Lost 1:1 PILOT, PT 1: 2 is Company, 48 is Quite...

[William the Bloody]

Yep, you've found it! The place to discuss this fine episode!

[SpringSummers]

OH yay! I was anxious to see this, Vlad, and you did not disappoint. I loved the review.

There is no history or sense of the future, so isn't much more you can really do with a pilot of a new series other than summarize, talk about what struck you, and what questions you have. And you did that in a really engaging, entertaining style.

I laughed out loud in two parts: The Shannon Dougherty reference and the very last line - i.e. the caption under the dog's pic.

I definitely agree that the decision by abc to split it in two makes no sense and likely did hurt the pilot. But we'll see. I too got a "he's too good to be true" Superman feel from Jack, but I imagine flaws will emerge. Guys with tatoos always have flaws.

FYI - over on the main board Sara mentioned that she read somewhere that the lifeguard is the bitchy blonde's brother, not boyfriend. I too assumed boyfriend, but I hope he is her brother. That way I won't have to hold his association with her against him, since you don't choose your siblings.

Nice job! You done us proud! You should send a notice to buffy.nu or slayage if you are so inclined. I love opportunities to show off our site.

[Sue]

Vlad, you are our "Jack". He cooks, he rides motorcyles, he's a techno-god and he gives good review! Super-Vlad!


Excellent review. To the point, not too harsh, not too gushy. Gets out the facts and points out the important characters and questions. And funny, too.

And, wow, thanks for all the pics and actor names. That's going to be very helpful next week.

I just assumed you would send it on to slayage and buffy.nu but if you haven't I strongely support Spring's suggestion. I bet they'll be thrilled. And it'd be interesting to see who is attracted to discuss it.

(Can't decide if this makes me want to try my incompetent hand at VM or puts me either further off. Please, someone else volunteer!)

[Karen]

Great review, Vlad. Thanks!

I didn't like the shaky-camera bits, either. (Loved your "Firefly" plug. ))

Can't wait to see what kind of answers we get to all the questions.

"Lost" got great ratings, so I guess splitting the pilot didn't hurt it. (It just sucked. )

"Last night's debut of Lost scored BIG numbers for ABC. The series kicked the pants out of Hawaii, Smallville, America's Next Top Model and Dr. Phil Special. The premiere epsiode scored 18 million viewers from 8-9pm winning its timeslot for the network.

Lost gave ABC its largest audience in the Wednesday 8 p.m. hour since March 7, 2001 (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire) and its most-watched drama premiere since Murder One in 1995 -- nine years! Lost also drew the largest audience share of any program on the night across each of the adult demographics (18-34/18-49/25-54). (From tvtome.com)


Oh, and Vlad, I've left some raspberry Zingers on the bar in the Thrall room for you. Enjoy!

[MaryMuse]

Wow Vlad! Thanks for the awesome review! I missed the first 20 minutes, so it seems I did miss quite a lot. I'll have to catch it in reruns.

I have to agree with you about all the unanswered questions. I was blown away and drawn into it purely on an "intense and action-driven" level. I really didn't feel a connection with the characters. I'm hoping this comes in the second half of the pilot which looks to be more people-oriented.

And yes, I think ABC did the series a disservice by splitting the pilot. Bah!

I am looking forward to getting to know these people much better. I am also leery though. If this is going to be a "they're rescued! no they're not!" type of show like Voyager. If that's the case, the premise cannot last very long without being very annoying. I quit watching ST: Voyager because of it. I *knew* they weren't going to find a way home, at least not for a while. If Lost evolves into more of a character/mileu piece, then I think we'll be all right on this. If they keep trying to find a way to contact "home" then it's going to get really boring really fast.

Just my thoughts.....

[Patti - S'cubie Cutie]

Vlad, you did a wonderful job with this! You continue to amaze me.

I really approve, if that's the right word, with the way you approached the review - very clear, nothing wasted, and as usual you picked up on things that I 'sorta' did but were unformed in my mind.

When Charlie came out of the bathroom in the wrecked plane and Kate was so astounded at him, I just thought - 'kinda odd, but maybe the tension just made him need to 'go'?'

Totally forgetting that he had rushed down the plane aisle to the bathroom before the crash til I read it here.

Did he bomb the plane? Or is he using drugs? He IS a rock musician after all! Or maybe he just has a tiny bladder.

I like Jack - but must say I DID have the same thought you did about how foolish it was for the doctor to go running off and leave the injured alone on the beach. Very Captain Kirk of him.

You know I really loved this premiere - really happy to find out it did so well in the ratings, really really happy with your review. Please continue!

And here's my vote for sending it to buffy.nu and slayage.

Great job!

[Becky H]

Thanks for the review, Vlad, and thanks especially for putting photos to the cast names. I thought I recognized the Indian/Middle Eastern-looking guy and now I remember that he played Kip in The English Patient.

I also dislike the jerky hand-held camera cutting. Maybe it's supposed to represent the characters' turmoil but it's a technique I associate with journalism and cinema verité. So, it makes me wonder who's recording all of this. I'm just sayin'.

[Patti - S'cubie Cutie]

Becky said:

Thanks for the review, Vlad, and thanks especially for putting photos to the cast names. I thought I recognized the Indian/Middle Eastern-looking guy and now I remember that he played Kip in The English Patient.

I also dislike the jerky hand-held camera cutting. Maybe it's supposed to represent the characters' turmoil but it's a technique I associate with journalism and cinema verité. So, it makes me wonder who's recording all of this. I'm just sayin'.

And Gavin! Jin is Gavin from Angel! I love having old friends (or enemies) appear in new shows I like.

[Queen E]

Patti said:

Vlad, you did a wonderful job with this! You continue to amaze me.

I really approve, if that's the right word, with the way you approached the review - very clear, nothing wasted, and as usual you picked up on things that I 'sorta' did but were unformed in my mind.

When Charlie came out of the bathroom in the wrecked plane and Kate was so astounded at him, I just thought - 'kinda odd, but maybe the tension just made him need to 'go'?'

Totally forgetting that he had rushed down the plane aisle to the bathroom before the crash til I read it here.

Did he bomb the plane? Or is he using drugs? He IS a rock musician after all! Or maybe he just has a tiny bladder.

I like Jack - but must say I DID have the same thought you did about how foolish it was for the doctor to go running off and leave the injured alone on the beach. Very Captain Kirk of him.

You know I really loved this premiere - really happy to find out it did so well in the ratings, really really happy with your review. Please continue!

And here's my vote for sending it to buffy.nu and slayage.

Great job!

I thought he was either a heroin addict or a cokehead.

Nice work on the review Vlad! Major kudos!

[deborah]

I was wondering why you had omitted the doggy from your cast list and then I scrolled and there he was. You saved the best for last.

My reaction was pretty much 'eh' - ok, and I'll try to remember to watch next week, but it didn't really grab me. The scary music and the unseen monster or whatever it was didn't really increase my heart rate. And, it was not what I expected, either. I thought that they crash on an island and strange things happen. I was thinking strange as in weird, not in gruesome death.

What I don't understand is how can a jet plane crash and leave any survivors? Also, my guess is that the 48ish survivors are mostly monster fodder, so they'll be plenty of victims to last out the season without taking out any of our main characters.

Thanks for the great review, Vlad. Glad your on the job.

deborah

[Lola m]

Very nice review, Vlad!

I appear to be in agreement with everyone that splitting the premier into two pieces was a bad idea. And I appreciated your caveat at the start of the review that this chopping means your review is, of necessity, somewhat limited and (I agree) probably more negative than if we had seen the whole ep in it's intended entirety.

I think that timing and structure is probably the biggest victim of the decision to cut the show in half. When you design a show to run a certain amount of time, it means you set the pacing and storyline accordingly. This, I think, will prove to account for one of the main issues with viewing just the first half - that of too many questions and characters incompletely introduced. I will bet that we get a lot more of this in the "second" ep. Although, of course, it shouldn't answer all the questions or there is no reason to continue as a series.

The other main problem for me - somewhat lackluster dialog in places - is less likely to be a result of the ep's division. Perhaps some of it could be put down to the change in timing/pace, but not all of it.

All in all, I really like all your choices in how to review this "portion" of the premier. Very to the point, with a nice summary of the structure and main plot points, and a quick notation of the good and the not so good. Liked the cast "bio's" at the end. Really really liked them.

Especially the dog. ;D Bravo, Vlad!

Are you going to just do a second review of the other half, or are you going to go back and reconsider any of the first half in light of what we learn next week? Or, I suppose, are you going to decide that when you see the next bit?

Lola

[Rachael]

Great review, Vlad - although I think you were a little harder on the (half-)pilot than it deserved. But that's just my opinion - I thought it was pretty good (not excellent) from start to finish.

Um - I missed the "5" tattoo. Wonder what I could have been looking at? ;D

The lifeguard's girlfriend I'm cutting some slack until she's a bitch in a non-stressed-beyond-belief situation. 'Cause, well - we all react to disaster and trauma in our own ways. She might improve.

I think the labor went away 'cause it wasn't real. Hence the instruction to sit very still - don't jostle. But I agree with whoever said how the heck did she get permission to fly, anyway?

Eetah about the shaky-cam. I detest that effect. It's pointless, intended to simulate what you'd be seeing if you were there, but you're not there, and it's a third-, not first-, person perspective. So knock it the hell off already!

[Laura]

Vlad, as always, your insights are spot on. I loved your review, and it drew my attention to some things that I didn't realize/overlooked (such as the crew apparently chasing Charley to the bathroom on the plane -- see, I thought that something had happened in the back of the plane relating to the crash, and that everybody was just fleeing the rear -- I didn't realize they were crew members -- something more to consider).

Okay, now as for the episode itself, I really don't want to be a wet blanket, but I didn't love it.

Partly, I think, is that I find the whole plane crash concept seriously disturbing -- probably because a long time ago, I represented an aviation insurer, and I was involved in the defense of an airline that had been the target of several terrorist attacks. So for me, there's nothing entertaining about showing a downed plane and the aftermath.

Though to answer someone's question (sorry, don't remember who), plane crashes over land are more likely to have survivors than crashes over water. Not that it's a frequent occurrence, mind you, and not that many survive. But there have been a few land-based crashes (not involving terrorism) that have had some survivors -- the Avianca crash over Cove Neck NY in early 1990 comes to mind, as does the United Airlines crash over Sioux City in 1989.

My personal bias aside, I haven't been drawn completely into the "story" yet. I read a comment elsewhere about "Gavin still being a meanie," which made me laugh because that was my reaction too. Other reactions:

It was nice to see Emilie de Ravin -- I hated "Tess" on Roswell, but I'm glad to see Emilie's got a new show -- she did nice work.

Is Dominic Monaghan addicted to protracted filming of quest for survival stories on lush, exotic islands?

I like the characters of Kate and Jack -- I was very touched by the way, after Jack told Kate she would need better shoes, she took the boots off one of the corpses -- very reverently, as Vlad noted. Not squeamish, determined, but still respectful -- because you do what you have to do to survive.

For the rest, I'll withhold judgment til I see a few more eps. Maybe seeing the second half of the pilot will help.[/size]

[William the Bloody]

Spring said:

FYI - over on the main board Sara mentioned that she read somewhere that the lifeguard is the bitchy blonde's brother, not boyfriend. I too assumed boyfriend, but I hope he is her brother. That way I won't have to hold his association with her against him, since you don't choose your siblings.

Oh, let us only hope! Then maybe we can see him tangle with her and call her out, since she wouldn't have that feminine power to hold over him...sex. Of course there is sibling loyalty, but at least in private he could take her to task.

Sue said:

And, wow, thanks for all the pics and actor names. That's going to be very helpful next week.

and was supported in this thought by
Becky:

Thanks for the review, Vlad, and thanks especially for putting photos to the cast names. I thought I recognized the Indian/Middle Eastern-looking guy and now I remember that he played Kip in The English Patient.

I wish I could say the pictures/names were there for you folks. In honesty, it was for me! *laughing* I needed some sort of scorecard to keep them straight as I was writing. *wink* Seriously, tho' I thought they would come in helpful in identifying the cast as I wrote about them in this first review. I did something similar in my first Wonderfalls review and it seemed popular.

Karen wrote:

I didn't like the shaky-camera bits, either. (Loved your "Firefly" plug. )

and Becky wrote:

I also dislike the jerky hand-held camera cutting. Maybe it's supposed to represent the characters' turmoil but it's a technique I associate with journalism and cinema verité. So, it makes me wonder who's recording all of this. I'm just sayin'.

Yes, I hated it. They did something similar only worse in the latest Bourne movie. It was so disconcerting to me that I almost got up in mid-show and left. I really hope that it tames down some over the next few episodes. Perhaps once somplaintsstart reaching ABC's ears about it? I don;t know how many they have in the can already but I woudl guess that maybe by ep 6 we could see a less shaky version?

ps. KAREN! The Zingers were marvelous! You get bonus S'cubie points!

Mary commented:

I am looking forward to getting to know these people much better. I am also leery though. If this is going to be a "they're rescued! no they're not!" type of show like Voyager. If that's the case, the premise cannot last very long without being very annoying. I quit watching ST: Voyager because of it. I *knew* they weren't going to find a way home, at least not for a while. If Lost evolves into more of a character/mileu piece, then I think we'll be all right on this. If they keep trying to find a way to contact "home" then it's going to get really boring really fast.

I too didn't enjoy the "are they gonna get home?" theme constantly brought up on Voyager. In fact I stopped watching that series altogether by the end of first season. It also had some really terrible plots, aliens, and cast. The lamest of the Treks (and yes, that includes Enterprise) in my opinion.

The "Are they gonna get home this week?" theme also was the staple of Gilligan's island. *shudders* You don't suppose one of hte new castaways is named Skip, do you? And if there is a character we find out is named Gill Gianno, I may puke. Or throw things hard at the tv...or something.

Patti wrote:

When Charlie came out of the bathroom in the wrecked plane and Kate was so astounded at him, I just thought - 'kinda odd, but maybe the tension just made him need to 'go'?'

Totally forgetting that he had rushed down the plane aisle to the bathroom before the crash til I read it here.

Did he bomb the plane? Or is he using drugs? He IS a rock musician after all! Or maybe he just has a tiny bladder.

They made such a big point of it that I am sure it's important. However, I thought Kate's reaction to him being in the bathroom was like too suspicious. They were searching the plane, ultimately for the transceiver, but i would asume for anything else, supplies, casualties, etc. Why WOULDN'T he go into the bathroom. Nothing wrong with her asking, just hte implied accusation somehow was off.

Also, tho' I failed to mention it in the review, the black lady that Jack talks to on the plane and then resuscitates on the beach...she mentioned her husband was in the bathroom. Could THAT have anything to do with anything?

And Patti also said:

I like Jack - but must say I DID have the same thought you did about how foolish it was for the doctor to go running off and leave the injured alone on the beach. Very Captain Kirk of him.

I thought it was very foolish, once they knew something really bad was out there. But, while I think it was foolish, I don't think it was out of character. Jack seems very much the go-to guy. He is quick and decisive and gets the job done. It doesn't mean that he is always "right," tho'. I suspect this is something that will come up more than once on this series as the others will probably question his leadership.

(cont. next post)

[William the Bloody]

(cont. from previous post)

Deborah stated:

What I don't understand is how can a jet plane crash and leave any survivors? Also, my guess is that the 48ish survivors are mostly monster fodder, so they'll be plenty of victims to last out the season without taking out any of our main characters.

I don't have any hard data on this but I don't think it was impossible for the plane ot have crashed and had so many survivors. I am assuming hte plane may have come in for a crash landing at a decent angle and altitude and speed before breaking apart for some reason. I guess it is a possible testament to our dearly departed Pilot (the idiot). I am being harsh on him tho'. Perhaps he was befuddled due to that concussion that Jack pronounced him with.

And, I too figure that many of hte 48 will eventually end up fodder. I think a kewl move woudl be for some of them to completely reject Jack's leadership and move away to start their own group elsewhere on the island. Then we would have a REAL survivor type show! Don;t laugh, I mean that. It would be something akin to The Stand.

Lola stated, after echoing most of my same sentiments, the following:

Are you going to just do a second review of the other half, or are you going to go back and reconsider any of the first half in light of what we learn next week? Or, I suppose, are you going to decide that when you see the next bit?

I will be doing a whole new second review, but will, of course, be referring back to what happened in the first "half." Can't see any other way of doing htat! So, yes, reading hte first review will be important to reading the second, but I don't see it as being a true "requirement." Not that it's going to be a problem right? Everyone READ the first review...right?



Rachel opined:

Great review, Vlad - although I think you were a little harder on the (half-)pilot than it deserved. But that's just my opinion - I thought it was pretty good (not excellent) from start to finish.
<snip>
Eetah about the shaky-cam. I detest that effect. It's pointless, intended to simulate what you'd be seeing if you were there, but you're not there, and it's a third-, not first-, person perspective. So knock it the hell off already!

In re-reading the review, I agree I was a bit hard on the show. I truly think most of it had to do with the pacing being off becuase it was split up like it was. I think the best review would have been to wait until both parts had been shown and to have watched them in one sitting. Alas, because of deadlines, I had to write something and I tried to be as honest with my feelings as I possibly could. I DO like this series, and based on what I saw, would keep watching it even if I wasn't reviewing it. I was dissappointed, a little, becuase of the critics "love" of this show and why... it didn't live up to their gushings. But it is of the good.

And I triple your etah of my tah on the shaky-cam. Knock it the hell off indeed!


And Laura weighed in:

Vlad, as always, your insights are spot on. I loved your review, and it drew my attention to some things that I didn't realize/overlooked (such as the crew apparently chasing Charley to the bathroom on the plane -- see, I thought that something had happened in the back of the plane relating to the crash, and that everybody was just fleeing the rear -- I didn't realize they were crew members -- something more to consider).

Okay, now as for the episode itself, I really don't want to be a wet blanket, but I didn't love it.
<snip>
For the rest, I'll withhold judgment til I see a few more eps. Maybe seeing the second half of the pilot will help.

I immediately spotted the rush past Jack to the bathroom...but had no idea it was Charlie until I watched the episode the second time in "review" mode. The first time I was under the impression that it had something to do with terrorism and that maybe the guy had blown up the plane. The Pilot didn't confirm this in his talk to Jack, however; he only mentioned turbulance. The second time of watching, I recognized the voice as belonging to Charlie as he pardons himself past.

I really think that watching the second half will help. While being a tiny bit spoiled about a couple characters, the previews of the second half covered a lot of my "spoilage" anyhow. And after the second half of the pilot, I will be in the same boat (or on the same island *grin*) as the lot of you!


Finally:
It seems folks really liked my Shannon Dougherty and The Dog mentions. Thank you, thank you! Amazing how its hte added after thoughts and touches that make an apple crisp an "apple flambe'."

Your praise has been overwhelming and it is really nice, considering I wasn't sure how good a review this really was or would be. It was hard to write because of so much going on and so few solid answers. I really think it will get easier (and more fun) as the series continues. I appreciate all of your feedback, your good points and am looking forward to doing this all again next week. Til then stay away from big sucking aircraft parts, guard your rations, and I would keep an eye on that guy eating oranges... and jsut where did he get those oranges anyway? *eyes narrow suspiciously*

Vlad