Lost, first season
Dec. 18th, 2005 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakAfter receiving the first season of Lost on DVD, I watched it in the last few days. Previously, I had seen four or so episodes but for RL reasons kept missing them as they were broadcast in Germany, and then the schedule changed... anyway, the DVDs were the first time got to watch the first season in its entirety and in order.
My reaction is similar to the first season of Alias - I am in like, but not in love, though that perhaps will come later; mind you, I think Lost the better written show. As an ensemble girl and an arc addict, I was thrilled to see how the huge cast was used.
Which is lucky, since Jack, who is the closest thing the show has to a leading man, doesn't do much for me. Naturally, he has daddy issues. Show me the lead in an American tv show who doesn't. (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
londonkds once wrote a funny description of the B7 episode Breakdown as it would have been were B7 an American show.) And I'm as guilty as the next viewer in finding them interesting, much of the time. I mean, Sydney's daddy issues, both with her real daddy Jack and her Not!Daddy Sloane? Interesting. Angel and Connor? Fascinating. But to quote andrastewhite, why can't anyone save Ivanova have Mommy issues for a change? Well, okay Syd has Mommy issues in addition to Daddy issues, but back to Lost now.) Naturally, as he's a doctor, he's got a must save everyone complex. Naturally, a flashback reveals he was married to a former patient. It's not that I dislike Jack, but his flashbacks are the only ones I'm really tempted to flash forward through, because they're so eminently predictable.
Now Locke, on the other hand, started out intriguing and got more interesting (and morally ambiguous) all the time. The big revelation in Walkabout - that he had been in a wheelchair and that the crash had essentially healed him (physically), and that, far from having been the assured military type he seemed to personify in the pilot, he had been a bullied salesman sharing Fox Mulder's penchant for phone sex - was a stunner, and the best thing was that they build on this. Locke grew into the wise man/shaman/hunter role, but at the same time if you paid attention you could see the growing dark side of this role as well. By the time we got our other big Locke-centric episode, Deus ex Machina, and he described himself as a man of faith, I was all but yelling "I knew it!". What did I know? Locke is this show's Arvin Sloane, and not just because they share descriptions. When said episode had him essentially sacrifice his adopted son Boone to his island deity while the flashbacks showed us what was done to Locke by his father when he was innocent and trusting, I squeed. Not that I wanted poor Boone to die, but you know, it makes for a great story. JJ really knows how to play his Abrahamic resonances. Seriously, I was just waiting for the Rambaldi symbol to show up somewhere on the hatchet. Locke, you ruthless desperate morally ambiguous mystic, Arvin would understand you completley. He's been there. Also? You should hook up with Danielle Rousseau. You two are meant for each other. More about her later.
Locke aside, my clear favourites were the couple displayed on the icon for this entry, Sun and Jin. Loved, loved, loved how their story and characterisation unfolded throughout the season. Mostly in Korean, no less. And how this story of a wife and husband which looks so simple in the pilot turns out so much more complex. Tragic and tender and with a note of hope at the end. "Rife of the House of Sun" and "In Translation" were two of my choices for best episodes, and the way they used the Rashomon principle was amazing. Moreover, given that neither Gavin Park on Angel (aka he who was there to give Lilah someone to snark at after Lindsey had left) nor Matheson on Crusade were roles that really gave their actor the chance to impress (well, not me), I was delighted and awed by what Daniel Dae Kim did with the part of Jin. He and the actress who plays Sun came across as the two most subtle and expressive ones of the show.
Crusade brings Babylon 5 to mind, so this is as good a point as any to say that it was great to see Mira Furlan again. Despite her very distinctive voice, I didn't think "Delenn"! once during her performance as Danielle Rousseau (whereas Alyson Hannigan on Veronica Mars' first season was really not convincing as notWillow aka Trina - though she improved greatly in the second season).. She was just the right balance of unhinged, determined, ruthless and vulnerable, and she had fabulous chemistry with Sayiid aka Naveen Andrews, both when she tortured him and when they talked. Loved her, want her to come back.
Speaking of torture: I think both Sayiid as torturer (of Sawyer) and as the tortured (by Danielle) handle the subject responsibly. Good that the show made it clear good guy Jack gives his consent. Sayiid in general was a great invention of JJ's - a sympathetic Iraqi character - and the episode in which the CIA blackmails him into first infiltrating a terrorist cell and then into persuading his old friend who doesn't want to become a martyr and kill people to do just that so they can catch the leaders presents a far more unflattering (and, given the news, realistic) picture of the CIA than your avarage Alias episode. Which is strangely reassuring. Of course Sayiid being eye candy isn't objectionable, either.
Sawyer became more interesting as the season progressed, and I like him more than I do Sark or Alex Krychek, two characters whose popularity has always mystified me a bit and who I saw as his counterparts earlier on. Turns out I was wrong, at least in parts; he's not just there to smirk at the leads and provide one liners and UST. They're cyphers, he's a character. Nice touch not just to give him the childhood trauma - and as childhood traumas go, your father shooting your mother and then himself in the same room with you certainly is a heavy one - but the additional twist of Sawyer becoming, and realizing he became, exactly the kind of man who caused this tragedy to begin with. You're a twisted little puppy, James. Continue.
Boone and Shannon: now, J.J., I know you like the pseudo incest (i.e. relationships that aren't incestous biologically, but certainly emotionally, i.e. Syd/Sloane, Jack/Nadia subtext), but can you tell me what was gained by chickening out of the actual incest in that case? I mean, seriously. How would the story have been different if Boone and Shanon had been biological siblings instead of stepsiblings whose parents married? Not at all. Wanting to have your cake and eat it is what I call this coyness.
In other news, Shannon strikes me as a passable Cordy imitation, and Boone suffered well, but was mostly interesting for his relationship with Locke and ending up as Locke's human sacrifice to faith.
Kate: I like her. They're a bit repetitive in with the "Kate did something dastardly... oh, wait no, actually, she didn't, or well, she had a motive!" pattern of her flashbacks, but she's believable as a mixed-up girl, and lo and behold, if Born to Run is anything to go by, she doesn't have Daddy but Mommy issues. The triangle with Jack and Sawyer is predictable, but not boring, as opposed to Jack's flashbacks.
Claire: as someone who always liked Tess on Roswell and was infuriated by the last two eps of season 2 which bashed her character to bring back the dreary Max/Liz romance, I was delighted to see Emilie de Ravin again. She's good in the ingenue role here and has a nice chemistry with Merry, err, Charlie. Speaking of whom, good work by Dom. He doesn't go over the top in his recovering drug addict thing, either.
Michael and Walter: were at the center of the first Lost I ever watched, which happened to be on a CD with an Alias episode last year. Returning to them in context was interesting. Yep, another father-son combination, but see, they're more interesting than Jack and his dad, because we're not meant to think just one of them is in the right, and them going from total strangers to being close in the course of the season was well done.
Hurley: is adorable. At first, I thought he was just background, but no, the man gets more and more text and background. Go JJ for showing us not just the pretty people survived the crash!
As a fan is wont to do, I checked out the fanfic situation after finishing the season, using![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
crack_van's list of recs to do so. And wouldn't you know it, as with Alias, I managed to pick the less popular ones for my main focus of interest. Fanfic seems to be all Jack/Sawyer or Sayjid/Sawyer, and some Jack/Sawyer/Kate, or Charlie/Claire. All of which I don't want to read. With just two story recs centered on the intriguing Mr. Locke. And where is the Sun/Jin? And the Sayiid/Danielle, if no one has written Locke/Danielle yet? Ah well.
My reaction is similar to the first season of Alias - I am in like, but not in love, though that perhaps will come later; mind you, I think Lost the better written show. As an ensemble girl and an arc addict, I was thrilled to see how the huge cast was used.
Which is lucky, since Jack, who is the closest thing the show has to a leading man, doesn't do much for me. Naturally, he has daddy issues. Show me the lead in an American tv show who doesn't. (
londonkds once wrote a funny description of the B7 episode Breakdown as it would have been were B7 an American show.) And I'm as guilty as the next viewer in finding them interesting, much of the time. I mean, Sydney's daddy issues, both with her real daddy Jack and her Not!Daddy Sloane? Interesting. Angel and Connor? Fascinating. But to quote andrastewhite, why can't anyone save Ivanova have Mommy issues for a change? Well, okay Syd has Mommy issues in addition to Daddy issues, but back to Lost now.) Naturally, as he's a doctor, he's got a must save everyone complex. Naturally, a flashback reveals he was married to a former patient. It's not that I dislike Jack, but his flashbacks are the only ones I'm really tempted to flash forward through, because they're so eminently predictable. Now Locke, on the other hand, started out intriguing and got more interesting (and morally ambiguous) all the time. The big revelation in Walkabout - that he had been in a wheelchair and that the crash had essentially healed him (physically), and that, far from having been the assured military type he seemed to personify in the pilot, he had been a bullied salesman sharing Fox Mulder's penchant for phone sex - was a stunner, and the best thing was that they build on this. Locke grew into the wise man/shaman/hunter role, but at the same time if you paid attention you could see the growing dark side of this role as well. By the time we got our other big Locke-centric episode, Deus ex Machina, and he described himself as a man of faith, I was all but yelling "I knew it!". What did I know? Locke is this show's Arvin Sloane, and not just because they share descriptions. When said episode had him essentially sacrifice his adopted son Boone to his island deity while the flashbacks showed us what was done to Locke by his father when he was innocent and trusting, I squeed. Not that I wanted poor Boone to die, but you know, it makes for a great story. JJ really knows how to play his Abrahamic resonances. Seriously, I was just waiting for the Rambaldi symbol to show up somewhere on the hatchet. Locke, you ruthless desperate morally ambiguous mystic, Arvin would understand you completley. He's been there. Also? You should hook up with Danielle Rousseau. You two are meant for each other. More about her later.
Locke aside, my clear favourites were the couple displayed on the icon for this entry, Sun and Jin. Loved, loved, loved how their story and characterisation unfolded throughout the season. Mostly in Korean, no less. And how this story of a wife and husband which looks so simple in the pilot turns out so much more complex. Tragic and tender and with a note of hope at the end. "Rife of the House of Sun" and "In Translation" were two of my choices for best episodes, and the way they used the Rashomon principle was amazing. Moreover, given that neither Gavin Park on Angel (aka he who was there to give Lilah someone to snark at after Lindsey had left) nor Matheson on Crusade were roles that really gave their actor the chance to impress (well, not me), I was delighted and awed by what Daniel Dae Kim did with the part of Jin. He and the actress who plays Sun came across as the two most subtle and expressive ones of the show.
Crusade brings Babylon 5 to mind, so this is as good a point as any to say that it was great to see Mira Furlan again. Despite her very distinctive voice, I didn't think "Delenn"! once during her performance as Danielle Rousseau (whereas Alyson Hannigan on Veronica Mars' first season was really not convincing as notWillow aka Trina - though she improved greatly in the second season).. She was just the right balance of unhinged, determined, ruthless and vulnerable, and she had fabulous chemistry with Sayiid aka Naveen Andrews, both when she tortured him and when they talked. Loved her, want her to come back.
Speaking of torture: I think both Sayiid as torturer (of Sawyer) and as the tortured (by Danielle) handle the subject responsibly. Good that the show made it clear good guy Jack gives his consent. Sayiid in general was a great invention of JJ's - a sympathetic Iraqi character - and the episode in which the CIA blackmails him into first infiltrating a terrorist cell and then into persuading his old friend who doesn't want to become a martyr and kill people to do just that so they can catch the leaders presents a far more unflattering (and, given the news, realistic) picture of the CIA than your avarage Alias episode. Which is strangely reassuring. Of course Sayiid being eye candy isn't objectionable, either.
Sawyer became more interesting as the season progressed, and I like him more than I do Sark or Alex Krychek, two characters whose popularity has always mystified me a bit and who I saw as his counterparts earlier on. Turns out I was wrong, at least in parts; he's not just there to smirk at the leads and provide one liners and UST. They're cyphers, he's a character. Nice touch not just to give him the childhood trauma - and as childhood traumas go, your father shooting your mother and then himself in the same room with you certainly is a heavy one - but the additional twist of Sawyer becoming, and realizing he became, exactly the kind of man who caused this tragedy to begin with. You're a twisted little puppy, James. Continue.
Boone and Shannon: now, J.J., I know you like the pseudo incest (i.e. relationships that aren't incestous biologically, but certainly emotionally, i.e. Syd/Sloane, Jack/Nadia subtext), but can you tell me what was gained by chickening out of the actual incest in that case? I mean, seriously. How would the story have been different if Boone and Shanon had been biological siblings instead of stepsiblings whose parents married? Not at all. Wanting to have your cake and eat it is what I call this coyness.
In other news, Shannon strikes me as a passable Cordy imitation, and Boone suffered well, but was mostly interesting for his relationship with Locke and ending up as Locke's human sacrifice to faith.
Kate: I like her. They're a bit repetitive in with the "Kate did something dastardly... oh, wait no, actually, she didn't, or well, she had a motive!" pattern of her flashbacks, but she's believable as a mixed-up girl, and lo and behold, if Born to Run is anything to go by, she doesn't have Daddy but Mommy issues. The triangle with Jack and Sawyer is predictable, but not boring, as opposed to Jack's flashbacks.
Claire: as someone who always liked Tess on Roswell and was infuriated by the last two eps of season 2 which bashed her character to bring back the dreary Max/Liz romance, I was delighted to see Emilie de Ravin again. She's good in the ingenue role here and has a nice chemistry with Merry, err, Charlie. Speaking of whom, good work by Dom. He doesn't go over the top in his recovering drug addict thing, either.
Michael and Walter: were at the center of the first Lost I ever watched, which happened to be on a CD with an Alias episode last year. Returning to them in context was interesting. Yep, another father-son combination, but see, they're more interesting than Jack and his dad, because we're not meant to think just one of them is in the right, and them going from total strangers to being close in the course of the season was well done.
Hurley: is adorable. At first, I thought he was just background, but no, the man gets more and more text and background. Go JJ for showing us not just the pretty people survived the crash!
As a fan is wont to do, I checked out the fanfic situation after finishing the season, using
crack_van's list of recs to do so. And wouldn't you know it, as with Alias, I managed to pick the less popular ones for my main focus of interest. Fanfic seems to be all Jack/Sawyer or Sayjid/Sawyer, and some Jack/Sawyer/Kate, or Charlie/Claire. All of which I don't want to read. With just two story recs centered on the intriguing Mr. Locke. And where is the Sun/Jin? And the Sayiid/Danielle, if no one has written Locke/Danielle yet? Ah well.
