Frankly, I'm Lost - 
by madeyoulaugh
From the creator of Alias and director of Mission Impossible 3, JJ Abarahams’ LOST debuted last night. It has been hailed as ABC’s big accomplishment of the season.
The multi-million dollar pilot for Lost aired last night lassoing in Party of 5’s Matthew Fox, newcomer Evangeline Lilly and that hobbit from Lord of The Rings… no the other one… no the other one… NOO!!! This one. What promised to have “the most gripping and visually stimulating opening in television history” opened with Matthew Fox, in the role of Jack (always a good leading man name) sleeping in a bamboo field. GRIPPING!!! He wakes up and, once accustomed to his surroundings, walks a few dozen yards to the beach, where there is nothing but plane wreckage and fire balls...*YAAAWN* sorry Im just so damned visually stimulated that I had to catch my breath.
Ok so, blah blah blah Jack saves peoples lives…blah blah blah more fireballs blah blah blah… 48 people survive the crash…. Blah blah stuck on an island. That’s the basic premise.
Thankfully there is a fat guy in the cast - - errr.. on the island, to counter balance all the smoking hot people. I'm assuming the plane that crashed was chartered by the Elite Modeling Agency.
So you have a horde of "hotties" and a couple "notties" stuck on an island, post plane crash hoping to be rescued. As if that isn’t enough of a bitch, there is appearantly a giant something that pushes trees over and eats pilots stalking the survivors.
After films like Final Destination and Final Destination 2 being very visual, and Jurassic Park bringing visual monsters to life; the bar has been set to show me the money. I wanted to see a plane crash. I wanted to see the monster. I wanted to see something. But, no. I had to settle for a shaky camera in lieu of a plane crash. I, for one, was annoyed that the camera was shaking so wildly during the turbulence before the crash and yet no ones head even bobbled. LAME! And instead of seeing a scary monster JJ Abrahams showed me shadow and shaky camera. Once again, LAME.
In making a high budget TV show like this, I suppose trite, stereotyped, predictable plot and character could be expected. But with all the hype and rave reviews, I was foolishly expecting something more perhaps even “the most gripping and visually stimulating opening in television history.” Instead I was given bland characters, pastel visions and the psychic ability to know exactly what was going to happen a good 3 – 8 minutes before it happened. I'm not sure who to blame. The writer, the director, the producers, the network heads...they all share blame. Who is most responsible is hard to say.
This will more likely that not, be the only TVGasm post on this show. It wasn’t worth my time to watch it, and I don’t think it’s worth anyone’s time to read about it. In fact, I shouldn’t waste anymore of your time. I should probably just sto--
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Comments
It doesn't surprise me that this show suffered from JJ Abrams's patented JV production value. I watched the first season of Alias, and while I enjoyed it, the general schlockiness eventually was too much for me. I mean, every episode we'd get a title like "Rome", then some stock footage, and then boom - back to the soundstage. Very cheap.
Like my use of "boom"?
Posted by: b-side | September 23, 2004 4:09 PM(#1 of 9)
I've been frequenting this site for months and this is the first time I totally disagree with your assessment. Finally!
I LOVED the first 15 minutes of this show-- completely gripping to me. That was confusing, appalling, smoking, exploding, amputating, puree-ing fun! The rest was less intense, but I'm gonna be back next week for more. I am wondering where this show will go for a whole season.
Posted by: Michael | September 23, 2004 4:17 PM(#2 of 9)
Michael,
For YOU, I will give it one more episode. ONLY ONE. if it fails to capture me by part 2 of the pilot, which they should have aired with part 1 in a 2 hour block (the fact that they didnt makes me think abc knows they have a failure), I will give it up for good.
but you have given it one more chance in my eyes. I could be wrong. I didnt like War of The Worlds in 89 or 90 whenever the TV show came out, but by the end of the 1st season I was hooked... you never know.
madeyoulaugh
Posted by: madeyoulaugh | September 23, 2004 4:41 PM(#3 of 9)
I really wanted to see that but um, America's Next Top Model was on (sorry I got hooked on that show last season, so what if that makes me less of a man). During the commercials I did turn it to ABC but was moderarely bored. Thanx for the synopsis, I see that I wasn't just bored becauze I was only watching during the commericals of another show.
Posted by: Anthropologist | September 23, 2004 6:10 PM(#4 of 9)
Were we watching the same show? Because I thougth it was the fat guy rustling in the forest.
Posted by: Nick Postagulous | September 24, 2004 6:32 AM(#5 of 9)
The original pilot for the show was two hours long, and the second hour is far better than the first. Give it another chance. You'll see more of the plane crash as the other characters are explored.
Posted by: D | September 24, 2004 9:15 AM(#6 of 9)
well I agree that it would be hard to live up to "Fatal Destination" levels on "Lost" but I liked the pilot's corpse at the end. nice bit of gore for primetime.
Posted by: Bern'nadette Du'Bois | September 24, 2004 2:17 PM(#7 of 9)
You say that you wanted to see the monster. My question is, why on earth would an intelligent writer/producer like JJ Abrams (and that is how you spell his name, BTW) give away all the secrets of the show in the first episode? That would be stupid. Did "The X-Files" give away all the conspiracy in the first episode? No, and that show lasted for nine seasons.
You also say that you wanted to see the plane crash. Um, ever heard of flashbacks? They're occasionally used for character development. To insinuate, as you did in your review, that the show is all about the special effects is a little silly.
Posted by: Barbara L. | September 25, 2004 12:23 PM(#8 of 9)
I only caught the last 30 minutes of it :( But what I did see was pretty damn good.
I'm also curious where they're going to go with it. I don't want to watch a show forever without seeing what the people trapped on the island get to see. Maybe it could be some invisable force, which would probably be fine with me as long as the kept the story up and the characters as fun as they are now.
I'm going to watch it again :)
Posted by: Genevieve | September 27, 2004 9:57 AM(#9 of 9)