Michael! Sawyer! Udders!

[prog]

OK, saw the rest of Lost. I mostly liked it a lot.



* I thought everything involving Michael was excellent. What a deliciously fucked up situation! I got a kick out of it.

* Disappointed that the season finale featured cutaway-style visual flashbacks, when Locke was describing the Pearl station to Desmond. It was interesting to discover that the show had never before employed that quite common editing technique by having its sudden presence seem so jarring. I'm not sure what happened, there.

* I loved Desmond's character quirk with the book, and the bit where he finds his grilf's letter in it. I have a reputation for barfing at all depictions of romantic goo-goo, but my appreciation for clever set-ups trumps all.

* Ana Lucia, whose mere presence I despised for a long time, got a lot less annoying before she died. I'm not stunned that they killed her off, but I'm not like HA ha goodbye either. Did she die during her own flashback ep? There were so many tonight that I lost track.

* Not only do we not know the fates of Locke, Echo(sp) and Desmond, but we're not even sure what happened to the hatch. "It exploded" isn't a satisfactory answer, given the freakiness of the lightshow and lack of a ker-blooey sound, and who's to say what sort of force made the QUARANTINE door fly away? Charlie just makes stupid noises and nobody asks him about it. Or at least Claire doesn't, but she's a twit so that's OK. I have to say that Charlie got a lot more annoying over the course of S2.

* Stupid things I could have done without: "Ms. Clue" (I don't even want to think of the furious wanking this must have caused on the Lost message boards) and the giant Homer Simpson foot. Come on, guys.

* Not even the slightest peep from the monster?! I admit that the Others are a far more interesting adversary than the monster, but I'm a little disappointed that it didn't even tip its hat for the finale. Unless I'm mistaken there's been no sign of it since Sayid stared it in the "face", maybe a quarter-ways through season 2.

* I liked that our host dougo pointed out some of the jokey fan-feedback hidden in the show, like when Hurley thought that a bird was calling his name, and Sawyer called him an idiot. Apparently some Paul-is-Dead-type fans were tripping over themselves thinking that an earlier bird sound effect was saying "Hurley".

* Bernard's idea with the sign wasn't a bad one. He found a good reason to personally abandon it, but I don't see why nobody else would pick it up. (Yeah, yeah, maybe someone did and the show just hasn't bothered to reveal it yet.)

* Walt's actor clearly went through a growth spurt in the year between his kidnapping and his (non-spooky) reappearance, even though only a few weeks had passed in show-time. His voice was even noticeably lower. This can only get more awkward, especially since it really seems they want to do more with that character, having only hinted at strange powers for two whole seasons now.

* There were no less than three instances of someone saying "Sorry" for apparently no reason, and then inflicting "unexpected" harm on the person they apologized to.

* I'll buy that Charlie narrowly escaped the blast, but why wasn't Echo burned up? Eh, whatev.

* Another TV trope that Lost loves: All people have a magic off switch on their head. Just whack them anywhere on the face or noggin with a blunt instrument and the right intent, and off to slumberland they go. They'll wake up later with no injuries at all. Magic!

Comments

[ianmcin.livejournal.com]

Did she die during her own flashback ep?

Yep.

the Lost message boards

I've really started grooving on this site.

Not even the slightest peep from the monster?! I admit that the Others are a far more interesting adversary than the monster, but I'm a little disappointed that it didn't even tip its hat for the finale.

The producers have gone on record as stating that it shows up plenty of times in Season 2, even if it's not noted as such. Any time we see black smoke, (i.e., what we assumed was Sayid's signal to Jack's party in the finale), it could be the monster.

* Another TV trope that Lost loves: All people have a magic off switch on their head. Just whack them anywhere on the face or noggin with a blunt instrument and the right intent, and off to slumberland they go. They'll wake up later with no injuries at all. Magic!

My own theory is that when people get exposed to unexplained or inexplicable phenomena - even if it's only on the level of ordinary events reaching a level of implausibility that would make them worthy of viewing by observers interested in narrative entertainment - their brains start searching for any plausible reason to absent themselves from the proceedings. The upshot of which is that fictional characters get knocked out a lot easier than real people. I call it the "Screw you guys, I'm going unconscious" principle.

[prog.livejournal.com]

Yeah, dougo likes Lostpedia too. I bounced around on it a little and it's OK but it's by definition 95 percent fancruft, bullet lists of people's cockamamie "theories" that make me want to dope-slap their authors. Wow, Jack has casually referred to the other survivors as "the others" in conversation! WHAT COULD IT MEAN?!!?

MAYBE THE OTHERS ARE ALL FAST-GROWN CLONES! MAYBE THE SWAN STATION DISCHARGE GAVE EVERYONE SUPERPOWERS OH BOY!!! MAYBE DINOSAURS DIDN'T HAVE ANY SKIN AT ALL AND THEY WERE JUST WALKING BONES EXCEPT THE HAD A LITTLE BALL OF SKIN IN THE MIDDLE MAYBE

[toonhead-npl.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they'll have an explanation for Walt's growth spurt. They must have had a plan in place since the part was cast. Yes Charlie was reeeally annoying this season.

Supposedly (and I don't think this is too spoilery) half way through the season something big is gonna happen that's gonna freak us out.

[prog.livejournal.com]

There's no way to wave a supernatural explanation for Walt having grown two years in two months without looking absurdly meta. If they do that, they had better do it with humor.

Watching this on TV is going to be weird. We saw only a couple of BitTorrent-grabbed eps with the next-week-on-Lost previews still attached, and they all promised that next week's show would be the most jaw-dropping shocktastic show evar.

I was waiting for the super-freakout at the finale but it didn't really happen. I remember my flist going nutso last spring, but I bet they were reacting to the double homicide. (Which, again: my compliments to the chef. It was Things Gone Horribly Wrong done right, somehow.)

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

Yes, Ana Lucia died during her own flashback ep. So did Shannon. Its certainly set up a feeling that "oh, look, nonmajorcharacter flashback ep, they're going to Dieee!" I was really tweaked off that 1) Libby died, and 2) she died before she got a flashback ep. I was somewhat less tweaked when it's revealed that she's connected to Desmond and appeared in his flashback. I still feel for Hurley, though; the fat guy only gets the girl in cartoons, I guess.

I loved and went gaah about the connection to the "real world" that occurs at the very end of the last ep. I assume we'll be seeing more of Pen, and that therefore Desmond isn't dead yet.

Anyway, I liked this season better than I expected to given other people complaining. The middle of the season was weak, and none of the eps were quite as well put together as some of the close-to-the-end eps of first season, but I'm excited to start season 3.

[prog.livejournal.com]

As far as I'm concerned, Lost follows the classic comic book law of character death: If there's no corpse, assume nothing. "Nobody could have survived that fall/crash/explosion." Uh-huh.

And this applies to Swan Station as well! (Granted it did get trashed, if not completely destroyed, before our eyes.)

My heart was racing through the whole scene at the Others' dock. I was afraid they'd kill Hurley, which would seriously blacken the slow for me. I'd have difficulty keeping on after that.

[lediva.livejournal.com]

ObNitpick: It was Mr. Eko who stared the creature in the face, not Sayid.

:)

[prog.livejournal.com]

It's very strange... I saw a still of Eko and the monster and it confused me, because it is clearly Sayid in my memory, with the whole circular dolly-shot and everything. Oh well.