In fifteen days, I have watched fourty-seven episodes of Lost. Half of that was from renting DVDs at Blockbuster, the other half was from buying a season pass on the iTunes Music Store. This show is excellent and addicting, as its hordes of fans can tell you.

Let me list the characters I hate:

• Charlie
• Michael
• Claire
• Michael
• Jack (on occassion)
• Michael
• Shannon
• Michael

The characters I listed are whiny babies who are often self-centered or repeat the same damn lines over and over, like Michael’s “My boy!” and Claire’s “My baby!” (thanks to Jordan to pointing out these to lines that made me hate them). Characters like Locke, Eko and Hurley (edit: and Sawyer and Sayid) make this show.

I’ve been wanting to get into ABC’s Lost for a while, but since I missed the first episode, I wouldn’t jump into the middle of it. I did that way back with Buffy and Angel, jumping into the middle of the run of both shows, and I never regretted it. But I just couldn’t bring myself to do it with this show. I decided to either buy the Season 1 DVDs or download the episodes from the iTunes Music Store to get myself caught up. I ended up not doing either.

I headed over to Hollywood Video Saturday morning, since my cable internet was down. I rented the first three discs of the set and sat through eleven episodes. I only took breaks to walk the dog and to grab some food. That night around 11:30 I drove back to Hollywood Video, returned those discs, and grabbed the remaining four in the set and resolved myself to watch them on Sunday.

Although I was unable to sit through all the discs like I originally intended, I have until Thursday to watch nine episodes. I should be able to watch them all, as I don’t have anything else to distract me (my internet connection is still down).

I’ve spent over a year not listening to spoilers, avoiding write-ups of episodes, and even averting my eyes (and closing my eyes) from commercials about current episodes, just to allow myself to be surprised. I find the show to be extremely addicting and entertaining. I don’t think there is anything I can say about the show that you haven’t already read or seen for yourself. I can tell you that my favorite episode so far is the fourth one, which focuses on the hunter John Locke. My second favorite would be the one that focuses on the castaway’s resident outcast Sawyer.

If you haven’t seen any of the episodes, do yourself a favor and watch one or two. The writers use the “soap opera technique,” where some of the lines delivered by the characters provide way too much information, just to catch up a viewer that may not have watched the show from the beginning. You may find yourself enjoying the show. If you’ve seen the show and don’t like it, I’d love to know why (no spoilers please).

There are very few great game commercials out there. Many aren’t even good. Too many are easily forgettable, like Criterion’s Black commercial, or just plain stupid like Sony’s latest line of PSP commericials. Nintendo’s early line of DS commericials were great, and I enjoyed the one and only GameBoy Micro commercial that ever aired (in the States, at least). Microsoft’s Xbox 360 commercials were also enjoyable, in particular the one with the jump ropers.
I’d link you to the commercials on YouTube, but I can’t find them anywhere. However, I do have a link to an awesome Nintendo DS game commercial. The best one ever, you might say. Go to Joystiq and check it out.

I have to wonder… why do I even watch so many commercials, regardless of the subject matter? With two DVRs in the house, each capable of recording two channels at once, and Nad’s beast of a Media Center PC that can record one show, we should never see another commercial ever unless it is on YouTube.com or the movie theather.