If you planned on leaving the house during the week of January 19th, perhaps you should rethink things. To wit: On Tuesday the 20th, our long national nightmare will end as Barack Obama takes the oath of office to become the 44th President of the United States; Thursday the 22nd brings us the 81st annual Academy Award nominations; and, of course, the biggest event of all happens on Wednesday the 21st (drum roll please!): That's the date when Lost returns for the start of its penultimate season.

Screeners of the first two episodes have been sent out already and various reviews have popped up online; you can read them here, or here, or here. (Perhaps our copy got lost in the mail …) From the sound of things, expect total mayhem combined with awesomeness. Can't wait for the season premiere and don't have time to read all the reviews while you get ready to go out for New Year's Eve? Here's what you can expect with as few spoilers as possible.  read more »

A quick note before we dig into our ten favorite television shows of the year. You'll most likely notice the absence of How I Met Your Mother. This has nothing to do with its quality (or lack there of), as our omission of The Office does. We just don't watch it. That being said, we'd be remiss if we didn't at least mention Mother, since every person we know who watches the show unabashedly loves it. Someday we'll likely join the club, plowing through episode after episode on an extended DVD viewing marathon. However, that day has yet to come.

Onto the top-ten, presented in reverse order as to build suspense.  read more »

At the rate ABC is doling out clips from the season premiere of Lost, we might get to see the entire thing before it airs on January 21st. The network was kind enough to release yet another early stocking stuffer, a sneak peek at what we can expect from season five. We're happy to report that while the earlier clip centered on boring old Kate and her tow-headed fake son Aaron, the new footage deals with our two favorite maniacal and manipulative assholes: Jack and Ben.

Obviously there isn't a lot of real information to be gleaned from the just over ninety seconds, but some of what we can expect from the season premiere is coming into focus. As we had thought, the Ocean's Eleven-like recruiting plot is going to take center stage in the early days: Jack and Ben have to team up to convince the rest of The Oceanic Six to go back to the Island. Sounds good! While you ponder that, here are three other things we noticed.  read more »

As you sit at your desk, scratching your head and wondering how we got into December already, perhaps we can tell you something that will brighten your day. Do you realize that we're just over a month away from the return of Lost? We know! We can't believe it either! Though we're a little scared about what our DVR is going to do once January hits (with all the shows on our radar, "melting" seems to be the most likely outcome), the idea that we'll have a bunch of new Lost theories to obsess over endlessly with our friends makes us extremely happy.  read more »

Unless you're planning on helping the Obama family unpack boxes at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, you probably don't have any current plans for Wednesday, January 21st, 2009. Well, allow us to change that! The fifth season of Lost will return to ABC's airwaves that night with a two-hour season premiere, starting at 9 p.m. A recap episode of the previous four seasons will air during the 8 p.m. hour, presumably so the network can plug the evening as a three-hour event, while simultaneously fooling our DVR into thinking the first hour is brand new content. Harrumph.

The decidedly normal announcement is in direct counter to last season's dramatics, when the WGA strike threatened to limit the fourth season of Lost to only eight episodes (eventually a total of fourteen aired).  read more »

Now that the election is finally (finally!) over, we can rest easy knowing that Sarah Palin will return to the backwoods of Alaska never to be heard from again. Ha! As if! The Alaskan governor has come too far and gained too much notoriety to just simply accept running a non-continental state. As Tina Fey so hilarious stated last weekend, Ms. Palin is never going back. But while we aren't sure if the most polarizing figure in the country will ever become the "White Oprah" (don't you have to be even moderately likeable to accomplish that?), Ms. Palin could easily have a ginormously successful television career if she so wanted.  read more »

There is a cloud of uncertainty surrounding Mad Men as its second season draws to a close this weekend. While the show has been picked up for a no-brainer third season, both series creator Matthew Weiner and series star Jon Hamm have yet to commit beyond season two. Uh-oh. We don't even want to contemplate a world without the existence of Mad Men. Thankfully, the ABC promo department is here to help take our minds off things. They've been kind enough to release a teaser for the fifth season of Lost. We've watched the thing 20 times since it popped up online last night and can report it's as terrific as you would anticipate.  read more »

Monday: Lost
Long before the Dharma Initiative, Widmore Industries and The Oceanic Six, there was the first season of Lost. It was a simpler time, when Michael Emerson was just that guy from a few episodes of Law & Order and not a passive-aggressive criminal mastermind with a couple of Emmy nominations … but that doesn't mean the show wasn't amazing. There is nary a false step in Lost's freshman campaign, and the two-part season one finale, airing on Sci-Fi Channel, is worth revisiting for many reasons. The numbers! The hatch! "Walt!!!!!!" Us? Above everything else, we'll take the slow-motion music montage in the episode's final minutes.  read more »

Walking to work this morning in our skimpy track jacket, we realized something that shocked us. It's cold outside! Why didn't anyone tell us? Anyway, with the coming winter months just around the corner, we figured it would be good to check in with our favorite wintertime diversion, Lost. While it won't be back for its penultimate season until January of 2009, there are still plenty of tidbits to keep our fanboy hearts warm. Over at io9.com, they were nice enough to compile the latest rumors and speculations. If you don't like spoilers, we suggest you stop reading now.  read more »

The 60th Primetime Emmy Awards air Sunday on ABC. And in preparation, we thought it would be fun to give you a little help on your office pool. Welcome to the fifth and final day of our Emmy preview!

We've already handicapped all the acting races, so you should be all set for Sunday. Here, finally, a look at the shows.

Best Comedy Series: Curb Your Enthusiasm; Entourage; The Office; 30 Rock; Two and a Half Men

Who we're pulling for: This might sound counterintuitive, but we hope 30 Rock never finds a mass audience. The second season was so funny and completely bananas, that we wonder if Tina Fey and her cohorts would be able to get away with the stuff they do if people were actually watching.  read more »