LOST thoughts (as of Season Two, Episode Eight)

[thehefner]

Look, the only way LOST could possibly live up to its hype at this point would be to produce an epic story with the literary scope of THERE WILL BE BLOOD, WATCHMEN, and Kurosawa's RAN combined, while at the same time somehow getting DC Comics to publish my Harvey Dent novel, and finally providing me with steak and a blowjob. That's what LOST would have to do to break through three-plus years of solid browncoating.*

Like many mysteries, I can't help but wonder if all the smoke and mirrors and twists and questions aren't just enthralling, brain-numbing distractions from what might really be hollow and dumb. Maybe I'm just a bitter old X-FILES fan, but I've been burned before, and won't be able to make a judgment call anytime soon. Probably not until the show's finally finished. For now, what I do know is that I currently don't care about half the characters, and I outright dislike a quarter of the rest.

Yet I'm still engaged like heck. Mom and I have been up till 5am every night blazing through the DVDs over the past week. It reminds me of HEROES,** only with an actual sense of humor and irony, which very much helps take the piss out of even the most over-the-top dramatic stuff.***

So yeah, I'm enjoying LOST quite a bit. Still, I demand steak and a blowjob, stat.



*Sorry, Sabine, there comes a time when simply no other word will do.

**And just as I finally catch up with one fan-jizz-spraying show, another one emerges! I can never win. And there's no way in hell I'm gonna slog through HEROES Season Two; on all accounts, it didn't even have that "enjoyably awful" style of the first, and fuck it, I've got LOST, THE WIRE, THE SHIELD, DEXTER, and BATTLESTAR GALACTACA to watch.

***I kind of love the "big dramatic twist" music they play a couple times in every episode of LOST. You know the kind, the one that comes right before the commercial break after some big twist: "wwwwwrrrrrRRROOOOOWWWWWWW!!!"

Comments

i have faith in the JJ

[interdisciple.livejournal.com]

re: shows: don't forget FRINGE. so far s1 seems to say it'll be worth following. of course, once you wait till it's browncoated, it's too late. (ditto the 'sorry sabine' sentiment)

i mean, if for no other reason than your own acts and that show will soon be confused in passing mention in many a conversation to come...

plus it has the same LOST dramatic twist music.

srsly, LOST will not live up. it was neat before everyone figured out it was neat. now i just have to know.

also, the writing and acting is much more consistently better than HEROES could ever hope to be. but that's just my elitist .02.

Re: i have faith in the JJ

[interdisciple.livejournal.com]

much more consistently better

as opposed to, y'know, my english...

Re: i have faith in the JJ

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

That is literally the first good notice I've heard about FRINGE, as the rest of what little I've heard has been mediocre at best.

Yeah, "neat" is a perfect word for it. I am enjoying the neatness quite a bit. But now I am curious about shows like THE WIRE and THE SHIELD, which I've actually heard people describe as literary in their depth and scope. LOST sure ain't it, nor does it need to be, but the hype... oh, the hype.

And major thorough word on the HEROES comparison. The actings and writing is far, far superior all-around. But then, I too am an elitist snob (well, maybe you're not a snob too, but I sure as hell am).

Re: i have faith in the JJ

[interdisciple.livejournal.com]

i don't know. give LOST more time. i watched part of s1 of The Wire and so far don't quite feel compelled to drop to my knees and blow it like others are wont to do. but i readily admit that i haven't given it enough time and that it might indeed rise to those ranks. as will LOST, imo. chock full of lots of heady stuff beyond mere character development.

i think FRINGE has the classic JJ stuff -- airplane crash, freaky mad sci-fi paranormality, character stuff (daddy issues, love gone wrong, etc), spy action (upper echelons of three-letter-agencies conspiring with private enterprise to cover up a global mysterious happening)... in a way, i feel like it'll get better, and that it's JJ's response to HEROES. the cinematography to me is more filmic, incorporating lots of classic movie-esque techniques and shots (see: Understanding Movies by Louis Giannetti). also, i'm a big JJ fan and never really watched much sci-fi before him. maybe he's sci-fi lite and not all that impressive to fans of Dr Who and Star Trek and X-Files etc and i'm just high a noob who's too easily impressed.

also, and this i think is really cool and not talked about enough -- the way all the characters and narratives fit, i feel like JJ's going for some weird meta auteur thing (rimbaldi from ALIAS meets the quirks of the LOST island meets "the pattern" of FRINGE meets the alien of CLOVERFIELD), wherein he might actually ambitiously tie together ALL his shows' works into one meta-plot... so far, some of the character and conceptual overlaps fit a liiiiittle too well for this to not be in effect. at least, thus far, he's managed enough ambiguity in all the above to not totally rule it out.

Re: i have faith in the JJ

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I never said I was giving up LOST at all! No, no, barring absolute horribleness, we are seeing this one through as far as the DVDs will take us.

Ehh, I've got too much else going on in my life to follow another show. I barely watch any TV as it airs, with only time for the late-night Adult Swim sessions. Unless something pops up that makes FRINGE essential viewing for me, I think I'm gonna give it a pass for now. I'm not too into JJ's sci-fi style; oh, I like it, it's not "lite" or anything, but it doesn't connect with me on as personal a level as you. We'll see what he does with STAR TREK.

DOCTOR WHO, however, is totally my wavelength. See, that's another one I need to catch up on! I really, really get the appeal there.

It's a delicate balance, how those characters and narratives fit. I actually winced when they showed Sawyer with Jack's father, because I realized just how much I liked all the backstories being independent and not directly affecting one another. I say this in contrast with HEROES, which I understands only gets even more incestuous and interconnected with EVERYONE being related to EVERYONE ELSE.

Man, I shouldn't have posted this entry so soon. I fear this is only gonna exaserbate the situation, like I can't talk about the show until I've seen as much as everyone else, and everyone else can't say much without inadvertently raising expectations.

[findingjuliet.livejournal.com]

season 3 finale.

you'll continue to be really really not enthralled until then.

promise.

(do let us know when you finally meet Ben ...)

[gore-whore-5.livejournal.com]

Season 3 finale was the my favorite episode by far. Hands down, end of discussion.

Not to hype it up for you or anything, Heffie.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Not. Helping.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

See, this is why I should have held off until I had gotten all the way caught up, because I love ya dear, but you're not helping! If it's so great, the lowering expectations I currently have would have worked in my favor!

Now the show REALLY better put out!

(You should really watch THE STEPFATHER sometime. I need to share the Terry O'Quinn awesomeness with others who will appreciate such things)

[gore-whore-5.livejournal.com]

I'm right with you on this one. I'm all caught up with LOST and was contemplating stopping watching many times during Season 4, but dammit, there's just a couple of things I need resolved before I can stop caring completely. This is seriously resembling crack right now. We know it's not as good as the first time, we know it will never be that good again, but we still keep coming back to it just in case, and we can't actually stop no matter what we tell ourselves.

[interdisciple.livejournal.com]

if you'd been saying that about s3, i'd be with you, but s4??? s4 was The Shizz Nizzle!

[fragmentedsky.livejournal.com]

Season 2 is unquestionably the weakest of the ones aired. And you have yet to meet Michael Emerson's character, who along with Sawyer and Sayid is my favorite. All the same, the show goes back to hardcore badass (at least in my view) mid-season 3 and then utterly in season 4. Some aspects are cooler than others, but it's worth it to keep going.

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

Season 2 of Heroes was pretty good.

And the fact it doesnt have irony is what works about it.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

If likeminded critics call Season Two "middling-to-painfully bad" and even the show's own creator apologized for sucking so bad, I get the feeling I'm not gonna be interested.

The lack of irony gave the show a "so-bad-it's-good" classic B-movie charm for the first season. If the quality has gone down beyond *that*, fuck, dude, what's the point?

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

Critics suck balls.

The first "Highlander" movie got almost all totally shitty reviews, and that shit was awesome.

Conversely, critics fawned all over "There Will Be Blood", and "no Country For Old Men", which were boring as shit.

Season 2 didnt suck, it just wasnt quite as good as season 1.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Wow, dude, you and I have polar opposite tastes. HIGHLANDER was boring ass bullshit with a great soundtrack, while THERE WILL BE BLOOD and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN were two of the best movies of the past ten years, maybe more.

Dips and peaks

[american-arcane.livejournal.com]

It's the end of seasons that make Lost worth it.

Some of the later seasons manage a more even keel... and some are near worthless until you get to the middle of the season.

I think the second season of Lost is when it became clear to me that the writers really didn't have a solid plan going in to the series. If it had run the way I had it pegged by the end of the first season, things would have been a lot tighter and the whole thing would have been wrapped up by four seasons.

(And, just as of last season, they're getting to plot points I would have hit in season 2 or 3.)

Fringe has been entertaining... still not sure exactly what flavor they're aiming at with it.

Oh, and, I don't think you'll have to worry about using the term "browncoating" too much longer--just wait until Dollhouse shows up (and, inevitably, gets canceled). The fans for that show started their "Save Dollhouse" campaign before the first episode even started shooting. (It is, of course, another Joss Whedon production.) ;)

Re: Dips and peaks

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Welp, I have my mother and booze to help me along the slow periods and better appreciate the highlights.

Yeah, I'm getting that sense too. At least they had some idea and were able to follow through later on, so I understand. As opposed to X-FILES, which clearly was making the whole fucking thing up as it went along. TWIN PEAKS was one of the only shows that was allowed to work like that, until studio pressure fucked it up.

Oh lordy, I daren't consider what'll happen once DOLLHOUSE hits. The rabid hype of DR. HORRIBLE has only now started to die down, man! WHEEEEDONNNN!!!

[nymphgalatea.livejournal.com]

My attention span when it comes to TV is roughly the same as that of a butterfly on crack. You get six-to-ten-episodes per season in the UK and that's what I grew up with. Therefore the slow burn of LOST and most other American TV shows over a 25 episode season is lost on me. I watch the last two episodes of each season and seem to get along fine with the storylines.

And the DRAMA! music on LOST is great, it makes me jump and giggle in anticipation. I like the ominous title music on HEROES for the same reason. Stupid show, great music-snippet.