Is Lost still any good?

Brett: Now what did we think of that? (Episode 3 of series 4 of Lost “The Economist”, which we just watched on channel 7 in Sydney)

Babsi: I don't know. It's always soo difficult with Lost. It's always so annoying, because just when you can't be bothered, because it's too unbearably annoying there is always something that catches your eye, or there is a little interesting bit at the end, or something you wonder about, or something revealing that just leaves you a bit astounded and interested. And then you end up watching the next stupid episode. This one was bizarre, and there have been lots of bizarre episodes, but I liked series one and two, I thought they were clever. I like the whole idea of it, but I think it needs to be careful not to just disappear up its own island.

Brett: How many new groups of people can be introduced? We've had the front section, the tail section, the others, the hostiles and now the freighter people.

Babsi: Well there was a bit of explanation and you can sort of guess where the others went to. We know what happened to the Dharma initiative, that we found out.

Brett: That they all got killed by people unknown.

Babsi: That's right, Ben killed them.

Brett: Now Ben is getting Sayid to kill people from the Dharma initiative off the island, but why would he do that?

Babsi: No they're gone, they're way gone. The other thing I noticed is that the woman he killed...

Brett: The German woman…

Babsi: The German woman, was wearing the same bracelet as Naomi, now that's weird.

Brett: That was a nice touch, there are a few nice touches, but you never find out any reason for them, any significance.

Babsi: No it's never really explained and then you sort of forget about it. I think it depends on the idea that people will just forget about it.

Brett: I think so, I mean in the first episode we find out that there is a monster – that's gone, that there are polar bears – they're gone.

Babsi: No but that was explained.

Brett: Yeah there were two cages, so they meet the two polar bears and shoot them in the first few episodes and then you never see any more polar bears. There is always stuff that you think is intriguing and interesting, but three episodes later it's gone. Michael, you can't kill him, but now he's gone. The French woman disappears for huge stretches of time and has no idea where the others are, but they are just in some huts a few miles away, how couldn't she find them?

Babsi: I don't know, it is a bit insane.

Brett: It's lashed together, I think he makes it up as he goes along.

Babsi: But there are odd bits of genius. The whole idea is quite good and the photography is awesome. Some of the photography is really mind blowing, though I didn't see any in this episode really, apart from the empty swings. That was kind of interesting.

Brett: I don't buy it that the two groups just fall apart. Everyone seemed to be pulling together for so long and all of a sudden they decide, “Why don't some of us go to the beach to be rescued and some of us go off and hide, shouldn't we even talk about it, I don't think that'll be necessary, lets just do it.” AND SUDDENLY LOCK IS THE LEADER? He turns up limping and gunshot wounded, stabs somebody and they think, “Ah this is the guy we need as our leader.” But I really enjoyed watching it and I'm definitely going to watch the next episode. I think it'll go on like this until it gets cancelled.

Babsi: It's clear that Ben survived, and the others might survive too, but it's weird because the new group is becoming the new others.

Brett: And then they talk about a war, “a war will come that nobody can prevent.”

Babsi: Well it presented a problem. The interesting thing is that J.J Abrams must have planed that somehow. He put together a group of characters that will find salvation on the island, like Kate and Sawyer who are criminals in the real world, but can survive on the island without ending up in jail. Others like Jack and Claire can’t wait to get of the island…

Brett: I don't think he did. I think he created a set up with a bunch of characters who he could keep writing for a long time. It's the same thing as with his other show Alias. It's written by the same guy and it has the same problems. Whenever a new character turns up and people ask them who they are or who they work for, they just give ambiguous answers. Or they look like they are finally going to reveal some answers, “Now I will tell you everything, oh wait my toast just popped up, I'll tell you later, now I've got to butter my toast.” Something always happens to stop them, a phone rings or someone comes in the room or something. The show keeps promising something really amazing is about to happen and then it doesn't.

Babsi: JJ Abrahms is a genius of promising stuff and not delivering.

Brett: What about the button. They had to keep pushing the button or the world was going to end and all that happened was the sky went pink and a Scottish guy's clothes fell off. I mean that's quite good, there's a show right there, but it didn't live up to what was promised, it wasn't Earth shattering.

Babsi: It was Earth shattering that the plane came down.

Brett: Every now and then some new characters turn up, they don't explain who they are and everyone gets on like a house on fire. “Do you like fish?”, “I'm sorry I'm not going to tell you anything about myself, I have to give JJ a lot of room to manoeuvre. He may decide later that I'm a killer robot, he may decide that I'm a fish, so the less I say the better.”

Babsi: Yeah, yeah, I see what you mean, that's probably true.

Brett: It's definitely true, he keeps writing himself into tighter and tighter corners, he's wriggling now. But I still like it.

Babsi: It is enjoyable, think about shows like Twin Peaks, went absolutely nowhere ever.

Brett: Twin Peaks, did you ever watch it?

Babsi: It was creepy as can be. I liked it in the beginning, it was hip and new and I was 16 and I enjoyed it.

Brett: I think J.J Abrahms is influenced by it. He must have watched it and thought, “Wow, people can get away with writing like that. Me too!

Babsi: Twin Peaks was going somewhere, but it had the same sort of problems. It introduced loads of new characters, there were lots of stories, lots of this, that and the other. It was quite arty and interesting but still it was a little crazy.

Brett: I have the same problem with the X Files, the first series was really good and there were lots of interesting plot elements, his superiors knew more than him and he found little clues, but after a while, things just got stranger and stranger and the big secret his superiors were hiding never got revealed.

Babsi: In Desperate Housewives things are different, things do get resolved. A new neighbour moves in, you eventually find out their secret and then another new neighbour replaces them.

Brett: That's it. They don't promise there's one big secret. It's suburban life with a lot of little secrets that eventually come out.

Babsi: There is series one and then series one is over. There is series two and series two is over, things get resolved. With Lost it's more an ongoing thing, and the actors look a bit lost, like, “Oh dear, what am I supposed to do?”

Brett. “Am I a good guy or a bad guy?”

Babsi: “I've got this gun, who am I supposed to point it at again?”

Brett: I feel a different emotion after watching this, than after watching a show in the first series. After a show in the first series I couldn't wait till the next one.

Babsi: And Kate is getting off with Sawyer again.

Brett: Apparently in the trailer for the next episode, that's going to happen.

Babsi: But even that storyline is getting boring.

Brett: The new characters, I don't care about at all. I care very much about the original characters and I was ready to commit to the characters from the tail section.

Babsi: Michel Rodriguez is a great actress, she gave a great performance.

Brett: But they all got written out. It's hard to care about the new characters.

Babsi: Why are they pretending that Michael is coming back. I saw Harold Perrinou name in the credits, the actor who plays Michael, but he wasn't in this episode.

Brett: Maybe he's going turn up later in the series.

Babsi: It's not great but it's not bad, I didn't expect that much really.

Brett: Do you still like it?

Babsi: It's getting a bit old now. I'd give it maybe two stars or something.

Brett: Spirals, we are going to be handing out spirals remember.

Babsi: Oh yes, that's true, two spirals then.

Brett: Out of how many. What's going to be our scale? We never decided.

Babsi: Out of five.

Brett: Two spirals out of five. I don't know isn't that harsh? What would you give series one, by the way?

Babsi: Probably five.

Brett: Five out of five, so it's dropped from five to two?

Babsi: Yes, I'm afraid so. I'm a bit disappointed.

Brett: Ok two it is, I agree with you.