tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494160638739613756.post2260627134626218789..comments2024-03-28T02:30:08.913-04:00Comments on Not Just Movies: Lost — Season 5Jakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09078001374402400232noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494160638739613756.post-16437500882591309072010-02-19T13:47:53.173-05:002010-02-19T13:47:53.173-05:00Great review, Jake. You pretty much sum up perfec...Great review, Jake. You pretty much sum up perfectly all that is good and bad about the show. <br /><br />I likely would have quit watching the show after season 3 if I wasn't assured of a stopping point for the show. The wheels were definitely spinning at that point, so it's been nice to watch the last two seasons knowing that things are working toward a resolution somehow. And with all that said, and I rag on the show's lazy writing a lot, it really is a one-of-a-kind show on TV right now with it's plotting and style, truly "event television."<br /><br />As for Kate -- AMEN! Watching lots of TV continually reminds you that a majority of TV cannot write strong female characters. LOST has always had that as an issue.<br /><br />Plus, Kate and Jack suffer from "Poochie" syndrome with the LOST writers. Dear God, they are the two most annoying, sanctimonious characters on the show, do we always have to be reminded of just how important they are to everyone on the island (And with that venting done -- isn't it nice that they at least gave Jack a bit of hubris in the first episodes of the current season).<br /><br />Of course the best development from a character standpoint was the whole Sawyer/Juliet thing, which you noted. Great acting and writing in that entire arc.Troy Olsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14843741571724231174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494160638739613756.post-45691337382972704742010-02-19T10:27:49.982-05:002010-02-19T10:27:49.982-05:00Not surprisingly, the time travel business got to ...Not surprisingly, the time travel business got to be a little much after a while, and the final cliffhanger kinda bugged me, but an awesome season all in all. New season is kicking ass so far!Aiden R.http://ctcmr.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494160638739613756.post-11602083217755644012010-02-18T16:58:58.238-05:002010-02-18T16:58:58.238-05:00I finally caught up all the way today. Barring the...I finally caught up all the way today. Barring the Kate episode (siiiiiiiggggghhhhh), the other two were fantastic and compelling despite not rushing to get to the answers. I called the smoke monster reveal after what we saw in the finale (as well as Ben's ordeal with the monster a few episodes prior). The most recent episode is one of the better eps of the series.<br /><br />I too loved Sawyer's time at the helm. I thought it was funny that Hugo tried to write The Empire Strikes Back, as Sawyer has always been the Han to Jack's Luke (although, if anything Jack has regressed where Luke matured, going from a competent leader to an impulsive douche). I can't believe the writers would mess with the Sawyer/Juliet relationship for even a second with Kate. The ultimate development of their relationship was quite touching and emotional, but to waste a moment of our time with the notion that Sawyer would leave a far more interesting and compatible person to put up with Kate's incessant glaring and selfishness irked me to no end.<br /><br />It is indeed more interesting than most anything else on TV, which is why I return to it despite the ever-present suspicion that the writers do what they do just to maintain viewers (which of course hasn't worked as the show has bled viewers since the start, so that theory likely holds no water). But sitting back and letting yourself get caught up in the nonsense is great fun, as opposed to the endless speculation on the web that I find tedious despite my inclination toward analysis; Lost is a show that benefits most from not switching off your brain but still "accepting the mystery," to take from A Serious Man.Jakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09078001374402400232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494160638739613756.post-1431948420653002542010-02-18T15:03:14.788-05:002010-02-18T15:03:14.788-05:00Nice piece, Jake. I'm someone who started gett...Nice piece, Jake. I'm someone who started getting really into this show around the middle of the third season, when the storytelling really jumped into high gear and the writers started throwing one high-concept twist after another into the show's by-then-established structure. So needless to say I loved this season's time travel conceit, sucker that I am for heady sci-fi and time travel stories. And I loved that rather than dodging the issues they made much of the season's drama about the actual concepts and mechanics of time travel, about paradoxes and timelines and whether things can be changed or not. The show's big picture idea is destiny vs. free will, and time travel is of course a perfect vehicle for exploring that theme.<br /><br />Anyway, I more or less agree with you about the relative strengths and weaknesses of the characters. Some of the show's best characters have been introduced after the initial seasons: Ben, Juliet, Desmond & Penny, Daniel, Miles, Richard, Eko (even if the whole tail-end storyline was pretty much one big dead end, totally pointless in retrospect), and now Jacob and his opposite number. It's amazing, for a show about plane crash survivors, how many of the people I want to be watching on it now weren't even on that first plane, way back when. Meanwhile, the show-runners' continuing attachment to Jack and Kate is frustrating since they're among the least compelling characters in the whole cast, and any time the plot circles back around to their supposed romance the whole thing grinds to a halt. Season 5 developed more genuine chemistry and emotion between Sawyer and Juliet — two characters who had previously hardly ever even interacted — than it ever had between Jack and Kate, or Kate and Sawyer, in all 4 previous seasons put together. Oh well. I loved the way Sawyer came to the forefront this season, and his arc was especially affecting, the way he was finally able to find some stability, to step forward as a strong and competent leader without Jack around to screw things up, to find some love and happiness. And then to lose it all because of a bunch of confused, depressed people convinced they're fulfilling their destinies. <br /><br />It's not a perfect show, by any means, but I do find it pretty much consistently fascinating and exciting, which is more than I can say for 99% of everything else on TV, so it's in rarified company there. I'm curious, are you going to be watching the 6th season in real-time now? Have you caught up on the first few episodes yet? It's been interesting so far, though oddly enough, not quite as propulsive or fast-paced as the past couple of seasons have been in general.Ed Howardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18014222247676090467noreply@blogger.com