Lost - A Tale of Two Cities

Finally my rewatch of Lost has reached season 3 which I'm slow burn watching with my sister whose never watched it before. Its been a gap of nearly two years since I finished season 2 and the wait has been due to watching a number of shows with my sister and getting some variety in our viewing. Like with previous seasons I want to say something about my memory of this season and thoughts going in. 

Season 3 is one of my favourite episodes, its one where as viewers our status quo is shaken as we get to see more of the others and the island. We start to do some deep dives into characters that were introduced and as a series we reach what I call the "lock in" phase where the show decides viewers are either in deep enough to go Full Lost or their out. Also a little bit of trivia, long term viewers who watched the show on initial broadcast may remember that during this season Virgin got into a spat with Sky and Sky 1 got taken off the Virgin subscription and replaced with Virgin 1 which didn't carry Lost. As a result I'm watching the series on the same box set that I watched the show on originally after the episode about Jacks tats.

Anyway onwards with the episode, we start with a fantastic cold open where we're introduced to Juliet whose preparing to host a book club meeting in a suburban setting. During the meeting there is an explosion and after some impact shocks the club members go outside and see the Oceanic 815 breaking up in mid air just as its about to crash - OMG we're in a flashback to the opening events of the first ever episode! We get a few cameos of Others who we've already met come running out of their houses Henry Gale, Ethan and Goodwin. Henry sends the other two off to infiltrate the survivors and we get a camera pan showing the suburban area is a small village of the island that we haven't seen and Juliet is an Other!

I'm going to cover the flashback briefly as quite frankly its uninteresting, we're seeing Jack after the break up of his marriage and how his obsession with Sarahs new partner impacts on his life. The most important impact is that Jack drives his father back to drink creating the events that will result with him being on the Oceanic 815 crash. We get a moment later in the episode where Jack is offered the chance to find anything about Sarah and refuses. We know Jacks obsessive nature and the damage it can do and this moment is about as cheap as a Mick Foley pop.

The action taking place in the present revolves around the Losties who were abducted in the finale of last season. Of note the pre episode recap mostly features characters from this episode so we only see three of the main regulars with the fates of the rest unseen for now. Jack, Kate and Sawyer are kept separated from each other for most of the episode. We learn that they are being kept in another Dharma station called The Hydra which seems to be at first glance an animal research station that is partly under water. Three seasons in and we finally get an explanation for the polar bears! We see glimpses of the station, some fun stuff with Sawyer as he completes some obstacles in his cage and wins a fish biscuit, Kate sees the showers and gets treated to breakfast before being caged. The highlight of the opening episode is the scenes between Jack and Juliet in the shark cage. Elizabeth Mitchell gives an incredible low key performance and debut as Juliet and she is the hook of the episode. She's playing Juliet as someone whose had her soul ripped out and is dead behind the eyes, as an acting decision this works.

Of note in this episode is the brief (so brief the meme of no polar bear explanation exists) explanation of the polar bears and the breakfast scene that a number of fans became so obsessed about that Damon Lindelof had to issue a press release saying that it contained no hidden meanings. Its a 7/10 for me, a slow but intriguing start with hopefully some more meaty episodes around the corner.

Remembrance of the Daleks

 My random Doctor Who viewing has taken me to Remembrance of the Daleks and I'm in the mood to put down some thoughts on the story. First of all this is my era as a fan, I'd watched Doctor Who from early childhood but the McCoy era is where my memory kicks in and was actively watching the show. I'd enjoyed the previous series and was looking forward to when it would return.

At the time this story felt special, this was a big deal - naturally it was the Daleks were coming back. That feeling holds up today, every time I slip the DVD in there is an inner squeel which I hope never goes away. Its an odd start as The Doctor is where he wants to be, not only that he's conducting some business and he has a plan. This is McCoy and Cartmels 7th Doctor after they've had a chance to sit down and decide what they want to do after the last second casting of the previous season. We're seeing mystery being added to The Doctor and even in the early scenes something is different from the previous season. 

I like the easter eggs of the location and casting in the story, in my younger days I had no idea they existed and over the years they've become a fun treat. Speaking of the cast Pamela Salem and Simon Williams are excellent and should have been used more often in the industry. Rachel Jensen in particular is one of my favourite one off characters and I will no doubt dip into the Counter Measures stuff in the future. The first episode is perhaps my favourite one off episode of the original run, its dynamic, pacey, screaming to fit in all it wants to the run time and has THAT cliffhanger.

Episode two is also fun, it feels like those episodes in season 7 where the story goes off on a tangent be it a virus spreading through the UK or the hunt for one Silurian. The difference here is that The Doctor is pressing pause on proceedings and going off to do some business. This Doctor is always in control - theres always a mistake or something he didn't plan for (in this case two sets of Daleks) but this Doctor is more in control than any previous Doctor.

The story goes on and finishes with some big events that later producers for the show as well as spinoffs have been able to have fun with. Sylvester McCoy is coming into his own in this story, Ace looks to be fun and we have a strong dynamic. In terms of niggles theres a little bit of wobbly Daleks on location and one of the guests is a bit ropey but nothing enough for me to tarnish the story. 

Two of my favourite character moments occur in this story, first Aces reaction to the "No Coloured" sign, she grabs her ghetto blaster and storms off. She's not mature enough to deal with this and the show isn't afraid to say it. Secondly The Doctors conversation with Joseph Marcell about consequences, this isn't a Doctor who waits until the last moment before having a crisis of conscience he's having it all the way through this story and only shows it briefly including this scene.

Another happy viewing and time to put the DVD away until next time...

Heroes - The Hard Part

We're back to the present this week as we continue to build up for the finale. Its very much a logistics episode as most of the characters are moved or given motivation to get to New York. On the other side of things we get a look into Sylars psyche has he panics about his fate and visits his mother with alarming consequences. Hiro and Ando spend the episode observing Sylar and have to deal with the fact that a confrontation is building. 

Molly Walkers reintroduction into events is interesting (as is the potential confrontation with Parkman) and Mohinders trip to India mid season becomes useful as he is aware of Mollies illness from her own past. Micah gets a good scene where he tries to escape but is stopped by some intriguing aspects of Candices powers.

The weak point of the episode is the Petrellis spinning there wheels and watching Micahs parents trying to act in the same scene without throttling each other. Its a 6/10 episode and mostly logistical proceedings along with some good character stuff for Sylar.