Simon – although you have written off Fantasy, I still feel compelled to recommend George R. R. Martin’s series, A Song of Fire and Ice. The first three novels in the series are stunning, although, admittedly, there is a lot of the POV-switching going on.

I also don’t get what you mean about the flashbacks being commercials? They change the storyline by giving you insight into the character’s intentions. Yes, they do it in a typical set-up/switcheroo dynamic, but it’s a very clever idea to start the story at the crash, allow you to make assumptions about characters, and then switching everything up by showing you that things are not what they seem. Also, the flashbacks show that the characters were connected, even in ways they did not know.

Final thought: You chose the #1 worst episode to stumble upon. The love story there was contrived, and so far has done little but confirm the fact that there are healing properties on the island. But if you are/were a sci-fi fan, start the show from the first episode and you’ll be hooked.

The kid’s name is Walt.

Simon:

The novel approach to the show was great in the beginning, but it wears off pretty quicky once you realise that all the producers are doing is fucking with your mind…It’s like a running bet to see how long they can twist people’s emotions and expectations and then totally not deliver on them (witness the first season’s ending, and checkout what’s gonna happen this season).

Wonderful story, and damn, they put on a good show.

But it’s still fuckin with our heads in the end

I never claimed that they didn’t make a raft, dunno why you brought this up.

And I couldn’t disagree with you more that the flashbacks are integral to the plot. I’m not saying that flashbacks are wrong to use in general, but a half hour’s worth of flashbacks is useless and you’re basically being duped into watching an extra half hour of the show’s commercials. Sorry to break it to you.

For instance, why do we have to find out how every single character met and fell in love? The scene where the black woman and the man met while he helped her get her car out of the snow: Why was that needed? Yes, I understand that in order for a couple to get together, they have to meet somewhere, it’s common sense. Imagine if every show in television felt the need to have a flashback in order to explain how two people met? It’d be beyond ridiculous! Not to mention that the meeting scenes are incredibly contrived. The scene where the two asians met in a previous show, after wasting twenty minutes of shoving rich vs. poor sentimentality crap down our throats, the two future lovers run into each other in the park. Then they stare into each other’s eyes and then giggle and then look bashfully at the ground and then look up into each other’s eyes again. THIS IS NOT HOW PEOPLE MEET OR ACT. When I run into a girl I’m attracted to in the park, I either don’t do anything about it, or if I’m feeling particularly brave, I actually start talking to her. We don’t stand there staring at each other for five minutes, giggling bashfully and gazing into each other’s eyes without speaking.

Then later in the most recent episode, we have one whole flashback scene in which they’re standing outside the magical healer’s house, and then a break away to real time, and then a break back to yet another scene in which she’s in the house. You don’t think that this use of flashbacks is kinda obsessive? You don’t think they could have rolled those two scenes into one? You don’t think that the husband would have noticed that his wife was still dying months before she actually did die?

C’mon, is every “Lost” fan taking crazy pills or something?

God, just pointing out the millions of flaws in this show make me dislike it even more.

As much as I love the show, I hate it too. I want something to have a conclusion. Anything!