Show: Lost (2004-2010)
Creator(s): Jeffrey Lieber, J. J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof
Genre: Sci-Fi/Drama

Preamble:

This is a review of the entire series as concluded yesterday, although not heavy in plot points it will contain extensive spoilers.

Plot Points:

A plane crashes on a hidden tropical  island.  The survivors help one another to escape the wreckage, and gradually build a loosely tied community. while they await rescue.  It turns out that while they are strangers, they share a mysterious connection. A series of numbers have played an important part in their lives and it becomes clear that they were brought to the island for a purpose.  The island seems haunted by a smoke monster which appears from time to time, and also is home to a number of other strange occurrences (whispers, polar bears) that the group attempts to find explanations for. Upon discovering other residents both currently and in the past, it becomes clear that the island houses massive power which is being vented regularly to prevent some kind of undefined “incident”.  A company has also established a base there, attempting to study the island for their own purposes.

In the end it turns out that the island is ground zero for a battle between good and evil, and has been for centuries. Those brought to the island aboard Oceanic flight 815 are candidates to replace its protector (Jacob), who means to keep the smoke monster on the island for the good of humanity.  One by one, candidates are eliminated until a successor is finally named – tasked both with stopping the smoke monster’s attempt to escape the island and protecting the light at the heart of the island.

Sounder 2: Man's worst enemy

The Meat:

One of the more interesting discussions people will have from time to time regards the merits of linear vs. non-linear storytelling. For folks who enjoy the works of David Lynch, for example, they will excuse the frequency with which they don’t remotely understand the point of his work (Mulholland Drive, etc.) in exchange for the excitement of his non-linear storytelling. The problem with non-linear storytelling has always been  the sense that so much time has been wasted.

This is not a slight of flash-backs or flash-forwards as devices, since they remain some of my favorites. The Godfather 2 flashbacks to early America are its most memorable scenes.  In that film however, the flashbacks were not trite, and did not serve to bloat what should have been a brief story.  The flashbacks also focused on primary characters, rather than delve into the histories of dozens of ancillary figures.  And most importantly, were the flashbacks removed from the film, there would still be a great, central plot which moved along at a very interesting pace.  Even allowing for the differences in serial storytelling vs. movies, ‘Lost’, in the end, failed with this integration.  What might have come across as in-depth sci-fi mysteries (the numbers, the light, island navigation), turned out to be macguffins, or resolved by deus ex machina (Jacob is really really fucking powerful, THAT’S why nobody can leave the island).

One cannot argue that the plot resolution is unimportant, because it does not take 6 years to resolve character arcs.  Unless, that is, your story is and burdened by an oversized cast and a corporate desire to recoup filming costs.  There’s a point where any fiction threatens to go from actual emotions to imitations of those emotions, from storytelling to exercises in storytelling. In Season 2, Lost  jumped across that line.  While season 3 was a great effort to repair Season 2’s damage, the show never quite recovered from the cast’s expansion.  Pare this all down to 3 seasons (BBC style with less eps/season), quicken the realization by the escaped characters that they have to find their way back to the island, and you have one of the best runs imaginable.

Among the show’s various “flashes”, Season 6′s sideways flashes stand out as particularly useless.  First let’s assume that this is purgatory (Ben’s “not coming in just yet”, even after his time as Hugo’s #2 would seem to cement it), and everyone has to wait until they absolve their sins enough to move on.  While not fully confirmed, it was great to see that they all go onto be a part of the light we see at the heart of the island.  It’s a very nice cyclical finish to the story.  So is Jack’s final resting place and position, as shown below in the opening to the first episode of the series. Highlighting his father Christian Shepherd as Jack’s usher to the next stage was also a great touch.

Why in the world then is it necessary for the entire final season to be filled with alternate time-line stories, such as Sawyer and Miles as detectives chasing down Kate and Sayid? Why do we need to see anything except the end-game of these Bizarro-world/afterlife versions of the characters all coming together to meet at the church?  Their final connections, acceptances of death, and restored memories are all that was needed of their time in the “flash sideways.”  We do not need to see Jack’s non-existent son, David, and his in-depth but ultimately pointless relationship with him.  Was it crucial that we see Locke and Benjamin as teachers and with a budding friendship? The reality is, none of this added to the plot, it destroyed pacing, and did nothing to address the show’s central mysteries.  More bloating.  So how to grade such a frustrating show?

Pros:

• Many episodes including the series finale are extremely well acted, and incredibly shot by TV standards.
• It remembers to focus on characters, and has all the characteristics of a great show.
• The show turns math terms on their heads in order to establish that no matter the amount of variables (location, time, reality) love is the most reliable constant.
• There are some genuinely fascinating, unique characters here (Desmond, Miles, Jack, Rose, among others).

Cons:

• We have entire episodes dealing with meaningless figures.
• Episodes have runtimes that are more than 70% composed of flashbacks.
• Forward momentum is regularly destroyed.
• The time travel often comes across as an opportunity to rewrite the stories for a few characters (Sawyer eventually works for Darhma etc.), even if their memories are intact.
• Plot devices are used often in lieu of plot POINTS, then abandoned as being non-central to the story (the number of unresolved ideas in the show is staggering).
• The show’s mythology comes across as incomplete and cobbled together.
• Jacob and his brother, are not nearly as interesting as they should be.

It’s a bit hard to give the show anything but a mediocre final grade.  ‘Lost’ would’ve worked great as ‘Shogun’ type epic miniseries, but there’s not nearly enough money in that is there?

Score – 5/10

Dexter season 3 was just not very good. Ludicrous plot twists, smart detectives missing easy hints(over and over again) and a jet-setting Dexter with no sense of a work schedule to top it all off. It was tough watching such a great show descend into a gruesome vaudeville routine.

Season 4 had its shocking finale on Sunday night, so it’s a good time to take a look at the conclusion of an improved but still flawed show as it moves forward. Stop reading if you don’t want spoilers.

This poster means a lot more now

Finally able to get around Dexter’s deception and track down the real Trinity killer (which people kept calling him even after discovering the fourth part of his victim cycle), the police zero in on Arthur Mitchell just as an out of control Dexter loses him. The police also gain their truest sense of teamwork in the show’s history, just as Dexter’s skills as a lone wolf deteriorate. The juxtaposition is great, we’re watching a meticulous control freak lose any semblance of the code he used to swear by in the hopes of living a better life. And as has often been explored in art, the act of killing directly contradicts those hopes.

The problem with this season, though, is how we got here. The entire serial killer fascination is in part due to the fact that, among the ranks of murderers, they are exceptional in their appetite. Consequently, the fascination with serial killers by the public and media is an endictment of our low attention span and desensitized perspectives. Body count determines interest in a story on the news, or as is repeated on Dexter, “if it bleeds, it leads.” What then to be said of Dexter itself? The kindest explanation possible for the drop in writing quality is that it’s being intentionally ironic. The more unkind explanation is that the show has fallen into the trap of self parody inevitable when your premise’s “hook” paints you into such specific corners.

The only way to “raise the bar” on having serial killers as regular characters in a show(after all Dexter kills them on a semi-weekly basis), is to have their murders increase exponentially in uniqueness or body count. Here we are in season 4, finding out that the Trinity killer is the “biggest to ever hit Miami.” In season 2, Dexter’s body dumps were found and it was a case of the “biggest serial killer to hit Miami.” In season 3, the Skinner was one of the “most brutal serial killers to hit Miami.” This one upmanship also applies to the portrayal of people with personal relationships with serial killers. Deb was engaged to one, Quinn was dating the daughter of one, Dexter is one, everyone thought Doakes was one. At what point does something intended to be shocking become trite? Law enforcement or not, the idea that they would deal with this many massively successful serial killers seems a little bit ridiculous. And was the death of Rita a logical plot development, or something born out of this need for the writers to one up themselves?

This is, though, a far better season than #3, for several reasons. John Lithgow is outstanding as Mitchell/Trinity, finally bottling up his creepiness in a perfect performance. As Deb’s old flame Agent Lunde re-enters the scene, Deb’s turmoil is well portrayed. She acts carelessly, and yet is fully aware of her own carelessness, knowing that she’s going to sabotage her own happiness. We finally see her self-hate exposed with verbal rants serving as a mirror to Dexter’s inner dialogue. There’s still room for growth here assuming Deb follows up on what’s she has learned about Dexter’s true origins. Let’s hope Season 5 is even better, and hopefully the last season of the show. There is a finite life cycle for any concept, and it would be a shame if Dexter stayed on past the point of any plausability.

Dexter Season 4 finale – 7/10

Show: Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009)
Creator: Ronald Moore
Genre: Sci-Fi

Preamble:

Today, we’re offering a spoiler heavy retrospective of the most recent Battlestar Galactica series, which concluded in March 2009. Again, this is spoiler heavy, and intended as a review of the entire series and the last episode in combination.

Plot Points:

Thousands of years ago, mankind built sentient machines. At some point the machines became advanced enough to develop the will to rebel against their masters, and a war broke out as a result. After 40 years, a truce was declared and the two went their separate ways in the universe. For the last several years, no contact has been made by the machines (called Cylons), at their agreed upon meeting place, and they are presumed to be gone for good. One day, however, the Cylons finally return, and bring with them coordinated nuclear strikes against the 12 existing colonies of humans. These 12 colonies of Kobol (12 tribes of Israel) have become entirely too dependent on the technology they use in everyday life and the military. Just before the nuclear strike, the Cylons access the computers controlling humanity’s defense systems and disable them. The attempted genocide nearly succeeds, leaving less than 60,000 humans still alive to fight for the right to exist. Their military force is made up of the crew of the Battlestar Galactica, a war-torn, “designated for retirement” battleship commanded by William Adama. Adama’s ship is spared from nuclear destruction by his refusal to upgrade its technology, with the newer technology having been vulnerable to Cylon infiltration.

With most of the government decimated, Secretary of Education Laura Roslin is sworn in as President of the new fleet. It is soon discovered by those in power among the fleet that Cylons are capable of disguising themselves as humans. This leads to a two-front war with the openly identifiable Cylons, and the ones hidden among the human population (“skin jobs” as they are called). In the midst of all this, humans look for permanent settlement on an ancient planet called Earth, from which they are believed to have originated. The basis for this search is a series of religious texts which predicted Laura Roslin would see her people to the new land.

The Meat:

With this ongoing war as the basis for its plot, Battlestar Galactica delves into some of the best character development in a TV show in recent memory. Questions of humanity, love, identity, and spirituality are constantly probed and expounded until a well defined but not necessarily dogmatic view of our race develops. Creators are judged by the quality of their creations, creations are judged by the quality of their actions, and actions are judged by the reality they create. Dogma is questioned constantly when “the rubber hits the road”, a parallel to the Biblical perspective that faith must be measured by its works. With this test applied to both Cylons and humans, both come up failingly in many areas and exceptionally well in others.

As their shared history is revealed however, we learn that they have destroyed one another before, constantly repeating the same cycle of war and hatred on the basis of certain innate human failings. The Cylons naturally inherit these failings, as children tend to do. In many ways the two most advanced examples of life in the universe are its most pathetic. The question then becomes something that is asked constantly throughout the series: Do humans and Cylons even deserve to survive? It’s an interesting question of course, one often explored in sci-fi films such as The Abyss, 5th Element, and others. Inevitably in those films, the answer is given that we do deserve to live because of love and the capacity for us to improve. In BSG there’s a twist, as the answer is that we live because of God’s love and his will. Even as humanity is stripped down to this new, limited population, their quest becomes an effort to find god within and outside of themselves.

For the Cylons, the evil Cylon Number 1 (John) has no interest in this spiritual journey. His is a secular pursuit, the goal of refinement in efficiency and function. He is BSG’s manifestation of a world obsessed with winning and quantitative processes, ruthless desire and pride. Devil from the machine, so to speak. In this of course, while physically a machine, he represents the worst of the humanity he despises as much as anyone in the series. His lies and manipulation of not only the original five Cylon humanoid models (revealed in the final 21 episodes) but his siblings are all towards the pursuit of vengeance and eternal life for his own race.

For the humans, their spiritual journey is marred by the same limitations: hatred, vengeance, fear of the unknown. As the two groups mix with shared interests, the lines separating them become blurred, and the lines are then redrawn with new alliances and armies. Humans have their own civil war break out in the form of an attempted coup, led by high ranking members of the army and government. The reality left for both is that alll the qualities they despise in their opponents are present in themselves. When this hatred is clearly identified, they are asked to break the cycle of hatred – not simply by refusing to continue killing their opponents, but by no longer despising themselves. It’s done under the “one god” banner of Judeo Christian beliefs, and as such offers a futuristic re-enactment of what actually took place when the world transitioned to monotheistic beliefs. Then, just as in the series, the actual beliefs of religion were distorted and abused or outright ignored for power and greed, and bloodshed resulted.

It’s arguable whether or not the series finale is conclusive in a linear sense. The reaction some will have is to point out that the particular plot elements – such as Starbuck’s nature after being resurrected – are not resolved clearly. This perspective slightly misses the point that plot points were simply a springboard for the questions being asked about humanity’s destiny. In addition, no one knows the answers to all of life’s questions, and BSG takes the perspective that the viewer is no exception. Explaining everything wouldn’t be very realistic, would it? In the end, questions about our seemingly hopeless cycle of rebirth, hatred, love, failure, death and destruction acceptably resolve themselves.

As Helo and Athena show, the love of family can overwhelm anything in its way. This, not cities, or fleets, or tribes, is the essential social unit for humanity’s survival. As Cylon Number 1 shows, the quest to replace god (whether it be with their own resurrection ships or with their force-fed religion) is always futile. God’s angels are the representations of his love – with the capacity to forgive and love even the most flawed among humanity. They demonstrate repeatedly the only exit from the cycle. Without a singular messiah, the power of spirituality is restored to each individual. Reality and fate are what Gaius, Adama, and the others choose to do with any given moment. These steps, as shown in the distant future, very well could repeat the same old cycle on this new, fertile world they finally find. It could all be destroyed again in an all-consuming war. But as Gaius and Cylon Number Six remind us, the mere existence to even pursue perfection, to break free of that endless cycle, or to seek whatever we may call God (or Earth/Nirvana/enlightenment/redemption), is a miraculous victory in and of itself. It’s not a matter of proving one is worth it, because the nature of miracles is that they are not deserved. Life is a matter of proving that one appreciates it.

Pros:
Great character development top to bottom. characters have believable flaws and limits to their will.
Complex motives. Characters on the losing sides present valid, believable arguments. Characters on the winning side make large mistakes (the revolt is directly the fault of the President and Admiral Adama).
Plot points are not often repeated (other than people getting upset and knocking things off of desks), and the story moves clearly in a linear direction.
Well developed, and naturally created humor.
Maybe the best ensemble cast on TV during its run.

Cons:
Some plot issues are not resolved in detail, up to and including the final episode.
A few of the battle scenes are overly simplistic. Cylon fighter pilots are not especially talented, and the centurions seem to walk in a straight line and get shot far too often.
Inconsistent effects. Once in a while the CG is poorly done and rushed, while other scenes look great.

Score – 9/10.
Overall one of the best shows of the last two decades (not qualified with the ‘genre’ label), with meaningful deaths and exciting plot twists. It’s all held together wiith excellent acting, led by Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell.