Lost

CHICAGO – With hundreds of choices new and old, how can you possibly decide what to get the Blu-ray fan in your circle of gift-giving this holiday season? It’s that time of year — when we try to read the mental wish lists of our friends and family members and get them the perfect gift.

CHICAGO – Why do so many modern TV dramas fail? I suspect that part of the reason lies in the fact that a lot of these shows bend over backwards to be a major television event before they’ve earned that right. They cloak themselves in faux commentary merely so they can become mechanical fodder for water cooler discussion the morning after. That’s why the vast majority of new TV dramas might as well be called, “The Event.”

CHICAGO – Alan Wake’s continued nightmare is your gaming gain as the second installment of DLC for the Microsoft-exclusive title hit Xbox Live Arcade this week and we’ve endured the surreal episode and survived to give you the lowdown on what to expect.

CHICAGO – The timing of “Undercovers” might be inopportune — the notion of CIA super spies adding to the deficit by overextending their expense accounts — yet the show itself is bright and exciting with beautiful actors and settings. But despite the presence of J.J. Abrams of “Lost,” it doesn’t break any new ground.

CHICAGO – Don’t tune in to the premiere of NBC’s “The Event” expecting answers to that oppressively-advertised question of what the title refers to, although the producers have made clear that it won’t be long before we know.

CHICAGO – What’s more depressing than a Hollywood blockbuster regurgitating cliches? A foreign film clearly inspired by those cliches, that’s what. Shin-yeon Won’s 2007 Korean thriller “Seven Days” fuses the worst stylistic excesses of Michael Bay and Tony Scott with the plot of a particularly ludicrous “CSI” episode. An American remake would not only be unnecessary, but throughly redundant.

CHICAGO – In our latest edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: DVD, we have 10 DVDs up for grabs to “OSS 117: Lost in Rio” as well as 3 DVDs to South Korean thriller “Seven Days” with Yunjin Kim of ABC’s “Lost”!

CHICAGO – With the Emmys almost upon us on Sunday, Aug. 29, 2010, it’s the right time to take one last look at the nominees for the last television year and do what all awards watchers love to do best: predict who will win, who should win and lament the snubs.

CHICAGO – A Blu-ray review of the controversial final season of “Lost” is not the place to get into arguments over the quality of the actual finale, so I’ll get my opinion out of the way quickly and then we can discuss the Blu-ray release more than the ending specifically — the final season of “Lost” is arguably the best final season of any program ever and the last episode is the perfect bookend for a show too ambitious to be truly influential.

CHICAGO – Terry O’Quinn, the strange and mysterious John Locke on the recently concluded TV series, “Lost,” was found in this exclusive portrait by HollywoodChicago.com’s ace photographer Joe Arce. O’Quinn was appearing at the Park West in Chicago for his brother Thomas’s new film “Using.”