'Lost': Shifting perspective
In the limited circles I travel, I'm known as the Lost guy. Most people might think this is kind of a negative thing, as if I don't have anything else to bring to the table other than an obsession with a television show. However, I used to be known as the "prematurely balding" guy and/or the "pays you back in nickels" guy, so honestly, this is a step up for me.
Being the Lost guy in my particular neck of society, I often encounter a lot of people who state some variation of, "You know, I tried watching it once or twice. There's an island, right? And everyone's fairly pretty, but they seem sad, and what's up with that guy who used to be in the wheelchair?" So I try and catch them up a bit, and within possibly thirty seconds, I've lost (pun intended) them completely.
Because here's the thing: the show's evolved so far beyond not only its initial premise, but its initial scope, that trying to summarize the action since "Walkabout" only serves to make the teller (in this case, moi) appreciate the sheer scope of the show that much more. It doesn't do a whole lot to sell newbies on Lost, which is all well and fine, since programs like this are meant to be experienced, not related.
But the gap between their experience and that of people who have followed the show since the beginning shows not only how far the show itself has come, but also just how radically the show's narrative has evolved as well. I've often referred to the structure of Lost as postmodern. That's hardly a novel interpretation, but often I've meant this in terms of the delivery of narrative. Actions are not shown in a linear fashion, but as a collection of related moments from different times and different perspectives to add up to a more powerful experience for the viewer. But there's another way in which the show is postmodern: in its narrative perspective.
In analyzing the gap between the show Lost during its pilot and the show Lost during the most recent episode, "The Shape of All Things," one cannot help but recognize that what the show's attempted all along is nothing short of remarkable. In a sense, Lost has chosen to narratively follow a group of individuals that, when viewed against the über-story of the show, are in fact secondary, perhaps even tertiary characters. To put it another way: for the majority of the time that Lost has been on the air, they have focused on the "wrong" people.
Now, "wrong" is a relative word here, so let me explain. If we're to look at the show, as a whole, given the final scene in "Shape," then EVERYTHING we've seen since Day One on the show is a by-product of a long-simmering war between Charles Widmore and Benjamin Linus. And yet, neither of these characters weren't introduced until well into the second season, with Ben's importance only revealed in Season 3, Widmore's even later, and the nature of their conflict only truly spelled out in the latest episode. So, essentially, what Lost consciously chose to do is build a show around those people unwittingly caught in the crosshairs of these two terrible tyrants.
Does this render the show meaningless, our empathy and engagement with the Lostaways fruitless? Of course not. The time and energy on both sides of the television have not been in vain. But this is a striking narrative tactic all the same, and one that, in my estimation, only serves to vault the show even higher in my estimation. In doing so, the writers of the show have placed both audience and protagonists in media res. The mysteries of the Island are equally fresh to both us and them. The Others, the monster, the hatch...these are all things with which each party stands on equal, unsure ground.
And if this were all, that would be well and fine, but in the establishment of a literal worldwide war between Linus and Widmore, the show's taken that empathetic relationship between the audience and the Lostaways and tapped into a zeitgeist not unique to this cultural moment but felt keenly all the same: that we are but pawns in plans we don't understand governed by forces we cannot see. (I've tried to examine this here and here as well.) The use of the game Risk in "Shape" only solidified the notion that the Lostaways (and plenty others) are viewed simply as pieces on a game board seen only by Linus and Widmore.
To see how crazy this narrative switch is, think of the progression between Season 1 and Season 4 as if looking through a camera at the scope of the narrative. We start as the show does: with a close-up of Jack's eye opening quickly. About as small a scope as one could imagine short of a CGI shot of his entwined DNA strains. From that point on, the camera's essentially panned back....back...back, revealing an enormous canvas upon which the Lostaways, once so central to the story, look as tiny as...well, soldiers in Risk.
All this suggests that while we've been watching the Lostaways, we haven't really been watching their story. The story of Lost sits well above and beyond their current ability to understand it. What we've seen is simply them trying to understand their part in someone else's story, and watching their own sense of personal worth devolve into uncertainty is akin to watching an actor get onstage unsure of the play he/she is to perform. They started off in Season 1 confident in their overall autonomy and are a few episodes away from screaming, "Line!" while tearing at their hair.
Can you think of another show that's done this? Imagine if, five years into Buffy The Vampire Slayer, it turned out the whole show was really about the Watcher's Council. Or if the real focus of Angel had been the inter-dimensional law firm Wolfram and Hart. That's what we're talking about here. No matter how crazy or inter-dimensional the problems got in the Whedonverse, the protagonists still stood ultimately at the center of the conflicts on display. In Lost, you can't be sure that the two puppet masters even know the names of those on the front lines getting slaughtered.
But, as I said before, the narrative shift has not hurt Lost, but emboldened it, perhaps even ennobled it. Because rather than focus on WORLD WAR LINUS (admittedly cool), the show's decided instead to focus on ordinary people trying to make sense of senselessness. While the former makes for good television, the latter makes for GREAT television. And in combining those two, Lost currently stands alone in television.
Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude.
Ryan - Outstanding analysis! (You're really on a roll lately!)
One could expand this notion to cover life in general; that is, though the battle may be (according to some) an epic battle between god and the devil (or at least good and evil), what tends to interest us most are stories of ordinary people at dramatic moments of their lives.
(Moments which often involve making tough decisions that in some way reflect larger issues, including the universal struggle between good and evil.)
I LOVED the latest episode and have some thoughts on it which I shall share shortly -- but for now let me just say it is good to be back from hiatus (I just finished reading the last 16 Ryan posts, including all the comments!) and then watched the episode a second time. Gotta take a little time to get my thoughts together.
(Besides, it looks if I post now I may get the much-coveted #1 spot...)
Ryan, that was an amazing look at the evolution of Lost! I've had those same ideas swimming in my head, but I completely lack the eloquence you have to put them into words.
I LOVE that this show takes risks in everything that it does. From the narrative structure, to the frailty of the (who we thought to be) main characters, to the shifting of perspective and various shades of grey that make the lines between good and evil all the more hazy.
Kudos on a great article :)
I wrote: (Besides, it looks if I post now I may get the much-coveted #1 spot...)
Boo-yah!
And a huge Boo-yah to Jeff for predicting that the door would somehow lead to the release of the smoke monster!
Looks like Ryan and others have already covered the points I was going to make (I'll be quicker on the draw this week), including how Widmore said "boy" would seem to indicate he knows Linus was behind the g***ing of the Dharma folk.
And I also thought that Ben might really be the one responsible for Nadia's death, and wondered why Sayid was so quick to believe it was Widmore (especially since Ben couldn't come up with a plausable explanation as to why Widmore would want to kill Nadia).
(I hope as time goes by this becomes clearer, or it will seem as writer-contrived as an Eggtown murder trial.)
Regarding my most recent of the 16 or so posts I just caught up on, my initial reaction regarding the "Earth Sandwich" was similar to Mary's -- it all depends where you press on the earth the smash it.
So I HOPE, as Milo said, that the smooshing was done so that it's the same thing as if you ran a straight line from Tunisia to the center of the Earth and kept going it would come out at the island. If that is indeed what is meant, that would indeed be cool.
Speaking of which, I believe (I'm sure someone here can check me out on this), I seem to remember from teening SF reading that the time it would take for a person (in a capsule with heat and oxygen) to make such a trip (in an insulated vacuum tube) would be about 90 minutes -- about the same time as it takes to orbit the earth just above the atmosphere.
Furthermore, it would take about the same time to go from, say, NY to LA (less than 3000 miles) as all the way to the opposite side of the earch (8000 miles) because gravity would accelerate you that much more quickly heading straight down.
Oops -- getting an NMI from a family member -- more later...
Awesome post Ryan. You always seem to eloquently put into words thoughts that we have ourselves that we (or at least I) are unable to translate into understandable text.
Something I read recently in an interview with Darlton that I have mixed feelings about. They said they want to answer all the mysteries but when it comes down to it LOST is a character-driven show. This worries me in a way, as it speculates we may not get all the answers we probably want. A lot of what drives me to LOST is the mythology. However, when I think about it further, LOST wouldn't be the same if it didn't have Jack, Kate, Locke, Sawyer, Claire, Hurley, Ben, Widmore, Penny, Desmond, Sayid, Michael and countless other characters there to tell the story.
What are your thoughts on this?
Great post as usual.
What I've loved about this series is that everything is being explained (although maybe out of order) through the eyes of these survivors that we got to know in the first few seasons. Remember in season 1 when Locke was uncovering the hatch and suddenly a light came on? It wasn't until nearly a year later that we realised it was only Desmond checking out what was going on. These kinds of revelations are what make the show so great. Let's hope more reveals will be like this. Things clearly aren't always as they seem. Heck, half of the survivors are living in the Others' camp.
While the story is becomming centered on Linus/Widmore, we care about it because of the lostaways. Would we care as much that Ben wants to kill Widmore's daughter if we didn't know about Desmond's back story? The initial lostaways, while not necessarily the most important players, give us a perspective to view what's happening in the greater scheme of things.
As Charles Widmore might say, your analysis is "spot on", Ryan.
Lost is, in many ways, a modern take on the struggle between good vs. evil. It goes to show that even people on the furthest reaches of survival can still be faced with that basic human conflict. But in all of the good vs. evil stories, it is not the Powers That Be which are the focus, but the people caught in the middle.
The story of Job (and don't roll your eyes, the writers opened the Biblical door already) is pretty much what the Lostaways are going through right now. They are being bombarded by two opposing forces that both seek to use them for their own ideal/purpose. In the story of Job, the devil believes he can inflict enough suffering and loss upon Job that he will forsake God. But it is the struggle Job goes through that is the heart of the story, and why it is so relevant to this day; that it is the story of how a mortal person deals with influence of the divine.
And that is why the drama of Lost may have changed and evolved, but at the heart of it all, its still about those 30-odd p***engers and how they deal with the world around them.
I can't believe how long I was AWOL... apparently since March 28th! And as I got caught up with everything I was heartened to see all of the references to cl***ic Trek episodes and cl***ic SF movies (such as Forbidden Planet)! Nice to know that, at least amongst LOST viewers, the true cl***ics of humanity (which now include LOST) have not been forgotten.
BrianOTN: In addition to "The City on the Edge of Forever" I believe the titles of the other episodes you mentioned are "Who Mourns for Adonais" and "The Lights of Zetar." For those of you who don't remember, BrianOTN wrote:
Ryan, you hit upon something that I've believed about the island since the show started. The island needs these people to exist as an entity. The islands power only increases with the addition of more people. Thus it becomes imperative to certain characters to keep the numbers at a certain level, but more important, with certain TYPES of individuals ("wrong" or "right" types). This pulls me back to certain episodes of Star Trek (the originals and yes, I'm old). In one episode the thoughts and feelings of an entire civilization are contained in a smokey gaseous entity. In another episode, Kirk & company are trapped on a planet and held captive by a Greek god who's survival depends on his followers belief in him. Does anyone recall these episodes?
And I love your idea about Homer Simpson inspiring the four-toed statue! (And let us not forget that same episode featured the PBS Pledge Enforement Van led by a terrifying Betty White!)
And Pearl, I believe the title of the episode you mentioned is "Shore Leave": I remember an old episode of Trek where they land on a planet and random thoughts the crew had started appearing. Airplanes, ninjas, beautiful ladies. Is it possible this island can manifest tray thoughts. Jack not wanting his dad dead, so he isn't, all the horses, Daves and polar bears. In season 1, both times we saw the polar bears were when Walt was reading about them in that comic. The survivors feared other inhabitants and then others were created. Or does this island manifest the things the audience want? Ben being evil, Paulo and Niki dead!!!
As BrianOTN said: Now that I think about it a little more, almost every aspect of L O S T can be traced back to Star Trek. But I do like the IT aspects too. How's this for a mind-blower; Remember the Star Trek were the crew investigates a planet with a portal to different times? I think it was called "City on the Edge of Forever". It had it all...time travel, drama, and a deranged white-eyed McCoy (that dudes eyes always freaked me out). More important, the time portal was sentient! Coincidence...I think not!
I believe the Trek episode that ghostlight is talking about is "Obsession" (not "The Lights of Zetar"), but I'm not positive. The black gaseous cloud referred to as Smokey might be borrowed from an old 60s Star Trek episode; i.e. a creature that had wandered the universe and spawns in a particular location. In this case, it suggests it predates Dharma and may possibly have been a destructive force with Dharma. This balck clouds seems to have the ability to discern the good guy from the bad no matter what "group" the confronted individual(s) are part of. Deus Exs only appear at the end of a Drama to "save" a faltering situation on stage. Somewhere in the mix the authors will, no doubt, have some kind of final confrontation with "smokey" and its mystery will be unraveled. These writers are too smart to use this device as a cheap trick to kill someone off. Like the Shark in JAWS, you know it's lurking, anti-present and aware, just how and when it decides to rear its presence for the big unraveling is up to the authors. Whether we all live to 2010 to find out for ourselves will require our own Desu ex Machina.
Z-Wulf: Smokey makes me think of Dr. Morbius in "Forbidden Planet" who controlled a monster with an ancient alien device. As I recall the creature came from his own id; I wonder if there's a similar relationship between Ben and Smokey.
Yes! Good call. And I've thought from the very first episode (the Pilot) that the monster sounds like the monster in Forbidden Planet!
Xannie: As for the Temple, whenever I hear of it I think of "Beneath the Planet of the Apes," even more so now that we know the Temple is a station. This ***ociation isn't good, since the only thing I can picture is Richard Alpert leading the Others in their daily prayers to the Almighty Bomb. ;-)
Yes! I can picture it now! (Though I wish I couldn't!)
Joalissa wrote: Well, I'm going back to my Star Wars marathon now (the original trilogy., not the crap that came after).
Well put!!! (I hated "Phantom Menace" so much I refused to see Clones or the final one.) (If you listen carefully to the Lucas's director's commentary on SW, he pretty much admits he never intended to make anything but the first three (SW, TESB, RotJ), but ended up doing Phantom and the other two strictly for money to fund his ranch and other film and TV projects. (Most people are thrown off by his insisting that SW be labeled SW: 4: A New Hope, which the studio initially refused to do but gave in to Lucas once it became a hit. But Lucas wanted that #4 labeling NOT because he intended to make the first three, but because he wanted the audience to feel like they had missed some previous chapters in a sa****ay-afternoon serial so they wouldn't wonder when references were made to events prior to the story. Lucas underestimated the illeligence of the audience; fortunately the studio prevailed long enough [through the initial release] so people weren't confused by Lucas's attempt to keep them from being confused. But when the studio finally gave in a labeled SW as #4, they started floating the idea that he would make #1 through #3 someday... and maybe even #7 through #9! (At least let's all be grateful that didn't happen!)
As is the case with most great SF films and TV, many people went into making the original SW great (especially Joseph Campbell, John Williams, Alec Guiness, Harrison Ford, and the special effects people).
Alas, most people want to give all the credit to Lucas, just as so many in the media (who don't pay much attention to who actually writes and directs the show!) want to give all the credit for LOST to J.J. Abrams.
Okay, final post until after the next episode, I promise.
Ryan: I didn't mention this in the recap since I had no real space to throw it out there, but Sawyer's general attitude towards Claire and Hugo made my heart warm.
Me too.
And also made me think there's sadly no way this guy's gonna be alive come the end of this season.
Gee, I hope you're wrong. I guess I can admit after his latest heroics that he has always been one of my favorites. (Yes, I'd rather see Jin or Bernard or even Hurley bite the dust.) (Of course, that's what I said about Charlie too, and it didn't do any good.)
Jeff: I don't think I've ever been so affected by an hour of television. The smoke monster was cool and all, but Alex's death seriously messed me up. My poor wife broke down in tears. I mean, the very last thing this innocent, 16 year-old girl hears before she's executed is her father saying she means nothing to him. I loved the whole episode, but that scene and the emotion of it has really affected me. I feel kind of numb about the rest of it right now.
I'm right there with you, bud. Though, unlike with the ending of "The Constant", I guess this time it is a just a few of us. I remember after "The Constant" trying to tell someone (in order to make her realize what a special show LOST is and realize what she has been missing) about how the internet was abuzz with tales of guys (not just women) crying. The non-fan said, "Oh, did somebody die?" I, somewhat exasperated, explained that people die all the time, that this was special (and then tried, without success, to explain how dramatic the phone call was).
But, unlike Charlie's death, which seemed so contrived (at least to me) so as not to seem real and thus didn't affect me (though Hurley's and Claire's later genuine reactions did), Alex's death seemed all too real, for I fully believed there was no way around it:
That is, if Linus had given up they would have killed her (and as many others as possible) anyway. So Linus probably had no choice but to gamble... even though he lost.
So now he has given even further into hate (demonstrated, probably, by his killing of Nadia), which he had already clearly given into years before (the m*** murder of the 40 Dharma people) due to hatred of his father [constantly blaming him for his mother's death on his birthday] and, apparently, the loss of Annie.
I fear that those of you who weren't affected much by Alex's death (or Ben's pain) may not be able to relate as well to the rest of the show's run, since it would seem that Ben is becoming an increasingly larger character in terms of the amount of screen time devoted to him.
And I can definitely see the series ending with a kind of Vader/Emperor RotJ (1983) ending, where Ben gives up his hate just in time to save Penny and perhaps defeat Widmore.
(I think we'd all agree, wouldn't we, that the scene at the end of the most recent episode makes it clear that Widmore is more akin to the emperor, and Linus to Vader. And we all know what SW fans the LOST writers are.)
And, as J. Norris wrote: Think a little about Widmore. About the accent, the intonations, the timbre of his conversation with Ben. None other, I think, than the captain of the Black Rock, Magnus Hanso. Or perhaps the perfidious first mate whose journal Widmore recently acquired. But a hard man, a sailor and a slaver of the 19th Centure, I have little doubt.
I think that would be cool if it turns out to be the case!
Speaking of Alex, Other Sean brings up an interesting point: I've always been confused about the Swan, though. Kelvin joined the Dharma initiative after the Gulf War and sent to the Island, so the Purge would have happened after that, sometime in the 1990's. Yet Alex is 16 years old in the time the show is set (2004), so that means she was taken in 1988. If the Purge didn't happen until the mid-90's, then Ben took her while he was still pretending to be a member of the Dharma initiative? Very confusing.
I'm confused too.
Also regarding Alex, if "the rules" of engagement between Widmore and Linus had always been no harm to immediate family, then I, like Frank, don't understand why Linus didn't say "Leave her alone; she is my daughter," rather than denying that she was his daughter? That part makes no sense to me.
Me either.
Xannie wrote: Small correction: It was Lapidus, not Faraday, who called Juliet a "native." :-)
I'm pretty sure I would have caught this too as for some reason I really like Lapidus; he's like a big budda emitting rays of calm or something. I've believed from the beginning that he really is there to help the lostaways.
I suspect a somehow newly enlightened Sayid slit the doctor's throat (with the help of Michael and Desmond) as part of a takeover of the ship (what with most of the "security force" on the island) and Lapidus will via helicopter somehow get the rest of the Oceanic 6 to the freighter.
On the other hand, he may just (secretly) bring them to Desmond's boat, and Linus was lying to Sayid about how he got off the island (instead perhaps using the orchard station as many have speculated). Hmm... I do kind of like that scenario better, especially if the freighter (and the security force) is completely destroyed.
(Lapidus and other good folk can join the lostaways... which probably will include Charlotte, Daniel, Miles.)
(The freighter being completely destroyed would certainly help explain why Widmore still hadn't found the island by late 2005.)
OH.....MY.....GOD! Cindy as a plant on the plane??!
I have to admit, I never thought of that... but it's an interesting idea.
Milo: I'm especially leery of the popups because, according to them, "Mr. Friendly" isn't just a nickname - his name is actually Tom Friendly.
Which I find absolutely freaking ridiculous. Am I overreacting? Completely insane?
sin laden: I know all this has already been discussed here, but reading those ridiculous transcripts was the last drop for me. I'm gonna watch the show untill the end, but I will completly ignore every word out of Darlton's mouth and any product Lost related.
Glad to hear others are just as angry about the extremely poor quality of the pop-ups. This is the one thing I really hold against Darlton, as anything that goes out on the air superimposed over the episodes should be canon.
Z-Wulf: Had to laugh at Widmore's comments on Ben's eyes.
Me too!
Shaggysteve WHERE IS BLUE SEAN? I haven't seen him on here in a couple of weeks. Did we loose him?
I hope not.
Mark O. Estes: Haven't been here for the break, but I am glad LOST is back and I can share my thoughts again on the show with everyone...
Glad most everyone is back, and hope the rest will return soon!
Nicely put, Ryan, and all you posters. I, too, was thinking about how now I don't really care about the Losties on the beach, because the story is so obviously not about them. I DO still care, but, not nearly as much. Remember 6 weeks ago when we were all debating about whethere Danielle was really dead and how she can't be because we don't know her story and we spent 5 weeks debating that? And now? We don't care because all we can think about is poor little sweet Alex and how Ben dialed up a Smokey strike and whether Sawyer will live. That is a more immediate example of what you've written about, Ryan. The first two seasons were ALL about the survivors. Season three, showed us who's really (maybe?) behind the island, but now, Season 4 has showed us (again..maybe) who's really pulling the strings. Our focus has constantly changed. And, that's what keeps this show fresh. The writers refocus our attention on new things, but never really let the older stuff go, either, so that we don't feel like we've wasted our time to have watched it.
And, about grown men crying at the end of The Constant? Add me to the list. I cried during the phone call, too. And, when I rewatched that ep, I started crying BEFORE the phone call. That was the most awesome hour of TV I've ever seen.
I've said this before: This show had better end with Desmond and Penny in each other's arms and alive. I did not like it at ALL when Ben threatened Penny. I got shaky during last season's finale when I thought that Sayid/Bernard/Jin had been killed. I won't survive anything bad happening to Desmond or Penny.
ryan-
this is some of your best stuff yet. kudos, bravo, and a general "hot damn that's some right fine analysis!" from down South.