Lost in TV

[green_amber]

Is it just the effect of having caught up on 4 episodes almost at once, or is series 2 genuinely interesting? In the last 5 or 6 eps, we've had Down the Hatch, the Tailenders, the Others, the death of Shannon, the snatching of Walt, the reunion of Sun and Jin and the apparent embrace by Kate of Sawyer and his Badness, and rejection of Jack the White(who now no doubt ends up with Anna-Lucia, aka Kate mark 2 - the well-meaning at heart gone bad). All of which has a certain density of plot which makes for at least superior soap opera.

But more than that I do like the way the Tailenders are the kind of shadow version of the crew we've come to know and er fancy. It throws into highlight the Enid Blyton summer campness of the island experience we've observed so far, compared to the Lord of the Flies stuff the Tailies have endured. OK there's been a bit of death and a bit of dismay at our end, but that Tailender's intro episode - it was genuinely scarey. And the despair when Ana Lucia said "This is the rest of your life - get used to it" - that was really chilling.

So Our Lot have Jack as leader, and They have Anna Lucia - not quite the light and the dark actually, but more the different places despair drives you to. One saves lives, one takes them. In A-L's case it seems to have taken her to viewing everyone as potentially evil; in Jack's case to viewing everyone as potentially redeemable. AFAIK we still don't really know what Jack's final tragedy was - yes, alcoholic dad = miserable over pressurised attempt to grow up as do-gooder, ok, but why did his charmed and fated marriage end? have I missed something? I also can't recall what transpired between him and A-L at the airport (they didn't shag did they?) - can someone remind me?

And Jack is the Good of Kate's real / unreal father (hence the desperately half hearted attempt to snog him) while Sawyer is the Dark of Wayne her biological father. This was so utterly obviously coming that I dearly wished they'd stopped halfway through and not explained it in such detail, in which case it would have been quite nice. Still, it is a sturdy psycho-dramatic set up, especially when it leaves Jack open to seeking to redeem A-L to make himself feel better, while we can only hope she brings out in the dark in him, rather than becoming whiter-than-boringly cured. And I hope she still has a torch for the intriguing Mr Eco too.

Who is clearly the Tailender's version of Locke (an Ec(h)o?) - except it's already been spelled out for us that while Locke has simple faith, Mr Eco falls somewhere between Jack's uber-scientific rationalism and Locke's faith. (I loved the bit where they faked us out into believing Eco would be some kind of religious nutter when actually he was simply displaying a film reel he'd found.) Assuming Eco *is* the Nigerian drug smuggler who crashed on the island - then he should be of the dark persuasion too. (no, not a racist comment.) A rival for Kate's charms perhaps if she's admitted whitebread Jack won't do it for her but can't face Sawyer? that should annoy both A-L AND Jack.. Well we need *some* romantic tension! and since we now seem to have imminently happy couples of Sun/Jin, Hobbit/ozzie girl, Rose/Rose's white hubbie, Kate/Sawyer and Jack/A-L, and Sayid is clearly going to be Lone Ranger for a bit - who else do we have to play around with? No I can't take Hurley seriously as romantic lead, and as far Michael=-- pshaw! (I bet there's someone I've forgotten!)

Comments

[the-gardener.livejournal.com]

Um, why don't you download em?

Because I have neither broadband nor a DVD burner at home.

Actually i think Christina has most the sereis downloaded already so maybe she could lend you em?

Overtaken by a work-colleague who has been downloading the episodes and had been promising to lend them to me, and handed over the DVDs this lunchtime. So before I depart I'll be able to catch up with where I ought to be when I get back. (Whee-hee!)