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  • De Nova

    • 10 out of 10
    • The Redwalls
    • Wow! Perhaps my 5-star rating is simply because the Redwalls are not only new and fresh (none of them older than 22!), or perhaps its because -- despite their ages -- they are able to totally capture
  • Mystics Anonymous

    • 8 out of 10
    • Mystics Anonymous
    • Mystics Anonymous is the brainchild project of Jeff Steblea, a fantastic songwriter and good friend of mine, as well. In fact, I even played the drums on all but one of the tracks on this album. Jef
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Once More, with Feeling

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    • Various Artists
    • Most musical episodes of TV shows frankly stink. They are usually little more than ill-conceived vehicles intended to let the stars show off what musical talent they have. Once More, With Feeling,

  • Chicago Transit Authority

    • 10 out of 10
    • Chicago
    • For those of you who don't know, Chicago didn't always suck, and everyone in the band didn't always play a keyboard. When the band started off they were pioneers of rock and jazz fusion, and guita

  • Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

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    • Arctic Monkeys
    • Get on your dancing shoes
      You sexy little swine

      -Arctic

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Lost Episode 3.11: "Enter 77"

Episode 3.11: "Enter 77"
Original Airdate: March 7th, 2007

When it comes to logic and storytelling, I have a simple rule: If I’m engaged, logic can eat my underwear.

I’m never the one complaining about how the refractional angle of Greedo’s blaster in Star Wars means that he could never shoot first. Instead, it bugs me because it makes Han Solo seem less cool, and that affects the character, and thus the overall story.

So a show like Lost, where logic and "realism" are practically nonexistent, doesn’t often get my internal anal retentive radar going. Unless it’s a craptacular episode overall, or barring that, yet another example of the show prioritizing its "mysteries" over the integrity of the storytelling.

"Enter 77" wasn’t actually that craptacular at all. In fact, it was a fairly taut, compelling piece of drama. For the sake of your sanity and mine, I’ll even disregard the writers’ addition of YET ANOTHER STRANGE AND MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER to the show’s endless ensemble. (For a supposedly deserted island, there sure are a lot of residents.)

But this week’s episode did commit that other cardinal sin, killing logic to save the "mystery," when that damn satellite dish went kaboom because John Locke is an idiot.

I think it officially started going pear-shaped for me when Locke decided to FINISH HIS COMPUTER CHESS GAME INSTEAD OF GUARDING THE CREEPY GUY WITH THE PATCH WHO WANTS TO KILL HIM. I can’t really forgive that high level of logical nonsense.

Hey, I like computer games, video games, what-have-you. Sometimes I get really drawn in. I can lose hours playing a title I enjoy.

If, however, I were in a room with a rifle in my hand, and I was standing guard over the unconscious form of a dude who I know has every intention of murdering me and my friends if he wakes up, there is not a game in the known universe that would be compelling enough to make me leave that crazy murderous dude lying on the floor and play it.

So there’s that. One stupid twist of the plot, and suddenly my enjoyment of the episode is shot to hell. I’m groaning, shouting at the TV, frustrated and angry. Everything that has come before is deflated...and even more so when Locke actually pushes the number 77 and BLOWS UP THE SATELLITE.

Talk about a cheap ploy. The writers show us a building where there’s enough technology for Sayid to easily at least figure out where they are and what’s going on. They put the characters in the building. Then because Locke’s an idiot who does not LEARN FROM THE FACT THAT EVERYTHING THE ISLAND TOLD HIM TO DO HAS BEEN EVIL AND WEIRD, he pushes "77" and blows the building up good.

How are we, as fans of the show, supposed to take this episode? Are we supposed to shrug our shoulders, and chuckle understandingly in Locke’s general direction, and then march back in front of our televisions next week for another pointless hour?

It boggles my mind. This week’s episode became the equivalent of Gilligan’s Island, where some crazy scheme to get the castaways home would pop up every week or couple weeks, and by the end of the half-hour, of COURSE that scheme is a bust, and everything is back to normal. Except the contract Lost has built with its viewers isn’t for a mindless half-hour sitcom; it’s for a mindful hour-long drama, where we SHOULD expect that we can invest ourselves into the events and the characters without being smacked around by the story-line.

Man, did the shark go back into the water? Already? Who told him to do that?! Jump, shark, jump! Jump and take Locke’s leg while you’re at it.

iTunes Links:

Lost Series
Lost Season 3
"Stranger in a Strange Land"


Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He’s been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.

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