Yet more proof that they're making this up as they go along.
If they’re not making it up as they go along, then it is truly pathetic. At least that would explain the seemingly sudden transformation of Commando meets Indian Jones meets Quantum Leap.
Once again, just in case anyone missed it: Ben had a smoke monster go and kill goons in the jungle. This is drama? What’s next, Sawyer, Claire and Aaron run into some little green dude named Yoda on the way back to the beach camp? There’s a fine line between hoping an audience will suspend their beliefs and turning their brains off entirely. Not only did TPTB cross this line in this episode, they obliterated it- like Claire’s house. But, unlike Claire who only got a scratch on her head and her “bell rung,” I don’t think this show can recover from this episode.
It felt to me like a television show. They set the bar high, and then forgot about it. It once felt like literature. Now it feels like, "Hey, they totally buy anything on Heroes, let's give 'em that." Writers, please, have your characters stick to their character - would Claire really not be completely devastated, and perhaps incapacitated, by the knowledge of Charlie's death? Would Kate and Jack sit around filling water bottles and waiting and flirting when dire things are afoot? Why is everyone not waiting on the frickin' beach with all their belongings and looking at the horizon? You don't have to put these things front and center, but they SHOULD BE THERE. NOBODY is acting like they're expected to. The writers have gone to great lengths to flesh out these characters, then they forgot about the fleshing. I guess that's what happens when the 108 minutes tick down.
I love the unstuck in time thing, I love the maybe-they-were-brought-to-the-island-on-purpose thing. I love the island time vs. world time thing. Fine. What I don't love is that the whole feel is gone - the pacing (yeah I realize they're speeding it up a bit b/c of the truncated season, but you can't blame it all on the writers strike), the style, the we're-not-in-Kansas-anymore creepiness, the FEAR.
When a writer thinks he can make anything work if it's just presented well, they not only have lost their touch, they cannot see they're not even presenting it well. I hope they find their voice again - soon.
I don't know if I actually HATED the episode, but there are things I disliked.
Mysteries for the sake of being mysterious again (the Doc is dead - it isn't the Doc - maybe he's time traveling) or just to set up another mystery (Ben's in the desert but doesn't know where or when and we don't know how he traveled).
I absolutely LOVE the fact that you guys are calling it Indian Jones, however - it makes LOST seem even more pathetic.
Last edited by aeasmmikey; 04-28-2008 at 05:35 PM.
Reason: typo
PHEW! Yet again, they managed a whole episode without revealing w.t.f is going on.
So now it's all about Ben and Widmore, something going back through the aeons. What are they, the immortal Gods of Greek mythology, endlessly toying with the human race? Whatever it is, it's made half of seasons 1,2 & 3 virtually pointless.
Or are they just two eejits who know millions of viewers are watching them, and they get a kick out of skirting around whatever they're playing at. Well, that's how they behave!
I thought I'd cringed during LOST before, but when I sensed Ben was about to ask the hotel receptionist what year it was, I actually shivered. Like he couldn't have just checked that days newspaper or TV news. UGH!
Ben: "He changed the rules!"
Locke: "He?"
Sawyer: "Who do you mean, 'He'?"
Hurley: "Dude, who's the 'He-Dude', Dude?"
Aaron: "Yeah, Ben, who 'He'?"
Claire: "Is 'He' Charlie?"
Alex: (coughing up blood) "Don't tell 'em, Dad!"
Mikhail: (popping up) "Why didn't you tell me about this 'He', Benyamin?"
Kate: "He's funny, isn't he?"
Jack: (looks non-plussed) "Who's funny, Kate?"
Juliet: "If she tells you who 'He' is, her, you, Sayid, Sawyer, Ben, Goodwin's widow and my ex-husband's ghost would kill me".
Jin: "...so... whirl... ah"
...whoosh...Flash-forward!...2010
LOST audience: (crushingly underwhelmed) "... ... ... ... right... ... ..."
This show is trying real hard to avoid the demise of Twin Peaks (which was so much about Who Killed Laura Palmer that audience interest nose-dived when they revealed who killed laura Palmer), but it's still ending up as lame and ridiculous as Twin Peaks.
These Flash-Forwards, frinstance. I knew it when we got the first one. "Ooooh, that's clever!" No, it ain't. It's a desperate way to put off revealing what the Island is all about until the final episodes.
What was it Lindelof/Cuse said? Season 4 is all about getting off the Island, season 5 will be all about getting back to the Island. Something like that. What cobblers. Your story and characters just aren't good enough to sustain anyone's interest if you told it straight, are they?
Watching the murder a child is not my idea of entertainment. Many other points have already been made, but what else is silly is Jack getting sick. Since we know Jack survives to get off the island, it is pointless to try to create the impression that he might die from an illness on the island.
Watching the murder a child is not my idea of entertainment. Many other points have already been made, but what else is silly is Jack getting sick. Since we know Jack survives to get off the island, it is pointless to try to create the impression that he might die from an illness on the island.
Agree on both counts. And what is worse is, since there has already been so much death on this show, a ridiculous amount just this season alone, I know I was supposed to feel something when they commited the horrific crime of executing a terrified sixteen year old girl, but I didn't. Knowing that Ben kidnapped Alex from her mother who he then sent out to her death I didn't feel anything for Ben either when he grieved for this kid he calls his daughter. Nothing in this episode touched me emotionally and that's the writer's fault because they've completely desensitized me to all this violence and its hard to care about characters when they largely don't care about each other.
And I've been complaining since the beginning of the season how Dan and Charlotte have become the wacky new neighbours that have moved in on the beach. Everyone else is going about their business, no one has packed their bags or asked when they're leaving and Jack doesn't seem to get that Dan told him they weren't there to rescue them the moment he landed on the island. He's been telling them that from day one, he told Sun the same thing, yet Jack keeps saying they're getting rescued. Juliet has done nothing all season (unless you count make out with Jack) and Kate just follows Jack everywhere making googoo eyes at him, completely forgetting she's a fugitive. The entire original cast are acting like idiots. I don't care what happens to any of them.
And by the way, they discovered this power station with the poison gas and then they left it, so nevermind. Nothing important there that they can use?
In case you haven't noticed, Marcus: this is the "Didn't love it"-thread! Both of your posts were definitely not on topic in this thread and thus deleted. I suggest you read the first post of the thread if you don't know why...
Hated the sacrifice of Alex (not to mention Karl/Danielle) just to further the Ben/Widmore conflict. Ben is one of my favorite characters, but he's best in small doses, and doesn't fit the protagonist role that they're trying to shoehorn him into. The FF would have been much better from Sayid's pov.
The redshirts being shot in quick succession was unintentionally funny. And I got the distinct impression that the triangle is being reshuffled to pair Claire with Sawyer. Kate flirting with Jack like she doesn't know he's with Juliet now, and like she didn't just sadly break up with Sawyer just seemed really forced. And the eating crackers line seemed like another reference to Kate being pregnant, because I just don't get that line otherwise.
So Jack looks like he's seriously ill, and I would be all worried that he might not make it... except I know he does because of the FF. Effectively killing off any suspense from that storyline.
ETA: Oh, and now I'm going to have to hate Ben when he kills Penelope. Or tries to or whatever. I'm sure it'll play out in some suspenseful fashion, but the setup was just so weak. Ben for some reason thinking that he could talk Keamy out of shooting Alex. (Why didn't he just turn himself over? Couldn't he have figured out a way to escape later on?) Sayid immediately believing Ben's story about who killed Nadia, and being so easily recruited by Ben.
....since there has already been so much death on this show, a ridiculous amount just this season alone, I know I was supposed to feel something when they commited the horrific crime of executing a terrified sixteen year old girl, but I didn't. Knowing that Ben kidnapped Alex from her mother who he then sent out to her death I didn't feel anything for Ben either when he grieved for this kid he calls his daughter....
EXACTLY.
I never liked Alex (WAY too much whining), I don't care that she is dead, and Ben's reaction was unrealistic.
Ben is the master manipulator - everything he does is designed to make someone else do something he wants - so when we found out that he stole Alex it seemed obvious that he did it for three reasons:
to see what would happen when she got pregnant - the first woman he knew of who was born on the island
to be able to maipulate her
to be able to manipulate others by using her
I could understand him being upset that his plans & experiments are ruined, but a childish fixation/infatuation with Juliet is the only feeling we have ever seen him show for another adult.
Now it feels like, "Hey, they totally buy anything on Heroes, let's give 'em that."
For the record I think the writing in Heroes is some of the worst drivel to come along in a very long time. Worst season ending ep last year too btw. But I digress...
I agree with everything written in this thread so far. I wrote my comments about how I missed the season 1 characters and I repeat that complaint here. Someone said something about the show not having any soul anymore. I agree. The writing is just so inconsistent in quality and that affects the characters. Please oh please return to your roots!
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