TV: Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode II

Buy it.
I don't know any clearer way to say it. Buy it now, maybe?
There's over 15 minutes of extra footage spliced into the original broadcast, which all looks phenomenal. Plus, we've got more Conan O'Brien voice work (Zuckuss) a ton of extra Boba Fett footage (including hilarious outtakes from the Sarlacc skit) and even more Ewok carnage. Pretty rockin', if I do say so myself. There's some other gems, but I won't spoil them for you ...
Oh and did I mention the 90 minutes of bonus features? Video blogs, behind the scenes, a visit from the 501st Stormtrooper Legion, alternate audios ... the list goes on.
Get it or you're making a big mistakey!

LOST: Some Like it Hoth

UPDATE: SINCE IT'S GOTTEN SO MANY HITS, I POSTED THE "TAWARET" LOST STATUE BELOW.
(Note: The statue as shown in the May 13 season finale is also posted below for comparison. Spoilers in the comments, you've been warned.)

ALL NEW LOST POSTS ARE HERE ON THE NEW SITE.

Star Wars references! Dharma hijinks! Hurley and Miles! Mind-bending time travel!
Tonight's episode of Lost, "Some Like it Hoth" is shaping up to be a good one kiddos! Be sure to tune into ABC at 9/8c.

In the meantime, get caught up on the previous week's episode by checking out the hilarious recap for last week's episode, "Dead is Dead," over at the Ack Attack.

Some of my quick thoughts on last week's episode (mild spoilers):
-Despite what everyone wants to believe, John Locke is dead.
-The whole "Locke is risen" thing coinciding with Easter week probably was a coincidence, but Maureen Ryan has an interesting article on it at The Watcher. BSG fans will enjoy the parallels she draws between Locke and Starbuck.
-Ben is sorry for the role he had in Alex's death and he is genuinely concerned about the fate of the island and protecting people from it. Basically, he's not as bad a guy as everyone thinks.
-Claire's still dead. (But she's like Christian and Locke dead, not dead dead ... you know what I mean?) That being said, I hope the writers put her into an episode soon. She used to be one of my favorite characters. I miss the good old days of her and Charlie!
-Obviously, there's some kind of Egyptian theme going on with the island. First the statue and then Smokey's bedroom. That being said, I'm still convinced the island is some sort of gigantic ship that crashed on earth several thousand years ago. The Egyptians could have very well inhabited it for centuries before the island "moved" itself.
-Richard is one of the "keepers" of the island (i.e. he's an alien) and that's why he never ages and is present in every timeline on the show. Jacob might be some sort of projected hive consciousness of the aliens or he might just be another keeper of the alien island. I don't know.
-Kate is actually getting more interesting!
-I'm really happy Caesar was "written out" by Benry. Goodbye, "my friend."
-I'm not so happy about this whole Anna Lucia 2.0 woman, but I'm sure she'll get more interesting as we learn "what lies in the shadow of the statue."


Theorized LOST statue (I didn't make this. Source link in article above):





















And what we saw last night. (Courtesy: Lostpedia)























So what do you think? Are they the same statues? Are they totally different? This week Damon and Carlton described the Egyptian theme with one word -- "tapestry." What does that mean to you? Post your comments below, we've got a good discussion cooking here.

100: And now for something completely different ...

Worth more on the collector's market if left unopened.

Star Wars: Live Action (sans Jedis)

So the casting call for the rumored live action Star Wars series is apparently underway.

Awesome.

Lucas says the show will be set between Episodes III and IV, focus on several minor characters from the saga and center around the small steps the Rebels take against the Empire. Sounds like all the fixings of a nice extended universe story, sans one thing -- THERE'S NO JEDIS.

Not awesome. (Unless, of course, you're Darth Maul then the whole "bye-bye Jedi" thing is totally cool, bro.)

Once again it sounds like Lucas will circumvent 90 percent of his audience and focus on munitia that most fans don't care about. This approach could work, hell, I hope it does work, but he's going to have to get some cracker jack writers in there to make the idea fly.

This is going to be Star Wars driven by characters -- not action -- and as much as I loved Episode III, some of the characters were so stiffly written I thought they were to fall over faster than an Ugnaught behind a farting Wookie.

At any rate, seems like the show is still pretty deep in the pre-production pipeline, so there's still hope ...

INTERNETZ: Confessions of a SWG CSR

This article about some of the odd memories of a Star Wars Galaxies Game Master pretty much speaks for itself, but here are some highlights:

Benny, Are You There? - Shortly after I started, the company started outsourcing to India. Initially the outsourced reps were not allowed to go in game, and were supposed to just escalate those issues to us. But as customer tickets rose, we eventually had to teach them how to handle in game issues. One of their first tasks was to send each other direct in-game messages. This seemed to be going well until the forums lit up like a Christmas tree. Players kept asking “who is benny?” and “Did I unlock my Jedi, my name is Benny!” Unfortunately one of the Indian reps had sent a message to the entire server while trying to send a direct PM. So basically thousands of players saw “Benny, are you there?” flash across their screen. Not a bad first day in-game!

The Key Master Incident - This particular event happened in the Everquest area, before my time. Dealing with irate customers is no picnic, and can send a lot of people over the edge. Long story short, a GM who will go unnamed was at his wits end, and one day he snapped. Going bat shit insane, he grabbed his car keys and started jabbing himself with them in a complete nerd rage. This guy was let go but his story will live on forever. Up until this day, you will see keys taped to a select few monitors in the building. Bad joke, but funny in a dark way.

And my favorite ...

Fight Clubs - Once the Jedi system went live, it caused more than a few issues. Jedi who killed Master Bounty Hunters would gain force rank. This lead to shit loads of Jedi exploiting the Force Rank system to make their Jedi almost untouchable. A group of them would sit on top of a large private building, and take turns killing their Bounty Hunter friends. A doctor would revive the bounty hunter, and the next Jedi would kill him. This pissed me off, but we were told NOT to interfere - it was developments problem, not ours. I didn’t like the idea that this shit was happening right under my nose, so I pretty much tried to slaughter the fight clubs whenever I saw them. First I would surround the building with Dark Jedi Masters, and one by one, I would teleport the exploiters out of the building. Players were smart though. They knew what hours I worked and my days off, and within a week, the servers started to see the highest ranking Jedi, ever.

MOVIES: Star Wars: The Clone Wars

I'm actually surprisingly excited about this movie, which is scheduled for a release Aug. 15.

Check out the preview here.

"Another of the summer's most closely-guarded secrets, this animated extravaganza is meant to kick off the new Cartoon Network series of the same title. It's said to be focused on Anakin Skywalker, fresh from his victory in Attack of the Clones and not yet following the path of the Dark Side. At his side is his determined female padawan Ahsoka, as well as the incomparable Obi-Wan. Together they become entangled in a plot in which the kidnapping of Jabba the Hutt's son is used to set the Hutt clan against the Jedi Knights."

GIZMOS: OMG Must have RD-D2 projector...nerdgasm coming ... GANDALF!

"We knew that there was a motorized, fully-articulated R2-D2 projector with built-in DVD, iPod dock, all kinds of digital media inputs, and Millennium Falcon remote control, but we never—EVER—imagined it would be so amazingly drooltastic as this video shows. Time to put on your LEGO-made Han Solo jacket or Leia bikini, and buy this thing—because after watching it in action, I don't care about the lack of Full HD support: this thing is absolutely I must have, caress, fondle, and lick all over material. Reaching nerdgasm, however, still costs $2,995."