I'm not going to actually call it because it seems too soon, but it feels
like
when future conversations roll around to "When did LOST jump the shark?"
the
episode "The Constant" may be the one most people will point to. Why?
Because
last nights episode took a stark turn into another dimension. Up to now,
LOST
has been mysterious, spooky, and on-the-verge of Sci-Fi but just dipping
its
toes, but "The Constant" plunges it firmly into the SF genre.
I could live with time dilation, as evidenced by the missile's missing 31
minutes, and electromagnetic explosions causing precognition, even
Charlie's
mini-wanderings into the past in a previous episode whose title I cannot
remember at the moment. But "The Constant" took my suspension of
disbelief,
pulled it tight, and snapped it. We're in the territory of "anything
goes,
throw out the rule book, and forget all you know about the laws of physics
and
nature, 'cuz we can do anything with the story now."
There was a point, a very distinct one for me, where I just shook my head
and
said "too much, sorry, I don't buy it." That point was when Faraday told
Desmond to hop a train to Oxford and look him up, which Desmond does with
no
problem. After paying lip service to disbelief, Faraday folds Desmond
into his
secretive experiments and off we go: time traveling mice, Daddy hates
Desmond
but gives him daughter's address anyway, eight digit phone numbers with no
country or area codes, she hates him and kicks him out but keeps her phone
number for 8 years anyway and, for good measure, somehow, for god only
knows
what reason, falls back in love with him while he's missing for eight
years.
Huh? And yet a phone call is just what the doctor ordered to stave off a
brain
aneurysm? What? Back up, back up, let's take everything from the moment
the
helicopter lifted off and throw it out the airlock. Get back on the
island, and
try again, thanks, where's Locke and Ben, screw this time-travel stuff,
this is
ridiculous.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of time-travel stories; it's one of my
favorite themes in SF. But *this* story just rings false on too many
levels. It
felt slapped together, rushed, and strung across a framework that just
can't
hold it up. It feels like a different show. An inferior show.
I hope it's just a bad effect of the writer's strike and that the series
can
pull itself together again, get back on track. If they follow this line
too far
it will just be too hard to wrap my affection around. We'll see; I'll
keep
watching nevertheless.
**
Captain Infinity
|
