SUPER BOWL BLIPVERTS 2012 - VOLKSWAGEN

SPOILERS AHEAD!

'Lost' may have ended nearly two years ago, but there will always be people who have yet to see the end of the series.......

Come to think 'pon it, you better avoid this post if you haven't seen 'Life On Mars' (the original version from the UK) and its sequel 'Ashes To Ashes'. Perhaps the finale of "Homicide: The Movie" as well.......

Okay. Are we ready to proceed with another Toobworld Central look at the dogs of the Super Bowl blipverts?

Then let's begin.....

Remember this scene from the end of 'Lost'?

The souls of many of the main characters from the show were gathered with those who had played an integral part in their lives because of the crash of Oceanic 815. They were in a facsimile of a church in the dimension of "Limbo" to finally move on to the next stage, whatever might come. This happened many years after the events of the series, once everybody had finally shuffled off the mortal coil back in the dimension of Earth Prime-Time. Until such time, each new arrival in Limbo lived out an alternate life with different memories of their past; and some of them even had fictional relationships to buttress the believability of that life (like Jack's "son" David.)

Finally, with Jack's father Dr. Christian Shephard acting as their guide, they knew it was time to go into the light.

Only to be reincarnated as dogs.

That's a major premise in Toobworld - when a human character dies, it most likely will come back to Earth Prime-Time in the guise of a dog (if it doesn't go straight to Heaven or Hell upon death). There are so many TV commercials that support this claim, and this year's Super Bowl offered up at least four of them.

'Lost' shared the same premise of Limbo as a gathering place with the original UK version of 'Life On Mars', its sequel 'Ashes To Ashes', the TV adaptation of the movie "Madigan", and the final moments of the sequel movie to 'Homicide: Life On The Street'. But we never got to see what happened once they left that ethereal waiting room to see what awaited them on the other side.

If they did come back as canines, would they still have shared such a destiny, remaining in close contact with each other?

The teaser to VW's Super Bowl commercial seems to suggest that they might....

No, I'm not saying these are the character from 'Lost'. Like I said earlier, many of them - like Claire Littleton and Desmond Hume - still have long lives ahead of them.

But I think these dogs are the reincarnation of a subset of nameless TV characters - sci-fi nerds. And in particular, "Star Wars" enthusiasts.

The "Star Wars" franchise has been around for thirty-five years and has been absorbed into the TV Universe. (And yes, that sadly includes the "Turdogy" of prequel movies.) In that time, there must have been many citizens of Toobworld who were O'Bsessed with the films and who have since gone on to meet their maker.

Who knows? Maybe Neal Schweiber of 'Freaks & Geeks' is dead. I certainly can see Neal's friend Bill Haverchuck as that AT-AT Whippet who arrives by the end of the ad.

Reincarnated humans as dogs retain their human skills and memories, so it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that these "Star Wars" geeks found each other in their new life and reignited their passion for the magnum opus of LucasFilms in a new way.

Maybe.

The first part of the official Super Bowl blipvert for VW - "The Dog Strikes Back" - continues the theme of a human reincarnated as a dog. The way I see it, in his past life as a human he was a car enthusiast. But because he can remember that past life he's let himself go physically - depressed that he can remember that life and believes he can no longer drive because he's a dog. (Saturday's Video Weekend will prove him wrong.)

Still, the new VW inspires him to get back in shape and so he calls upon past memories of how to go about developing an exercise regimen.

As for the second part of the commercial, set in the Mos Eisley cantina?

First off, "Star Wars" has been absorbed (or abducted) into the TV Universe, thanks to all the blipverts over the years which featured its characters... plus the Ewoks TV movie and an episode of 'The Muppet Show'.

But those movies took place "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away". So all of the habitués in this bar should be long dead. We know definitely that these two must be:

So what we have here is a similar situation found in 'Lost', 'Ashes To Ashes', and "Homicide: The Movie" - deceased TV characters gathered in their own version of Limbo (in this case, the Mos Eisley cantina) as they await the time when they can move on as one to the next stage.

(I have no idea what form of reincarnation would apply to non-humans or to humans not born on Earth Prime-Time.)

Meanwhile, as they wait, they're able to view life on Earth.......

Two for Tuesday! (Although with that added scene in the cantina, you get a bonus splainin!)

BCnU!