Lost from the beginning (NO SPOILERS)

[McCoy]

Rose and Bernard were awesome. Thanks in no small part to the actors, who were highly experienced in accomplishing a lot with only a little to work with, and being familiar meant built-in credibility with the audience.

Edited to add: Sam Anderson has been around forever, and he has a high likeability factor ie the audience is familiar with him and like him right away. He has to work at making a character disliked. And his skill is such that he can do it, well and quickly, if need be.

 

[Orac Zen]

The way Arzt (for example) was introduced seemed organic, natural. In contrast, Paolo and Nikki seemed to drop like a rock in a millpond, and the fact she promptly joined the dots on something Our Heroes ought to have worked out immediately (remember Locke's "How dumb are we?" line, which made it even more ridiculously obvious) didn't help. Plus they were boring.

Rose and Bernard ruled.

 

[propita]

One has to wonder whether there's any way "extra" characters could have entered the foreground -without- arousing the fans' ire by this point in the show's run.

I'm tyring to keep this post to what's happened by Odo's viewing.

I think that the LOST writers could introduce characters besides the original crash survivors effectively--they just didn't always do it.

Nikki and Paolo appeared as background in a handful of episodes, then were killed. Fans didn't like new characters, especially background characters, being "foisted" on them. They were pretty reviled by most viewers.

Do Rose and Bernard count as background characters? Their appearances have hop, skipped, and jumped in several episodes--enough so that the viewer knows who they are. No one seems to really hate them.

Does Rousseau count? She's not a survivor of the crash, but she's appeared in a number of episodes, some even almost Rousseau-centric, yet she's only here and there. No one seems to really hate her.

Does Ben count? He's also not a survivor of the crash, yet he's appearing in more episodes and, as Odo implies, seems pretty important.

And Ardzt? A pretty short-term, "new," character--yet memorable. Maybe that's only for his outcome.

New and/or recurring and/or short-term characters can be well-written on this show. So far, it's 2 crappily-written characters of this type and 3 decently-written characters of this type.

 

[RoJoHen]

The problem with Nikki and Paolo was that they randomly showed up three seasons into the show but had apparently been there the whole time. The writers threw them at us and expected us to care, but at this point, we didn't need nor want to meet new survivors of the plane crash. Rose (and Bernard) was there from the very beginning, so when she popped up from time to time, we already had a context for her, and we already cared. Artz at least popped up early enough in the show that it was believable that he had been there since the crash.

Characters like Ben and Rousseau don't count. They were introduced along the way as part of the story. We weren't led to believe that they had been living on the beach with the survivors the whole time.

 

[DonIago]

^Exactly.

My point was limited to folks who were on Oceanic 815, not Desmond or Ben or Rousseau.

Hell, can you imagine if Charlie had been Paolo'd? There would have been endless and justifiable "Desmond's having visions about someone who didn't even matter until this season?" criticism.

 

[Hunter X]

What I think would've been the best route would've been to bring one or two of the regular extras into small speaking roles. Surely there were a couple that could act a little bit. Then the fans could've had a bit of fun trying to spot them in the background of earlier episodes. One more tiny detail to obsess over, right?

The reason why this didn't happen, I think, is indicated in how good looking Nikki and Paulo are. They aren't just any "background characters" brought into the foreground, they're also hot to the point of making their appearance seem ridiculously artificial to me. I didn't really feel like they were being "forced" on me; they weren't really around enough for that. I just felt like the whole thing was kind of silly, and that they were terrible, uninteresting actors. Then again, they also had to compete with Ben and Desmond also becoming regulars the same year...arguably two of the most interesting characters on the show.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Left Behind:

Ok, with that Nikki and Paulo stuff out of the way, it's time to learn the truth behind the Man from Tallahassee. Oh, wait, no it's not.

The Others are leaving, and Locke is going with them. The captured castaways are gassed, and left there until they all leave. Then Kate wakes up in the jungle handcuffed to Juliet. They romp through the jungle, encounter the smoke monster, and go back to the barracks for Jack and Sayid. Has Juliet truly been cast out? She was planning to betray Ben, and now that the sub is gone, she would probably hate him all over again. I won't say that Kate and Juliet are forced to trust each other to survive, because they're really not. They pretty much think the same about each other as they did before. There's also an amusing bit with Sawyer trying to be nice, after Hurley makes him think he's going to be banished. I'm not even going to talk about the flashback. It's the usual boring Kate garbage.

I guess the real question from this episode is whose side Juliet is on, and can she be trusted. Jack trusts her, but Jack has been around Ben for a while. Ben is one manipulative bastard, and making Jack trust Juliet so he can use her as a spy sounds about right. Or who knows, maybe she really has been cast out. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

 

[Geck]

In contrast, Paolo and Nikki seemed to drop like a rock in a millpond, and the fact she promptly joined the dots on something Our Heroes ought to have worked out immediately (remember Locke's "How dumb are we?" line, which made it even more ridiculously obvious) didn't help.

Also Sawyer's repeated "Who the hell is [Nikki/Paolo]?!" didn't help. It felt like the writers trying to be clever about the sudden introduction, but it just made them stick out more awkwardly. Fell totally flat as a running gag.

My other problem with them was that Kiele Sanchez was far and away the worst starring actor they had in all six seasons.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I've been busy, so it's been a while. Where was I? Ah, yes:

One of Us:

Juliet deals with some pretty understandable suspicion from the survivors. Then, Claire starts getting sick, and Juliet thinks she can help with a hidden stash of medicine. She does, but not before being ambushed by Sayid and Sawyer. She pretty much schools them, and tells them they're really the last two people on the island that should be judging her.

The flashback is more interesting. We see that Juliet truly is on the island against her will. Ben just continues to be a bastard. If nothing else, this flashback really helps us sympathize with Juliet, and perhaps start to accept her as "one of us." Then we get the rug pulled out from under us.

The whole thing was a plan by Ben to get Jack to trust her so that she could spy on them in camp. You right bastard. Just when I wanted to believe it was real. Oh, they also were directly and intentionally responsible for Claire's illness so that Juliet could seem like a hero by curing it. Really, really not cool. Ben leaves Juliet by saying "see you in a wekk." Well, I eagerly anticipate how that will play out. Though, a week in this show is probably like what four or five episodes?

 

[Lindley]

Also Sawyer's repeated "Who the hell is [Nikki/Paolo]?!" didn't help. It felt like the writers trying to be clever about the sudden introduction, but it just made them stick out more awkwardly. Fell totally flat as a running gag.

As I recall he only said that in "Expose", and that whole episode was a big joke about how much those two weren't working.

 

[Geck]

As I recall he only said that in "Expose", and that whole episode was a big joke about how much those two weren't working.

Really? Granted I haven't seen S3 since it first aired, but I thought I remember him saying it at least 3-4 times, and across different episodes. Otherwise it wouldn't have annoyed me so much...oh well.

I remember 'One Of Us' being one of the highpoints of S3 for me, and being outraged Elizabeth didn't get an emmy nom for it. Her best performance in the series, IMO.

 

[Aragorn]

The flashback is more interesting. We see that Juliet truly is on the island against her will. Ben just continues to be a bastard. If nothing else, this flashback really helps us sympathize with Juliet, and perhaps start to accept her as "one of us."

Was this the episode where Juliet's flashback led directly into the opening scene of the season three premiere?

 

[McCoy]

As I recall he only said that in "Expose", and that whole episode was a big joke about how much those two weren't working.

Really? Granted I haven't seen S3 since it first aired, but I thought I remember him saying it at least 3-4 times, and across different episodes. Otherwise it wouldn't have annoyed me so much...oh well.

I think the other times were the rest of us.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Catch-22:

God does it suck to be Desmond. He's really cursed by these flashes. They've told him that Charlie is going to die, and because Desmond is such a good guy, he keeps on saving him. But how long can this go on? It would seem no matter how many times Desmond saves him, Charlie is still destined to die. So Desmond has to make a choice, and he chooses to stop wasting time and let it happen. Oddly enough, though, this time Charlie wouldn't have even been in danger had Desmond not had the flash that made him bring everyone into the jungle. Of course, he also never would have found what he did. In the end, of course, Desmond has too much of a heart to just let Charlie die, and saves him once again. His guitar is probably ruined, though.

Desmond's flashback shows his time spent as a monk. Wait, what? A monk? He's a good guy, but he's a coward, and afraid of commitment. He used the monk finding him and helping him after he drunkenly passed out in the street as an excuse to escape the commitment of marriage. Fate, it would seem, has other plans for him. This leads to his first meeting with Penny, and there's an instant rapport. I really really hope the show lets these two have a happy ending.

The trek into the jungle reveals something, maybe? A helicopter goes down over the ocean, but someone jumps out. They find the person's backpack, and inside is a picture of Desmond and Penny. Desmond is convinced that it's Penny herself. Once they find the parachutist though, it's not Penny. She does know Desmond's name, however. What's going on?

 

[McCoy]

I'm not usually big on the romance aspects of shows or movies I watch, but I will admit to being on the Desmond/Penny bandwagon from the beginning.

 

[Orac Zen]

^
Same here, on all counts.

 

[DonIago]

Yeah, D/P was easily one of the more satisfying romances on the show.

 

[Dream]

Desmond/Penny is THE romance of the show. I've seen no one online say that they hate it.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Not only is the Desmond/Penny relationship by far the best on LOST, I would argue it's the second best romance in a sci-fi show behind only John Crichton & Aeryn Sun.

 

[DonIago]

Well, I can't expand on my original comment without spoilers, so...

I think Simon/Kaylee had a great deal of potential, but we'll never know what might have been. Very satisfying to see them finally get that kiss in Serenity, though.