Desmond, who exactly are you? And what's up with those damn numbers (which were on the canister of stuff that he injected himself with, and which were also what he inputs into his computer before hitting the "execute" button)?
Ahhh, this is how I know that it's a "new year": the new season of Lost began last night, and not a moment too soon. I've been turning people on to it left and right, as if winning the Best Drama Emmy weren't enough to do so. I also picked up the Season 1 DVD last week, and have been basking in the mystery ever since. For the most part, I've avoided the spoiler sites as much as possible--no sense in being too hermenuetically greedy.
And honestly, I can't do much here but express appreciation that the show seems poised to continue as my overall favorite. The hatch is now open, and last night's episode intensified some of last season's mysteries (the numbers) and offered some new ones (Desmond, Walt, a big ass magnet, and a circa-1950s fallout shelter). Wednesday is definitely going to be the axis around which my entertainment week rotates this year.
(p.s. I'm getting a fair bit of traffic, thanks to the title of this post. FYI, "Make Your Own Kind of Music" is an old tune from The Mamas and the Papas. Don't know if that's the version that played in the episode, though. It's been covered by Streisand, among others...)
Invasion was not quite the blockbuster that the (admittedly biased) previews promised, but I'll probably hold out for a couple of weeks before I decide on it. One of the problems that occurs to me right away is that the very title of the show basically gives away the opening plot twist, and rather than starting in media res, the way that Lost did, the pilot for Invasion plods along, introducing the characters in what was a pretty slow fashion. Ranger Russ and Dave are basically Scully and Mulder respectively, but unlike X-Files, there's no ambiguity to tease us with. The truth is out there, in the form of shiny lights, and we know that in the very first scene. There's a little tension with Rose, I guess, but otherwise, the characters are all lagging behind the viewers in terms of what they know.
Contrasted with Lost, where we know as little as the characters themselves, the vibe is a lot less mysterious, and minus the tension. In spots, like the one where Russ asks the sheriff how he still had cell service, there's plot convenience rather than character consistency, which is another major difference between the two shows.
But we'll see, I suppose. Compared to at least a couple of other recent "alien" shows (I'm thinking of The 4400 and Battlestar Galactica), Invasion seems pretty weak, but I'm willing to give it a shot.
