'Lost': 'Orientation: Ryan Station' talks 'The Package' with special guest Jace Lacob
When Maureen "Mo" Ryan and I set out to do weekly podcasts of "Lost" this season, we figured it would be a fun lark of a project. Little did we know that many of our favorite bloggers and critics would be willing to join us in this venture. Added to the Rogue's Gallery of Guest Commentators this week? Jace Lacob, aka "Televisionary." I've been reading his stuff for a while now, and it was great to sit with him (albeit virtually) to discuss this week's episode, "The Package."
We had a blast this week...maybe TOO much of a blast, if such a thing is possible. It's a roughly hour-long discussion of all things Sun, Jin, aphasia, and sideways storylines. Along the way we manage to work in references to "Fringe," "The Usual Suspects," and "The Princess Bride." Mo gives an interesting insight into the way the show has written some of the female characters this season, and Jace has much to say about the shape of things to come on the show.
As always, there are a few ways to enjoy the podcast. Below the Hulu embed of "The Package" 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 to accompany your 10K run or anything.
Since we're gaining a little traction in terms of overall listeners, I'm reminding you of the contest we're holding to spur on even more people to subscribe to the podcast. Overall, only a few more weeks until the sucker's obsolete. The prize? Two sets of Season 1 and 2 of "Lost" on Blu-Ray! That's right: if you win, you'll get both seasons delivered to your door.
So here are the rules:
1) You must be a U.S. citizen over the age of 18.
2) You must be following @Zap2itLost and @Zap2it on Twitter
3) You must post the following on your Twitter Account: "Subscribe to "Orientation: Ryan Station," the #Lost podcast with @Zap2itLost and @moryan: http://bit.ly/bpIRli"
If we get 250 new subscribers, one person that Tweets the above message will win Seasons 1 and 2 of "Lost" on Blu-Ray. If we get 500 new subscribers, then two people will win both sets as well. Sound simple? It is!
Now enjoy the podcast! Coming Sunday: a new "Letters from the Flame," and on Monday, the Great "Lost" Debate is dedicated to Desmond.
The player will show in this paragraph
Despite Jace Lacob having nothing to do with Lost, his name immediately made me think it was a clue.
But I loved his comment about not packing satellite phones: these characters spent all that time frustrated and trapped on an island, wishing sooo hard for certain useful items, and yet do nothing differently the second time. Did they just think they'd land and take off from a forested island? Is Clair saved simply by being found? jeeze.
Another good podcast Ryan, everyone was very articulate this time out!
I have to say I'm growing fonder of Mo by the week - she practically agreed with each of the issues I had with 'the package':
that female characters have been very poorly served this season
that there were several clunky elements - Sun runs into a tree, Sun develops aphasia (reminded me of S1 24 when Jack's wife got amnesia for 3 or 4 hours!), the triumphant tomato, and the smocke/widmore 'showdown' i.e. 'you can't get over my fence'/'well I'm going to pull faces at you and come back with my pals and then you'll be sorry'
And I agree with Jace in that there's a strong story element to keeping sun and jin apart, but they still could have been given some good material to work with whilst being kept apart. There was no reason to demote them to extras sweeping up in the background.
I did like the thought that either Jacob or 'the island' is keeping them apart to keep them safe and hence explains why Sun didn't go back to 1977 (ither than to tug on the viewers heartstrings for a reconcilliation), but this doesn't explain why Ben and Lapidus were kept in 2008.
I hope we get an explanation as to why certain characters were chosen to flash through time or not (i.e. Sun,Lapidus,Ben on Ajira and Claire on the island)
What a waste of a podcast. Could you all ***** any more? Especially Mo . . . I'll never listen again.
I really enjoyed this podcast.
Mo is very adorbale! I don't know if this is possible but can you do a podcast with Jeff Jensen? lol
that would be interesting ...
Mo's complaining really ruined the first half of the podcast for me. I understand criticism, but it seems like she's complaining about the flash sideways just so when the payoff comes, she doesn't have high expectations and she won't feel that let down.
Lost certainly is not a female oriented show, but it's had it's fair share of strong female characters. Sure nobody is Starbuck like, but few shows have ever had that type of a character male or female.
Juliet was the strongest female character IMO and her story arc was good so I'd celebrate that rather than complaining about Sun and Kate. It's the last season. Something will go down later for all the losties. Have a little faith :)
I usually enjoy this podcast and Mo, I think you have interesting ideas, but the complaining was a majority of this podcast. Also, please be aware of how much you talk, your guests usually don't get much talk time.
I'm really just letting go of any expectations and enjoying the ride. Maybe try to do the same that way there won't be so much disappointment every week. I think you miss the story being told when you go in with your own expectations of what you think they should be doing. Just as an example, your judgements about Kate are clouding your ability to see that this character does have her own story and motivations.
I do agree with your concern about female characters on this show and it's certainly worth exploring. I have been wondering how the feminine will be addressed as we get towards the end, but then again I'm not expecting the show to give me what I want in that respect. If it's not a part of the story they're telling, then it's not.
@Matt, I know what you mean, but I think it's more noticeable that very few female characters have been served well in the last year or so.
I share Mo's disappointment BECAUSE of how well females have been portrayed in the show's earlier days but looking around now and it's a pretty sorry state. I'm just hopeful that the run-up to the finale will see the likes of Kate and Sun (and even Claire) having a proactive role in the endgame.
I do sympathise with the argument that Lost has not been fair with its female characters. There are some valid points in there but when it comes to character motivations,I call for some perspective.
The argument that women on Lost are motivated by their proximity to males can be applied the other way around.
Jack detonated a bomb for Kate. Sawyer's motivations in "The Incident" were informed by Juliet's will. Hell, Sawyer's main objective for most of the series was to get Kate(the goal to get other people to hate him notwithstanding)
Jin is as much defined by Sun as she is to him. Claire is as motivated by Aaron as Michael was motivated by Walt. Ilana is much as a plot device as Richard Alpert was before Ab Aetero.Nikki was killed the same time as Paolo.
When it comes to motivations, the castaways(and more)were always self involved drama queens from Jack to Walt.The only characters who were consumed with power were Ben and Widmore. Jack was competing with his father for the most part, and Locke was following a "sheperd" he could not see for the most part.
Redeption, survival,gratification, purpose and piece of mind were what all these characters are searching for from day one. None of them were searching for power,or Dharma, or cosmic power(except Ben).
I can see the argument in the ratio of male to female on this show, but the motivations of all the characters are much more similiar than many of us are comfortable with. These are not people with grand desires for power we are watching. These are broken, selfish, conniving,and exploitive individuals we were watching for six seasons. That's the genius of Lost:we're watching archetypal representations of the common person in a heightened sensibility.
Most of Mankind are not defined by grand gestures and selflessness that we like to think we are. But we are more like the Losties, beings of untapped potential blinded by our personal drama.We want these characters to be bigger than what they are(personally I never got the popularity contest that we have with these characters sometimes).
Feminism is not the main focus of Lost;humanism is. I consider myself a feminist as well, but sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. We want the Losties to be grand characters but that's not the show we've been watching for six years...
Maybe next time the podcast can just be Ryan and Jace. Mo's complaining, not to mention dominating the talk time, was ridiculous
ryan, i really enjoyed listening to you and jace; it always gives me something to think about
i wish there was a way for those of us not part of the twitterati to get our hands on those season 1 and 2 blu-ray discs; i bought them way back before blu-ray was available and i don't want to fork over more money just to get the blu-ray discs; however, i wouldn't mind winning them....