cymbaljack

So we sort of half-accidentally watched Lost last night, and again resolved to be done with it. I think I only liked it in the first place because it's good compared to the rest of the junk on TV.

Because let's face it, the main feature of the show is that they never really tell you anything. Everything is as vague as possible, to try to get you to come back after the commercial, next week, next season, when maybe we'll give you another little crumb of information. Here is how I think it goes when they interview a writer for the show:

Producer: Can you tell me about your last job?
Candidate: I was a writer for another show, but then I did something...terrible.
Producer: And before that?
Candidate: Before that, I worked on a...project. You know.
Producer: You are being incredibly vague and evasive about everything.
Candidate: Do you think so?
Producer: You're hired.

Last night, (spoilers ahead! Well, not really--nothing here will "spoil" anything) Kate was the Featured Flashback Character of the Week. So we saw her go hook up with an old boyfriend, and at one point they had this exchange:

Kate: Do you think it's still there?
Boyfriend: What?
Kate: You know what.

Well, "what" turns out to be a silly time capsule that they buried when they were maybe twelve years old. Knowing that, this conversation makes perfect sense if you are a character on Lost. Ordinary humans, on the other hand, might sound like this:

Kate: Do you think it's still there?
Boyfriend: What?
Kate: You know what.
Boyfriend: How on earth would I know what you're talking about? Why are you being so vague?!?

Or even:

Kate: Hey, do you think the time capsule is still there?

But that would not produce the desired effect of perpetual suspence over nothing, so we don't do that. (Now, spoilers ahead.) For weeks Locke has been carefully concealing from everybody that he'd found the chamber or whatever it is in the jungle. Last night he revealed it for no apparent reason. And despite yet another backstory-of-Kate episode, we still have no idea what her real, original crime is. And at this point, I don't care. Even if she's innocent of the original crime, she has since done a number of destructive, illegal things while on the lam.

That's the other problem I have with the show, I guess. In all the flashbacks, we discover all these people (even Sawyer) have a heart of gold, but in the real world of the current story, they're awful: violent, selfish, mistrustful and untrustworthy. Hurley is the biggest exception to this, but there's just not enough of Hurley (reported to be the most popular character) to make it worth watching.

Netflix has all kinds of TV series on DVD and provides good service. So we can find better to watch.