Lockdown, Dave, The New Television
Technically the last two episodes were well done, each with its own complete story and a “stay tuned” cliffhanger of the week. Clinically I preferred Dave to Lockdown. Here’s why:
I didn’t have to refer to the internet to understand what happened.
Perhaps if I had an HDTV at home, or a massively large screen I could have seen what was on the map that Locke saw in that episode, but on my craptacular 20″ monitor I couldn’t see a damn thing.
Not that it matters since the map doesn’t reveal anything. Putting something in for the fanatics is one thing — showing Jack shaving after viewer complaints about beards — but a big glowing map with a question mark for a plot point is a stretch. A picture of Goatse Man might as well have appeared on that blast door.
In the next episode Happy Balloon Man tells Locke it’s all a joke, and the numbers, computer, and countdown mean nothing. If the writers intend those items as red herrings then fine, as my friend Ed says when we’re carpooling, “No doubling back.” The writers better take this one path and keep going. If the hatch is a red herring we’d better not see another whopper until next season.
The island mystery is the worst part about Lost because we’re never give clues of the value of anything revealed. Don’t tell me this is the New Television, where ever episode is footnoted by the creator’s podcast. If something doesn’t belong in the story it shouldn’t be there; if it does, but isn’t then it’s bad storytelling. When I’m reading a book I don’t expect the novelist to lean over and tell me what he meant by a paragraph if it doesn’t make sense.
Is it really that important to know what was on that map, or are Lost’s storytellers making themselves more important than the story?
