Lost…Interest

By | February 22, 2007
8 Comments

[This is coming about 24 hours late thanks to the magic of Tivo, but just pretend that I'm writing it last night.]

Wow, what can I say? Is J. J. Abrams beclowning only himself? Or is he beclowning an entire viewing audience?

I think it ended for me tonight. I can put up with a lot, but the (pointless spoilers ahead) Thai tattoo artist played by a Chinese actress who marks people with their true identity…in Chinese…is really pushing it. I know that Californians like to use the politically correct term “Asians” to refer to Chinese people, but Abrams and company need to understand that just because a Chinese person is Asian, that doesn’t mean that an Asian person is Chinese. Remarkably, Thailand is like its own little country or something. With its own language!

Anyhow, all that to tell us that Jack is “among us, but not one of us?” Does anybody care about this? Is anyone interested?

This show had a lot of possibility early on, with the polar bears on the tropical island and the mysterious creature and the hatch and the back stories and so forth. And even as recently as a week ago, I was touched by Desmond’s very sad story.

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But enough, already. Explanations are due. Overdue. WAY overdue. There are people in these episodes who could answer questions, but they just say stuff like “it’s complicated” and “we make people’s lives better.”

Well, I think I’m getting a pretty clear idea about how I can make my life better — by freeing up a one-hour slot every Wednesday night and letting this meandering drivel die its own quiet death.

  • MikeD

    Amen.

    I was also interested in Desmond’s story for the fact that it seemed to reveal something of the future-in-the-past-in-the-future that goes with temporal loop stories. It gave a flicker of light on the mysterious EM/reactor hatch.
    Of course we have to go back to Jack for an episode that promises more of Kate/Sawyer next week. They’re the most annoying characters on the show. Every time Jack has been approached by someone who might actually reveal information, he snaps at them and they leave. These main characters are portrayed in the most unlikely and rediculous way possible.
    “Lost” has come to describe the plot and direction of what is essentially a prime time soap opera. (although this new time slot technically pushes it inconveniently out of prime time) Sadly, even if you don’t watch the ‘biggest television event’ (of the week/night/hour/etc) you probably will hear about it on the radio the next morning, since the morning talk radio programs have nothing to talk about either. (but I guess that’s a different rant for another thread)
    Hopefully there are thousands of blogs+comments sharing this sentiment and hopefully the writers google their own show to see that the canary is getting woozy before it completely falls to the floor of the cage…

  • Boxing Alcibiades

    I hate those kinds of bozo errors. My wife conned me into trying out “24,” and I’ve been blogging it just a little bit, on the principle that if I amuse my wife too much while ranting about the stupidity, I’ll pop or something.

    And I’d heard that t.v. shows had really improved. What gives?

  • https://www.blog.speculist.com Stephen Gordon

    but they just say stuff like “it’s complicated”

    About half-way through last season I got the sneaking suspicion that the plot had gotten too complicated for the writers. I began believing that there will never be a big “reveal” because there is no “there” there. It’s all a big tease.

    I could be wrong. Because IF there really is some grand unifying answer to all these mysteries AND they actually reveal it – well, the show’s over. All that would be left is “Gilligan’s Island” meets “30 Something.”

    As long as the show remains profitable they’ll want to stretch the mystery out. But I did my part to bring about the big Lost reveal – if there really is anything interesting to reveal – when I stopped watching.

    Thanks for joining me Phil. With these shows coming out on DVD you can always catch up later – if you feel the need.

  • Phil Bowermaster

    Actually, I do think TV shows are much better now than they used to be. The first season of Lost was brilliant. There were probably holes in logic and plausibility big enough to crash an Oceanic airliner through, but the story was so engaging that it didn’t matter. That’s why 24 continues to work, in my view. The creators of 24 understand the importance of the payoff. Every now and then you reveal something really huge — What? His BROTHER!!! — that actually makes the story more interesting. On Lost, they make the occasional huge revelation that only makes the story more confusing and frustrating.

    Stephen, your point about the writers getting in over their heads is spot on. That’s what Abrams allowed to happen with Alias. That show promised a payoff of end-of-the-world proportions. It couldn’t possibly deliver, and in the end it didn’t.

    Anyhow, Abrams is good at starting things, so I think it’s great that he’s directing the re-boot of the Star Trek movie series. But they’ll probably want to hand it off to someone else fairly quickly…

  • Karl Hallowell

    It’s the key problem with the genre. I think here of the dance of the seven veils. At some point, you run out of veils with which to tease the audience. The story has to transform into something else or it fails at that point. You don’t have to give up all the secrets, but the storyteller has to cope with a world where most things are understood at some level.

  • http://www.lostdesmond.com jbdean

    Sorry you all don’t have the “stick-to-itness” for a show as creative and involved as Lost. It’s not your story but theirs and until it’s done, it’s foolish to bail half way through saying it’s not forthcoming. I have a feeling that you are those people that interrupt someone telling a story with, “Yeah, yeah … get to the point.” Of course no show is for everyone but I’m one that’s sticking to the end. The story keeps being exciting, the characters continue to reveal interesting things about themselves and the island keeps being the mystery that it has been … which IS the flavor of the show. I love this show as it’s the only one on TV that requires me to think, pay complete attention to every detail and entertains me at the same time. Just had to post to let the world know that there are many fans that think Lost is the best show on TV in — ages.

  • Phil Bowermaster

    Well, JB, you’re probably right — the fact that everyone who’s chimed in on this thread (other than yourself) has problems with Lost is most likely the sign of some significant character flaws on our part. But I will hold out the (admittedly slim) possibility that the flaws might lie elsewhere.

  • http://www.futurefragments.com futurefragments

    I “lost” interest at the end of season two. Partially this was because Sky bought the rights in the UK so it was no longer screened on terrestrial TV and I just didn’t want to have to subscribe to a bunch of shows I didn’t need/want just to watch Lost.

    However, on a much more important level I stopped watching after I saw an interview with Dominic Monaghan on the Jonathan Ross show here in the UK. During the interview, Monaghan revealed that Lost was in fact intended to be a three or four season show. According to him, the writers actually know the ending and the whole story. Everything was mapped out, done and dusted. However, the studio execs saw the viewing figures, went to the creators, and told them that they had to push this to a 7/8+ season show because it was too good to close up shop so quickly.

    In the end, it came down to quantity over quality, and there lies the problem. Every episode of Lost I watched just seemed to be trying to “stretch” out the series. Not only that, but the show prevents the possibility of new viewers joining in later on in the season, because to do so you have to watch all previous episodes. Why bother?

    This show was quite possibly the most engrossing, interesting, and unique thing I’d ever started watching. It also redefined how shows should be marketed and advertised. But, it fell into the trap of simply getting too greedy and not being concise, to the point, well edited, written and structured.

    Something can be considered perfect not because there is nothing left to add, but because there is nothing left to take away. And that’s the flaw of Lost, and why it will end up in the same bargain bins as the later seasons of the X-Files.