peyton manning

Minggu, 23 Mei 2010

LOST Denoument

The LOST series finale was acceptable. This wasn't television entertainment of the highest magnitude, but then, it rarely was.

LOST came very close to being something special, but could never overcome one fundamental flaw which was again ferociously exposed during the series finale:

Jack Shephard was a lousy protagonist. The character was too boring, too unlikable, too flat, and too poorly-acted to carry the show. LOST never should have been greenlit with Jack/Matthew Fox as the lead, but once the show found success, there was no turning back. Jack is the obvious scapegoat, but in truth, the Season One cast paled in comparison to the actors/characters that became part of LOST as it advanced. The characters and actors added to the show after the first season were more formidable than their predecessors.

Imagine, for a moment, LOST without Jack, with someone like Daniel Faraday/Jeremy Davies as the lead. Imagine the show with Ana Lucia/Michelle Rodriguez, Sawyer/Josh Holloway, Juliet/Elizabeth Mitchell, Sayid/Naveen Andrews, and Locke/Terry O'Quinn at its core from beginning to end.

In the end - the beginning, middle, and truly, the end - the initial creative and casting mistakes kept the show from realizing its dizzying potential. From its inception, LOST was doomed to remain in purgatory.

LOST: Season Recaps

Season One

It’s easy to forget now, but LOST’s formative year was spent a) developing characters through flashbacks and b) watching them battle the elements of the Island. Much of the show’s drama came from their day to day battle to survive.

Rating: 8/10

Season Two

LOST’s second season surpassed the first in almost every way. Taut from start to finish, Season Two answered plenty of questions while asking even more. Season Two balanced suspense, intrigue, character development, and action more efficiently than any other.

Rating: 9/10

Season Three

This is where things started to fall apart. The writers strike clearly took a toll on this season. The tension ratcheted up the first two seasons fell off a bit while The Island grew cloudier but no more enthralling. Solid performances from Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Elizabeth Mitchell, Michael Emerson, and Dominic Monaghan helped keep the ship afloat.

Rating: 7/10

Season Four

Season Four was an unmitigated disaster. Short and bitter, Season Four completely lost sight of the values that made LOST successful in the first place. The fourth season eschewed mystery for weaponry, intrigue for violence. It’s best to pretend Season Four never happened.

Rating: 4/10

Season Five

The Season Four debacle was quickly washed away by a surprisingly engaging 16-episode run through time. The smartest thing done in Season Five was minimizing the roles of some tired characters (Jack, Ben Linus) while bringing the more compelling/better acted ones (Sawyer, Juliet) to the forefront.

Rating: 7/10

Season Six

In the end, Season Six will be remembered only for the finale. Which might be a shame, because Six has been the series’ most consistently exciting season. Where other seasons wasted our time with pointless subplots or insipid characters, Six has eliminated the fluff and cut straight to the bone. But it will all come down to what happens tonight.

Rating: N/A

Jumat, 21 Mei 2010

LOST: The Ten Best Episodes

10. Through The Looking Glass (Season Three Ep 22, Season Finale)

Not Penny’s Boat.

9. The Incident (Season Five, Ep 16, Season Finale)

The prototypical LOST season finale: introduce a new layer of intrigue, answer a few questions, kill someone off, and add a new character to replace him/her.

8. Numbers (Season One, Ep 18)

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42

7. The Other 48 Days (Season Two, Ep 7)

Would have had more impact if Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros weren’t booted off the show after their Hawaii DUIs.

6. Ab Aeterno (Season Six, Ep 9)