Re: Lost: Kill, *****cat, kill!

On Apr 2, 9:58=A0am, khalle...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
> On Apr 1, 1:31=A0am, web...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Ubiquitous) wrote:
>
>
>
> > By Heather Havrilesky
>
> > =A0I know it's been a while, but I don't think I can move on with my
lif=
e
> > until we discuss the "Lost" (new episodes return 10 p.m. EDT on
> > Thursday, April 24) sort-of-finale. What did you think? It's certainly
> > nice to have poor, selfish Michael back. Of course his relation****p
with=

> > Walt is on the rocks. Of course he's haunted by having killed
Ana-Lucia
> > and Abby in his efforts to break Ben out of captivity in exchange for
> > being allowed to escape from the island with his son Walt.
>
> > Anyway, now we've got Michael on the "rescue" boat, told by Ben to
kill
> > some but not all of its passengers (Please wait for further
> > instructions!), and we've got a boat full of thugs straight out of a
bad=

> > Vin Diesel movie, firing their automatic machine guns in the air,
thugs
> > who are presumably charged with storming the island and killing
everyone=

> > there. So the big question now is ... who's killing and who's getting
> > killed?
>
> > Kill, kill, kill. In the old days, when in doubt, the writers solved
> > plot problems with mysterious clouds, polar bears, Dharma initiative
> > clues, and the appearance of some im****tant figure in a person's past
in=

> > the middle of the jungle. These days, plot problems are solved by
> > killing or threatening to kill characters. We find out Charlie is
going
> > to die somehow, and then he does. Locke kills Naomi. Sayid becomes a
> > paid assassin once he leaves the island. Juliet's lover Goodwin ends
up
> > killed, thanks to Ben. Jin is going to end up dead. Michael is trying
to=

> > kill himself because he killed two people, but he can't, so now he has
> > to kill a whole boatload of people before they kill the people on the
> > island. And how did the episode end? With Alex's lover, Karl, and
> > mother, Rousseau, being killed by sniper fire. Maybe they should
change
> > the name from "Lost" to "Killed."
>
> > Although they may have the toughest job in television, the show's
> > writers aren't making imaginative choices, given the possibilities.
Each=

> > new plot development feels like it does the quick and dirty work of
> > solving two problems: 1) prolonging the suspense and 2) pulling in
some
> > old thread along the way to make it feel more authentic (Juliet's
lover
> > is Goodwin, who we already knew was killed by Ana-Lucia; the spy on
the
> > boat is Michael, whose fate we've never known). But the plot of each
> > episode accomplishes little beyond those two immediate goals.
>
> > The flashbacks used to reveal a character's personality and the
> > formative experiences that shaped his or her worldview. Sometime last
> > season, though, they became empty, plot-based threads that felt more
> > like bad episodes of "The Outer Limits." (Remember Jack's affair with
> > the creepy tattoo woman who said, "I mark people!" but who otherwise
> > served no purpose?) And now even the flash forwards feel flat. Having
> > Jin run around town, looking for what we thought was a present for Sun
> > was a nice misdirection, since we thought he was finding a gift for
her
> > while she was in the hospital having their baby, and revealing his
grave=

> > at the end was surprising, but what else did we learn about Jin or Sun
> > in that episode? Remember how Locke's flashbacks demonstrated his
> > stubborn pride and his unrelenting determination to win his father's
> > love? Remember how we learned in a flashback that Michael had
> > transformed from a reluctant to a dedicated father? There was growth
in
> > those scenes.
>
> > Plenty of loyal viewers will say, "If you don't like 'Lost' don't
watch
> > it." But the creators and writers of this show have made it clear that
> > they can do much, much better when they bring the question of
character
> > and intention into the picture. When they honor the richness of these
> > characters, that takes a lot of the pressure off the plot: We're happy
> > to hang out on the boat or get trapped on the island indefinitely as
> > long as there's a substantive conflict that reveals each character's
> > motivations and flaws. Do we even know the difference between Miles,
> > Locke and Ben at this point? They all seem one dimensional, and we're
> > left to speculate which is the most deluded or evil. Of course Ben
will
> > end up being the most evil of all, because we know him the best, and
> > that holds more power than simply introducing increasingly evil
> > characters, "24"-style. This show once centered on the clash of
various
> > characters' philosophies. Remember? Those days make the current
season,
> > with its little skirmishes on the boat, look like a Steven Seagal
movie
> > in comparison.
>
> He killed Ana-Lucia and Libby. =A0Who the heck is Abby?
>
> "but what else did we learn about Jin or Sun in that episode?"
>
> Um - we learn that Sun gets off the island, that their baby survives
> whatever hazard exists on the island, that Jin is either dead or left
> behind. =A0How much more did you want crammed into one episode?

learn =3D characterization, not plot

Benji

> Although I heartily disagree with your last two paragraphs, I can't
> refute them at this point - I think the endgame of Lost will redeem
> much. =A0And I think this season's episodes have been great - that
> having an endpoint to work toward has really galvanized the writers
> and producers. =A0I guess I have more faith in them than you have -
> we'll see as the next 2 1/2 seasons unfold.
>
> Kate