Thursday, October 13, 2005

Is "Lost" Lost?

First, a disclaimer: I feel terrible. I got nothing done at work yesterday and I didn't even bother to go in today because my mind is wandering. It's as if my mind is like "Shoot, B., you are a snot-filled, fevered mess. Why the fuck would I hang out here?" and took off for more interesting territory. The more interesting territory? This season of Lost. Here's why I'm hating it. I sat through many seasons of The X-Files, believing, like a chump, that Chris Carter had some master plan, that there actually was a real mythology to the show that someone--oh, this is wacky, maybe Mr. Carter--knew and that would slowly over the course of the series be revealed to the audience and then sastifactoraly resolved. At some point, I realized that was not the case, that Carter was just making shit up as he went along and that such shit often made no sense, as if the man had not been watching his own show for as long as the rest of us. That sucked. But it took a long time. Y'all, I'm not convinced, after viewing the first few shows of Lost this season that the writers aren't already just pulling shit out of their asses. Let's take last week's episode, which was resolved in such a way that it appears now that many of the main characters of the show will have to sit in a small room and press a button every hour or so. Fine, I guess. Stupid, but fine. Here's the problem, though. I realized, I was not looking forward to seeing last night's episode to how the characters get out of this dilemma; I'm watching to see whether the writers can write themselves out of this. Can they make it continually exciting or is this a very lame excuse to "keep those guys busy" while the show focuses on some other folks? The folks over at Television Without Pity remain excited and intrigued. The Butcher remains enthralled. But I'm starting to get suspicious. First there was the fact that the first two episodes were exactly the same and then there's the flashbacks to characters we've already seen flashbacks of that don't really deepen our understanding of them. Locke last week I could almost forgive, in that we got to see that he's got some issues that haven't exactly been spelled out before. And it could be that, with Hugo this week, there's something in that stuff that I'll look back on in five weeks and say "aha, so that makes sense," but I'm not feeling it now. Everything we saw last night, I could have already guessed based on how well they've established that character. Which, as a side note, also pisses me off. Either trust your viewers to pick up on the nuances of your well-developed characters--like Hugo--or don't bother putting the nuances in there. Just beat us over the head with stuff continually. Anyway, last season there were episodes in which not a lot happened, but it felt right, that things were being drawn out slowly because the characters were slowly figuring out where they stood and what brought them to this place. But this season? The slowness feels a little like the writers stalling for time.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kitty and I were having this same conversation after the first two episodes. Evidently, there is no payoff, they just like stringing us along because we MUST find out what comes next.

This show is giving the viewers a collective case of blue balls.

10/13/2005 10:42:00 AM  
Blogger melusina said...

I felt like that after watching about 5 or 6 episodes of the first season. Maybe I didn't give it a proper chance, but it just wasn't providing what I needed.

Now I'm glad I didn't get suckered in.
Especially since I have 9 seasons worth of X-Files DVDs worth of suckered already.

10/13/2005 10:50:00 AM  
Blogger Peggasus said...

Yep, we did the same thing with the X-Files, never even bothered to watch the last few seasons. Is it still on? I dunno.

And 24? Don't even get me started.

10/13/2005 11:00:00 AM  
Blogger Kat Coble said...

I join you in the fevered snotty messness today and have to add that

Where the HELL is the mysterious Security Beast that Fic Tease Abrams taunted us all with last season?!?!

These folks have been crawling around the nether regions of Button Down The Hatches, beating in the walls and waltzing in and out of the door with food and blue shampoo. What gives?

10/13/2005 11:43:00 AM  
Blogger Aunt B said...

I stopped watching the X-Files before the end, too. Which made me sad, because I used to watch it religiously.

I think part of the problem is, too, that I love The Wire on HBO. I think it's quite possibly the best show I've seen on TV (the guy from Homicide is behind it) and on The Wire, every detail matters. Tiny parts of conversations from season 1 become important in the third season. Main characters die. And the whole show sprawls out across Baltimore in such a way that you feel like you could drive around that city and see those people.

And I'd love for Lost to be like that. But I just don't think it is.

As Kat pointed out, where the fuck is the mysterious beastie? How do you just drop a detail like that?

Also, Kat, I'm sorry to hear you aren't feeling well. I'm both too hot and too cold, which is making me very unhappy.

10/13/2005 11:58:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

re the security beast: perhaps the condition of the island has deteriorated enough that the thing only works intermittently? overly convenient, i know, but i'm still desperately trying to stay within the story.

10/13/2005 12:30:00 PM  
Blogger Aunt B said...

I love Medium, but it frustrates me. I'm that much trouble and no hot British dude indulges me like that. Grr.

I'm still keeping the faith on your blog. Someday... someday...

10/13/2005 02:44:00 PM  

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