‘LOST’ Hitting Wrong Note with ‘Savior-of-the-Week’ Story lines
Okay, so let’s face it: Seasons One and Two were about the best television on television. Nothing could beat the rising suspense, the lingering sense of foreboding, and the appearance of new, multiple unknowns flooding across the beach every episode. But like aging Olympians, we knew someday LOST would lose it’s luster - indeed, its amazing the quality of the show has remained high for such a long time, even considering irregular hiatus periods and occasional uneven storytelling. So watching this week’s episode (’Everybody Loves Hugo’), I found myself wincing through scenes where the dialog (and it’s meaning) has gone stale.
Nobody likes a know-it-all, but this season LOST seems to have spawned a dozen of them. The writers have gone full throttle on hyperbolic dialog, creating a “savior-of-the-week” syndrome for each main character while thinning the credibility sauce each had independently stirred. This week, Hugo is “the chosen one” called upon by the Almighty (Jacob) to “save” everyones life. Although each character has been portrayed with some level of idiosyncrasy, Hugo takes the cake (and buckets of chicken) for mental instability layered over a generous helping of pious joviality. In past seasons, he has been drawn as a lunatic, a psychic who speaks to the dead, and the unluckiest of hapless souls. So this week, we’re called upon to see Hugo as our savior, and all manner of ridiculous dialog ensues.
Take the scene where Hugo has to convince Sun, Jack and most notably, Richard, that he inexplicable knows what to do, what course of action to take, simply because Michael showed up (in spirit) and informed him that ‘people listen to you now’. Wow - if I could do that, I’d convince ABC to cancel ‘V’ and put my quality space alien drama in it’s place (I’m still waiting on Michael’s go ahead).
As I see it, the problem here isn’t that Hugo can speak to the dead, or that he has an affinity for the show’s numerology - it’s bigger than that. Seems each week this season we’re being treated to what amounts to being shortchanged at the supermarket. Someone … ANYONE, it seems, is “destined” to be the ONE PERSON who is SINGULARLY RESPONSIBLE for “saving” the island, or the islands inhabitants, or just the current set of most recent castaways. This is an unfortunate cheat, because the dialog required to support this framework means actors delivering “all or nothing” phrases which would ordinarily lend power to a performance, a character, or a scene instead fall desperately flat.
The most egregious example? Hugo facing down Jack, a man whose credibility as a character has been supported from the beginning (medical background, stable personality, quick to act in an emergency, all wrapped around a handsome face with a knowing glint). When Jack asks why the group should follow him, Hugo responds with the simplistic “Trust me, Jack - just trust me.” A short nod of the head, a slight shake of his jaw, and Jack simply says “Ok” as if years of training to think critically just leaked from his brain to the beach.
This uncomfortable and increasingly unbelievable literary technique is starting to mar what should be LOST’s finest hour. In the first few seasons, SOTW was considered brilliant because it helped to focus the audience’s attention on the unique back story each character was developing, but now it’s overuse is turning drama into camp. Mind you, it’s not just Hugo - the whole thing started with John Locke and his overwrought talk of a “personal destiny” which, at least in his original incarnation, Locke will never enjoy. Each character has had episodes which tie their lives together, touching in some cases (Desmond and Penny) and shocking in others (Jack and his father). But the concept of stringing the audience along with a weekly game of savior roulette seems more an ode to actors and contracts than it does the story.
Bottom line: If we are presented with too many choices to identify the character whose presence in the finale could not be dispensed with, it’s likely the story will blow up like bad dynamite in Ilana’s bag. It’s time to retire the phrases “Trust me” and “I know what to do” and “Jacob sent me …” from LOST. Cognitively, there isn’t a reasonable path whereby any specific character simultaneously saves the island and it’s inhabitants (including the undead), stops the Man in Black, hires the new Jacob, and syncs all the timelines.
If the finale doesn’t achieve a supernatural level of achievement from each wannabe savior, we’re all going to feel cheated by the Season Six ending - certainly not the beatific conclusion that LOST deserves.
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Skip GotomyPC and PCAnywhere - it’s LogMeIn to the (real) Rescue
For those of you who aren’t aware of this yet (and yes, I’m referring to some of you in MY generation), there is a tool called LogMeIn which can give you remote access to your machine. This software trumps the heavier, bloated GotomyPC, which I favored in earlier reviews. With web based email and productivity suites, your obvious answer is “I don’t need it, all my stuff resides on a server someplace else anyway.” In many cases, that may be true - but think on the items your argument misses. What happens when you create a Word document containing business card templates for an employee, travel over to the local Kinkos to pick it up, and find they never received the file? Answer: sit down at one of their web enabled machines, remote into your box with LogMeIn, and either resend the file through your local Outlook, or copy it the Kinkos machine or your USB key (attached to same). There are dozens of cool uses for this software, and it’s amazing that a free version with such power is offered at all.
Still, you might have need for the features found only in the Pro version, which include the ability to send a remote file to your local printer, or drag and drop file between machines. You can also create an instant meeting, a feature which provides functionality similar to that found in the GotoMeeting sofware offered by the same folks who make GotomyPC. There are other options, some of them free or low cost, which perform similar functions. But for reliability and ease of use, plus a feature set which trumps all others, I’d go with LogMeIn for all your remote control needs. You won’t believe how handy it is until you find yourself without a file you need!
Why I don’t worry about the Dow
The Dow went up 936 points today, the biggest one day jump in Wall Street history. Last week, it went down by a record 800+ points. This has been quite a roller coaster ride, and with any luck, it will catapult Barack Obama into the White House, which is where he belongs. Have I had any fear? No. Not a bit. Here’s why, and why you shouldn’t either. First, Wall Street is all about confidence (or a lack thereof) and the last two weeks have been no exception. With governments around the world cooperating and throwing billions to banks around the world, there is NO WAY the credit crisis or liquidity problems will continue to exist for long, and thus, sentiment will improve and thus, Wall Street will begin to prosper again (not by their own doing). Wall Street’ers will become "bailout welfare recipients" unabashed to accept Uncle Sam’s cash. It’s incredible to believe bailout legislation, as currently written, will reward those most guilty of harming the global economy during the housing run-up. Second, the old rule "what goes up must go down" is still in effect, but in reverse. No matter how bad Wall Street has performed, historically the Dow returns to a relative level of "normal" trading after huge losses. Bush and Team announcing they will inject billions into struggling banks (who, as many of you know, are the ones I place PRINCIPAL BLAME on for this crisis) will inject the markets will confidence, leading to more multiple triple-digit gain days. Third, the global connectivity and speed with which the markets move is much faster than in the 80’s, or even the 90’s. Computerization, the speed of international communications and information flow, and twenty-four-seven coverage of the "overnight" markets in Asia means we all know what each other are trading, almost instantly. No market can hide the ebb and flow of confidence anymore, and as we’ve seen, the human act of watching others do poorly or well in real time has an immediate effect on emotions. As the markets rise here, confidence will immediately impact other world markets, just as surely as the sun rises and sets. So don’t worry. For what it’s worth, this is still a big paper game, with only SOME of the paper actually being real, and the rest of it being forged and printed only in the minds of its pursuers. Your government pension fund or Social Security check will be safe. Most of us with market retirement instruments like 401k’s will see a drop, but most probably a return to profitability within a month or two. No one can afford to let the free world economy shrivel up and die - even if debt has to be written off. So whatever happens, keep your spirits up - as Wall Street proved again today, that’s really the only thing that matters.
Mikogo - Unpolished, but functional and (still) free
Mikogo still has work to do in the online meeting space With the price of GoToMeeting what it is, the market for free and low cost alternatives has expanded significantly the last couple of years. Since I often need something along these lines for work, I’ve been experimenting with some of the free online meeting alternatives and testing them along the way. My latest test was with Mikogo on Vista (*SP1*) and coordinating a meeting with a Windows XP SP3 machine. Regarding Mikogo, a couple (unfortunate) observations. First, the Mikogo software crashes when the BROWSE button is clicked next to the recording capture location text box. The workaround seems to be fairly simple - don’t do that. Instead, right click the Mikogo icon when you are in the meeting and select Record. Second, also related to recordings, I’m not having good luck with being able to view the output. A file with a .bs3 extension gets created, but since it isn’t associated (officially) with any application, it displays the default "unassociated file type" icon. You can click it though, and it launches a small app designed to play the file. I did this on both Vista and XP SP3 and, after clicking Yes to allowing an index to be created, shows a small player window with a larger one in the background. The first is a toolbar and the larger one is the player itself. Although the player indicates the file is being played back (the progress bar is green), the file never plays. For those of you wishing to record video using Mikogo, you’d best find a different solution. You can pay for GoToMeeting and get flawless, readily available recordings, or you can grab any number of screen capture tools and send the output direct to the Windows AVI format. As far as Mikogo is concerned otherwise, its functional in most areas and gets the "free" part of screen recording done adequately. I have trouble with their menus and some other quirks (there are three … yes THREE … differently named download files, one called Mikogo.exe, another called Mikogo_Setup.exe, and a third called Mikogo-Starter.exe). Couldn’t this be simplified, guys? Its confusing as heck, and many users would quit after seeing more than one. Another annoyance is the use of icons ONLY as the clickable element instead of links AND icons in the Meeting Info screen. When you are asked if you want to send an email confirmation to participants, you have to find and hit the tiny email icon instead of being permitted to just click an underlined link. Not a big deal, but something which should be corrected. Also a bit peevish - there’s no way to dismiss the dialog box except for the Close button in the upper right - not the best programming guys, so try and correct these ASAP. We’ll do a full DimDim review later, but for now, I’d skip it. DimDim, one of the newer "no downloads required" web meeting solutions, had similar playback problems. With DimDim, you’ll get an email after the meeting is over, making the recording available to you for download or playback. For me, that’s a leap from the plane without a parachute. I want to see evidence of the recording being stored locally IN REAL TIME, because time for my high end clients is extremely valuable, and the last thing you want is to miss capturing the critical data to be documented later due to a technical malfunction. The problem with DimDim was as suspected - nothing plays back! We retrieved the email several times, downloaded the file AND tried to play it from the web, and nothing happens. Since there is no local client and therefore no tweakable settings, we’ll have to contact support to get an answer. Note that the file format is Flash Player 8 for DimDim, a bit old now but probably more compatible than the latest Flash Player 10 output. Back to Mikogo. Once it matures a bit, and can show me some better programming, you’ll feel safer with it in terms of recording. For basic meeting work, use it in combination with your own screen recording software and you should be fine.
