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tori_reviews2024-05-10 10:41 pm
jedi_of_urth) wrote in tori_reviews2024-05-10 10:41 pm
LOST 2x01: Man of Science, Man of Faith & 2x02: Adrift
Well, I seem to be remembering Fridays; Tuesdays are still eluding me. But even though the first episode is just long enough to go up on its own, I’ll throw in a second to balance things a bit.
LOST 2x01: Man of Science, Man of Faith
No matter how I slice it, I don’t think this episode is very good. But in what way it’s not very good depends on how I look at it. It’s a bit more forgivable when watching it the way that I am, because it would be really bad as a season premier after a months’ long hiatus. As is, it’s just dull.
The dullness however, might actually have been a bit more forgivable as a season premier easing the audience back into the story and not challenging them too much right off the bat. But that is lost in quick watching, because this doesn’t serve as a calm before a storm type slow episode or as a pause to absorb some big payoff. At best it’s a slow build to the next reveal, but I think after a long hiatus it would be annoying to put off the answers people had been waiting for until things happen so late in the episode, and doing it this way I haven’t had the buildup to be invested in this reveal.
But, a huge part of the problem with this episode is that it’s so focused on Jack, and he’s just not that compelling; I’d say ‘to me’ but the episode seems to know he’s kind of an annoying drip. Jack cannot be the audience stand in at this point, because he’s not interested in the mystery that the viewer has been anticipating for so long, he’s even the one delaying it for the whole episode. Though the most annoying facet to me is that we get the reveal delayed even further so that the show can play the reveal through Jack making his way into the hatch. I am not here for the Jack Sheppard show, it ought to be an ensemble piece, in which case Locke and Kate’s initial findings are as important as Jack’s.
And the flashbacks are pretty weird. I don’t even think this would be a very good medical drama, because I really don’t get a good sense of what this is even about. To start with, this plays havoc with my face blindness; I am pretty sure that’s supposed to be Jack’s future wife then ex-wife, but damned if I ever recognized her. Beyond that…I don’t watch a lot of medical dramas, in fact the only one I ever did watch regularly was Saving Hope which had a supernatural element to it (well, and Scrubs), and I still think this miraculous recovery doesn’t make a lick of sense. We’re not told what the actual odds of her recovery were, the closest we get is Jack’s own comments that it would take a miracle, but part of what this episode is telling us about Jack is that he’s probably ignoring the possibility for a good outcome. That said, my limited experience with medical drama says doctors wouldn’t try and comfort patients with hope when the odds are as low as these seem to be; though perhaps he shouldn’t have freaked the present (past) fiancé out until they knew how things would go, as there would be plenty of time to discuss future needs.
But the way these flashbacks start off is as if it’s about how choices made in the moment can have dire consequences, especially when there is no good choice. Jack chooses to save Sarah’s life, as the other guy dies. We only get a brief insight that Sarah is bothered by this, but we don’t explore her feelings. I actually think that in a more structured medical drama, the emotional through-line would be that Jack is especially determined to save Sarah because he focused on her over the other guy initially so she needed to be fully saved. With this element, I think there is a case to be made that the real lesson of the flashbacks is that Jack is oblivious to anything outside of whatever he chooses to focus on. And while that’s true it’s not very interesting to watch.
This also does nothing to make Jack and Sarah’s future relationship seem like a better idea than it seemed a few episodes ago. In fact, it might also suggest that Jack felt some guilt for driving off Sarah’s former fiancé (I can’t decide if I think the guy’s a total dick or if he was just still processing what ‘in sickness and in health’ would mean for them; maybe a little of both).
There is another problem with this episode that I think is at least exasperated by watching it this way instead of how it was shown live. But I also think that the quick watch in some ways better emulates the time passing in the story, which would be evidence that this is a problem. Because there is a feeling through this episode about the almost savage crash survivors coming into contact with this unknown world of technology. But it really hasn’t been long enough for that contrast to be felt as completely as I’d like it to be. Like when Jack sees his reflection in one of the mirrors, I want it to be more impactful, like he’s changed a lot in their time on the island and he hasn’t really seen himself so clearly in a while (although they are clearly all still shaving on the regular, where looking more wild would also have accomplished what I’m suggesting). That when he sees modern tech (even kind of dated modern tech) and running water and someone who can afford to waste food all of it provokes a reaction in a struggling survivor who’s been away from that world for some time now.
Look, when I can legitimately say ‘Arrow does it better’ I think it’s fair to say this isn’t hitting me all that hard or well.
And, um, Charlie, there are clearly other people on the island. Maybe Danielle lit the fire, maybe the Others did in order to mess with her and/or your camp, but you know there are other people on the island. People like Ethan, who hanged you from a tree, and then you shot.
LOST 2x02: Adrift
I have very little to say about this episode. If the premier was underwhelming (even for me), this one may be downright bad. The most interesting thing I have to say about it may be an entirely metatextual facet I only kind of know anything about.
I recall from the review series, that it was intended that the flashbacks this episode would be about Sawyer. I don’t know anything more about it, though I might eventually look into the lost scenes, but you can kind of tell in the present storyline that it’s meant to be informed by something in Sawyer’s past that we’re not seeing. One of the stingers into the flashback is Michael telling Sawyer that he doesn’t know what it’s like to care about someone, and the transition completely feels like it’s supposed to show us that Sawyer does care about people sometimes.
There’s also the fact that these flashbacks feel entirely superfluous. Michael and Walt’s story was one of the few that s1 covered pretty thoroughly, and didn’t leave a lot of room to add more to it (notable that this really doesn’t). Walt’s childhood, with his flashes of psychic power, was the side that still had story to it, but it obviously wouldn’t include Michael, which would mean it couldn’t be the flashbacks here. I wonder if the episode we do get here was intended to at least slightly soften Susan after she came off as a complete bitch in the prior episode, by implying that she didn’t completely strong-arm Michael into giving up his relationship with Walt. Which might also have been more effective if I hadn’t been entirely convinced in the final scene that that wasn’t Walt; I genuinely assumed that it was a ploy by Susan to prove just how little Michael knew Walt that he didn’t even know when she brought another child to their meeting. There’s a notable moment in the hearing section where Susan’s lawyer makes sure the record notes Michael saying he’s Walt’s father, that I was sure was going to pay off in proving he wasn’t really.
And I still don’t get the need here. There is a difference between primary custody (which I think Michael would be willing to commit to) and needing Michael to give up all relationship to Walt. And we know Brian isn’t the one pushing the idea, which means Susan has to think this is necessary and I don’t get why. What did she tell Walt about his father? We know it was very little, but at some point she had to have thought about how to explain things to her son. Was she going to say his father didn’t know about him? Didn’t want him? I doubt they were trying to sell that Brian was his biological father, which means Walt was going to have questions. And a version of this episode’s truth, that they ‘agreed’ it was the best thing for Walt, would have definitely left room for Walt to want more later in life.
In spite of myself, Sawyer is sort of growing on me. Not investment level, but I’m developing a soft spot for the emotional dummy.
Ultimately I don’t have a lot to say about the stuff in the bunker. There’s no reason this plot couldn’t have played chronologically instead this three steps back one step forward notion. Although I did get a kick out seeing Jack’s entrance this way; Desmond asks why Jack is there, I really think Locke should have said ‘well he keeps asking for Kate, I think he might be looking for her.’
But I do have a really small scale annoyance that I think needs to be said. I couldn’t tell (wasn’t paying close enough attention), but was Locke hitting the space bar between each of the entered numbers? It’s a problem either way, I just want to be specific on what the problem is. Because Desmond did not tell him to use the space bar, and Locke was under specific instructions to do exactly as told. But, there are spaces on the entered code. It’s possible that the interface knows that after the first and second digits to add the space, and then every two digits after, but that’s a bit weird as a way to code it.
LOST 2x01: Man of Science, Man of Faith
No matter how I slice it, I don’t think this episode is very good. But in what way it’s not very good depends on how I look at it. It’s a bit more forgivable when watching it the way that I am, because it would be really bad as a season premier after a months’ long hiatus. As is, it’s just dull.
The dullness however, might actually have been a bit more forgivable as a season premier easing the audience back into the story and not challenging them too much right off the bat. But that is lost in quick watching, because this doesn’t serve as a calm before a storm type slow episode or as a pause to absorb some big payoff. At best it’s a slow build to the next reveal, but I think after a long hiatus it would be annoying to put off the answers people had been waiting for until things happen so late in the episode, and doing it this way I haven’t had the buildup to be invested in this reveal.
But, a huge part of the problem with this episode is that it’s so focused on Jack, and he’s just not that compelling; I’d say ‘to me’ but the episode seems to know he’s kind of an annoying drip. Jack cannot be the audience stand in at this point, because he’s not interested in the mystery that the viewer has been anticipating for so long, he’s even the one delaying it for the whole episode. Though the most annoying facet to me is that we get the reveal delayed even further so that the show can play the reveal through Jack making his way into the hatch. I am not here for the Jack Sheppard show, it ought to be an ensemble piece, in which case Locke and Kate’s initial findings are as important as Jack’s.
And the flashbacks are pretty weird. I don’t even think this would be a very good medical drama, because I really don’t get a good sense of what this is even about. To start with, this plays havoc with my face blindness; I am pretty sure that’s supposed to be Jack’s future wife then ex-wife, but damned if I ever recognized her. Beyond that…I don’t watch a lot of medical dramas, in fact the only one I ever did watch regularly was Saving Hope which had a supernatural element to it (well, and Scrubs), and I still think this miraculous recovery doesn’t make a lick of sense. We’re not told what the actual odds of her recovery were, the closest we get is Jack’s own comments that it would take a miracle, but part of what this episode is telling us about Jack is that he’s probably ignoring the possibility for a good outcome. That said, my limited experience with medical drama says doctors wouldn’t try and comfort patients with hope when the odds are as low as these seem to be; though perhaps he shouldn’t have freaked the present (past) fiancé out until they knew how things would go, as there would be plenty of time to discuss future needs.
But the way these flashbacks start off is as if it’s about how choices made in the moment can have dire consequences, especially when there is no good choice. Jack chooses to save Sarah’s life, as the other guy dies. We only get a brief insight that Sarah is bothered by this, but we don’t explore her feelings. I actually think that in a more structured medical drama, the emotional through-line would be that Jack is especially determined to save Sarah because he focused on her over the other guy initially so she needed to be fully saved. With this element, I think there is a case to be made that the real lesson of the flashbacks is that Jack is oblivious to anything outside of whatever he chooses to focus on. And while that’s true it’s not very interesting to watch.
This also does nothing to make Jack and Sarah’s future relationship seem like a better idea than it seemed a few episodes ago. In fact, it might also suggest that Jack felt some guilt for driving off Sarah’s former fiancé (I can’t decide if I think the guy’s a total dick or if he was just still processing what ‘in sickness and in health’ would mean for them; maybe a little of both).
There is another problem with this episode that I think is at least exasperated by watching it this way instead of how it was shown live. But I also think that the quick watch in some ways better emulates the time passing in the story, which would be evidence that this is a problem. Because there is a feeling through this episode about the almost savage crash survivors coming into contact with this unknown world of technology. But it really hasn’t been long enough for that contrast to be felt as completely as I’d like it to be. Like when Jack sees his reflection in one of the mirrors, I want it to be more impactful, like he’s changed a lot in their time on the island and he hasn’t really seen himself so clearly in a while (although they are clearly all still shaving on the regular, where looking more wild would also have accomplished what I’m suggesting). That when he sees modern tech (even kind of dated modern tech) and running water and someone who can afford to waste food all of it provokes a reaction in a struggling survivor who’s been away from that world for some time now.
Look, when I can legitimately say ‘Arrow does it better’ I think it’s fair to say this isn’t hitting me all that hard or well.
And, um, Charlie, there are clearly other people on the island. Maybe Danielle lit the fire, maybe the Others did in order to mess with her and/or your camp, but you know there are other people on the island. People like Ethan, who hanged you from a tree, and then you shot.
LOST 2x02: Adrift
I have very little to say about this episode. If the premier was underwhelming (even for me), this one may be downright bad. The most interesting thing I have to say about it may be an entirely metatextual facet I only kind of know anything about.
I recall from the review series, that it was intended that the flashbacks this episode would be about Sawyer. I don’t know anything more about it, though I might eventually look into the lost scenes, but you can kind of tell in the present storyline that it’s meant to be informed by something in Sawyer’s past that we’re not seeing. One of the stingers into the flashback is Michael telling Sawyer that he doesn’t know what it’s like to care about someone, and the transition completely feels like it’s supposed to show us that Sawyer does care about people sometimes.
There’s also the fact that these flashbacks feel entirely superfluous. Michael and Walt’s story was one of the few that s1 covered pretty thoroughly, and didn’t leave a lot of room to add more to it (notable that this really doesn’t). Walt’s childhood, with his flashes of psychic power, was the side that still had story to it, but it obviously wouldn’t include Michael, which would mean it couldn’t be the flashbacks here. I wonder if the episode we do get here was intended to at least slightly soften Susan after she came off as a complete bitch in the prior episode, by implying that she didn’t completely strong-arm Michael into giving up his relationship with Walt. Which might also have been more effective if I hadn’t been entirely convinced in the final scene that that wasn’t Walt; I genuinely assumed that it was a ploy by Susan to prove just how little Michael knew Walt that he didn’t even know when she brought another child to their meeting. There’s a notable moment in the hearing section where Susan’s lawyer makes sure the record notes Michael saying he’s Walt’s father, that I was sure was going to pay off in proving he wasn’t really.
And I still don’t get the need here. There is a difference between primary custody (which I think Michael would be willing to commit to) and needing Michael to give up all relationship to Walt. And we know Brian isn’t the one pushing the idea, which means Susan has to think this is necessary and I don’t get why. What did she tell Walt about his father? We know it was very little, but at some point she had to have thought about how to explain things to her son. Was she going to say his father didn’t know about him? Didn’t want him? I doubt they were trying to sell that Brian was his biological father, which means Walt was going to have questions. And a version of this episode’s truth, that they ‘agreed’ it was the best thing for Walt, would have definitely left room for Walt to want more later in life.
In spite of myself, Sawyer is sort of growing on me. Not investment level, but I’m developing a soft spot for the emotional dummy.
Ultimately I don’t have a lot to say about the stuff in the bunker. There’s no reason this plot couldn’t have played chronologically instead this three steps back one step forward notion. Although I did get a kick out seeing Jack’s entrance this way; Desmond asks why Jack is there, I really think Locke should have said ‘well he keeps asking for Kate, I think he might be looking for her.’
But I do have a really small scale annoyance that I think needs to be said. I couldn’t tell (wasn’t paying close enough attention), but was Locke hitting the space bar between each of the entered numbers? It’s a problem either way, I just want to be specific on what the problem is. Because Desmond did not tell him to use the space bar, and Locke was under specific instructions to do exactly as told. But, there are spaces on the entered code. It’s possible that the interface knows that after the first and second digits to add the space, and then every two digits after, but that’s a bit weird as a way to code it.