Featuring Matt Anderson and Ben De Bono
Standard Podcast
April 17, 2024
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Nice job as always, guys. I watched the first season of “Lost” and really enjoyed it, but never went beyond that. So, I guess I’m spoiling myself by listening, but I still found it an interesting conversation.
By the way, Ben, the way you feel about Lost’s rewatchability is exactly the way I feel about the new BSG. Knowing that not all of the important questions don’t get answered, and being so frustrated by that, makes me think I will never watch the series over. For all of the fine acting and writing and effects that show boasted, it had its own problem with “mystery debt” that it couldn’t pay off, and that’s a real shame. Anyway…
I agree there’s usually a prejudice against genre fiction at awards shows, but, on the other hand, “Lost” garnered a series total of 11 wins (and 55 nominations). So I think the attitude may be changing (probably largely due in part to Peter Jackson’s Tolkien trilogy). (And, hey, “Star Trek” 2009 got the franchise its first Oscar, for makeup — sure, a technical award, but its something!)
By the way, I think you should use one of those “biff, bam, bop” sounds after “Take that, Science!” Or maybe a big sci-fi explosion from Star Wars or Star Trek.
I agree with you on BSG, though I think the problem is to a much lesser extent than Lost. With BSG, I think it’s more that some of the answers were unsatisfying. I personally didn’t mind them, but I can see why many people found things like The Final Five, the truth behind head 6 and the whole non-answer on who season 4 Starbuck was to be really dissatisfying.
That said, the reason I think BSG has high rewatchability is because it had very satisfying storylines with good resolution. Stories like New Caprica, the arrival of the Pegasus, Zarek’s rebellion and the search for earth were all resolved in very satisfying ways. By contrast, Lost was just one mystery after another, very few of which ever found real resolution. BSG is far from perfect, but I found it much more satisfying than Lost
Good point about BSG – it did start and end several storylines within the overall series satisfactorily. (I’m not sure I would include the search for Earth among them — the music worked as a locator how, again, exactly? — but at least they attempted an answer.) I could have forgiven the last half-season a lot if they’d chosen an explanation for head Starbuck and if the realization of the shared opera house vision had been pulled off more elegantly.
I would say that the search for earth was satisfying in the sense that they actually found it. Maybe the show writers pulled a bit of a deus ex machina in order to get us there, but the scene in the middle of season 4 when they find earth desolate and destroyed is one of the most haunting moments in the entire series. It blew me away when I first saw it.
The second half of season 4 definitely had its issues, especially with pacing, but the Zarek/Gaeta rebellion was amazing. Definitely one of my favorite story arcs in the show