Oh boy, it feels good to have Lost back. I think all of us Losties have been waiting impatiently for our favorite show to get back onto the air since the very moment season four ended. The long wait (about eight months) is finally over.
We were treated with two episodes (plus one of those silly recap shows) to kick off the new season, and with a few days passed to soak them in, let’s start talking about them.
After clamoring for answers about the nature of the island for more than four years now, it was nice to finally get a solid and satisfying resolution to one thing: time travel is in play. We knew this already, with Desmond’s jaunts back through time, but what’s happening to the island-bound castaways is a whole different animal. I’m really excited to see how far the writers are going to be taking this time jumping.
Are we going to get to see all the different ages of the island? Will we see the island back in ancient times when the natives were busy building giant four-toed statues? Will we get to see our castaways interacting with the Dharma Initiative (more than just Dan popping up in the Orchid)? Will we get to meet a younger Ben, and perhaps a young Danielle? I’m so excited over the possibilities.
One of the more fascinating things that I’ve been wondering about is the organization that Ben is in charge of, or at least a part of. It’s clear that there is a large network of people working together. I’ll call them “the Others” for lack of information at this point. That term has always been used for people on the island, but as we have seen, there are a lot more people off the island who are working with Ben than we may have thought. With Ms. Hawking working with Ben now, things are becoming a little clearer, even as more questions are raised.
I have to think that Ben and his gang are somehow tasked with making sure that the powers of the island are not misused. This could have something to do with keeping the streams of time flowing in the right direction. The last time we saw Ms. Hawking she was talking to Desmond about “course correction” and how everything that is fated to happen will happen. Are Ben and the Others here to help the universe with this course correction?
It could be a whole lot simpler than that as well. Are they just here to make sure that Widmore doesn’t get control of the island? Are they simply here to protect the island from those who might abuse it and its powers? Only time will tell, but I love the slow burn of Lost.
What do you guys think?
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Jan 26, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
I am still figuring out things about Lost. So can’t make any rational ‘makes sense’ statement just now, but I have to say these 2 first epis of season 5 were just fantastic. I can’t wait for more!!!!!
You call it suspense, I call it boring. It’s like getting a lego set with 100 parts one part a week with 8 months hiatus (hiatuses? hiati? ok pauses) in between.
I hated “Flashes before your eyes” for it lacked so many things. To be honest just by watching the show you are barely able to understand it with these long pauses. “Lost in Lost” is the perfect title for your series of posts.
I mean my current question would be who the guy from The Wire and now Fringe was working for again. If Jack’s father is really dead or not (there was a time when that was a BIG question). And I want Mr. Eko back. I guess I’m overall not that invested in Lost to watch the whole show again to get answers to these questions. It’s tedious to have to read endless pages on the internet just to basically understand a TV show that’s moving forward at such a slow pace. It’s like Twin Peaks but way slower. And all the time you get thrown another couple of “mysteries” just to keep you occupied. Like Carlton said on the Video Podcast “I think we answer a lot of questions”. Yeah you do. But it’s like a conveyor belt with eggs you have to pack. At the moment Lindelof/Cuse are standing next to it, with about 5000 shattered eggs at their feed (questions) that won’t ever get answered and about five dozen neatly packed egg-cartons next to them, smiling and telling us “See, we packup up all the eggs, what are you guys complaining about?”. To me, this all smells.
But then again last year round about the same time as now I was just as angry about Lost and then in the second half of the season they managed to do everything right, made it interesting again and I loved it. So yeah I will stick with it and most likely won’t get half of what’s going on but hopefully it will still be interesting due to the overall great production value and all those good looking people on that show ;-)
To each his/her own, but your Lego analogy is way off base. To me it’s more akin to getting 15-20 pieces of a 1000 piece puzzle every week. You can stare at these pieces and try to figure out the big picture, or you can put them in your pocket and wait until you have more information. Every so often you get some pieces to connect together.
If the puzzle isn’t challenging you, or you start getting an idea of what the big picture is and don’t like it- you can stuff the whole thing back in the box. I like both the challenge and what I can see of the big picture- so I’m in it for the long run.
Maybe there will be a handful of pieces at the end that just don’t fit, and maybe even a few pieces missing from the puzzle- but that doesn’t mean the whole thing is a waste of time.
Apply that analogy to every other show on TV. You get 10 pieces of a 10 piece puzzle every week. And they are handed to you top to bottom, left to right.
*POST AUTHOR*
Nicely put mjp. I feel exactly the same way. That being said, I also understand that this type of storytelling is not for everyone.
What can I say, Sebastion? Twin Peaks is one of my favorite shows of all time. Figures! :0)