After discussing the matter with my associate Mr. Conway, who is as big a Lost fan as myself if not bigger, we came to the conclusion that based on the current Season 3 of the show, the show no longer has the appeal it had in Seasons 1 and 2.
For us, this came down to three main reasons:
(1) The show has entered a phase of 'unreality', and what I mean by that is the fact that certain areas of the plot now seem to me totally implausible. This is exactly what happened in the James Bond movie franchise, Die Another Day became so unrealistic (cloaked cars, body swapping gene theropy, a device which uses the suns energy as a weapon, etc.) that people lost interest. For me, there are several areas in the show that exemplify this point.
Firstly the idea of the "Magic Box" that gives you whatever you want. Do I need to point out how ridiculous this idea is?? I mean the idea of the Numbers and the Hatch and all that was plausible...but this...I just cannot get into my head about this at all. And what's more I'm fairly sure we won't get an explanation to it either.
Then we had the Hurley episode not too long ago. A meteorite. I looked again - a METEORITE. A meteorite hits the fast food joint he bought. Could they not have made it more realistic like a plane or helicopter or something?!?!?! Seriously. Of all the things that had happened in the show this takes the biscuit for the most ridiculous one of them all. I'll say no more.
A cure for cancer. Yes, you heard me. In case you don't watch the Lost, a recent revelation has led us to believe that the characters in Lost (the Others in this sense) have a cure for cancer. While the idea is plausible, to be able to just do it "like that" is too much for me.
Then we have the supply situation. It appears that they have both a limitless supply of ammo as well as food. I mean the supply drop came a long time ago, and I'm sure the food sources near the site haven't replenished that quickly. Also, one has to ask whether the laws of DISTANCE apply anymore to Lost. Are you honestly going to tell me that Ethan and Goodwin were able to run that far to the two crash sites? If so then they mustn't have been very far away as we are led to believe. And if that's the case, then why did the survivors never notice the giant fence before, or why hadn't Rousseau said anything if she's been there for 15 or 16 years?
Coincidences. During Seasons 1 and 2, we had a few. But the way things are shaping up now has blown things out of proportions completely. To put it short and arguably vague, it seems that in one way or another, everyone has met each other at some point or another in their respective pasts. Most notably the newest one being that Jack and Claire have the same father. I could take Desmond and Jack having met each other before...fine. Even Eko's brother's plane landing on the island, I could take that. But now that Locke's father has reappeared on the Island...no I'm sorry.
This then leads to the final point I want to make on unreality. Easter Eggs. We all love Easter Eggs in shows and video games. Lost had some good ones. But at present, there seems like too many for me. Again, like before I could take a few.....Hurley's lotto numbers being The Numbers and all that. But the Numbers have now become so repetitive that they have lost all meaning. For instance part of the chain of The Numbers is the keycode for The Fence.
(2) Characters. I'll start with the two newest recent ones, Paulo and Nikki. What's wrong with them? A lot. They come out of nowhere, we haven't seen them all through the first seasons, then suddenly they want to get involved. So they have this minor (and I mean minor) plot about going to the bunker with Locke and Sayid, and then they are present when Eko is killed. And that's it. Then we get some half assed story about their past, stealing an old guy's diamonds, then losing them in the crash, then finding them in the jungle, then fighting over them and the end result is that they both die. Buried alive I might add which was probably the highlight of the whole ordeal. They added absolutely nothing to the overall scheme of things.
Then we have some of the main characters. Let's look at Jack for a moment. Not too long ago we had a flashback. Now usually these flashbacks add to the current story, but this time all it did was tell us about his tatoo, which in the grand scheme of things has nothing to do with anything whatsoever.
The Others. Everything and anything to them with them has lost much of its meaning. There is no fear anymore. True we were bound to learn about them eventually, but in the way Season 3 has shaped up, we have clearly learned too much too soon. The only consolation I got out of the whole thing was Ethan popping up more frequently, who in my opinion was the (and still is) the coolest Others character of the lot. We got some background detail in some of them, mainly Juliet, but this ties in with the unreality factor of 'making a woman pregnant even though her reproductive system no longer works'.
I don't want to go into too much detail about the Others' history but I DO want to address two particular characters; Mikhail Bakunin (patch guy) and Bea Klugh (the black woman). Firstly Bea. At the end of Season 2 she seemed to have a very prominent role in the Others society. But what do we get in Season 3? She's killed, moments after we see her again for the first time. This plays into point (3) I make below. Then we have Mikhail. This character had so much potential it's unreal. How cool would it have been if he wasn't an Other? Instead, Sayid can tell almost instantly that he is an Other, they fight, Mikail is captured and then killed next episode. This again ties into point (3) below.
(3) The fact that ABC have told the writers to start wrapping up. This was announced at some point, where ABC said they wanted Lost to conclude due to falling viewing numbers. Now if this is the case, then it explains a lot for the standard of Season 3. With this hypothetical restriction of time to unravel the plot, perhaps that is why we have learned so much about the Island since Season 2. It also explains why many characters are being conveniently killed off in order to avoid a workload of progressing characters like Mikhail into the story. Also, if this is the case it explains why we have had so little exposure to the rest of the Survivors on the beach, the writers cleverly avoiding them, not needing to think up storylines.
Added to this rush, we are presented with characters like Paulo and Nikki, who (if the announcement was indeed true) were only brought in to give the illusion that the writers were bringing us back to the beach when in fact they weren't at all.
Similarly, this "rush" has (for me), presented somewhat of a sloppiness on the writers part. For instance there is a timeline problem for when Ben finds out he has a tumour in the most recent episode and when we initially learned he had a tumour earlier in Season 3. One day before the crash as opposed to two. The sloppiness also falls into the unrealistic events that have come about. Whereas in the previous season we learn that Desmond's boat crashes on the Island (which is plausible), we see this season that Locke's father magically appears on the Island thanks to a magic box that just happens to be there.
Also, what has happened to the Other's apparent superhuman abilities that we saw in earlier seasons; extreme strength, stealth, the voices, etc. They are not nearly as threatening anymore at all. If the work they are doing on the Island is so important as Season 3 has suggested, why then have they not just killed all the plane survivors and get on with their "work" instead of all this bullshit about capturing them. Why isn't it that we haven't seen any of the other survivors that were taken by the Others since we saw them when they met Jack in the cage?
Have you also noticed that few of the episodes have left us on the edge of our seats like they used to? I mean why was the apparent "plan" put together by Juliet and Ben revealed to us at the end of the last episode. Why not come up with some other clever way to suggest she may perhaps betray Jack and the other survivors. Probably because they don't have the time or patience that they used to when putting together the plot of the episodes.
That all being said I do like Lost, it is most definitely one of my most favourite programmes on TV, I can only hope that the standard picks up for Season 4 (which has been confirmed). I think we'll be lucky if we get a Season 5 out of it at all.
Leave your thoughts below.
Fellas, smoke me a kipper!
~The Damo
4 comments:
hmmm i agree with some points, well a lot to be honest. Watch 24!
You need to check out lostpedia, they have theories and what not to explain everything you've mentioned, also stuff from the LOST experience which explain the numbers.
You know the 'magic box' might not be a literal thing. And they've hinted for ages that the island can cure sicknesses. There's interesting theories about Rousseau. We know the other could/can get on and off the island so other people turning up isn't that surprising.
The whole Paulo and Nikki thing is the fans fault. The writers were trying to expand and show other people on the beach but the fans didn't like them so they killed them off. The whole Jack tattoo thing is important i think, afterall he is the reluctant leader, not to mention the theories out there.
There's loads we still don't know about the others, again lostpedia for theories. It isn't that their reproductive organs don't work, it's that the've been degenerated, like that of a 70 year old, the only time it worked with her sister so really she was fixing her womb since it was ravaged by chemo.
I believe you'll find it was the writers who approached ABC and asked how long they wanted to keep the series going so they could logically finish it up and not keep it going too long. There's so little of the other survivors because of nikki and paulos bad reception.
Again theories about whispering, may not be others.
Anyway like i said have a good look through lostpedia, it's pretty interesting.
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