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tori_reviews2024-04-02 11:25 pm
jedi_of_urth) wrote in tori_reviews2024-04-02 11:25 pm
LOST 1x18 – Numbers & 1x19 – Deus Ex Machina
Three posting days in a row. With another two surprisingly short reviews. Especially as I can tell I had some bigger thoughts on them, but never quite found what point I wanted to make.
LOST 1x18 – Numbers
I really like this episode…mostly. I have to hedge that a bit on the grounds that it’s still leaning a bit into the idea of the numbers actually being bad luck and I don’t love that idea. The idea of tracking these numbers back to their source holds together, even why the numbers might have been being broadcast from the island works fine, but that there could be some power associated with the numbers isn’t my jam. It looked like the writing was going to say that while there is a story to the numbers the bad luck element is in people’s heads, but I’m not sure that conclusion stuck the landing.
I think Hurley is the last of the main characters to get a flashback episode (although in a couple of cases the flashbacks have been shared), leaving Rose as the most prominent character not to have had a backstory explored. I guess I like this flashback story, but again I feel a little divided on it. It’s oddly binocular, it’s a good character piece for showing us more of who Hurley was and how it fits with who we have come to know him to be, but it’s also focused on this string of numbers and some potential woo around them. If I look at it as a character piece with the numbers as a subplot in the background, I like it; it may not be completely necessary but it works. But if the numbers are the starring element of the story that just happens to revolve around Hurley, I’m not that into it.
In spite of the fact the curse idea irks me, I don’t view it as a fault in the character; or if I do it’s an understandable one. At some point all these bad things happening around him would start to look like something was wrong. And while the logical part of my mind does and would say that correlation does not equal causation, and there are no doubt rational explanations for some of these things (Grandpa already had a bad heart and was probably quite excited to see Hurley win the lotto and then probably a bit stressed about the family interview), and the bad things would have happened anyway they just wouldn’t have affected Hurley if it hadn’t been for the money (the way some of his investments had strange things happen to him; his mom wouldn’t have been in the position to fall and sprain her ankle if it hadn’t been for the new house, etc.), I don’t think it speaks ill of Hurley that he worried something was up.
Hmm, I do have Hurley thoughts, but I also need to get out a couple of thoughts on how everyone else reacts to Hurley in this one. Because the other guys are really dickish and condescending toward him in a way that is quite unpleasant to watch. This mostly applies to Jack, secondly to Charlie, and to a lesser extent with Sayid; mostly because I think Sayid is a little condescending to most people so I feel less like his treatment has much to do with Hurley because he would think anyone doing what Hurley is doing would be an idiot. But it becomes clear here that Jack and Charlie don’t really concern themselves so much with Hurley and take for granted him being there to support them in their trials.
Somewhat ironically, it strikes me that Hurley is a Hobbit. He just wants food and comfort and to support the people he cares about; he’s got anxiety about the big unknown world but when he feels the call to find answers, he’s braver than most people would credit him with or assume from him. And it also makes a kind of sense to me that Danielle, who’s been alone and without support for so long, would quickly take to Hurley (once she stopped shooting at him). They both really need a hug, for slightly different reasons but it was good for both of them.
And I could get into how Hurley is also me, and who I would hope I would be in this sort of extreme situation, but I don’t really feel like going down that road right now. Sometimes I’m okay letting these reviews get a bit on the personal and/or therapy side, but I’m not up for it this time.
As a human interest piece I guess I liked the stuff with Claire and Locke, but I’m not sure I have a lot to say on the subject. This is the better side of Locke that I…still don’t like but don’t have so many levels of suspicion about. And it was good moment of reflection for Claire. It’s well enough done to be worth some note, but not much needs commentary from me.
LOST 1x19 – Deus Ex Machina
I’m still kind of working out how I feel about this one. But I do feel like my generally okay feelings for it may come as a surprise. The thing is, if they’re going to do Island woo, I want them to just do Island woo instead of treating this as the real world. I would have a lot more to complain about if Locke actually had been immaculately conceived but I’m…more accommodating of the island making people psychic (especially if they already were like Walt).
Basically, either be sci-fi or be a survival show set in the real world, I could like either but I don’t think I like them together.
I don’t think I like the flashbacks, but not because I find them objectionable and woo. I just don’t care about Locke, so these flashbacks aren’t playing to anything I’m all that interested in.
But if we are talking Island woo, I’d say that the Island seems determined not to let them leave and made sure Boone couldn’t make contact with the radio. Of course, we don’t know who was picking up that signal, because there are more mundane/real world concerns of people on and near the island.
It’s hard to tell, but was Locke healed again when he carried Boone back to camp? Seems like he would have had to be given how much he was falling over before, and he gets out of there pretty spryly too, but it’s not super clear. Nor am I super clear about why Locke was losing his ability to walk in the first place to know what might have changed to stop him from falling apart. I’m sure he could say that somehow Boone’s injury was used to heal him up again (equivalent exchange and all that), but well that puts us back at the Island/god being a dick.
We don’t really know what was wrong with Locke anyway, although this does suggest it was some kind of nerve problem since he also didn’t have feeling in his legs. I’d say, especially with an acceptable amount of Island woo, that messing around with the nervous system could have a psychological component; that it wasn’t the Island taking away John’s legs because of wavering faith, but John himself felt he was being rejected by the Island since he couldn’t get through the hatch so he would also be being rejected by the Island in it taking away his cured legs.
And then when he’s able to convince himself that he has been doing what the Island needs him to do, oh yeah walking is no longer a problem, even carrying a fully grown man many miles through the jungle they didn’t appear to be leaving behind guides back through.
I seem to have very little to say about this one, probably because I found so little to bother saying about the flashback story. The B-plot was also fine, but I clearly have nothing to say about it. So I think I’ll ruminate a bit on maybe why I’m struggling with this not quite sci-fi show.
I think this ties in with why I was hard to tempt myself into this show in the first place, because I like my sci-fi to be sci-fi. I’m perfectly fine with soft sci-fi, in fact I probably prefer it to hard sci-fi (I’d rather have aliens and/or superpowers than have to obey the speed of light), but whatever world the story is set in has to be built to work with its own rules. This show is backwards, it’s trying to take a non-sci-fi audience, tell them the story is set in the real world and then introduce fantastical elements. But to have those fantastical elements alongside the real world, you have to be able to explain why the real world does not seem to operate on those fantastical rules.
Sayid having to investigate why a compass doesn’t point north, only works in a world where you can count on compasses to point north. And you can in the real world; then if it’s not pointing north there has to be some reason for it, either interference that’s messing with the compass or something is wrong with the compass itself, and you investigate what that reason it. It could lead you to an alien hyperdrive or a hellmouth, but it would still be because something was causing the compass not to point to the actual north when you could expect that is would.
…I think I’ve lost my point, but maybe I’ll find it again somewhere down the line. This was still a relevant place to start whatever I was building toward.
LOST 1x18 – Numbers
I really like this episode…mostly. I have to hedge that a bit on the grounds that it’s still leaning a bit into the idea of the numbers actually being bad luck and I don’t love that idea. The idea of tracking these numbers back to their source holds together, even why the numbers might have been being broadcast from the island works fine, but that there could be some power associated with the numbers isn’t my jam. It looked like the writing was going to say that while there is a story to the numbers the bad luck element is in people’s heads, but I’m not sure that conclusion stuck the landing.
I think Hurley is the last of the main characters to get a flashback episode (although in a couple of cases the flashbacks have been shared), leaving Rose as the most prominent character not to have had a backstory explored. I guess I like this flashback story, but again I feel a little divided on it. It’s oddly binocular, it’s a good character piece for showing us more of who Hurley was and how it fits with who we have come to know him to be, but it’s also focused on this string of numbers and some potential woo around them. If I look at it as a character piece with the numbers as a subplot in the background, I like it; it may not be completely necessary but it works. But if the numbers are the starring element of the story that just happens to revolve around Hurley, I’m not that into it.
In spite of the fact the curse idea irks me, I don’t view it as a fault in the character; or if I do it’s an understandable one. At some point all these bad things happening around him would start to look like something was wrong. And while the logical part of my mind does and would say that correlation does not equal causation, and there are no doubt rational explanations for some of these things (Grandpa already had a bad heart and was probably quite excited to see Hurley win the lotto and then probably a bit stressed about the family interview), and the bad things would have happened anyway they just wouldn’t have affected Hurley if it hadn’t been for the money (the way some of his investments had strange things happen to him; his mom wouldn’t have been in the position to fall and sprain her ankle if it hadn’t been for the new house, etc.), I don’t think it speaks ill of Hurley that he worried something was up.
Hmm, I do have Hurley thoughts, but I also need to get out a couple of thoughts on how everyone else reacts to Hurley in this one. Because the other guys are really dickish and condescending toward him in a way that is quite unpleasant to watch. This mostly applies to Jack, secondly to Charlie, and to a lesser extent with Sayid; mostly because I think Sayid is a little condescending to most people so I feel less like his treatment has much to do with Hurley because he would think anyone doing what Hurley is doing would be an idiot. But it becomes clear here that Jack and Charlie don’t really concern themselves so much with Hurley and take for granted him being there to support them in their trials.
Somewhat ironically, it strikes me that Hurley is a Hobbit. He just wants food and comfort and to support the people he cares about; he’s got anxiety about the big unknown world but when he feels the call to find answers, he’s braver than most people would credit him with or assume from him. And it also makes a kind of sense to me that Danielle, who’s been alone and without support for so long, would quickly take to Hurley (once she stopped shooting at him). They both really need a hug, for slightly different reasons but it was good for both of them.
And I could get into how Hurley is also me, and who I would hope I would be in this sort of extreme situation, but I don’t really feel like going down that road right now. Sometimes I’m okay letting these reviews get a bit on the personal and/or therapy side, but I’m not up for it this time.
As a human interest piece I guess I liked the stuff with Claire and Locke, but I’m not sure I have a lot to say on the subject. This is the better side of Locke that I…still don’t like but don’t have so many levels of suspicion about. And it was good moment of reflection for Claire. It’s well enough done to be worth some note, but not much needs commentary from me.
LOST 1x19 – Deus Ex Machina
I’m still kind of working out how I feel about this one. But I do feel like my generally okay feelings for it may come as a surprise. The thing is, if they’re going to do Island woo, I want them to just do Island woo instead of treating this as the real world. I would have a lot more to complain about if Locke actually had been immaculately conceived but I’m…more accommodating of the island making people psychic (especially if they already were like Walt).
Basically, either be sci-fi or be a survival show set in the real world, I could like either but I don’t think I like them together.
I don’t think I like the flashbacks, but not because I find them objectionable and woo. I just don’t care about Locke, so these flashbacks aren’t playing to anything I’m all that interested in.
But if we are talking Island woo, I’d say that the Island seems determined not to let them leave and made sure Boone couldn’t make contact with the radio. Of course, we don’t know who was picking up that signal, because there are more mundane/real world concerns of people on and near the island.
It’s hard to tell, but was Locke healed again when he carried Boone back to camp? Seems like he would have had to be given how much he was falling over before, and he gets out of there pretty spryly too, but it’s not super clear. Nor am I super clear about why Locke was losing his ability to walk in the first place to know what might have changed to stop him from falling apart. I’m sure he could say that somehow Boone’s injury was used to heal him up again (equivalent exchange and all that), but well that puts us back at the Island/god being a dick.
We don’t really know what was wrong with Locke anyway, although this does suggest it was some kind of nerve problem since he also didn’t have feeling in his legs. I’d say, especially with an acceptable amount of Island woo, that messing around with the nervous system could have a psychological component; that it wasn’t the Island taking away John’s legs because of wavering faith, but John himself felt he was being rejected by the Island since he couldn’t get through the hatch so he would also be being rejected by the Island in it taking away his cured legs.
And then when he’s able to convince himself that he has been doing what the Island needs him to do, oh yeah walking is no longer a problem, even carrying a fully grown man many miles through the jungle they didn’t appear to be leaving behind guides back through.
I seem to have very little to say about this one, probably because I found so little to bother saying about the flashback story. The B-plot was also fine, but I clearly have nothing to say about it. So I think I’ll ruminate a bit on maybe why I’m struggling with this not quite sci-fi show.
I think this ties in with why I was hard to tempt myself into this show in the first place, because I like my sci-fi to be sci-fi. I’m perfectly fine with soft sci-fi, in fact I probably prefer it to hard sci-fi (I’d rather have aliens and/or superpowers than have to obey the speed of light), but whatever world the story is set in has to be built to work with its own rules. This show is backwards, it’s trying to take a non-sci-fi audience, tell them the story is set in the real world and then introduce fantastical elements. But to have those fantastical elements alongside the real world, you have to be able to explain why the real world does not seem to operate on those fantastical rules.
Sayid having to investigate why a compass doesn’t point north, only works in a world where you can count on compasses to point north. And you can in the real world; then if it’s not pointing north there has to be some reason for it, either interference that’s messing with the compass or something is wrong with the compass itself, and you investigate what that reason it. It could lead you to an alien hyperdrive or a hellmouth, but it would still be because something was causing the compass not to point to the actual north when you could expect that is would.
…I think I’ve lost my point, but maybe I’ll find it again somewhere down the line. This was still a relevant place to start whatever I was building toward.