Lost In A World Without Power: Revolution Season 1 Is Engaging, But Not Overly Original!

The Good: Character development, Initial concept, Moments of performance
The Bad: Very derivative plot, acting and character arcs of other works by J.J. Abrams.
The Basics: Revolution’s first season might thrill those unfamiliar with the works of J.J. Abrams, but disappoint the rest of us who are.


One of the dangers of becoming a force in the entertainment industry seems to be that the people who surround the rising star either accept the limitations of the star without challenging them and/or that the rising star surrounds themselves with talent that speaks to them. In other words, the force surrounds themselves with sycophants who create derivative works of the rising star. The former is very evident with the works of Aaron Sorkin. I love the works of Aaron Sorkin and I would love to work with him, but fans of his works, by the time The Newsroom Season 1 (reviewed here!) aired have pretty much seen everything he’s got. The man has great talent, but he recycles more of his lines, plotlines and character traits than anyone working on television today.

J.J. Abrams appears to be at the other end of the spectrum. Abrams has become one of the most sought-after directors for film and television. At this point, though, there has become something remarkably formulaic to the projects Abrams begins. With Revolution, J.J. Abrams is only one of the executive producers of the show – he neither wrote, nor directed, any of the episodes (so far). And yet, having finally picked up and watched Revolution Season 1, it is hard not to see there is ample evidence of the second phenomenon. Revolution in its first season is essentially structured as Lost (reviewed here!) – which J.J. Abrams co-created, wrote, and directed – meets The Walking Dead (season one is reviewed here!) or Jeremiah (first season is reviewed here!). The derivative nature of Lost is so strong that in an early episode, when my wife – watching a man getting tortured – cringed and complained, “I don’t want to watch this; they’re going to slit his neck,” I was able to authoritatively say, “No, he’s going to stab him in the gut.” And I was right . . . because as someone familiar with J.J. Abrams’ works, I knew that was the way it would go. But, Abrams did not write or direct the episode . . . so he surrounded himself with people who write and direct what he would have if he was writing or directing the project.

Revolution sucked me in with its intriguing premise, one that is very reminiscent of Jeremiah: fifteen years after the world’s power goes out, survivors are struggling. All electrical power is dampened and Revolution starts in the United States where the northern states have become a loose confederation under Sebastian Monroe and the Militia. Fifteen years after the power is knocked out and dampened (independent electrical sources like battery powered flashlights and automobiles do not work), society is in shambles and the world is getting darker. Small dictatorships have sprouted up in the United States and the fiefdoms are kept in line using taxes paid in food and the fact that the militias control all the weapons.

Opening in a small village fifteen years after the Blackout, Ben Matheson is killed. Before dying at the hands of the General Monroe’s lieutenant, Tom Neville, Ben gives his friend Aaron a small pendant and tells his daughter Charlie to go find his brother Miles in Chicago. Aaron, Charlie and Ben’s partner, Maggie, journey to Chicago where they find Miles. Miles does not want to risk his status and anonymity in Chicago, but when Charlie is determined to go after her brother, Danny, who was kidnapped by Neville, and General Monroe’s forces descend upon his place in Chicago – thanks to a spy Charlie accidentally brought with her – Miles is forced onto the road. Determined to rescue Danny, Miles rescues a rebel, Nora, from slavery at the hands of Monroe’s forces.

As the small band makes its way from Chicago to Philadelphia to rescue Danny, they discover how dangerous the world has become. Charlie is horrified to learn that her uncle was one of the architects of the dangerous new world, and was the one who installed Monroe in power over the Midwest. Monroe uses Ben’s wife, Rachel, to try to restore power which will allow him to essentially rule the world. Monroe, using his men to hunt down the pendants, is stymied by Charlie and Miles, who use their determination and knowledge of Monroe. At each step in their journey, Miles, Aaron, and Charlie learn more about the events leading up to the Blackout and how to get the power back on.

Revolution is structured almost identically to Lost. Virtually every episode features flashbacks from a single character who is focused on as they struggle with something going on in the present time. Like Lost there are a number of relationships key characters have before and after the Blackout that weave in and out of the storyline. Obviously, Miles and Rachel have a backstory, as do Miles and Nora. Later in the season, though, a connection between Rachel and Aaron comes to light, as do connections between Miles and virtually every general the team runs into.

The show is pretty heavily serialized, though the flashbacks at the beginning of each episode are enough to catch viewers up on the essential information. As one might suspect, the key characters in Revolution are at the heart of both the destruction of the world and its potential salvation. Rachel’s backstory extensively details the personal trades she made that helped create the power outage. The science of Revolution seems initially sketchy, though it develops in an intriguing way. As the power of the pendants is slowly revealed, Revolution progresses in a compelling fashion. Like Lost there are intersections of coincidence and chance that force a real suspension of disbelief in the first season of Revolution (like how the hell does Monroe know when Neville is bringing Danny in if there is no communications network?!), but given how the writers all seem to be derivative of J.J. Abrams, none of the surprises seem especially surprising to his fans.

In the first season of Revolution, the primary characters include:

Charlie Matheson – A determined eighteen year-old girl, she recovers from the death of her father in part because of Maggie, who sticks with her when everyone else leaves her. She is protective of her brother, Danny, and works hard to keep him safe both immediately following the Blackout and after he is abducted by Neville. She makes huge sacrifices for the cause and she has a crush on Jason Neville, despite his allegiances. She grows on the journey to rescue her brother and becomes a true rebel,

Aaron Pittman – A former Google millionaire, he discovered when the Blackout came that he was not suited to protecting his wife. Guilt-stricken, he accompanies Charlie on her dangerous mission because he wants to try to protect her. He is smart, delivers some of the season’s best one-line quips, and works desperately hard to maintain his humanity,

Danny Matheson – The asthmatic brother of Charlie, he is abducted and learns brutal lessons at the hands of Tom Neville. Even after he rescues Neville in a storm, he is tortured and abused as leverage against his mom,

Miles Matheson – The former military leader, he is happy to drink and remain off the radar until Charlie comes looking for him and brings a whole world of trouble to his door. As he approaches Philadelphia, he becomes more concerned about what it will mean to go head to head against his old friend, Sebastian Monroe. He is resourceful, smart, and determined once he takes up Charlie’s cause,

Nora Clayton – A demolition expert, she is Miles’s connection to the rebel network and she skirts at renewing the romantic relationship the two had,

Rachel Matheson – A scientist who made an unwholesome trade that plunged the world into darkness, she abandoned her children in order to surrender to Monroe, years prior. Now, she is compelled by Monroe to build amplifiers that will allow the pendants to power his war machines. Her love for Charlie and Danny is occasionally a liability, though she wants to do the right thing,

Jason Neville – A spy for the Militia, he begins to develop real feelings for Charlie. When his own father begins to develop psychotic tendencies, he is forced to choose between loyalty and his heart,

Tom Neville – A former insurance adjustor with a good heart, he falls in with the worst elements following the Blackout. As one of Monroe’s chief lieutenants, he continues to enforce (brutally) Monroe’s mandates. He deeply loves his wife, who does not trust Monroe, and seems to be uneasy about the way the world is spinning out of his control,

and Sebastian (Bass) Monroe – Originally Miles’s best friend, he developed into a warlord with Miles’s help and guidance. Now, he stands as the leader of a confederation that is one of five “nations” within what used to be the United States. He maintains control with fear and the guns that only his militia has . . . until Randall Flynn appears and offers him the chance to take over the continent and the world beyond.

In the first season of Revolution, the acting is a mixed bag. Elizabeth Mitchell is playing the same character the way she did in Lost and V, so either she is now typecast, used only for a very specific skill set, or she is a pretty terrible actress. At the same time, Giancarlo Esposito (Tom Neville) and Colm Feore (Randall Flynn) play their characters with the level of greatness expected of them. Esposito plays along the whole range of human emotions and Feore manages to play a creepy villain without even a hint of the character he played in The Chronicles Of Riddick (reviewed here!). Billy Burke (Miles) dominates the cast and proves to viewers that he had all of the talent and genius to be a credible warrior that the character demands. Zak Orth is also completely believable as Aaron Pittman.

Revolution is the first project I’ve seen where Tracy Spiridakos has a substantive role. As Charlie, she slowly evolves the character from a mousy, annoying girl into a warrior woman who represents hope for the future. The first season is basically Miles and Charlie’s journeys and Spiridakos makes Charlie’s journey from an innocent into someone seasoned with the same spices as Miles seem believable and interesting.

On DVD, the first season of Revolution has deleted scenes and commentary tracks on key episodes. They are interesting, but they do not solve the issues with the twenty episodes of the first season. As someone who was eagerly awaiting watching Revolution in one fell swoop and one who has liked many of the works of J.J. Abrams, I found the first season of Revolution to be a more violent and graphic derivation of much of the rest of Abrams’ works. The characters do not think with minds nearly as tactically sound to make it plausible they would have survived so long. But, for fans of The Walking Dead or those who like survivalist without the zombies, Revolution might well be the best thing dropping on DVD this month.

For other shows from the 2012 – 2013 season, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Parenthood - Season 4
Veep - Season 1
Game Of Thrones - Season 3
New Girl - Season 2
Happy Endings - Season 3
The Walking Dead - Season 3
Arrested Development - Season 4
House Of Cards - Season 1
True Blood - Season 5

4.5/10

For other television and movie reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Lisa Loeb's Less Inspired Outing: The Book/CD Catch The Moon.

The Good: Vocals are decent, "Stop And Go" is interesting
The Bad: Poor replayability, Phrasing in book is awkward, Short, Somewhat uninspired musical choices.
The Basics: With few truly different interpretations on traditional children's songs, a dull book and multicultural children's songs pushed to the back, Catch The Moon flops.


For those who might not know, the way that I manage to live these days as a writer and a reviewer and still review about twenty compact discs a month is that I have a pretty awesome local library which seems to get a perverse thrill out of filling interlibrary loan requests for me. As a result, almost every day there is something new for me at the library and I often do not know what it will be. This month, I am reviewing the works of Lisa Loeb and because there were very few of her works in the local system, the interlibrary loan request went nationwide.

It was quite a surprise for me - and the librarians who know of my loathing of children - to get in Catch The Moon, a children's book and compact disc featuring music by Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell (the book is by Erin Courtney and Bonnie Brooke Mitchell. This falls into the same category of fairly loathsome discs I have found in my artist searches like Saturday Morning Cartoons and Mary Had A Little Amp. Catch The Moon puts me in my usual bind; reviewing albums for children as an adult can be real difficult, especially if one of the things one loathes about children is how inane things surrounding them may be. In the case of children's music, as well, it is tough for me to evaluate because the lyrics are necessarily simplistic and thus somewhat banal.

With thirteen tracks, clocking in as 31:43, Catch The Moon is most obviously not the unique work of Lisa Loeb or Elizabeth Mitchell. Out of the thirteen songs, Loeb wrote only one on her own, co-wrote three others - usually with Mitchell. The rest of the songs are traditional or are written by other artists, like Stephen Foster ("Oh Susanna") or Bob Dylan ("New Morning"). Loeb sings on all of the tracks, save one (though on three she is relegated to harmonies) and she plays banjo or guitar on several of the tracks. There are no production credits on the album, so it is impossible to discern how much of the album is within the pair's control and how happy they were with the results.

The songs on Catch The Moon are an interesting range of folk songs, like "Big Rock Candy Mountain" and "Oh Susanna" and more obvious children's songs, like "Little Red Caboose" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." The album goes decently multicultural with Spanish, Japanese and French traditional tracks, "La Manita," "Donguri," and "Fais Do Do." The songs are generally lyrically simple and highly repetitive, making for a rather dull listening experience.

Songs like "Oh Groundhog" are remarkably repetitive and come late in the album after annoying songs like "Little Red Caboose" has plagued the listener with a problematic amount of repetition. That song is comprised mostly of the lines "Little red caboose / Little red caboose / Riding behind the train" ("Little Red Caboose") over and over and over again. It is easy to get tired of it quickly, especially with the annoying cooing "choo choo!" after each and every utterance of the word "train."

As for the more obvious tracks like "Oh Susanna" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," Loeb and Mitchell's interpretations of the songs are not terribly different from anyone else's and the sugary light vocals quickly become tiresome. The more original tracks, like Loeb's own "Butterfly" are relegated to the back half of the album and are treated like b-sides. Clearly, the songs that most people are more familiar with are designed to drive the album and in this case, it falls a bit flat because the interesting tracks are treated like detritus for the listener who bothers to stick around for them.

But as far as album arrangement does, Catch The Moon is a poor choice for those who might want to have their child fall asleep with the album on a loop. "Fais Do Do" is an obvious lullaby that follows on the heels of the more energetic "Free Little Bird" and any hope that Young One might fall asleep to "Fais Do Do" when the album is set to replay over and over again is shattered by the louder and more obvious guitars of "Big Rock Candy Mountain." The thing is, given the energy of "Free Little Bird" and its preceding tracks, it's a tough sell to predict that "Fais Do Do" might knock the little kids out, which encourages parents to simply replay it, which is just as likely to wake them back up. Similarly, putting the lullaby "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" right before the energetic and instructional "Stop And Go" is utterly ridiculous. The album is poorly arranged for those who want a recording to stimulate, then sedate, a child.

On that note, though, it is worth noting that Catch The Moon is a decent album when it hits "Stop And Go." This original track is simply a fun collection of strummings and commands that allows children to listen and learn to follow directions like "stop," "go," "shake," "jump," etc. It's actually a fun track for people of any age, but it does not stimulate adults to actually shake (or do anything but listen).

As for the book, it is ten thick cardboard pages long and tells the story of Ruby West and Ella Jane who are out looking at the moon. They play and try to catch stars and throw the moon and dance around. It's pretty basic stuff and I'm not exactly sure what the point of the book is other than to get young girls to notice that there are stars and a moon in the sky.

However, the way it goes about that might be a bit problematic, especially for the younger readers. There are awkward phrases, like ". . . dream by star moon light" which is poetic and nice, but strangely complicated for children. My mother is a pre-kindergarten teacher and she thought that the indirect phrasing might lead children to not quite get the meaning (she thought the rest of it was about up to industry standards).

But for me, the book and album combination fall a bit short. I suppose if I'm being subjected to this much children's music, I'd like more that is either truly original or the artists to do something different and impressive enough to justify the outing. Compact discs can hold quite a bit of information and it would have been nice to hear Loeb and Mitchell fill the album up as opposed to keeping it underdeveloped and sugary.

The best track is "Stop And Go," the low point is the unmemorable "La Maniba."

For other works by Lisa Loeb or children’s albums, check out my reviews of:
Firecracker
The Very Best Of Lisa Loeb
Sesame Street Platinum All-Time Favorites


3.5/10

For other music reviews, please be sure to check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing of the albums and singles I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Cancelled Well Before It Ought To Have Been, V Season Two Impresses!

The Good: Decent character development, Much of the acting, Special effects, Great storyline
The Bad: Character inconsistencies, Little bit of acting, Lack of resolution.
The Basics: With only ten episodes, V Season Two ramps the viewer up to . . . an abrupt end.


Stylistically, I am deeply tempted to begin this review and then, mid-way end it without explanation or a final rating. That would mirror what, quite unfortunately, happens with V Season Two. My wife and I recently rewatched V Season One (reviewed here!) in advance of her presenting me with season two as an Easter gift. While this usually would be considered a great gift, the two-disc Blu-Ray set left both of us ultimately depressed. While I missed the first few episodes when they originally aired, the entire season was new to my wife. As the show progressed and after virtually every episode, my wife turned to me and said, “This show is so smart, why did they cancel it?!” to which I always responded, “Wait until you see where they left it!”

The thing is, when the season gets to its abrupt conclusion, it is hard not to feel sour, especially when one considers that shows like Gray’s Anatomy stay on the air for years and new shows like GCB and Don’t Trust The B In Apartment 23 are nowhere near as smart as V was. And the cliffhanger makes it impractical to simply finish the series off with a single movie, a la Firefly and Serenity. The result is a pretty wonderful ten-episode season that is virtually impossible to recommend as enthusiastically as it ought to be.

Picking up shortly after where the first season ended, Anna’s release of a compound that is turning the sky red has the world on edge. After a week of Red Sky, a rain falls and while it does, Erica Evans uses her son Tyler to get her aboard the New York mothership and establish contact with Anna. Anna reveals Red Sky to be a way for the Vs to revitalize the environment of Earth and strengthen the biosphere. Erica is, naturally, skeptical and it does not take long for her to confirm that the Red Sky boosted the potassium in the food chain, which the rebels, now aided by a scientist Sid, soon learn means that the Visitors will be able to breed in humans.

As Tyler continues to distance himself from Erica, Lisa takes more risks for the humans and Ryan comes under the thumb of Anna, who has the now-resurrected Joshua give his baby an illness only Anna’s bliss may cure. But even as Chad Decker joins the fight on the ground and inadvertently plays Anna’s pawn in a mission to keep the Catholic Church from endorsing the Visitors, Anna’s control begins to waver. Locked in the bowels of the New York mothership is Diana, Anna’s mother and when Lisa learns she is still alive, the Resistance has real hope for the first time in a long time. But that hope is quickly jeopardized when Anna realizes the true strength of Ryan’s hybrid child . . .

Even writing about the second season of V is enough to get me riled up. The show, heavily serialized, built extraordinarily well upon the first season and upon each episode in the second season. With twists and turns around almost every virtual corner, V was getting better and better when it was abruptly canceled. And, on the subject of the virtual corners - V employed mostly virtual sets from Zoic Studios – the special effects in the show continued to get better and better as the season progressed, making it even more gripping as it fleshed out a disturbing new reality.

The cast for V remained fairly stable, though there were significant casualties, mostly in the climax of the series. To better understand how the show gripped its audience, it helps to know who shaped the world of V. In the second season, the principle characters include:

Erica Evans - A smart FBI agent, she is now the head of the Anti-V Task Force, which roots out threats to the Visitors. It does not take long before she discovers that her partner is a Visitor and after dispatching her, she is troubled when an old friend joins the team and potentially makes her life more difficult. Feeling her grip on Tyler slipping, she calls in Tyler’s father as an act of desperation. Following a disastrous hostage situation, she finds herself in command of the worldwide Fifth Column defending the planet against the Visitors,

Ryan Nichols – Utterly trapped by Anna, he is forced to work against the Fifth Column in order to try to save his daughter’s life. When he betrays Erica, Erica kicks him to the curb, giving him very little to fight for other than his daughter’s life,

Father Jack Landry - A Catholic priest, he brings Chad inside the Fifth Column. When his anti-V rhetoric leads to a suicide bombing that kills Visitors and humans, he is laicized. Living in Hobbes’s bunker, he remains the heart of the Resistance and does what he can to keep Erica focused and human,

Chad Decker – Having seen that the Visitors are torturing those who are a part of the Live Aboard program and discovering that the Visitors themselves have a resistance movement, he joins Erica’s Fifth Column cell. Still using his access to get close to Anna, when his show’s ratings begin to slip, he gladly takes on a co-anchor who helps him get the truth out,

Kyle Hobbes – The arms dealer continues to dig into why the Visitors want him out of the way and he searches for Sarah, the woman they claim is still alive and they have access to. He helps Erica fight against the Visitors with an appropriately brutal sensibility,

Tyler – Now eighteen, he becomes the first human to pilot a Visitor shuttle. But his genetic irregularities are soon revealed to be not only the result of Visitor tampering, but a key part of their longterm goals on Earth. As he romances Lisa, he unwittingly performs a vital function for Anna. Rejecting Erica, he spends most of his time on the New York mothership,

Sid - A young scientist who discovered a Visitor body that was over fifty years old, he is up to speed on what the Visitors seem to be doing on Earth. His studies allow Erica to sabotage a Blue Energy reactor and almost keep up with the Visitors as they harvest human DNA,

Joshua - The Visitor medic appears to have no knowledge of his life before being shot. As a result of forgetting his time as a Fifth Column member, he aids Anna in accelerating the growth of her final Queen Egg and unleashing her progeny,

Lisa - Anna's daughter, she has real love for Tyler. Bearing the fear that Joshua might remember her part in the destruction of Anna’s army, she leaves the ship as often as possible. Upon witnessing Anna returning from the dungeon, she finds a surprising ally in Diana,

Marcus - Anna's ruthless security chief and chief lieutenant. He watches Anna lose her grip on more than one occasion. Believing she is being corrupted by human emotions, he bides his time, trying to keep her focused on their mission,

and Anna - The leader of the Visitors, she has the ability to tap into the Visitors' hive mind with a Bliss that keeps them in line. Following the outburst that led to Red Sky, she moves Concordia ahead and prepares to land the cloaked ships which will be the final part of the invasion of Earth. All the while, she torments Diana, keeps a close eye on Lisa and takes Ryan’s daughter in in a way that makes the child identify her as its mother!

The acting in the second season is largely excellent. Charles Mesure and Christopher Shyer stand out for their performances as Hobbes and Marcus. Shyer does cold and creepy with an expertise that makes me eager to find other things he has been in. And while Mesure is clearly used sometimes simply to appear without a shirt, his portrayal of Hobbes as the ultimate pragmatist is excellent.

Much of the show hinges on Elizabeth Mitchell and Morena Baccarin. Mitchell, unfortunately, plays Erica much the way she played her character on Lost, so she alternates between talking in whispy, quiet tones, shouting and emoting simply by opening her eyes very wide. Baccarin, on the other hand, gives Anna a decently long arc. She is not simply presenting Anna falling apart and thus, the character works exceptionally well because she slowly peels back the character’s resistance to human emotions. It is the slow burn of Baccarin’s performance that makes Anna’s character move in the final episode one that it makes sense for Lisa to buy into.

The real acting winner, though, is Joel Gretsch. Gretsch plays Father Jack Landry and in the second season, he steps out of any lingering shadow he was in from The 4400. Gretsch alternately plays a priest with an iron backbone and a deeply hurt man from whom everything he cares has been stripped. The way Gretsch looks at Mitchell’s Erica speaks so much about his humanity and the longing he has to cling to all that is good. Gretsch makes Landry the one to watch over the course of the second season!

Now on Blu-Ray, V Season two comes loaded with deleted scenes, a blooper reel and two featurettes, none of which satisfactorily explore how such an amazing show could get shitcanned. Usually, I would advocate waiting until the whole series is out or a film follow-up was being developed to purchase a season like this. But, with ABC Productions holding all the cards in this case, that possibility seems exceedingly remote. Buy it while you can find it!

For other parts of the V Saga, be sure to check out my reviews of:
V
V: The Final Battle
V: The Television Series

8/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the shows and seasons I have reviewed!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Smart, Tense And Predictable To Science Fiction Fans: V Season 1 Is A "V" For Our Time!

The Good: Excellent plot, Interesting characters, Good mood, Great acting, Decent effects
The Bad: Somewhat predictable to seasoned science fiction fans.
The Basics: V is reimagined in contemporary times where aliens visit Earth for sinister purposes only to have a resistance learn that they have been among us for some time!

I'll admit it, I was one of the many who let out a big groan when I heard that V was returning to ABC as a weekly television series. Don't get me wrong: I love the original mini-series V. I even like V: The Final Battle. But my experiences has been so soured by the 1980s television series V that did not want to see just how ABC would butcher the mythos of the classic science fiction series. After all, one of the hallmarks of V was that it was smart science fiction, not special-effects-driven sci-fi. So when the pilot episode aired and it was clear that the new television series V was not a continuation of the classic V, but rather a complete reimagining of it, I warmed up to it very quickly.

Even so, the first season of V on DVD and Blu-Ray reveals for fans of the series and science fiction in general its true weakness, which is that it hinges on a few key reversals which fail with the element of surprise. Indeed, when the resistance within the Visitors society - the Fifth Column - is introduced, I called one of the most important members of that group and as the season was coming to a head, my wife turned to me and said "Hey, you were wrong." As the last frames (literally) of the season played, though, she turned to me and said "Oh my gosh! How did you know?!" Quite simply, the first season of V is working on a pretty tight formula which is likely to be familiar to fans of genre works as opposed to truly audacious or original.

That said, V The Complete First Season is entirely enjoyable. The first aspect that makes it such a winner is that it is surprisingly smart. Far too often in science fiction film and television today, stories are driven by special effects and they fail to tell a truly compelling story. With V, the producers have tapped into the paranoia of the day and crafted their story around current issues, most notably paranoia about terrorism. While this might make the current incarnation of V dated in twenty years, right now it remains cutting edge and the overall story feels fresh even if some of the reversals and attempts to thrill the audience are not.

Erica Evans is an FBI agent working in a counterterrorism task force in New York City, raising her son Tyler on her own. While she and Dale work to expose terrorist cells planning subversive activities, Tyler acts out as most teen boys do. But then giant ships enter Earth's atmosphere and begin hovering above major cities, like New York, Tokyo and Moscow. Erica is immediately suspicious, especially when she notes that terrorist cell activity plummeted, save one group which actually became exceptionally more active when the ships arrived. Also on edge is Father Jack Landry and Ryan Nichols, a newlywed man who has intimate knowledge of both the cell Erica is investigating and the spaceships which have arrived. Almost immediately, the people of Earth are contacted by the ships.

The aliens look human and they call themselves the Visitors. Led by the charming Anna, the Visitors seeks to replenish their ships' stores in exchange for the humans using some of their technology. But Landry has his doubts about the Visitors and he and Erica end up at a meeting led by Georgie Sutton, who reveals that the Visitors have been here for quite some time and that their agenda is a sinister one. The meeting is broken up by a Visitor device which kills almost everyone and exposes Erica's partner as a Visitor. While Anna launches a charm campaign, primarily using news reporter Chad Decker, Erica, Father Jack, Ryan and Georgie establish a resistance cell to try to learn about and thwart the Visitors.

This soon becomes a two pronged war for Erica, though, as Tyler becomes smitten with Anna's daughter, Lisa. While Erica is forced to work with the Visitors to protect them and she is disgusted by the way humans are being manipulated through free healthcare and other technologies, Anna and her lieutenant, Marcus, begin eliminating the threats to the Visitors, from human terrorists like Kyle Hobbes to Visitors who have human sympathies. While Erica tries desperately to stop her resistance cell from being exposed, Anna decides to make an army of Visitor soldiers to prepare to subjugate Earth if it turns against her.

The first season of V is both properly ambitious as a story on its own and a setup for the entire series which works well to keep viewers interested and provide us with some faith that the first season shall not be the best of the series. The writers are particularly smart about human psychology and the use of the Visitors to prey upon basic human emotions is exceptionally smart. As a result, Erica and her team are continually hamstrung by the fact that their efforts are going to be unpopular with the masses, even as they try to save them. Similarly, Anna is a master manipulator and her understanding of how the human mind works is exceptional, allowing her to play off the public sympathies.

One of the key figures that has a turbulent relationship with the Visitors in this regard is Chad Decker. Decker is plagued by very basic human ambition, which Anna realizes almost immediately when he makes a pass at her amid other reporters' more scathing questions. Anna quickly plays off Decker's desires for fame and fortune, but she is unable to account for his own sense of integrity and spite. So, when Anna punishes Chad by withholding access, Chad becomes more free to report on the anti-Visitor sentiment. This leads Anna to arrange more elaborate public relations events both to rally support for the Visitors - opening health clinics using Visitor technology - and against anti-Visitor terrorists, like the shooting down of a Visitor shuttle filled with human civilians.

V employs a sufficiently diverse range of characters in its first season and that helps the stories flow with a surprising sense of realism. More than just simple science fiction, the first season of V plays well as a drama with a sense of urgency and understanding both for the times we live in and the motivations for people around the world. While the scope of V is frequently more focused on Erica and her cell in the New York City area, Anna is often in contact with leaders from other nations and she makes presentations to the United Nations and heads of state around the world.

Like most decent dramas, V is focused primarily on characters. In the first season, the principle characters include:

Erica Evans - A smart FBI agent, she is working to raise her son Tyler when the Visitors arrive. She is perceptive when it comes to the minds of terrorists, which allows her to quickly infer that the Visitors are a potential threat to humanity. She manages to use her position within the FBI to redirect suspicion from herself and her friends when they begin acting out against the Visitors. But when Tyler becomes interested in the Visitors' "live aboard" program, Anna realizes Erica's Achilles' heel,

Ryan Nichols - A smart businessman and a Visitor who was sent in advance as a sleeper agent. He helps Erica with her resistance even as he is hunted by the Visitors for going rogue. He is a friend of Georgie and he knows what Anna's ultimate goals are. He is immune to the Bliss Anna has over the Visitors,

Father Jack Landry - A Catholic priest who rejects the notion that the Visitors must be god's creatures, too and he urges caution to his parish. As more people turn to the Visitors instead of the church, Landry has time to aid Erica in exposing the Visitors. He is used by Chad Decker to get into the resistance,

Chad Decker - A manipulative reporter whose career is on the slide until the Visitors arrive. He forms a rapport with Anna and begins a chess match with her and her security chief, Marcus, over how to manipulate public sentiment. His sense of gamesmanship is trumped, however, when the Visitor medics diagnose him with a future aneurysm which they offer to treat in exchange for his compliance,

Valerie - Ryan's human wife who, rather miraculously, has become pregnant,

Tyler - Erica's teenage son, he is rebellious and has issues with both his mother and father. He sees the Visitors as a way to straighten out his life, especially Lisa, whom he becomes rapidly enamored with,

Georgie Sutton - A paranoid man who has known about the existence of extraterrestrials on Earth for some time. He tries to expose the Visitors and his group is slaughtered. Rescued by Ryan, he helps Erica and the resistance,

Joshua - The Visitor medic aboard Anna's ship, he is a part of the Fifth Column and does not believe in Anna's agenda. When he is forced to test the Visitors for human sympathies, he discovers a weak link in Anna's command structure and a tool for the resistance,

Lisa - Anna's daughter, she is part of the mission to win over human youths. She begins to manipulate Tyler for Anna, but soon develops real feelings for him, a condition which puts her in danger,

Marcus - Anna's ruthless security chief and chief lieutenant. He is brutal in his attempts to suppress the fifth column and advance the Visitor's agenda. He is the only one Anna truly seems to trust,

and Anna - The leader of the Visitors, she has the ability to tap into the Visitors' hive mind with a Bliss that keeps them in line. She impregnates herself with the eggs of the soldiers and looks to make a brood in advance of an armada's arrival. She is clever and sexy and represents a grave threat to Earth.

V works quite well in its first season because of the acting. Elizabeth Mitchell discovers life after Lost (click here for my review of that series!) where she played Dr. Juliet Burke for three seasons as Erica and she illustrates a real ability to act by presenting a character who is very different from the one that brought her to the attention of most genre fans. Erica is smart, in control and efficient; Mitchell dumps the spaciness and uncertainty of Juliet to make the character work completely.

Similarly, Morena Baccarin is great as Anna. Best known to genre fans from her role on Firefly, Baccarin returns to television in the passionless role of Anna and she is perfectly cast. Indeed, most of the Visitors are cast with a sense of reptilian appearance, but Baccarin looks especially slick and cold as Anna, making the viewer invest completely in her inhumanity. She plays off Laura Vandervoort (Lisa) perfectly and the pair has a great, cold chemistry about them.

But while many might say that Christopher Shyer steals the show as Marcus, I say Shyer - like Joel Gretch, Scott Wolf and Charles Mesure - is merely the product of genius casting. Morris Chestnut (Ryan) and David Richmond-Peck (Georgie) are the ones to watch. Richmond-Peck calls the viewer back to a time when geeks were cool (like with David Duchovny in the early seasons of The X-Files). Georgie is played out as an appropriately fractured character and Richmond-Peck is believable and easy to empathize with as a result. Chestnut is incredible as Ryan and when V goes off the air, it is hard not to imagine him having a bright future as an action hero actor. The way the two play off one another is great.

On DVD and Blu-Ray, the first season of V features commentary tracks on a couple of episodes as well as featurettes on the special effects and reimagining of the series. As well there are entertaining bloopers and deleted scenes which flesh out some of the key episodes.

Ultimately, V The Complete First Season is one which fans are going to want to pick up in advance of the show returning to television in late November. For those who missed it in the first run, the DVD set is great because the story plays well back to back as it is tightly serialized. This is one of the best first seasons of any show I've seen in recent memory.

For other V works, please check out my reviews of:
V
V The Final Battle
V The Complete Television Series

8/10

For other television reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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Better With More Viewings/Features, Lost Season Five "Dharma Initiative Orientation Kit" Is For The Fans!

The Good: Intriguing plot twists, Decent acting, Amazing Blu-Ray bonus features/limited edition swag.
The Bad: Light on character development
The Basics: The limited edition release of the Blu-Ray of Lost Season Five offers fans some real boons, as well as great television!


Give up. Give up and stop reading this review now. Yes, I'm talking to you, the reader who has never seen an episode of Lost, doesn't understand what the hype is about and is wondering if this makes a good gift for someone. It doesn't . . . unless that person is a fan of Lost. Lost is a show which is take-it or leave-it. You're a devoted fan or you're not and if you've never heard someone talk about their love of Lost, they probably are not the devoted fan who would want this DVD or Blu-Ray set. Moreover, the "Dharma Initiative Orientation Kit" packaging of the season is limited edition, more expensive and intended only for the true fans of the show.

Seriously, give up. There's no reason to read this review. No one needs a review of Lost Season Five. The people who want it, bought it three days ago when it hit stores, have asked for it on their holiday wish lists or have some plan to buy, rent, steal it or pick up the complete series set (reviewed here!). If you are not one of the people who has seen Lost and is waiting, keep waiting. If you're thinking about getting into the show, this is absolutely the last thing in the world to read. The reason for this could not be more simple: Lost is like a novel for television. Each season is a "volume" within that novel. As a result, picking up and watching Lost Season Five is like picking up the fifth book in a series or turning to a fifth chapter or section within a single book. Lost Season Five moves at a pace that is fast, continuing a story so deep in progress that it does not even make an effort to backtrack and repeat old information to viewers. Thus, anyone who has not seen Seasons One through Four will be missing vital pieces of information and have no clue about the significance of certain peripheral characters.

. . . and in the fifth season, peripheral characters in the Lost storyline become incredibly important. As well, what is going on in the main plots are confusing enough (though fans who know what came before expect the show to be smart and doing new things and will easily catch what is going on), having to have others explain it to viewers is pointless. Stop now, go back and watch from the beginning. By the time you get to "Season Five," you'll want this boxed set. You'll buy it . . . or you'll hate the show and have given up on it. There is truly little middle ground with Lost.

Despite that being the very best advice anyone can give readers on Lost Season Five, here is what to expect when buying this DVD:

Following the climactic event of the fourth season of Lost, where six members of the crashed Oceanic 815 flight and Desmond Hume were rescued and returned to civilization and those left behind were besieged by a commando force, Ben's attempt to move the island has an unforeseen consequence. Those left behind on the island, along with Jin (who survived the destruction of the freighter), find themselves unwillingly skipping through time at unpredictable intervals. As John Locke carefully pieces together what has happened, with the help of Daniel Faraday and Richard Alpert, and seeks to set right the relationship the mysterious island has with time and space, off the island, Ben makes contact with each of the Oceanic Six and tries to get them to return to the island. Three years after they were rescued, Ben, Locke and the Oceanic Six find themselves on a new plane headed to the new location of the mysterious island they randomly crashed on before.

But those left behind were not restored to time and space in a normal fashion. Instead, when Locke rescued them from the dangerous shifts in time, Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, Miles, and Daniel found themselves in the past, where they took up with the Dharma Initiative. When the second plane with Ben and the Oceanic Six crashes on the island, it does not do so normally: Jack, Kate, Hugo and Sayid end up in the past, complicating the lives of their peers working for Dharma. That leaves Ben and Sun in the present, on the island, dealing with an incredible mystery: the resurrection of John Locke!

In its fifth season, Lost becomes an even more complex mystery, one that seems to have the Island as a playground for two avatars who have arranged the principle characters as pieces, from long before any of them ever ended up on the island. The initial concept seems to stem from a very subtle piece of acting in the fourth season finale, where Ben knocks a mysterious wheel awkwardly while turning it. That one moment knocks the island off its temporal axis and causes the characters left behind to time shift. The involuntary leaps through time have dangerous consequences, weakening the bodies of those who have been there the longest and killing Charlotte.

The episodes hardly stand alone in the fifth season as the character groups each are given very different "quests" and in most episodes, only one decision is reached in each group and one corresponding action is taken. So, for example, in "Jughead," Faraday determines that a bomb found on the island needs to be buried and Locke makes the decision to return to the Orchid, though it isn't until the next episode that he and his group actually journey there. Similarly, while it had been teased for two season finales now, the process of Jack rounding up the Oceanic Six with Locke's body takes five episodes.

Lost Season Five is also hampered, in part, by a lack of character development. Viewers know that Jack's return to life as a doctor in the United States left him tortured from Season Four. In season five, we just see the end result of that as he desperately tries to get the Oceanic Six to come with him and how. But Jack does not so much grow and change this season (save for the fact that he is able to take orders from LaFleur - Sawyer - when he joins the Dharma Initiative in the past). In fact, only Sawyer and Juliet have real character arcs this season; everyone else is caught up in plot arcs. And the plots are incredible with essentially two arcs the entire season: the round-up/timeshift plot and the return to island/conflict with Dharma plot. Of course, it is vastly more interesting for fans than just those two concepts, but the truth is, the season does boil down to those two (or, I suppose, four) arcs and the characters in them tend to encounter plot challenges - like the sudden presence of a nuclear bomb on the island - as opposed to character challenges.

Even so, for that hypothetical reader who is determining whether or not to shell out $100 on the limited edition "Dharma Orientation Kit" version of the fifth season of Lost (snicker!), it helps to know who the principle characters in this season of Lost are:

Dr. Jack Shephard - Getting himself off drugs, he teams up with Ben to bring everyone back to the Island, believing that leaving was a huge mistake and everyone there is in danger. With the second plane crash, he finds himself in the past where he is happy to slum under the radar of the Dharma Initiative while LaFleur solves the problems,

Kate Austen - Having met Sawyer's girlfriend and finding herself hounded by Claire's mother, she reluctantly gives up Aaron and returns to the Island. There, she finds herself coming between Sawyer and Juliet and working in the motorpool. She risks everything to save the child Ben Linus, which changes everything,

Sayid - Having made a split with Ben, he is captured by Ilana and is forcibly returned to the Island. There, he finds himself in the past, where he comes to believe his destiny is to set everything right . . . by killing Ben in the past,

Hugo ("Hurley") - Rescued by Sayid from the mental institution, Hugo continues to have conversations with the dead and his second plane ride puts him in 1977 where he is happy to work for Dharma and write "The Empire Strikes Back,"

Sun - Now in charge of her father's company, she has allied herself with Charles Widmore. However, a visit from Ben which proves to her that Jin is alive gets her to return to the island. The only one of the Oceanic Six left in the "present" when the plane crashes, she soon learns that the others ended up in the past and works with Ben and John to figure out how to get them back,

Jin - Having been knocked clear of the freighter and ended up back at the island for the time shifts, he is rescued in the past by Sawyer and finally learns English. Pining for Sun, he is happy to do whatever might reconnect him with his wife,

"Sawyer" ("LaFleur") - After the loss of Jack and Locke, he takes over as the natural leader of those on the island and helps them weather the dangerous time shifts. He convinces the head of Dharma that he is not a hostile and even negotiates with Richard Alpert (an ageless denizen of the island) to save everyone's life. He masquerades as "LaFleur" and becomes the Dharma security chief. As a result of their struggles together, Sawyer forgets about Kate as best he can and develops a relationship with Juliet,

Juliet - Trying to save the lives of the timeshifting survivors when the time shifts have serious health consequences, she is relieved when the shifts end and she settles in with the Dharma Initiative. She and Sawyer soon fall in love, but with the return of Kate, it is her strength that will change the course of history,

Miles - The psychic specialist from the freighter quickly figures out the identity of one of the chief Dharma scientists and comes to realize exactly how his fate has been tied to the island all along,

Daniel - After the death of Charlotte from the time shifting (don't look at me that way, it happens ridiculously early in the season!), Farraday loses it some and is saved by discovering Charlotte in the past living as a child in the Dharma Initiative. He uses the time in the past to return to the mainland to figure out how to right the course of history and return everyone to where and when they belong. His return to the Dharma Initiative, though, sets off a chain of events which will inspire the entirety of season six,

Ben Linus - The villainous leader of The Others works to return to the island and against all odds and reason is successful. As he, John and Jin struggle to figure out what happened to the others and he works to atone for the death of his daughter, his past is revealed as a child in the Dharma Initiative. And when Sayid tries to kill his child counterpart, it is Richard who steps up with a way to save him that changes him forever,

Desmond - (is he even in the season?!) Briefly seen in only a couple episodes, Desmond is happy with Penny, but may fall prey to Ben's lust for vengeance against Penny's father, Charles Widmore,

Ilana - A bounty hunter who captures Sayid and leads a new team with a nefarious purpose across the island,

and John Locke - After timeshifting around and meeting Richard Alpert in various time periods to have clues scattered for him, John returns to the United States the same way Ben did . . . but fixes what Ben screwed up. Once back, John works quietly to get the Oceanic Six to return to the island, but ends up dead at the hands of Ben (which is no surprise to viewers). But the trip back to the island resurrects Locke and he uses Ben to gain access to the ruins of the temple on the island, where a much bigger showdown is brewing.

In the fifth season of Lost, there are no new real parts (Zuleikha Robinson Ilana is a supplemental character whose presence is hardly as inspired as prior cast additions, like Daniel or Desmond or Juliet), so by this season, all of the principle actors have their beats down. Henry Ian Cusack is neglected for the season, while Jeremy Davies gets a real chance to shine as Daniel. But for the most part, the actors are performing within the established greatness of their abilities. Actors like Matthew Fox, Terry O'Quinn, and Evangeline Lilly give unsurprisingly wonderful performances in the roles they had had for four years prior.

In fact, the only real surprise on the acting front comes from Josh Halloway and Elizabeth Mitchell as "LeFleur" and Juliet. After years of working together, Halloway proves he can mix it up by developing real on-screen chemistry with Mitchell. Together, they make the Sawyer/Juliet arc not only plausible, but enjoyable to watch. They deserve some serious kudos for shaking it up well.

On DVD and Blu-Ray, the brief sixteen episode season of Lost comes loaded with bonus features. There are the usual episode commentaries, deleted scenes and a gag reel. As well, there are featurettes which include Nestor Carbonall on-set while shooting his last scenes for season five (very entertaining) and Michael Emerson off-camera wandering the Burbank Lost studios (also very entertaining!). As well, there is a video of the celebration thrown for the 100th episode of Lost! But the grail for Lost fans come in the "Dharma orientation kit," a deluxe packaging that includes an annoying VHS tape (with all of the orientation videos shown so far on Lost spliced together properly), a c.d. single ("Dharma Lady" by Geronimo Jackson), and patches from the show. Among the non-programming swag are maps of the island, the truce with the Others and the patches (one is limited edition, if you manage to pull it). The VHS tape is an actual tape and that's annoying, but the bonus swag reminds one of the postcards put in the Gold Box Twin Peaks Complete Series Set and it is hard for die-hard fans to complain about all of the extra goodies. Those with a Blu-Ray player with an internet connection may use the discs to connect with Lost University, which is an interactive experience that makes the viewer one of the Dharma Initiative!

So, fans of Lost get a slightly above-average season with exceptional swag with the limited edition packaging. And while the season is a little rockier than I would have liked, my faith in the show has not been shaken. For those who have the same faith, this is THE way to get the penultimate season of Lost!

For other Lost works, please check out:
Season 1
Season 2
Bad Twin (a tie-in novel)
Season 3
Season 4

7/10

For other television reviews, please check out the index page!

© 2010, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Rescue Comes For Some: Lost Season Four Makes A Great DVD Set!

The Good: Great story, Interesting new characters, Decent acting, Amazing DVD bonus features
The Bad: Slightly repetitive feel to the narrative technique
The Basics: Brilliant, if slightly repetitive and inaccessible to new viewers, Lost Season Four is an indispensable DVD for anyone who loves weird, serialized television!


I have developed a pretty simple i.q. test for television viewers in the last few years; it's one, simple question: "Are you into Lost?" From this question, I am able to derive much. I can easily take the answers: "Yes, I love it, would you like to spend the next eight hours comparing notes on it?!" or "No; I've seen it, but it didn't grab me." I'll associate with either of those types of people, no problems. It's the ones who say "I don't understand what's going on" that I've decided to weed out of associating with. That might sound elitist, but frankly, for all of its supernatural elements and the shiftings in time back and forth, if one only watches the show and pays attention, it's pretty easy to tell what is going on. How one interprets what is going on is a different matter, but those who are lost (no pun intended) simply by what happens on the show paint a pretty bleak picture for the future of humanity.

Nowhere is this more true than with the fourth season of Lost, now out on DVD in a pretty magnificent boxed set. Cut down to only thirteen episodes (fourteen hours) by the writer's strike, Lost - The Complete Fourth Season is many things, but hard-to-follow is not one of them. For sure, there are elements that might not be immediately comprehensible, like for example the time travel elements that Faraday quickly discovers indicates that the island in the show is not in temporal synch with the rest of the world, but by this point, the story of Lost is becoming very - almost ridiculously - clear. In the fourth season of Lost, a freighter off the island comes on a mission to recover someone or some thing from the island.

Set up in the last episodes of Lost Season 3 (click here for my review!), an offshore freighter comes near the island and some of the people trapped on the island make it off. This season charts a ridiculously simple course: two groups come from the freighter to the island: scientists and hunters. While a paramilitary group from the freighter hunts for Ben Linus, Daniel Faraday and his group try to understand the unique properties of the island while Sayid, Desmond and Jack work to escape the island and get the survivors of Ocean Flight 815 home. With the usual technique of flashbacks now mixed with flashes forward, Lost - The Complete Fourth Season tells a powerful season-long story that leads to six people escaping the island!

After just over a hundred days on the mysterious island where they crashed, six people have made it back to the United States from the doomed flight 815 from Oceanic Airlines. The Oceanic Six, as they are known, have become celebrities and have worked to keep the people of the world ignorant of the existence of the island or any other survivors from the crashed flight. But as the survivors of flight 815 divide over the issue of whether or not to attempt to leave the island with the crew Naomi's presence insinuates, life on the island becomes increasingly complicated. As Locke leads most of the crash survivors deeper into hiding in fear that the freighter crew has come to kill the survivors, Jack, Kate and Juliet find themselves in the company of people from the freighter, including the scientist Daniel Faraday.

Faraday is a physicist and he almost immediately lets slip that the freighter did not come to the island to try to find survivors of Oceanic 815. Instead, he and his associates Miles and Charlotte reveal that Oceanic 815 was recovered from the bottom of the ocean, though several like chopper pilot Frank Lapidus suspect a conspiracy. With Jack working with Faraday to try to get off the island, Sayid and Desmond take a trip to the freighter and a commando named Keamy leads an operation to the island. Keamy's intent is clear: to find Ben Linus and as he cuts a swath of destruction across the island, his actions forever change the balance of power between those off the island who in a struggle for the powers the island represents!

In its fourth season, Lost progresses with two parallel tales, consisting of the known and the unknown. The known story is what was set up in the prior season's finale: from that we know that Jack and Kate both get off the island and season four is concerned on one level with how that happens and who else manages to get off the island with them. The unknown story is with John Locke, Ben Linus and Keamy, who essentially get into a war on the island. The story is strangely direct, despite the puzzle-piece way it is assembled, leading rather directly to the answers many have sought while still maintaining enough of a mystery to come back for a couple more seasons.

Lost is ideally presented on DVD as this is a heavily-serialized television show and the episodes in the fourth season blend from one to the next very naturally.

The truth is, though, that this season is not for newbies. By this point in the Lost story, you're either onboard or out of the loop. This DVD boxed set very clearly illustrates that the show has gotten to a point where it is so self-involved and self-referential that it is not even geared toward those who had not been watching before now. The plots are sufficiently complicated and the characters have developed so far that those who pick up just this DVD set will be lost. The story so far is so extensive that trying to hop in now is just pointless. That said, it is the character elements and the extensively detailed backstories that prevent it from being accessible to a new audience, not the plot elements or the narrative techniques. The fourth season of Lost does not take the time to educate new viewers to the extensive allusions detailed in the prior seasons and as a result, it is difficult for new viewers to pick this boxed set up and get caught up.

The characters in Lost continue to develop over the course of the season and more of the backstory for each of them is revealed. As well, stories from how the characters who escape the island - flashes forward - act and are treated are told as well. Unfortunately, given how massive the cast is by this point, not all of them have plum roles this season. Still, there is enough that is engaging to keep those who have been with it engaged. Here is how the fourth season finds the principle characters on (and off) the island:

Jack - One of the Oceanic Six, he has returned to civilization where his work is no longer satisfying him. Drunk, falling apart and failing to adapt to the return to civilization, Jack becomes convinced that he and the others must return to the island. On the island, Jack struggles to get the people he has kept safe off the island, leading half of them back to the beach when John challenges him. Also, his appendix begins to act up and he and Juliet get closer,

Kate - Leaving with Locke to be with Sawyer, Kate becomes curious as to the motivations of the people who have come to the island. She allows Miles to meet with Ben, which compels Locke to banish her from his camp. Abandoning Sawyer, she becomes one of the Oceanic Six with . . . of all people, Aaron, Claire's son,

Sawyer - Accepting that he has nothing he wants off the island, when Locke splits the survivors up, he happily joins, eagerly taking up a house in the camp the Others used to occupy. He acts as Locke's lieutenant and when Kate leaves, he is deeply hurt,

Hurley - One of the Oceanic Six, Hurley is suffering more than ever from his mental illness which causes him to see the dead, including Charlie. On the island, he reacts to Charlie's death and the message that the freighter is not from Penny by joining Locke and going into hiding. Locke uses him to try to find Jacob's cabin and this leads Hurley to a new sense of despair,

Sayid - One of the Oceanic Six, Sayid becomes involved with a sinister force off the island as a hitman following the death of the woman he loves. One of the first off the island, he trades Charlotte with Locke in order to get on the chopper. Flown out by Lupidus, he and Desmond struggle to secure the freighter and he encounters an unlikely person on the freighter,

Jin - Looking forward to being a father, he promises Sun he will get her off the island,

Sun - With her pregnancy threatening to kill her, she works to get off the island and her secrets are exposed by Juliet to Jin. Off the island, she becomes allied with an unlikely person for what appears to be a sinister reason, though she does have a bright spot as well,

Claire - Reacting to Charlie's death, she joins Locke's camp and eventually meets with the most unlikely person, leading her to abandon her son, Aaron,

Desmond - Eager to get off the island, he and Sayid fly out with Lupidus. Unfortunately for him, leaving the island triggers something as far as his temporal slipping and he is forced to find Daniel Faraday in his past. Struggling to maintain his life, he desperately tries to contact Penny off the freighter,

John Locke - Convinced that Charlie's message supports his theory that the crew of the freighter has come with a sinister purpose, Locke calls upon the survivors who want to live to fall back with him to the homes of the Others (who have abandoned that section of the island). Struggling to make sense of what is going on, he searches for Jacob's cabin and gets into a war with Keamy,

Juliet - Desperate to get Sun off the island, she exposes Sun's secret to Jin. She build's Jack's trust by removing his appendix and she strives to get off the island herself,

Daniel Faraday - A scientist from the freighter, he has a boyish enthusiasm for studying the effects of the island and the unique properties it possesses. His past and present soon collide, though, when it becomes clear that the temporal experiments he did back in college have been realized by some on the island, including Desmond,

Miles - Having lived as a ghost hunter for profit and treasure, he joins the "rescue team" to try to collect the bounty on Ben, but ends up as a pawn in the machinations between Ben and Keamy,

Charlotte - Ostensibly the leader of those who parachute onto the island and the brains behind keeping alive there, she is connected to the island,

Martin Keamy - A psychopathic commando who storms the island searching for Ben, he initiates a bloodbath that changes everything,

Michael - Aboard the freighter, under an assumed name, the only adult to escape the island earlier returns to the island to redeem himself for the murders he committed while there. With Walt safe on land, he has nothing to lose,

and Ben Linus - The leader of the Others (for the most part), captured by Locke, he quickly becomes the subject of the hunt from those on the freighter. On the island, he trades information for his freedom, saving the lives of some from Locke's camp, including Claire, only to end up in a situation where he loses what is most important to him. When that happens, he declares war on his greatest enemy and begins a hunt that spells future doom for at least one person on the island!

The new and returning characters make for an interesting new blend, with the return of Michael being well-explained and a real gift to the fans of the series. Daniel Faraday, who initially seems like a plot device to explain some of the mechanics of the island for those who did not get it from the film strips shown in prior seasons (or the whole purpose of the hatch), quickly becomes an interesting and viable character. He's hard not to like. And he interacts beautifully with Henry Ian Cusak. In fact, the episode "The Constant" in this season, which focuses on Desmond, Faraday and Penny is easily one of the best hours the series has produced.

The acting in the fourth season is more honed than new and the continued chemistry and conflict between Ben and Locke is masterfully handled by Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn. Perhaps the best new performances, though, come from Yunjin Kim and Matthew Fox. Fox set up his distraught performances for this season in the prior season's finale with Jack becoming increasingly messed up by leaving the island. In this season, Fox capitalizes on that and takes Jack in the flashes forward into new territory where Jack is completely unlikable. Fox makes the transition appear perfectly normal and rational, though, which is the real and impressive challenge.

But it is Yunjin Kim who deserves an award (and if she's not even nominated this year for her performances in "Ji Yeon" and the later episodes, then the nominators shall lose the last shreds of respect I once had for them) for acting in this season. Previously, she has had to act like she did not understand English and throughout the series, she has tended to present Sun as somewhat submissive. In this season, she recasts the character as completely strong and at times beautifully cold-blooded, performing with a strength and clarity that is eerie to see and amazingly executed.

On DVD, the series looks great and has incredible bonus features. In fact, this might well be the television DVD boxed set of the year, as far as DVD programming goes. With two discs packed with bonus features, Lost The Complete Fourth Season makes up for its shortened amount of source material with an impressive array of bonus bits. There are audio commentaries (I could always use more of those!) on several episodes and they are informative and entertaining, definitely adding value. While the set does not include the pop-up "Enhanced" feature that aired with the reruns of episodes from this season, there are a number of incredible features that make up for that. There are ten featurettes on everything from the guns to the freighter crew to the music of Lost. There is a blooper reel that is predictably funny and a bevy of deleted scenes that will make viewers wish they could be branched back into the episodes. Fans will be very pleased with all of these bonuses as they truly do reward us for our devotion with all sorts of goodies that cannot be found elsewhere.

This is the DVD of the season for fans of compelling, surreal drama, despite being impossible to recommend for those who are not already into the series. With this set, viewers get a whole lot of payoffs for the investment in the earlier seasons, though, while setting up a few final mysteries to keep us coming back for more!

For other works in the Lost universe, please check out my reviews of:
Lost Season 1
Lost Season 2
Bad Twin (A Lost Tie-In Novel)
Lost The Complete Series

8/10

For other television reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2010, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Neighbors From Hell: Lost - Season 3 Holds Up Well On DVD!

The Good: Great character development, Decent acting, Interesting plots, Decent DVD bonus features
The Bad: Repetitive, A little more predictable than prior seasons
The Basics: When Lost returns in its third boxed set, it finds most of the characters in dire straits and fans will be eager to see how they resolve them!


One of the nice things about DVD is the ability to go back and catch things one missed on television the first time through. We find clues, subtle moments that might have passed us by the first time, have a greater appreciation of how a certain story is put together or where a character is coming from, whatever. In the television series Lost, this is especially useful as it is a fairly dense show that is packed with information week after week. That said, with the appearance of Lost - Season 3 on DVD, that benefit is somewhat diminished; fans of the series - and I have been watching since the first season (click here for my review!) - will likely not need the DVDs to catch as much from the show this time around; we are becoming tuned to it. As a result, Lost - Season 3 is not quite as indispensable for fans - who are likely to buy it anyway - as prior seasons. The set is ideal for those who watch shows year after year and never catch the groove of the writers/executive producers. For those people, I am certain there is incredible value in the basic programming of this DVD set.

Coming off a shockingly good season finale for the second season (click here for my review!), Lost returned to an eager audience and on DVD, the show eliminates its ridiculous two-mini-season concept and seems much more unified and part of a single story. That is a nice benefit of the series on DVD, no hype, just programming!

With Kate, Sawyer and Jack in the company of the Others - residents of the island on the other side of the island, who have been there for quite some time before Oceanic flight 815 crashed there -, the hatch destroyed and Sayid and his team circling the island in a boat to try to combat the Others, there is a lot of repair work to be done on the beach by the survivors. When Hurley returns to the beach with news of the capture of Jack and the others, fear strikes the survivors and when Sayid, Jin and Sun return, without their boat, things look even more dire. Locke and Desmond return from the decimated hatch with the news that Eko, who they had been searching for, is dead, further casting the survivors into doubt as to their collective longevity.

Jack awakens in a nondescript room where he is treated like a lab rat and has contact with Juliet, one of the Others. While Jack works to escape, he learns a little bit more about the Others and what they are doing on the island. Soon, it becomes apparent to Jack that they want him for his medical abilities. Kate and Sawyer, held outside in old animal cages, work on escaping as well, though Kate is eager to find out where Jack is. Jack learns that the leader of the Others, Ben (formerly Henry Gale, in their prior contacts) is ill and needs surgery, which Jack can perform to buy his freedom from the Island.

Jack uses the opportunity to leverage the Others for the freedom of his friends, setting off a chain of events that starts - essentially - an all out war between the Oceanic survivors and the Others!

Lost - Season 3 holds up better on DVD than it did in the original broadcast (much like how I enjoyed the third season of Alias, more on DVD than when it first aired) and seeing this whole "chapter" of the Lost story in one place makes it much easier to grasp and it carries a sense of flow better. Fans and non-fans will find the show flows better this way than broken up by weeks and months.

The truth is, though, that this season is not for newbies. By this point in the Lost story, you're either onboard or out of the loop. This DVD boxed set very clearly illustrates that the show has gotten to a point where it is so self-involved and self-referential that it is not even geared toward those who had not been watching before now. The plots are sufficiently complicated and the characters have developed so far that those who pick up just this DVD set will be lost. The story so far is so extensive that trying to hop in now is just pointless.

That's not to say that this is a pointless show, far from it! Lost remains engaging and complex, ultimately worthwhile. But it is a show one has to be paying attention to to truly "get." Fortunately, fans get the payoff of some of the earlier plotlines and ideas in this season. As a result of the capture, through Jack and Juliet, fans learn quite a bit about the Others. When Locke runs off to join Ben, we learn even more. Questions are answered about the now-destroyed hatch and the viewer is teased with snippets of other hatches. In all, this season progresses the stories of Lost wonderfully, while adding new elements that are sure to intrigue viewers for the final three seasons!

The characters in Lost continue to develop over the course of the season and more of the backstory for each of them is revealed. This is quite a task considering how massive the cast is and how many characters there are to focus on. Sayid, for example, is terribly neglected this season. Over the course of the twenty-two episodes (the finale is double-length), the show covers a great deal of ground and new relationships are formed and some old ones fall apart. Here is how the third season finds the new principle characters on the island:

Jack - Captured by the Others and isolated for his medical skills, Jack wrestles with his abandonment by his wife. This allows Juliet to manipulate him some, though he soon comes to learn that Ben has the ability to monitor the world (at the United States) and he engages in a risky gambit to protect the people from Oceanic Flight 815, all the while tempted with the very real possibility that he can return home,

Kate - Trapped near Sawyer and working with him to escape, the two bond. She exhibits tremendous loyalty to Jack, though, by working to insure that he is freed. She risks her life and works with Rousseau to find out more about the Others,

Sawyer - Captured and developing a relationship with Kate, it is Locke who will most change Sawyer's life this season, by providing him with exactly what he's always wanted,

Charlie - having survived the destruction of the hatch, he and Claire reconcile some and they set to raising Aaron. Unfortunately, Charlie's newfound friendship with Desmond is based on a rather morbid principle; Desmond has visions of Charlie dying repeatedly,

Hurley - After becoming obsessed with getting a van he finds in the jungle to drive, he assists the people on the beach by conning Sawyer into being nice to them,

Sayid - After losing the boat, Sayid becomes one of the great explorers of the island, searching for the community of the Others and ultimately launching a battle against them,

Jin - After losing the boat with Sayid, he works to protect Sun and is otherwise neglected,

Sun - After losing the boat, she works to reforge the bonds with her husband, Jin and survive with everyone else, though Juliet soon informs her of the terrible tragedy that befalls all pregnant women on the island, casting her longevity into doubt,

Paulo and Nikki - Other people on the beach from the crashed flight, they don't last long,

Claire - Continuing to raise her son Aaron, she finds herself growing closer and closer to Charlie, especially after she learns about Desmond's visions,

Desmond - Stuck back on the island, he finds himself estranged from Locke and develops a friendship with Charlie based on the fact that he has the ability to see the future now and in it, Charlie is always dead,

John Locke - Having survived the destruction of the hatch and seeing Mr. Eko buried, Locke feels an even deeper connection than before to the island. As a result, he hunts down the Others and joins them, only to discover that Ben has been expecting him and has a test for him,

Juliet - One of the Others, a fertility specialist and a generally decent person, she is kept on the island by Ben against her will. She sees Jack as a potential escape mechanism and works to use him to get herself freed, even as it appears Ben has set her up as a mole for the Others in the camp of the survivors,

and Ben Linus - The leader of the Others (for the most part), his life is saved by Jack, though that does come with a price. He is manipulative and devious and he seems determined to keep the island a secret and to see Locke buried there!

The characters in Lost are often used as plot vehicles this season. While that might be normal, in Lost that is taken to a new level this season as much of the plot is disguised as character elements. So, for example, Desmond's whole new "gift" seems largely to foreshadow plot events and the emphasis on Charlie and death in that sets the stage for the viewers. Similarly, Locke and Sawyer are set about wrapping up plot holes and character threads that have existed for all three seasons. Lost - Season 3 packs in a lot of plot for the twenty-two episodes and the greatest character development comes from the flashback sequences.

The acting in this season of Lost is quite good, though most of it is simply portraying the characters with a consistency so they feel like the characters we know. The performers who are new to the mix come with mixed results. It was no great loss when Rodrigo Santoro and Kiele Sanchez came and left the cast as Paulo and Nikki, but having Henry Ian Cusak (Desmond) and Michael Emerson (Ben) join the cast definitely works out well. They are both wonderful actors and they do bring something their roles and the show. The third season performance by Elizabeth Mitchell as Juliet, was not quite enough to sell me on her. Now that the whole series is done, I am pleased that she grew remarkably well. To her credit, Mitchell is wonderful in her flashback episode, layering her performance throughout with a nice sense of loss and desperation.

Emerson and Terry O'Quinn, who plays Locke, have great on-screen chemistry. They play off one another with a suspicious relationship of each other that is truly wonderful. O'Quinn deserved his Emmy and while he does not have a huge role in this boxed set, he performs in every single frame he is in. He and Emerson create a relationship that is very creepy and plays well in this weird island world.

On DVD, the series looks great and has decent bonus features. There are four audio commentaries (I could always use more of those!) and they are informative and entertaining, definitely adding value to the set. The seventh disc is packed with bonus features including three featurettes on behind-the-scenes information and on the effect of the show, deleted scenes, and a blooper reel. Fans will be very pleased with all of these bonuses as they truly do reward us for our devotion with all sorts of goodies that cannot be found elsewhere.

But my original assessment holds; despite how good this plot-heavy season is, it is not designed for anyone who is not already a fan of the show and purchasing this boxed set on its own is more likely to lead to confusion and frustration as opposed to the satisfaction those of us who love lost feel with this great show!

For other television season reviews, please check out my takes on:
30 Rock Season 1
VR.5
Star Trek The Complete Original Series

7/10

For other television program reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2010, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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