One of the biggest complaints about how Lost ended was that "they didn't solve any mysteries," and that the producers' insistence that the show was always about character was stupid. But it was 100% always about the characters. The mysteries were absolutely intriguing, and the show wouldn't have become what it did without them, but the show was special because they grounded everything in character.
Think of the biggest twists in that show, the biggest reveals. Think of the craziest sci-fi stuff they threw out there. How many of those moments are irrevocably tied to some terrific character moment? One of the best episode closers the show had was someone asking for milk. And, with a few exceptions, because the show definitely wasn't perfect, they sent characters out of the show with purpose, rather than just as a way to bring home another shocking twist (and the final season even found ways to get closure for some of their fuck ups). The show worked because it worked to make the characters as human as they could make them, even the villains.
There were plenty of shows that attempted to ape that formula. Most of them aired right after Lost on ABC, and were mostly forgettable. Heroes was probably the most successful attempt at being "the next Lost," but it was also the show that most obviously learned the wrong lessons. It was hell-bent on "solving its mysteries and answering questions," because most Lost complaints at the time were about "when am I going to find out the answer." I'm sure people who actively watch Westworld are aware of that phenomena, since it kicked in like, two episodes in. But Heroes forgot to build compelling mysteries. It spent half its time on ponderous voice-overs about "what it all means," without bothering to have anything mean anything. It had boring characters who did what the plot demanded. Its best episode, about its best character, was essentially structured like a Lost episode, where you learn exactly how a character became who they became as their actions in the present show the totality of who they are. (I'm talking about Company Man).
I'll drop a brief note on the 100 here, by focusing on two episodes that kind of have similar...ideas, I guess, and that illustrate why season two of that show worked and why season three of that show absolutely didn't. I'll put these in spoiler tags, but I'm talking about Spacewalker from Season 2 and Thirteen from Season 3.
These episodes were the big turning points of their respective seasons. They reshape the rest of the season, and bring everything into focus. They feature extensive flashbacks. They end with the deaths of Clarke's love interest.
Spacewalker, throughout, is about Finn. About who he is, what he's done, what he means to the people who love him. The flashbacks show who he was before, before they fought in a war, before he got changed by all of the awful things around him, before he tried to murder a village. The entire episode is about trying to stave off what needs to happen, which is that he has to face justice for what he did. Everything there is built on the characters. The people who love him, risking a war to save him. Him turning himself in to save everyone, to own up to what he did. Clarke making a decision to kill him to save him from torture. It works because everything in the episode builds to the end of it. It works because it's earned, and even though Finn wasn't exactly my favorite character in the show, it makes him human enough to care, and it shows the very real impact he's had on characters we do care about.
Thirteen is one of the more focused episodes of a season that was already muddled and riddled with poor storytelling choices, (their half-assed heel turn for Bellamy is some of the worst character work the show had ever done), but the episode is at war with itself, and in the end, the episode fails because the wrong half of it ultimately wins. Like Spacewalker, the episode is building to a major character death. But unlike Spacewalker, the episode isn't about Lexa. It's about the larger plot of the show. It's about the chip in Lexa's neck. It spends time with Clark and Lexa, yes, and it let's them have a moment, but the end of that episode isn't focused on the grief of the characters. The body's not even cold before someone is slicing in and revealing a new mystery.
Like...just structurally, flashbacks are meant to bring home the point of an episode. Let's look at an episode of Lost as an example: Walkabout is about John Locke, and why he's the way he is on the island. The shocking reveal that he was paralyzed before he came to the island is the biggest takeaway from the episode, but what makes it work is that we see his frustration continue to build and build and build before we see why he's frustrated and angry, and we understand more of who he is now. This episode of the 100 spends its flashbacks on the history of characters we'd barely met, who have only tenuous connections to the characters we care about. They aren't about Lexa, who dies because the plot demands that she die so we can see the chip in her neck, which is the point of those flashbacks. She dies because of a stray bullet, because it needed to be shocking. It's a fundamental failure to understand what made the show work, and it's emblematic of what made the third season of the show such a tremendous disappointment.
I know this is muddled, because I didn't exactly wake up with the idea that I was going to be writing an essay this morning, but what made Lost work is that it made everything, even its mysteries, revolve around its characters, and let those characters push back and grow and change and have closure, and shows that claim Lost as an influence failed when they forget to place its characters at the center of what's happening. The best mystery in the world doesn't mean shit if you don't ground it in humanity.
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Raijin QuickfootI'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPAregular
You almost gave me a heart attack, Happy Endings is only 5 years old!
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Raijin QuickfootI'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Any opinions on The Mick? I love Kaitlyn Olsen but the commercials just don't look great.
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masterofmetroidHave you ever looked at a worldand seen it as a kind of challenge?Registered Userregular
The biggest crime ever perpetuated on Lost's legacy is that i still can't watch another prime time TV show that gives it's character's time to be actual people
So the SNL appearance was actually leading to something, as Netflix just announced today that they've signed Dave Chappelle to make 3 brand-new stand-up specials for them
+7
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JimothyNot in front of the foxhe's with the owlRegistered Userregular
So the SNL appearance was actually leading to something, as Netflix just announced today that they've signed Dave Chappelle to make 3 brand-new stand-up specials for them
Chappelle referred to his hosting of SNL as a sort of comeback, so it seemed pretty clear that he's decided to get back into doing more than just a bit of comedy club standup. That's cool he's doing some specials for netflix.
Finished season 1 of Happy Endings. Amazing but the weird out of order episodes at the end were really weird and threw me out of it a little.
I really liked the dynamic Alex and Dave developed as that season went on, so suddenly reverting to them being weird around each other toward the end was really frustrating. It's so rare for television to show a casual, comfortable friendship between two characters with a romantic history.
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Think of the biggest twists in that show, the biggest reveals. Think of the craziest sci-fi stuff they threw out there. How many of those moments are irrevocably tied to some terrific character moment? One of the best episode closers the show had was someone asking for milk. And, with a few exceptions, because the show definitely wasn't perfect, they sent characters out of the show with purpose, rather than just as a way to bring home another shocking twist (and the final season even found ways to get closure for some of their fuck ups). The show worked because it worked to make the characters as human as they could make them, even the villains.
There were plenty of shows that attempted to ape that formula. Most of them aired right after Lost on ABC, and were mostly forgettable. Heroes was probably the most successful attempt at being "the next Lost," but it was also the show that most obviously learned the wrong lessons. It was hell-bent on "solving its mysteries and answering questions," because most Lost complaints at the time were about "when am I going to find out the answer." I'm sure people who actively watch Westworld are aware of that phenomena, since it kicked in like, two episodes in. But Heroes forgot to build compelling mysteries. It spent half its time on ponderous voice-overs about "what it all means," without bothering to have anything mean anything. It had boring characters who did what the plot demanded. Its best episode, about its best character, was essentially structured like a Lost episode, where you learn exactly how a character became who they became as their actions in the present show the totality of who they are. (I'm talking about Company Man).
I'll drop a brief note on the 100 here, by focusing on two episodes that kind of have similar...ideas, I guess, and that illustrate why season two of that show worked and why season three of that show absolutely didn't. I'll put these in spoiler tags, but I'm talking about Spacewalker from Season 2 and Thirteen from Season 3.
Spacewalker, throughout, is about Finn. About who he is, what he's done, what he means to the people who love him. The flashbacks show who he was before, before they fought in a war, before he got changed by all of the awful things around him, before he tried to murder a village. The entire episode is about trying to stave off what needs to happen, which is that he has to face justice for what he did. Everything there is built on the characters. The people who love him, risking a war to save him. Him turning himself in to save everyone, to own up to what he did. Clarke making a decision to kill him to save him from torture. It works because everything in the episode builds to the end of it. It works because it's earned, and even though Finn wasn't exactly my favorite character in the show, it makes him human enough to care, and it shows the very real impact he's had on characters we do care about.
Thirteen is one of the more focused episodes of a season that was already muddled and riddled with poor storytelling choices, (their half-assed heel turn for Bellamy is some of the worst character work the show had ever done), but the episode is at war with itself, and in the end, the episode fails because the wrong half of it ultimately wins. Like Spacewalker, the episode is building to a major character death. But unlike Spacewalker, the episode isn't about Lexa. It's about the larger plot of the show. It's about the chip in Lexa's neck. It spends time with Clark and Lexa, yes, and it let's them have a moment, but the end of that episode isn't focused on the grief of the characters. The body's not even cold before someone is slicing in and revealing a new mystery.
Like...just structurally, flashbacks are meant to bring home the point of an episode. Let's look at an episode of Lost as an example: Walkabout is about John Locke, and why he's the way he is on the island. The shocking reveal that he was paralyzed before he came to the island is the biggest takeaway from the episode, but what makes it work is that we see his frustration continue to build and build and build before we see why he's frustrated and angry, and we understand more of who he is now. This episode of the 100 spends its flashbacks on the history of characters we'd barely met, who have only tenuous connections to the characters we care about. They aren't about Lexa, who dies because the plot demands that she die so we can see the chip in her neck, which is the point of those flashbacks. She dies because of a stray bullet, because it needed to be shocking. It's a fundamental failure to understand what made the show work, and it's emblematic of what made the third season of the show such a tremendous disappointment.
I know this is muddled, because I didn't exactly wake up with the idea that I was going to be writing an essay this morning, but what made Lost work is that it made everything, even its mysteries, revolve around its characters, and let those characters push back and grow and change and have closure, and shows that claim Lost as an influence failed when they forget to place its characters at the center of what's happening. The best mystery in the world doesn't mean shit if you don't ground it in humanity.
And now i'm super sad again. Even after 10 years.
can't have an opinion until i see it, but i do not have high hopes
That's kind of what I meant. If anyone had heard anything positive or negative.
Gross deer! Giant snake monster! Weird glowing fungi!
That's a very useful gif
Such a good show that no one watches. It was lucky to get two seasons.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Chappelle referred to his hosting of SNL as a sort of comeback, so it seemed pretty clear that he's decided to get back into doing more than just a bit of comedy club standup. That's cool he's doing some specials for netflix.
I like everybody on this show a great deal but I think we need a moratorium on "shows about comedians and their lives!" for a few years
That's what you get when you give comedians development deals, and if we're getting Louie, Maron, Legit, etc. out of it then I'm cool with it.
We'll just pretend Mulaney didn't happen and wait until he gets a shot on a better network.
Season one is by far the weakest, so you are in for quite the ride!
I'd watch it if it weren't on some obscure network and not available anywhere else
Doesn't help it, but its not the shows fault. Originally it was a showtime pilot but they passed and only CW was willing.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I really liked the dynamic Alex and Dave developed as that season went on, so suddenly reverting to them being weird around each other toward the end was really frustrating. It's so rare for television to show a casual, comfortable friendship between two characters with a romantic history.
I can't watch CEGF because I have extreme sympathetic embarrassment. It's too much for me.
It can be hard to watch like that, but at the same time Rebecca is so earnest in ignoring the mortifying things she does, so it makes it easier.
pleasepaypreacher.net
But it is not good.
On the plus side I got to see what Alex from Lost looks like now, and Oh My God.
Now go on to Rachel Bloom's Youtube page and watch all the songs uncensored.
it is called Pitch
I thought you promised to remove the cameras
Yeah, I really enjoy it.
Yeah, but I really like Pete Holmes so this project is okay.
Guilty? Sepinwall makes that sound like it's one of the stronger new shows this year
you really need to get on that search party tip
the whole season is on demand on tbs right now
it's fucking great