The Official "Lost" the series discussion

[Deberg_1990]

I figured I would start a thread for this and see what happens....there seemed to be quite a few viewers on the board for this show the past few weeks.....I like the direction the show is taking so far......episode 3 tonight at 7 central on ABC....

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by Red Brooklyn

Most of my LOST friends tell me I would love The Wire. Many tell me it's the best show ever on television.

It is. Uneqivocally. The Wire is in an utterly different league. Baby Lee told me once that he thought Deadwood was better and I still haven't looked at him the same way (which isn't to say that Deadwood isn't a top 5-7 drama of all time, because it is).

Originally Posted by Buck

Have you ever read House of Leaves?

Yes. Of Danielewski's work I have read that and Only Revolutions.

[Buck]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

Fallacious reasoning. I guess that Desperate Housewives is a way-better show than Lost, then, huh? Oh, man, Transformers 2 was a great movie; look at the box-office returns it made!

I guess you are right about that. Although I have a feeling that if Lost didn't go up against American Idol for 5 out of its 6 seasons (or maybe it was all 6?) that it would have beat Desperate Housewives.

[Red Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by Chiefless

It's the best I've seen. BUT, I could not quite get into the Sopranos (I know, I know) nor have I seen breaking bad.

I've seen one full episode of The Sopranos (and the last two minutes of the series) and it was fine. Nothing really blew me away about it, but it's too small a sample to form a strong, valid opinion.

Breaking Bad, looks very interesting to me. I'm really looking forward to that one. I must say that Mad Men doesn't interest me much. Except for the fact that people who know me really well tell me I would love it, I just don't have much interest. Yet.

I'd like to knock out Deadwood, The Wire and Breaking Bad before I tackle the other shows people have recommended. Those three have the most draw for me right now.

[Buck]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

Yes. Of Danielewski's work I have read that and Only Revolutions.

Is it worth a read? I actually started it, but got bored with the narrator side of the story.

[Red Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by Buck

Have you ever read House of Leaves?

One of my favorites. Love this book!

Haven't tackled Only Revolutions yet. It scares me a bit.

[Buck]

Also, the story side of the book (I know the whole thing is the story, but hopefully you know what i mean), started freaking me out.

[Red Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by Buck

Also, the story side of the book (I know the whole thing is the story, but hopefully you know what i mean), started freaking me out.

Oh yes. It's one of the scariest books I've ever read. Something about it just... crept under my skin. I had to put it down for a few weeks to try and shake it off. It was giving me nightmares. But I loved it all the more for that.


Great read.

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by Red Brooklyn

Where does TV fit in (for you) on this spectrum? More toward escape? Or more toward serious discussion of humanity? I'm sure it depends on the show, but I just mean as a medium, as an art form.

Sub question: What are a couple of your favorite books that engage the world and the subject of humanity?

It absolutely depends on the show. I watch a lot of TV but only the nonfiction programs are for pure entertainment. I treat both comedies and dramas with the same seriousness that I treat film. I have a relentless energy for seriously engaging with art; it constitutes nearly all of my time, whether I am watching/viewing/reading something or creating things myself (I'm a writer and I do some acting, too).

Favorite books? That is so open-ended that it is tough to answer. There's so much I could put down here, from Shakespeare to Dickens to Beckett to Naipaul to Whitney Terrell to etc etc etc. The books that are considered to be classics - part of the canon - are always great places to start.

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by Buck

Is it worth a read? I actually started it, but got bored with the narrator side of the story.

Yeah, its worth a read. I think I was committed to reading it out of respect for the text layout.

[Buck]

I have a hard time jumping back and forth from the Narrator side to the story side.

When I first read the part about him being in the tattoo parlor and him knowing something was right behind him, that scared the shit out of me and I checked behind my back.

When the dude in the story side gets lost in the caverns in his house, that scared the shit out of me too.

Also I had to re-read a lot of sentences in this book. It took me 4 hours to read the first 100 pages, while I read the entire book Cat's Cradle in less than 4 hours the next day.

[Chiefless]

Originally Posted by Red Brooklyn

I've seen one full episode of The Sopranos (and the last two minutes of the series) and it was fine. Nothing really blew me away about it, but it's too small a sample to form a strong, valid opinion.

Breaking Bad, looks very interesting to me. I'm really looking forward to that one. I must say that Mad Men doesn't interest me much. Except for the fact that people who know me really well tell me I would love it, I just don't have much interest. Yet.

I'd like to knock out Deadwood, The Wire and Breaking Bad before I tackle the other shows people have recommended. Those three have the most draw for me right now.

Mad Men is worth the effort as well. I really like that show kinda despite itself. I really did not think I would like it. But, I couldn't stop watching. To tie it back into Lost: If Lost was sincerely attempting to be a character driven show, it pales miserably to Mad Men.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

It is. Uneqivocally. The Wire is in an utterly different league. Baby Lee told me once that he thought Deadwood was better and I still haven't looked at him the same way (which isn't to say that Deadwood isn't a top 5-7 drama of all time, because it is).


Yes. Of Danielewski's work I have read that and Only Revolutions.

To be fair, we're comparing a Veyron and a Koenigsegg here.

But the things that push Deadwood over the top for me, and FTR it stands as #1 all time [even though it kind of petered out at the end, and the abruptness of it's ending for John From Cincinnati makes it difficult to assess without bias].

1) Its loving detailed use of language, not the 'bad' language but the forced mal-eloquence of frontiersmen who needed to establish their intelligence and strength in short order as a matter of survival.

2) The continued exploration of what it means to civilize, started with Scorsese through Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, and culminating in Gangs of New York, and echoed in Milch's earlier work in HSB and NYPD Blue.

In that sense, The Wire is the other end of the continuum, how civilization unwinds and decays. I just find the exploration of how humans, injected into a world where there are no rules and no structures for ordered conduct, set about erecting those structures to be more interesting overall than the decay side.

3) While I appreciate all the work that went into the drama in The Wire, the immediacy of the storylines in Deadwood was more gripping for me. Whether it was the physical, visceral pain of Al passing gleets, or the drunken sadness of Calamity Jane mourning her only friend, or the vainglorious anger of Seth when the honor of his love was besmirched, or the dead-eyed scheming of Tolliver, and don't get me started on Trixie's tale . . . I invested heavier in those storylines than those of The Wire. Maybe it's latent racism, maybe it's that Deadwood tried to show glimpses of people trying to summon their better angels, while The Wire focused more on how shitty everyone is at their base.

4) Finally, Deadwood was as accomplished at humor as it was at drama. No way on earth Bunk losing his tie matches up with Swegin one who sucks the penis!!!

In short, if I had to summarize as succinctly as possible, as The Wire is to a Scorsese masterpiece, Deadwood is to Shakespeare.

EDIT to add: How the **** did it take me until to today to realize that Martha Bullock is Skyler White?

[Shag]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

It is. Uneqivocally. The Wire is in an utterly different league. Baby Lee told me once that he thought Deadwood was better and I still haven't looked at him the same way (which isn't to say that Deadwood isn't a top 5-7 drama of all time, because it is).

I started watching the first episode of The Wire a few months ago, and was so distracted by the standard def, 4x3 format, that I didn't keep watching. How sad is that, lol? I'll have to suck it up one of these days...

[Buck]

Originally Posted by Shag

I started watching the first episode of The Wire a few months ago, and was so distracted by the standard def, 4x3 format, that I didn't keep watching. How sad is that, lol? I'll have to suck it up one of these days...

[Red Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

It absolutely depends on the show. I watch a lot of TV but only the nonfiction programs are for pure entertainment. I treat both comedies and dramas with the same seriousness that I treat film. I have a relentless energy for seriously engaging with art; it constitutes nearly all of my time, whether I am watching/viewing/reading something or creating things myself (I'm a writer and I do some acting, too).

Favorite books? That is so open-ended that it is tough to answer. There's so much I could put down here, from Shakespeare to Dickens to Beckett to Naipaul to Whitney Terrell to etc etc etc. The books that are considered to be classics - part of the canon - are always great places to start.

Cool. I was just trying to get a grasp on your tastes. Thanks for the response.

I tend to have the same sort of outlook and interaction with my art. I went through a phase where I treated film with much more class and weight as I did TV. I have adjusted that a little bit... on both ends.

I still think theatre is the highest/most pure art form. Especially in striving to achieve the sort of connection you're describing. Followed by literature, then visual arts (painting/drawing/sculture/etc). Film and I have a very on again/off again relationship. And LOST is the first time TV ever transcended entertainment for me.

EDIT: That's not entirely fair... my "elevated" TV experience began with Six Feet Under.

Originally Posted by Buck

When I first read the part about him being in the tattoo parlor and him knowing something was right behind him, that scared the shit out of me and I checked behind my back.

When the dude in the story side gets lost in the caverns in his house, that scared the shit out of me too.

Absolutley. Two of my favorite parts. I totally check behind my back too! I also threw the book down and told it to go **** itself.

Originally Posted by Chiefless

Mad Men is worth the effort as well. I really like that show kinda despite itself. I really did not think I would like it. But, I couldn't stop watching. To tie it back into Lost: If Lost was sincerely attempting to be a character driven show, it pales miserably to Mad Men.

Wow. Quite an endorsement. Maybe I'll have to check it out...