'Lost': 'Orientation: Ryan Station' talks 'The Last Recruit' with special guest Todd VanDerWerff
The "Lost" podcast is back with a look at this week's episode, "The Last Recruit." Joining myself and my usual partner, The Chicago Tribune's Maureen "Mo" Ryan, is a return guest: Todd VanDerWerff, who recaps the show for The L.A. Times Show Tracker as well as writing for other sites such as The A.V. Club and HitFix. Last time out, we recorded our podcast together in the aftermath of Todd's laptop being stolen, but luckily, he hired Vincent to be his personal watchdog in the meantime to ensure no repeat incident occurred.
As always, there are a few ways to enjoy the podcast. Below the Hulu
embed of "The Last Recruit" lies an MP3 player that you can use in-browser.
Just below that, there's a link to download it directly to your hard
drive. Adjacent to that is a link to the podcast's feed. The best way,
in my humble opinion? Subscribe to the podcast. It's easy, it's free,
it's easier than killing the Devil before he gets a chance to speak.
While you're over there, please give us a rating and/or review. We'd
love to get as many people listening as possible. In any case, you can
watch the episode along with the audio, or simply take it on the go and
listen at your leisure. Though I wouldn't recommend it playing in the background during your romantic date on the beach.
Enjoy!
The player will show in this paragraph
(hope I'm posting this in the right place)
My question for the Q&A podcast is: as the show stands now, how do you think season 6 stacks up against the previous 5? Or to phrase differently, how would you order the six seasons in a list of Most to Least Favourite (even though S6 isn't finished)?
And just a few of comments on things you discussed during the podcast:
1) I read Jack jumping off the boat a little differently. He's having doubts, he gets a few moments to sit and think about it, and then he expresses those doubts to Sawyer. Sawyer's response is to give an ultimatum: stow it, or get off the boat. So Jack gets pushed into making a snap decision. It seemed to me like a more gradual process that what you, Mo and Todd thought it was.
2) You brought up Ben's redemption and then lack of screentime, or of any plot-relevant action. Am I the only person who thinks Ben is gonna wind up being the Gollum of this story? I could see him being tempted back to badness, and I can absolutely see him doing something heroic and important out of a very selfish impulse (killing Widmore, maybe?)
3) Evangeline Lily is like most actors and actresses: crud (material) goes in, crud (acting) comes out; quality goes in, quality comes out. This episode, Kate got some great stuff, and Lily rose to the challenge.
4) Sun and Jin's reunion is only half the thing; what's *really* gonna have me bawling on the ground is when Jin meets Ji Yeon.
These podcasts have been very insightful! Thanks.
Questions:
1) Given Jack's new approach to following other's - no pun intended ;) - advice this season what are your thoughts on him ending up in a position where he has to make the crucial decision for everyone?
2) Whom do you think will end up making the biggest sacrifice by the time the final credits on the final episode start scrolling and why? My money is on Hurley.
3) What are the chances that the show will give each character a textual epilogue a la Animal House?
4) Assuming one of the candidates takes over for Jacob - will anyone take over for the MIB? Some form of balance - light and dark, yin and yang etc logically seems necessary to be maintained. If so, who do you think it will be for the MIB?
Randomness in my thoughts:
Regarding your podcast: Looks like someone got their voice back! Hey Now!
Is Sawyers desire to get off of island only due to his ignorance of the emptiness that Jack felt once off of the island? In other words, wouldn't it have been natural for Jack to communicate to Sawyer exactly why the he came back to the island???
Speaking of fast & loose, why was Desmond visiting Llianna?
"Be in touch with that that is real." Really? The island life is "real"?? Ghosts, shapeshifters, and timetravel is "real"? I know I'm taking you too literally, Maureen, but the dismissiveness of the epiverse is really becoming kind of funny.
Dear Charlie, Would you want X, or would you rather be dead?--Ryan
Dear Daniel, Would you want X, or would you rather be dead?--Ryan
Dear David, Would you want X, or would you rather be non-existent?--Ryan
Your answer in unison: "X, please!"
For the finale p-cast, I would prefer a Pon-Far (the Vulcan fertility battle ritual). Thanks!
Ryan, perhaps your "deal breaker" is just what YOU need in a Whedon-esque way! Sometimes Bambi's mom lives and Old Yeller dies of Old age.
Maureen: "Could they have gone deeper?"--That's what she said.
And, guys & gal, maybe reference the show a little bit more so we, at home, can get the podcast synced up with the hulu. Other than that little request, still love your work here.
I was expecting this to happen as we got closer to the end of the season -- but I feel like reviewers are viewing this show with a FAR too critical eye right now. Again, that's part of the job, and LOST is under a huge microscope right now, I understand that.
But again, when you just read review after review, or listen to this podcast, when the majority of the thing is about what was WRONG with an episode, it starts to ruin my enjoyment of it.
I mean, no offense to Mo, but does she even like LOST anymore? All she does is criticize it. "Why did they have to do this?" or "This made no sense." Read her latest review, it's 95% about what she DIDNT like about how it was WRITTEN, rather than what the episode itself was actually about.
Ryan is doing better, but even his reviews have become littered with a tone of underlying disappointment.
And that's fine if that's how you feel -- but I just wish that things like this would focus more on what's happening in the show and what it means, rather than criticizing the writers and actors for how they created it. Just like in LOST, what ever happens in a show is what happens -- must we constantly be lamenting the things you wish they DIDNT do?
I was expecting this to happen as we got closer to the end of the season -- but I feel like reviewers are viewing this show with a FAR too critical eye right now. Again, that's part of the job, and LOST is under a huge microscope right now, I understand that.
But again, when you just read review after review, or listen to this podcast, when the majority of the thing is about what was WRONG with an episode, it starts to ruin my enjoyment of it.
I mean, no offense to Mo, but does she even like LOST anymore? All she does is criticize it. "Why did they have to do this?" or "This made no sense." Read her latest review, it's 95% about what she DIDNT like about how it was WRITTEN, rather than what the episode itself was actually about.
Ryan is doing better, but even his reviews have become littered with a tone of underlying disappointment.
And that's fine if that's how you feel -- but I just wish that things like this would focus more on what's happening in the show and what it means, rather than criticizing the writers and actors for how they created it. Just like in LOST, what ever happens in a show is what happens -- must we constantly be lamenting the things you wish they DIDNT do?
Todd and Ryan sound way to similar. Several times in the episode I had to pause and think to figure out who was talking.
Randomness in my thoughts:
Regarding your podcast: Looks like someone got their voice back! Hey Now!
Is Sawyers desire to get off of island only due to his ignorance of the emptiness that Jack felt once off of the island? In other words, wouldn't it have been natural for Jack to communicate to Sawyer exactly why the he came back to the island???
Speaking of fast & loose, why was Desmond visiting Llianna?
"Be in touch with that that is real." Really? The island life is "real"?? Ghosts, shape shifters, and time travel is "real"? I know I'm taking you too literally, Maureen, but the dismissiveness of the epiverse is really becoming kind of funny.
Dear Charlie, Would you want X, or would you rather be dead?--Ryan
Dear Daniel, Would you want X, or would you rather be dead?--Ryan
Dear David, Would you want X, or would you rather be non-existent?--Ryan
Your answer in unison: "X, please!"
For the finale p-cast, I would prefer a Pon-Far (the Vulcan fertility battle ritual). Thanks!
Ryan, perhaps your "deal breaker" is just what YOU need in a Whedon-esque way! Sometimes Bambi's mom lives and Old Yeller dies of Old age.
Maureen: "Could they have gone deeper?"--That's what she said.
And, guys & gal, maybe reference the show a little bit more so we, at home, can get the podcast synced up with the hulu. Other than that little request, still love your work here.
Hmmm...don't know why it got posted twice, but if the headmaster could do me a solid, I'd certainly appreciate it!
Question for podcast: when discussing my favorite character with friends, the majority of the characters brought up are men (with the exception of Juliet). I love Lost to death, but I don't understand the lack of strong female characters on the show. Another issue is the show's tendency to kill off female main characters (Shannon, Libby, Ana-Lucia, Charlotte, Juliet, Ilana). Kate is clearly not the best (as most fans agree), Claire suffered from going MIA for a season, and Sun had the chance to be more compelling, but is now reduced to her relationship with Jin. What happened to the strong, confident woman making deals with Widmore? As a woman, I am sad that besides Juliet, I could honestly take or leave any of the other female characters. What do you guys think? Also if all the candidates are male what point are they trying to make?
RCBrill,
I completely agree with you, one of my major issues with the show is how the handle females characters. I mean every single female cast member introduced after season 1 has been killed, and if they kill anymore this season, there will only be at most two females alive at the end of the show, it just seems really uneven to me.
Plus, I'm very annoyed with the way the show ruined Sun, they should of kept Jin dead and have Sun continue to be angry and a bit evil, but no they dropped that so we can get some super compelling storylines like "Sun doesn't know English anymore"