LOST - Living on Borrowed Time! Plus: A Bird of Prey Swoops Into SMALLVILLE.

- So last night's LOST ... wow! AWESOME episode, maybe one of my overall favorites of the series to date. Eveything about this one was just so ... cool. And I realize that Lost may be turning off some with its increasing focus on plot and unraveling its long-hidden sci-fi infused mysteries, but I for one am totally geeking out on it. It doesn't hurt that last night's script, by Drew Goddard (Cloverfield), and the great Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man - see my gushing praise for its final issue a few posts down), was tightly written, funny (loved Jack's wink to Kate and her not getting the hint), smart, and just plain kickass.

I mean, last night's ep, to me, was a total contrast to the beginning of Season 2, where we met the Tailies, characters who were mostly unlikable, not played by particularly strong actors in some cases, and seemed to take away from the show's sense of focus and momentum. This time, we meet four new characters, all of whom are, from the get-go, extremely cool and likable and played by some really great actors to boot. I mean, how great, already, is Jeremy Davies? I loved each of their backstories as well - a ghost-buster, a madman, an archaeologist, and a pilot. Each vignette that introduced them was uber-cool, and there was something about the whole setup and their being recruited to go to the island that seemed comfortably familiar. Oh yeah, I know ... and I wonder if I am the only person on the planet to notice this ... these 4 are the Challengers of the Unknown! Four people with unique skills, three men and one woman, brought together to investigate an island, somehow surviving a crash and living on "borrowed time ...". Come on - surely BKV or Goddard were at least giving a nod to Jack Kirby's pre-Fantastic Four team of adventurers. In any case, all four characters were loads of fun, and there's already a great dynamic between them, and between them and the rest of the castaways. Not to mention - their backstories raise tons of interestign questions. Can the one guy really talk with ghosts? Why did Jeremy Davies feel so strange when he saw the footage of Flight 815? What's up with the pilot who was supposed to have flown the doomed Oceanic jet? And most intriguingly -- what the heck is going in with the fossils of the Polar Bear with the Dharma logo that was found by the archaeologist?!?! Damn! More and more, there is definitely some crazy time travel stuff going on (shades of the classic Twilight Zone episode "The Odyssey Of Flight 33"), and I can't wait to find out more. Namely, we got yet another killer cliffhanger, in that we now know the Challengers are after Ben (why ...?), and that Ben has a mole in their ranks (Minkowsky? Michael? Clancy Brown?!?).

This was just one hell of an episode of Lost, full of stuff to ponder and geek out about. Man oh man, I hope the Strike allows this season to finish out, because right now Lost is kicking ass.

My Grade: A

- Now, about SMALLVILLE. I thought last night's episode was ... okay ... but kind of a wasted opportunity. The main reason to get excited about this one was the appearance of DC Comics staple Black Canary, which in theory would be extra special as Green Arrow is already a regular on the show, and in the comics, the two heroes have a long and storied romantic history together. Well, last night, we got a rather generic, CW-ized version of BC. She had an unappealling crew-cut, a weird, Daryl Hannah-in-Blade Runner-esque painted-on mask, and basically, the only resemblance she had to the beloved character of DC Comics fame was the trdemark fishnets and "canary cry" superpower. Otherwise, BC here was pretty paint by numbers, and I could have sworn we've seen this exact scenario a few times already on the show - wannabe hero with questionable methods / motivation / aliiegances, confronts Clark / Oliver, and then eventually is brought over to the side of good and made a member of Smallville's junior justice league. I guess my point is, while it was cool to see Black Canary on Smallville, this episode definitely did not live up to the inherent potential in pairing Clark Kent with Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance. Not by a longshot.

Still, I found the ep mostly enjoyable. The two Luthors were a lot of fun to watch, as always, and the interplay between Clark / Lana / Lois / Chloe was kind of interesting as well. Clark and Lana as a couple have been totally ruined by this show over the years, and by this point Lana is just completely annoying and mostly useless as a character, especially as Clark's insufferably on-again, off-again girlfriend. The two no longer have any chemistry, and week to week it's all but impossible to tell exactly what their current relationship status is. The show never seems to just settle on one status quo when it comes to the two, and the result is a collective ambivalence about them. At one point, I would have said the show should stick to the comics continuity and keep them together until Clark eventually leaves Smallville. But now ... geez, isn't it time he just hooked up with Chloe or even Lois already? In the context of the show, it's been a long time coming.

Smallville right now is just stuck in a rut of blah-ness. It's not terrible, per se, like it was in the season with Jason, when Lana became a witch (shudder), but it's just not all that great, either, with slow-moving plotlines and characters that seem to evolve at the speed of molasses. It's usually an enjoyable diversion, and does enough every week to placate my inner Superman geek, but man, do I wish this show could finally be as great as I had hoped it could be.

My Grade: B -

Allllllright ... time for the weekend, baby! I drink your milkshake!