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tori_reviews2024-03-26 11:23 pm
jedi_of_urth) wrote in tori_reviews2024-03-26 11:23 pm
LOST 1x14 – Special & 1x15 – Homecoming
So last week was obviously a little off. But I’m getting at least one post up this week.
LOST 1x14 – Special
So…when the most interesting thing in the episode is that I’m spoiled enough to be distracted by the octagonal ceilings, I think it’s safe to say this episode didn’t do a lot for me. How can a plot be entirely composed of assholes that I don’t want to deal with, and I kind of even include Walt in that?
It doesn’t help that I think part of what this episode was setting out to do is kind of lost on me, because it’s setting out to disprove a stereotype that I hadn’t assumed in the first place. I actually have a similar experience when I hear the people on DS9 talk about how important it was to have a strong relationship between Sisko and Jake to show positive examples of black men as good fathers. While this one I think is sort of banking on the audience assuming that Michael was a bad father or a deadbeat or something since he wasn’t involved in Walt’s life before now, but ‘surprise’ he really did want to be a good father and it was the mom who kept them apart. But the only way this surprises me is how much of a dick Susan and Brian were.
And I’m not even sure I agree with Michael’s decision not to throw Brian under the bus at the end. For Walt’s sake in the moment, I get it; it’s a matter of, what, maybe a week since Walt lost his mother and it would be painful to hear that his step father, the only father he ever knew, didn’t want him. And maybe Michael thinks that Brian will want to have contact with Walt down the road, even though that wasn’t what it sounded like now. But I’m not sure what the long term plan is for handling this. I don’t feel all that bad for Brian losing his dog in Michael trying to cover for his terrible abandonment of parenting.
We are getting dangerously close to this show being anti-adoption. We’re told that even the super nice and invested couple wasn’t right to adopt Claire’s baby compared to her raising it on a mysterious island; step-siblings are only slightly creepy sleeping together than outright incest; and Brian didn’t really want to adopt Walt or have any responsibility for parenting him, he just did it to get good with Susan. And this moral seems kind of at odds with the intense found family ideas going on in the present storyline. Which is it show? Are families made or are they blood? Or can they only be made if you’re all reborn first?
I think this was a bad time to do an episode where I was supposed to sympathize with Locke. Given the episode we’re coming off of I pretty much think Michael’s in the right to keep Walt away from the creepy man who may just decide to leave him tied up out in the forest. Locke would totally kill the dog if he thought it was good for Walt’s development. And this episode doesn’t convince me to like Locke any more than I did coming in. I don’t think Michael knows as much as we do about how terrible and deluded Locke is, so I dislike his extreme anger (that borders on stereotypical angry black man in an episode that thinks we need to see how he’s not a stereotypical angry black man) about Walt spending time with Locke, but I don’t think his instinct to keep Walt away from the creepy guy is wrong.
Because it’s Boone and therefore Ian Somerhalder, I ended up with a bit of Vampire Diaries thoughts from his and Shannon’s interaction here, and since I otherwise have so little to say about this episode I guess I’ll indulge it. Because, I think the way that Shannon treats Boone here is how a certain segment of that fandom (and also sometimes Damon himself) sees the way Elena treats Damon. Shannon is being incredibly and blatantly manipulative, seemingly just to prove that she has the control over Boone that she’s used to having. Though to be fair, her motivation may also be to keep him away from Locke’s creep factor and I might support that even if I have to encourage more step-incest.
I’m actually starting to wonder how much Locke might have been what kept me from this show all those years ago. I feel like, when I would see clips or references to it people talked a lot about Locke and would comment on his specialness. But in ways that gave me a vibe that I wouldn’t like him or his behavior as much as other people did, so I figured maybe I’d just stay away.
It didn’t get any better when I started watching Stargate and was just left confused about who Jack Sheppard was when I was watching a show with John Sheppard. And now I still kind of feel like Jack Shappard is the even more boring version of the already not all that interesting John Sheppard. And now I know to never make this reference again, because I kept typing the wrong Jack/John reference.
LOST 1x15 – Homecoming
I finished this episode about half an hour ago and have already more or less forgotten it. Now I’m not sure if this general apathy would get better or worse if I just kept watching without stopping to do the reviews. With more of it just washing over me it might actually be able to get me into it; or it may all just rush past and none of it leave any impression that way.
I guess I’ll do the few thoughts I had, but they’re pretty sparce.
-While I don’t like the Charlie and Jin scene, I kind of like it when it connects to the Jin and Sun scene a bit later. Charlie’s attitude is poorly considered but how much so is highlighted when we get Jin’s thoughts on much the same subject.
-I’m not sure how I feel about the growing Sayid/Shannon implications, but I like that this episode did something with it, just subtly.
-So I guess the guns were a bad move? They could have set up the same ambush without the guns, and maybe with another person or two if there wasn’t a fear of bullets flying, and Charlie wouldn’t have been able to pick up the gun.
-The music seemed really BSG in this one.
-So what was up with Boone? Is this just more of the same well meaning but incompetent, or is there something more to the fact that he apparently managed to sleepwalk out into the forest? Is there some way I can blame Locke for this?
-They did all decide pretty quickly that the killer came out of the water without a very thorough investigation. I’m not saying it’s an unreasonable conclusion to draw, but I also won’t be surprised if there’s more revealed going forward.
-And really, if there is some kind of possession or mind control involved here (it’s still possible), I’d say it’s just as likely to be affecting Charlie at the end.
-Locke’s reduction of people to their archetype seems to be spreading since Jack was using it too.
-Alright, so I have the most connected thoughts about the flashbacks, so I guess I’ll just get to it. I did not like this flashback story, and I wish that I did; or at least I wish that it was worth liking. Because there is something to this story, but it’s mangled and messy and it definitely doesn’t belong at this point in the story
I will admit that the end forces in a connection between the present day story and the flashback one, but it doesn’t really create enough connection. And even the final moral that forms the tenuous connection rings a little hollow and sour. Because it makes no sense (and not in a Charlie was on drugs way) within that plot; and because Chalie’s actions with Ethan don’t show a change in character, or even provide much reflection on it.
I’m not really sure how I think this problem could or should have been fixed, especially since – paradoxically – I don’t think it couldn’t be salvaged. I’m not sure if the main flaw is with the flashback story itself or with it when connected to the present day stuff. I’m not sure if the flashbacks needed more time on this relationship or if we should have seen more of whether this was a pattern for Charlie in those days. Maybe it would have helped if either flashback-lady or Claire seemed like people who were looking to Charlie to protect them; which would give us more of a chance for this to have something to say about Charlie’s character.
However, though I don’t think this would have saved it entirely, some better direction would have helped even with the story we got. I mostly mean the flashbacks being so close-shot that I couldn’t focus right with it; it could have been effective if as Charlie got more unbalanced the camerawork also got less stable, but that wasn’t the impression it left me with. And back in the present I will also say that I could not get a scene of blocking in the final action scene either, and I think that’s also a flaw.
-I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to assume flashback-dad was buying the paper company from the British Office. At least I guess that’s going to be my take on it.
LOST 1x14 – Special
So…when the most interesting thing in the episode is that I’m spoiled enough to be distracted by the octagonal ceilings, I think it’s safe to say this episode didn’t do a lot for me. How can a plot be entirely composed of assholes that I don’t want to deal with, and I kind of even include Walt in that?
It doesn’t help that I think part of what this episode was setting out to do is kind of lost on me, because it’s setting out to disprove a stereotype that I hadn’t assumed in the first place. I actually have a similar experience when I hear the people on DS9 talk about how important it was to have a strong relationship between Sisko and Jake to show positive examples of black men as good fathers. While this one I think is sort of banking on the audience assuming that Michael was a bad father or a deadbeat or something since he wasn’t involved in Walt’s life before now, but ‘surprise’ he really did want to be a good father and it was the mom who kept them apart. But the only way this surprises me is how much of a dick Susan and Brian were.
And I’m not even sure I agree with Michael’s decision not to throw Brian under the bus at the end. For Walt’s sake in the moment, I get it; it’s a matter of, what, maybe a week since Walt lost his mother and it would be painful to hear that his step father, the only father he ever knew, didn’t want him. And maybe Michael thinks that Brian will want to have contact with Walt down the road, even though that wasn’t what it sounded like now. But I’m not sure what the long term plan is for handling this. I don’t feel all that bad for Brian losing his dog in Michael trying to cover for his terrible abandonment of parenting.
We are getting dangerously close to this show being anti-adoption. We’re told that even the super nice and invested couple wasn’t right to adopt Claire’s baby compared to her raising it on a mysterious island; step-siblings are only slightly creepy sleeping together than outright incest; and Brian didn’t really want to adopt Walt or have any responsibility for parenting him, he just did it to get good with Susan. And this moral seems kind of at odds with the intense found family ideas going on in the present storyline. Which is it show? Are families made or are they blood? Or can they only be made if you’re all reborn first?
I think this was a bad time to do an episode where I was supposed to sympathize with Locke. Given the episode we’re coming off of I pretty much think Michael’s in the right to keep Walt away from the creepy man who may just decide to leave him tied up out in the forest. Locke would totally kill the dog if he thought it was good for Walt’s development. And this episode doesn’t convince me to like Locke any more than I did coming in. I don’t think Michael knows as much as we do about how terrible and deluded Locke is, so I dislike his extreme anger (that borders on stereotypical angry black man in an episode that thinks we need to see how he’s not a stereotypical angry black man) about Walt spending time with Locke, but I don’t think his instinct to keep Walt away from the creepy guy is wrong.
Because it’s Boone and therefore Ian Somerhalder, I ended up with a bit of Vampire Diaries thoughts from his and Shannon’s interaction here, and since I otherwise have so little to say about this episode I guess I’ll indulge it. Because, I think the way that Shannon treats Boone here is how a certain segment of that fandom (and also sometimes Damon himself) sees the way Elena treats Damon. Shannon is being incredibly and blatantly manipulative, seemingly just to prove that she has the control over Boone that she’s used to having. Though to be fair, her motivation may also be to keep him away from Locke’s creep factor and I might support that even if I have to encourage more step-incest.
I’m actually starting to wonder how much Locke might have been what kept me from this show all those years ago. I feel like, when I would see clips or references to it people talked a lot about Locke and would comment on his specialness. But in ways that gave me a vibe that I wouldn’t like him or his behavior as much as other people did, so I figured maybe I’d just stay away.
It didn’t get any better when I started watching Stargate and was just left confused about who Jack Sheppard was when I was watching a show with John Sheppard. And now I still kind of feel like Jack Shappard is the even more boring version of the already not all that interesting John Sheppard. And now I know to never make this reference again, because I kept typing the wrong Jack/John reference.
LOST 1x15 – Homecoming
I finished this episode about half an hour ago and have already more or less forgotten it. Now I’m not sure if this general apathy would get better or worse if I just kept watching without stopping to do the reviews. With more of it just washing over me it might actually be able to get me into it; or it may all just rush past and none of it leave any impression that way.
I guess I’ll do the few thoughts I had, but they’re pretty sparce.
-While I don’t like the Charlie and Jin scene, I kind of like it when it connects to the Jin and Sun scene a bit later. Charlie’s attitude is poorly considered but how much so is highlighted when we get Jin’s thoughts on much the same subject.
-I’m not sure how I feel about the growing Sayid/Shannon implications, but I like that this episode did something with it, just subtly.
-So I guess the guns were a bad move? They could have set up the same ambush without the guns, and maybe with another person or two if there wasn’t a fear of bullets flying, and Charlie wouldn’t have been able to pick up the gun.
-The music seemed really BSG in this one.
-So what was up with Boone? Is this just more of the same well meaning but incompetent, or is there something more to the fact that he apparently managed to sleepwalk out into the forest? Is there some way I can blame Locke for this?
-They did all decide pretty quickly that the killer came out of the water without a very thorough investigation. I’m not saying it’s an unreasonable conclusion to draw, but I also won’t be surprised if there’s more revealed going forward.
-And really, if there is some kind of possession or mind control involved here (it’s still possible), I’d say it’s just as likely to be affecting Charlie at the end.
-Locke’s reduction of people to their archetype seems to be spreading since Jack was using it too.
-Alright, so I have the most connected thoughts about the flashbacks, so I guess I’ll just get to it. I did not like this flashback story, and I wish that I did; or at least I wish that it was worth liking. Because there is something to this story, but it’s mangled and messy and it definitely doesn’t belong at this point in the story
I will admit that the end forces in a connection between the present day story and the flashback one, but it doesn’t really create enough connection. And even the final moral that forms the tenuous connection rings a little hollow and sour. Because it makes no sense (and not in a Charlie was on drugs way) within that plot; and because Chalie’s actions with Ethan don’t show a change in character, or even provide much reflection on it.
I’m not really sure how I think this problem could or should have been fixed, especially since – paradoxically – I don’t think it couldn’t be salvaged. I’m not sure if the main flaw is with the flashback story itself or with it when connected to the present day stuff. I’m not sure if the flashbacks needed more time on this relationship or if we should have seen more of whether this was a pattern for Charlie in those days. Maybe it would have helped if either flashback-lady or Claire seemed like people who were looking to Charlie to protect them; which would give us more of a chance for this to have something to say about Charlie’s character.
However, though I don’t think this would have saved it entirely, some better direction would have helped even with the story we got. I mostly mean the flashbacks being so close-shot that I couldn’t focus right with it; it could have been effective if as Charlie got more unbalanced the camerawork also got less stable, but that wasn’t the impression it left me with. And back in the present I will also say that I could not get a scene of blocking in the final action scene either, and I think that’s also a flaw.
-I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to assume flashback-dad was buying the paper company from the British Office. At least I guess that’s going to be my take on it.