Comments on: Not A Dream! Not An Imaginary Story!

By: Larry

Larry — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:17:02 +0000

Yeah, I guess you’re probably right about Jacob having enough history in the series to work. And, I suppose you could argue since evil Locke is actually the Smoke Monster, that we’ve seen him all along too. I think I was just especially grumpy about the direction of the show after I’d saved up 3 weeks worth of episodes and watched them all in one sitting, and just got more confused and less interested. It’s the combination of parallel timeline, Jacob + Evil Locke focus, and all the new characters (at the temple)–it just feels like they’ve gone off the rails. They need an episode that connects this chaos soon.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:27:41 +0000

It sounds like I’m still a little bit more on-board than you are, Larry, but I hear what you’re saying. The “idea” of Jacob, if not the actual character, was introduced a few seasons ago: there were references not long after Ben Linus got introduced, including that Clockwork Orange-style re-indoctrination room with “God Loves You As He Did Jacob.” So I don’t agree that he came completely out of nowhere.

And I was fine with the time-traveling as well, but again, because they quickly acknowledged that that was what was going on. The mystery was “what’s going to happen as a result of their time jumps?” and not “are these time jumps or something else?”

But yeah, they’ve already acknowledged that they’re not going to answer everything, and they’ve been trying for a while to make it clear what they think is important, because that’s all they intend to answer. I’m definitely still watching the series. And they’ve already shown they’ve got more going on than “Battlestar Galactica” did, so I can guarantee that the ending of “Lost” won’t be as ridiculously disappointing as BSG was. But it’s just not appointment television for me anymore — I can’t get all excited about what’s going to happen next, because it seems like there’s no good way to anticipate what’s going to happen next.

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:07:36 +0000

I’m sad to admit that I agree, but happy to rant a bit with you. I’ve loved the show since the beginning (and I also refuse to be fanatical about it, since none of the peripheral or ARG content can matter, or it would be included in the episodes). But, in spite of all the unanswered questions, it always seemed to make some kind of forward progress every week. And, more importantly, each episode was interesting on its own merits, even if you didn’t understand all of it.

But, once they started jumping around in time and turning giant wheels to “move” the island last season, I think the show time-shifted the shark. Or at least it started getting a bit silly. However, this season I find myself longing for silly, as they promised answers, yet deliver more confusion than ever.

I think I’ve reached my breaking point, and expected dots to get connected. Instead, they’re introducing new characters left and right, none of whom seem to be the missing puzzle pieces I’ve been waiting for. Meanwhile, the whole parallel timeline thing should not have gone more than 1-2 episodes before revealing it’s purpose–I just can’t care what alternate versions of the characters did until you tell me that it has something to do with all the other crap you haven’t explained yet!!

Plus, the whole Jacob and evil Locke thing already feels like a cop-out, since they haven’t really been characters in the show I’ve been watching anyway. It feels almost like an Agathie Christie murder story where 6 people are in a locked room, the lights go out, and someone is murdered–the killer must be one of the remaining 5! Except, no, it was actually some guy from next door who you’ve never heard of, and he snuck over and did it. Well, I’m sorry, but that’s not how good storytelling works.

You can’t have Jacob behind everything if I’ve never even seen him before until the end of last season. And, throwing in some flashbacks after the fact of him being at critical points in the story doesn’t fix that. Even worse is the evil Locke character. Just because he inherited the body of one of your previous characters, doesn’t mean you can get away without explaining him. It’s time for some answers!

Of course, I’ll stick with the show to the bitter end. After 5 years, I gotta see what they do with it. But, I seriously don’t see how they can answer even a fraction of all the questions. And I’m already not liking the glimpses of answers we’ve gotten. I think Fonzie is turning the waterski boat around to make another pass by the island.