Oh happy happy, for today season two of Lost starts. Other than my small American readership, that statement might seem a little odd to those of you still tied to broadcast TV as Channel 4 is only on episode eight or so of the first season. But for us jolly pirates in BitTorrent land the second season starts now in hi-def widescreen with no adverts. Or at least it starts for me as soon as it downloads, hopefully by the time I get back from the pub.
It’s been interesting watching the UK discover Lost. Thanks to a blanket marketing campaign most people seem to be aware of it and expectations were high. For me, when I discovered it Last October, there wasn’t much hype, or at least I wasn’t subjected to it over here in the UK. There was a brief mention in this B3ta newsletter and that was about it so expectations were on a par with an amusing kitten related animation.
So when my non-torrenting friends said they quite liked Lost but it didn’t quite get what all the fuss about about it wasn’t too much of a surprise. And now, like rain after a sunny day, comes the inevitable backlash in the Guardian (which naturally I can’t find online because it was in yesterday’s G2 and they don’t have the index up for that anymore. This is what I was taking about Anna…).
Y’see, the trick with Lost, and other big and glossy Yank TV shows of this ilk, is not to take them too seriously. This might not seem obvious because they seem to take themselves very seriously indeed what with all the glamourous actors and the angsty characterization. But they don’t. The writers are having a laugh, seeing how far they can push things yet still maintain the illusion of sense.
It’s kinda weird because there is a plot there and it does matter, but at the same time the resolution of that plot doesn’t matter one iota. Part of the glory of it is the horrific tangle of threads and storylines that don’t seem viable yet keep being added to. That elusive Guardian article was titled “Has Lost lost the plot?” which just shows how they’ve missed the point. If you accept that the plot will be all over the place, that the themes will be irrelevant and that point, if there is one, is to put a bunch of one-dimensional characters in a ridiculous situation and fuck with them repeatedly, then it becomes an immensely enjoyable 40 minutes of sillyness which you can watch and immediately move on from. Nothing more, nothing less.
(It’s also worth remembering that these things last for hours. I re-watched the first season the other week and those 17 hours could have been edited down to five or so. It only really gets going around episode 10 or so, so writing it off at this early stage of the UK transmission is a little bit hasty.)
Lost isn’t big and clever drama and Channel 4 are fools for pretending that it is. It’s daftness of the supreme order.
HOW FUCKING AWESOME WAS THAT!
Sorry for the caps but just finished watching s02e01.avi and IT ROCKS :)
If this is how series 2 is going to be then we are in for televisual orgasm every week. More twists, more turns, more random madness thrown into the mix.
You bet, brother!
And you just KNOW that next weeks episode is going to be about the guys on the raft and we’ll be left wondering wtf is going on in that underground complex/bunker/control room thingy.
Did you notice the label on the bottles in the fridge which he injected at the start…
CR 4-81516-23 42
And when he opened the safe to get the guns the last number of the combination appeared to be… 42
That should cause a stir on the Lost forums :)
It’s all here, matey. ;)
No “all” there. They failed to mention the 2 bunks, 2 washing machines (unless one was a tumble dryer). Also there is an assumption that the guy at the start of the episode is the same guy with the gun to Lockes head.
The room at the start of the episode, where he slides across from the bed to the computer console, is not the same room as the control room at the end of the episode where the stand off occurs.
When Jack was in the tunnel and the key was being pulled by the magnet it looked like someone had been trying to dig a new tunnel and had hit the magnet, which implies they did not know it was there.
I doubt Desmond is going to reveal very much. Probably knows about as much as the French woman, he no doubt is stuck there the same as everyone else. Damn fine start to series 2 :)
This is why I’ve stopped frequenting the Lost forums. TOO MANY VARIABLES!
This was an outstanding premiere. I’m glad I wasn’t disappointed. I can’t wait until Wednesday night to watch the next episode.