Monday 15 August 2016

MOVIE MONDAY - LOST

“No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” – John Donne

We have started to watch the 2004 TV series “Lost” which is a six-season American show that was quite popular when it was first transmitted and it has also had some re-runs. It was created by J.J. Abrams, writer, director and producer of many successful TV series and movies including “Alias”, “Star Wars III”, “Star Trek” (2009, 2013) and “Fringe”. “Lost” stars Naveen Andrews, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Terry O’Quinn, Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim. It won a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama, in 2006, a well as various Emmy awards for best actor and supporting actor.


I had heard a lot about this show but had not had a chance to watch it when it was airing on TV. As I got my hands on a complete set of DVDs lately, we decided to start watching it and see what all the hype was about. I must say, it does make a difference to have all of the DVDs on hand and make the decision when to watch and how long to watch for, without any interruptions by advertisements of commercial TV.


We’ve watched all of the first two seasons and have just begun watching the third season of the show. Up until now, things have been mostly OK and we have been kept interested enough to keep on watching it. However, there have been some hints of “supernatural” activity in the series, which as the show progresses seem to be becoming more frequent. Not that this is a necessarily bad thing, but after discussing it, we felt that there was enough material and interesting characters in the show to not have that supernatural element creeping in to make it more “sensational” or to have such a “deus-ex-machina” solution to resolve the plot.


The plot device is not novel: After a trans-Pacific plane crashes on a desert island some groups of survivors attempt to come to terms with their predicament and think about not only how they can effect their long-term survival, but also how they can get rescued and go back to civilisation. What makes the show interesting is the good mix of the various characters, their hefty baggage (and I’m not referring to the ones they rescued form the plane wreck), their interactions and the many mysteries that the island hides. What they initially thought was a “desert” island clearly is not (shades of “Robinson Crusoe”…) and their battle for survival is not simply one with natural hazards but also the hazards of initially unseen enemies who soon enough show their face.


The plot is expanded by frequent flashbacks that throw light into the background of each character and which help explain why each characters reacts to and interacts with others in the way that they do. The flashback can be quite annoying as a plot device, especially if overused or if used for its own sake. In “Lost”, however, we found it a useful plot adjunct and not intrusive at all.


Acting and production levels are quite high, which contribute greatly to the watchability of the show. The main characters are played to perfection by well-selected group of professionals: Naveen Andrew plays Sayid, a former Iraqi soldier; Matthew Fox a successful neurosurgeon, Jack Shephard; Jorge Garcia plays Hugo ‘Hurley’ Reyes an obese recent lottery winner; Josh Holloway is James ‘Sawyer’ Ford a con artist; Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim a Korean couple; Evangeline Lilly is Kate Austen, an escaped criminal; Terry O’Quinn plays John Locke an ‘ordinary’ man who seems to have all sorts of unlikely qualities and skills under pressure; Emilie de Ravin is Claire Littleton who is heavily pregnant; and Dominic Monaghan who plays Charlie Pace, a former rock band member with a heroin addiction…


We’ll keep on watching this as long as it maintains our interest and if we survive till the end of the series, I’ll give an update here.

1 comment:

  1. I absolutely loved this show, but as it neared the end it was almost as if the writers didn't know what to write about anymore and it just falls apart. The season finale was such a disappointment to many.

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