Last evening marked the return of LOST, which gives this tapped-out amateur baseball writer something to gush about after the jump.
Before we get to that, isn't this photograph enough to make you want to watch Friday Night Lights?
- Technically, there were two LOST episodes, the first a review for fans of the show and prospective fans of the show, hoping to get both groups up to speed. It was entitled the "LOST Survivor Guide" and was hosted by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, the executive producers of LOST. An alternate title to the hour of television could have been "Hey! I Forgot About That!" For instance, at the end of the first half of season 3, Jack is shown a video clip by the Others of the Red Sox winning the World Series after he and the Lostaways were marooned on the island.
The sight breaks him, and at the time I assumed it was just something a few members of Red Sox nation on the writing staff threw in there. What I forgot was that Jack always used to hear his father Christian say things like [from an earlier episode, to Sawyer, coincidentally]: "Some people are just supposed to suffer. That's why the Red Sox will never win the damn series."
Apparently, this is a way for the writers to illustrate to Jack that some people aren't meant to suffer and that they do have some control over their fate. Unless you have a better idea.
- In the new episode/main event, we were introduced to Juliet's ex-husband, Edmund Burke, M.D. The writers of the show certainly have a thing for 17th and 18th century political theorists and philosophers (Rousseau, Locke)
- Speaking of Burke, he got hit by a bus. Bam. Gone. LOST is known for it's "H@#$ S%^&!" moments, and for me, this was one. Some would say it was telegraphed earlier when Juliet muttered under her breath, "Unless you can have him get hit by a bus...", but for me, I actually did exclaim the eight letter phrase.
- It was revealed that Juliet had been on the island for three years. In the real world, she had been working on an experiment to chemically impregnate her sister. So, the next question becomes, did her sister carry the baby to full-term? Where is the sister now? Where is the child?
- Back to the Survivor's Guide, I never realized it, but the pilot of the airliner the Lostaways were aboard when in crashed was played by Greg Grunberg, who now plays one of the main characters on Heroes. While we are on the subject of "hey, there's that guy", an appearance was made by Rob McElhenney, creator/actor of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He played a gullible Other, I doubt we'll see him again.
- As usual, Sawyer was given some great nicknames to use for people, but probably his best line came when he overpowered McElhenney's gullible Other and asked, "How did you fall for the Wookie fake prisoner gag?"
- Tufts University certainly has some interesting courses don't they? Right now they are offering a course entitled "The Future is Lost: The TV Series as Cultural Phenomenon". This is the same institution that offers a baseball course, "Sabermetrics 101".
It seems to be rather fashionable these days to criticize LOST, but yet watch every episode. In my mind, it is still one of the best shows on television, even if it has slipped a bit. One of the major criticisms is that the producers are making things up willy-nilly in order to stretch the show out indefinitely. However, now that there appears to be a defined ending point for the show, some of these unnecessary plot twists and diversions will likely decrease.
If nothing else, if you feel your interest in the show fading, get yourself a high-definition television. I watched a LOST episode for the first time on my new 42 inches of high-definition glory, and it was epic.
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More LOST discussion:
- Begging to Differ [hat tip for the link to the Tufts course]
- What's Alan Watching
- ALOTT5MA
- LOST index page at BS&S.com
