Only breakfast, plus a full workday, plus dinner, plus the first hour of primetime(*) until the "Lost" finale, boys and girls! Are you excited? I'm excited.(*) Per last week's podcast, apparently the 8 o'clock hour will feature a slightly modified rerun of part one of "There's No Place Like Home," featuring different questions at the Oceanic Six press conference that deal with other details of the cover story. Sneaky ABC programmers. I'm assuming a combined version will be on the DVDs.
Because we've been promised something as mind-blowing, game-changing and cliche-invoking as last year's "Through the Looking Glass," my plan is to get up a temporary blank post at 11 o'clock (or as soon as I finish the episode, if I'm time-shifting slightly) to allow comments while I work on writing the actual review. Assuming I'm not a complete chimp, the full review should take the place of the blank post without displacing any of the pre-existing comments.
In the meantime, to get you in the mood, you might want to check out these dueling lists of the 15 best "Lost" episodes ever. (List spoiler alert: both authors are clearly Desmond/Penny fans. As well they should be.) I'll admit that it's been so long since I've seen a lot of season one and two episodes that I wouldn't feel confident in making such a list myself (though I know "Through the Looking Glass," "Walkabout," "Man of Science, Man of Faith," possibly "Exodus" (if you can take away the horrible ending) and a good chunk of this season, notably "The Constant," would be on it), but feel free to suggest, here or there, your own list of the best of "Lost."
Exodus horrible ending? Come on...sounds like bitter grapes there. Are you still made you didn't get to see what was in the hatch? That ending was brilliant.
ReplyDelete"Last week's podcast"? What podcast? Did I miss a memo? Is there a regular Sepinwall podcast I need to know about?
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking to the top 15s. Those were great reads and a great way to get psyched for tonight!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with mcnater - I like cliffhangers even if they do mean 4 months of wondering what the hell is going on.
Also, I'm a little tired of everyone complaining and wanting answers. One of the guys in the top 15 column added the Nikki/Paolo episode as one of his favorites. I'd have to agree - it was nice to have a "cool" episode even if it didn't provide any answers or mesh with the plot.
I assume he means the official Lost podcast, which I've never heard.
ReplyDeleteI'd pay real money for an Alan podcast. Especially if he gets together with a couple of his House Next Door chums.
Both of those top 15 writers are terrible people and possibly criminals.
ReplyDeleteI don't actually watch Lost, but I must admit it's a fun show to know little about but overhear other people going through with a fine tooth comb!
"last week's podcast" = the abc.com Lost podcast with showrunners Lindelof and Cuse. (I happened to listen last night.)
ReplyDeleteThe season 1 and 2 storylines feel very far away-- so much so that I couldn't really remember much of the individual episodes. Or even characters-- Boone? Shannon? WAAAAAAALT? Ana Lucia? Libby?
FWIW, I think the end of Exodus pt. 2 was about the best you could do with the hatch storyline. It's one of the cases where nothing may be better than something, because imagination can be scarier than a Mama Cass record. The ending is disappointing not because it doesn't reveal what is in the hatch, but does reveal that the showrunners don't seem to have any idea what to do with the hatch. Perhaps the episode would have played better with the "we're going to have to take your boy" scene as the cliffhanger, because that was chilling and awesome. (Remember when The Others were mysterious and scary? That was awesome!)
If someone could please post what the "new" questions are (or a link to that scene once it hits the web), I would much appreciate it. I only set the DVR to capture the new ep and won't be able to get home in time to record the repeat, too. Dagnabbit!
ReplyDeleteExodus horrible ending? Come on...sounds like bitter grapes there. Are you still made you didn't get to see what was in the hatch? That ending was brilliant.
ReplyDeleteAs the guys making the Top 15 episodes lists note, the sting of that final shot isn't as bad now, because we know what was in the hatch, but I felt then and feel now -- and Lindelof and Cuse, in retrospect, likely wouldn't argue the point -- that not going inside the hatch, even to show that there was some mystery man in there, was a terrible miscalculation.
They spent much of the second half of that season on the mystery of the hatch, and Locke's attempt to open it up and find out what was inside. We all knew the hatch was going to be opened up, and so from a dramatic standpoint, ending the season with the hatch opened but with hints about what's inside (other than a busted ladder) isn't in any way satisfying, not even on the most basic cliffhanger level you get from something like Horatio getting shot on CSI: Miami.
The analogy I used at the time was that opening the hatch but not going inside was like giving a kid a Christmas present and telling him he could only remove the wrapping paper for the next few months, then laughing when the kid realized the box underneat was generic cardboard without even a hint of what it contained.
And, again, the episode until then was exceptional. "Lost" generally gives good finale, and Cuse and Lindelof learned from their mistake at the very end with the way they structured the climaxes of "Live Together, Die Alone" and "Through the Looking Glass" -- and how I presume they'll structure tonight's cliffhanger.
I never had to think about this, having watched Season 1 on DVD and moving right on to Season 2, but I think Alan's probably right. Assuming they knew where things were going, a shot that snaked down the hatch and showed Des in his button-pushing habitat, then cut out there (back to the raft? I forget) would have been pretty amazing, and much more in the "game-changing" mold of the last few finales.
ReplyDeleteBy the way... Last year I made the HUGE mistake of reading the spoilers that gave away "the rattlesnake in the mailbox," and it really detracted from my enjoyment of the finale. I'm very pleased to be able to go into tonight's episode in ignorance.
ReplyDelete"Through the Looking Glass" was hands down the best of the series, largely because it revitalized what had become a fairly tedious formula (e.g. the flashback) into something much more inspired.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of flash forwards, two links Lost fans might be interested in:
A youtube clip of each of the flash-forwards rearranged into chronological order
The Opening Act from the Original Unused Teleplay of Lost's Pilot Episode
In the Lost "Transmission" podcast (with Ryan and Jen, a couple who live in Hawaii), details were already spoiled about the extended scenes at the press conference. (Either Ryan or a friend of his attended the filming.) But you will hear soon enough... er, in less than an hour!
ReplyDelete(Must turn off phone, lock front door.)
Here's what was in the extended scene:
ReplyDeleteReporter: And those of you who survived, you swam to the island?
Jack: No. We had, uh, cushions. We had some life jackets. We were in the water for over a day before the current took us in. By then there was only 8 of us left.
Reporter: What happened to the other 3?
Jack: One of them, his name was Boon Carlyle, suffered tremendous internal injuries and died a few days after the crash. A woman, Libby, she didn't make it through the first week. Charlie Pace, he drowned a few weeks before we were able to leave.
Reporter: Are you aware of the situation in Iraq, Mr. Jarrah. Do you have any plans to return?
Sayid: There is nothing for me in Iraq.
Reporter: And Mr. Shepherd, now that you are home what are your plans?
Jack: I haven't really thought too much about it. Uh, my father died in Sydney. I was bringing him home for the funeral when the plane crashed. Even though the body is, uh, I'd like to put him to rest.
They also deleted the part where the reporter said they all looked pretty healthy considering the ordeal they'd been through and Hurley asking if that was directed at him.
13 minutes!
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ReplyDelete@anonymous 8:44 p.m., thank you very much!
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