Thursday, October 05, 2006

Lost & The Nine - Party of Salinger Brothers

Lost - A Tale of Two Cities, The Nine - Pilot

I'm sick and irritable so this will be short, and I'm possibly sicker because instead of going to bed like I should have, I was sucked into watching both Lost (cause I had to) and the premiere of The Nine (cause I was seduced and riveted).

I also realised that the Party of Five Salinger brothers were back to back but now on ABC with Matthew Fox leading up as Jack on Lost, and Scott Wolf (is there something to the animal last names?) on The Nine.

First of all, I'm sure we were all going crazy after that first 5 minute opener on Lost, where we are shown the normal domestic suburban looking lifestyle of Juliette and her book club members, just as we seen Oceanic 815 burst above the skies, wherein not-Henry Gale runs out calmly directing orders to (GASP!) Goodwin and (GASP!) Ethan and the rest of The Others. Pull back and we see this small little quaint neighbourhood amongst the jungles of the island.

Now, there's already been complaint that the rest of the episode was too slow and not revealing enough, but uh. HELLO. it's called LOST. Do you think they are going to reveal everything? I for one just enjoy the ride, as we discover Sawyer (and then later joined by Kate) locked in animal cages leftover from a zoo (which explains the polar bears). Jack is locked up in some underwater cell which is confirmed as Hydra, one of the hatches. We flashback to Jack and his father, the separation/divorce precedings with his wife (Julie Bowen), and we discover not-Henry Gale's name is Ben.

The Nine quickly captivated me with its interesting but simple concept, and great big cast, but I'll go into more in further weeks when my head is not spinning (both from the cold and trying to figure out Lost and what's what in The Nine). I will however make one complaint that prevents The Nine from being a perfect ten. Considering how horrific the whole ordeal of the 52 hour bank hostage was, most of the Nine seemed to recover pretty well so soon after, or at least, the second half of the show seemed much brighter than I expected, unless they were all just putting on their brave faces (which I guess a lot of the characters were, but then, was I just not convinced, or maybe it was just too damn sunny in LA). Still, I could see why everyone has been touting this as the best new show since it fully engages into the stories and all the major characters right away without much dawdling on exposition (I'm talking to you Heroes and Brothers and Sisters). It was faced paced from the start and we got enough clues about each characters to fill in the gaps for now, with inevitable clues highlighted to take notice for future episodes.

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