Would Lost really kill off Jack? One of the reasons I love this show is it’s willingness to do almost anything, but I wonder whether the producers would willingly go that far. (Granted, if Matthew Fox bolts to do more movies, there really isn’t much they could do to prevent it.)

As I’ve previously mentioned, my wife and I have an “untouchables” theory regarding Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Locke, meaning that the show will never get rid of these characters. That theory can’t cover when stars decide to get out while the show is in its prime, though, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Maybe all of this is one reason why the producers awkwardly introduced two new cast members at the beginning of this season by pretending that they had been part of the crash survivors all along. Note to the producers: If Fox or anyone else leaves, please do kill them off or somehow explain their absences. Don’t recast the roles. (I don’t really think they’re that foolish, but it has crossed my mind.)

No additional VHS videocassettes will be produced, ever. The Video Home System, long obsolete in the DVD era, is gone.

I personally can’t remember the last time I purchased a VHS-format movie, and apparently I’m not alone. As Variety magazine indicates in this obituary to the format, VHS ultimately died of “loneliness:”

“After its youthful Betamax battles, the longer-playing VHS tapes eventually became the format of choice for millions of consumers. VHS enjoyed a lucrative career, transforming the way people watched movies and changing the economics of the film biz. VHS hit its peak with “The Lion King,” which sold more than 30 million vidcassettes Stateside.”

I can’t say I’m shocked that videocassettes have fallen out of fashion or that they will no longer be produced. How long will DVDs last as the successor to VHS? Here’s a bigger question: How long will it be before there isn’t a container at all for our entertainment? The technology is already there, minus the bandwidth needed for wide acceptance of movie and TV downloading, and society has already been struggling to deal with what it means when you can’t confine entertainment to a box. Until these questions are answered, DVD, you are on the clock…

Note: Spoilers below if you have not seen this episode.

Battlestar Galactica continues to produce excellent episodes week in and week out. This week’s installment, Hero, led the series in an unexpected direction: backward.

Guess who helped start the Cylon ambush on the 12 colonies? That’s right: Admiral Adama. We’ve been allowed to believe for two-plus years that the Cylons’ return and resulting annihilation of the colonies were completely unexpected. Apparently not, as this episode reveals that the military leadership for the colonies, known as the Admiralty, suspected that the Cylons might be regrouping prior to their attack.

I had two reactions to this discovery. The first was, “Wow, that makes me look at so much of the story differently.” The second was a feeling that this revelation was a little clumsy. I’m willing to forgive a lot on this series because it is so excellent nearly all the time, but I couldn’t completely shake the feeling that this was a recent addition to Adama’s past, not something that the writers have hidden from us all along. Lt. Novacek’s arrival seems a little too perfectly timed to me, even knowing that the Cylons let him escape.

I still generally like this plot development, but I wish it could have been introduced more gradually. Wouldn’t one of Adama’s first responses after the attack have been to feel remorse at not doing more before the Cylons arrived to destroy civilization? Still, this new piece of knowledge makes Adama’s miniseries speech that much more powerful: “The time comes when you can’t run from the things you’ve done.”