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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Lost (THE UK THREAD)

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21:27 / 10.08.05

Started tonight over here. Punctuated by some cutting edge Big Brother fun. I've read a little about this show on the other thread but have avoided reading beyond the first page for fear of inevitable spoilage.

Seems to have been praised everywhere it's been shown and C4 have spent a fortune buying it in and building the hype up with classy ads. I like it so far but am finding its pace slow. There's a fat guy in it who doesn't seem to be a comic turn nor a villain. That's unusual for tv, particularly US tv.

And wtf - a polar bear? And all the Jurassic Park stuff in the long grass? Could be good.

21:43 / 10.08.05

I've been enjoying this on Irish t.v for a while now but the the flashback formula,that your probably watching the first of now with Kate's episodes, irks sometimes.
Very muched liked the E4 promo too apart from the overindulgent lady dipping, yay portishead though.
In general it just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser.
Great Cast too.
I'm biased as regards Terry O'Quinn (it's all been Lance Henrikson & Terry O'Quinn worship for me since Millennium you see) but I'm loving the inscrutable Locke.
It's also been nuturing a predictable crush I have on Dominic Monaghan (Charlie).

21:56 / 10.08.05

That polar bear had done some pretty impressive swimming for its life, eh? Until it was shot.

As someone who tends to tire of glossy US drama fairly quickly, I'm finding this quite compelling - possibly because the cast and setting are more 'global' than usual. Barring some suspension-of-disbelief-shredding medical hokum ("nerves spilled out like angelhair pasta" my arse) from the predictably breast-beating but attractively Adam-Ant-in-Prince Charming-scarred lead character and the conspicuously well-groomed appearance of everyone, I'm liking Lost.

Given that details are supposed to be significant here, anyone had a close look at the tattoo our good doctor's sporting on his left shoulder? Whassitmean?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

22:02 / 10.08.05

I've not watched the second one yet (left it recording while I came to work) so I'll contribute properly tomorrow.

A lot of characters, though... not sure if my poor brane can take it!

22:11 / 10.08.05

The big cast works, though, in a Top 10 kinda way.

22:14 / 10.08.05

After looking over the other thread and seeing how much nonense I've written I wont be doing this same in this one, honest.

Noticed a little bit of a cut/edit on the 2nd part tonight not much probably due to the watershed. Mainly I'm just going to be seeing what theories you all come up with.

22:25 / 10.08.05

The fourth episode is the charm...

22:31 / 10.08.05

OOoo is that's the Locke episode isn't it? That is good.

22:37 / 10.08.05

Monsters! Jungles! Explosions!

22:42 / 10.08.05

Hmm. Should we attempt to institute some sort of spoiler rule here?

23:52 / 10.08.05

Especially as E4 is going to be a whole episode ahead.

03:49 / 11.08.05

I missed this tonight. Luckily (luck, because I by no means planned this silver lining) I have episodes 1-4 saved to my harddrive like a set of tv guides from the future. Shall watch ep1 again tonight to refresh my brain.

07:02 / 11.08.05

I binged on some bootleg DVDs of this a couple of months ago, and I'm so excited that it's finally come to the UK, especially as most of my U.S. buddies chose one show to watch regularly last year (and chose 'Desperate Housewives') so we couldn't talk about it.

It's interesting, isn't it? It's kind of hokey yet strangely addictive, at least that's how I found it. And who's your favorite desert island hottie? I found the doc a little annoying - plus I keep thinking of him as Charlie from 'Party of Five', and I always found his character annoying. Me, I prefer 'bad boy Sawyer' (and his chest).

lonely as a cloud...

07:34 / 11.08.05

*tt* Sawyer's a complete dick. A lot of the time, he plays the dick purely for the sake of it. You'll see; we're months ahead of you on Irish TV.
At first, I couldn't bring myself to give a damn about the characters, but the flashbacks flesh them out nicely, even though it leads to fairly same-y episode structure.

07:54 / 11.08.05

There's a fat guy in it who doesn't seem to be a comic turn nor a villain. That's unusual for tv, particularly US tv.

Xoc - looks like you were on the money, just took a bit of time for the comic guy stunt to reveal itself (fainting during op).

We had fun last night secong guessing everything: guy lights cigarette = 'he's a baddie'. Guy pulls spirit miniature from pocket 'sure to be used for sterilisation purposes' etc. Enjoyed it in a shiny trivial way, but agree with others that it was slow slow slow. And when are we gonna get over the racial stereotypes? (e.g.isolationist japanese) - though am interested to see how the Naveen Andrew's/ 'middle eastern' character develops. By way, what was going on with the japanese guy with the seafood? Was he 'testing' it on others for poison or being generous? (or are we supposed to be confused over this?).

Mysterious Transfer Student

08:30 / 11.08.05

the japanese guy with the seafood

He and his wife are Korean - and AFAIK played by actors of the same nationality, unusually for TV.

I didn't interpret the seafood gesture as anything other than generosity - but was slightly irritated by the unsubtle "stern Asian husband" business the couple went through in the first two episodes. As my girlfriend commented at the time, (paraphrase) "Oh yeah, we're meant to think he's a bastard, so it's a surprise when he turns out good later." Not dissimilar to the Iraqi ex-soldier and Viggo Mortensen-looking-guy subplots.

Actually liked this a lot, especially the freakier, more Fortean elements - the misplaced animals, the sixteen-year-old French SOS - which will probably keep me watching more than the characterisation. Although, agreed, Terry O'Quinn rules.

yawn - thing's buddy

08:33 / 11.08.05

Was good.

remind me of third volume of black orchid - gaiman/mckean.

colours did anyway.

everybody's archetypal - and proud to be.

It's all very 'fighting fantasy' at the mo.

bad hobbit!

08:47 / 11.08.05

I thought about pointing out that the 'Japanese' characters were actually Korean, but thought that might actually be a spoiler since it is an overt plot point that the western characters, and the western audience, make assumptions over the oriental/asian characters...

08:51 / 11.08.05

feeling guilty guilty guilty.......especially as I was wittering on about racial stereotypes.....

08:57 / 11.08.05

favourite line of the three episodes I saw last night (this is from the second, I'm just showing off here):
(oh and I'm paraphrasing here too)

Hurley: You see any fighting?
Sayid: I was in the Gulf.
Hurley: My buddy was there. Who were you with? Airborne? Marines?
Sayid: (slight pause) Republican Guard...
{camera pauses on Hurley's slighty shocked face}
Hurley: oh right...

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

09:30 / 11.08.05

He does look like Viggo Mortensen, doesn't he?

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

09:31 / 11.08.05

Billy Boyd could get very confused.

Especially with all that smack he's doing.

Mysterious Transfer Student

09:47 / 11.08.05

Err... good point, sleazenation. Hadn't really considered the possibility of that being a spoiler TBH. Trouble was, the actor who plays the husband, Daniel Dae Kim, has appeared in several series I've followed in the past (including Angel and, er, Crusade) and I happened to know he is Korean-American. So modern maenad needn't feel bad because I would probably have made the exact same mistake otherwise.

Coming as they did on the heels of my Viggo Mortensen comment, yawn and Money Shot's posts made me laugh. Should we make some more LOTR gags and then knock it on the head? I want 'Viggo' (apologies to the actor, he can't help his face) to say something like 'By midnight, these beaches will be swarming with horseshoe crabs!'

yawn - thing's buddy

10:17 / 11.08.05

just cos he's taking smack disnae mean he's a glaswegian, ma man!

wrong hobbit dude - s'no billy boyd.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

10:29 / 11.08.05

The best thing about this show, and because I feel it bears repeating:

"her nerves just fell out like angelhair pasta"

The writing. And the feeling "Oh God, we're starting shows with these subtlety-of-a-brick-character-defining moments now?"

I attribute the feeling of wanting to see the next episode right away purely to the fact that every episode seems to just stop rather than end. And it's very funny (POLAR BEAR! Rebellious undoing of buttons! Backgammon - OLDER THAN JESUS!)

Just crap enough to be good. And funny. I'm glad what I thought was going to be yr regular drama seems to have more in common with a b-movie concept. Albeit one with high production values.

Now I'm hoping in a future episode the group stumble across a rickety sign saying "WARNING! GIANT POLAR BEARS!"

10:50 / 11.08.05

No worries there canty. And yeah - it is a good bit of heritage-based casting, pity it doesn't hold for the show as a whole... but, yeah, that discussion is probably best left for the other thread...

By the by, there seems to be a Donnie Darko-like section to the Lost section of the C4 website check it out here...

A beautiful tunnel of ghosts

13:15 / 11.08.05

AFAIK, there's an involved internet trail which both complements and feeds back into the series, much like the previous online 'game' for AI.

14:00 / 11.08.05

OPB Suedey:

Just crap enough to be good.

I'm debating that at the moment; were the hokey bits (man gets sucked into jet engine which is still running despite plane having crashed, the clean cuts on each cheek of the doctor or across the 'black and white' backgammon man's eye rather than horrible gouges, the obvious dialogue and plot twists, the Polar Bears in the Pacific etc etc) 'so bad it's good' or just, well... bad?

17:20 / 11.08.05

And when are we gonna get over the racial stereotypes? (e.g.isolationist japanese) I know that really annoyed me , too. But I think sleaze is right - their characters do kind of play back into western ideas of eastern culture.

Loved the polar bear myself- how did that get there?

Oh well - off to check the cool C4 site now!

21:30 / 11.08.05

Once again I think the Lithers expect too much of Prime Time American dramas.
What else CAN they play to other than stereotypes? Escpecially in the pilot episode? The network have to "get it" and so do the viewers.
Personally I didn't see anything wrong with any of the above, these things are set up to be debunked (one would hope) once the viewers perconceptions are settled. Example: the girl being the escaped prisoner, despite the glaringly obvious choice of the Iraqi or the mouthy blonde (bloke).

Fritz K Driftwood

08:50 / 12.08.05

It is an American prime time drama, but Abrams likes to make you think that you know where things are going, and then twist things. Alias, his other show is like that, but doesn't have the sense of humor or surreal qualities that Lost does (IMHO). I think as episodic dramas go this is the most surrealistic series produced by American TV since Lynch's Twin Peaks. Nothing that you are seeing in the first couple of episodes is anything like what you think is going on. The roller coaster is just getting started, so hold on!

Daniel Dae Kim is so hot! Per his co-star, Yunjin Kim, he didn't speak a word of Korean before this show, so she has been helping him out.

God! I can't wait for the second season of this to start, especially with some of the cast additions that have been announced.

A beautiful tunnel of ghosts

10:02 / 12.08.05

Is this a thread discussing the series as shown so far on Channel 4? I'm not interested in discussing what happens in a few months' time, nor in Season 2, but in the 2 episodes that have aired on terrestrial UK TV. If not, let me know and I'll leave you to it.

If so:

Ganesh: is Fox's account of his OR experience the result of bad writing, or exaggeration on his part?

Do subtitles exist for the Kims' dialogue for episodes 1 and 2?

10:44 / 12.08.05

I've never seen subtitles for the first episodes dialogue I think you have to make your own mind up on what was being said (unless you speak Korean of course)

I think you should try and keep this thread so stuff that's already happened in the UK although whether or not you talk about the E4 episodes is a little more complicated.

Because talking about anything else would just spoil it, an example it Fritz's last sentence which I would class as a major spoiler.

One the most enjoyable things I found about the series was trying to work out what was going on and reading ideas as the episodes aired, but I'm quite anti spoiler anyway.

14:59 / 12.08.05

Kayfabe, we did get a subtitle or two, such as Korean man saying to his wife "We must rely only on each other" etc and demonstrating his possessiveness later too. Of course, our tv is a special one, the model with the Dr Duran Duran orgasmatron plug in as standard. On our tv you can also see the polar bears swimming for their lives to the South Pacific and exactly what the giant beast crashing through the jungle looks like.

Beautiful tunnel, I think sticking to discussion of what's been shown on terrestrial tv is the way to go. I hope I can stick to that myself and not make reference to the E4 shows I see that are one week ahead. What do the rest of you think? Is it possible to exclude E4 shows or is that unworkable?

Nice of everyone to post and let us know that they have already seen episodes we haven't and that those episodes are much better than the ones we've had access to so far. But please NO SPOILERS. Several threads already that I have to avoid on the Lith because of fear of The Foetid Spoilage and since this is MY THREAD, I will spank anyone very very hard who infringes!

15:39 / 12.08.05

Subtitles appear whenever the two Korean characters are speaking to each other alone.

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