Random Thoughts

According to New York Daily News, Lost is so important to the viewers that more people store it on their TiVo or other digital video recorders than any other prime-time series.

More than 1.5 million people record the ABC series for later viewing on their TiVos or other digital recording devices each week, a practice known since the heyday of the VCR as time-shifting. In the new statistics, that figure is counted along with the number of people watching live in Nielsen’s survey.

Closely following Lost is the other Touchstone hit - “Gray’s Anatomy” and Lost’s unofficial buddy-series “Heroes” on NBC.

I’m certainly not surprised. Many fans find it easier and more enjoyable to watch series like Lost and Heroes on their own schedule, and with the amount of complexity and mysteries, I know that many Lost fans watch the episodes two or three times; either just for fun or to analyze the events and look for clues.

I usually watch Lost twice. First when it airs, and then once more the next day; first of all because I enjoy the show, but also to be inspired and reminded of the important events in the episode so I’ll stay on top of the discussions and come up with interesting things to write about.

How do you watch Lost?

I received a mail with some questions from Lost Blog reader Jason today:

In an anime movie called Vampire Hunter D, there are monsters called Mist Devils that resemble the monster on Lost. Is there any chance this has connection to Asian folklore that Jin would give insight to?

Saltwater Crocodiles are native to the south Asia/Australia region. They are the largest breed of crocodiles and sometimes grow just shy of 30 feet. Is there any chance of us seeing one of these on the island giving the castaways problems?

I am not aware of any connections between the smoke monster on Lost and Asian folklore. It’s not impossible, but to my knowledge we have not seen anything that points in that direction. Maybe some of our readers have more knowledge of smoke monsters in Asian folklore?

When it comes to crocodiles native to south Asia and Australia, I’m not able to give you a good answer either. The reason is that we have no idea where the island is located. Some belive that it is located between Australia and America, others belive that the island is in Antarctica and others believe that it is constantly moving.

Since we don’t know where the island is, we can’t assume that there is any connection to south Asia or Australia. On the other hand, we have seen boars, horses and polar bears on the island, so if you keep your fingers crosses, maybe some crocodiles will show up in a future episode!

According to the World Entertainment News Network, it is becoming increasingly difficult to shoot new Lost episodes. One might expect that the problem would lie in expanding production budgets or bad weather, but according to “a production source”, the problem is that fans are trying to invade the set to get close to the ever so popular lost actors.

“Things were a lot easier filming the first series when the cast were still largely unknown. But now some of them have a very enthusiastic fan base who will stop at nothing to get close to their idols.

We may be on an isolated island but there have been several incidents where fans have stormed the set.

It’s cost about half a million in lost filming time and additional security.”

Once again, I hope and believe that none of our readers would do something like that. Actors are regular people, they are not the characters you get to know and love on TV.

via DarkUFO

I just launched my new online portfolio andreascliment.com and released my first short film for free on the internet.

The film is titled “Counting Sheep” and tells the story of a young man who hasn’t slept for over three years after being involved in a car accident. Since it is a surreal drama, I would recommend being over 15 to watch it.

The film can be seen right here via YouTube or be downloaded via BitTorrent.

This isn’t related to Lost so I feel a bit bad posting it on The Lost Blog, but I thought that some of you might be interested to see what I’m up to when I’m not writing about Lost.

There is a pretty good article over at styleweek.com about the new shows that are inspired by Lost.

Since ABC would never let its critical and commercial darling air anywhere else, rival networks have tried to find their own “Lost” this fall, with mixed results. CBS’s “Jericho” has gone all-out to clone “Lost,” a little too transparently. The “Lost” island has been re-created in the titular town of Jericho, Kan., possibly the only place left in America after a nuclear attack. NBC’s “Heroes,” for its part, borrows the “Lost”-style large ensemble cast and ongoing mysteries, with several disparate characters developing superhuman powers and slowly discovering how they can save the world.

The big difference is that while “Heroes” has successfully re-conjured that “Lost” magic in an original way, the poorly thought-out imitation “Jericho” smells like desperation — like the unpopular girl at school who suddenly shows up one Monday morning (or in this case Wednesday evening) dressed exactly like the popular girl.

It’s fun that Lost is “the popular girl”, but what makes Lost stand out, is that it is the popular girl at the same time as it is the smartest person in school.

I watched the first few episodes of Jericho, but I quickly lost interest. Heroes on the other hand, is very entertaining and at the end of each episode I always want more, so I’ll keep watching.

While Heroes is great, Lost is still playing in its own league. The characters really feel like real persons with real problems and even though the island, the mysterious Others and the smoke monster are part of Lost, the show is very believable and truly feels like something that could be happening on the other side of the screen.

Lost’s fall season finale airs tonight and a lot of writers seem to be quite upset about it. The popular things to write in these articles is that the hiatus is a very bad idea because Lost will loose its momentum and thereby its fans, and that Lost has become boring and too complex.

I think the break is a great idea, because we all know the reason behind it. During last season, Lost’s fans were going crazy with the insane amount of repeats in between the new Lost episodes.

The break

There were two possible solutions to solve this problem; either Season 3 would start in January or February with new episodes airing each week, or the first six episodes could be aired in a mini-season starting in October, followed by the rest of the episodes in February.

It is impossible to produce the episodes fast enough to air a new one each week unless there is a long break allowing the production team to produce episodes. It doesn’t take a week to write, shoot and edit an episode of high quality. It’s simply not possible.

Since the choice was to wait from the end of season 2 all the way until February for Season 3, I feel really happy that the guys at ABC were nice enough to show us the 6 episodes they have finished now instead of making us wait for them. Sure, I wouldn’t mind if the season kept going next week but the fact is that you can’t watch something that isn’t finished. I’d think TV critics and writers would know such a basic thing. It’s like the kids in the back of the car going “are we there yet?” It doesn’t matter how many times you ask, because you’re not there until you’re there. Have some patience.

NJ.com complains:

This forced separation feels particularly iffy given the lukewarm-to-hostile fan reaction to this season’s first five “Lost” episodes.

Please show me these fans, because I can’t find them. Does anyone except these critics really feel that the start of Lost season 3 has been bad? Some episodes have been better than others and the season 2 finale is a lot to live up to, but in my opinion all the episodes so far have been really good.

5 ways to tailor Lost to the masses

Kevin D. Thompson even wrote a list with 5 tips on how the writers can improve Lost. Let’s look at his ideas (in bold).

Answer more questions!
Alright, I can agree about this, there are a lot of smaller mysteries that shouldn’t be to hard to clear up. Unless of course these smaller mysteries tie into the larger mysteries which only can be revealed later in the story. I have faith in the writing team, the answers will come.

Stop adding castaways
Nobody likes Paulo and Nikki and at the moment I too would prefer if they just disappeared. However, everyone really hated Jin at first too and now he’s one of the most beloved characters on Lost so I’ll give them a bit more time. How you can complain about Juliet is beyond me. She’s the most interesting woman on the show!

Wrap-up The Others
Are you watching the same show as I am? The Others are the single most intriguing thing in Lost right now. Remember when everyone was asking “who are the others?” in season one? Well you are finally starting to get some of those answers you were looking for! The story has to move forward. Do you really think Lost would be any good if everyone was still on the beach playing poker for the last mangoes?

Get rid of the add-nothing flashbacks
The Sawyer flashback in “Every Man for Himself” was very well connected to Sawyer’s story in the episode and we even learned that Sawyer had been in jail and that he may have a daughter. Knowing these kind of important facts about the characters’ backgrounds helps us understand them and what motivation they have for their actions.

Pump up the action
Lost is not an action series, it is a psychological drama with some action spliced in now and then. Personally I really like the current format with mysteries and drama taking up most of the time and I think most fans would agree that what you call “rock ‘em, sock ‘em action” is not part of Lost. If you don’t enjoy drama and mysteries and just want the action there are a bunch of shows which you would probably prefer.

Conclusion

I know, this post became a bit of a rant but I’m getting a bit tired of all the articles complaining about Lost when the show is still superior to most other shows on TV. The truth is, Lost is not for everyone. Those who started watching the show expecting it to be a story about beautiful people sunbathing on a beach won’t like the science fiction elements, but that’s just natural. You can’t have everything.

Either you have a pretty good show that appeals to everyone, or you have a great show that doesn’t care about pleasing the masses and instead focuses on the story and dares to challenge the viewers with complex storylines and high quality drama. I know which one I prefer.

Mr.Eko’s death last week must have been really inspiring, because “hit lists” on which Lost characters should be the next to die have popped up all over the internet in the last few days.

I could be boring and write my own little hit list, but to tell the truth I only want Paulo and Nikki to die, and that wouldn’t make a very long list. Instead, here is a list of the characters I really like and want to be kept alive as long as possible. The list is more or less ordered, with my favorites at the top.

• Desmond - Since his comeback in the Lost Season 2 finale, Desmond had been one of my favorites. The story of his odyssey to prove his worth and win Penelope’s eternal love feels like the most pivotal story in Lost.
• Walt - Just because he went out to sea when we last saw him doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of Lost’s little psychokinetic superstar. Walt is special, both Locke and Bryan said so. Ever since the scene in season one where he played backgammon with Locke I’ve been intrigued by Walt. “There are two sides, one is light, one is dark.” - I believe this is one of the most important scenes in Lost. The light and dark side is of course good and evil, and in the end the two forces may just be represented by Walt and Locke.
• Locke - Not only played by one of the best actors on the show, but also one of the most interesting characters. How did Locke end up in a wheelchair? How did he learn to hunt bore with knife? If anyone will save the losties, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s John Locke. Unless he turns over to the dark side first.
• Henry, I mean Ben - With Juliet asking Jack to kill him, I’ll admit that Ben’s odds aren’t the best, but I really like Michael Emerson’s psychological badguy. Ben makes Lost a lot more thrilling, so please Jack, don’t kill him!
• Juliet - She’s the best thing yet in Season 3! Beautiful, intelligent, funny and manipulative. Elizabeth Mitchell does a great job playing the mysterious Other and I can’t wait to learn more about her character.
• Jack - I’ve identified with Jack since Season 1, and he is the natural born leader of the group so it would be weird to see him go. Nevertheless, he was initially supposed to die in the pilot episode so you never know. I really like Jack though, because he is the hero and the leader, but at the same time he is vulnerable and has some serious issues that trouble him.
• Sawyer - The guy has attitude, humor and tries to only show his strong side, but under the rough facade Sawyer is vulnerable and sometimes even seems to hate himself. The fact that Josh Holloway is doing a great job playing him doesn’t make things worse.
• Hurley - Everyone loves Hurley. He is funny and a genuinely nice guy, but how is he connected to the numbers and why does bad luck seem to follow in his footsteps? Killing Hurley would probably be one of the worst decisions ever.

The list is starting to get a bit long so I suppose I should round it off. Special mentions go to Kate, Sayid and Jin, who are all just as cool as the characters in the list. Claire, Aaron and Richard Malkin (the psychic) are also quite interesting. I want to know if the psychic really knew what would happen!

While writing this list, it has become clear to me that I think almost every single character on Lost is great and that’s perhaps also why Lost is such a good show. All of the characters are complex and you can really identify with them.

Which are your favorite characters? You only get to pick a maximum of three, so who do you like the most and why?

I’m curious about what our readers would do if they were in that same situation as Jack. Would you:

1) Do the surgery and try your best to save Ben (hoping for a reward?)
2) Do the surgery as Juliet requests and kill Ben intentionally
3) Refuse to do the surgery
4) Other (I couldn’t think of other options, so please explain what if you choose this)

And I’ll just leave off with a final thought…

In medical ethics, there are a few basic principles. One is beneficence (doing something that helps a patient) and another is non-malfeasance (not doing something that will harm a patient).

Is it worse to make an error where you fail to do the right thing, or agree to do the wrong thing? (Medical law would say the latter… let’s hope Ben doesn’t have lawyers on that island ;) )

- Cecilia

Back in “The Whole Truth” (which seems like ages now), before we knew Ben’s name or much about his true identity, he read a quote from The Brothers Karamazov, a classic Dostoevsky novel about redemption:

GALE: “Men reject their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and honor those whom they have slain.” So, what’s the difference between a martyr and a prophet?

JACK: Either way, it sounds like you end up dead.

GALE: That’s the spirit.

It’s been a while, but I think this topic deserves revisiting. Ben was obviously trying to hint at something ironic in his usual sly way. I believe he was saying that people do not often want to hear the real truth.

Clairvoyance, prescience and prophets have emerged as a major theme in LOST:

By “martyrs”, that could be anyone’s guess. The person that comes to my mind (besides Ben refering to himself willing to die for his cause) is Boone, who Locke said was a “sacrifice for the island”.

How do you interpret the Karamazov quote, and what Ben meant by using it?

Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof and Tim Kring, creator of NBC’s Heroes, are friends and used to work together on Crossing Jordan. Entertainment Weekly’s Lost specialist Jeff Jensen even speculates about a secret connection between Lost and Heroes.

While watching Heroes I spotted a few more connections to Lost:

The character Matt Parkman is played by Greg Grunberg, a friend of JJ Abrams who played the pilot in Lost, and former Lost supervising producer and comic book writer Jeph Loeb is one of the writers of Heroes.

Lost is till my favorite show, but so far, Heroes has been really cool.

Have you spotted any other similarities between the two shows?