(no subject)
The Leftovers 3.4
Lindelof fairly closely repeats the scene where young John Locke fails Richard's enigmatic objects test - the one where you knew that an explanation doing justice to how it made you feel could never happen but hoped it somehow might, and where the explanation finally given is just the lamest time travel bullshit - but replaces it with the Trolley Problem. If that's not this whole show in a nutshell nothing is.
It gets where the scenes with Kevin and Evie feel like Kevin's Lindelof. "What if Evie's alive and in Melbourne! That would be so fucking cool!" And the Australian guy who hits him is HBO when it hears that pitched, while the ex-wife who makes him look at the picture is Perrotta making him think about whether that could possibly be explained both convincingly and undisappointingly.
Maybe latterday Lindelof's so interested in religious stories because he thinks only a miracle could have tied up Lost to anyone's satisfaction. That we demanded that he be God and were furious when he wasn't.
It's certainly true that by *some* point - halfway through season 4, say - the show couldn't have been salvaged. But it's not at all a law of multiple-twist narratives that explanations invariably leave people disappointed. Perhaps he thinks it's a law of the sort of narrative he was being asked to produce, though - by Abrams, by ABC, but then by the audience: more hatches, more mysteries, more moments of sublime disorientation, more hints that unknown forces were at work behind the scenes but nevertheless might become known, could be met and made to talk, would be. As though he'd been asked to adapt The Castle but go on to provide a conclusion where the Castle was entered and mapped and explained.
Re. which, part of me thinks, fair enough. Though if you realize you're George Bush on 9/11 maybe quit being President. Maybe don't run for reelection, anyway. Lindelof kept cashing literal checks, regardless of what sort he was writing.
Part of me thinks, though: What did you feel watching Twin Peaks two nights ago, Damon? Did the writer of one candle feel afraid?
His exact equivalent of that episode (remember, his SOUL springs from Twin Peaks, esp. season 2) was the one where Jacob and the Monster are shipwrecked on the island and the show suddenly had the exact look and feeling of one of those Star Trek episodes where way too much time is spent on a planet.
It's a good candle though, here. Reminds of Morris' quip that Ruskin and Carlyle were the true parents of British socialism but someone should have been by to punch Carlyle in the head every five minutes. Lindelof's found his somebody.
Lindelof fairly closely repeats the scene where young John Locke fails Richard's enigmatic objects test - the one where you knew that an explanation doing justice to how it made you feel could never happen but hoped it somehow might, and where the explanation finally given is just the lamest time travel bullshit - but replaces it with the Trolley Problem. If that's not this whole show in a nutshell nothing is.
It gets where the scenes with Kevin and Evie feel like Kevin's Lindelof. "What if Evie's alive and in Melbourne! That would be so fucking cool!" And the Australian guy who hits him is HBO when it hears that pitched, while the ex-wife who makes him look at the picture is Perrotta making him think about whether that could possibly be explained both convincingly and undisappointingly.
Maybe latterday Lindelof's so interested in religious stories because he thinks only a miracle could have tied up Lost to anyone's satisfaction. That we demanded that he be God and were furious when he wasn't.
It's certainly true that by *some* point - halfway through season 4, say - the show couldn't have been salvaged. But it's not at all a law of multiple-twist narratives that explanations invariably leave people disappointed. Perhaps he thinks it's a law of the sort of narrative he was being asked to produce, though - by Abrams, by ABC, but then by the audience: more hatches, more mysteries, more moments of sublime disorientation, more hints that unknown forces were at work behind the scenes but nevertheless might become known, could be met and made to talk, would be. As though he'd been asked to adapt The Castle but go on to provide a conclusion where the Castle was entered and mapped and explained.
Re. which, part of me thinks, fair enough. Though if you realize you're George Bush on 9/11 maybe quit being President. Maybe don't run for reelection, anyway. Lindelof kept cashing literal checks, regardless of what sort he was writing.
Part of me thinks, though: What did you feel watching Twin Peaks two nights ago, Damon? Did the writer of one candle feel afraid?
His exact equivalent of that episode (remember, his SOUL springs from Twin Peaks, esp. season 2) was the one where Jacob and the Monster are shipwrecked on the island and the show suddenly had the exact look and feeling of one of those Star Trek episodes where way too much time is spent on a planet.
It's a good candle though, here. Reminds of Morris' quip that Ruskin and Carlyle were the true parents of British socialism but someone should have been by to punch Carlyle in the head every five minutes. Lindelof's found his somebody.