Lost, I hate you because i used to love you but then you fucked it up!
I got into lost when my sister Cathy got the Season one box set for Christmas 2005, It was amazing! My average day would be: I would wake up around 2pm eat leftovers of whatever big dinner we had the night before, watch tv, have a big dinner, have a beer or two with some crimbo tv and then to bed at 1am to watch lost till about 6am. They were good times.
I'd say i went through the box set in about a week. I then graduated to junkie by scouring the internet for Season 2 on the internet the day after it was aired in the US. I was watching a quality of video closer to a dodgy dubbed kung fu flick on an original 1989 Game Boy, but dammit it'd have to do! I'm embarrassed looking back on it now.
One time it got so bad that my brother and i ended up after a post night out chipper talking his mate diggers through the ENTIRE first season so he could come back to our house and watch the terrible quality episodes for himself and be up to speed. We may have also have had to download the 40 minute episodes first... on a 56k modem.
When Season 2 reached its finale i'm proud to say that i watched it on an actual tv with perfect sound, but by then the anger had already started to set in and i was through with Lost. The formula of the show was by now was:
- Minutes 1-5: One question of the TEN asked in the last 3 weeks answered vaguely.
- Minutes 5-35: Nothing Happens!!!!
- Minutes 35-40: Three Questions Asked.
It was ridiculously frustrating, i had always wondered how the show could have such amazing ideas but still keep the views guessing and watching each week. I now know. They dont reveal anything EVER!
My patience finally blew after the creepy revelation that some chick (Libby, IMDB reminds me) that Hurley had been dating was actually in the same mental institution as Hurley was when he had been incarcerated. I loved the story, how were they to follow it up? Answer: By Killing Libby and never telling us. JJ Abrams you are a prick!
I'll never love another TV show in the same way again. I've boycotted Prison Break after Season One and been afraid to watch Heroes too as i know they too will be dragged out to a ridiculous length of time. When will American TV learn that a well respected show that bows out on top rather that a cash cow milked out every last penny to the point it is unrecognisable to what it was loved for is what TV viewers want?
Whilst my story is old news, My cousin Niamh, who is staying up with my family for the week, watched the first episode of series four on Monday and said she is beginning to feel the same way about the show. How long can this go on for? I've heard there are another 2 series at least in the pipeline, is the plan to give an answer so late after the original alluding to of one, that people will have forgotten what they were waiting to have answered in the first place?
Why the fuck was there a polar bear on a tropical island!!!???
Does anyone even care anymore?
/rant.
3 comments:
Heroes isn't as bad for the dragging stuff out- the first season is constantly building towards a climactic event, and whaddaya know- the season actually ends with it.
I definitely felt grateful to the makers for giving us a conclusion, and didn't feel like I had to watch the second season to have any major questions answered.
While I do see where you are coming from and during season 3 I would have agreed with you but, a coupld of points here.
1. I really like the characters and I like seeing them doing things so the possibility of never seeing them again isn't actually that appealing to me. So I'm not in any rush to see the show end.
2. The questions that are posed actually do get answered albeit in a very very subtle way. The polar bear for example. If you saw the first few eps of season 3 you will have seen Sawyer Kate and Jack kidnapped by the others and placed into large cages which look like they might have once housed large animals. At no point does Sawyer ever go "oh so thats where the fucking polar bear I shot came from" but we, not being morons, can only assume that the poler bear was brought there by the Dharma initative for some experiment or other which will no doubt be explained at some point but at least we know how it got there. Other questions have been answered in the same way.
3. The Libby conundrum did piss me off but the thing is that nobody stays dead on Lost and there is a good chance that that question may still be answered. For instance, the black smoke. We thought they'd forgotten it then in the most recent ep Locke asks the question of Ben which means that they are still thinking about it and still looking for an answer.
Now....
while I do still have faith in the show, the two new episodes are really turning the show down a path that I would prefer they didn't go. New characters have been introduced which are basically shit (on first impressions at least) so I may be joining you on this band wagon soon er or later
I still love my lost. Second episode of the new season was terrific (except for the whole ghost subplot, which was eyebrow raising even for Lost) but the narrative keeps drawing me back. And everyone has become so negative towards it I feel it is my duty to see through the series I have been watching since I first exclaimed "wtf! a polar bear!" when I watched the pilot on RTÉ that evening many years ago.
Sure, the characters are uneven, the story often meandering, but I love it. It isn't the greatest TV show out there (Curb Your Enthusiasm is currently the best now that The Sopranos and Freaks & Geeks have left our screens) but it is addictive.
Oh, and hi Mark :)
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