How Lost’s Worst Episode Helped Save the Show

The state that” Stranger in a Strange Area” is the worst season of Lost has never been incontroversial. The seventh season of the second season of the show received nearly universally bad reviews immediately after it first aired in 2007, and its popularity hasn’t improved in the nearly 18 years since its debut. It’s the second-lowest-ranked ]…]

The season How Lost’s Worst Helped Save the Show first appeared on Den of Geek.

The state that” Stranger in a Strange Area” is the worst season of Lost has never been incontroversial. The seventh season of the second season of the show received nearly universally bad reviews immediately after it first aired in 2007, and its popularity hasn’t improved in the nearly 18 years since its debut. It’s the second-lowest-ranked episode of the show on IMDb ( and the lowest-rated overall episode ) and has become a kind of shorthand for the series ‘ broader shortcomings. In previous interviews, also Lost screenwriters Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have criticized the event, with Cuse going so far as to visit it” cringe-worthy.”

However,” Stranger in a Strange Area” should be at least a little gratifying to Abandoned fans everywhere. Not as a independent episode, perhaps, but as a crucial component of the series as a whole that is more important than many other essentially better but mostly meaningless episodes that have already come out. &nbsp,

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Without” Stranger in a Weird Land,” Lost might have turned out to be much worse. It not only helped keep the present, but it did so in a way that is especially important now that more and more visitors are romanticizing the era of community TV-style programming.

What Characterizes Stranger in a Strange Land as But Bad?

On paper,” Stranger In a Strange Land” doesn’t seem worthy of widespread scorn. It’s not some great entry in the collection that fumbled a great instant, nor is it a crumbling core of the movie’s mythology. It’s really a side-adventure about Jack’s day serving in the Others ‘ station, with memories from his trip to Thailand slowly helping to clarify where the character got his tattoos. &nbsp,

But if you find yourself thinking” Wow, that sounds like a Jack-heavy episode”, next you’ve put your finger on part of the problem. While the animosity between Jack and his character has probably been pushed past the point of purpose, much of the character’s disdain is rooted in legitimate criticisms. &nbsp,

Jack remained a stay in the dirt in a show that was defined by how its figures developed and what we learned about their history. Earlier on, he was positioned at the center of the ensemble cast of the show, but he generally served as a tone of resolute opposition while those around him had more exciting adventures. Even worse, Jack’s memory shows frequently brought up the same underlying themes ( mommy issues and substance abuse ). Gasp! ) while many other flashes eventually revealed more intricate character vases. At the very least, they were often more freely interesting. &nbsp,

The main reason that” Stranger in a Odd Land” is despised more than disliked is because of those memories. The episode’s stunning focus shifts to a journey Jack made to Thailand. He has a relationship that with Achara, a lady who claims to be able to scar individuals with real-world colors. She is frequently better than Bai Ling. A sullen and growing increasingly belligerent ( try not to be surprised ) Jack eventually persuades Achara to entice him to get the allegedly mystical tattoos. &nbsp,

While the episode captures the thrills of hearing about some dude’s trip to Thailand (” Bro”, he’ll claim. ” It’s wild” ), it’s the tattoo plot point that is most often remembered and ridiculed. Teasers for” Stranger in a Unusual Land” tormented answers to three of Lost‘s “biggest riddles”. The whereabouts of somewhat slight characters are the focus of two of those riddles, while the second seems to have to do with Jack’s tattoos: a question that few people ever asked before the collection suggested it was a significant piece of the puzzle. &nbsp,

Before” Stranger in a Strange Land,” there had been poor and largely memorable episodes of Lost, but those tease really irritated fans who begged for the present to start bringing in answers rather than solving mysteries. One thing about a 23-episode season is a bad filler episode. A bad filler episode that teases a significant event and delivers a wheel-spinning, Jack-focused adventure that validates the majority of criticisms of the series and the character up until that point is entirely different. &nbsp,

Even removed from those expectations,” Stranger in a Strange Land” is a particularly poorly acted, poorly written, and poorly paced entry in a series that was about to be firing on all cylinders. You can probably skip it unless you long to watch Jack fly a kite while the majority of other people postpone their plots for a week.

Many people involved in” Stranger in a Strange Land “‘s production have since stated they were aware that the episode would be a low point for the series. They didn’t care, but rather the episode was largely the result of events that were beyond their control. However, that doesn’t mean they were above using that despised episode to their eventual advantage.

How” Stranger in a Strange Land” Saved Lost

Damon Lindelof, the co-creator of Lost, reiterates in an interview with USA Today that he also believes” Stranger in a Strange Land” is a bad episode but asks viewers to be a little bit kinder to it. According to Lindelof, the episode was the result of “many different circumstances” that contributed to it being as bad as it was. Said circumstances include a “bad casting decision”, a “bad premise decision”, and a “bad flashback story” .&nbsp,

The fact that the show’s creators still had to adhere to more traditional network TV production standards that didn’t help their more serialized series was the biggest contributor to the episode’s various issues. They requested permission from ABC to allow them to set a firmer end date for the program so they could gradually advance through fewer, more meaningful episodes. ABC argued otherwise, and it appeared to believe that more Lost was better Lost.

That is until they came across” Stranger in a Strange Land.” In a 2009 interview with writer Alan Sepinwall, Lindelof recalls that he was on a notes call with the network about” Stranger in a Strange Land” and heard them say,” We don’t like this episode,” which was a statement that many people have since made. When you’re in charge of the hottest television series, Lilindelof provided the kind of open response that you can only accept with candor.

” We don’t like it, either, but it’s the best we can do if we’re not moving the story forward”, Lindelof said. ” This is the future of the show: how Jack got his tattoos. Everything we’ve been saying for two years about what’s to come, is now all here on the screen. You argued that an hour of Matthew Fox in emotionally-based conflicts, it doesn’t matter what the flashback story is, it’ll be fine. But now that we’re doing his ninth flashback story, you just don’t care”.

The network was shown that Lindelof needed to persuade them to allow them to establish an end date for Lost with” Stranger in a Strange Land.” Without that end date, they &#8211, and us &#8211, were probably going to have to suffer through a lot more episodes like that. ABC eventually consented and gave the showrunners the opportunity to share their plan for a six-season adaptation of the series. &nbsp,

The three seasons of Lost that followed that conversation are hardly ideal. They feature fewer episodes and advance toward a conclusion that continues to divide viewers to this day. Yet, we never really got anything as bad as” Stranger in a Strange Land” again. There has never been a production episode that was so pointless or boring that the production circumstances of its superfluous existence have only made it worse. In the end, Lost‘s worst episode made a compelling case for ABC to start examining their golden goose as something a little more priceless. &nbsp,

The filler episode has evolved into a kind of rallying cry for a better, or at least different, way of doing things in a time of renewed network TV nostalgia when more people are finding themselves yearning for a simpler form of second-screen entertainment. Yet,” Stranger in a Strange Land” reminds us that such episodes can cut both ways. They can serve as the foundation for more expensive shows that offer standalone thrills on a week-by-week basis, but they are also a component of the reason why those in the industry once pleaded with the networks to rethink what TV can be. &nbsp,

Such apprehension should be taken in isolation from any arguments in favor of returning to that format. Their enthusiasm for the concept of a thing frequently conveniently overlooks the reality of how low even the best shows can sink over the course of 20+ episodes. Or, as Jack says regarding an interpretation of his infamous tattoos,” That’s what they say, that’s not what they mean” .&nbsp,

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