Why All the Sitting Around?
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: LOST
Whew...for some reason, I'm really feeling beat tonight. I planned to stay in, but Cheeseburger and Shark Hunter came to pick me up, and we joined the gang at Guido's for Libby's last night in town. I spent some time chatting up a lovely young woman, which was great fun, even though Cheeseburger gave me just five minutes to get ready, so I had to make do without shaving and changing my shirt.

I finished watching this week's LOST when I got home. Seriously, I don't get the acclaim this show is getting. Every episode follows the same formula, which is A) something strange happens to one of the characters, who refuses to share it with the rest of the castaways, B) we get a flashback into one of the character's pre-crash life, which is always some elaborate and unbelievable backstory--apparently there were no tourists, businessmen or just regular Joes on that Sydney-to-NY flight, C) somebody needs something, can't find it, and threaten/blackmail/beg the sly ol' Southern conman to get it back, D) at least two characters have a fight or argument over something stupid. Right now, I'm frustrated because, a few episodes back, a crazy dude who wasn't on the plane with everyone else showed up and kidnapped a pregnant woman. You would think that the castaways would be beating the bushes searching for her until they got her back. And a handful of them did just that in one episode. But now I guess they're content to sit around the beach on their asses while the psycho tortures and abuses her. Does it not bother any of LOST's huge audience that these apathetic characters are sitting around twiddling their thumbs while one of them is a kidnap victim? Heck, doesn't it bother any of you that none of them seems interested in exploring the island? How do they know there isn't a major city just a few miles down the beach? They've made a few minor explorations around the island, but haven't covered much of it, at least as far as they know. Yeah, yeah, there's a monster out there (oh, brother), but wouldn't you take the chance? Some of LOST's performances are fine, but I haven't found a shred of believability in most of the main characters, and in fact I find them pretty shallow.

The major exception is the Locke character portrayed by Terry O'Quinn, a wonderful actor who oozes strength, nobility, confidence, mystery, wisdom and humanity. I know--big buildup--but O'Quinn is worth it. You may remember him from Chris Carter's TV series, particularly his semi-regular role on MILLENNIUM as Lance Henriksen's friend/partner/rival/nemesis Peter Watts. He was also THE STEPFATHER, which is a damned effective little horror movie.

Anyway, I'd love to hear some feedback on LOST. Like BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, LOST is an acclaimed genre series whose charms seems to have zipped right over my head. What are you getting out of LOST that I'm not?

I finished watching ROAD RAGE tonight, a 2000 direct-to-video action movie starring Casper Van Dien. To be blunt, Van Dien, whom you'll remember from STARSHIP TROOPERS, has no business making movies. He's completely worthless as an actor, and his oddly orange hair is a distraction. He plays an underprivileged guy who breaks up a fight between a college classmate and her boyfriend, and while giving her a ride home, ends up in a film-length car chase with a psycho in a pickup truck who's trying to kill them. ROAD RAGE has some execrable dialogue, spoken by actors barely above the level of high-school play. The low-budget chases aren't particularly interesting either, and Casper's older wife, Catherine Oxenberg (you remember her from either DYNASTY, LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM or, if you were here on Crappy Movie Night, TIME SERVED, a womens' prison flick where she played a convict/stripper) has a cameo as a forest ranger. I'd rather watch TIME SERVED again. And so would you.