Friday, March 7, 2008
Lost - "The Other Woman"
What Aaron Liked: I can't say that I'm the biggest fan of Elizabeth Mitchell's "Juliet" character. Her zombie-like line readings and perpetually catatonic expression belie the universal love she seemingly gets from Lost fans. So, I'm as shocked as anyone at just how much I enjoyed her performance last night. And, who knew she was a whore?! "Go back to your home on Whore Island!" Wait, she's already there! Quite the clever mini-twist in the first few minutes (We're doing flashbacks again?) and credit to the writers for crafting a nicely layered piece of storytelling that kinda-sorta explained Juliet's often emotionless mannerisms. I suppose there's nothing left to say about the abject awesomeness that is Benjamin Linus. His string pulling of Locke is wonderful to watch, even if his eventual intentions are obvious. Spoiler alert: Ben's in it for himself.
What Aaron Didn't Like: Well, I could've done without the house-husband Ben scenes and all his ham-baking and Juliet-pining. Wayyyyyy too late to try'n humanize the guy who gassed his father and most of the island's population. Harper Stanhope's jilted shrink was pretty much paint-by-numbers…which reminds me: enough with the characters appearing/disappearing out of thin air. It's believable when it's Batman, not from a 40-something white girl in the middle of the frickin' jungle. Still not crazy about the "Faraday" and "Charlotte" rescuers, but at least they did more than play three-card memory monte this week.
Verdict: Solid episode, as we get a satisfying backstory and a single self-contained arc that's told in just one show. Plus, the wheels are at least in motion to teardown the absurd set-up of Locke's horseshoe-playing, baby-raising community so, for now, Aaron approves.
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6 comments:
I'm one of those Juliet fans -- she almost singlehandedly kept me with the show during much of last season -- and she's one of the few who I don't mind seeing flashbacks about. I feel there's still so much more we don't know about her. I thought the Domestic Ben scenes were hilarious, and a great setup for that coup de grace of him jauntily trotting across the lawns with his freshly laundered linens in hand.
The other thing is (as I continue to pick fights with Aaron), I honestly don't get the big hoo-hah about the suddenly-appearing characters. Didn't get it with Nikki and Paolo, don't get it with Harper. Everyone agrees that there are way more people on that island than the ones we're following. How does it strain credibility to bring one or two to the forefront every now and then? Oz never had that problem. Oz!
I don't think I explained my rage well enough. I wasn't kvetching about the "new-ness" of Harper. It was the whole now-you-see-her-now-you-don't way that she popped in out of nowhere then, when Jack and Juliet were briefly distracted by a thunderclap for .02 seconds...poof...she was gone. Come on, writers.
And, don't you dare bring Oz into this, Joe Reid. Don't you dare.
On one hand, I'm completely with Joe about Juliet. I dig her as a character and mysterious ways. I liked Domestic Ben, if only because if gave us a different look at the best character on the show.
On the other hand, I'm with Aaron; Joe, how dare you take Oz's name in vain.
Weird.
I thought this was the first real filler episode of this season. Every other guy wants to have sex with Juliet and Kate.
Yeah I know it was more to it than that, but I just wasn't that interested.
Next week should be good though.
I am assuming that the Harry Potter Invisibility Cloak is standard issue other's gear.
Ahhhhh, sorry. Yeah, I agree with that. Of course, Alvarez kept popping up seemingly out of nowhere on Oz, too, but that was because he was so wee.
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