Lost (minor rants)

Chilli said:

My sister is trying to get me to watch Heroes, as it's apparently awesome, but frankly, I no longer feel like starting to watch TV shows, if it seems like the general trend is for them to start sucking after a year.

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I'd go for it, Chilli. I'm picky as hell and I never really thought I would start watching Heroes, but it's solid and entertaining. There has been very little padding this entire Season, and there have been some major plot/action set peices so far. And the incredible thing is: It's only the first Season. I feel like the show has been on for much longer, but in a good way.

B5_Obsessed said:

I'd go for it, Chilli. I'm picky as hell and I never really thought I would start watching Heroes, but it's solid and entertaining. There has been very little padding this entire Season, and there have been some major plot/action set peices so far. And the incredible thing is: It's only the first Season. I feel like the show has been on for much longer, but in a good way.

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I might, eventually give it a try. At least when the second season starts and isn't rubbish - if that happens

The idea sounds daft to me, thus, I am biased against it .. but then, I was biased against Buffy, as that idea sounded (and is) totally daft. I was even biased against B5, as I thought it'd be a cheap Star Trek clone.

Interesting Article regarding the hyped "Three Major Mysteries Revealed" in that episode a couple weeks back.

Article


Thing is, to someone like me, even if the Tatoos thing was considered a "BIG" mystery to some, to me I couldn't have cared less. My answer was "well, the actor has tatoos, so thats probably why." There are other far more important things to be answered in this show...

Hell, I never even thought that the tattoos would ever be considered by anyone to be a mystery in need of solving. I didn't watch that episode because I was tired and went to bed, figuring I wouldn't miss anything. Imagine my lack of surprise when I found out I was right, and that the biggest solved-mystery in the episode was the damn tattoos.

Can you imagine something like why Centauri men have big hair being considered some huge revelation on B5?

The network guys in charge of the promos must really not be following message boards online. I guess they thought that they were being smart and witty with making false promises .. when in fact, they've been doing the same nonsense anyone that's been watching has been sick of for some time already. They've GOT to stop conning people if they don't want people to become so pissed that they'll not tune in anymore.

And yeah .. I never considered the tatoos anything anything anyone would care about. I would have much prefered not knowing, considering how ultimately lame and stupid the explenation was.

This encourages a comment. From the article Recoil posted:

Lindelof: "We're fairly sure that there is one big mystery revealed, which is how Jack got his tattoos.

Cuse: "The other two might just be promo-mania."

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I'd say the tattoo-revelation is manic too, on part of these producers. It's not even a tiny mystery, let alone a "big" one.

Eek, and I forgot to post about it earlier; I instantly thought of a previous conversation from this board when watching last night's episode of Lost. They had yet another slow-motion walk-around the beach schpecial-music scene. They need to get a new directorial idea, dagnabbit!

vacantlook said:

Eek, and I forgot to post about it earlier; I instantly thought of a previous conversation from this board when watching last night's episode of Lost. They had yet another slow-motion walk-around the beach schpecial-music scene. They need to get a new directorial idea, dagnabbit!

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My thoughts were quite firmly with Recoil's rant about that kind of nonsense during that scene. Gah, they've got to stop doing that!

vacantlook said:

Eek, and I forgot to post about it earlier; I instantly thought of a previous conversation from this board when watching last night's episode of Lost. They had yet another slow-motion walk-around the beach schpecial-music scene. They need to get a new directorial idea, dagnabbit!

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Lost sure does fit that to a tee doesn't it? *sigh*

Regarding the Tattoos, apparently according to the Podcast, the Producers told ABC to hype it in this way "A longtime fan mystery will be revealed, and we'll see someone we haven't seen since last season", ABC decided to go with "Three big Mysteries finally revealed". I too never was very interested in his tattoos. The Producers have always said the Tattoos were Matt Fox's (And Charlie's is Dom's) but there would be a story reason for them. There have been a great many posts on the ABC LOSt boards for a very long time with people desperate to find out about them. however, once the episode aired, funnily enough, people were crying "Who would even care about his damned tattoos"

If the Promos hadn't been so overhyped, Cindy and the kids would've been a complete surprise (IE: No spoiler leaks or evidence of them in the promos) and there was a little more about them in the episode, I think this episode would've been much better received by the viewers. I think there should've been some hint from Cindy as to why she was being so cooperative, and what they were there to watch. For example, if they were there to watch the program airing Room 23 (Carl's brainwashing room), I think Cindy should've worked one of the subliminal phrases into conversation, such as "God Loves you as Jacob" or something, or if she was convinced the "Others" were good guys by something, perhaps a little cryptic something hinting at what they said to convince her ("There really is someone much worse on this island, Jack"). Had they done all this, I think the episode could've been pretty good, despite the stupidity of the whole tattoo reveal.

As it is, we are left wondering if Cindy was there to watch in Room 23, to watch jack, or maybe to reinforce her training (or brainwashing) by watching Juliet's trial. I'm not sure it was neccessary to leave us wondering that.

As soon as I think Lost has "jumped the shark" it goes and totally "jumps the shark" again and again and again...

I don't think they know how to write a book because that's what these shows are, really long books. You start off with character introductions and development and a little bit past halfway through you peak and then you wrap everything up and end it.

They decided to peak first and then do character intro and devel. By the time they wrap it up I have forgotten about the peak and can only remember how awful the character intro and devel was.

I have an old english book from high school if they want to borrow it which explains how a novel should flow. Oh well.

jnk5y said:

As soon as I think Lost has "jumped the shark" it goes and totally "jumps the shark" again and again and again...

I don't think they know how to write a book because that's what these shows are, really long books. You start off with character introductions and development and a little bit past halfway through you peak and then you wrap everything up and end it.

They decided to peak first and then do character intro and devel. By the time they wrap it up I have forgotten about the peak and can only remember how awful the character intro and devel was.

I have an old english book from high school if they want to borrow it which explains how a novel should flow. Oh well.

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I think was a direct result of the network it was on (ABC). All the arc'ed shows like this in the past that have had some success, have been on smaller networks (X-Files - FOX, B5 - PTN/UPN/WB, Buffy - UPN/WB, Farscape - SciFi Channel, etc) so 3-7 million viewers was fine for them. Being on ABC LOST needed far higher ratings to survive, so they had no choice but to throw out all the mysteries at once, and appeal to people of all genres, and I think this is part of LOST's problem now, as it goes in a specific direction, parts of the audience are alienated, because that's not the direction they signed on for, which in turn causes them to flounder and experiment trying to figure out how to keep everyone happy with the "lowest common denominator"

Recoil said:

Thing is, to someone like me, even if the Tatoos thing was considered a "BIG" mystery to some, to me I couldn't have cared less. My answer was "well, the actor has tatoos, so thats probably why." There are other far more important things to be answered in this show...

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No kidding. I was nice to see what they thought the "three mysteries" were but that whole tattoo thing was never a "mystery" for me.

Oh and I couldn't help laughing throughout the show at how Sawyer was able to come up with a new nickname for everyone he encountered.
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I got a kick out of this week's episode. You people are way too serious about your TV shows.

Hurley is one of my favorite characters on Lost. Most of the other characters have had the "mysteries" of their lives before the crash explained. We know why Jack was in Australia. We know why Kate was under arrest, and we know what Sawyer was doing. Same with Jin & Sun. Locke and Hurley are the two who come to mind when it comes to unanswered questions.

This was a big character development episode for Hurley. His dad is friggin' CHEECH for cryin' out loud! Coolness factor went up when I saw him in that hilarious curly wig.

There HAVE to be interim episodes where we see what's going on with the rest of the cast. This week was the first time we've seen Jin and Sun since the show came back from fall hiatus. And hell, even CHARLIE made me laugh this week.

There was some good comic relief in it, yes. Just somehow .. the timing is all wrong.

Good playing for episodes functioning entirely as comic relief is, for example, Sic Transit Vir on B5, which came after a great big payoff (Messages from Earth/Point of No Return/Severed Dreams/Ceremonies of Light and Dark). Lost, however, has only had buildup recently .. and next to no payoff. I probably would have liked this episode a lot more if it had been at another time, and I might enjoy it more on repeated viewing. But right now, I just want something to friggin HAPPEN already!

I thought the episode was fine. I just LOVE Hurley, was surprised to see Cheech... we got to meet "Roger"... and yes, the meteorite destroying the chicken shack was a little out there but it just reinforced the whole curse thing for me.

I thought the very best part came last, and I am so intrigued by it, it's certain to bring me back next week. I can't wait to see what Mira is going to do with this one!

The crashing meteor was the one thing in the episode that I actually enjoyed; I tend to like humor that's a little bit unusual as the meteor crash was.

Does anybody else wonder if Walt and Michael truly got out?

No, but thanks for reminding me that I was really pissed off that one of the biggest mysteries of the first season, Walt and his abilities, was never explained at all and that he left the show without a SINGLE F%#KING PAYOFF on that. He wasn't even in the second season for more than an episode or two, because he was taken by the Others, and then in the S2 finale, he sails off with Dad.

Will we see him again? Who knows. But its that kind of crap that has people so pissed off about how this show is being handled. What we want to know about, are mysteries of the island, and what Walt's deal was. What we got was knowledge of how Jack got his fucking tatoos.

Who cares?

But I wonder if that's in some way deliberate? They use the best characters very sparingly... the question is, when they come to using them... do they utilise them well?

If you think of B5... and Kosh's airtime, you remember pretty much everything he said... because it was powerful and used sensibly.

I think when you do get round to using those characters, there should be some kind of pay off every now and then. This is drama not tantric sex.

I heard they were originally going to kill Locke off in season 1. That is what worries me the most, that they have these amazing characters... but they don't understand which ones carry the most weight... and that is where the imbalance comes form.