"Lost" on ABC

[helen]

Tough choice for tonight

If I had analog cable or spent the $10/month for DVR this post would not be here.

Do I watch "Lost" on ABC or "Hawaii" on NBC? Both are on at 7pm tonight.

[Linkmeister]

Re: "Lost" on ABC

Well, that was a pretty gripping start to a show's season. I'll tune in next week, conflict with The News Hour or no.

[mel]

Re: "Lost" on ABC

Well, I'll be reusing my time shift collection of videotapes to record Hawaii while I watch Lost in real time on my analog cable.

Lost is pretty good. I'm hoping the "monster" will turn out to be something totally unexpected, but for tonight as the episode unraveled, it kind of reminded me of the movie Predator where an "invisible" menace is taking out the people. While the premise of the show is very good, I wonder if it can sustain itself over the course of a 22 episode run. This has the potential to be a good show if the each episode built upon the previous one and the series had a story arc with a beginning, middle and end... kind of like Babylon 5 did in its 5 year story.

It will be a shame if either Hawaii or Lost loses out in the long run Neilsen race. The programs seem to be targeted to a similar audience.... males 18 - 49 perhaps, though I think Lost has a better potential to pull in more females than its competition on NBC.

Time will tell when one or the other show is either pre-empted or moved during the November sweeps.

[Linkmeister]

Re: "Lost" on ABC

My mom postulates that the dog we saw a couple of times is mistaken for the polar bear mentioned in the reviews. I don't buy that, but that dog has a part to play, that's for sure. I recognize foreshadowing when I see it.

[scrivener]

Re: "Lost" on ABC

Link: All I will say is, "Watch the second episode."

Entertainment Weekly, in its fall tv preview issue, named Lost the best new drama. That's encouraging news, I think.

[Quark]

Lost

Let's get your impressions of ABC's new show called Lost. I like the fact that it's a show shot in Hawaii but not necessarily bound by being a Hawaii-based show. I understand there will be more character development but they're already on the right track by casting Koreans as Koreans who actually speak Korean. This is really a multicultural set. And what about that mysterious monster.

[helen]

Re: Lost

I was watching Hawaii on NBC last night but during the commerical breaks I would sneak a peak at ABC and two things stuck me as weird.

1) The plane was already on the ground with passangers around the crashed plane. One poor soul walked in front of an engine and was sucked in and caused the engine to explode. Now if the intake was powerful enough to suck in 150-180 pound person wouldn't it be sucking in sand and other loose things?

2) I take it the so called mystery creature was responsible for knocking down the trees that the people saw. If that was so. This creature must be the size of an elephant or larger. I don't think creatures the size of lions or tigers could do that to trees.

[pzarquon]

Re: "Lost" on ABC

As thrilling and exciting as the plane crash was (there's your $10 million right there, baby!), I hope they don't dwell on it too much after the pilot. Because it looked great, but it made no sense.

Trouble at 40,000 feet, and a crash on land, and there were survivors? Or pieces any larger than a fist, for that matter? (Look at what's left after any real crash, even into water.) If they got low enough to level off before hitting earth, maybe, but the fuselage broke into three parts in mid air. That spinning engine was the best part... just how was it still spinning, with no intact wing fuel tank or any damage that would affect its operation? Hell, you can't even bump a hard drive the wrong way without the moving parts going funny.

Of course, thanks to the sci-fi hintings behind the show, they need only invoke a Bermuda Triangle-esque force ("Fantastic Journey," anyone?) and any leaps in logic can be explained away.

Nitpicking aside, it was a good ride. They're not forcing or rushing the character development, and you want to know more about just about everyone. (Here's hoping the snooty girlfriend gets eaten next.) How they'll balance "basic human drama" and "horror/monster thriller" will be interesting.

The "mysterious force" is definitely large, and probably has feet -- the closed captioning of the episode described the noises as "stomps." Jurrasic Park? But one of the characters tosses off the line, "There was something almost familiar about that noise..." Maybe the family dog changes into a Godzilla-like monster after dark?

I've read theories ranging from time travel (thus dinosaurs) to inexplicable miniturization. Sadly, it's in the show's best interest to keep everyone guessing for months, seasons... perhaps the whole run!

Oh! And if you were watching KITV's newscast later that night, there was a tiny plot spoiler of sorts:

They interviewed one of the actors, who was visiting the indoor soundstage on Nimitz Highway for the first time, and he said something like: "I've never been here before. My character is one of the holdouts who decides to stay on the beach when everyone else moves inland." Hmm!

[helen]

Re: "Lost" on ABC

Land of the Giants? Nah.

I offer the following:

1) They are on a different planet.
2) They are on Earth either in the past or the future.
3) They are on an alternate Earth.

Heaven forbid if they landed on some sort of sercet goverment testing lab or some mad scientist bent on ruling the world.

[helen]

Re: "Lost" on ABC

Apparently, ABC is rebroadcasting the pilot episode of "Lost" several times, though, so if you miss it, you'll be able to catch it later. Next Wednesday, Sept. 29, and Saturday, Oct. 2 as well...

Wait. If it's a two-part pilot, those second dates might not be a repeat. Hmm.

According to the Advertisers TV Guide, the Wednesday epsiode is part 2 while Saturday's is the entire 2 hour pilot.

Which is good news to me since I can watch Hawaii on Wednesday and watch the rebroadcast of the pilot for the first time.

Now it would be nice if ABC did this on Saturday since NBC tends to rebroadcast Law & Order on Saturdays.

[mel]

Re: "Lost" on ABC

Saturday is a throwaway day for most of the networks. That is why you get movies, reruns of previous episodes and goofy specials all dumped on Saturday. The logic is that not as many people are home on Saturday nights watching TV. So why would the network want to waste a first run episode of anything on Saturday, unless you have a built in audience on Saturday for something like America's Most Wanted and Cops which are Saturday night fixtures on Fox TV.

[Erika Engle]

Re: "Lost" on ABC

Saturday is a throwaway day for most of the networks. That is why you get movies, reruns of previous episodes and goofy specials all dumped on Saturday. The logic is that not as many people are home on Saturday nights watching TV. So why would the network want to waste a first run episode of anything on Saturday, unless you have a built in audience on Saturday for something like America's Most Wanted and Cops which are Saturday night fixtures on Fox TV.

That's EXACTLY why there's HBO Boxing (even though this weekend we had to suffer, seeing BOTH Oscar De La Hoya AND Roy Jones Jr. unable to get up off the canvas); HBO original programming and choices like The Food Network, HGTV, TLC, etc.

[cyb]

Re: "Lost" on ABC

Land of the Giants? Nah.

I offer the following:

1) They are on a different planet.
2) They are on Earth either in the past or the future.
3) They are on an alternate Earth.

Heaven forbid if they landed on some sort of sercet goverment testing lab or some mad scientist bent on ruling the world.

Hi

In fact, JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof told that the survivors are on earth, and there are no time or space distorsions try again

A lot of theories have been raised, but nobody knows the truth yet

[Linkmeister]

Re: "Lost" on ABC

I've been around telecomm for a long time, and I never heard that bit about the number of iterations telling you how long something had been transmitted. I wonder where they dug that up?

I also wonder how many episodes it'll take before there's no further need for flashbacks to the plane. We haven't learned much (on air) about the Koreans yet, or about Herbie (Hermie?) or the jingoist nutcase who stole the gun.

[pzarquon]

Re: "Lost" on ABC

Well, that second half sealed the deal. This show's a winner for me.

A couple of good "reveals" (the Iraqi's past, the relationship between the prissy girl and sarcastic guy, who was wearing the handcuffs...), tantalizingly incomplete character development for a handful of the castaways ("Want to hear a secret?"), and neat, new pieces added to the big puzzle.

The Korean couple are intriguing. I thought the wife's tiny act of rebellion was well done. I'm glad also we've seen early resistance to the doctor's implied leadership, which is an absolute given in a random, closed group like that. I like, also, the unlikely allliances... like the big kid and the Iraqi.

I'm looking forward to next week!

Link, the odd counting broadcast has at least some inspiration in reality. Google around for "counting stations" or "number stations," and you'll fall into a dizzy world of conspiracy theories and genuinely eerie actual mysteries. There are, indeed, inexplicable broadcasts of mechanized voices reading off numbers, linked by most to some kind of old spy network, all over the world.