Access all your favorite blogs from myajc! Home > Channel Serf > Archives > 2007 > February > 06
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Found: “Lost”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I don’t like to brag or act all superior to the rest of the world (aka “the Others”). But I’ve seen Wednesday night’s brand new, finally-back-from-its-three-month-break episode of “Lost.”
(Oops, guess I DO like bragging and acting all superior. So sorry. But … not really.)
First things first: Starting this week, “Lost” airs at 10 p.m. not 9 p.m. That’s good news for anyone who caught Part 1 of James Van Der Beek’s tour-de-farce performance on CBS’s “Criminal Minds” on Super Bowl Sunday, since the conclusion airs Wednesday at 9 p.m. (And if you missed it, I can catch you up lickety-split: The onetime brooding Dawson’s Creek-er is all grown up now and just another “typical” Southern nutjob/serial murderer living in a barn smack in a middle of an Atlanta cornfield (?). It comes complete with wall-to-wall high-tech computer equipment and shackels he used to imprison a nubile young woman in Part 1 before settin’ a pack o’ dogs on her. Thanks, CBS. That little image boost totally makes up for the NFL not awarding us any more Super Bowls).
Which brings us to “Lost,” which — for all the complaining that’s gone on about its looong hiaitus, many unanswered questions and disturbing lack of “American Idol” references — is Shakespearean by comparison. With a little “Sophie’s Choice” thrown into the mix, courtesy of a somewhat heartbreaking scene near the end that makes you wonder if or when a couple of key characters ever might see each other again.
Meanwhile, the producers and ABC seem to have taken fairly seriously complaints that the show had drifted off-course in its first six episodes last fall. I’m not going to lie to you: Save for the de rigeur flashbacks (this time to Juliet’s earlier life in Miami) the entire episode still takes place on The Others’ secret offshoot island. But enough happens to make you think that they’re trying to bring that interlude and its attendant mysteries to at least something resembling a semi-conclusion in the not-too-distant future. Which is pretty much the most you can hope for from “Lost.”
There’s also a couple of scenes that suggest you cross the women of “Lost” at your own peril. In particular, if Jack Bauer would only adopt the shotgun-wielding Kate’s (Evangeline Lilly) determined approach to, uh, “coaxing” vital information out of tough guys, “24” would be able to wrap things up in about two hours each season. There’s also one long shot of gritty survivors paddling away in a boat that had me alternately sighing sadly and wondering where Jeff Probst was with his stupid immunity idol.
Can “Lost” survive its three-month absence? Or will viewers decide to vote it off the ratings island? We’ll know sometime on Thursday morning. Unless, that is, we wander too close to James Van Der Beek’s creepy cornfield …
