Will And Grace Seasons 9-11 Streaming
Floriana Grundy
The cast of the second season of "Lost" is seen in a publicity shot. The series debuted in 2004 in a time of conflict and distrust as America reeled through the post-9/11 years. It is now available for streaming on Netflix. (Newscom/ZUMAPRESS/St. Petersburg Times)
The hit television series, which ran for six seasons on ABC from 2004 to 2010, debuted when I was in college. It was a spiritually rich time for me, as I tried to deepen my relationship with God and discern how to live out my faith in a broken world. "Lost" was the perfect companion to all of this reflection and questioning: a story about meaning, community and how we navigate life's great mysteries. Watching "Lost" was like having a spiritual director on my TV once a week.
Earlier this month, every season of "Lost" became available on Netflix. If previous trends of resurrected old shows are any indication, this move will introduce the series to a new audience and create a fresh wave of interest. Certainly, the series has a lot to recommend it: compelling mysteries and mythology and a diverse and talented cast, not to mention a sweeping orchestral score by Michael Giacchino.
But beyond those strengths, I believe that our current tumultuous moment in history is the perfect time to revisit the revolutionary television show. Even 14 years after it ended, it still has much to teach us about faith, connection and how we can only make it through this life together.
"Lost," co-created by Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams, begins immediately after Oceanic Flight 815 crashes on an uncharted island in the Pacific. As the surviving passengers get their bearings, mysterious things begin to happen. An unseen monster lurks in the jungle, tearing through trees and killing the plane's pilot. They pick up a distress signal in French that has been broadcasting for 16 years. A very out-of-place polar bear attacks the group.
The cast was expansive and diverse. Along with traditional heroes like courageous doctor Jack (Matthew Fox) or the resourceful Kate (Evangeline Lilly), there were characters that you didn't often see at the center of American TV shows, like Sayid (Naveen Andrews) a veteran of the Iraqi Republican Guard, or Jin and Sun (Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim), a struggling married couple from South Korea.
At first, all of the characters are strangers, to us and to each other. Each episode features flashbacks to one of the survivors' pre-crash lives, offering a fuller picture of each character. We develop empathy for initially off-putting or despicable characters, like sarcastic conman Sawyer (Josh Holloway). We come to realize they are all broken people in search of grace and redemption. Their obvious differences stand out at first, but as the story goes on we recognize the core humanity that connects them all.
I loved the humanity of "Lost," but what really drew me in all those years ago was its deep interest in faith. It isn't a religious show, but it is unabashedly spiritual. An episode might culminate with a character allowing another to pray for him, or two characters reciting the 23rd Psalm. (Other faith traditions were well-represented throughout the series as well, but obviously the Catholic moments struck me most.)
Through flashbacks, we come to realize the survivors were all connected to one another before they boarded the ill-fated plane. Is it just a coincidence, or are they being guided toward a higher purpose?
This debate is embodied by the struggle between Jack and fellow survivor Locke (Terry O'Quinn). Locke is the group's survival expert and mystic, who sees the island as a sacred place; the series' "man of faith" to Jack's "man of science." Naturally, they often clash over how to approach the struggle for survival.
One of my favorite episodes of the first season involves Hurley (Jorge Garcia) convincing the survivors to build a golf course. It serves no practical purpose and won't get them rescued, but Hurley realizes it's exactly what the survivors need: a chance to be refreshed instead of staying locked in survival mode, waiting for the next calamity.
Survival is pointless if we can't have joy, relationship and a sense of meaning. Hurley understood that the things we often toss aside first in the struggle to survive are actually the things most worth holding onto.
Today, we live in yet another time of war and division. We fear that we can't trust our neighbors; we may fear that we can't even trust ourselves. Connection and faith seem like a risk, or a fatal weakness. But this is why we still need stories like "Lost" to remind us that those things are what matter most. We live together or we die alone.
Golden Globe-nominee Ellen Pompeo is one of television's most beloved actresses, best known for her role as Meredith Grey on ABC's award-winning, critically acclaimed drama \"Grey's Anatomy.\" With Pompeo at the helm, the series continues to be ABC's highest-rated television drama as it enters its 19th season.
Pompeo made her major studio film debut in Brad Silberling's 2002 \"Moonlight Mile,\" alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon. She went on to star opposite Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell in the wildly successful \"Old School,\" and in Steven Spielberg's \"Catch Me If You Can,\" opposite Leonardo DiCaprio.
Now in her 19th season on ABC's award-winning, critically acclaimed drama "Grey's Anatomy," original cast member Chandra Wilson has received the Screen Actors Guild, People's Choice, Prism and three NAACP Image Awards, as well as four Emmy Award nominations, for her portrayal of Miranda Bailey. She has also received an NAACP Image and Women's Image Network Award in directing for "Grey's Anatomy," having directed several episodes since season six. This opened the door to her directing on ABC's "Scandal" and three episodes of Freeform's "The Fosters." She has graced the covers of Essence, Entertainment Weekly, JET, Heart and Soul, Life and TV Guide magazines, and has been featured in Ebony, Parade, Venice and Working Mother magazines.
Starting at age 5, the Houston native performed for 10 years in major musicals with Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS). At Houston's Ensemble Theatre, she portrayed Li'l Bits in "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show" and was later honored with their Rising Star Award for her professional accomplishments. She graduated from Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and later went on to get her BFA in drama from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where she spent four years training at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.
Wilson starred in the short film "Muted," which won the 2014 HBO Short Film Competition at the American Black Film Festival, and won Best Acting Performance at the 2015 SOHO International Film Festival for the role. Also on the big screen, she appeared in "Frankie and Alice," starring Halle Berry and directed by Geoffrey Sax; "Lone Star," directed by John Sayles; "Philadelphia," directed by Jonathan Demme; and the documentary "Autism in America," in which she serves as narrator.
Wilson gave a Prism Award-winning and Emmy-nominated performance in Hallmark Channel's "Accidental Friendship." Other television credits include ABC's "Bob Patterson" as series regular Claudia Hopper, and guest starring on "General Hospital," "The Sopranos," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," "Sex and the City," "Third Watch," "100 Centre Street," "Cosby," "Law & Order" and "The Cosby Show." She recurred on "One Life to Live" and "Queens Supreme," and was a lead in the CBS Schoolbreak special "Sexual Considerations." National television commercials include Blockbuster Video, Burger King, Scope and the United Negro College Fund, as well as numerous radio commercials.
Broadway credits include Matron Mama Morton in the musical "Chicago," Gary Coleman in "Avenue Q," Dotty Moffett in "Caroline, or Change," and Flossie's Friend in "On the Town," the latter two directed by George C. Wolfe. Wilson portrayed Bonna Willis in Lynda Barry's "The Good Times Are Killing Me" at the Second Stage and Minetta Lane theatres, which won her a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance. She was in "Caroline, or Change" at the Public Theatre, "The Miracle Worker" at Charlotte Repertory Theatre, musical "Paper Moon" at the Papermill Playhouse, Theresa Rebeck's "The Family of Mann" at the Second Stage Theatre, "Believing" for the Young Playwright's Festival at Playwrights Horizons, "Little Shop of Horrors" at the Falmouth Playhouse, and the Shakespeare in the Park revival of "On the Town."
Wilson has been a spokesperson for the Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome Association (www.CVSAonline.org) and speaks out for organizations like www.mitoaction.org whose mission is to increase awareness and understanding of mitochondrial disease and its related functional disorders. She manages the Sermoonjoy Scholarship Fund, which provides college scholarships to Theatre Department graduates at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and the Sermoonjoy Fellowship Fund, which provides annual fellowships to mid-career actors. More philanthropic information can be found at www.sermoonjoy.org and www.chandrawilson.com.
Original \"Grey's Anatomy\" cast member James Pickens Jr. started acting in his hometown of Cleveland at the Karamu House, distinguished as the oldest African American theater in the United States. He performed a reading of the play \"Home\" by Samm-Art Williams, in celebration of the theater's centennial.
After moving to New York, he performed in the historic 1981 production of Charles Fullers' \"A Soldier's Play\" at the Negro Ensemble Company with fellow cast members Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson. He was a member of the famed Circle Rep/Steppenwolf Theatre Company co-production of Lanford Wilson's \"Balm in Gilead,\" and starred as Walter Lee in the 25th anniversary revival of \"A Raisin in the Sun\" at the Roundabout Theater.
Pickens performed in the Los Angeles stage reading of \"8,\" the story of the historic Proposition 8 marriage equality case, which was directed by Rob Reiner and included an all-star cast of George Clooney, Martin Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christine Lahti, John C. Reilly and Brad Pitt.
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