Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Matthew Baldwin has a clever, thoughtful post on his blog DEFECTIVE YETI about the masochistic pleasures of LOST, with a neat digression on how you never really level up on WoW.

Labels: watching tv

12:56 PM

3 Comments:

Lost is "grinding".
lol

Lost is a bit too revealing, if you ask me.
Well, probably just revealing enough. Answers are given before they're officially answered via dialogue confirmation.

When they tell us that Richard is connected to the whispers in the jungle, that won't be an "finally, they told us the answer!" moment.

Lost is great because it provides exposition in a very clever way that is easy to miss. Conversations and events in season 1, for example, can help answer and alleviate questions that are in season 4.
This can appear to be an endless stringing along of mysteries that lead to nothing but "good feelings all around", and this is true in many cases during the early periods of the show due to it's concentration on character and setting the tone rather than giving us answers, obviously.
This is, however, not the case anymore, and hasn't been since the last half of Season 2.

And you do "level up" in Lost, so to speak. As long as you pay attention and have an understanding of why the seemingly unimportant or "make-it-up-as-you-go-along" moments actually fit into the story, you're on a good footing. Otherwise, you're going to think most mysteries and reveals are just clever ways of the Lost writers stringing you along on their flashy, endless rollercoaster.
Lost is anything but, however.

By  Anonymous, at 3:25 PM  

Excuse my typos. I don't want to come across as fanboy, and spelling errors won't help with that.

Final word: I understand where people like Baldwin come from, but I also understand the cause for their understanding and opinion of the show.

By  Anonymous, at 3:26 PM  

Erm... final final word:

As I said, Lost has many, many reveals. However, you may not think they're important, or even notice the reveal in the first place, if you don't know the question it is answering.
Which is why it's important to know what questions, big and small, are unanswered, so you can notice the answers when they come around.
They have been very plentiful since Season 2, in fact.

I'll be watching the scene where Yemi talks to Eko and sends him to the Pearl station (the question mark) and a friend of mine will have no idea what the significance of this is.

A huge example is the first scene of season 3 that takes place in season 3. One conversation in particular is so revealing it (literally) answers questions regarding Juliet's allegiance. The whole "is Juliet good or bad" mystery at the end of season 3 was already answered for those who were paying attention and applying knowledge of past events into present scenarios. It was only a mystery for people who didn't answer it for themselves with the clues and reveals that were presented to them.

So, next time something funky happens on Lost, there's a big chance that it makes more sense and is more conclusive that you may think.



Sorry for talking so much, Al. Haha

By  Anonymous, at 3:41 PM  

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