Sunday, November 12, 2006

Lost: The Midseason Miss

Last night* the episode of Lost was billed as "The Best Episode of the Season". That billing is a lot to live up to, but if nothing else, Lost has been very good at giving us moments that hook us to the next episode and there have been several shocking revelations and events throughout the first two seasons. This episode is the last episode until February 7 and then the show will run 16 consecutive episodes until the end of the season. No more of the "run three new episodes, then two reruns" that the producers have been sticking us with since the beginning.

Season Three has been a fairly disappointing season so far. I know we just had the killing of Mr. Eko and he was a great character, but for all the build about Michael leaving the island with his son and the Antarctic listening station and Desmond's history, and Jack, Kate, and Sawyer being held captive by the others . . . the early part of the third season has mostly failed to deliver entertaining television and it has not provided answers to many questions. Or, perhaps it just has muddled along, stringing us along as always and this time I am getting tired of it. Just an episode ago I was willing to give J.J. Abrams the benefit of the doubt, but he is losing me.

Last night's episode is what nearly pushed me over the edge to not returning in February. Midway through the episode my wife turned to me and observed that she wasn't sure what was going to happen, but they were running out of time to do something big. The end of the episode had Jack performing surgery on Ben (Henry Gale from last season), the leader of the Others and Sawyer having a gun to his head while Kate screamed at him to fight back. Good stuff. And then Jack turned things around on the Others and gave Kate the opportunity to escape but she didn't want to leave without Sawyer and after Jack screamed for Kate to run the episode ended.

What? That's it? I have to wait three months for the resolution to that? Do they want people to watch the show? *sigh*

Every idea I had for this episode ended with somebody dying. I figured Sawyer, but Kate would have been a more interesting choice. Actually, Sawyer would have been a good choice because then Kate could turn cold and be a twisted vengeance seeking survivor for the rest of the season. Kate being killed could probably do the same thing to Sawyer, and Sawyer is already plenty bitter so it wouldn't change the monotone Josh Halloway needs to emote for the character.

But a Run Kate!?

Sandy has been slowly checking out sooner than I have, but Lost is not the best thing on television and to be honest, an episode of America's Next Top Model is far less frustrating than an episode of Lost. Not to mention that I will be caught up to Season 6 of 24 when it premieres in January (I believe) and that show is the best thing on television (with apologies to Battlestar Galactica).

You know what Lost is becoming? The 4400 with better acting.

*This entry was written on thursday but I was not able to post until today. I was far too lazy to to re-write this to change the references to "last night".

4 comments:

Nick said...

Amen. I said this before, but the only way this could possibly turn around for the better is if it all turns out to be some sort of con on part of the Others. Otherwise this season has spoiled a perfectly good show.

And they killed Eko! Bastards.

Joe said...

I'm still good with the Eko slaying, but I'm already mentally checking out of the show and thinking about starting up 30 Rock before it gets canned, assuming it doesn't suck, or just waiting until 24.

Meanwhile I'll watch Season 3 of the Sopranos from Netflix.

Nick said...

Check out Heroes. A series getting better and better with each episode. That, Veronica Mars, Dexter (on Showtime), Death Note (japanese anime) and Battlestar Galactica are my current must-see shows.

Nick said...

Oh, and that's not in any specific order. Although the current season of Battlestar Galactica has been awesome.