How Lost's Second Season Killed The Best Show In TV History

[Dids]

I think the first season was way up there in terms of "the history of TV". I think trying to place art on a ranked list is silly- but I'll do groups, and it's mos def in the group that is "best ever"

[Madtown]

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this is such a tease. these better be good

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Please see below:





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If this were truly a rant about Lost, you have to wait until the middle of April to start giving us the reasons.

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[Madtown]

Oh, and for people nitting about my "best show in TV history" comment in the thread title, it's called hyperbole. Not like I'm the only one who's said it though -- the producers/creators talk about it in this manner constantly.

[Dids]

Madtown,

If you're going to complain about the breaks between epps I'm going to have a problem with that. As was stated many times in many Lost threads, that's been SOP for TV forever and everybody is spoiled by 24 and HBO.

[Madtown]

COMPLAIN #1 - DESMOND, PENNY, AND THE KEY

Let's start poking holes in the execution of Desmond's character, shall we?

Back when the season two premiere aired, I was already a little wary of Desmond. His character was cool, and the Hatch was cool. It's an idea I could get behind -- this island, filled with Lostzilla smoke monsters and panda bears and whispers and a big ship filled with dynamite and a French woman stranded for decades... was the site of a 1980s science experiment. I can dig that. Oh yes I can.

But my BS-meter did rise just a little bit. For a show so concerned with demonstrating that all these characters are connected in their backstories... why didn't they have the Desmond character in a flashback somewhere in Season 1?

This "shocking" reveal -- that a guy Jack had met once before landing on the island was already there -- is one of many that are poorly executed. And I'll get to the rest a bit later. But this was the first one in season 2, and probably the central thing that made me start thinking about the show a little more closely.

If they knew what was in the hatch -- a science station, manned by a single person connected to one of the Losties -- why didn't they have this character buried somewhere in the first season?

Because they didn't know what was in the hatch. That's the only explanation I can come up with.

Nonetheless, I gave them the benefit of the doubt.



Moving on to the finale, when we finally meet Desmond again. What do we learn about his time on the island, about Kelvin, about the Hatch?

First, we learn that Kelvin dragged Desmond's unconscious body to the hatch. Wait a minute... that's not what Desmond said back in "Man of Faith, Man of Science" -- he said that Kelvin came running out, yelling "Hurry, hurry, come with me!" Mere sloppiness with the continuity? Maybe. There's no reason for Desmond to lie, and no reason for him to forget what actually happened. But it's minor, whatever.



Another problem: why did Desmond continue shooting himself with that vaccine? Why did he ask Locke if any of their people had gotten sick? He'd seen Kelvin -- the only authority on the island Desmond really knows -- leave the hatch in a hazmat suit and then TAKE IT OFF. It seemed pretty clear at that point that the "Quarantine" was BS. After all, when he gets back, he no longer thinks the vaccine is important. And it's not like he had any sudden reason to change his mind during his few weeks at sea. He took a bunch of it with him, so if he spent a week fixing his boat, he probably continued shooting up with it. Why is it such a concern in the first episode of the season, when the finale reveals that by that point he'd already seen evidence it was not true?

It's inconsistent. It's sloppy.




Continuing... in the first episode, Desmond seems VERY surprised to see people. He's also very threatened by Locke and Kate. But in the finale, we learned that Locke "saved his life" by pounding on the hatch window. That the light shining up was Desmond, and that he was HAPPY to see people -- happy to see his potential replacements. Now, you could argue that he considered them a threat because they couldn't get the riddle right, so they obviously weren't Dharma people. But... neither was he. So why does he behave as he does in the premiere?

Further, if he saw Locke pounding and screaming on the hatch window, why is he surprised that there are people coming into his hatch?

Well... the only explanation I've got is that they didn't plan that out. That when they planned the premiere, Desmond wasn't supposed to be aware of new people on the island.




Continuing... Desmond bringing down the plane. It really takes a PRINT OUT reading system failure for him to realize that he brought down the plane? I guessed that in the season premiere! And given the timeline, it's pretty ridiculous that he wouldn't have figured it out as soon as Locke told him how long they'd been on the island. It'd been, what, a month and a half? And according to his flashbacks, that was the one and only System Failure he'd seen. How does he not put 2 and 2 together in the premiere? It's not like he figured it out but didn't tell them -- he doesn't figure it out until later in the finale. Apparently Desmond's a [censored] moron.



Continuing... Speaking of Desmond not figuring things out: if he'd seen a System Failure, as he did in his flashbacks -- where metal goes flying around and the building starts breaking up -- what concievable reason does he have to believe Locke? He never even SEES the tape from the Pearl. But he's seen what happens when the countdown hits 0... So why does he believe Locke? Why believe for a second that the Swan is a psych experiment when he has every reason to believe that it is NOT? Because the writers want him in the hatch, so he can do the whole redemptive thing and turn the failsafe key.



Speaking of the failsafe key... HOLY DEUS EX MACHINA. I call huge shenanigans on that. First off, if he had this key that could potentially neutralize the danger of the hatch, why didn't he use it in the premiere, when the computer got shot up? Barring that, why wouldn't he tell the Losties about it, in case they couldn't fix the computer? The other big problem with the failsafe key? Jack and Sayid explored down below the floor, where the failsafe station is. In the finale, it's pretty clear and visible. How would they not have found it? It wasn't hidden at all. They didn't find it because it was a giant Deus Ex Machina -- a device for the writers to get rid of the button and hatch, because they're bored with them.




Here's another fun bit... Desmond's boat had to be no more than 50 minutes (maybe less) away from the Hatch -- because he followed Kelvin out there and made it back just in time for SYSTEM FAILURE. Now, apparently, his boat was sitting out there the entire first season, right? Are you telling me that the Losties didn't stumble upon a GIANT [censored] INLET that's less than an hour away from the hatch? The writers really wrote themselves into a giant corner with the countdown's 108 minute time limit, and this is the kind of thing that results. Either the Losties are too stupid to explore the tiniest bit (oh, wait, the Losties' stupidity this season is another one of my complaints -- more later!)... or this inlet just magically appeared. And further... Desmond said he buried Kelvin. Which means he somehow made another trip out there. If he did, how in the hell did he see no signs of the crash? Surely he'd have seen some of the debris, or the bonfires, or heard screaming or talking or... something. If he DIDN'T bury Kelvin, why bother saying that he did?




And to bring it all back around to my first complaint -- that Desmond wasn't foreshadowed in Season 1, instead being tossed into a flashback in the same ep he's revealed -- the finale suddenly made this season and the show hinge a WHOLE LOT on Desmond. He's the one that brought down the plane. His ex-girlfriend is a Widmore (a mysterious company possible in cahoots or in conflict with Dharma/Hanso). His ex-girlfriend is suddenly the person in the outside world trying to find the island. Why the hell should I care about Desmond THIS MUCH? He was essentially bookended the season -- he was suddenly in the hatch and in Jack's flashback to start the season, he disappears without mention for the rest of the season, until the finale when we learn that he and his ex-girlfriend (yet another character we'd never seen before, besides a single blurry photo) are probably key parts of Widmore and any potential rescue. A "twist" is only satisfying when it is both foreshadowed and unexpected. The satisfaction comes in being able to go back, find the clues that pointed to it, and be amazed that you didn't piece it together earlier. But there were no clues for Desmond in Season 1. And there were no clues pointing to the importance of Penny in Season 2.

As someone on Television Without Pity's Lost boards said:

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The ending pretty much makes the entire *show hinge on Desmond, and makes the Lostaways pretty much a footnote in his larger story. While the cause of the crash gave us an answer, it kind of negates all the entire concept of the show, which previously hinged on a certain group of people having been chosen to crash on a desert island. But suddenly, they're not so special, and all the crossing paths really does seem like a series of random coincidences, because as we learned last night, they landed on the island not because they were chosen, but because Desmond didn't push the freaking button! And furthermore, the entire show is now a tiny part of the epic love story between Desmond and Penelope. Don't get me wrong -- I actually really like all the parallels to "The Odyssey" -- but I don't like how it negates the characters I've spent two seasons caring about. The Lostaways just became filler in their own story.

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I don't necessarily agree that the entire SHOW hinges on Desmond, but it sure puts a whole lot of emphasis on Penny and Desmond -- two characters that we've seen for all of, what, about 3 episodes (Desmond was in the first three eps, but since it was essentially the same scene three times, I'm not going to count each one individually)? 3 episodes that came without foreshadowing in the second season?



Conclusion/Summary: I really liked the idea of Desmond and The Hatch. Hell, I still like what they tried to do with him in the finale in theory. But when you create truck-sized inconsistencies with a character -- his behavior in "Man of Science, Man of Faith" is utterly incompatible with the revelations of "Live Together, Die Alone" -- I stop believing that they had this planned out. This finale is one gigantic retcon attempt. If they had this planned out, there were much better, cohesive, cogent ways of portraying Desmond. And even if they DIDN'T, they did a terrible job with the retcon. It is clear, IMO, that they came up with him being in the hatch... and then much later in the season, came up with his story in the finale. And instead of working out the kinks to ensure that the finale story would match with the premiere story, they decided to make Desmond do what they wanted him to do in their clever finale idea. They forced an oval peg into a round hole, instead of shaving the sides down to fit what they had already established.

[Madtown]

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Madtown,

If you're going to complain about the breaks between epps I'm going to have a problem with that. As was stated many times in many Lost threads, that's been SOP for TV forever and everybody is spoiled by 24 and HBO.

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Dids,

While I do dislike the multiple breaks, it is not even remotely something worth complaining about. As you said, that has been SOP for television shows for a long time.

[Dids]

Dialog with Madtown, presented as my rebuttal:

(16:17:56) Madtown: there, the first one is up
(16:18:26) Dids: ok
(16:18:27) Madtown <AUTO-REPLY> : I am away from my computer right now.
(16:18:30) Dids: let me see how you are wrong!
(16:18:31) Dids: [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
(16:18:36) Madtown: i warn you, it's long
(16:18:48) Madtown: and it's all about Desmond, Penny, and the failsafe key
(16:19:17) Dids: If they knew what was in the hatch -- a science station, manned by a single person connected to one of the Losties -- why didn't they have this character buried somewhere in the first season?

Because they didn't know what was in the hatch. That's the only explanation I can come up with.

(16:19:25) Dids: why does he have to be there in the first season?
(16:19:29) Dids: I don't get why him not being there is a problem?
(16:19:52) Dids: the next two points I agree with
(16:20:26) Dids: 3rd point- he's scared of the people and shocked they're there, but Locke still saved his life by distracting him from the task at hand
(16:20:30) Madtown: the first one is minor, and if it was the only thing that made me think they had planned Desmond on the fly, then I'd have no problem with it
(16:20:40) Dids: My suspicion
(16:21:03) Dids: is that Walt was supposed to be a key part of the show, for some reason the actor didn't work out- so they had to make Desmond/Penny a lynchpin instead of Walt
(16:21:27) Madtown: don't you worry... I'm gonna get to Walt
(16:21:32) Madtown: but yes, I suspect that too
(16:21:37) Dids: There's a TON unresolved about walt
(16:21:47) Dids: and given that the rumor is he won't be back, that's upsetting
(16:22:00) Madtown: indeed it is... indeed it is
(16:22:11) Dids: but that stuff, to me, is far from "ruined"
(16:22:27) Madtown: that's why I need 20 entries

Also

"The ending pretty much makes the entire *show hinge on Desmond, and makes the Lostaways pretty much a footnote in his larger story. While the cause of the crash gave us an answer, it kind of negates all the entire concept of the show, which previously hinged on a certain group of people having been chosen to crash on a desert island. But suddenly, they're not so special, and all the crossing paths really does seem like a series of random coincidences, "

I don't think these two things are mutally exclusive, and I wager it will all turn out to be part of a bigger plan.

I do think you've got some solid points. I guess at this point the show has been good enough that until proven otherwise, I'm willing to grant them some faith, and assume that this will all make sense in the end.

[diebitter]

Madtown, that's awesome! I wish I could read it all, but I'm thinking of getting back into watching the rest of Season 1, and don't wanna chance spoilage.

[Madtown]

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Is it really necessary to post one per day for twenty days? Why not just post them all at once? Or at least 2-3 at a time?

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I'll try to post more than one per day, but as you can see... they're lengthy, and while I have figured out how best to divide the 20 subjects of complaint, I haven't written them all out yet because that would take a fair amount of time.

I'm not just bitching, I'm making a case for why this show with so much potential now sucks ass. I don't expect to convert anyone, but I hope that it will at least make some people that love the show examine it a little more critically.

As I've made clear in the thread, there are lots of things about Lost that I love. But the things that I hate have overwhelmed them, and for me, it's no longer worth watching. I can understand other people continuing to watch, even if they agree with some of my criticisms. But at the least, hopefully they'll take the blinders off and think some of this stuff through before falling prey to the "OMG BEST FINALE EVER" kind of rhetoric.

[diebitter]

--MadTown
Don't be deterred. I think what you're doing here could be legendary. I'm not kidding.