SPOILER WARNING! IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED LOST YET, GO THE HELL AWAY. OKAY? OKAY. When I heard that tonight’s episode was all about John Locke, I had a pretty good feeling it was going to be pretty good. I was dead wrong. I’m declaring it Pretty Damn AWESOME. Rebounding strongly from last week’s Rendezvous With Disappointment, “The Substitute” was top-notch Lost, the first great ep of Season 6, anchored by great central performances from Terry O’Quinn and Josh Holloway, stuffed with monumental mythological reveals (provided, of course, you actually BELIEVE the Locke-ness Monster’s claims about Jacob, The Numbers, and castaway destiny), and threaded with a poignant and powerful parallel world story about Uncrashed John Locke. I think Lost accomplished two important things tonight, two things this young season needed to lest it really begin to test viewer patience: 1. It framed and galvanized the Island storyline. Smokey wants to go home, wants to subvert Jacob’s legacy, wants everyone to come with him–or else. Yeah, it’s still wayyy ambiguous–but at least we kind of have some sense of what to expect in the weeks to come. People are going to take sides. What to trust? Who to trust? 2. While the Sideways world storyline didn’t give us anything to resolve the mystery of its existence, it did prove that the Sideways storytelling device is capable of producing some emotionally engaging and entertaining stuff. And please tell me you LOL’d at Ben as a history teacher! “The Substitute” was exactly what I needed the episode to be. The second it was over, I said to my “Totally Lost” partner Dan Snierson: “The season has now officially begun.” I have much more to say, and I intend to say it tomorrow AM in my recap. Until then, the floor is yours. Did you dig “The Substitute” as much as I did? Go!

As we await the arrival of tonight’s John Locke-centric episode of Lost, entitled “The Substitute,” I thought I’d use the space I’d typically give to my “What Doc Missed” ruminations about last week’s episode to talk about… answers. More specifically, “Answers,” the spoof video created by The Fine Bros. (brothers Raf and Ben Fine, to be exact), the viral video comedians famed for (among other things) their Lost spoofs using Lost action figures. I’ve always been a big fan of their work, but a couple weeks ago, I took aim at “Answers,” calling it cynical and snarky. To refresh your memory, this was the musical parody, set to “Downtown,” in which the brothers bashed Lost for its numerous unsolved mysteries (and several alleged continuity flaws and plot holes) and expressed extreme skepticism that the show will ever resolve these matters in a clear or satisfying manner. If you wish, you can watch the video right now.

Not long after posting my critique, Ben and Raf reached out to me and asked for a chance to respond. I agreed. Here’s their side of the story, and I’m curious to know what you all think. Personally, I couldn’t disagree more with their severely pitiless perspective on the show and what makes for good TV writing. And I think they’re being mean and geeky nitpickers about the Hurley-bird. But hey: I promised to air THEIR side of the story, not critique them more, didn’t I? So without further ado, I give the Fines some equal time.

First, let me say this–you guys are pretty funny and pretty creative. What originally inspired you to get in the business of making these Lost spoofs?
The Fine Brothers: One of the ways we’ve been making films over the years is utilizing action figures. We first started producing web videos [over] five years ago with a trilogy of feature films made entirely with action figures. READ FULL STORY »