LOST Pilot Parts 1 and 2: Suddenly polar bear
Sept 19, 2014 21:41:16 GMT -5
Djse (and a Sack of Cats), Roy Batty's Pet Dove, and 3 more like this
Post by Arthur Dent on Sept 19, 2014 21:41:16 GMT -5
"Guys, where are we?"
Goddamn, that ending sequence yet again manages to be vivid and effective enough to make me want to continue just like last time, even in spite of much of the episode surrounding it. The whole setpiece is perfectly conceived, set up and executed, in stark contrast to most of the others throughout the eighty minute pilot. It even manages to give purpose to annoying parts of Part 2, the obnoxious Sawyer and his arbitrary conflict-making with others, or the flailing attempts to make Shannon engaging, and use them to effectively add further tension to what is already mounting throughout. The whole story of repairing and attempting to use the transceiver, with tension created by its limited battery, was solidly engaging and all established rather understatedly. What could so easily have been an annoying, obvious cliffhanger stripped of resolution turns out to decisively settle the story in disheartening but compelling fashion, leaving us on a uniquely enigmatic note that is far more interesting than the question of "How did a polar bear get there?," while being gradually, not thuddingly, parceled out with Shannon's translation and Sayid's calculations.
On a less substantial note of appreciation, the final line being delivered by Charlie makes it all the better. He is easily the best, most interesting character coming out of the pilot, and the only one who, largely thanks to Dominic Monaghan's performance, manages to feel like a natural human being containing multitudes and neither an archetype nor a bland, generic blob, or worse, a bit of both. That note takes us back to the beginning of Part 1, and one of the least interesting protagonists I've seen on television.
I'll try to first look at what good I can see in the series' opening sequence, though frankly there's not much of it. That very first image of Jack's eye is indeed striking, and Abrams' direction throughout the entire set of episodes is gorgeous, with various shots, particularly Locke against the backdrop of the shore, remaining in my mind, but much of what is being shot fails to engage me. The pacing of the whole pilot is messy as hell, and that starts from those first frames just as much as the excellent direction, with Jack's movement through the jungle and discovery of the crash site being rushed through, draining it of impact. Any potential sense of powerful contrast between the serenity and the chaos is lost while at the same time his wandering is too aimless to create a sense of urgency. The brief, eerie peace of Jack waking up is lost regardless due to the distractingly, excessively overbearing score that constantly took me out of the action throughout the pilot, and was particularly annoying during setpieces like Jack scrambling around the beach and the raid on the cockpit. Regarding the former, much of the potential tension is rather lacking due to the scenarios feeling goofy or otherwise falling flat, like the piece of metal almost falling on Hurley and Claire, the man randomly sucked in the engine, or the many needless explosions; the best part by far is Charlie's dazed wanderings that both fit perfectly into the trauma of the situation, and serve as part of the subtle conveyance of his drug troubles that are done before it is outright established in the marvelously tense opening flashback of Part 2.
Once that setpiece finally settles down, Part 1 unfortunately shifts into what is easily the worst scene in either episode, Kate's meeting and treatment of Jack, which is not completely poor in its conception but utterly atrocious in its execution both in the performances, Jack and Kate being easily some of the worst acted characters on the show thus far, and the writing, featuring some of the clumsiest dialogue out of what largely ranges from serviceable and expository to laughably bad*. Both characters are portrayed weakly and without conviction, sketched in an incredibly broad way that takes away from the potentially workable emotions and generally suffering once the scene reaches maudlin territory nothing and no one could save, Jack's story and "letting the fear in, but only for five seconds." Kate later on manages to be a potentially salvageable character on Part 2, despite clearly having been affected by losing how she was supposed to be forced into taking the role of leader, as she is a part of one of either episodes' best pieces, carefully handling the situation with the armed Sawyer followed up with the stark contrast of her being revealed as an opportunistic fugitive.
Jack, on the other hand, truly feels like a protagonistic savior archetype whose only potential creative contribution would've been being quickly and shockingly removed from the equation. The pilot's death in his place is weightless and the drawn out bit of Kate looking for Jack, who has inexplicably survived, is dull and annoying, but this frustration is merely the cap to the tense raid sequence which is perfectly executed, including the pilot's terrifying contextualization of their circumstances, except for the aforementioned distracting score pounding in the background. The rest of Parts 1 and 2 not previously covered largely consist of quiet scenes that are certainly needed, but often feel extraneous and contribute little, the most effective being Charlie's, Michael and Walt's, and the Korean couple's character/relationship establishment, though the latter could easily become weak if the show keeps hammering the same note with them, and lastly the annoyingly heavyhanded allusions to an ominous monster that fail to inspire interest.
One of those various scenes that mostly works, but unfortunately stumbles right at the end, is Sayid's exchange with Hurley, as the idea behind it is great and bold for US television, but it is played too overtly, and Hurley acts too unnecessarily stupidly in his need for Sayid to spell it out, for it to be as compelling as it could be. To some degree, this also goes for the last major setpiece of the pilot, although that one I am considerably more critical of. The polar bear attack certainly has some merit, in the idea of being placed in the structure of the episode as the next, third and final dangerous obstacle, after the crash/scramble to save others and raid of the cockpit with the Smoke Monster confrontation. But between how annoyingly drawn out the build-up is, while the characters just stand around and bicker to boot, how abruptly the tension is undercut by having it be immediately killed by Sawyer**, and as I have said, the concept of it as a mystery of the island simply failing to capture my interest, while being heavyhandedly executed, ("Polar bears don't live on tropical islands!" Yes, thank you, Shannon) it ultimately fits in well many of the quiet scenes as not being overly bad, but pointless and adding to the general aimlessness and messy stop-and-start pacing of the pilot.
This pretty effectively captures how I feel about this pilot, and the series so far, in a nutshell, it having sporadic but fascinating potential bogged down by sloppy execution, a lack of complete vision/general sense of not really knowing what it's doing, and an ambitious scope that brings in too many completely useless characters, spreading it all even thinner. And yet, "Guys, where are we?" and the rare moments of excellent execution still beckon strongly enough.
Grade: C-/C+, or for the whole two-parter as one episode, C
Next week, we delve further into Kate's past and Locke goes on walkabout.
Side Observations:
*Mostly Boone and Shannon's exchanges.
**If it being killed by Sawyer is just a way to smoothly transition into the much more interesting confrontation between him and Kate, holy shit, that is so needlessly elaborate.
Locke's general ominous nature annoys me, and in particular I cannot stand "Do you want to know a secret?" for its lack of contextual meaning and sole purpose as, well, mysterious speak to pepper the episode with.
The attempts at comic relief actually felt natural and worked for me for the most part, except for the bit with Hurley fainting.
Goddamn, that ending sequence yet again manages to be vivid and effective enough to make me want to continue just like last time, even in spite of much of the episode surrounding it. The whole setpiece is perfectly conceived, set up and executed, in stark contrast to most of the others throughout the eighty minute pilot. It even manages to give purpose to annoying parts of Part 2, the obnoxious Sawyer and his arbitrary conflict-making with others, or the flailing attempts to make Shannon engaging, and use them to effectively add further tension to what is already mounting throughout. The whole story of repairing and attempting to use the transceiver, with tension created by its limited battery, was solidly engaging and all established rather understatedly. What could so easily have been an annoying, obvious cliffhanger stripped of resolution turns out to decisively settle the story in disheartening but compelling fashion, leaving us on a uniquely enigmatic note that is far more interesting than the question of "How did a polar bear get there?," while being gradually, not thuddingly, parceled out with Shannon's translation and Sayid's calculations.
On a less substantial note of appreciation, the final line being delivered by Charlie makes it all the better. He is easily the best, most interesting character coming out of the pilot, and the only one who, largely thanks to Dominic Monaghan's performance, manages to feel like a natural human being containing multitudes and neither an archetype nor a bland, generic blob, or worse, a bit of both. That note takes us back to the beginning of Part 1, and one of the least interesting protagonists I've seen on television.
I'll try to first look at what good I can see in the series' opening sequence, though frankly there's not much of it. That very first image of Jack's eye is indeed striking, and Abrams' direction throughout the entire set of episodes is gorgeous, with various shots, particularly Locke against the backdrop of the shore, remaining in my mind, but much of what is being shot fails to engage me. The pacing of the whole pilot is messy as hell, and that starts from those first frames just as much as the excellent direction, with Jack's movement through the jungle and discovery of the crash site being rushed through, draining it of impact. Any potential sense of powerful contrast between the serenity and the chaos is lost while at the same time his wandering is too aimless to create a sense of urgency. The brief, eerie peace of Jack waking up is lost regardless due to the distractingly, excessively overbearing score that constantly took me out of the action throughout the pilot, and was particularly annoying during setpieces like Jack scrambling around the beach and the raid on the cockpit. Regarding the former, much of the potential tension is rather lacking due to the scenarios feeling goofy or otherwise falling flat, like the piece of metal almost falling on Hurley and Claire, the man randomly sucked in the engine, or the many needless explosions; the best part by far is Charlie's dazed wanderings that both fit perfectly into the trauma of the situation, and serve as part of the subtle conveyance of his drug troubles that are done before it is outright established in the marvelously tense opening flashback of Part 2.
Once that setpiece finally settles down, Part 1 unfortunately shifts into what is easily the worst scene in either episode, Kate's meeting and treatment of Jack, which is not completely poor in its conception but utterly atrocious in its execution both in the performances, Jack and Kate being easily some of the worst acted characters on the show thus far, and the writing, featuring some of the clumsiest dialogue out of what largely ranges from serviceable and expository to laughably bad*. Both characters are portrayed weakly and without conviction, sketched in an incredibly broad way that takes away from the potentially workable emotions and generally suffering once the scene reaches maudlin territory nothing and no one could save, Jack's story and "letting the fear in, but only for five seconds." Kate later on manages to be a potentially salvageable character on Part 2, despite clearly having been affected by losing how she was supposed to be forced into taking the role of leader, as she is a part of one of either episodes' best pieces, carefully handling the situation with the armed Sawyer followed up with the stark contrast of her being revealed as an opportunistic fugitive.
Jack, on the other hand, truly feels like a protagonistic savior archetype whose only potential creative contribution would've been being quickly and shockingly removed from the equation. The pilot's death in his place is weightless and the drawn out bit of Kate looking for Jack, who has inexplicably survived, is dull and annoying, but this frustration is merely the cap to the tense raid sequence which is perfectly executed, including the pilot's terrifying contextualization of their circumstances, except for the aforementioned distracting score pounding in the background. The rest of Parts 1 and 2 not previously covered largely consist of quiet scenes that are certainly needed, but often feel extraneous and contribute little, the most effective being Charlie's, Michael and Walt's, and the Korean couple's character/relationship establishment, though the latter could easily become weak if the show keeps hammering the same note with them, and lastly the annoyingly heavyhanded allusions to an ominous monster that fail to inspire interest.
One of those various scenes that mostly works, but unfortunately stumbles right at the end, is Sayid's exchange with Hurley, as the idea behind it is great and bold for US television, but it is played too overtly, and Hurley acts too unnecessarily stupidly in his need for Sayid to spell it out, for it to be as compelling as it could be. To some degree, this also goes for the last major setpiece of the pilot, although that one I am considerably more critical of. The polar bear attack certainly has some merit, in the idea of being placed in the structure of the episode as the next, third and final dangerous obstacle, after the crash/scramble to save others and raid of the cockpit with the Smoke Monster confrontation. But between how annoyingly drawn out the build-up is, while the characters just stand around and bicker to boot, how abruptly the tension is undercut by having it be immediately killed by Sawyer**, and as I have said, the concept of it as a mystery of the island simply failing to capture my interest, while being heavyhandedly executed, ("Polar bears don't live on tropical islands!" Yes, thank you, Shannon) it ultimately fits in well many of the quiet scenes as not being overly bad, but pointless and adding to the general aimlessness and messy stop-and-start pacing of the pilot.
This pretty effectively captures how I feel about this pilot, and the series so far, in a nutshell, it having sporadic but fascinating potential bogged down by sloppy execution, a lack of complete vision/general sense of not really knowing what it's doing, and an ambitious scope that brings in too many completely useless characters, spreading it all even thinner. And yet, "Guys, where are we?" and the rare moments of excellent execution still beckon strongly enough.
Grade: C-/C+, or for the whole two-parter as one episode, C
Next week, we delve further into Kate's past and Locke goes on walkabout.
Side Observations:
*Mostly Boone and Shannon's exchanges.
**If it being killed by Sawyer is just a way to smoothly transition into the much more interesting confrontation between him and Kate, holy shit, that is so needlessly elaborate.
Locke's general ominous nature annoys me, and in particular I cannot stand "Do you want to know a secret?" for its lack of contextual meaning and sole purpose as, well, mysterious speak to pepper the episode with.
The attempts at comic relief actually felt natural and worked for me for the most part, except for the bit with Hurley fainting.
