lost the plot
Yes, it's true. I dove back into Lost last night. Sommer had missed last week's episode too, so she came over and, along with Charles, myself, some beers and a bit of morningroundupering, caught up on what's been going on on the Island.
Short answer: serious shit. They revealed another research station! They killed two characters — and ones whose backstories we were merely somewhat tired of, instead of totally fucking bored by. They inserted a twist! And Ana Lucia and Sawyer played several variations of "hide the pistol". There was lots of stuff going on, and at a pretty good decent pace. I was pleased.
I was even more excited to see that the powers that be have started placing fake Hanso Foundation commercials in the middle of Lost's regular ad breaks. "Paid for by ABC" flashed in the corner of the first one ever-so-briefly, but otherwise it seemed like a low-budget but generally plausible commercial for one of those organizations that doesn't actually sell, make or do anything, yet still feels compelled to purchase TV spots. At the end: dial 1-877-HANSORG for more information.
"Wow!" I thought to myself. "Now that's a good use of Asterisk."
Since we were still working off the Tivoed copy of last week's episode, the phoneline wasn't jammed. We put it on speaker and heard some floaty music and instructions to dial our party's extension or select another option. We hit 1 for general information and got a looping clip of somebody speaking French. Hmm. Pretty intriguing. I mashed the star key a bit and somehow ended up hearing a rap extolling the virtues of Sprite. Er. Okay. Somebody has to pay the bills for this sort of unconventional storytelling, I suppose.
Then it was time for this week's episode. As I said, pretty satisfying. And they ran the same commercial again, except this time the momentary flash said "Paid for by Sprite", and they showed a URL along with the phone number: www.sublymonal.com. If you follow that link you'll find it contains a flash animation of a bunch of TVs showing static, arranged around the word "OBEY".
First of all: this is not a great site for a nonprofit, Mr. Hanso. It's flash-based, there's no action, and the navigation could use some work. You're never going to build your list this way.
Second: it all started falling into place. I think Sommer may have been the first one to put it together. SubLYMONal.com. As in "the only one with lymon (dot com)". And what should we be obeying, anyway? Our thirst, perhaps?
This does not sit well. I don't mind being sent down blind alleys, but I don't expect to find soda machines at the end of them. This ad campaign demonstrates that the show's producers not only don't have a grand vision for the show, they also don't particularly give a shit about whatever it might turn out to be. I fully expect the Others' next onslaught to be warded off by the sight of a CapitalOne card.
I find this particularly crappy because I was completely and totally ready to jump back onboard the Lost bandwagon. As Catherine mentioned, I even decided to waste some time in Illustrator and make a vector version (PDF) of this bitmap of the Dharma Initiative logo. I figured it looked kind of cool, and might be good for some money on SpreadShirt. But after the Sprite Revelation I've pretty much lost interest in the project, to what I'm sure is Catherine's great relief.
Comments
Actually, the commercials, the phone line, and the subLYMONal site are all part of the Lost ARG currently in process. There are more easter eggs to be found... though the revelations they produce are a bit off-plot, as yet. (And, it seems, will stay off-plot, as Season 2 just started running in the UK last week; I can't imagine there'll be any big spoilers forthcoming.)
woo!
but really, i'm glad they killed off boring folks, but another research station? are they just going to keep introducing new research stations to infinity? how about a concrete answer to something?
Yeah, I know it's an ARG. I really like the idea of that, esp. the stuff that surfaced last year about the mapingouti (sp?). But the Sprite connections are a bit too overt for me. Leaves a bad, lymon-like taste in my mouth. Instead of enhancing the TV show, I find it detracts from it. They've made the ARG part of the narrative; by inserting commercial messages into the ARG, they damage the entire narrative.
And Catherine: I'm pretty sure they set a hard limit on the number of stations. They say "station 5 of [something]" in the training videos. I think the total number is 8 or 9. So far we've got the Swan, the Pearl (last night's), the Tailies' abandoned hatch (not confirmed as an "official" hatch, actually), and reports from Michael that the Others have a hatch of their own (same deal as the tailies).
Plus there's the now-abandoned medical hatch where Claire was taken.
Yeah, I really wanted to get excited about the sublymonal site and the "heir apparent" codeword. But there doesn't seem to be any "there" there except for Sprite tie-ins and overbearing vaguery. I'm still not giving up on Lost though. It looks like all-out war is just episodes away.
yeah, I'll stick with the TV show for a while at least. I've got a feeling Michael is lying about the Others' strength, and is luring everyone into a trap. Should be pretty cool.
Whoops. Call me literal girl. I plead yoga-brain.
Interestingly, I was just ranting about the horrific product placement of late in Alias ("So you finally bought the Ford Hybrid, eh?" "Electric. Good for when you need to be quiet." *Grrrr*) and shot my mouth off about how relieved I was that such placements were almost impossible on Lost...
Tom - any reason for using spreadshirt over cafe press?
I was fading on Lost during the middle of the season, but the last few episodes revolving around the fake Henry Gale and the impending throwdown with the Others have brought my interest back. The feeling that this is all being made up as they are going along makes me fear that the whole thing will go off the rails in a very Black Lodge manner sometime soon.
sam: yeah. The Butterstick tees I got from CafePress are okay, but the printed material starts to crack pretty quickly. The spreadshirt DCist tee I have seems a lot more durable, and the logo seems like it's made out of "real" t-shirt printing ink/plastic/whatever. The quality of the cloth is a little better, too. And SS's customization options are nice -- I got sick of creating different products just to get a different colored tee in CP.
The CafePress people have been very nice to me (they even offered some design team time to me during the butterstick heyday), but I think SpreadShirt has the better product right now. It's a little more expensive, but neither is a particularly great deal.
LOST had free rein to add and add and add and add during its first season. Sooner or later, you've got to be responsible for what you've built and where it's going, and that part of the storytelling process has been significantly more utilitarian. Add to that the gambit they took on by introducing the Tailies--which took too long--and the show's ended up more earthbound this year.
In general, the Lindehof/Cuse eps tend to be better. But the Losties (as I've been saying all along) are far to comfortable compared to their panic at the end of the first season. I'd like to see them a lot less comfortable.
Gotta say, you guys skipped out on a pretty tight show.
yeah, I've heard good things about Ghostland Observatory (and not just from you!). If I hadn't committed to covering the roundup I'd have left last night's Lost to the Tivo.
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