Kevin's Watch

I think every fan of B5 had that reaction when they saw her

Kevin164 wrote:President Obama and the kids probably do not want to miss the premiere either.

Maybe so. I saw where either Lindeloff or Cuse (can't remember which or...maybe both) offered to the President to answer any question he had about Lost b/c of Gibbs' statement. Thought that was funny. Like the President doesn't have all this other stuff going on. Actually, I am glad the President hasn't taken the Lost guys up on the offer. lol But it has me thinking, what question would I ask if given the opportunity? I don't think I would ask anything b/c I want it to unfold before me as it should. It would be tempting though. I can't wait til Feb 2nd. I am really looking forward to it. Maybe I should watch some Lost tonight.

Ki wrote:what question would I ask if given the opportunity?

I think I might ask about things that I don't believe will be explained, like how Walt fit--or didn't fit--into the story.

Well, I'm a newbie to the Lost series. I'm on season 3, about halfway through.

You get a different perspective when you watch a series in a concentrated time frame rather than one episode per week at a time. And one thing I've noticed is that season 3 seems to have lost some quality in the writing.

I'm starting to see more formulaic devices used in the presentation of the story.

Spoiler

Such as Sayid, John and Kate cutting up some wood and building a kind of bridge over the security system to avoid getting their brains cooked like the russian did when John pushed him. They spend all this time and energy cutting it up and only at the last moment as they set it in place, Sayid decides to vocalize the idea and how it's going to work. As if people actually work that way. Sorry, but generally people vocalize their ideas before all the labor.

This is an obvious device used to inform the viewer, and a kind of fake suspense effect. It's used in every cheap program on TV. I never thought I'd see it in a series like Lost.

Spoiler

Another stupid moment was when Hugo's restaraunt gets struck by a meteor. The meteor is such a size that it would create a goddamn crater and destory the entire parking lot and kill everyone remotely near it - yet all we see is Hugo ducking next to a van with some pieces of sheet rock falling about and the restaraunt is a smoldering fire with its essential structure still intact. Even if the meteor is smaller than they suggest, it would still cause a greater impact. This is just dumb.

That's just a couple of examples. Season one and two were just so well done. Excellent story telling, unique storylines and a generally realistic approach to how humans interact.

I was wondering if other people have noticed the same cliche, cheap plot devices starting to creep into the series. It's almost like a writer or two got fired and replaced with some from the sci-fi channel. Tell me this gets better in seasons 4 and 5? Please?

To tell you the truth, I didn't think the series was anything special until Season 3... hope that doesn't color my opinion of the series for you

I'd say if you can accept that a good portion of people survive a plane breaking into two and crashing on an island that I can accept a meteor crashing into the restaurant without killing half the city. The whole series is pretty fantastical, I just accept it and move on.

As far as if it gets better, here's how I view it: Soon, possibly even in season 3, the dialogue gets a little self-parody-ish.... I probably only noticed it because, like you, I watched the first five seasons in concentration. Season 4 had the feel of a transition season to me, but it was entertaining and went by quickly, so it's good for concentrated viewing. Season 5 was just great, IMO.

Season 3 gets bogged down and slow, imo. The fence climbing episode is one I like to bring up, because that's all they do in an entire episode.

Ok, well you two made me feel a bit better. I have heard they eventually make it off the island, only to return again. I'm anxious to discover how that plays out, and what compells the characters to return. John Locke's motivation to return would seem obvious (that is, if ever even leaves in the first place...), but I'm not sure about the rest.

Isn't it fun to watch a newbie try to figure it out when you already know all the answers?

ParanoiA wrote: Isn't it fun to watch a newbie try to figure it out when you already know all the answers?

It is My roomate just started season 1, and it's funny to hear him talk like he knows what's going on.

In S3, they were kinda trying to stretch the story arc out. They had no idea how long ABC was going to insist they keep the story going, and with a series long story arc, you can't really do a good job without knowing what your end date/season will be. At this point, they made a deal to do 6 seasons, and agreed to how many episodes per season. This led to S4 forward knwoing exactly how long they had to tie everything up, so, therefore no more meandering their way through.

S3 does bring us some very big revelations and heads the series in a new direction, but, yea, there was alot of useless stuff too in order to pad air time.

S3 was the lowest point for me personally. Mainly the long grind amongst the Others. But most seasons of Lost tend to start off slow and build to a strong crescendo. Yeah, it's like most other things, and you have told hold your common sense hostage here and there, but it usually pays off well.


Now is time for me to make an announcement. I will be locking all Lost threads once the premiere starts as I might not be able to watch it until the next day. I can't have the premiere spoiled, and as the new mod of the forum, I impose a blackout period on the Lost threads.

In all seriousness, be sure to use the spoiler tags as I would definitely appreciate it. I have to get up at an unusual hour the next day thanks to work, and, I'm thinking of sacrificing sleep to watch the damn show, but I'm still not sure.

Thanks all!

ParanoiA wrote: Isn't it fun to watch a newbie try to figure it out when you already know all the answers?

NOOO! No, it's not!!! It's torment. My very best friend was a newbie this past year and everytime she wanted to talk about Lost, I couldn't talk about it with her. I just had to listen and I was so afraid to verbalize so much as an "u-huh" b/c I was afraid I would give something away! And she would make observations that I knew the answers to or be confused about something that was already cleared up for me. But...now that I think about it, it is like I have these really cool secrets, so that is fun. **fingers strumming Burns' style** ....Excellent....

I thought S2 was the "worst" of the seasons.

sindatur wrote:In S3, they were kinda trying to stretch the story arc out. They had no idea how long ABC was going to insist they keep the story going, and with a series long story arc, you can't really do a good job without knowing what your end date/season will be. At this point, they made a deal to do 6 seasons, and agreed to how many episodes per season. This led to S4 forward knwoing exactly how long they had to tie everything up, so, therefore no more meandering their way through.

S3 does bring us some very big revelations and heads the series in a new direction, but, yea, there was alot of useless stuff too in order to pad air time.

Exactly! Having that end date was the very best decision they could've made for the series. It helped focus the story. Also wasn't S3 during the writer's strike? I can't remember.

Ki wrote: Also wasn't S3 during the writer's strike? I can't remember.

I believe that was during S4

S3 was the one they aired 6 episodes as a single arc then had a gap of a few months before the rest of the season.

Last nights ABC Promo of season 6. Some spoilers within and looks to be a big question from prev seasons answered, so be warned! Do not enter if you do not want even a hint of what is going to happen in a few nights and do not blame me if you do look! This will be a great exercise in control at the cost of knowing too much before hand! There, guess I'm satisified with the ample warning... .

www.sl-lost.com/

Also, chock full of spoilers if you have not watched the entire series:

The 100 questions Lost better answer or we'll be pissed

Edit:

This is an excellent composite of all the scenes that depict the Crash, a la 24 style; I've watched others, but this is the best: Again spoilers if not seen the whole series, at least past season 3.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKcKtjrL5bc&fea ... r_embedded

One more. The Onion takes on the final Lost season:

er...poss spoilers via quick flashes from prev seasons...

www.theonion.com/content/video/final_se ... romises_to

that was hilarious!!

They showed season 5 final ep last night, "the Incident". I forgot how handy watching those repeats (Enhanced eps) can be, cause they include comments at the bottom of the screen explaining things. We now know it was greek that Jacob was weaving, what it translated to, the name of the statue, what it was the god of, etc and generally pointed out things I never noticed before. Do the DVDs have those "Enhanced" options?

My biggest questions before rewatching the finale:

The Island
Jacob
Anti-Jacob
Dead people (Both bodies on the island like Christian and Locke as well as bodies not on the island like Ben's mother)
Visions (both people induced such as Boone seeing Shannon dead or Locke sweat shop versus Smokey induced)
Whispers
Smokey
Visions of people not dead and not returned to the island, such as Walt

How do all those puzzle pieces fit together, who's on which side, and what is their side? Which of these things are the same (IE: Were all the visions dead people Smokey or the Island or Jacob or Anti-Jacob or a combination)

Are Jacob, Anti-Jacob, the Island and Smokey all seperate entities or do some (or all) overlap?

Naturally re-examing the finale later in the week, will bring up many questions about the final scene and some time travelling questions

I'm quite curious myself about the connection between the temple, the smoke monster, and the loophole guy. Season 5 gave those a lot of attention, with Christian's appearances, the Rousseau backstory, Lock, Alex, and Ben.

Rousseau, for some reason, believed people who go under the temple come back different. Her friend's attempt to shoot her seems to support this. One of her friends had his arm ripped off and still shouted up as though he was fine - perhaps evidence he died and was replaced/mimicked almost immediately. (Edit: the hole in this one: they were multiple, and they could be killed.)

Loophole-Locke went under with Ben and nothing happened to him (as far as we know). He deliberately left Ben alone when he went looking for rope, and was off-screen while Alex appeared.

The connection between dead people reappearing and the smoke monster under the temple seems to support the idea that Loophole is connected to it. Note that the monster would not appear to Ben while he was with Locke, and that we never see two dead people together - Christian told Sun to wait for Locke, then left; and the smoke even vanished when Alex appeared. I think they're the same entity.

I think there's also enough evidence to support that the dead people are not only Loophole masquerading, but also possess all the memories and personality of the living person. They are tools, but also themselves.

There's a pretty strong chance that Loophole can only do this with those who come to the island then die, or die and then are brought, and not those who are born and die on the island.


My season 1-5 box set shipped today, and I have less than a week to watch them all, hehe.

I agree, for the most part, other than that there is a rule to who Loophole can turn into. After all, how do you explain Dave (Hurley's imaginary friend)?

I also wonder about the dead Hurley was seeing away from the island. Is that Loophole, or can he really see the dead? If so, why were they encouraging Hurley to go back to the island? As far as I can tell, Loophole was doing what he could to guide people back to the island so that he could kill Jacob (though we still don't know the rules, of which he found a loophole).

And why didn't they call the mental hospital Andelain, as his dead were coming to visit?