blu-ray set affords us our first opportunity to see all of the season’s lush Hawaiian scenery in true high definition. COMMENTARIES 5.1 “Because You Left.” Series showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. Learn that neither Lindelof nor Cuse seem to know why Pierre Chang assumes so many different aliases. (“My guess it he just likes to get in character,” theorizes Lindelof.) Learn that Pierre Francis Chang went on to found a chain of Chinese restaurants. Learn that all “Lost” writers gather for a “mini-camp” hashing out the entire season before the season’s first script is written. Learn a scene with Faraday and Sawyer wound up being re-shot so Faraday could explain what was going on with all the time-travel shifts in the first act instead of the last – as a means of alleviating potential audience confusion. Learn the writers didn’t commit to a James-Juliet relationship until the season-five mini-camp. Learn the showrunners think it was a mistake to exclude Locke, Hurley and many of the other major characters from the season-three premiere. Learn that Jack’s season-five abdication of leadership status will NOT continue in season six. Be reminded that we did not learn in season five who sent those tranquilizer-dart guys to attack Hurley and Sayid in 5.1. 5.10 “He’s Our You.” Writer-producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (“Popular,” “Felicity,” “Life As We Know It”). Be reminded that Kitsis and Horowitz also killed a chicken in a season-three episode. Learn Dharma security men Phil and Jerry were named for Grateful Dead musicians Phil Lesh and Jerry Garcia. Learn that Oldham, the William Sanderson character who drugs Sayid, likely worked as both a Berkeley professor and an agent of the CIA during the Vietnam era. Learn Hurley’s kitchen pal Floyd originally had a lot more dialogue that season. Learn early titles for this episode included “The Sugarcube” and “The Radzinsky Solution.” Learn the glasses Oldham wears were inspired by those worn by film producer Robert Evans. Learn the writers joked about Kid Ben using a “flaming cow” serving as a diversion before the flaming mini-bus became the real diversion. DELETED SCENES: * “No Police” (:25) Sayid offers one last piece of advice to Hurley. * “Jill The Butcher” (:55) Ben learns the location of Penny Widmore. * “Where’s LaFleur” (:48) Juliet and Miles wonder about James’ whereabouts. * “I Think He’s One Of Ben’s People” (1:01) Jun and Frank speculate as to Christian Shepherd’s identity. * “Breakfast Time” (:51) Jack asks Kate out. * “Locke’s Promise” (2:03) Locke assures Sun he’s the same man he’s always been. * “Phil’s Theory” (1:32) LaFleur’s lieutenant speculates as to how Ben was nabbed. * “Stones and Boulders” (5:19) Daniel Faraday explains to Kate and Jack how Oceanic 815 might make it to LAX after all. LOST ON LOCATION: * 5.2 “The Lie” (4:19) Learn the flaming arrow that caught Frogurt in the chest got there via wire. Learn Elizabeth Mitchell found the “night of arrows” “really fun.” * 5.4 “The Little Prince” (5:15) Learn the outrigger canoe storm sequence was shot in a big swimming pool. Learn the crew obtained permission to turn off area street lights for the nighttime shoot. Learn the actors bailed out the boat between takes. * 5.7 “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” (6:17) Learn Locke’s big car crash was shot on a Saturday morning. Learn four cameras recorded the mayhem. * 5.9 “Namaste” (4:50) Learn Evangeline Lilly was amused by the polyester blue collared shirt Matthew Fox wore for the Dharma check-in sequence. Learn Saskatchewan native Lilly in real life knows her way around a truck engine. * 5.10 “He’s Our You” (4:49) Learn the flaming minibus reaches an altitude of five feet. Learn cables pulled the vehicle into Dharmatown. * 5.11 “Whatever Happened, Happened” (4:59) Learn Lindelof wonders how innocent Kid Ben was if he’s already letting Sayid out of stir. * 5.16/17 “The Incident” (7:13) Learn Matthew Fox encouraged Josh Holloway to choke Jack during his big fight with James. Learn geologists had to be consulted in the creation of the embryonic Swan Station. Learn a downpour filled the Swan set with two feet of water the night before shooting. OTHER EXTRAS: * “ABC Starter Kit.” (4:43) An efficient primer on the first four seasons of the complex series, narrated by a hilariously deadpan Mary O'Brien, the Met|Hodder senior writer/producer for who previously narrated the “Lost in 8:15” recap on the season-four set. * “Lost 100” (19:00) A look at the events surrounding the Faraday-centric 100th episode, “The Variable.” Learn the “Ace of Cakes” bakery created an elaborate pastry to celebrate. * “Lost University.” “Classes begin December 8, 2009,” my screen informs me. So I guess maybe I’ll check in on this later. * “Mysteries of the Universe” (26:15) An episode from a faux 1982 ABC documentary series examining the shadowy Dharma Initiative. It ties Dharma to the infamous Area 51 located north of Las Vegas. A neighbor of the Dharma security officer Phil discusses Phil’s disappearance following a series of job interviews Phil had in Michigan. A similar disappearance apparently befell an Oregon schoolteacher named Olivia, who looks a lot like Samantha Mathis. One question among a series asked Dharma applicants is “Who is your constant?” Learn Alvar Hanso, a Danish war profiteer during World War II, attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for a year while living with 8-year-old Gerald DeGroot and the rest of the DeGroot family as an exchange student. Learn a one-ton air-dropped food palette full of Dharma-branded groceries once fell on Tonga. Both Eloise Hawking and Daniel Faraday are name-checked near the end of the installment. * “Making Up For Lost Time” (13:47) A look at the time-travel aspects of season five. Learn there really was an undetonated hydrogen bomb named Jughead and that it and its tower housing were based on the Manhattan project. Learn authentic Korean War-era army tents were used for the 1950s Others camp. Learn that the Dharma camp had to be repeatedly redressed as the series hopped between the 20th and 21st century versions of the site. Learn Yunjin Kim hopes Jughead doesn’t send Sun back to rebuttoning the top button her beige sweater. * “An Epic Day With Richard Alpert” (12:14) We follow Nestor Carbonell on April 1 and April 2, 2009, the very long final day of principal photography for the fifth season of “Lost.” Learn series make-up artists actually apply concealer to deemphasize Carbonell’s famously lush eyelashes. * “Building 23 And Beyond” (12:01) Michael Emerson tours the series’ not-Hawaiian HQ on the Disney lot in Burbank. Learn Edward Kitsis is a big fan of Geronimo Jackson. Learn Adam Horowitz has a lot of “Lost” action figures. Learn “Deadwood” vet Elizabeth Sarnoff wears a coat in her office. Learn Brian K. Vaughan is really bald. Learn co-producer Samantha Thomas is hot stuff. Learn “Lost” employs two writers’ assistants. Learn the writers’ room has at least four enormous white boards set up along its perimeter. Learn series post-production makes its home in a building separate from the writers’. Learn editor Mark Goldman like to stand when he’s editing. Learn editor Stephen Semel also directed “Ji Yeon.” Learn the three editors generally work on different episodes but typically collaborate on the finales. * “Lost Bloopers” (3:48) Blown takes aplenty!

Lost: The Complete Fifth Season Dharma Initiation Kit (Blu-ray) is a dang nifty gift idea. In addition to what one gets in the standard package (with black DVDs or Blu-rays disguised as floppy discs), the white Dharma orientation binder contains: * an all-new orientation VHS tape (5:59) hosted by Pierre Chang. (Our thanks to ABC Studios for going VHS instead of Beta or 16mm on this.) Learn the “Apollo Ferry” carried personnel to Hydra Station three times daily. Newcomers are briefed on the sonic fence and warned of dangerous local fauna, but no mention is made of the island’s indigenous human population; * a CD disguised as 45 rpm vinyl containing “Dharma Lady” (2:56), a single from the fictional band Geronimo Jones (though music expert Charlie Pace never heard of them, they were apparently huge inside the initiative). They sound like bad Grateful Dead;

* an assortment of Dharma patches (my kit contained four); * lots of literature on the initiative, including a camp map and a sample of the cafeteria’s weekly lunch menu (vegetarian alternatives included).

* a (misplaced?) mimeographed-looking copy of the 1973 truce more-or-less agreed upon by Horace Goodspeed and Richard Alpert. (Among Alpert’s demands: that the initiative and its facilities depart the island by 1988!) (This kit could drive home the fact that you haven’t used a VHS tape or CD in years.)
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