In today's column, I get myself ready for the final season of "Lost" by looking back to the show's very first episode:Last week, as preparation for tonight's final season premiere of "Lost," I spun up the series' pilot episode for the first time in years. A couple of hours later, I was left with two thoughts: 1) This remains one of the best pilots ever made, and 2) I have much more faith now that the end will make sense than I did in 2004.You can read the full "Lost" column here, and I also wrote a quick recap of how season 5 ended.
The first observation won't surprise anyone who's seen the "Lost" pilot, which is packed with thrilling, iconic moments like Jack (Matthew Fox) frantically tending to survivors amid the burning wreckage of Oceanic 815; Jack, Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) climbing through the plane's vertical, corpse-strewn first-class cabin; or Sawyer (Josh Holloway) gunning down a charging polar bear with no business being anywhere near a tropical island.
But what stuck out to me even more were the small moments that, in retrospect, pointed toward big revelations down the road.
To repeat two points from yesterday morning's post, 1)Do not, under any circumstances, post any comments including spoiler details about the upcoming season, whether gleaned from the leaked footage, reports of the Hawaiian screening of the premiere's first hour, promos, or whatnot; and 2)Because I haven't seen the premiere in advance, the earliest you can expect a post on it will be very late (as in post-midnight) tonight. And if I conk out before then, then sometime late tomorrow morning.
Very excited.
36 comments:
Good column, Alan. This has me even more psyched for tonight’s ep.
How do you compare your anticipation for this season with your anticipation for the last season of The Wire? I believe that you consider the The Wire superior to Lost as a whole, and I’d probably agree with that, but I think I’m way more excited about Lost S6 that I was about The Wire S5.
Waiting for Lost, I'm experiencing a giddiness similar to what I felt watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan for the first time as a kid. Hadn't expected that. Thought I was all grown up. Can't wait till tonight!!!
Small point Alan, and potentially inconsequential, but I'm pretty sure Lapidus was with Ilana and Bram on their trek to the statue, and not with Locke, Ben, and The Others. He was a "candidate" for something, and he remarked that torching Jacob's cabin might ignite the entire jungle.
12 hours to go! Im so excited!
I love a good complex sotry arc, but it;s the characters that make this for me. And the fact that I have only 18 more hours with Locke, Sawyer etc makes me a litte veklempt :(
Oh, I think you're right, Andrew. Lapidus splits off from Ben and Locke to make sure the other passengers are okay, and then winds up back with Ilana and Bram, right?
Correct. He comes back and he is told by Bram that they are the good guys (wonder if that group is the "they" who Jacobs refers to as coming?). He is the first of the recognizable characters to have the body in the metal box revealed to him, and he goes on the trek with them to the statue where Locke et al are for the end of the episode.
"'Lost' is, was and should always be a show about more than solving puzzles."
More than that, yes. But not less. If you as a storyteller offer your viewers/readers a host of mysteries and puzzles as a fundamental motor of your storytelling, I do think you're under some kind of obligation to resolve them.
I don't think we're really in disagreement. The human element matters most to me too. And now that we know there's some mystical/SF element to this, I wouldn't expect full accountability on the "why" of every last bit. But in addition to the endings for the characters, I DO want to know about that other stuff (Adam and Eve, to use your example). And I'm reasonably confident I'll get it. If they clean up, say, 80% of it, I'll let the other 20% go. Can't wait!
Is this season going to have a hiatus between new episodes at any point, or is it going to play straight through with new episodes every week until the finale?
What an exciting day...I don't anticipate much work getting done today. This is the power of good television and good story telling because you can just feel a sense of people on the internet and elsewhere have a level of excitement for this final season. Sure there have been misteps along the way, and times wher we thought we were going into dead ends, but as the final season is only hours away I just hope the writers end this thing the way they want to. It won't satisfy all, or probably even half the Lost fans, but I think now is the time to just enjoy the rest of this ride, because they don't come around like this often. For all who complain and get mad at the lack of answrs, and I include myself at times, I think it's a testament to the show that we care enough to be frustrated and still watch anyway. No it won't go down at the greatest television show ever, but I think it may be the "greatest ride" many of us have watching a series for a long time. Alan I look forward to reading your thoughts, and I'm sure the conversation over the next 3 months will be a ton of fun.
@10:01 Anonymous: They're scheduled for 18 hours, so it should go straight through without interruption (or with minimal interruption, say a week).
All I can analogize the anticipation for tonight's episode to is how I used to feel as a kid before Christmas. Counting down the days, etc, wondering what will be in the (magic) box. And I've resisted the temptation to peek in my parents' closet (i.e., not watch the leak on YouTube).
Merry Lostmas everyone!buc
Alan, please help - I tweeted you on this. Do you think that Desmond's disappearing act from season 5 had to do with the harassment lawsuit against him? He went from being "uniquely special" and a game-changer to MIA!
There are rumors that Ana Lucia, Libby, and Mr. Eko may have been killed off due to their DUIs (though again, they're just rumors). I've tweeted and emailed every TV critic that I follow and I don't get any response. It puzzles me why they wouldn't even respond with a "that's ludicrous" or "no way." Conspiracy!
Those are just rumors. Eko didn't even have a DUI; he was charged with driving without a license.
And Daniel Dae Kim's DUI doesn't seem to have affected his presence on the show.
Loren, I specifically said "though again, they're just rumors." The point of my question was that Desmond had off-set issues and suddenly got the shaft, and judging by RUMORS from the past, maybe there's precedence. That's all.
Jobin
I originally thought along those lines but I really think Desmond's downgrade was they gave us such a rich overload of him from S2 finale trough early S5 that they really used up a lot of story for him. I don't think he's listed as a series regular this year, but I'm pretty sure he'll still be a big part of the show. I have no spoilers whatsoever, but even in pictures from the premiere in Hawaii he was one of the actors in attendence, so I doubt he's gone. My guess is he's a Richard Alpert type this season where he may not be in it nearly as much, but when he is in the show it will be for some important stuff. I may be completely wrong but I just think for all the Desmond goodness of S4 we were bound to see less of him.
A friend of mine has a great recap of LOST. Cracks me up alot of times and always a good read. He does them after each of the episodes usually.
Here's his recap so far
http://jgoat.blogspot.com/2010/02/lost-prelude-04-timeline-part-3-oceanic.html
This post isn't about Lost (although if you click my name, my latest blog post IS), but I wasn't sure where else to post it.
Alan (Or anyone else who can help), could you tell me how you get the "after the jump" links on your blog? Whenever I publish something it shows the entire ream of text, and I'd rather just a few lines and then a link, like on your page. Much more aesthetically pleasing. Is there a setting, or a button I'm missing? Or is it HTML based? (If so, is it easily explainable?)
Can anyone help me? Sorry to bother y'all, Thanks in advance.
Alex, here are some instructions.
As others have said, I'll have a hard time focusing today. I've been working my way through the DVDs for Seasons 1-5 over the last few months, and I haven't been this excited about a TV event in I can't remember how long.
I bet they all wake up after the bomb goes off and discover that they're 10-foot tall blue cat people.
Hey Alan, I took a longwinded stab at the whole "which questions need answering question," even though framing it as questions/answers' is a little simplistic. I agree with Rinaldo's point about there being certain "fundamental motors" of the story that need to be addressed.
http://npinopunintended.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/lost-season-six-and-the-importance-of-the-end/
Did anyone ever watch Carnivale? I feel like this whole good vs evil thing and people being used as pawns is the grand story from Carnivale.
If you have seen both, it starts to make a lot of sense...
Speaking of Carnivale, it would be great to see Clancy Brown (aka Kelvin) this season on some capacity!
This is actually a comment to the post in the Ledger column, where a listener asked about the fate of Flashforward.
I watched the show, although like alot of people, (alan included I think judging from past blog posts), I was rather disappointed in the character development and overall flow of the show.
I think the producers of that show have made a very calculated mistake in allowing such a long time elapse from the previously aired episode and any new ones. I don't think there are new ones until next month. I have completely forgotten most of what was introduced in the show up to this point and not sure I am going to go back to watch the rest. I think the LOST producers learned this back in Season 3 and from then on decided to just air the episodes relatively in sequence in one half of the tv season instead of half and half. Granted, LOST already had developed an audience at that point and FF is a new show, but I wish that FF would have only had a break from Thanksgiving to January 4th, to try to preserve the audience and the recollection of the plot points. Now, I just don't recall alot of what happened and not sure that I really care. Anyone else have any similar or opposing thoughts on this?
The publicity photo = total BSG rip off. Surely, there must be some other paintings out there?
I like Mike's idea. "More Clancy Brown" is never a bad thing.
Alan
A fellow critic compared Lost, to "similar serialized 24". How can anyone who has watched this shows come to this conclusion?
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/02/01/bianculli.lost/index.html?hpt=C2
I've watched the finale from last season twice in the past week (Thanks comcast OnDemand!) and it's ended up changing my views on what will happen after the smash cut to white ending-- but the damned problem with that is that I accidentally viewed some spoilers (not really, but kinda) so I keep having to edit myself when talking Lost with friends. I recommend NOT reading the episode titles (even if you are just trying to check for the twentieth time that the DVR is scheduled to record) and NOT reading the episode blurb (even if you are assuming it just says something bland and certain words just jump out to the eye and ruin bits and pieces). Can't watch until morning cause of work, and God (or Jacob or Smoke Monster or whoever) help anyone that tries to speak to me about the episode before I see it. Previous commenter with the Lostmas bit was right-- I wanna sneak a peak at the presents, but I also kinda don't. argh.
Also, did anyone else watch the 8 min 15 second recap of Lost that's out there? Done like the BSG ones I liked so much (or perhaps done like ones for previous seasons of Lost that I just missed), and a fun way to get excited for the new season.
Alex, it's also an option in the toolbar on the newest version of Blogger. It defaults to say Read More, but it's extremely simple to use.
Another very striking foreshadowing moment in the pilot is Michael yelling "WAAAAAAAAAAAAALT!" Later in season one, in his first flashback episode, he actually says "I'm getting back my son" or something similar to Walt's mother on the phone.
Wonderful column and many great comments. The discussion of the show is almost as good as the show itself, usually.
I almost just rewatched some old episodes, starting with the pilot.
It never fails to amaze me how it ties in with later important spisodes and themes.
Charlie writing "FATE" across his fingers - I always remember that brief scene and it never fails to stand out.
I'd forgotten about Locke looking like a serene wise man, explaining the history of backgammon to Walt, moving the dark and white pieces, until I saw it again.
"Two players, two sides. One is light. One is dark.
Walt? Do you want to know a secret?"
Locke, Pilot, Part 2
I can't wait.
Alan, thanks very much for the link. I'll explore it tomorrow.
Hatfield, how does one get the "newest version of blogger"? It's not like software you have to update, so I'm not sure where to go.
In your settings there should be an option to upgrade the publisher. I just did it a couple months ago. Go to your Dashboard, then click on Settings. It automatically takes you to the 'Basic' tab, and at the bottom of that is an option to use the updated editor. Once you click on that and it switches over, go to publish a post or even just edit an older one and the tool bar should include a button that looks like a piece of paper ripped in half. That's the "Click Thru."
Hope this helps!
Thanks Hatfield, I got that working.
I also played with the link Alan gave me and that worked too.
With both techniques I got it to put a "read more" link... but it was situated at the end of the post. I couldn't figure out a way to integrate the link into the same line of text the way Alan does with "...click here to read more". I also didn't know how to change the text from just a simple "read more" to something else.
I hate to clog the blog (heh), just didn't know where else to go. However, these are just superficial things now, you've helped me with the main issue, so thanks very much guys! : )
Yes, this tutorial has totally hijacked the post, but compared to what the Oscars one has devolved into, we're looking pretty swell.
The combination of the two may have been what caused the Read More to appear on the bottom of the post. The way it works for me is I can put it wherever I want. So after the first paragraph, I'll make sure the cursor is next to the period of the last sentence, and then I click the button. It should show you a dotted line with a gray bar in between that paragraph and the next. Any other questions, feel free to move it over to my blog or email me. I know figuring it out made my front page look a lot smoother.
I watched all of Season 5. Some miscellaneous episodes on TV and just finished the 3 episodes of Season 1. I have never been more excited about a series premiere or season in my life! Sooooo excited! :)
I can relate to what the second commenter (rsk) said about Lost. I'm in my mid-fifties and have become quite jaded about happenings in the entertainment industry, but I've been really looking forward to (OK, giddy) about the return of Lost. The show has its critics and nit-pickers but no one can deny the effect it has on its fans.
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