I can't look at the other Lost threads because they're filled with spoilers. Soon, but not yet.

See, I had never seen an episode of Lost. I've seen bits and pieces here and there, but only fleeting glimpses. Mrs. Taft watches it, and I'm often in the same room working while she watches. So I have some idea of some of the major beats, ideas and concepts, but no sense of the finer details or who (most of) these people are.

Until Sunday, that is, when I decided to take on an uber Lost marathon.

You see, I'm alone in the house all week. Mrs. Taft and Lil' Taft are in camp until Saturday, so my house is quiet, and lonely, and I'm bored. That, and I always swore I'd one day get caught up on Lost so I could begin watching it with the Mrs. I suppose I could devote this quiet time to projects, maybe do three times the writing or music or something, but nah. Don't feel like it. I don't really watch TV, anyway, save in rare occassions such as this, so I guess I'll take advantage of it. In the last two days I watched more TV than I have in the entire years of 2008, and that's no lie.

So Lost it is. Sunday, I watched about 12 epiodes of Season 1.

Yesterday, I watched 6-7 more.

I have about five left, which I plan to watch tonight. I already have season 2 in hand, and half of season 3. The rest of season 3 should be in hand in the next day or so, then I'll snag season 4 and be up to date.

A whole 24-episode season in three days, despite working two of those days. Not bad.

Alas, I cannot yet read the Lost threads thanks to copious spoilers, so I will briefly start my own until such time as this thread can be merged (or whatever) with others. And naturally, I'll bump the hell out of the most recent one at least so I can once again be late to the discussion.

Please do not spoil anything for me, or lay down hints -- "Oh, you'll learn more about that later" and the like -- or anything like that. I'd like to get as much of this fresh as I can. If all stays on schedule, I'll be done with season 2 by the weekend, and will take another week or so to get through 3. Same for 4.

Huzzah!

MINOR SEASON 1 SPOILERS FOLLOW


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Okay, so my impressions thus far, having watched through the episode during which you see Hurley's lottery fiasco, and Locke & Boone (?) finding the crashed plane. The episode ends with Locke at the hatch, and the light just popping on.

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Good show thus far, albeit a bit slow. In a way I'm surprised this show ever got traction, given how slow it is at times. The piling mysteries are cool, but there are entire episodes that don't move at all. They're just extended character moments, really.

Which is fine, I suppose, because this show has a great cast of characters. That's the draw, isn't it? Not just the mystery of the island and what it is and what's happening, but these people. This is a great cast. I've got to give Abrams and crew credit, they manage to interleave the thematic material of the flashbacks with the ongoing "present day" story pretty damn well, helping you get to know these people while also advancing the story. Very meticulous. You're always given a sense that things fit together into a larger tapestry.

I wonder, though, how much of it is illusion and how much of it is truly mapped out. I know they're wrapping it up in season 6, I know there is a definite finish planned and answers planned. It's the small connections I wonder about. How many were planned from the word go and how many are invented on the fly? I guess it doesn't matter as long as it works, but it brings to mind comic books and how those evergrowing houses of cards inevitably crumble.

Anyway, tangent.

More in the next post.

You'll learn more about that later.

Okay, the SPOILERS through episode 18 really happen now...


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Good build to the pregnant girl, Claire, getting captured. Unfortunately I know some minor (major?) details about pregnancy and the island from future seasons, but it hasn't spoiled the unfolding of this arc. I look forward to how the Others are revealed. I'm pretty sure that's not a moment I've seen.

The French lady kind of pisses me off. She gets killed, right? Maybe she should. Die, French lady, die!

It totally baffles me that after Sayeed (sp?) returned from her place that an expedition wasn't immediately formed to go find her. These people want to be rescued, right? Then when you find out someone is just a few miles away, someone with equipment and a story to tell, you go find her! Makes me wonder what, "We have to go back, Kate. We have to go back" is all about. (I saw that scene, but I do not know the context.) GO FIND THIS WOMAN!

Looks to me like the hobbit is going to get hooked on smack again, what with that crashed plane being filled with it.

Locke is pretty awesome. I know some spoilers about him, too, which stinks because they seem pretty major. But so far, I like him. It was funny, I had a vague impression of him as a Christ figure, then several episodes later, when you meet his mom, she drops the "immaculate conception" thing. Neat! Of course, that was (allegedly) a lie.

Sawyer's a prick (duh) but you just know they're going to have him do something heroic, sacrifice himself or something. Jerk.

Speaking of pricks, I can't wait to see the little evil dude introduced. When Jack was seeing his dad around the island, that's who I thought it was. The little evil dude.

I'm pretty sure I know who most of the Oceanic 6 are, so sadly, I know a bit about who survives and who doesn't. Ahhh, well. Doesn't mean I know who goes down.

Where da black smoke at? (Don't tell me.)

If they don't explain the polar bears, I'll be pissed.

And seriously, Sayeed is the only one who thought of walking the island perimeter? No one has done this? Come on! They've been there more than a month and still no expedition to walk around the beaches. I call BS.

I hope the little kid gets eaten by boars.

I hoope Shannon, the prissy chick with a great figure, gets eaten by boars.

I'm going to be totally disappointed by this hatch thing, aren't I? I know about the countdown, I don't know how it's resolved or what it means. But I'm going to hate this, aren't I? (Don't tell me.)

Do they give some lame sci-fi reason why these people haven't all dropped 20 pounds after being on an island for a month? (Don't tell me. Besides, I'm supposed to go with the flow there, I know.)

I'll finish season 1 tonight.

(I didn't read your spoiler post)

Why I oughtta ...

Either of them. I will now. I really enjoyed the first season, probably as much as any TV show I've watched. It's still very, very good but I don't have that breathless anticipation for the next episode like I did then. Probably because we watched season 1 in a marathon weekend as you're doing, and the rest more or less real time.

I always thought they marked the courses on those things so the runners wouldn't get lost. You should have been following the signs!

One thing I will suggest because it doesn't give anything away...look in the background scenes of the flashbacks, in particular when a television is on. You often will see another islander on the TV, in some random life event. There's no spoilers or extra information there, just little easter eggs which a lot of people found fun to look for.

I watched the first season of Heroes over the course of a few days, maybe a week, and liked that experience FAR more than watching it week-to-week. Same with many shows. I no longer have any interest in ensuring I'm in front of my TV every Showday at 9 pm. When it comes to TV shows, I wait for the trade.

With two years left before Lost finishes, though, and with the wife a devoted watcher, I figured I ought to get caught up. Especially since when it finished, spoilers will be impossible to avoid.

SPOILERS

Yes, I noticed that last night. When Jin goes to send the message to the safety inspector, the guy's little girl is watching TV and Hurley is on the TV. I thought that was odd, and neat.

Agreed. Watching shows with all those commercials? Who needs it? Plus my wife can't stay up that late during the school year. We can watch two in just 20 minutes more than it takes to make it through one as broadcast. I don't watch them when they air, just semi-weekly as I burn them to disc. From my...DVR hard drive.

I watched the first 3 seasons on DVD last winter, very addictive and, I think, a better way to watch.

I am watching BSG the same way.

I started watching Lost a few weeks ago in a couple marathon nights, then with a couple episodes a night. It should come with a warning sticker at the start that says "Nothing gets resolved for 5 or 6 seasons...just so you know." It held my interest well, although I'm stalled out in the middle of season 3 at the moment because a Harry Turtledove book arrived that completes a series, so I've been reading that instead recently.

That's part of the reason why I held off on Lost. After the first season's hype and knowing a bit how it would play out, I very much lacked confidence that they'd ever actually wrap up the story in a satisfying way. Figured I ought to steer clear rather than waste my time on an elaborate dead end. That, and I wasn't inclined to stretch it out over six years of viewing.

When they announced just prior to season 4 that the show would run 6 seasons and would in fact end, I was glad. Really did want to see the show, after all, I just wanted some assurance that it would END. Seeing as it would, I figured I'd get to it when it was wrapped up. I'm jumping the gun for the reasons noted above, but with at least some confidence that this show 1) WILL finish, and 2) is not just a bunch of meaningless red herrings; there is a plan and it is working towards something.

It will be interesting to see how Taft reacts to season two. Will he survive to make to to season three?

Season three is the shitty one (according to word of mouth) with the jaw-dropping final episode, right?

LOST will be in syndication within a couple of months.

You'll all be able to watch it from the start. Some stations will be showing the episodes in weekly two hour blocks.

That's how I'd describe it.

I think I prefer season three to season two, actually...but yes, the final moments of season three did in fact blow my mind, and set up the very good season four brilliantly.

Glad you're finally getting with the program, Mister President.

Season three did spin its wheels for a while but the last 5 episodes or so got it back on track.

I thought the first half of season 3 was about on par with season 2 overall (good, but disappointing compared to the awesomeness we knew they were capable of), but it ramped up after that. The final episode was the strongest, certainly, but it was gaining momentum well before that, as I recall.

On the other hand, season 2's biggest problem was probably the scheduling. I've never watched it off disc or in syndication, only as it came out. So maybe S2 is better than S3 (first half), but they seem equal to me because S3 had fewer interruptions - they basically broadcast it in two halves. At some point I'll do a DVD marathon like Taft and Brother Toro, and be able to evaluate them better from that perspective.