Table Tennis Anyone?
Rather than posting my take on the latest episode every week, I have enlisted the faithful readers of this blog to help out. For the next few weeks I will be asking active commenters for their impression on the latest episodes. First up is the ever present - Nico Tosconi.
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Ping- pong? They decided to have an island ping- pong tourney? Riiiiiiiight… Because if I was being menaced by killer Polar Bears, evil black smoke, a purple sky & a band of murderous, child kidnapping, deranged former scientists that’s what I’d be doing. There’s no way I would be organizing hunting parties, or exploring the island, or waging war on the psychotic “others”. Nope, I’d play ping- pong! The only slightly funny moment was when the increasingly Gene Simmons haired Sawyer asked the new guy: “who the hell are you?” My sentiments exactly…
As far as the return of “Patchy” (as he’s been so lovingly named around these parts, although I prefer Boris Badinov): All I can say is Sayid sure picked a lousy time to develop feelings. If I was him I would have done things to Patchy out of shear frustration that would’ve made what he did in the past look like a tea party. I’m talking “pair of pliers and a blow torch” type shit. I figure by now the survivors must be at least as pissed off as the audience about the severe lack of information they’ve been getting recently. Well, I can’t say nothing happened this week, unfortunately what did happen sucked.
-Nico Toscani
Written by Tyler on March 8th, 2007 with
167 comments.
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Hey Nico,
Great post. Why are you still watching a show that you dislike so much? Can’t you come up with some ideas on how to fix the show instead of just talking about how bad it “sucks”?
-BigJim (Out of retirement for this post)
p.s. Lost Sucks, Dude.
Thanks Jim, I “heart” you too…
I so hear you out, It’s like they done this before.
I’m Taylor Karras and I’ve been actively boycotting everything Disney, you know, Theme Parks, TV Shows, etc.
You should watch some other dramas that are not lost.
I think a lot of us keep watching the show because after following every single episode for the past seasons, we’d hope something happened. It started right, but now the show itself is completely lost. I’m watching today’s episode as I write this, and I think I’m finally done. Last episodes have sucked so much that I feel sorry for all the time I wasted before. A pity.
No more Lost for me. Last night was a new South Park, and I watched that instead. It was hilarious, but in the way it was intended to be. Not in the Lost sorta way. Lost is like crack. I will still visit this site every week to see what I missed (or, more aptly, what I didn’t miss). This show sucks, I am sure they are losing viewers every week. I’m proud to be one of them.
Also, I love reading the posts on here from people who like Lost. They criticize us for bitching about the show and tell us how pathetic we are, yet they are the ones seeking out people who have a DIFFERENT opinion than themselves, and tearing others apart for it. God I love hypocrisy.
I may be in the minority (here), but I don’t think THIS epi sucked that bad (C+/B-). HOWEVER, I think my standards are far lower than they were for this show.
I accept that we won’t see anything really new about characters in flashbacks (we already knew sayid was a pentitent ex-warrior) and that the big picture story arc will move along in very tiny increments.
it’s worth noting, the black woman/other character was introduced at the end of season II, then never seen again. so…naturally, I think an attentive audiece asks “who was she and where’d she go?”. she was obviously important enough to introduce…
so, she shows up last night, has about 60 seconds of screen time, then gets shot…wtf?
And out of the wilderness comes the voice of reason… I have to agree with you. This was not quite as vile as the last couple of weeks. In fact it was almost palatable. At long last, there has been some movement (however slight) in the plot. Although the ping pong tournament made my eyes bleed, its purpose was clearly comic relief because the rest of the material was pretty “dark” by primetime TV standards. I will echo Nico’s sentiments by saying that I find Sayid’s sudden development of a conscience inconvenient and inconsistent to say the least. Did he not torture the leader of the Others in the hatch a mere few weeks ago in Lost time? And why did they bother reintroducing that woman only to have her dispatched so unceremoniously. Oh Lawd Jesus, why dey killin’ all the Black folks?! Speaking of which, where are Michael and his boyah?! Having said this, last night’s episode was okay by even the most exacting of previous Lost standards. I always enjoy watching Sayid kiss ass. If this keeps up, my morbid fixation with this show might turn to hope and genuine interest again.
didnt sayid torture sawyer for something does seem right , that cat must have really freaked him out. tablr tennis anyone?
Amen to that brother.
I tried to watch last week but, it was too painful and I gave up after 20 minutes.
I come here to catchup too but, like you implied there isn’t much to catch up on.
I came her to look at other people’s opinions, true, but ideally, when I see something I disagree with, I like to discuss it with them, forming an argument between our opinions, and maybe, just maybe, using reasoning, which is better than the average Lost defender’s perhaps, that allows the person I’m discussing with to understand how I think of Lost and what I think of their views. Although I see a few level-headed response, I also see a number of what I’d consider over-exaggerated, over-the-top, over-irritated opinions. And don’t criticize me for bashing. I’d say that I’m being quite fair right now. Of course, further discussion with me would be better. But if you think that I’m not being fair, then what about yourselves?
Anyway, any fair analysis of Lost wouldn’t call it a perfect show. But I would say that it’s doing its best based on what it can do as a TV show, especially in that it has to please so many people at once. It has to please the people who want answers at every thing, while trying to bring in fun and interesting moments and all while not rushing through things too fast. I wouldn’t say its deaths are useless and I wouldn’t say every moment needs to be fleshed out to its fullest extent, at least not right away, for the show to be good.
A suggestion I’d give in watching the show is to not think about Lost as wanting to be realistic and respectable, but instead a show that tries to simply entertain, not necessarily by creating sustained tension, but in the presentation of its large story and by making you curious. Every episode that has got us to where we are now is an episode that adds to the story in some way. I think that’s why the best part about Lost is in creating its over-arching stories, and not in getting all the details to look right. Perhaps stop picking apart these little details and enjoy the story progression. It seems that each little detail that pisses you off just builds on all the other little things into one big hate for the show which obscures anything respectable you might point out. Even if something you hated from a previous episode comes back and causes you to see it in another way, does it erase the feeling you had for that detail, or does it remain in your big collection of hate for the show? Personally, I’m kind of worried that posters who talk about hating the show, yet don’t watch the episode and only get information from out of context rants are missing a lot and are just making their opinions of the show worse by being indirectly irritated by the show by following such rants. (I say this because I get the feeling that most of the people who post here don’t still regularly watch the show). I see that someone thought this last episode gave away absolutely no answers, but I wonder if they truly think that. Not only did we learn a lot about the Dharma Initiative, but we’ve learned quite a lot, considering where we started, about The Others, not to mention the many things we learned in season 2’s finale. It’s responses like these that make me wonder how much many of you are thinking out and being truly fair about your criticisms. And this is one of the reasons why I respond; to put forth the possibility that you may be a tad oversensitive and to question if some of you could use more fair criticism. Also, I just wanted to respond to those who sound like their so incredibly pissed off, especially the guy who said there’s supposedly been a lot of fans calling people here pathetic, that there are respectable Lost watchers out there who can response fairly. I hope I get an intelligent response to me. If you’d got something, I’d be willing to respond. I like the comment by BigJim. To put it another way, can anyone suggest how things should’ve happened or been shown?
hmmm, well. you said a lot. I like to think I’m fairly rational (and fair), but I can’t speak for everyone here. but since you seem open to discussion, a response to some of your points…
1) you may be right, some criticisms may be “unfair”, but…so what? it’s all in fun. someone venting here doesn’t do any harm to you or the show.
2) you sound like you view the show for pure entertainment (not realism). probably how it SHOULD have been taken all along. still, that doesn’t mean criticisms are not valid or warranted. plus, sounds like you’re pretty easily pleased if you think this epi told us “a lot about the Dharma Initiative”…the “a lot” part is exagerated I think.
3) “Personally, I’m kind of worried that posters who talk about hating the show, yet don’t watch the episode and only get information from out of context rants are missing a lot and are just making their opinions of the show worse by being indirectly irritated by the show by following such rants.”
I’m still boggled why supporters of the show care that some people DON’T like it. or lampoon it. or whatever. If you enjoy it, great! but do you really just not like that we’re critiquing a favorite show of yours? or do you have some actual retort to our slams? b/c it seems most of your post was (and I’m not being a dick here I promise) just whining about people getting the wrong idea about the show from our opinions on it. seems…odd…
To follow up on whether or not the show should be judged on its realism: in the very first episode of the show, a polar bear showed up on a tropical island. Then an evil monster beat the living Christ out of the plane’s pilot. None of that, really, is stuff that would occur on a typical day in my life. I don’t think I was ever really judging the show on realism at all — I knew from the start that we’d have to suspend disbelief. I mean, the very thought that anyone even *survived* that plane crash isn’t even realistic.
Lampooning the show is all well and fair, I guess, but seeing someone criticize an episode they haven’t even *watched* yet seems to fly in the face of comments by other people on this board. I’ve seen posts that effectively say some of you guys are *real* fans of the show who are merely watching with the fervent hope that it’s going to improve somewhere along the line. That’s all well and good: legitimate criticisms are fair. But for people who have already given up on the show and stopped watching, what’s the point of hanging around and flaming it? If it’s boredom, that’s cool, I guess.
fair enough. even having that many people survive is a bit absurd. it requires…a leap of faith. for the viewer to suspend disbelief (we’ve been over this, no?).
but, a couple points…
1) this show is not Crossing Jordan (where Lindelof wrote previously). that show obviously isn’t “real”. nobody talks that way! plenty of shows like that. just pop corn goofy crap. some of them are even enjoyable if that’s your flavor.
2) LOST producers have said that everything that happens can be explained scientifically. which I take to mean, this isn’t sci-fi (i.e. it COULD happen). to me that’s intent to portray “real” people in plausible scenarios.
and that’s my point…the premise no longer seems plausible. rather, it requires me to suspend disbelief too far for too long.
2. Well, I didn’t mean it was a whole bunch, but it certainly was a significant amount. When you think about it, what don’t we know about the Dharma Initiative? Maybe a few bits. We learn that they are distinct from the Others, that the Others are rebels against Dharma, that Dharma uses a sub and a radar thing to get to the island, and they bring people to the island with advertisements saying “do you want to save the world?” and little else, that Dharma is most likely completely over and everyone is dead, that the Barracks used to be Dharma and are probably the same as the place where the Others live, that the stations are in communication, that the Others have been on the island since before Dharma. You say Lost isn’t compelling and complex anymore. I think learning about the Others is one of the most complex and compelling parts about Lost. And I don’t see how the way its presented overall is any less compelling than the way the events in the first season were presented.
3. I think it’s just because I don’t think Lost deserves so much unfair criticisms from some people and when something’s being unfairly criticized, I like to try to defend it. That goes back to 1, too.
And for some actual retort, I’ll respond to something you said a few posts down. About Shannon seeing Walt: “we KNOW she knows…but why isn’t she telling anyone? what’s really going on? will anyone believe her??? but any curiosity died with her.” In the first episode, she sees Walt, tells Sayid, who doesn’t believe her, then she tells the whole group before Jack makes his speech about finding the hatch. They also don’t believe her but we get the first worry from everyone that the raft might not be okay. We don’t see this, but we suppose that she maintains this until five episodes later when she and Sayid see Walt together. The curiosity about it is sustained for the rest of the episode. Sayid brings up seeing Walt a few times after. Then at the end of the season, Ms. Klugh asks Michael “Did Walt ever appear in a place he wasn’t supposed to be?” Clearly there’s something here.
To the post agreeing with your, I think it’s pretty clear the writers have an idea with Libby. Her story will be completed in flashbacks, which I think will be a really interesting and new way to tell a story.
And to the post you responded to. Klugh was clearly explained. She was there because communication had been down, something that has been referred to multiple times and is more clearly explained in this episode. She killed herself because she refused to take them to where Jack is. She probably expected Mikhail to do the same but he was unable to.
And I don’t know if I’d call John blowing up the building his acting like a twit. He did it because the Others had in fact infiltrated. I doubt Sayid could fix an antenna that hasn’t worked in years. Blowing it up prevents the Others from using it to communicate and prevents the castaways from returning to it. So I don’t think it was written in as useless. Good point about the C4, I suppose. Although I personally didn’t assume that entering 77 if there’s an “incursion on the station by the Hostiles” would make the house blow up based on the C4 alone.
So some of the critiques seem to be a little harsh when they say certain moments are utterly horrible.
thanks for offering something substantive. but the shannon/walt thing (like libby and klugh) was more an example of poor writing/planning/structure. that’s my opinion.
i know they EXPLAINED why klugh was at the station in this most recent epi, but the fact that they introduced her last season, made her seem significant, then forget about her until she breifly reappears and gets shot….to me that doesn’t make the show complex. why couldn’t ben or another ‘other’ character we already knew have the interaction with walt last season? wouldn’t necessitate klugh being killed off two nights ago.
same thing with libby…
same thing with shannon seeing walt…
they SORT of address topics, but not to any real resolution (unless you consider killing off characters ‘resolving’ issues).
I guess it reminds me of how 5th graders learn to write: they use 15 words when 5 will do.
maybe this sums up my take on these particular elements (since you’re calling me out on shannon/libby/klugh)…
‘the 6th sense’ was a good movie. the hook at the end? I thought was masterfully done. but it was a hook. a gimic. same thing with ‘memento’. great gimic. great hook. yet another example, ‘blair witch project’. clever. original. but all relied on a gimic.
if you watch any of them again, they may have some redeeming qualities, but you know the hook. so…it’s not nearly as impactful.
with much of what I see on LOST (e.g. libby/klugh/shannon), it was fine the first time. get us to invest in a character, then kill them off gratuitously. fine.
but that’s a gimic. do it again…then again…???? it become less impactful. at least that’s my take. and I guess my frustration with the show could be summed up similarly. they continued to tease us with non-answers to interesting questions, while simultaneously posing NEW questions.
after a while, the gimic just doesn’t work.
I see your point. But I don’t think when they kill a main character, it’s always meant only to shock us. Libby, perhaps. But Shannon’s death provided a good dramatic way for the tailes to arrive. And I don’t think Klugh was even meant to be shocking, hence why we don’t get to know her as much as, say, Juliet. If Lost has a gimic, I certainly don’t think this is it. Since gimics are usually what the movie is focused on, it implies that Lost is focused on nothing else but that gimic. I don’t think Lost’s deaths are always complex. I can see how they can be an easy choice. Although sometimes I think choices like these are what they have to do for a show with so much to work with. A Libby/Hurley love storyline would’ve been lame. Shannon and Sayid needed something to happen to them in the jungle. Sometimes the deaths are great resolutions. Those that aren’t though I think are minor problems and there is still plenty of strength in the story as a whole. And I think it’s an overstatement to say that Lost gives us only non-answers and questions. For example, look out for an answer about Walt’s appearing somewhere he’s not. I do feel like I’ve got a better feeling for your criticism. It does make sense, I just think it’s overly harsh.
well…perhaps I’m not articulating my point well enough. but I think you’re focusing too much on the trees, not the forest.
it’s a fairly lazy (or unnecessarily manipulative) approach to introduce characters, then kill them off w/o having them have any real impact on the story or w/o resolving any of the story threads that character introduced.
klugh’s character served very little purpose. and if you think her being shot by patch showed us that the others are wililng to kill their own for The Cause (??), then I think you’re reaching.
I think there comes a point where a person doesn’t need to be developed to a whole character. It seems like to you, that’s what Mrs. Klugh’s problem was. I think all it would’ve taken was a few more moments with her earlier in season 3, but not too late into it because we would’ve noticed she was gone. Missing some small developments could be a slight lack in writing, but these kind of problems aren’t major. I think the thing that Lost is focusing most on, they’re doing well. Plus, I think they’re doing well in plenty of other ways. I’d be interested to hear what you have to say about the things that Lost IS answering and developing currently. And Libby and Shannon seem to be the characters that you say have things unresolved. But their stories don’t need to be resolved directly through those characters. They’ll be resolved in other ways. But I imagine they have to develop some other things first.
“I think there comes a point where a person doesn’t need to be developed to a whole character. It seems like to you, that’s what Mrs. Klugh’s problem was”
again, you seem to be preoccupied with klugh, or shannon, or libby. I don’t think shannon was unresolved, I thought the part about her seeing walt has been…left dangling. like many other things.
as for klugh, let me try one more time. I don’t think there was anything to resolve with her b/c I don’t think she was a necessary character. killing her off meant little to me except that I wondered why they made her SEEM important in season 2.
these are just examples of gaps, or indulgent writing. that’s what I think. you obviously disagree.
what are they answering? well…maybe they have/are/will answer ‘major’ questions, but for the most part, they seem to manufacture small mysteries that they can answer (e.g. jack’s tats). these are things most people hadn’t cared much about, the show makes a point of telling us about them. any primary information is leaked in what I think are pretty small and pretty spread out increments…drip….drip….drip…
I’m not preoccupied with those characters. I just keep responding to what you say about them. Sorry. I understand that it’s Shannon seeing Walt that’s your problem. I meant that she has something unresolved. So it’s the idea of something dangling that you don’t like. But just because the writers leave it dangling doesn’t mean they’ve dropped it or that that’s all it is. I think you realize that. Maybe you’re just irritated that they dangle at all. There have been many examples of events that have come back later and their significance added to and I don’t think that’ll stop. A good example of this would be the Monster. Despite the fact that it’s come in only a few times, the times when it has come in has been interesting and we’ve learned a significant amount about it since we first learned about it. We learned that it takes the form of people the character knows, that it judges people, that it sees into people’s minds, what it looks like, we learned that Eko and Locke saw two very different things in it (one darkness and the other light), how it kills people, and that it enters and exits the island through Cerubus Vents as seen on the blast door map. So now that you look back at it, was it so annoying to see the Monster gone for so long? I see about Klugh. Not the best way show the character, but you’re right, I think we disagree about just how bad it was.
I don’t think it’s a maybe that they are, will, and have answered major questions. The Others are being answered right now. What’s wrong with letting it out slowly? They’re still letting it out, and the moments when they do let those moments out are at the most effective moments. That’s one of the things they seem to be good at. Finding the way to let out information at good moments. Revealing what the button was for for example is a smaller primary question that was ultimately resolved. For the best example of a part that’s being leaked out significantly, I again point to The Others and all they’ve revealed about them. This question may be leaking it out small and spread out, although not so much as you imply, but the pace in which it does so is good. It creates this pace, one, to develop the story context and, two, because answering these questions isn’t what the show is about. It balances between giving information and telling other stories, which is fairly balanced between both. You get Desmond’s excellent story, then you get Jack’s episode which tells us about how The Others see their judgment system, then Hurley’s story and its return to fun, then Sayid’s story.
When Lost is over and it’s wrapped up, we’ll be able to look back on it and see if the way they leaked primary things out was done in an effective way. If it wasn’t and in the end, they just can’t wrap up questions, you’ll be right. (Part of ‘the numbers question’ was answered in the Lost Experience by the way.) But I see no reason to think they can’t or won’t do so.
If you feel like we’re going over the same ideas, I’ll understand if you’d like to give up. I feel like we’ve understood each other quite a bit. Your fairness and criticism is much more understandable than some, especially these original posters. If you’re not tired, I’m still interested in discussing these points.
heh heh…no. not tired. but I do think we’ll just continue to go round n’ round. I think those are the first salient points (or examples) you’ve provided. and I think you’re right about some.
I think you’re MORE right about this…
“because answering these questions isn’t what the show is about. ”
this is possibly why the show was very good, then frustrating, and now continues to be simultaneously fairly and unfairly bashed. follow me…
the show was conceived to be character driven, and it mostly still is. therein lies it’s strength and weakness. strength b/c we liked the characters, the resonated. the ‘mysteries’ were more secondary, a thread to tie the characters and their experiences together.
however, the mysteries became the real draw for many folks. but it (the show) wasn’t up to fulfilling viewers demands…at least not at the pace they wanted.
now back to the characters. what I don’t like is that we seem to see the same thing(s) with the characters. or perhaps again, I’m not satisfied with the drip, drip, drip that they reveal anything new or interesting. flashbacks for me have become pretty redundant.
so…unfair bashing: show wasn’t about mystery, but they dug that hole themselves. fair bashing: characters seem stagnant. fairy bashing: illegal in most states I think.
don’t get me wrong, I don’t WANT the show to fail, but there’s been a dramatic and precipitous drop in viewers from season II opener to now.
by the by, I still watch and I thought wed’s epi was ok.
Yeah. Thanks. I completely agree. The mysteries were supposed to be secondary, and its difficult to fulfill viewer’s desire to see more of it. I agree about the somewhat redundancy in flashbacks, too. It is interesting to see more of a character’s life, but I’d agree that a characters first two or three flashbacks are the meatiest and its time for new characters to come in to provide fresh flashback that are meaty again. Yeah, keep watching. I have a feeling that this season might end up saying a lot and will end up not being as bad as people think, and those who still watch regularly will see it.
Your comments are very thoughtful.
It should be noted that I don’t think it was Tyler’s intention to evangelize anyone to abandon LOST.
I personlly loved this show, at one time. But, at some point it was clear to me that the plot stopped progressing in any meaningful way.
It further seemed that ABC was using the show as a cash cow, thus stringing along viewers to milk revenue.
I watched the show, loving it for almost 2 years, and began to be frustrated by it and hate it more and more as I watched. Fed up I did a google search for “lost sucks” and found this site.
It isn’t really fair to say, we haven’t give the show a chance. In fact many of us have given it multiple chances.
I myself try to watch every so often in the small hope that the writers will get their acts together, and each time I have done this I have been disappointed.
Judging by the ratings we are not the only ones, we are just the vocal ones.
I’d recommend watching Flashing Before Your Eyes. I’ve heard some people call it one of the best episodes of Lost ever. Seriously. It was well written and the guy who plays Desmond makes him into such an interesting character. He’s one of the best on the show and they clearly realized this by keeping him on. I also wouldn’t recommend watching a single Lost episode without the others. I’m sure you’d miss a lot in terms of context and build up.
Wow you make the episode sound horrible.
It probably was.
Thanks to the info.
Tell me though on a sucking scale were did this one rank?
a 0, it was purely imaginative and a great lost episode
Johnny, put down that cough syrup!!!
I’m going to have to disagree with you slightly on this one, Nico. This episode, while not epic, was considerably better than the previous two weeks. I think the table-tennis scenes were limited enough in length to add a touch of comic relief without being intrusive. Yes it was entirely predictable that Sawyer was going to lose to Hurley but it’s not like the whole episode centered around the game. Thankfully much more time was spent on Sayid and his group.
The Sayid flash-back had some tense moments in it. We certainly didn’t learn anything new about Sayid but it was good to see one of the best LOST characters in the spotlight for a change.
We did learn that the Others are not Dharma scientists. They were there before Dharma showed up and were referred to as the “Hostiles”.
We got to see Kate actually assert herself (rifle butt!) instead of whining all the time.
The fight scene with Sayid, Kate and the Mad Russian was cool and the confrontation outside the radar shack had some drama to it.
If I had to grade the episode, I’d give it a C+. Flawed but entertaining in spots.
Hello, I just found this site last night and read through most of it. It’s pretty spot on.
Pluses of the show last night:
- No extended ping pong scenes
- More Sayid story, less stupid characters
….yeah that’s pretty much it.
Minuses last night:
- A ping pong storyline
- Endless roaming, no actual story arc
- lame flashback that reveals nothing or leads to anything
- Stupid computer games
- The fruit cutting people talking
- Kate looking scared…again
- Locke doing something he shouldn’t…again
I could go on, but then I’d start getting more annoyed. Anyway this show has been frustrating all season long, yet I keep watching. Why? Oh and Christopher I stayed up to watch the midnight South Park, and yes it was excellent as it always is.
I found myself torn. I liked some aspects of the show (sayid is a great character, why do they force feed us jack and kate when people actually like/care about sayid??), but as I’ve said, the show is more fun for its mockability than its “complexity” or compellingness. I look back at how I really liked the show in Season I (and part of Season II) and think, was I really that gullible??
I think I took to show far too seriously, and it’s just meant to be. despite how much supporters argue to the contrary, the show just is not that complex. in fact, I find the opposite to be true, and watching the show as pure escapist fare makes it somewhat more tolerable.
one nagging nit I truly HATE about LOST…
sawyer asking that dude (paulo??) “who the hell are you” is an absolute nod to critics who ask the same question. and it’s that sort of ‘easter egg’ that many supporters find so “clever” about the show. I find it to be pure pandering, and I’d rather have them be more clever with the plot. hell, they may as well break the 4th wall and have sawyer or hurley or charlie talk directly to the camera every now and then.
as for Locke…I know it helped get the result they (writers) wanted, but is he such a chess-nut that he’s going to forgo personal security to play a computer???
Definitely, dude. Pandering. “Who the hell are you?” That’s retarded. He’s one of the dudes you’ve been *trapped on a deserted island with* for what, three months? You just KNOW all the drooling fanboys laughed at the “inside” joke that wasn’t even friggin’ funny.
Yeah, it was only “slightly” funny as I said. I guess I wasn’t really reading as much into it as everybody else. I was too distracted by Sawyer’s stoopid hair.
My friend, Sawyer’s hair deserves its own episode. A far worthier topic than Jack’s tatoo.
one last thing…
I feel like I’m watching a “choose your own adventure” book when I watch LOST.
You’re sitting in front of a Dharma computer…
If you decide to play chess and blow up the station, turn to page 3.
If you decide to rub one out looking at pictures of Antonella Barba, turn to page 4.
LOL - Nice!
LOL
Locke’s character has definitely become derailed. He was much more compelling in Season 1 when he was a mysterious survivalist/hunter who sought out the islands secrets. Once some of the “magic” of the island was revealed he seemed to become something of a twit. I think we all prefer the hard-core John Locke of yester-year to the confused weenie we see on the screen these days.
And man, did those morons come up with a nice way to deal with the mysterious black lady or what? The writers obviously couldn’t develop a compelling story line or explanation for her so they summarily executed her. Very poor writing, indeed.
Also, how much more compelling would Locke’s attempts on the computer have been had they not revealed the existence of the C4 explosives? It would’ve made entering the code “77″ much more intriguing. We would’ve had to guess what it meant. Will the code 77 send a distress signal, will it alert the Others to their presence, will it set off alarms or a defensive system? No. It was extremely obvious that code 77 would blow up the building because we saw the C4. That’s not only bad writing, that’s bad directing.
good points.
again, nitpicking (especially backwards nitpicking), is easy. and again, wouldn’t be something I’d necessarily do but the show no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt.
but here’s one that fits in the ‘bad writing/directing/planning’ category:
beginning of season II, shannon sees walt in the woods. he…projected (?) himself? she tells who sayid, I think, but then she dies.
seems to me, when you introduce a “secret” like that to the audience, it has power only to the extent that the character(s) on the show are able to sustain the suspense. we KNOW she knows…but why isn’t she telling anyone? what’s really going on? will anyone believe her??? but any curiosity died with her. the show seems to do that type of thing quite a bit.
I felt the same way when Libby died.
The writers don’t know how to tie up loose ends so they just cut the laces.
“I felt the same way when Libby died.”
exactly.
apparently lockes pissed off about that too. the writers said we’ll be getting our knife weilding ,boar killing hunter back soon
Last nights episode was the first I have ever missed, and do you guys remember when Libby got Hurley to destroy his hidden food storage/hoard? And hurley was like “I FEEL FREE”… well guys, I FEEL FREE! Now all i gotta do keep strong and not go back in the cycle of watching, but the thing like that somebody already said was Lost is like crack.. and ABC.com is my enabler, I know I can go back anytime and get my fix. Trying to stay strong
you and many others…
LOST’s ratings last night were at 12.34m. that’s down from around 12.8 the previous two epis. so…even with a strong[er] episode viewership declined.
just further evidence they’ve reached a point where one or two or even three good episodes might not return the show to its prior glory.
Honestly, some of that viewship drop could be attributed to the timeslot change. 10 p.m. isn’t exactly a good time for Lost.
i was hoping that now thats its at ten there would be somebody cursing …but again they failed me . now will someone get me off this fucking island, fu*******k i cant stop watching
sure, but the 12.8 number is also since it’s move to 10:00
last night at 12.34 is another 500k drop.
Dear Tyler,
I come to this site to hear YOUR point of view of LOST. While I don’t always agreed with you, your usually spot on.
Nico’s blog missed several big points - Why pawn off your own blog?
Disappointed -
I just wanted to try something new. I figured it might mix things up a bit to let others have the first word and keep things fresh around here. I’ll post my thoughts in a comment later today.
Thanks,
T
Cool, Tyler. I’ll be waiting for my chance to write a guest blog. Keep me posted on that.
*Cough Cough*
Attention Whore
Let the personal attacks continue, David! Love you lots!
Okay I’ll admit that one was harsh.
Sorry ’bout that.
Don’t worry about it.
I can’t believe I just typed that.
Well I guess I could’ve done a scene by scene analysis, but I’m saving that for the EW website…
alright, alright, enough is said and i could agree to most of the points. although no one actually admitted that this episode was MUCH better than preious two, it was watchable, and, dare i say, unpredictable. i mean , michail turning to be an other, and Klough - could you see it coming?
im just saying lets pay attention to pluses rather than minuses and life will be brighter.
ah, terrible russian speech bugged me as i am russian myself. lol russian maffia rules the world!
I said it was “considerably better”. A grade of C+ is *much* better than the F-minus-minus-minus I would give the previous two episodes.
A stronger but still somewhat mediocre effort. If they can build off of this (a very big IF at this point) then future episodes may actually hold some excitement and we can all start looking forward to Wednesday nights again.
And I said (see above): And out of the wilderness comes the voice of reason… I have to agree with you (LostSkeptic). This was not quite as vile as the last couple of weeks. In fact it was almost palatable. At long last, there has been some movement (however slight) in the plot. Although the ping pong tournament made my eyes bleed, its purpose was clearly comic relief because the rest of the material was pretty “dark” by primetime TV standards. I will echo Nico’s sentiments by saying that I find Sayid’s sudden development of a conscience inconvenient and inconsistent to say the least. Did he not torture the leader of the Others in the hatch a mere few weeks ago in Lost time? And why did they bother reintroducing that woman only to have her dispatched so unceremoniously. Oh Lawd Jesus, why dey killin’ all the Black folks?! Speaking of which, where are Michael and his boyah?! Having said this, last night’s episode was okay by even the most exacting of previous Lost standards. I always enjoy watching Sayid kiss ass. If this keeps up, my morbid fixation with this show might turn to hope and genuine interest again.
Yes, I did see his being an “other” coming. I wasn’t fooled for a nanosecond. As for the reintroduction of Klugh (what a CLEVER name), all I did was scream at the TV “…ug, I hate that bitch!” and then she was dead. Considering she was about the only “other” I ever found even remotely menacing it was a shame to kill her off immediately (if she’s really dead of course).
next week, there area number of characters who, when they appear on screen, deserve the “…ug, I hate that bitch!” death command.
might clear out some dead wood from the character roster.
Just to correct a mistake on here….Sawyer’s comment “Who the hell are you?” was made to the new girl in the show, not to Paulo.
thanks…I’ll admit I was flipping b/w South Park and LOST so I didn’t catch all of it.
I can’t tell them apart, is she the one with the beard? Sorry about that.
don’t sweat it, one or both will be re-introduced later this season….then die.
That’s another thing about the show that bugs me - the cheap drama. It’s bad enough that characters like Boone and Shannon had everything but the words “FIRST TO DIE” tattooed on their foreheads, being so annoying and useless that nobody gives a shit when they are killed off. It’s insulting to the audience and emotionally manipulative…you’ve got all the drama of death, murder, etc. without risking upsetting the audience too much. But then to introduce NEW characters on a show that’s already got too many, just so you can presumably kill them off? Dee-you-em-bee, DUMB. And lazy. Drama is called “drama” because it’s f^&king dramatic, not easy and predictable.
They’re called “red shirts” in the parlance of Star Trek.
The introduction of new characters at this point is almost as insulting as the lack of closure with respect to the fate of a number of characters on the show: (1) Michael and his “boyah”: where are they?!; (2) Claire + baby: what are the possible consequences of the experiment conducted on Claire by the Others; (3) Desmond + Charlie: will Charlie die?; (4) Rose + Bernard: where they at?! And why was their story even introduced? (5) Hurley: is the entire Lost experience a figment of Hurley’s diseased mind? — I could go on like this forever… What a mess!!! The show is not beyond redemption because it has slipped into mediocrity. The things that you all complain of now: discrepancies, internal inconsistencies, the insultingly implausible, pseudo mysticism, , mediocre dialogue, melodrama, etc. HAVE ALWAYS been present in this show. The difference is that it was possible to overlook these shortcomings in the first season because the show was otherwise sufficiently engaging and entertaining. Although the March 7th episode was the best of season 3 so far (let’s give credit where credit is due), it was still too mediocre to turn my perverse curiosity into genuine interest. The show is beyond redemption because the writers are themselves lost; there are so many characters, so many stories, so many questions left hanging and these disparate elements are so convoluted that it will be impossible to resolve in any intelligent, coherent, credible or satisfactory manner. We can only look on in morbid fascination as this wretched bloated bird twitches and gasps for its final breath before it expires at last and extinguishes even our desire to share our mutual contempt.
I think my view is just about the same as your’s, turkey. and this sums it up pretty well.
supporters of the show may like to pick nits with our criticisms (just as we pick nits with the show itself), but I think they fail to grasp the more fundemental ‘issues’ many of us have described time and again.
i cant comprehend how you ppl can complain about lost.
i dont like a lot of tv shows, but I dont come to the site and complain about it.
i come to this site weekly because its interesting how you people can complain so much about nothing.
Okay, let us explain ourselves again for the terminally dim-minded. I will try and use as many monosyllables as possible to avoid any possible confustion.
*We used to like the show. We thought it was good. We enjoyed watching it.
*Most of us do not like the current direction the show is going in, for reasons itemized here. We want our old, kick-ass “Lost” that wasn’t about carpet-bombing the audience with twists, bogus “thrillers” and useless plot lines/flashbacks. We want some answers.
*Those of us that are continuing to watch the show in spite of this are doing so in the hope the writers will wake up from their lazy slumber and put some more cohesion back into the show.
It’s kind of nice for me to have a place to talk about this with other people who agree with me. Would you prefer that we all hit the fanboards and complained among people who still like the show? Give me a break. You guys have the Fuselage, IMDb, and countless other geek sites. Rapidly increasing anti-fans, whose numbers are quite evident from this site, need a place to go as well.
And I’m not sure if the fanboys are being ironic on purpose, but do you really come to a site that you don’t like to tell people to stop watching a show that they don’t like? I mean, is it giving you liver disease just knowing that there’s a site out on the big ol’ innernut where people dare to post a contrary opinion about a TV program? Or are you being forced against your will to read this site, a la A Clockwork Orange?
“…is it giving you liver disease just knowing that there’s a site out on the big ol’ innernut where people dare to post a contrary opinion about a TV program? ”
heh heh…absolutely! I think one reason I continue to watch and post about the craptacular LOST is that it apparently causes so much angst among the fanboy set the we (dissenters) even exist! wtf?
I think too many people are incapable of grasping the concept that these sorts of things are subjective. Hell, it would be one thing if this site were a bunch of people who never liked the show from the start, but kept watching just to talk about how much they’ve always thought it sucked. That would be stupid. But that’s not the case here for any of us.
whats so good about season 1?
if a person watched season 1 up until last nights episode on dvd, it would be impossible to tell the difference of where a season starts and ends, thus impossible to fid your imaginary flaws in the show. its like me watching… oh i have a better one. its like be making a site about why google sucks. “ahh that background it so boring and plain and white! can the search results get any more predictable? those multicolored letters are bogussss.”
That’s just silly! Here’s two differences (out of many) between season 1 and now :
1) In season one the flashbacks were used to develop the characters & explain their motives. In season three the flashbacks are filler for entire episodes to buy time while the writers think of what crap to throw at us next. They don’t tell us anything the flashbacks from the 1st season (or maybe even 2nd) didn’t already tell us better.
2) In season one the “others” are a menacing, freaky, mysterious force of nature. In season three they are a bunch of totally pedestrian, megalomaniacal, rejects from The Prisoner type protagonists.
How ’bout them apples? Boooyah!
*ahem* sorry…
It doesn’t matter where the seasons start and end, nor does anything you wrote change the fact that it went from being a good show to a sucky one. We all have differing opinions on exactly when that happened.
Also, most people don’t have emotional investments in things like Google. They haven’t spent over 50 + hours watching Google, seeing characters develop and take an interest in their lives and where the plot is going. Your comparison is hollow.
When Locke blew up the house, along with that satellite dish, was anyone else reminded of when Gilligan broke the Professor’s coconut radio? My prediction for next week: Locke accidentally loses the map that Sayid found. It’s almost like he’s become comic relief.
P.S. Great blog! I’m glad that I’m not the only one who’s developed such a dislike for one of my former favorite shows.
This episode was better than the last few weeks (actually better than the whole of the season so far). I think now the writers are truly turning a fork in the road. Mark my words next week will see an even better episode as Sawyer (accompanied by 80’s power ballads) gets back into shape to pit his might against the champion ping pong player Hurley. After all that whole flame station thing was just a diversion to chop up the epic six episode ping pong island tournament. I fully expect by the end of the season to see Ben playing a bit of ping pong himself.