Friday, May 25th, 2007...12:32 am
You All Everybody
I watch three television shows; Lost, Entourage and The Sopranos. Of those three, Lost is the only one that I really enjoy and that I look forward to watching each week. I was pumped up for the season finale, and was delighted that the show met my high expectations.
I’m not going to try and explain the show or even the reasons why I enjoy it. I never expected the flash-forward but I think it was an ingenious move. As my buddy John said after the show “I’m smarter than like 84% of people in the world but the guys who write this show are smarter than 99.9% of the dudes out there”. Regardless of intelligence deviations, I’m stoked for next season.
I don’t really try to guess the conspiracies, understand the black smoke or hunt for hidden clues. I don’t follow any of the Lost blogs or give a hoot about other people’s theories. I think the whole magnetic poles thing sounds stupid and not sure why Sayid’s girl pops up in every flashback. Trying to think through some of this stuff makes me dizzy and makes the show seem more like work than entertainment. Often I think that there is nothing unifying all these coincidences and that perhaps the point of the show is to pose questions, not answers.
The reason I watch the show is because of the characters and their personal and cathartic journey through life. For me the magic aura hasn’t anything to do with the island but rather can be found within Jack, Kate, Locke, Sawyer, Sayid and the rest of the folks on Oceanic Flight 815. My favorite scenes each week are when the episode is coming to a close and they play happy music and show the people on the island enjoying themselves in slow motion with a wide angle shot. The juxtaposition of happiness and pain in life gets me every time!
My favorite character is far and away Jack. He is the protagonist and everything and everybody should and does revolve around him. Jack is decent and likeable. He is the leader, the consciousness and the heart of the island. I’m fascinated each week to follow Jack’s struggle to find his inner peace and win the war he is waging within himself.
I loved the episode “Stranger in a Strange Land” when the random old women Isabel tries to herb him on his tattoo and for a minute your heart sinks as you think Jack got played once again only for him to sternly replies that what it says, that isn’t what it means. Perhaps there is hope for him to quell his daemons after all.
Jack was determined to lead his people off the Island and it seems like he does just that. But we learn that Jack hasn’t found his inner peace in his future and is actually in worse shape than ever. He’s losing his battle.
I’m not really sure what happens to Ben, Desmundo, or the rest of the characters and frankly I don’t really care. I’m also not all that interested in how they got off the Island. What I really want to know, and the reason I will watch next year, is to root for Jack and desperately hope he uncovers what it is that he is so desperately searching for in life.
In honor of Charlie, I’ve included the best song from Drive Shaft’s greatest hits CD…