Post by leftylady on Nov 23, 2005 14:26:19 GMT -5
Sara:
"Finally, I think it’s safe to say that this episode only reinforces something we already knew about this show—Lost is engaging in an entirely different mode of narrative than anything we’ve ever seen on television. Lost has been praised in more than one publication for helping to resurrect the art of serial storytelling at a time when we were in danger of losing primetime to reality programming. But consider that other practitioners of this particular style, The X-Files, Buffy, Angel, 24, Alias, Battlestar Galactica, and Veronica Mars among them, have all used the same essential method: they feature one overarching storyline tying all of a season’s episodes together that would be resolved at season’s end, while each episode itself was a self-contained story resolved within the hour (excepting the occasional two-parter for sweeps, of course). Lost, however, actually comes the closest of any drama I’ve ever watched to replicating one of the oldest form’s of serial narrative—reading a book. After all, any given chapter may very well only pose more questions for later chapters to answer, provide information that merely enriches the tale being told, set up a punchline five chapters down the road, or otherwise do very little to move the overall plot along; rarely is a book’s chapter a mini-story in and of itself. And that is often what individual episodes of Lost end up being—chapters that only have (or will have) meaning in the context of the story as a whole, not satisfying mini-dramas that also stand alone. “The Other 48 Days,” I feel, is one of those chapters, and everything we saw merely a prologue to the real drama of this particular season: the reunion of all of the survivors of flight 815.
So I say kick back, relax, and enjoy the journey. We’ll meander some, take a few detours, probably encounter the occasional dead end, and maybe even make a U-turn or two. But the ride will most definitely be scenic (because, if nothing else, Hawaii pretty. As is Josh Holloway. And Evangeline Lilly. And Naveen Andrews...), and I suspect there’ll be plenty of surprises along the way. That’s more than enough for me. "
Sara, great review. Couldn't agree with you more on the above quote. I'm enjoying the ride, even when bumpy. There's enough scenery (Hawaii or shirtless variety) to entice and entertain. I don't need to know the end of the journey to enjoy each stop along the way. In fact, needing to see the route in retrospect to value the trip is not what I appreciate or want. (example: needing to read a theory of AtS Season 5 Spike as tracing the stages of growth from helpless infant through adolescence to new adult helping the family to make the least bit of sense of first half Spike portrayal. ) I don't see any such shortcoming in "Lost" so I'm with you on the enjoyment.
"Finally, I think it’s safe to say that this episode only reinforces something we already knew about this show—Lost is engaging in an entirely different mode of narrative than anything we’ve ever seen on television. Lost has been praised in more than one publication for helping to resurrect the art of serial storytelling at a time when we were in danger of losing primetime to reality programming. But consider that other practitioners of this particular style, The X-Files, Buffy, Angel, 24, Alias, Battlestar Galactica, and Veronica Mars among them, have all used the same essential method: they feature one overarching storyline tying all of a season’s episodes together that would be resolved at season’s end, while each episode itself was a self-contained story resolved within the hour (excepting the occasional two-parter for sweeps, of course). Lost, however, actually comes the closest of any drama I’ve ever watched to replicating one of the oldest form’s of serial narrative—reading a book. After all, any given chapter may very well only pose more questions for later chapters to answer, provide information that merely enriches the tale being told, set up a punchline five chapters down the road, or otherwise do very little to move the overall plot along; rarely is a book’s chapter a mini-story in and of itself. And that is often what individual episodes of Lost end up being—chapters that only have (or will have) meaning in the context of the story as a whole, not satisfying mini-dramas that also stand alone. “The Other 48 Days,” I feel, is one of those chapters, and everything we saw merely a prologue to the real drama of this particular season: the reunion of all of the survivors of flight 815.
So I say kick back, relax, and enjoy the journey. We’ll meander some, take a few detours, probably encounter the occasional dead end, and maybe even make a U-turn or two. But the ride will most definitely be scenic (because, if nothing else, Hawaii pretty. As is Josh Holloway. And Evangeline Lilly. And Naveen Andrews...), and I suspect there’ll be plenty of surprises along the way. That’s more than enough for me. "
Sara, great review. Couldn't agree with you more on the above quote. I'm enjoying the ride, even when bumpy. There's enough scenery (Hawaii or shirtless variety) to entice and entertain. I don't need to know the end of the journey to enjoy each stop along the way. In fact, needing to see the route in retrospect to value the trip is not what I appreciate or want. (example: needing to read a theory of AtS Season 5 Spike as tracing the stages of growth from helpless infant through adolescence to new adult helping the family to make the least bit of sense of first half Spike portrayal. ) I don't see any such shortcoming in "Lost" so I'm with you on the enjoyment.