Yeah, Cool, But Where’s Jeremy?

Hi Losties - As many of you know I have been quite swamped with a huge move, and have barely had time to keep up. In order to keep your appetites for LOST satiated during my personal hiatus, I would like to bring you the works of a new contributor, my friend The Limey. His unique insights often parallel my own, and I hope that you also find his style as enjoyable as I do. Feel free to leave comments and questions and continue the dialog as I know you all love to do.

And of course, as soon as time stops skipping for me, I'll be back with new articles for your reading plesure. :)
-a.N

So. Let’s re-cap on lost for the last couple of weeks, without looking into intrigue too much, without speculating over the statue that clearly isn’t Claire or Kate, how the devil Christian is still clearly alive despite also being dead at the same time, and concentrate instead on the core cast and a few truths about the show itself, and go into depth with my impressions of the show, because I’m certainly less qualified than Anna to do anything other than that.

Let’s start with “destiny calls”. I was excited about the whole package; to the degree that I spent every night over a week to watch the previous four seasons of lost, to find Hurley, Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sun and Frank make their way home. It left me asking “my god, what next?” and then the idea, at that, of the gang running around LA with the corpse of John Locke in tow gave birth to some very, very bizarre ideas about the show that involved Kate dressed as Daphne, Hurley as an over-sized Shaggy, Jack as Fred and Ben as a cross-dressing Velma. See? I told you. Bizarre and Funny. Locke was being carried around in the mystery machine by the way, but I digress. It was a good change for the show, and I felt it would be a good direction, but I also felt, personally, that the entire season should have been about Jack and Ben trying to convince the rest of the guys to make their way to what had been for 108 days, their home. While it may have slowed things down a little, it would have made for a more compelling storyline, and allowed the writing staff to stretch out the island thread a lot more.

I personally think it would have been an interesting angle to see Jack physically lose it as he struggled with being away from the island, and it would have been an opportunity to expand upon the characters already on the island such as Sawyer, Juliette or. Hey. Bernard and Rose. Has anyone asked where they are? It would have been a prime opportunity to bring on board a fresh rotation of consistently good actors, create more solid storyline, establish character, and even build upon the mythology of the island and smokey – instead we’re on episode 10, and we’re only really coming across some compelling storytelling thanks to LaFleur.

I should be clear here. I’m not saying the season is a bad apple. A bad Season would be Heroes before Bryan Fuller came back on board and Jeph Loeb jumped ship, but what I am saying is that the whole season has been an exercise in wasted opportunities. Thus far, Jeremy/John has been underused, the storytelling has been rushed probably to please the suits at ABC and viewers who want more romance orientated drama, and on the whole, has left the series on the whole...Wanting. That isn’t to say it’s all bad though, as for the first time I’m enjoying Jack more as he lightens up and accepts his role within the island more, I’m continually enjoying more opportunities to mock Kate (especially by asking where Aaron is with our viewing parties), and all in all it’s an above par season, but it could be better.

Lost is...Event television, and stands out with distinction amongst a slew of television that barely entertains, and dares to break the edicts of formula television in a way that only Battlestar Galactica does; Lost continually excels in keeping people truly thrilled with a web of exhilaration and intrigue, and that’s why I feel the show has underused the talents and opportunities that it has at its disposal, and the show does have a lot of power at its disposal. I’d personally suggest that ABC should probably consider a 7th season at the stage, as I personally can’t see a way for Lindelof and co. To tie up all of the loose ends in the remaining time it has left, and I would certainly suggest that JJ take a more active interest in his brainchild now that Star Trek has been delivered to Paramount. The show needs the charm, irreverence and dynamic that he often provides to the shows he involves himself in.

I am certain that Lost can redeem the little bit of ground and pace it’s missing, and certainly won’t struggle to gain it in the way Heroes has, but one thing is clear...it needs to do it soon.

- The Limey