At 9:11am -0700, 05/07/07, Joseph DeMartino  wrote:
>On May 7, 8:10 am, "Adam H. Kerman"  wrote:

>>jms regularly advanced the story in "Babylon 5". It was
always clear that
>>the plot was going somewhere. "Lost" isn't the same genre.

>JMS had a five year plan from the outset.  ABC put the "Lost"
>producers in the difficult position of wanting both a pre-planned
>story and the usual open-ended number of seasons in order squeeze
>every last drop out of the ratings (regardless of the effect on
>quality and with the option to drop the show like a live grenade in
>mid-arc if the ratings tanked.)

That's an excuse. Last season, nearly nothing advanced the arc till the 
final episode. The only reason I watch the show is that there are a group of 
us who compare notes on how bad it is, which is great fun.

>JMS would *not* have been able to plot "B5" the way he did if
he had no way 
>of knowing if "SiL" was going to fall at episode 110, or 132
or maybe 144 - 
>which has been Cuse and Lindelof's position up 'til now.  So they have said 
>that they have the ending, the mythology and the major
"beats" worked out, 
>but when a particular revelation is supposed to happen at the "half-way 
>mark" and you don't know where the "half-way mark" is
supposed to fall, it 
>is hard to plan.

jms had a major arc around each season. "Lost" is not planned that way.

>"Filler" episodes like the one you're complaining about (which I found
>an interesting and welcome departure from the usual formula) were a
>necessary evil as things stood before.

I'm glad you found it interesting, but I found it badly written. You didn't 
recognize that story? Standard fodder for anthology adventure stories from 
radio and television. I recall it from "Night Gallery". Gee, I think Edgar 
Allen Poe explored the idea of being buried alive from time to time. I don't 
mind some of the filler episodes. They came up with interesting back stories 
for several of the characters. I liked Hugo's, for instance. The worst one 
has been the Korean couple. Somehow, Lost will relate to the unseen 
backstory from "Crusade" I suspect. The most inconsistent one has been 
Kate's.

>And, if you recall, there are plenty of "B5" episodes that
were condemned 
>at the time (and some still today) as being "filler" that
didn't advance 
>the main story.  Some of those look different in light of later events, 
>which may also be the case with some of the "Lost" "filler".

If I like the writing on this week's episode, it doesn't matter if it's self 
contained or integral to the story arc. "Lost" has too much bad writing. 
Can't let the producers off the hook because they are dealing with network 
programming executives, something they new going in.

For no particular reason, every time I spot your name on the From header of 
a message, my mind plays tricks on me and I see Joseph Stefano, favorite 
television and movie writer and producer of "The Outer Limits".
You may take 
that as an unusual compliment or early stages of dementia.
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32