O well...~I caught tonight's LOST—the last new one for two months, until February sometime, when ABC promises "16 NEW EPISODES IN 16 WEEKS, NOT ONE RERUN" (isn't that ridiculous promo copy?)—but don't think I've assimilated it quite long enough to tap out any new kooky ideas on it.
I DO have a bit of conjecture on some LOSTness from earlier this season. The premiere, to be exact. I was watching some Garth Marenghi I saved on replay (I caught a few in their super-convenient early am timeslot on SciFi this summer—or maybe it was a piece of a marathon?—in any case, I really hope that SciFi will play those again! =) and watched their CARRIE spoof episode. If you're not familiar with GARTH MARENGHI'S DARKPLACE, it's... well... it's like a British spoof of THE KINGDOM mixed with... umm... NIGHT STALKER? Maybe? And presented in a retrospective sort of form, hostd by the creator. DARKPLACE is a show created, written, starring, directed and somewhat scored by horror writer Garth Marenghi, and takes place in Darkplace hospital, where lots of weird X-FILESy stuff happens to a tight cast of two testosterony studly doctors, a bubbly nurse, and a shotgun-toting administrator played by Marenghi's manager/agent-turned-actor. I'm sure my words are not doing the show justice (especially the very excellent ADR and slo-mo =). You've just gotta see it.
Anyhow... ummm... What was I saying...?
Oh, right Garth Marenghi's DARKPLACE does Stephen King's CARRIE. How does this relate to LOST? Well isn't it OBVIOUS?
No? Well, scarily, in my head, it is. Seeing the CARRIE bit on DARKPLACE—when Liz is repeatedly taken for granted and underappreciated at work, her latent telekinetic powers are triggered, and directed by her vengeful subconscious, she terrorizes her coworkers with levitating cutlery and flying garbage cans—got me thinking of how a lot of Stephen King's supernatural riffs are very much in line with superpowered storylines. That is, he tells the story of special people developing comic book hero type powers, but in not-very-comic-booky environments. FIRESTARTER, CARRIE, THE STAND, and THE SHINING. There's some scary horrorific shite in there, but a good chunk of it has its origins in or hinges on one character's unusual super-human abilities. Introduced as "paranormal" or "psychic," non comic book readers will just think of these powers as things to be tested in labs with biofeedback and cards with squiggly lines, but make no mistake, you put Carrie White or Danny Torrance in a yellow and black costume and mask, they'd make great New Mutants or New X-Men.
So, given the notion of Walt's special abilities, Desmond's precognition, maybe Juliet's favorite book ever, the Stephen King novel she has the book club read, could be more about supernature than alternate dimensions and still be very LOSTy. CARRIE, anyone? Science fiction and religious hokum? Whaddyathink?
And movies-wise, aesthetically... Can't you totally see Juliet in her prom dress, covered in offal, telekinetically wacking everyone at the LOST Island High School Prom? =)
Hey, remember on VERONICA MARS when Dan "Homer Simpson" Castellanata leaves a scene with a "D'oh?" Well he does the exact same thing in an episode of ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT when he plays "the best doctor in southern California," who conducts some unnecessary surgery on poor Teen Wolf Too Bluth.
Yeah. That's important.
Walking home in the rain tonight...Keep on keepin on~
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