Wednesday, April 15, 2009

TV: Lost

STARRING: Matthew Fox (Party of Five), Josh Holloway (newcomer), Evangeline Lily (newcomer), Jorge Garcia (Becker), Naveen Andrews (Bride & Prejudice; Planet Terror)
CREATORS: JJ Abrams (Alias, Fringe) & Damon Lindelof (Crossing Jordan)
PLOT: Plane crash survivors are linked to a remote island filled with mysterious people and supernatural qualities.


FIVE OBSERVATIONS
4 Time travel pisses people off. Not me. I love what has happened this season. Is it confusing? Hell ya! But Lost has never been an easily explainable show. It’s challenging, which is why Middle America stopped watching and went back to According to Jim. Lost is a show that makes you sit around with fellow addicts and compose theories and predictions. The writers even help out a bit by letting some characters speak to their audience. A recent episode that had Hurley and Miles explaining time travel rules that differ from Back to the Future was nothing short of magnificent. This is an intricate season and I’m loving every minute of it.
4 To those who know me, they know I often knock Evangeline Lily’s Kate character. Not only did I use to work with the Lily at Green Bay Bible Camp, I think Kate is awfully annoying to watch (especially with her flip-flopping on who she’s in love with). Surprisingly, a recent Kate-centric episode was actually good. I also don’t like Jack much either. Happily, Jack is more in the background this season and Sawyer is front and center. I like this change.

4 Of course Michael Emerson steals the whole show as Benjamin Linus. This bug-eyed villain is so good at manipulation; you have no idea if he’s stringing the audience along as well. It’s easy to ask yourself why people keeping trusting Ben, but that just shows how well he’s written and how well Emerson portrays this morally bankrupt character. My favourite line of his this season is on the plane where Jack asks him about the people in the economy class who might die in the imminent crash. Ben’s response? “Who cares?” Gotta love this antagonist!
4 With only one season and four more episodes to go, the revelations are coming fast. One of the early complaints of the show was not giving answers. (Heroes tried to give answers quickly and look what happened to them.) When I re-watched the first season, I was amazed how easily we were entertained with one reveal about a character by looking at their backstory. Now we demand 4 or 8 revelations in every episode. Well, they are coming. The upcoming 100th episode should reveal a lot and I hear rumours that we’ll see Jacob by the end of this season. I’m giddy just thinking about it.
4 I’m happy that my wife loves this show as much as I do. She started watching season one last spring. It was slow going for a bit. Not much momentum when I look back at early eps. Then it was four episodes a night. She caught up quickly. Now, she’s making predictions and theorizing with the best of them. I love her.

NOTE: If you plan on watching Lost for the first time, you have to watch it in order; you won’t understand a thing otherwise. Trust me.


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COMING SOON
TV reviews of Dollhouse, Reaper

2 comments:

cara said...

Ah, newlyweds. So sweet, yet so vomit-inducing. :)
We have been loving Lost this season. I am so glad it worked it's way through the muddle of the middle seasons. I totally agree with you about Kate and Jack. Sawyer has been my favorite all along and he is not disappointing. I just really wish that he and Juliet will stay together. I have heard rumors that Juliet is going to get killed off as she was cast in another show. Do you know anything about that? I so don't want Kate and Sawyer together!

Blackout said...

I agree that Sawyer and Juliet should stay together. The producers say that Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet) is only guest starring in the pilot of the new V remake, but they could be just trying to cover their butts. Same thing was said about Kate earlier this season. I wouldn't be surprised if Juliet dies though. They gotta kill someone important soon. It's just their way.