The eighth episode of Lost‘s third season aired last night, and a lot of people are back into the full swing of the show and enjoying every minute of it. One of the best sites to visit every Thursday morning about the show is the Washington Post’s very own Celebritology column, and they are particularly giddy about the whole thing, they also tend to have some decent insights into what’s going on or some good questions to ask about what might happen. This week’s article contains a great link to a video from the episode a week ago with some more backwards played audio to freak you out even more!
An issue I have these days is the fact that I hear a decent number of people bashing the show, but I very rarely hear any constructive criticisms. Most of them devolve to the level of pointless and inane like this Violent Acre’s post, with just a note to the creators with a ball of ‘spit’ on it. The typical argument is simply that the show has lost all direction and is no longer as good as it used to be. To me this just says that people are trying to be ahead of the curve, if the show does end up fizzling by the end of Season 3, they can look back and boost their own egos by proclaiming loudly, “I called it first!” or “I told you it sucked!” To say that a show like this has no direction is a cop-out. Either you are unhappy that the show confuses you and there is no outcome that you can possibly think of, or you just aren’t happy with the show anymore and should probably stop watching it rather then keep watching and complain about it.
Damon Lindelof is credited as saying that nothing happens on this show which can’t be explained in real life, while I doubt that things like the black smoke are very realistically explainable, I don’t doubt that anything else on the show is. The most common thing I hear is that its silly they put a polar bear on a tropical island, which means you either haven’t been paying attention to the show or you’re a complete moron. One of the main reason I enjoy Lost is because it is very much like real life, sometime life does not have a clear direction or reasoning for things happen, or if there is a reason it is definitely not apparent to you from the beginning. The characters may be proto-typical and most of them act a bit too heroic, but their stories and flaws are what tie them down to reality.
What people are becoming frustrated with is that the show keeps building, they still have not stopped introducing new characters, settings, and dilemmas into the show even eight episodes into the third season. What turns people off is that by the time they get the answers they’ve been waiting for, there is some larger question that has come into play and the answer we’ve gotten seems all the more trivial because of it. What the nay-sayers don’t realize is that there are, in fact, writers working for this show and their job is to write. As it became apparent that the first six episodes of this season were going to be slow and many people would be put off by it, I realized that what they will do if they’re smart is have a gigantic cascade of resolutions and answers fall into place by the end of the season. They’ve definitely set it up to go this way, having the last sixteen episodes coming week-after-week with no interruptions. The question now is will the deliver and make me look smart, or fizzle and make all of the pessimists’ egos bigger.
It helps when Damon says things like this:
“I feel like we’re playing a chess game and in the first six moves, we’ve lost our queen and two bishops, and the audience is saying ‘They are the worst chess players in the world!’ What they don’t realize is that we’re nine moves away from checkmating you. If we lose, we lose. But that’s the play, and we’re standing by it.”
He just couldn’t resist tossing out a number, which could be random, or which rabid fans will latch onto and wait for the ninth episode after the break (fifteenth in the season). Bastard.
Oh, and if you’ve read this far and don’t really care about Lost that much, you’re probably crazy, but here’s something for you: A re-enactment of Helm’s Deep in candy!
Full proof that some people just plain have more spare time then you!
Dude…it’s become “Final Destination” with time travel. To say they’ve lost all direction is an understatement.
What bothers me about Lost is that just when they get me interested in a mystery, they move on without solving it. I’m still wanting to know the resolution to things that are being just ignored now, and I hope that they come back to it in the end.
I like what they’re doing with Desmond, though I don’t see how that can happen in real life. I thought that was an interesting twist at the end (people who saw last night’s ep will know what I mean.)
Simon: That’s exactly what I’m talking about, you CANNOT just say the show is without direction or the argument has absolutely no weight. First off, how do you know this isn’t the direction the show’s been headed the whole time? It may be missing some of its original momentum, but it happens to pretty much everything after a certain amount of time. Look at X-men 3 or Heroes after 30 seconds into the first episode, the momentum cannot stay as a constant. The most recent episode was similar to Final Destination, except it wasn’t a cheesey movie with an interesting premise. They took that interesting idea and applied it to the show, and added time travel for good measure, I don’t see that as any kind of negative?
Elena: I know what you’re saying, there are a lot of mysteries still unresolved, but there are really a lot of things we’ve been told that just don’t seem to matter as much because bigger, more important questions are now being asked.
Damn, that’s a hot picture of Dessie.
SO, let’s say I’ve never played fallout and have never seen lost, but only have time to do one. Which should it be?
That’s really up to you, I don’t see how the two are related? 😛
Lost is excellent, and you’d definitely enjoy catching up on Seasons one and two, but Fallout (I assume you’re talking about the game?) is also an excellent game. I would say they’re both worth your time to check out.
I want to qualify this comment by saying the following: I love Lost… it is easily my second favorite television show (behind 24, which I am addicted to like a crack whore is to… uh, crack). I actually like how so much is going on all at once. My only criticism would be that the show lends itself to ‘unsolved mysteries’ that can just be forgotten and slip away. Actually, this is not really a criticism, more like a word of caution. With so many threads out there, it would be easy to let one die without a proper conclusion. So far the writers have been pretty good about going back to hanging story arcs and reminding the audience where it left off. If they keep that up, I do not forsee any problems. However, they will get into trouble if they start letting stories just get washed away by the tide, so to speak.
To sum up: keep it up Lost writers! Be on your toes!
Have any of the Brian K. Vaughn-penned episodes aired yet? That would certainly get me more interested in the series, and I’m curious if it’s a noticeable change in quality for the show.
ok you make the criticism that Lost detractors don’t back up their claims, yet your only “evidence of brilliance” is a glib comment by Damon that only proves the shows higher ups arrogance.
epic: I’ve gone into the merits and “evidence of brilliance” about Lost several times before. The show is well written, it started off wonderfully with some of the best pilot episodes ever created, and featured material that was unique and very interesting that raised a lot of questions which did not have easily apparent answers. The show is produced phenomenally, it is acted well, and has the bonus that it features lots of pretty people.
I don’t see where you’re quoting “evidence of brilliance” from, I certainly didn’t say it in this post, what I said was that detractors of Lost are lacking in constructive criticism. I even went on to provide constructive criticism of the show and I’m a fan! Would you care to provide anything constructive? Or should I just e-mail you at your very creative e-mail of: f @ * k @ you . com ?