The problem is that the story is stuck in nothing mode. Season one featured the crash and getting to know the characters and orienting the general story. That was awesome because it felt like it was going somewhere all the time.

This season since we are treated to overkill of the backstories that as of right now are largely meaningless because nothing of note is really going on.

Great we got evil Charlie or new pregnant lady. Not all that exciting. Whole characters have all but disappeared from the show. That's kind of annoying.

ABC would certainly make many showing "Lost" every week. The truth is, however, that they make more money by stretching the length of the show across the entire television season. People still tune into re-runs.

It's possible that networks could, one day, look at making a "new schedule" based off the success of shows with compressed schedules like "24" or "The Shield", but I highly doubt it will come any time soon. Fox has been on the forefront here, with it's year-round programming. For the most part it hasn't worked out all that well, though that could be due to the quality of the programming.

Has anyone seen the ratings for this week? Not that it would make a difference, I am just curious to see how that time slot worked out network wise, because at 9PM this past Wednesday Night, the following hit shows were on:

Fox- American Idol
NBC- Law and Order
ABC- Lost

To me, the biggest difference between Season 1 and Season 2 have been the back stories. In the first season, almost every back story was something new. It was exciting to see what each character did or was like prior to the crash. Even when the back story was about someone we already knew something about, like Jack, it usually revealed something new about his character or past.

This season, other than a few here and there, like Kate (or the new people) or Claire, the back stories have been pretty much more of the same. Sawyer is a sleazy con artist. Charlie's life was ruined by heroin. Sun and Jin had marital problems. Blah blah blah. They are not all that interesting because they give us no real new insight to the characters.

As far as "on island stuff," I think this season has been equally exciting/interesting.

Ana Lulu is another reason this season isn't as strong.

The show still makes me happy and I enjoy it.

I still like it but would prefer they get to a little more of the meat of it.

Thanks for that. :)

i love the "amateur sketch", that put it over the top for me.

I like the flute.

With that detailed eyewitness description and picture, there is no doubt in my mind that it is a leprechaun, although the lady with the "crackhead theory" might be onto something.

But then I think, if I was a leprechaun, where would I go/be? And rural Alabama is obviously the answer, so I tend to think its true.

:D

I saw somewhere it was estimated at 16 million which is another bad night (possibly their worst). I'm guessing they've gone up against the juggernaught American Idol before, so that's probably not an excuse.

I may have to take back what I said about the execs not taking notice.

Did anyone else see how, when Jack steps out of the shower, Locke takes a brief peak 'downstairs' before taking his eyes back up? Someone with Tivo check and see if I am right.

I noticed it too. Who knows if it means anything though. The actor may have just been wearing some funny boxers or something.

I've been thinking about this, and I think the show has fallen into a weird place. Most TV shows can be classified as either plot shows, or character shows. All shows contain some element of both, but there is generally a single focus. Shows like CSI and Law and Order are almost completely plot driven with occasional looks into the characters when I can set up a future plot. Shows like Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives are clearly character shows. Grey might take place in a hospital, but the medical stories are really backgrounds for character interaction.

Lost, while looking like a plot show, is really a character show. There are big plot elements like the crash and the mystery of the island, but really the show focuses on the characters themselves, who they were before the crash, and who they are now.

The problem is that now all of the characters have been introduced and they really aren't developing on the island. Since they aren't growing and developing, the show has gotten a bit stagnant.

Either the characters need to start interacting more and developing to keep the character show going, or they need to shift into plot mode, leave the characters as they are, and start discovering the mysteries of the island.

That's why I actually like the "dark Charlie" thread in the one episode. It at lesat developed his character in a new, and potentially interesting way. I agree they need more of this and at least some level of "reveal" each episode.

Well said, bravo.

This may have been one of the only bits of on-island development we've seen. Personalities have been revealed through flashbacks, but nobody has really changed. I think there is some potential for development, but oddly it is with the less major characters. Charlie, Jin, and Eko (maybe Sayid) are the only ones showing any internal conflict or real personality. Everyone else is pretty set in their character and their reactions to different situations are completely obvious to anyone watching. Everyone else is already a caricature of themselves.

Maybe John Madden could crash land on the island.

indeed. he broke it down rather well.

also, as i posted a long time ago, the problem is that in conventional shows you have this cycle of creating new subplots/sidestories, developing them and right as they are about to get wrapped up you introduce new twists/subplots/sidestories. but the important thing is to resolve the subplots. what Lost does is keep adding and adding to the mix and the result is there is no closure to anything. there is no temporary satisfaction from seeing one storyline close and anticipation of the next. it's just this pot that is having all these ingredients thrown in and now the pot is starting to boil over. just a relentless series of new storylines and neverending subplots. while the writers might think they'll have this grand finale where everything is answerred - i really don't think they have that long. they have to start "giving us something". seriously, what's exactly going on in the hatch? they've spent so much capital investing in this storyline and now that we're in it there's nothing going on. you mean to tell me it's only purpose is for the privileged few to have a nice hot shower (since they rarely show anyone else ever being in the hatch)? resolve some fucking storylines man!

I always wonder what's up with the other people. They just let the two honchos hang at this hatch and everyone else is like meh while they shower and shave?

The plot thing is annoying. You get all excited about new developments and then poof, no mention of them.

And why on earth do we need another pregnancy/baby. Didn't we already cover that?

I hope next week equals the previews.

That will be kind of hard to do. He only travels in buses. :)

He hates to fly.

I'll be very surprised if this pregnancy goes to term. I'm guessing that the only reason for it is to drive the relationship between Sun and Jin. The pregnancy helped get them closer together, we'll see what the miscariage does.

That's what I said about Season 1's ending. The problem with this show is that it's like a hot stripper in a dark strip club. It teases you and keeps on teases you throughout the night, hoping to take your dollar bills off you. In the morning when the doors open and light comes in, you see that the stripper isn't so hot in the light and you see all of the flaws in her body.

Anyhow, like you said, the freakin bunker is a dangling plotline. All we get is a tease here and there. We thought we'd find out something about it when Mike got a message from Walt over the computer. We think we'll find out something next week when those walls come down. The previews tease us, and then the episode is a let-down.

As I said before, the writers are either lazy, too stupid to come up with something new, or some combination of the two.

I believe the writers have said that they are making all this stuff up as they go along, so they don't really have an ending in mind.

I do agree that wrapping up some sub-plots would be nice. There are too many currently to sustain. Eventually people are going to forget about some of them and then not care when they come back. They had a good thing going with Walt and his "powers", but with no screen time for Walt or his dad, I've pretty much lost interest in both of them.

You are on fire lately. Good work.


Ok, how about a huge cyclone grabs the bus, travels across the ocean and deposits Madden on the beach where he shares all the turduckens in his bus and gains favor with the island and teaches them football.

I'm guessing the Sun pregnancy will be another half-hearted subplot that won't be resolved that is initially introduced as another mystery of the island - ie, something strange is going on on this island that allowed them to conceive when they couldn't in a 'normal' place.

I'm in agreement with several already who have mentioned it's just getting frustrating not having ANYTHING wrapped up. EVER.

I keep saying i'm done with this show, but it's like crack and I keep coming back. I need someone to stage an intervention. Please. This show is not doing me any good, it just makes me irritable and unhappy, yet I can't quit it. HELP ME!

You know that as soon as you give it up, all kinds of good stuff will happen and you won't have been part of it. I keep believing that this show will eventually have a great pay-off, so I'm sticking with it until the end.

I just hope this show doesn't go the route of John Doe and end before the mysteries are revealed.

I hope the ratings continue to flounder so perhaps ABC will get their shit together for season 3. We never resolve anything, we keep introducing boring characters, and we keep wasting time on flashbacks that basically reveal nothing.

Yeah, I have about 8 billion small questions about their day-to-day operations:

1. Where do the big tarps keep coming from? They had one to give to Ana Lucia who joined them about a month after they'd already been there.

2. Is anyone living at the caves anymore? I mean, really? I know for a fact Sun and Jin were living up there at one point, and now they clearly seem to be down on the beach at all times. Why did they give up the caves? (Remember, it had the fresh, running water?)

3. Why isn't anyone else living in the Hatch? There is clearly room for a ton of people to at least sleep on the floor. Between the bedroom area and the very large pantry that should now be almost entirely empty, you have room to securely sleep many people. At the very least I feel the chick with the infant should be living down there.

4. Do people get to shower every once in a while? It would at least seem fair if people got a bathroom day once every 7-10 days or something for a nice hot shower, shave, etc.

5. Why did they simply stop exploring the inside of the hatch? Remember the weird magnetic room? Or the time Sayid and Jack were looking around in the basement area? What about the blast doors that Micahel pointed out? Why isn't anyone looking into this stuff?

6. Why don't they move into the abondoned hatch that Kate and company found? You form a police force, have people on guard at all times, and you easily have room to house every single person in there securely.

I could go on and on.

So what was that a picture of on the door?

I liked tonights episode

yep, its a great episode. Missed AI because of it.

"Good" episode. I cannot bless this with a great (I reserve that for episodes 1 and 3 of season 2 alone).

And as always, we have more questions than answers at the end of the day.


***mild spoiler regarding next week******

I'm not looking forward to another Hurely backstory. He tends to make for arguably the worst episodes.



.

http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/diary/105169.html

Your thoughts?

Of course we have more questions than answers. That's how a show like this works. Open one door and it leads to two (or more) others. It's to be expected. Once we have all the answers... show's over folks.

Agreed on Hurley. He's an excellent supporting character. I love him, but he does not shine when he's in the spotlight.

Rose and her husband will have a backstory in May

Rose will have something in common with Locke.

And Michael comes back in May.

Well, ratings were down again last week (a new all-time low in viewership). It'll be interesting to see if that holds for the next few weeks. ABC is strangling itself.

Jb, you just joined my ignore list...no offense, but I don't want to see spoilers. I'd rather you gave me a spoiler alert or something.

Quick Picture of the door from tonight

According to IMDB it was the 9th highest rated show last week. I don't think ABC is all that nervous at the moment.

http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2006-03-29/

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research: 1. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 19.2/28; 2. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 15.9/24; 3. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 13.5/20; 4. CSI: Miami, CBS, 13.0/21; 5. 60 Minutes, CBS, 110./17; 6. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 10.5/15; 7. Deal or No Deal (Monday), NBC, 9.8/15; 7. The Unit, CBS, 9.8/14; 9. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 9.7/16; 9. Lost, ABC, 9.7/14; 9. The New Adventures of Old Christine, CBS, 9.7/14.

Agreed.

What the hell were you thinking, JB?

Red X for me here at the barracks. I'll get my first glimpse of it tomorrow at home I think. Thanks though!

Yes, but the salespeople don't have a great story to tell prospective advertisters when their ratings are a perfect downward slope. It's going to start hitting them in the wallet at ABC.

Others have post spoilers here too before.

A lot of us live on the west coast. and tonights episode has not air yet.


I am not going to post any spoilers in the future here anymore.

Sorry about that.

Those who live on the west coast are generally wise enough to wait until after they see the show to read the current week's postings.

Sayid was really great in his limited role tonight. Nice ending.

I really liked this episode....got my juices flowin more than previous weeks.

No worries, JB. It happens.

As for the West Coast thing, well, BrianD has the right of it. I haven't stepped foot into the "24" thread all week because I've yet to see this week's episode (it's TiVO'd).

God dammit.

Interesting.