I think that Lost has lost it’s focus in Season 3. In the first two seasons the writers concentrated on building these wonderful, complicated characters with strange back stories, own agendas, motives and desires. The show was all about them, their relationships and the choices they were forced to make in extreme conditions.
The castaways stranded on the mysterious island did not really need some mysterious enemies hiding in the depths of the jungle to tell a good story. Some of the most memorable episodes from the past seasons were the ones in which we saw the characters butt heads on important issues, struggle with moral quandaries and try to overcome their own flaws, fears and shortcomings.
Every time they were facing some new crisis, you could look forward to great drama, group dynamics, conflicts of interests. This was a winning formula – it had all the parts that make for a great TV show.
But this season something happened. They broke up the group, and thus changed the whole group dynamic. They introduced a whole cast of new characters who do not seem to have personalities, or back stories but an overabundance of secrets that we the viewers are not privy to. In Season 3 the show made a leap from character driven drama, to a plot device driven mind fuck.
The characters are no longer in control of what is happening to them. They became pawns in a mysterious game of the faceless, personality deficient “Others”. This is a huge change. When the castaways betrayed their friends, double crossed each other and did crazy things we were able to empathize with them. We understood their motives, even if we didn’t agree with their actions. But we can’t really empathize with the “Others” because their personalities are paper thin. They are some mysterious wraiths – ghostly beings that lurk in the shadows only to torment the castaways. We don’t know what do they do. We do not know who they are. We do not know what motivates them.
So what that Ben has cancer? Why should I care? Who is Ben? If I knew more about him, maybe I would care a little bit about his condition. Maybe I would understand why he does the things he does.
But we do not get any insight into the lives of “Others” beyond what the captives see and hear. Their motives remain ambiguous, and strange. Characters that we do really care about (Kate, Jack and Sawyer) are suspended in a strange, eventless limbo. They are powerless and completely at the mercy of their captors.
The rest of castaways, deprived of their leaders, movers and shakers seems lost, and confused. They are also powerless to do anything about their current situation. They don’t know how to rescue their friends. They don’t even know where to look. They are grasping at straws right now without a clear aim or goal.
The whole season is one long waiting session. We wait for the “Others” to make a move, but they are taking their sweet time. They became the primary movers and shakers of the Lost universe. What other characters do is relatively meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Everything seems like a filler.
Even the deaths are less dramatic in Season 3. When Anna Maria and Libby got shot in S2 I actually jumped and yelled “Holly Shit!”. When Ecko died last week, the only thing I could say was “Why?” Why did he die? What was the purpose of his death? Where was the drama? Where was the suspense? Where was the surprise? This was a completely pointless wasteful death.
The sense of drama and suspense is gone, replaced by impatient wait for something – anything – meaningful to happen. And nothing ever does. Each week we go through the motions, and we are left with more questions than answers. There are no more interesting conflicts between characters – it’s now our people vs. the “Others”. It’s like watching Don Quixote fight with windmills…
Does this mean that the show jumped the shark? Possibly not. They may still be able to dig themselves out of this predicament. All they have to do is to switch gears again, and give us the character driven drama we grew to know and love. This can be accomplished in many ways.
For example, I think a Ben flashback episode would really let us understand his character better. What happened between him and Juliet? Why is he such a control freak? Was he different before he found out about the tumor? Perhaps we could see glimpses of his life before he joined Dharma (or whatever he did to get on the island)?
Same with Juliet – if we knew both sides of this conflict it would really add some much needed juiciness to the whole mind fuck they are doing on Jack… Let these two characters drive the plot, an not the other way around.
Second, they need to empower the castaways – give them a clear goal, and a plan they could carry out. Give them something meaningful to do. And I believe that this may still happen. As we stand right now, Jack has been given a chance to shake things up.
Locke and others also may have found something significant. They might be able to find another hatch that may help them to track down and contact the “Others”, or at least provide a distraction from the painful Jack, Kate and Sawyer limbo…
[tags]lost, character driven, plot driven, lost focus, jump the shark[/tags]