Having walked into a trap, Jack, Sawyer and Kate are held by the others with Jack in a cell deep within a building and Kate and Sawyer in cages above ground while Michael and Walt are long gone. The explosion within the hatch has left nothing but a crater with only Charlie having walked clear. Locke wakes in the jungle with no recollection of what specifically happened, while Desmond seems to have developed a strange skill and Eko is nowhere to be seen.
They release it in two parts so I shall review it in two parts! Of course I know why they broke the season up because six months is a long time for a series that relies purely on motion and "of the moment" action rather than a lasting depth that make hold the audience until the next season starts (for example The Wire). This has always been the case with Lost as it is all about the mystery, filling each episode with big questions and answers to minor mysteries but never really going anywhere. I admit that it works but season 2 was a bit of hard work for me because I did get the feeling that the only thing that the writers are trying to do is keep the series going for as long as it makes money. I recall reading that they said they had enough material for eight seasons but by the end of season 2 I honestly doubted if they even had enough for three or four.
The first two episodes of season 3 didn't help dissuade me at all because I found them deadly dull stagnating within the bigger mystery and adding character red-herrings to fill out the time. Fans will claim that the character back stories have as much to do with the series as the mystery of the island and, in theory, they are correct. However for me my ability to care about the people on the island has always been limited by how basic and semi-developed they are as characters so this leaves me with the wider mystery and the gradual progress within that as the only hook to keep me involved in the show. Part one of season 3 was meant to be the bridge that keeps the audience hooked until part two but to achieve this they have done the usual thing of plodding and stagnating with minor issues being "solved" while every now and again dropping a cliff-hanger or a bigger mystery to keep the audience happy that there is a "big answer" somewhere and that it is only a matter of time. Personally I don't see what it achieved as we know nothing more than we did and have just been presented with another distraction and filler, posing as excitement hell, the actual cliffhanger from season 2 is not even mentioned! A good example of how little I am starting to care is the death of Eko. In another series I have seen a character played by Agbaje die and it was gutting and important. That was Oz. Here it just seemed like another way to keep things interesting and the writers could not even bother to hide their contempt for the audience because in the same episode two new people from the survivors are promoted from "extras" to "the in crowd" by joining the search party for him. I'm sure they didn't mean it but it was obvious and clumsy and unhelpfully sent a message to me. The performances continue to be the level of soap very in the moment and serviceable but with nobody willing or able to do a great deal with who they are playing mostly they are responding, which they mostly do well.
Overall then more of the same from the series that more than ever seems to be just trying to hang on to as many viewers as possible for as long as possible and apparently has any other aim as a distant second. I will of course stick with it because, like many others I want to see how it ends, but I really hope that season 3 part 2 can do something of more interest than this. It'll give die-hard fans what they crave but this mini-season will surely be a step towards the exit door for more viewers than just myself.
They release it in two parts so I shall review it in two parts! Of course I know why they broke the season up because six months is a long time for a series that relies purely on motion and "of the moment" action rather than a lasting depth that make hold the audience until the next season starts (for example The Wire). This has always been the case with Lost as it is all about the mystery, filling each episode with big questions and answers to minor mysteries but never really going anywhere. I admit that it works but season 2 was a bit of hard work for me because I did get the feeling that the only thing that the writers are trying to do is keep the series going for as long as it makes money. I recall reading that they said they had enough material for eight seasons but by the end of season 2 I honestly doubted if they even had enough for three or four.
The first two episodes of season 3 didn't help dissuade me at all because I found them deadly dull stagnating within the bigger mystery and adding character red-herrings to fill out the time. Fans will claim that the character back stories have as much to do with the series as the mystery of the island and, in theory, they are correct. However for me my ability to care about the people on the island has always been limited by how basic and semi-developed they are as characters so this leaves me with the wider mystery and the gradual progress within that as the only hook to keep me involved in the show. Part one of season 3 was meant to be the bridge that keeps the audience hooked until part two but to achieve this they have done the usual thing of plodding and stagnating with minor issues being "solved" while every now and again dropping a cliff-hanger or a bigger mystery to keep the audience happy that there is a "big answer" somewhere and that it is only a matter of time. Personally I don't see what it achieved as we know nothing more than we did and have just been presented with another distraction and filler, posing as excitement hell, the actual cliffhanger from season 2 is not even mentioned! A good example of how little I am starting to care is the death of Eko. In another series I have seen a character played by Agbaje die and it was gutting and important. That was Oz. Here it just seemed like another way to keep things interesting and the writers could not even bother to hide their contempt for the audience because in the same episode two new people from the survivors are promoted from "extras" to "the in crowd" by joining the search party for him. I'm sure they didn't mean it but it was obvious and clumsy and unhelpfully sent a message to me. The performances continue to be the level of soap very in the moment and serviceable but with nobody willing or able to do a great deal with who they are playing mostly they are responding, which they mostly do well.
Overall then more of the same from the series that more than ever seems to be just trying to hang on to as many viewers as possible for as long as possible and apparently has any other aim as a distant second. I will of course stick with it because, like many others I want to see how it ends, but I really hope that season 3 part 2 can do something of more interest than this. It'll give die-hard fans what they crave but this mini-season will surely be a step towards the exit door for more viewers than just myself.