Friday, April 17, 2009

LOST

Some like it Hoth. One thing LOST still knows how to do -- even four episodes from the end of the second to last season, we can still have a pretty light episode where two guys talk about Star Wars and hang out. The fifth season of Buffy was unrelentingly grim, the fourth season of Angel was also very serious (though very good), and I don't remember Alias having any goofy stuff in it's fifth season (though that season, and the previous two, were pretty forgettable). Lost does a good job distinguishing Hurley's abilities from Miles in funny scene (“You’re just jealous my power’s better than yours.”), and it does an especially good job with the sort of "second generation" problems -- Jack with a chance to assert himself leaves the leader-ing to someone else now, and Hurley can impart the wisdom he learned from his relationship with his father to Miles. I also like how Miles is totally incurious -- not quite as Nikki and Paulo, but still: on the island with his long lost dad for three years he never gets to know him, even after he sees the birth of HIMSELF. There is something really fantastic about the use of the Darth Vader relationship to discuss this: it plays with and against the way pulpy stories will draw on the classics to give their stories the sheen of gravitas -- superheroes, people are always telling me, are modern incarnations of the ancient Greek heroes. That argument has always struck me as sort of pointlessly true -- there have always been heroes in history, sure. Star Wars of course highlights these Arthurian legend stuff and it is nice that LOST -- which seems about to head into Egyptian territory -- can point to the pulps like Star Wars for importance knowing both how CLASSIC the text is for fans, MORE important to most people that saying the island is like the moving island in the Odyssey or whatever -- but also fundamentally the same kind of thing.

These "do you know what lies in the shadow of the statue" -- last week I assumed they were more of Widmore's guys because of the way Ben talked to them. This week it seems like they were Ben's guys, trying to talk Miles OUT of working for Widmore. Is it possible they are a third team?

4 comments:

James said...

I'm a little miffed that they changed how Miles's talent works. In that scene he a) most certainly is "chatting with a ghost" b) does not appear to need to be near the body. I also think it's a shame that his abilities are going to have a direct connection to The Island - I really liked the idea of them just nonchalantly introducing a genuine medium out of the blue.

The 1.6/3.2 million - is that to pay back everyone he's ever ripped off?

Hilarious Flashback Hair Watch: Young Miles very nearly worked, but was undone by Ken Leung's hairline. Not 100% sure about his "high" voice, either, but at least he didn't look like Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 3.

The 3rd Faction: that's gotta be what's left of the Dharma Initiative, right?

Jason said...

I'm sure you expected me to quibble about your "Alias" comment.

The fourth season had a great episode with Sydney and Vaughn under couple as a married couple in a tiny suburb that doubled as a training ground for assassins. And another episode where everyone except Marshall got trapped outside headquarters and he had to do a bunch of spy stuff.

The fifth season -- yeah, not as much -- bit it did have some funny stuff about Sydney's baby, where Jack came over and tried to baby-proof the house with spy technology. (Sydney: "She's five weeks old, dad." Jack: "She's still a Bristow. You don't leave sharp objects lying around a room with a Bristow woman.")

Telosandcontext said...

The first thing I was thinking after this episode was how great a reveal it would be if the Widmore-Ben relationship were the big red herring of the show. We all assume that the big feud is between them, but ultimately they're both others. So, essentially they're on the same team. It's like Shaq and Kobe squabbling over who's the star of the Lakers. They both play for the Lakers, but they also hate each other. I think it would be great if Widmore and Ben have to put their differences behind them in order to work with Locke to defeat some third party that wants in on the action. DHARMA legacies? Perhaps. DHARMA is after all Hanso-related. And Magnus Hanso was on the island before both Widmore and Ben....

neilshyminsky said...

The reference to a 'statue' could be a red herring, but it leads me to believe that they aren't Dharma - that it's another group of Others. Or that they're actually the original inhabitants? Everyone has a nemesis on this show - could Ilana be ageless like Richard, and be his foil?