Lost (spoilers)

Started by MacGuffin, October 07, 2004, 01:10:26 AM

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Derek

It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.

picolas


Sleepless

Okay so.... I didn't hate it. It entertained me for what it was. Although I am fed up with the writers that they somehow got the impression that all we wanted to know about was Jacob and Loophole. That's not why I watched the show for 5 years already. And that business with the light? They're just piling bullshit on top of bullshit right now. Maybe it's just me, but I'm not interested in that stuff.

Some things we learnt about Jacob tonight:
1.  He's pushing 40 and still lives with his mother.
2.  Most likely he's retarded.

Although I didn't hate this ep as much as I thought I would, there's still only one more ep before the finale. This was not what I wanted that hour spent on.
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

Derek

Quote from: Sleepless on May 11, 2010, 10:22:30 PM
Okay so.... I didn't hate it.

This was not what I wanted that hour spent on.


Ditto.

Like the Alpert episode this season (which was good, but I don't think was great) it illuminated a bit of history of the island that didn't really hold much in the way of surprising or interesting information. I did like the Adam and Eve reference to tie it back to the earlier season though. Jacob and MIB are kind of boring as characters.

Final thoughts...quite disappointing. At this point, may have to steel myself for a bigger disappointment in a week and a half.
It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.

polkablues

Yeah, so I've had this show's back all season, but that was just a balls-to-the-wall bad episode. You know your writing's bad when Allison Janney comes off as a shitty actor. The light, the donkey wheel, the "rules", everything was explained in the most meaningless possible terms. And by "meaningless", I don't just mean the explanations were insubstantial, I mean they were literally definitionless. It was like the script was a Mad Lib, and every blank space said "vague New-Agey noun". Deepak Chopra could have written this episode with Sylvia Browne and it would have had more concrete meaning to it.

Maybe eventually the episode will grow on me, but I doubt it. This was a waste. And there's no excuse for it this close to the end.
My house, my rules, my coffee

Neil

personally i felt like the previous ten minutes of jacob footage throughout the past five seasons wasn't enough for me.  I completely disagree, this episode was AS  vital as the richard ep.  Meaning, it was a long time comin'

P.S all of you who endorse the idea of "not answering (important or non-imporotant) questions the past episodes have posed are contradicting yourselves, this episode just added MORE QUESTIONS.   It is very close to the end,  but the questions still make sense with given knowledge. I am still lost
it's not the wrench, it's the plumber.

Derek

No need to have all the questions answered and no need to have more questions posed at this stage of the game. Any answers given in this episode were simply unsatisfying.
It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.

polkablues

It was precisely because this episode was so vital that I was so disappointed with it. They only had one shot to lay out the backstory of these characters, which is integral to the entire understanding of the series as a whole, and they botched it. Nothing anybody did made sense, and none of the explanations for why what the characters did made no sense made any sense.
My house, my rules, my coffee

cinemanarchist

Quote from: polkablues on May 12, 2010, 01:11:47 AM
Yeah, so I've had this show's back all season, but that was just a balls-to-the-wall bad episode. You know your writing's bad when Allison Janney comes off as a shitty actor. The light, the donkey wheel, the "rules", everything was explained in the most meaningless possible terms. And by "meaningless", I don't just mean the explanations were insubstantial, I mean they were literally definitionless. It was like the script was a Mad Lib, and every blank space said "vague New-Agey noun". Deepak Chopra could have written this episode with Sylvia Browne and it would have had more concrete meaning to it.

Maybe eventually the episode will grow on me, but I doubt it. This was a waste. And there's no excuse for it this close to the end.

I thought having Allison Janney in such a role was huge mistake as well, mostly because every time I saw her it reminded me that I was just watching a TV show. For a role as mysterious as Jacob and MIB's mother, why not have someone that most people aren't familiar with? Also, the golden light??? Seriously??? They went the Pulp Fiction suitcase route...if they say so....You think they're going to offer an explanation as to why Allison J. had those crazy magical powers?

Someone on Twitter said, and I have to agree, "I think Jacob's retarded."
My assholeness knows no bounds.

abuck1220

yeah, jacob was a lot cooler when he was an all knowing god as opposed to a home schooled mama's boy.

diggler

i thought in the Richard flashback it seemed like Jacob and the MiB were acting like children, then this episode illuminated that's exactly what they are, developmentally disabled children.

one thing i'm confused about, if the smoke monster escaped out of the hole with the light and dumped the MiB's body downstream, does that mean the entity isn't Jacob's brother and just assumed his form? i enjoyed the adam and eve illumination, but man did the show look different in the first season.

i bet 1,000,000,000 dollars we see desmond in that hole before the show ends.
I'm not racist, I'm just slutty

modage

I hate to pile on, I really do, but the impression I got from this episode is that LOST used to be Star Wars and now it's the prequels.  
"I wonder where Jacob came from?"

But actually SEEING where Jacob came from is not a good idea.  At all.  And fans of Star Wars should know better than to make that mistake.  MIB even had Anakin's "my village is burned" turn towards the darkside.  And seeing them as little kids just robs them of any menace or mystery.

It was just completely dramatically unsatisfying.  As if the creators used to be excited about telling these stories and now they're just checking things off a list and explaining them in the most workmanlike way possible.  

Everytime LOST opens the scope of the show it comes the inevitable but what happened BEFORE THAT!  

Ooh, a French transmission.  How did they get here?
Ooh, the Others!  How did they get here?
Ooh, the Dharma Initiative!  How did they get here?
Ooh, Richard Alpert!  How did He get here!
Ooh, that crazy statue!  How did that get here!
Ooh, Jacob and MIB!  How did they get here!

But it keeps forcing them to have to go back and explain these things.  Which is never as fun as wondering how they got here.  It only leads to now going "okay, well how did their MOTHER get here" and how about the people ON the island already!  What it also does is dwarf the significance of Jack and co. from being major players destined for greatness, to being the next in a line of schmucks here for stupid reasons.

Also, DRAMATICALLY it was so unsatisfying to see things this way.  Even if they had to present this information it could have been done with a several minute monologue and maybe a single flashback for maximum impact, but to spend an entire episode there just takes all the mystery out of it.  

My version: Jacob and MIB are brothers, Jacob is always the favored one by the mother to be the protector because MIB always has a little more anger/unpredictability/temper on him.  He is always the 2nd favorite child, the mother dies when they are young (REAL YOUNG) and as they get older the temptation to return to the light becomes too great for MIB and he goes towards it not knowing it will kill him and use his body for Smokey's Evil.  This is much more tragic dramatically than Jacob throwing the dude in there.  Anyway, oh well this show.  Amiright?
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

cinemanarchist

I am hoping that the show is toying with our need to know the answers and origins for everything (in life, as well) because clearly that only leads to more questions. I didn't like the episode very much while watching it, but I'm reserving my judgement until the finale, when we see how all of these pieces fit together. I will say that this was all way more exciting when the biggest mystery was Hanso on those creepy Dharma tapes. I remember all the crazy theories my mind was creating every week and that's not happening as much anymore. J.J. spoke in that issue of Wired that he guest edited a while back about how mysteries are so much better without answers, but that with the internet and all of this modern tech., we as a people are unable to go without answers to all of our questions. I still hold out hope that this show is somehow commenting on that notion.
My assholeness knows no bounds.

diggler

i don't think getting answers is a logical complaint of the show at this point. clearly they're not giving any. sure you saw where the smoke monster came from, but there's no mention of WHAT THE FUCK IT IS. i'm also pretty sure we'll never get an answer to how "mother" was able to kill everone and fill up the hole so quickly. i like what mod said about with every introduction of a character, you're left wondering "how'd THEY get here?" because i was wondering that about the "mother" character, before i realized this episode was the show's way of getting us to stop asking that question. it gave us the root of the conflict we're involved in now, and we're going to see the resolution of that conflict. that's it.
I'm not racist, I'm just slutty

cinemanarchist

I think we might learn more about what the hole is, because clearly it's going to play a fairly major role in the finale. Not saying I want or need those answers, but even if we do, it still leads to that interesting notion that Mod was speaking about, because even if we find out what the hole is, we'll still be left with more questions.

I still think that Lost is one of the most interesting shows ever to come on television, if for no other fact, than I've never watched anything that elicited this much interesting debate and I can only imagine that these debates are going to intensify a hundred fold after the finale airs. There have been countless shows with better acting and better writing, but nothing that even comes close to bringing people into debates as interesting as these.
My assholeness knows no bounds.