Lost 5×08 — “LaFleur”: I hereby officially give up trying to figure out what the hell is going on with the Lost plot. The frequent time shifts are driving me absolutely nuts, and I don’t think episodes like “LaFleur” add much to the overall story arc. I mean, what did we really come away with from this hour of television? That Juliette and Sawyer shacked up together for three years? Big deal. I’m getting really exasperated with these slow-moving eps that are somehow supposed to be excused or forgiven by a single reveal at the end — in this case, it was Sawyer seeing some of the Oceanic 6 back on the island.
And speaking of the O6 coming back to the island, how is it that they’ve arrived in the 1970′s when the Dharma Initiative is still flourishing? Again, this is one of those plot points that I’m better off not thinking about since it’s never going to make sense to me anyway.
Sigh. I miss the early eps of Lost, where it was all about trekking through the jungle, hacking down paw paw trees to make shelter, and getting to know the other survivors. That was cool, and there was plenty of conflict in that scenario. The time shift stuff is boring… it doesn’t blow my mind, it’s just… enough already!
24 7×11-7×12 — “6:00pm-7:00pm” and “7:00pm-8:00pm”: I have actually been enjoying this season of 24 more than I expected to. Season 6 was a big ol’ dud as far as I’m concerned, and I started tiring of the series back then. But this year has been entertaining. They’ve gotten rid of CTU, moved the action to Washington, D.C., and retained some of the best characters, including Bill Buchanan, Chloe O’Brien, and Tony Almeida. Yes, it was a stretch to have Tony come back from the dead, but how much “reality” are we supposed to expect from a show like this?
I’ve even warmed to a few of the new characters already, including Agent Walker, who I think is great. When she was being chased by Dubaku’s son, I was actually holding my breath wondering if she would make it out alive. After all, 24 is infamous for killing off major characters, so survival is never certain (except for Jack, of course) unlike with other shows. Agent Moss is good too, which is saying something since he’s such a stick-in-the-mud by-the-book kind of guy.
Ok, so we had terrorists storming the White House in these episodes and taking the president hostage. Is that the least bit believable? Hell, no! But again, that’s not the point of 24. The episodes have been entertaining and action-packed, which is what I tune in for.
The only thing I don’t like about the season is the constant debate about torture. Ugh, give it a rest, please!