Yeah, I'm pretty hooked on Lost as well. I didn't watch the first season, though. I was barely aware that it existed, because almost all my TV watching goes on higher on the cable box than the networks.
But I had it recommended, so I went and rented the first season on DVD. Now that I'm having to wait a week or more between episodes, it feels glacial. I want my instant gratification back.
I really like watching series on DVD, though, if for no better reason than super-tense moments aren't interrupted by hollering car salesmen in goofy hats telling me to come on down.
MY got me watching The Wire. Fucking Henley did the same thing to me with Deadwood and BSG; I'm terrified that I'm going to turn into comic book geek now. ("Comic book geek" is not meant as a meaningful slam, Gary.)
I offer hope, even though I admit Lost is killing me for exactly the same reasons: I felt that way about Carnivale but the ending of the last season was so unremittingly stupid that I shall now be able to resist it when it comes back.
I thought of something more hopeful. I was able to stop watching X-Files once I concluded it was stupid and not going anywhere, even though the series kept on running.
Joe, I got sucked in through the "it's not tv" mystique. I ponied up for aitch-bo for The Sopranos and then stuck around through various other serieses, rather than drop the subscription.
On the other hand, I clung to Northern Exposure to the bitter end. And why aren't repeats of that ever on TV, anyway?
I saw every Lost last year, was really excited for the season premiere, and while I meant to watch the next two other things have gotten in the way. I haven't really missed them though.
I checked on IMDB. I stopped watching before Duchovny left. But looking at the dates, it might have had something to do with exogenous factors rather than my wish to incur further self-loathing from watching bad tv.
So is this post some kind of mimetic revenge, in which you'll slowly reveal whom it is you're mad at! Because I want to know. And I want to know who else is trashing on him or her.
Has there ever been a show whose quality tanked but then recovered? The only pattern of suckitude I've observed is monotone increasing.
I wonder, because so much of the time I've spent watching bad TV was in the hope that this time it would be good, the way it used to be. If such an improvement were a known impossibility, I could just give up hope and get on with things.
Well West Wing season five is universally thought to be much worse than four or six, so shows can have bad seasons and then better ones again, though it's not clear that six was as good or better than four.
I get back from rehearsal halfway through "Lost." I think I crossed over from intrigued to irritated when, in the previews for next week's episode-- that japanese guy! aha!
Well West Wing season five is universally thought to be much worse than four or six
Not arbitrarily, though. They changed writers after season four and finally seemed to hit their stride by season six. And to be honest, all dialogue post-Sorkin has been a little over-the-top, I think.
Also, does that mean that we are currently watching season seven? Gosh.
West Wing is, I think, pretty terrible these days. It wasn't that much good in the last season Sorkin was there, and I don't know that I'd say it has improved.
And I'm pretty sure he's only going to know English within the confines of a dream sequence.
I agree that Lost could easily devolve into the kind of aimlessness that killed X-Files. Its creator's previous show, Alias, suffers from that. But I think it'd be wrong to say that there's clear evidence that it's happening already.
It was only a test. Only a true honky would find it fit to have a Korean man to play a Japanese character. Hopefully I have sufficiently demonstrated that you'll never truly be one of us.
"Lost" is wretched. I found myself watching it in morbid fascination because a friend had the first sixteen episodes on tape, and one just ran right into the other, and despite the fact that I knew the show was going nowhere, the serial nature of the episodes trumped the lame "sweaty people chase McGuffin interspersed with cheesy personal flashbacks" formula. Once I had to wait a week between episodes, it became far more difficult to swallow, and I finally lost the will to care what was in the stupid hatch.
Like some of the other people here, I watched Lost almost compulsively until missing an episode or two and then realizing suddenly that I didn't care any more.
The Wire. on the other hand--goddamn that scurvy Yglesias!
The one or two times I saw the Wire, in hotel rooms*, I dug it. Any show where some of the big climactic moments consist of people poring over tape transcripts is jake with me.
*I don't have a TV, so I don't have to worry about this problem that afflicts all of you, and I can devote all my waking hours to BLLOOOGGGINNNNGGG!
I don't have a TV either. Yglesias so successfully pumped the Wire that I rented the DVD version of the first three episodes. They had some kind of local gravitational effect on me; I had to know how the stories turned out. But then, helas, the next disc in the season was checked out, overdue, past payment, and even the famously disaffected employees at Kim's softened and became sympathetic at the sight of my abject need. No longer a random customer to be loathed on principle, I became that poor schlep who needed the next Wire fix. That shit is tightly written, especially the first season: every episode is plotted into the whole, and no thread is left unworked. The Wire is hands down the best TV I've ever seen.
I loved the first season of Wired. I only saw the second intermittently, and then I dropped cable because I wasn't watching it enough. I think it's time to start from the beginning again and get all the episodes from Netflix. My sister just did this with a BBC production of Tinker Tailor and said it was really fun.
I thought the consensus on The Wire was that in recent years it's come to believe too much of its own hype, and is more about boosterism/hipster oneupsmanship than honest reviews of avant-garde music.
Yeah, I'm pretty hooked on Lost as well. I didn't watch the first season, though. I was barely aware that it existed, because almost all my TV watching goes on higher on the cable box than the networks.
But I had it recommended, so I went and rented the first season on DVD. Now that I'm having to wait a week or more between episodes, it feels glacial. I want my instant gratification back.
I really like watching series on DVD, though, if for no better reason than super-tense moments aren't interrupted by hollering car salesmen in goofy hats telling me to come on down.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 2:54 PM
MY got me watching The Wire. Fucking Henley did the same thing to me with Deadwood and BSG; I'm terrified that I'm going to turn into comic book geek now. ("Comic book geek" is not meant as a meaningful slam, Gary.)
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 2:57 PM
I offer hope, even though I admit Lost is killing me for exactly the same reasons: I felt that way about Carnivale but the ending of the last season was so unremittingly stupid that I shall now be able to resist it when it comes back.
I think.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:04 PM
Wait...someone's been watching Carnivale?
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:06 PM
I'm terrified that I'm going to turn into comic book geek now.
It doesn't take much...
Posted by tom | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:08 PM
I thought of something more hopeful. I was able to stop watching X-Files once I concluded it was stupid and not going anywhere, even though the series kept on running.
Joe, I got sucked in through the "it's not tv" mystique. I ponied up for aitch-bo for The Sopranos and then stuck around through various other serieses, rather than drop the subscription.
On the other hand, I clung to Northern Exposure to the bitter end. And why aren't repeats of that ever on TV, anyway?
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:15 PM
HBO is so much better than anything else, ever.
I'm only exaggerating slightly.
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:17 PM
I was able to stop watching X-Files once I concluded it was stupid and not going anywhere
I don't believe you: you stopped watching after Duchovny left.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:18 PM
That is a base canard, sir.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:23 PM
I saw every Lost last year, was really excited for the season premiere, and while I meant to watch the next two other things have gotten in the way. I haven't really missed them though.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:34 PM
I checked on IMDB. I stopped watching before Duchovny left. But looking at the dates, it might have had something to do with exogenous factors rather than my wish to incur further self-loathing from watching bad tv.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:35 PM
There's an invisible "not" in there.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:35 PM
FX is beginning to trump HBO in my book. Rescue Me, The Shield, and Nip/Tuck -- all awesome.
Lost needs to get on with the plot already. It's the third episode and, what, 12 hours have elapsed?
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:36 PM
It's the third episode and, what, 12 hours have elapsed?
Agreed; this is part of what drives me up the wall: I know they're manipulating me.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:39 PM
So is this post some kind of mimetic revenge, in which you'll slowly reveal whom it is you're mad at! Because I want to know. And I want to know who else is trashing on him or her.
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:43 PM
?, not !
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:44 PM
Tom has enough people making fun of him without me piling on.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:45 PM
Has there ever been a show whose quality tanked but then recovered? The only pattern of suckitude I've observed is monotone increasing.
I wonder, because so much of the time I've spent watching bad TV was in the hope that this time it would be good, the way it used to be. If such an improvement were a known impossibility, I could just give up hope and get on with things.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:48 PM
Isn't there something of a consensus that the Simpsons was awesome, became sucky, and is again pretty good?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:49 PM
You're going to deny Buns?
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:53 PM
Saturday Night Live has gone through at least one Boom/Suck cycle. Can we turn that into a Nip/Tuck joke?
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:55 PM
Well West Wing season five is universally thought to be much worse than four or six, so shows can have bad seasons and then better ones again, though it's not clear that six was as good or better than four.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:55 PM
Tom has enough people making fun of him without me piling on.
Don't worry about me. I can handle this campaign to give me a nickname. It's coming from a guy with a dog named "Freckles", after all.
And re: Simpsons — the potential is now there. I thought it was irretrievable, but the season premiere was pretty damn good.
Posted by tom | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:56 PM
I get back from rehearsal halfway through "Lost." I think I crossed over from intrigued to irritated when, in the previews for next week's episode-- that japanese guy! aha!
Posted by FL | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 3:58 PM
The Japanese are very fast learners, Labs.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 4:03 PM
Well West Wing season five is universally thought to be much worse than four or six
Not arbitrarily, though. They changed writers after season four and finally seemed to hit their stride by season six. And to be honest, all dialogue post-Sorkin has been a little over-the-top, I think.
Also, does that mean that we are currently watching season seven? Gosh.
Posted by Sam K | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 4:05 PM
West Wing is, I think, pretty terrible these days. It wasn't that much good in the last season Sorkin was there, and I don't know that I'd say it has improved.
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 4:07 PM
I was hooked on Lost for about half of an episode, then drifted away during the commercial, forgot I'd been hooked, didn't return. Won't.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 4:17 PM
that japanese guy! aha!
Oi, honky, he's Korean.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 4:56 PM
And I'm pretty sure he's only going to know English within the confines of a dream sequence.
I agree that Lost could easily devolve into the kind of aimlessness that killed X-Files. Its creator's previous show, Alias, suffers from that. But I think it'd be wrong to say that there's clear evidence that it's happening already.
Posted by tom | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 4:59 PM
She's right. I was going to say it, but everyone likes to call bullshit whenever I say something.
I even looked it up for you.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 4:59 PM
Persians can be honkies too.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 5:00 PM
We have arrived.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 5:06 PM
Welcome to Honktopia.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 5:11 PM
Sweet. Let's waltz!
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 5:15 PM
Dancing?
You have much to learn.
Posted by tom | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 5:18 PM
Darn it. Umm...what do you say to a black man in a three-piece suit?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 5:19 PM
I even looked it up for you.
Are you certain that his character is not Japanese? Admittedly, I do not watch Lost, but it seems possible.
Posted by Sam K | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 5:22 PM
Feel free to compliment the working class for working.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 5:23 PM
Don't try to trick me.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 5:24 PM
The character, Jin-Soo Kwon is Korean.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 5:25 PM
Don't try to trick me.
It was only a test. Only a true honky would find it fit to have a Korean man to play a Japanese character. Hopefully I have sufficiently demonstrated that you'll never truly be one of us.
Posted by Sam K | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 5:32 PM
Welcome to Honktopia.
If you were a native, you'd know that it's Honkistan, Pokerface. SB is now officiallly a indeterminately gendered person of color.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 6:11 PM
"Lost" is wretched. I found myself watching it in morbid fascination because a friend had the first sixteen episodes on tape, and one just ran right into the other, and despite the fact that I knew the show was going nowhere, the serial nature of the episodes trumped the lame "sweaty people chase McGuffin interspersed with cheesy personal flashbacks" formula. Once I had to wait a week between episodes, it became far more difficult to swallow, and I finally lost the will to care what was in the stupid hatch.
Posted by Isle of Toads | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 6:43 PM
Pokerface
I'm not showing you my cards.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 7:21 PM
I see Venus, I see Mars
I see Standpipe Bridgeplate's cards
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 7:32 PM
now you just need to start watching veronica mars! infinitely more satisfying than lost, though it's a little bit like apples and oranges.
Posted by catherine | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 9:10 PM
Like some of the other people here, I watched Lost almost compulsively until missing an episode or two and then realizing suddenly that I didn't care any more.
The Wire. on the other hand--goddamn that scurvy Yglesias!
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 10:27 PM
The one or two times I saw the Wire, in hotel rooms*, I dug it. Any show where some of the big climactic moments consist of people poring over tape transcripts is jake with me.
*I don't have a TV, so I don't have to worry about this problem that afflicts all of you, and I can devote all my waking hours to BLLOOOGGGINNNNGGG!
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 10:33 PM
Stop it now, I've been successfully resisting the Wire.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 10:39 PM
The wire is good.
Posted by Joe O | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 10:49 PM
I don't have a TV either. Yglesias so successfully pumped the Wire that I rented the DVD version of the first three episodes. They had some kind of local gravitational effect on me; I had to know how the stories turned out. But then, helas, the next disc in the season was checked out, overdue, past payment, and even the famously disaffected employees at Kim's softened and became sympathetic at the sight of my abject need. No longer a random customer to be loathed on principle, I became that poor schlep who needed the next Wire fix. That shit is tightly written, especially the first season: every episode is plotted into the whole, and no thread is left unworked. The Wire is hands down the best TV I've ever seen.
Fucking Yglesias.
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 10:54 PM
Was 50 unclear?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 10:56 PM
[redacted]
Posted by [redacted] | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 10:59 PM
Meet the new regime, same as the old regime....
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 11:03 PM
I need to join one of those "agree heartily with the blogger" blogs.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 11:04 PM
whatever, punk.
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 11:24 PM
Hey man, you wanna lose all that time with Lost, be my guest. At least you're not dating, which I hear is a real waste of time.
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 11:28 PM
Thanks Jack, all better now.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 11:31 PM
[Pang of remorse, quickly suppressed.]
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 10- 7-05 11:38 PM
A political centrist who spells poorly and recommends addictive shit movies..... the case is developing nicely. Next: sex scandal.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 10- 8-05 8:33 AM
Ogged, you should really rent The Wire. I hear it's good.
Posted by Matthew Yglesias | Link to this comment | 10- 8-05 10:54 AM
I'm downloading some episodes right now. If I like it, I'll kill you.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 8-05 10:57 AM
I loved the first season of Wired. I only saw the second intermittently, and then I dropped cable because I wasn't watching it enough. I think it's time to start from the beginning again and get all the episodes from Netflix. My sister just did this with a BBC production of Tinker Tailor and said it was really fun.
Posted by cw | Link to this comment | 10- 8-05 11:19 AM
I thought the consensus on The Wire was that in recent years it's come to believe too much of its own hype, and is more about boosterism/hipster oneupsmanship than honest reviews of avant-garde music.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 10- 8-05 12:23 PM
S(till)ALBW?
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 10- 8-05 12:57 PM