tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196813830708036159.post2614752702616230570..comments2023-01-21T12:14:17.714-08:00Comments on Miserable Pile of Secrets: The JourneyHenryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10826787550676541006noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196813830708036159.post-12008327870011344752010-06-18T11:56:00.441-07:002010-06-18T11:56:00.441-07:00I just watched the Season 2 opener that you mentio...I just watched the Season 2 opener that you mentioned, and I actually didn't think it was such a great episode, compared with much of Season 1. The opening scene you described was cool, and the Desmond cliffhanger at the end was nice (though I already knew enough about Lost to know it was him), but much of the middle was a big slog, I thought. All the hospital flashbacks, especially, were a bit overwrought for me. And the way they stretched out Jack's journey down the hatch seemed like unnecessary padding. Oh well, I'm sure things will pick up. <br /><br />I should note that, despite the seeming illogic of "ruining" the show for myself by watching the series finale before I had seen much of the series at all, it was seeing and liking the finale that motivated me to go back and watch from the beginning (kudos to Hulu!).Czardozhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15328299312884380446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196813830708036159.post-83515280465858935822010-06-14T20:13:00.333-07:002010-06-14T20:13:00.333-07:00Reading what you have to say about Shakespeare, I&...Reading what you have to say about Shakespeare, I'm convinced that, ultimately, the work itself must stand as the proof of its merit. The difficulty is in leading obstinate people to that proof. When we're in school, they can force us to discover the classics. It's much harder to sell a busy adult on anything new, unless they have low standards and are inclined to like everything.<br /><br />What's annoying is when some people ask "what's so great about such and such," and what they really want is for you to save them the trouble of experiencing the work for themselves, either by inspiring, in a few words, the same feelings that the full experience inspired in you, or more likely, by failing to do so and thereby validating to them their self-satisfaction in ignoring the material.Henryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10826787550676541006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196813830708036159.post-61106930831096539372010-06-14T18:37:53.894-07:002010-06-14T18:37:53.894-07:00Interesting comments. I'm at episode 20 of Se...Interesting comments. I'm at episode 20 of Season 1, and I can already see what you mean by "wanting more time with these characters." I also see the irony you mentioned - that the characters are largely unappealing. That I think it what turned me off from the show originally. How am I supposed to take the show seriously if I can't find myself rooting for any of these annoying sad sacks? <br /><br />I think perhaps this is intentional, because a serialized TV series, especially one with a grand plan from the beginning, needs to keep it interesting over many years. Perhaps the writers wanted us to see these characters grow and change over the course of the show, lest we fall in love with Mr. Darcy too soon. I'm just speculating, though if I'm right, I do think that making your characters tough to like at first can jeopardize your chances of winning viewers. <br /><br />Then again, I don't really dislike all of them. I like Kate, I think Jack smiles just enough, and Sawyer is the likable jerk. I may never warm to Locke or the fat dude, but am I supposed to warm to everyone? <br /><br />When I first saw the previews years ago, I kind of expected a cross between Cast Away and Alive (that long forgotten plane crash cannibalism movie), with some dinosaurs thrown in. I believe that this is not the show that the creators had in mind? But it's what I was led to expect, and I think that's why I felt disappointed and even a bit deceived when the show first came out. <br /><br />So far, there's not a lot of mystery or mysticism, just some talking, some fighting, the trademark use of flashback, and the withholding of certain information. I wonder if the show will start to lose me when it starts becoming that "mind-blowing" head trip that people seem to enjoy telling me it is. Seriously, that's what turned me off most about hearing about this show, the way people went on about how my brain would explode at the beautiful mysteries. Not to pre-judge, but I've read a lot of books, seen some movies, so I've seen some things that can truly be considered intellectually daring and dexterous. Will this TV show match up? We'll see. <br /><br />* * *<br /><br />Along the lines of our previous conversation, I wasn't asking that anyone "convince" me of a property's greatness in 20 words or fewer. Just that the greatness could be described in plain Engrish. <br /><br />Watching Lost and seeing its strengths and weaknesses as a work of art, I get a clearer sense of what makes, say, Shakespeare, great. Lost has some characters and situations that really move me, but it also has a lot of inelegant and illogical situations. <br /><br />What Shakespeare has that almost no other writer/artist has is the ability to do everything well. That doesn't mean he wasn't capable of writing a clunky line or that he didn't rely on a few shaky premises. But anything that can be done well in literature is done well by him 99.9% of the time. And yet this idea of "wellness" represents only a small part of what he is. The rest is the stuff that we don't ask him or anyone to do well, because we never conceive of it to begin with.Czardozhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15328299312884380446noreply@blogger.com