This post is mostly about LOST, because frankly, that’s what the people care about — and in this case when I say “people” what I mean is “me.” That being said Obama’s fourth prime-time press conference had what could be construed as two interesting television moments (and a bit of insider-y amusement in that his actions are clearly driving the networks insane).
The first moment came at about the two-thirds mark when some goober asked him to name what surprised, troubled, enchanted and humbled him in his first three-months and change in the office (some would mark this period in “number of days” but those people are the type to subscribe to such a Hallmark Holiday, and I am not one). His answer was at times, funny, poignant, honest but most importantly: real (even if it wasn’t). It reminded me of a similar press conference in 2004 when Bush 2 was asked if he had any regrets (or mistakes or something, I’m not sure of the phrasing). Both men took a long pause between answering and clearly were caught off guard by the question (even if they shouldn’t have been). The difference is Bush didn’t answer the question. The thing with Obama (and here is where we tie this back to television) is that he seems to be the type of person that can go up in front of a huge group of people, under bright lights, broadcasting to millions of homes and can just stand there, think and reason on the spot. In that 2004 press conference, what you see Bush doing is thinking of a way out of the question. Watching those differences can make for great TV.
The second item is less profound and probably a bit more calculating. The last question of the night was something about how since the US is a major share holder in all of these companies what kind of a shareholder were we going to be? Now, this is happening at five til, when most Americans that decided to skip the event but wanted to watch network television were likely tuning back in. His reply was along the lines of “You don’t think I have enough stuff on my plate, bro?” and was one of the best and most straightforward explanations as to why we needed government intervention I’d heard. He probably wasn’t thinking about this specifically, but the idea that such an explanation was given so close to my beloved LOST starting up almost seemed too perfect. What can I say, the man’s got skillz.
OK. Enough political yackery. LOST stuff after the jump.
What’s that old dramatic rule? You introduce the hydrogen bomb in act one and someone is going to have to detonate it in act three?
Yet another gem from the team over at camp LOST, and while I for whatever reason find crying Faraday to be moderately unbearable this episode delivered so much plot (and so succinctly) it’s kind of remarkable that we were all complaining two years ago about how nothing made any god damn sense. “The Variable” filled in so many gaps I feel like I can actually sit here and say with a fairly decent level of authority, “Yeah, I kinda know exactly what is happening.” Just that thirty second bit of dialogue toward the end where Dan says to Jack and Kate, “Here is how it is all going to go down” as we, the audience, say, “Yes. This makes sense to me and those around me.”
Of course, now he’s dead, seemingly killed by both his mother and… his mother, and nearly all of our heroes are in some sort of peril, but at least that’s just drama. The mysteries seem almost wholly wrapped up (granted, there are still enough unknowns out there to fill an algebra book (or quantum science or whathaveyou) but at this stage, knowing what we know, that stuff mostly falls into the “oh, that” category. Sure we’d like to know, but it isn’t going to keep me up at night.
What’s interesting about reveals is how they’re done. For the first 40 minutes we were treated to revelation after revelation, as Dan told the frumpy doctor that he was from the future and Miles was his son, that Eloise and Whidmore were Dan’s parents, and this that and the other — all things we knew, but which are satisfying to hear. This paired against the ending, where we learn something we didn’t know (and the inevitable cliffhanger) really packs a punch. The writing has always been good, but it is these last two seasons (specifically since Brian K. Vaughn has come on board) where they’ve really found a way how pace these things perfectly — I’m curious if that is an influence derived from comic-book storytelling?
What is so amazing is how this season has somehow managed to deliver one fantastic episode after another with a lot of our characters separated by space and time. Season two tried to do this with space and failed — perhaps the lesson is you need those first few seasons under your belt to establish the characters before you can successfully break them apart. I mean, Locke is a freaking dead man walking and arguably the single most important character in the show and yet it feels like he’s been totally sidelined this season. What’s odd is everything has been so great, I haven’t even minded.
Ah, but poor Dan Faraday. He was just trying to fix a problem he didn’t start, and yet he was killed by the very person who put him up to it. If that isn’t a political metaphor, I don’t know what is.