Perhaps the only thing I am looking forward to as much as Inception in my life is the season four premiere of Mad Men. JULY 25, WHERE ART THOU!?

Jeph Loeb as Marvel Executive VP, and Head of Television? Oh noes.

via comics alliance:

Marvel Entertainment has announced that Jeph Loeb, writer of comic books like “Batman: The Long Halloween” and “Ultimatum,” has been named an Executive Vice-President and Head of Television at the company. Loeb, who previously worked as a writer and Co-Executive Producer on the Emmy-nominated NBC superhero TV show “Heroes” and a writer and producer on “Lost” and the Superman series “Smallville,” will be tasked with developing both animated and live-action television projects for Marvel properties as well as direct-to-DVD content.

Jeph Loeb used to be awesome. Superman: For All Season, The Long Halloween, and other tales were fantastic. He used to be one of my favorite writers. But for awhile he’s been meddling in the gulches of bullshit, penning titles that are so painfully painful, they’re either meta-amusing, or like watching your Dad trying to slow dance at some club. His “edgy” storylines on Ultimatum and Ultimates 3 were train wrecks, and either elicited groans or sympathy.

To be fair though, he has been in charge of Smallville, and despite ripping off Watchmen for Heroes, both of them were eminently watchable. Perhaps the dude is more suited for the moving pictures these days.

I don’t want to be too harsh, like I said, Loeb’s penned some excellent, excellent stuff in his lifetime, and has more creative talent in his used toilet paper than I ever will. But like Claremont, I will be forever grateful for his past work, while skeptical of his future endeavors.

[click to enlarge]

Fuck yes. Counting down to the return of my favorite show currently airing.

Yeah, I ain’t got any words. Just check it out.

[via fuck yeah lapidus, click to enlarge]

And we thought he was fucking dead! Oh man, what a dumb ass I was. You can’t keep a bad ass 1970’s porn actor down.

Despite hating Kate for something around six seasons and seventeen levels of ferocity, I had to appreciate this.

How much do you need to know about LOST to feel fulfilled? I ask you this question. Tomorrow night we’re getting an episode tots dedicated to Jacob and MiB, and I’m worried. Why? I’m worried because I don’t need to know their entire backstory. I really don’t. In fact, I think I would prefer if they left parts of it in the dark. Seriously.

I don’t need to know about the midichlorians.

Do you?

Listen, I’m totally cool if we’re given an episode where we see Jacob and Smokey’s intellectual duel throughout the decades. Centuries even. They’ve shown in the teasers what appears to be little Jacob and MiB running around all snotty-nosed and covered in grime. And that’s cool.

But there’s a difference between demystifying a character and showing character interactions, you know? I don’t need to know specifically how long MiB and Jacob have been on the Island. I don’t even need to know literally what Smokey is, or how he got there. I don’t know, am I the only one?

I don’t need to know about the midichlorians.

I’ll give the writers some credit. They’ve pulled off two enormous reveals to my satisfaction. They’ve told me what Smokey was, and what the purpose of the Island is, and I’ve loved both of those reveals. So why am I being so pessimistic? Perhaps I’d love the backstory between the two of them.

I could!

I really could.

But I don’t know, something about having to put the pieces together myself seems more interesting. LOST has always straddled the line, or uh, is it lines between a) telling us nothing b) telling us too much c) telling us enough to figure it out ourselves. It’s like the television equivalent of the Four Corners or some shit.

But I don’t need to know how Smokey got to the Island, I don’t even need to know how many bodies he’s taken the form of, or if he was ever truly human. I say let that shit sulk in the dark, away complete exposition.

I don’t need to know about the midichlorians.

Where do you stand?

Ohhh shit! How do you feel about the LOST finale getting another half an hour? I feel fucking fantastic!

via slashfilm:

Tonight it was revealed that ABC has agreed to extend Lost’s series finale by an extra half hour. The final episode will air on Sunday, May 23rd 2010, from 9:00pm to 11:30pm. The overrun will push back the local news, and the previously announced “Jimmy Kimmel Live: Aloha to Lost” post-finale special will now air at 12:05 a.m. ABC will also be airing a two-hour retrospective on the series titled “Lost: The Final Journey” before the finale.

I’ve accused the LOST writers of dragging their feet this season. And yet, I’m happy they’ve been granted this extra half an hour to tell their story. Sure maybe they fucked up, wasted too many episodes. Or maybe they’re painfully deliberate and I don’t enjoy it. What I do know is that I’m glad they’re being given this extra time to tell the story they want to.

Also —-

I can’t believe this shit is really over soon. Sad face. Tears in eyes.

A couple of people have mentioned that I didn’t talk about Lapidus in this week’s LOST recap. It’s honestly my bad. When you’re shitting out 1,400 words, sometimes you get a little LOST in the woods. LAWL.

Seriously though, he’s the fucking man. And forget Sayid’s death, if Lapidus died last night, the dude was done a serious disservice. One moment he’s kicking ass, the next moment he’s getting blasted with a door and then there’s no mention of him. He’s a sexy old bastard, and I while I liked him most with shit-stains on his wife-beater, I appreciated his skeevy 1970’s flight attendant look just as much.

If you think Lapidus can’t survive a sinking ship, you’re short-changing him! He’s alive. Probably straight chillin’ in the Foot. Mackin’ on mackerel.