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10. INTERNET
Cinematic Titanic
On Cinematic Titanic.com, Mystery Science Theater 3000 creator Joel Hodgson and his sarcastic sidekicks riff on Z-grade monster movies. You can order a DVD of their commentary on The Oozing Skull (above), a 1972 flick about an alien seeking a new body: "I want to live . . . ," croaks one strange-looking victim, and the peanut gallery quips, ". . . as a she-male!"
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9. TELEVISION
The Wire: Season Five
For his show's coda, David Simon has taken his darkest turn yet: Jimmy McNulty is using an ambitious reporter to push a fake serial-killer story. Somehow Simon connects all the dots — media, politics and the crack game — to create the Great American TV Show.
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8. TELEVISION
Breaking Bad
First there was Mad Men, now there's this edgy new show about a man with no pants who stages a shootout from his RV. What more proof do you need that AMC has the best dramas on cable? Breaking Bad follows Walter White, a meek high school chemistry teacher who cooks crystal meth to support his family. It makes Weeds seem like it was just a gateway drug to the harder stuff.
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7. BOOKS
Duma Key
Stephen King has been slipping lately — was anyone terrified by his book about cell phones? But Duma Key — about a man who loses an arm in an accident, takes up painting and finds his art has strange powers — marks King's return to supernatural suspense that's actually scary.
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6. COMIC BOOKS
Y: The Last Man
High-concept ideas don't get any more simple — or any more why-didn't-I-think-of-that brilliant — than the one behind the comic-book series Y: The Last Man. After a mysterious plague sweeps the planet, twenty-two-year-old slacker Yorick Brown is the last dude alive — in a world populated with women. But with the ladies breaking into violent factions, it's all a lot less fun than he expected. (Writer Brian K. Vaughan says the concept came from visiting an all-girls Catholic school as a kid: "I remember how they?d look at you — this mix of revulsion and titillation.") The comic's endless cliffhangers and sardonic humor won Vaughan a writing gig on Lost last season, and a Y movie is coming, likely starring Shia LaBeouf. And Y's final issue, due January 30th, holds good news for Lost fans: proof that at least one of its writers knows how to craft a satisfying surprise ending.
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5. BOOKS
God Save the Fan
There are two equally valid reasons to read Will Leitch's scathing manifesto: (1) to learn why sports fans should reclaim their game from vain athletes and big-mouthed pundits, and (2) to laugh uncomfortably at chapter titles such as "Carl Monday Is Watching You Masturbate."
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4. COMEDY
Will Ferrell's Tour
This month, to plug his basketball spoof, Semi-Pro, Ferrell joins other comics from FunnyorDie.com for his first stand-up tour. What about the baby from his "Landlord" skit? Too drunk to make it.
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3. INTERNETTom Cruise's Scientology video
Xenu, take the wheel! Gawker.com's clip of Tom?s Scientology speech is the best movie he's ever done. He drops science about "canceling" nonbelievers, bursts into giggle fits and warns, "I won't hesitate to put ethics in on someone else." We puny Earth people salute you, Cruise! Consider us canceled!
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2. VIDEO GAMES
Devil May Cry 4
The best part of this game? As the demon-hunter Nero, you conquer spirits with "the Devil Bringer," a mysterious glowing claw. There's something awesomely vulgar in the fact that your baddest weapon is your right hand.
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1. TELEVISION
Lost Returns!
After enough red herrings to feed all the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, Lost concluded last season with the mind-blowing revelation that Jack and Kate eventually make it back to civilization, presumably with some others (and maybe some Others). But who? Oceanic Air shut down after the crash, but on December 28th, the makers of Lost announced on flyoceanicair.com that the airline would soon resume flights, all to cities that happen to be characters' hometowns: Los Angeles (Jack, Hurley); Miami (Juliet); New York (Michael); Ames, Iowa (Kate); Tustin, California (Locke); Knoxville, Tennessee (Sawyer); Portland, Oregon (Ben); Seoul, South Korea (Jin, Sun); and Sydney (Claire, Walt). This may hint at who will get off the island in the end — and where the new season might be headed when it begins January 31st — but questions remain. Why is Oceanic flying to Tustin, a city with no airport? Do the survivors share a secret so enormous that Oceanic is building airports for them? Or will Locke get left behind?
Wait, there's more! Read a bonus exclusive Q&A with Lost's Michael Emerson, who plays Ben Linus, on the next page, where he discusses his character's fate and perceptions that the show has fallen off.
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Michael Emerson is getting to a lot of theater these days. Emerson, who plays Lost villain Ben Linus, is waiting out the writers' strike at home in New York City, having left the show's Hawaiian set in November with no clear return date in sight. The actor, who in front of the camera specializes in outwardly mousy actors who lie and get their asses kicked a lot (he was a villain in Saw, too), got his start in what he calls "straight plays" on Broadway and elsewhere. Now that his "wonderful Christmas break" has extended well past the holidays, Emerson dishes on the new season.
Rolling Stone: So, how can I believe anything you tell me?
Michael Emerson: Heh-heh. [Long silence follows]
RS: Do you ever bristle at getting compliments like, "You're so believably weaselly!"?
ME: People seem to enjoy the character and my portrayal of him. I'm lucky I have a part that is so well-written and so sort of nicely ambiguous and mysterious.
RS: Do you like Ben?
ME: I do. I do. I like how precise he is, his demeanor, his confidence. I like that he's a good listener. I like that he's a character who is from the cool end of the palette. He's not excitable.
RS: Now he's kind of a castaway, too.
ME: Yeah, everyone is kind of a refugee. No one has a home anymore, no one even has a camp. Everybody's on foot, running around the island, and here we're expecting the arrival of this mysterious third group, I'll call them an army, maybe. They're certainly going to be armed and dangerous. So everything's up in the air. No one has resources anymore. Ben in particular, he no longer has henchmen, he doesn't have weapons or resources of any sort, so we're gonna have to see how he lives by his wits.
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RS: Which we saw he was good at when he was first taken prisoner.
ME: He continues to be the master improviser on the island ... It's been interesting to me lately, because you see how often Ben gets beaten. And I'll tell you, there's more to come. And I think, God, why does he put himself out there for it? He's such a smart cookie. So I have to think it's purposeful. It serves his purposes to take these beatings. And you notice he's never that angry about it. He doesn?t hold a grudge that much. He takes it with equanimity, and I think it's because he gets what he wants out of the beating, and that is, he provokes the other person into exposing themselves.
RS: Do you feel that the show's fallen off?
ME: No, not at all. People used to say that in the second season, and in fact, I made it a project for myself to go back and watch all the episodes over again, and I don't believe there ever was a falling-off. I believe the show is stronger now. There is a kind of dark momentum in the show now that I think is superior to it had previously, and I think if you polled the cast, the cast would tell you to a man that the show is now fulfilling the promise it always had. A lot of that has to do with the business of the flash-forwarding. It's like a stroke of genius on the part of the writers. Not only does it complicate the telling of the story, it introduces this new dimension of the not-happy ending and the regret and recrimination that may exist even if one gets off the island. Because of what one had to do to get off the island.
RS: Are we gonna see a flash-forward for Ben?
ME: I don't know. I'll be curious to see it myself. There was a suggestion last night, there was that talk about the Oceanic 6. I think people are gonna start counting now, we've got Jack, Kate, and Hurley ? who else gets off? And if only six made it, what happened to everybody else? I don't think Ben can be included even if he did survive?because he's not a castaway. He's something else. Whatever happens to Ben, it will be different from any of the Lost-aways.
RS: I hope you're not off of work too long.
ME: I hope so, too. You know, ABC still maintains that we're gonna finish the season. But as you might guess, there will be a magic date somewhere in March, probably, where they'll have to say, "This is it, we're gonna scrap it" and "See you next year." And eight [episodes] is better than zero.
— Andrew Beaujon