Friday, February 15, 2008

Lost - "The Economist"


As much as The Cam Fam loves us some Lost, I've found that the show is much more watchable when we can catch it on DVR-delay and plow through the commercials. Last night, Mrs. Bootleg and I decided to give Lost a 30 minute head start before we jumped on. (In the interim, we watched the spectacular car crash of The NAACP Awards on Fox. There aren't enough keystrokes to capture all the unintentional comedy, but trust me when I say that EVERYONE should be rooting for Ruby Dee to win the Best Supporting Actress award at the Oscars later this month. Her acceptance speech last night was equal parts paranoia, senility and Abe Simpson.)

What Aaron Liked: Anytime we get a Sayid-centric episode, Aaron approves. Naveen Andrews consistently manages to raise his performance above the two-dimensional writing that's saddled his character since season one. The payoff in the opening sequence raised my expectations for the subsequent 56 minutes and, afterwards, was still the easy highlight of the week.

What Aaron Didn't Like: While I still believe that the flash-forwards are an effective story-telling device, it finally hit me that we're really not being told anything new. Sure, "The Oceanic Six" are off the island, but Jack's still a tortured soul, Hurley's back in the nuthouse and Sayid's still…well, let's be semi spoiler-free and say he's still "living a violent lifestyle". What's worse is that a plot-oblivious idiot like me called the episode-ending "turn" on Sayid a few minutes after his new love interest was introduced, while Mrs. Bootleg – who married into "plot-oblivia" – identified Sayid's "sponsor" from the sound of his voice on the phone. And, while it's still early, I'm not sure I'm going to dig where this whole "time disparity" angle is going. How about explaining the seemingly supernatural stuff you've already introduced, Lost writers, instead of piling more smoke (monsters) and mirrors on us?

Verdict: Meh. The writers have spent three years over-saturating the airwaves with Jack-Kate-Sawyer, so it's hard to get worked up about Sayid's fate when the viewers haven't been given any good reason to care about him. The musical chairs with the "rescuers-as-someone's prisoners" slant is equally uninteresting. A decent hour of entertainment, but enough with the BEST SEASON EVER exaggeration, lemmings.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sure, "The Oceanic Six" are off the island, but Jack's still a tortured soul, Hurley's back in the nuthouse and Sayid's still…well, let's be semi spoiler-free and say he's still "living a violent lifestyle".

I think that's kind of the point. Leaving the island put them right back on the paths they were on before the plane crashed.

The first season was pretty heavy-handed at pointing out the island was giving them a second chance and a break from the path their lives were on. The ones that left got right back on the path.

mathan said...

I don't know if you should be tossing around the "lemmings" comment, considering how often you've shared the popular opinion about the show.

But wouldn't Sayid be much more menacing if he wasn't a midget?

Aaron C. said...

Nicka, Please.

When I've had praise for the show it's been a helluva lot more measured than most of the Lost lunatics. I direct you to the super secret IP staff forums, as you and I fought an unwinnable war against the likes of Fingers, D'Errico, Michaelangelo and Daniels.

Anonymous said...

The lemming thing is a too-cool-for-the-room way to say "I'm above it all." See also: beer snobs, wine snobs, music snobs, and the Academy Awards.

I've simply accepted the fact that I'm not going to get the answers to most of the questions until the end and I'm ok with that. My argument with you, Mathan, has always been if you're that offput by the show, why do you continually get in conversations on the IP boards with people who are obviously still into it? You know no one is going to agree with you. It's like the guy who comes in to a thread about football to say how much football sucks. I just don't understand it.

Joe Reid said...

No fair bragging about super secret IP staff forums that I got locked out of simply because my kind wasn't welcome at IP Movies. Bad form, Cam.

Anonymous said...

I hate to agree with someone named Tom, but I agree with Tom.

Except for that IP board stuff.

mathan said...

Tom, I just don't get the whole "the writers have everything mapped out" defense the shows uber fans fall back on, for everything.

It's like discussing evolution with an evangelical; you keep hoping that maybe something you say will actually penetrate their skull and plant the seed of knowledge.

And Aaron, thanks for reminding me about the super secret Sawyer love-a-thon. Those were good times. And Sawyer is the greatest con man eva!

Joe Reid said...

I put up with all the Sawyer-as-smooth-con-man stuff just for those precious moments when that look of open-mouthed confusion creeps onto his face after he's been totally played. Good stuff.

mathan said...

Exactly Joe. And that's probably half of the fabled super secret thread right there; unnamed IP writers proclaiming their love for Sawyer and me trying to season them with common sense.

It's irking me just remembering those days. Thanks a lot Aaron!