6.11
Okay, I've decided that I can't keep having opinions about episodes of Lost and not telling anyone about them. So, about last night's episode...
I love love loved that episode. I wouldn't have thought it, but I actually liked it better than "Ab Aeterno", which was already a great mythological download episode, with a lovely emotional story too. But the great thing about Desmond episodes, like "the Constant" or "Jughead", is that they manage to deliver massive mythological revelations inside these heartbreaking stories: the character stories and the mythological revelations are one and the same.
The scene that really did it for me was the scene in the bar. Sideways Charlie talking about this intense experience he had of dimly seeing this other life that he may have led, and getting just a taste of the powerful emotions he felt in that life... that totally knocked me out. This is great science fiction drama. It's about people trapped in what seems on the surface to be a very out-there idea: the timeline splits in two, and parallel events take place in different universes. But then, it's not about the big sci-fi idea, it's about the people that experience it. What is it like to know that there's this other life that you might have led? That might have been better in some ways and worse in other ways? What does it mean to feel something that you felt in that other life, to experience an emotion that didn't come from your own experience but is still genuinely yours? Also, Dominic Monaghan knocked it out of the park. He delivered a somewhat different Charlie from the one we've met before: a little harder edged, possibly even more self destructive.
I hear tell of people who don't like the sideways stories. The only way I can understand that is they must have been watching a completely different show than me all these years. If all you want is someone who shows up on screen and gives you the answers to your questions... congratulations, you've just conceived the most boring TV show ever. The point is to experience the mystery, the not-knowing, the stories of the people that can happen inside these science fiction ideas.
Okay, I think I've identified my big question for the rest of the season: So far, it seems that season 6 has had two major bits to it: First, the battle between Jacob and the man in black. Second, the sideways stories. We've been getting bits and pieces of revelation about the first, and last night we got a big chuck of revelation about the second. But so far they've been seemingly completely unrelated. Here's my question: how do these two things connect to each other? How will they come together in they end?
I love love loved that episode. I wouldn't have thought it, but I actually liked it better than "Ab Aeterno", which was already a great mythological download episode, with a lovely emotional story too. But the great thing about Desmond episodes, like "the Constant" or "Jughead", is that they manage to deliver massive mythological revelations inside these heartbreaking stories: the character stories and the mythological revelations are one and the same.
The scene that really did it for me was the scene in the bar. Sideways Charlie talking about this intense experience he had of dimly seeing this other life that he may have led, and getting just a taste of the powerful emotions he felt in that life... that totally knocked me out. This is great science fiction drama. It's about people trapped in what seems on the surface to be a very out-there idea: the timeline splits in two, and parallel events take place in different universes. But then, it's not about the big sci-fi idea, it's about the people that experience it. What is it like to know that there's this other life that you might have led? That might have been better in some ways and worse in other ways? What does it mean to feel something that you felt in that other life, to experience an emotion that didn't come from your own experience but is still genuinely yours? Also, Dominic Monaghan knocked it out of the park. He delivered a somewhat different Charlie from the one we've met before: a little harder edged, possibly even more self destructive.
I hear tell of people who don't like the sideways stories. The only way I can understand that is they must have been watching a completely different show than me all these years. If all you want is someone who shows up on screen and gives you the answers to your questions... congratulations, you've just conceived the most boring TV show ever. The point is to experience the mystery, the not-knowing, the stories of the people that can happen inside these science fiction ideas.
Okay, I think I've identified my big question for the rest of the season: So far, it seems that season 6 has had two major bits to it: First, the battle between Jacob and the man in black. Second, the sideways stories. We've been getting bits and pieces of revelation about the first, and last night we got a big chuck of revelation about the second. But so far they've been seemingly completely unrelated. Here's my question: how do these two things connect to each other? How will they come together in they end?