Lost, Season Trois

Wifezilla and I watched the first disc of Lost, Season Three this past weekend (in glorious full screen high def, no less). I loved Season One of the show, mainly because I really like survivalist stories, especially stranded island ones. I guess that was the appeal of Gilligan's Island, tuning in to see what coconut/bamboo invention they had come up with to wash their clothes, blow dry their hair, and perform open-heart surgery.

My only complaint with Season One is the writers teased me with their mechanical monster and then dropped it like a nuclear-heated potato. They had that thing eating people left and right for the first few episodes. Which was great because there's nothing better than a rampaging monster on a human-filled, deserted island. Sure, you never actually got to see it necessarily, only hear it grind and puff and move like a blur. But you knew the revelation was coming, and I tuned in specifically to see this steam-powered horror, hoping beyond hope to see some poor slob dangling helplessly from its maw.

But then I guess the show got picked up to finish the season, the writers had no idea how to actually explain this machine, and it quickly faded into distant memory. The entire show kneads its other story lines similarly, piquing viewer interest then disposing the plot line without wrapping it up in a satisfying way. At least not satisfying to me.

I mean, is it really fair to explain the man-eating mechanical monster in Season Four or Five of the series? The writers will says yes to rationalize breathing life into their show, but I personally don't find any of the characters and their flash-back vignettes interesting enough to forgo the logical continuation of story events begun on the island.

I guess that's why I found Lost, Season Two so disappointing. Rather than explaining plot lines from the first season, the show introduced new ones. Yes, some of those new story lines were finished within Season Two, and the show definitely offered up some great surprises (Walt, you treacherous bastard!) But mostly I felt jerked around by the show, like the writers hadn't anticipated the show's success and were scrabbling to set up plot threads that could sustain season upon season of viewership.

The first four episodes of Lost, Season Three haven't wrapped up anything from Season One. Nevertheless, I am drawn into it, even though I've forgotten Season Two events and am at times mystified by the islanders' behavior. Sawyer and Kate are especially interesting so far, as they share confinement and plot to escape. Jack seems to have only two speeds: rage and cry. Kate looks knuckle-chewingly fetching in the sundress the Others procured for her and John is as bald and nutty as ever. I am not at all pleased that Wifezilla swoons over Sawyer like some doe-eyed urban cougar, but her devotion for that white trash, Kid Rock wanna-be is as rock solid as it is unrequited.

All in all, it's shaping up to be an improvement over last season, even if it invents more questions then it answers.