A Drop in the Bucket; or, Deregulation Revisited

Too big to fail indeed.

The Beginning of the End

After the credits roll on the final episode of L O S T, there will be a thorough autopsy on whether the creators had known the resolution of the series form the start or if they had simply been making everything up as they went along.

And although that question is mildly interesting, it is largely irrelevant.

Judging by the pilot episode, I would guess the creators had the broader contours of the mythology outlined from the beginning. Locke's description of the game of backgammon is more relevant to the themes of the final season than to anything that appears in the first season. But does it really matter if the creators knew why there was a polar bear on a tropical island when they wrote the screenplay for the pilot episode?

If anything, it is remarkable how well conceived and executed L O S T was given its inauspicious beginnings.

The show did not emerged perfectly formed from the godhead of J.J. Abrams. Instead it was originally pitched by an ABC executive as Cast Away meets Survivor. In the eleventh hour, the project was punted over to Abrams and Lindelof who gave the series its flashback structure and supernatural backdrop. The script itself went through numerous revisions during the casting process. Jack was originally going to die in the first episode. The part of Hurley was created just for Jorge Garcia.

Over the course of its series run, L O S T has had its flaws and the finale might be a complete bust, but I would not place the blame with the creators' plans for the overarching mystery, or lack thereof.

Write the Future

Three weeks and counting until the start of World Cup 2010. [And my birthday as well, thanks for asking. I accept cash and checks made out to cash.]

In case you weren't excited already, check out this amazingly sweet Nike commercial courtesy of Iñárritu:

Some thoughts about the Lost finale

As we approach the twilight of Lost saga, (after next Sunday, we will be breaking dawn on a world for Lost fans that perpetually will be an eclipse by day and a lightless new moon by night), there is something you hardcore fans should know:

You're not going to like it.

It won't explain everything. And, while it might not fade to black like The Sopranos, it will do something frustrating like ask new questions or introduce a new element to the mythology that it will never resolve.

You have been warned.

The Perils of Altruism

And just like that the Jazz's season is over. Not with a bang but a whimper, as the cliche goes.

Which is perfectly fine. The Jazz beat a Nuggets team they should not have beaten and lost to a Lakers team they should have lost to.

Game 4 still stings. Mostly because the result was not commensurate with the effort.

The Jazz were swept, but not in the same way the Hawks were swept. A few calls and/or rolls go the other way and the entire complexion of the series changes.

What hurts most is the negative light Jazz fans have been portrayed in by the media. It is bad enough that Marv Albert couldn't keep the names of Jazz players straight or correctly call Laker fouls. Or that Craig Sager shoved the Salt Lake Tribune headline of "All Hope Is Lost" into the face of every single Jazz player. But instead of highlighting some of the best fans in Utah, TNT focused on the worst by wasting airtime on the continuing Derek Fisher controversy.

Breaking news! Some sports fans are assholes. Yes, even those in Utah.

And yet TNT was not alone.

Yahoo! Sports headlined an article on the topic. "The Jazz fans booed him strongly when he was introduced, chanted 'Fisher sucks!' during the game and cited his daughter during their trash talk." Notice how the sentence glosses over the difference between acceptable playoff behavior and downright nasty taunting. A common trend in such articles.

The L.A. Times devoted an editorial to the "hypocrisy" of family value Jazz fans (seemingly conflating all of Utah with Mormons) booing the man who gave up $8 million for his daughter. "Ironically, Sunday is the third anniversary of one of the most emotional moments Utah Jazz franchise history. It was when Derek Fisher, after spending the day holding Tatum's hand during cancer treatment, showed up in the third quarter of a playoff game against the Golden State Warriors and led the Jazz to a victory. Fans here have apparently forgotten that moment. They won't forget this one."

The L.A. Times has it completely backwards.

Jazz fans boo and taunt Derek Fisher because they remember that moment.

The intense animosity that Jazz fans harbor for Fisher comes from three overlapping instances of cognitive dissonance.

First, most people believe that good things should happen to good people - karmic retribution in a secular or religious sense. Yet, despite Larry H. Miller altruistically releasing Fisher from his contract, the Jazz have been punished by three consecutive season enders at the hands of the Lakers. Do people therefore believe that we live in an amoral vacuum? No. They rationalize the situation by believing that the naive, small-town [and dare I say, Mormon?] Jazz organization was conned by the big-city swindler Derek Fisher.

Second, Fisher is in the twilight [Mark: maybe we should drop this word more often to increase random Google searches?] of his career. A quick search for Fisher gets the following headlines from earlier this year: "If Fisher fails, Lakers could get filleted" and "Derek Fisher is clanking the Lakers title hopes away." It is one thing to lose to Kobe (who gets what he wants and doesn't take no for an answer) or Gasol whose size advantage makes Boozer a liability. But the Fisher vs. D. Will matchup is the one advantage that the Jazz are supposed to have over the Lakers. Yet, Fisher consistently sabotages Williams's gameplay. And looking back on Game 3, it is Fisher's "veteran moves" that closed the refrigerator door on the series. The ludicrously deep 3. The moving screen that set up Kobe's 3. And the slap across Boozer's arm that caused Carlos to lose control of the ball. These sorts of plays only magnify the bitterness and add fuel to the fire that Fisher is using his knowledge of the Jazz system against them.

Finally, Jazz fans love Derek Fisher precisely because of that shot against the Golden State Warriors and that he left his contract to seek better treatment for his daughter. Unfortunately, most Jazz fans believe that good people whom we love should not hurt us. Derek Fisher continually hurts us in the playoffs, therefore the logic of cognitive dissonance dictates that he must not be a good person and bad people lie.

Not that any of this excuses the behavior of certain Jazz fans. But after three painful losses it should come as no surprise that people will come up with untenable rationalizations when cause is not always commensurate with effect.