Skip to main content

"Lost" Walt Found in Camden County

You can call off the search party, Michael. Missing Lost castaway Walt (Malcolm David Kelley) has been found... in Camden County. Well, not quite. But phenom Malcolm David Kelley did show up last night on a new episode of Thursday night favorite My Name is Earl, in an inspired bit of guest casting. (Whoever does the casting for Earl deserves a medal... or at the very least a commendation from the viewing public; the guest shots never seem gratuitous--cough, cough, Will & Grace, cough, cough--or forced.)

In last night's episode ("Boogeyman"), Kelley played Alvie, a rich kid terrified of the dark. Back in his thieving days, Earl traumatized him by hiding under his bed while trying to rob his house, an act Alvie has never recovered from. And this being Earl, there's a twist: Earl first makes it up to Alvie by being his personal slave for a day but ends up liking the kid and talks with him each night. Slowly, Alvie begins to be afraid less and less as they keep dimming the lights, until finally he falls asleep in the dark. End of story, right? Nope. Alvie, thinking that his father doesn't care for him now that he remarried and has two more sons, runs away from home and wants to live with Earl. And when Earl tries calling Alvie's dad to explain, there's a bit of confusion and everyone thinks Earl has kidnapped Alvie, which leads to a tense standoff with the police... and ultimately a tearful reunion for father and son.

It was wonderful to see Kelley, usually so tough and fearless as Walt on Lost, seem vulnerable and scared. This child actor is so natural, his talent so effortless, that he is a joy to watch in any role. Someone needs to give this kid his own show, stat.

Or at the very least, have Malcolm David Kelley (and Walt) make his way back to a certain haunted island in the middle of nowhere.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season

Pilot Inspektor: CBS' "Smith"

I may just have to change my original "What I'll Be Watching This Fall" post, as I sat down and finally watched CBS' new crime drama Smith this weekend. (What? It's taken me a long time to make my way through the stack of pilot DVDs.) While it's on following Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars on Tuesday nights (10 pm ET/PT, to be exact), I'm going to be sure to leave enough room on my TiVo to make sure that I catch this compelling, amoral drama. While one can't help but be impressed by what might just be the most marquee-friendly cast in primetime--Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Jonny Lee Miller, Amy Smart, Simon Baker, and Franky G all star and Shohreh Aghdashloo has a recurring role--the pilot's premise alone earned major points in my book: it's a crime drama from the point of view of the criminals, who engage in high-stakes heists. But don't be alarmed; it's nothing like NBC's short-lived Heist . Instead, think of it as The Italian

The Daily Beast: "How The Killing Went Wrong"

While the uproar over the U.S. version of The Killing has quieted, the show is still a pale imitation of the Danish series on which it is based. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "How The Killing Went Wrong," in which I look at how The Killing has handled itself during its second season, and compare it to the stunning and electrifying original Danish series, Forbrydelsen , on which it is based. (I recently watched all 20 episodes of Forbrydelsen over a few evenings.) The original is a mind-blowing and gut-wrenching work of genius. It’s not necessary to rehash the anger that followed in the wake of the conclusion last June of the first season of AMC’s mystery drama The Killing, based on Søren Sveistrup’s landmark Danish show Forbrydelsen, which follows the murder of a schoolgirl and its impact on the people whose lives the investigation touches upon. What followed were irate reviews, burnished with the “burning intensity of 10,000 white-hot suns