about contributors submissions book series advertising contests tour dates Mixed Media PopMatters Picks
|
|
PopShotsDear Lost: Lose the Guns[27 February 2008] The gunplay in Lost shot past the ken of lessons-not-learned in Screenwriting 101 and blasted into an over-the-top Marx Brothers routine.
By Glenn McDonaldDear J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, et. al. Contrary to popular belief, happiness is not a warm gun. Love the show. Big fan. You had me at ‘hello’. Well, more specifically, you had me during the pilot four years ago when the unseen jungle monster rattled the island with a monstrous bellow that sounded remarkably like the end of the world, and/or Manhattan’s A train rolling into 207th Street. Lost is my kind of TV—big, ambitious, inventive and slightly goofy. I love that the show is willing to tackle Big Ideas like faith and redemption, then wrap them in pulpy paranormal/science fiction tropes. I love the careful balance of character development with more kinetic passages like…transporting unstable dynamite, say, or triggering giant electromagnetic pulses that pull down airplanes. I also very much appreciate fugitive babe Kate in a tight tank-top, every Thursday at 9pm, like clockwork. On behalf of a grateful nation, let me say: Nothing wrong with that. There’s so much to love about your show. But I have to tell you—there is a great danger brewing in the land of Lost, and it’s not the monster, not the Others, not even the competition from American Idol. It’s your recent and disturbing tendency to resolve plot points by having everyone point guns at each other. I realize that putting guns into your script is more or less de rigueur in American entertainment. It’s the dustiest of screenwriting chestnuts. When you can’t figure out how to resolve your conflict, or if you just need to generate some cheap tension—bring out the firearms. Of all programs, Lost should rise above this—but instead, it’s just getting worse. I rue the day when guns were introduced to the island. Well, let me amend that: It was better when there was only one gun on the whole island, and it was a commodity, and Sawyer used it to kill the charging polar bear. That was cool. But now, four years in, we have several armed factions roaming the island, with more guns being imported every episode. Characters are literally tripping over weapon caches in the jungle. At some point toward the end of last season, the gunplay issue passed beyond the ken of lessons-not-learned in Screenwriting 101, and into some new and exciting vistas of lameness.
 Let’s try a little run down, shall we? Just off the top of my head, in a story about ostensibly regular folks who have crash landed on a desert island, we’ve seen:
• Charlie shoot Ethan
I could go on. And this isn’t even quibbling about the countless times a gun is pointed at someone, or flashed around, or otherwise used as a quick-and-easy prop to nudge the plot in the desired direction. Take for example the recent scene where newcomers Miles and Frank point their guns at Jack and Kate. Until Juliet and Sayid fire warning shots, at which point Jack and Kate take the guns and point them back at Miles and Frank. It’s like a Marx Brothers routine out there. So, please—knock it off with the hackneyed TV gunplay. Here are a couple quick tips for the new season: When someone gets shot in the chest, but there’s no blood (like Charlotte in episode two), we in the audience already know she’s wearing a bulletproof vest. We don’t need the dramatic reveal where her shirt is ripped open. When someone gets conspicuously shot in the shoulder (like Sayid in episode three), we in the audience already know he’s not really dead and will soon grab the other gun lying nearby. Luckily, in Lost there’s always another gun lying nearby. There are bigger issues here, of course. Many can make the argument about the cartoonishness of guns in the media informing all manner of real-world tragedies. I make that argument myself, in my blacker moods. But in this case, I’m more concerned about getting my favorite TV show back on track. I mean, c’mon fellas! Look at this goldmine you’re sitting on! You’ve got plane crashes, a magical island, global conspiracies, time travel, telekinetic ghosts, psychic kids, rogue medical experiments, con artists, fugitives, Korean organized crime, miracle healings, baby-snatching, dead rock stars, utopian cultists, and—lest we forgot—a tree-stomping, people-eating monster that may or may not be made of sentient nanobots.
 Thank you for your attention to this matter. Say “hi” to Kate for me.  Glenn McDonald writes about popular culture from his home in lovely Chapel Hill, NC. His humor essays have been described as “grammatically consistent” and “remarkably frequent”. He is editor of the Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me daily news quiz at NPR.org, and a freelance contributor to many quality radio programs, magazines, websites, and forbidden tomes of chthonic lore. He lives virtually at [url=http://www.glenn-mcdonald.com]http://www.glenn-mcdonald.com[/url]. PopShots
The Geeks Have Inherited the Earth -– and They Rule ItBy Glenn McDonald05.May.09 Geek humor is rooted in a commanding pop cultural and scientific literacy and deployed with a sense of casual authority which one ... must ... obey. 
Quote-Unquote: Excerpts from Upcoming Oral HistoriesBy Glenn McDonald03.Mar.09 The use of unfiltered direct quotes gives a veneer of authenticity, and the writer doesn’t have to do much actual writing. 
Facebook and the Death of DistanceBy Glenn McDonald06.Jan.09 Facebook is like having a dozen rolling high school reunions simultaneously, plus grade school, and college, and every summer camp you ever attended. |
Now on PopMatters
Features
:. The Edge of Change: The Most Memorable Albums of 1999 :. 2009 Silverdocs Documentary Festival
Columns
Pickin' Down the Line: Five Days in March: Uncle Tupelo’s Quiet Revolution Pop Past: Black Hollywood: Blaxploitation and Advancing an Independent Black Cinema
Blogs
Short Ends and Leader: 12 Rounds - Extreme Cut (2009): Blu-ray Notes from the Road: The Tallest Man on Earth + John Vanderslice: 23 June 2009 - Exit In, Nashville Marginal Utility: Death of the blogosphere Mixed Media: ‘Last Night in Montreal’ by Emily St. John Mandel (new book / trailer) Sound Affects: One Hit Wonder: Garth Brooks Moving Pixels: Choosing The Experience Over The Challenge
Music
:. Wilco: Wilco (The Album) :. Regina Spektor: Far :. R.E.M.: Reckoning (Deluxe Edition) :. Bob Dylan: New Morning / The Basement Tapes / Before the Flood / Dylan & the Dead :. Weinland: Breaks in the Sun :. Warbringer: Waking Into Nightmares
Film
:. Lion’s Den (Leonera) :. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs :. Public Enemies :. The Stoning of Soraya M. :. Chéri :. My Sister’s Keeper
Television
:. Global Voices: Estilo Hip Hop :. POV: Beyond Hatred :. Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge :. Hung |
Comments
“Locke shoot Charlotte”
“Jack shoot Ben (well, he tried—but was out of bullets)”
Dude, you need to get your Lockes and Bens straight. Or at least get an editor/fact-checker.
Comment by ArchStanton from Not in Portland — February 27, 2008 @ 11:37 am
My point exactly—I can’t keep track on who’s shooting whom. You’re right, though—Ben shot Charlotte, Jack tried to shoot Locke.
Comment by Glenn — February 27, 2008 @ 12:24 pm
I think this is a profoundly silly claim. The show, as an existential social commentary hidden beneath an intriguing mystery/adventure yarn, has a valid right in its portrayal of the use of guns.
Sayid’s flashbacks? Are you serious? He was a solider in the Republican Guard in the first Iraq war, should would you expect him to be holding? Many flashbacks, like Sawyer’s early ones, are heavily informed by film-noir. It fits the bill and is prfectly reasonable and, well, necessary.
I agree, if slightly, on this idea that it’s weird how there are so many guns ON THE ISLAND (lal your evidence of flashbaks or flashforwards are incredibly moot and singleminded), but I strongly disagree that they are overused, or are used as cheap devices to alleviate plot points and conflict. In season 3, the entire POINT is building up to what is overtly referred to as a *war* with The Others. To make any kind of commentary on war, or violent confrontation, the gun is a necessary symbol. It works as a thematic indicator to the audience.
The show uses it no more than its use is implemented in the real world, and guns play as important a role on the show as they do in reality. The castaways represent, in a light allegorical fashion, all of us. This is the point, and you’ve missed it.
Comment by Ryan Jeffrey — February 27, 2008 @ 3:00 pm
The guns are the point. I’m sorry if that offends your poor widdle sensibilities, but if you’d been paying attention when somebody mentioned “The Lord of the Flies” a while back, you’d have an idea of what’s happening.
Comment by Anne — February 27, 2008 @ 7:52 pm
I agree with Glenn wholeheartedly, but in the context of Hollywood’s utilization of so much violence in general. Much of it gratuitous. Somebody looks at you crosseyed? Just pull out a gun. For this show however, as overboard as it may seem at times, we have to remember this island has dangers that unfortunately make it kind of necessary to have a weapon handy at all times.
Comment by LostSista from L.A. — February 27, 2008 @ 8:28 pm
Hey, it’s my favorite show, too! I understand allegory, and noir, and Lord of the Flies, and the flashback/flashforward narrative distinction, and all the rest. I still say: Too many guns. It’s aesthetic, not political.
Comment by Glenn — February 27, 2008 @ 11:18 pm
— PopMatters sponsor —
I agree with Glenn. All the guns are more indicative of lazy writing than anything else. Explore the mysteries more and let’s have less of the stereotypical Hollywood stuff.
Comment by Cathy from Atlanta — February 28, 2008 @ 5:40 am
“Hey, it’s my favorite show, too! I understand allegory, and noir, and Lord of the Flies, and the flashback/flashforward narrative distinction, and all the rest. I still say: Too many guns. It’s aesthetic, not political.”
What?! That’s like saying “Hey, i realize that you are right and i am wrong, but i still stick with my original wrong point. Sorry!”
Comment by Alex — February 28, 2008 @ 1:33 pm
You know, I think I agree. I got pissed when that other guy at Popmatters complained that the season premiere didn’t reveal any secrets, but yeah, they’re overdoing the gunplay a little.
Unfortunately I think it’s one of those corners they’ve written themselves into. They couldn’t kill a couple dozen Others without being able to take their guns, and any attempt to take those guns away would seem like a lame plot contrivance.
It would be nice if Locke stopped waving guns around at everybody. You can only threaten to kill Ben for so long before the audience figures out you’re not going to do it.
Comment by Chris — February 28, 2008 @ 6:07 pm
The Island has now become more hostile with the introduction of many new dangers and threats! These survivors are on an island in the middle of the ocean, all they want to do is survive and find a way home. If you came across a gun fully loaded, (in in some cases not) would you not use it? It’s not about being ‘politically correct’... they are dealing with the unknown and a war-zone out there, you must use what you have available to protect your life and the life of your friends.
stop complaining! If you like the show so much than don’t be a nitpicker… you’d do the same in their situation!
Comment by Mitch from sydney — March 4, 2008 @ 3:32 am
I’ve been saying this since the moment they introduced a “gun locker” into the show, back in the beginning of season 2 where they go into the hatch.
When I first started watching the show (I bought the first season dvds and took a day off work to watch) my first thoughts were “wouldn’t it be great if there was hardly any technological influence on the show? This has since been proved wrong because the primitive technology on the Island not only adds a good sense of “what’s going on?”, but it also makes the retro factor on the show go up big time.
Then Sawyer pulled out a gun, shot a polar bear. OK, I was a bit weary, but then I started thinking of the possibilities…they have one gun and clip of bullets. It could make things interesting.
Then they found the briefcase with four more pistols in it. I accepted that even, figuring that yea they have guns, but not a lot.
Then they found the gun locker. Suddenly it became about “who has a gun?”. Seriously…you remember the awesome introduction of Locke? He threw a knife directly next to Sawyer’s head. So far he’s used that only once and it was to toss a knife in a chick’s back. For no reason. That we know of yet.
Comment by Tony from Sylva, NC — March 4, 2008 @ 5:27 am
With all due respect, this is a little nitpicky. Last week’s Lost was one of the 2 or 3 best episodes of the entire series, gunplay or not. Maybe I’m just one of the desensitized masses but I don’t pay that much attention to, or am particularly critical of, the use of guns on a TV show or in a movie.
Good or bad (I lean towards bad), gun culture is something everyone understands; it’s a shorthand for immediate, extreme, potentially mortal danger. Is it lazy writing? Maybe, but with the rest of the show going way above and beyond the call of the TV writer’s duty, we can let them have one little vice, can’t we?
If anything, the use of guns on the show is not glamourous. Whenever anyone gets trigger happy, there are very real emotional consequences that go along with their behavior and none of it has been anything the viewers can cheer about. So if they’re going to use guns in the show, at the very least, they’re not glorifying the gunplay.
Reality of the danger of guns aside, as that’s not your issue with them here, this is kind of like grumbling about their casting director being partial to tall-ish blond-ish women between the ages of 20-35. Juliet, Sarah, Penny, Libby, this new Charlotte (though she’s almost a redhead), Shannon, Sayid’s girlfriend in Berlin, I’m sure there are a few I’m missing. Yeah, it’s occasionally tiresome but it’s far from getting in the way of my enjoyment of - OK, obsession with - Lost.
Comment by Alex NYC — March 4, 2008 @ 9:47 am
— PopMatters sponsor —
“Take for example the recent scene where newcomers Miles and Frank point their guns at Jack and Kate. Until Juliet and Sayid fire warning shots, at which point Jack and Kate take the guns and point them back at Miles and Frank. It’s like a Marx Brothers routine out there.”
Seriously, dude, you need to get your stuff straight. If you’re going to criticize a show, at least learn the names of the characters. It was Daniel and Miles, not Frank, during that scene. Frank hasn’t even touched a gun this season. Come on, man.
Comment by Kyle — March 4, 2008 @ 12:16 pm
“My point exactly—I can’t keep track on who’s shooting whom.”
How is this your point? Unless your point is that you just want to blast a show you know nothing about for your own ego by taking a shot at one of the greatest writing teams on TV, then I guess it is your point.
The rest of the millions of viewers don’t seem to have that much trouble keeping the characters straight (especially Ben and Locke….where have you been for two seasons?), so if the guns trouble you, don’t worry, Grey’s Anatomy will be back soon enough.
Comment by Kyle — March 4, 2008 @ 12:21 pm
Man - I fell asleep reading the 1st paragraph. This was seriously written by a guy? This sounds like the same fru-fru crap I hear read by bored housewives on NPR, right before I get disgusted and turn off the radio. Quit wasting everyone’s time and write about potty training.
Comment by Henry Gale from The Black Rock — March 4, 2008 @ 12:31 pm
I’m with Glenn as well; I have no problem with guns and/or violence in the media, but I do have a problem when hack-ish things like this occur again and again. The guns are a dramatic crutch -use them just right and they’ll help, use them too much and they’ll cause pain.
Note: I have no problem if they want to use them in flashbacks where they make logical sense (Desmond in the military, Sayid in the military, Kate and/or Sawyer being the baddies they were), but too much use on a remote, tropical island where (dropoffs from Dharma notwithstanding) fresh isn’t likely can cause some groans from the audience.
Great post.
Comment by Fletch — March 4, 2008 @ 12:46 pm
To anyone whose main takeaway from Lost is the number of guns/shootings per episode: Stop watching. You don’t get it.
Comment by Jennifer from Los Angeles — March 4, 2008 @ 1:24 pm
That was stupid!
Comment by Frank — March 4, 2008 @ 7:52 pm
— PopMatters sponsor —
Love the Midnight Run reference in the last paragraph. Keep it up, Glenn.
Comment by Derrick — March 4, 2008 @ 8:17 pm
Thanks everyone for the feedback. But you ornery guys are missing the point. I did boot some details, and that’s on me, but the criticism about overusing guns is valid. Read the column again, slowly. It’s a fan letter.
Last episode was sterling, vintage, high-grade Lost, and no guns, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
And thanks for catching the Midnight Run nod, Derrick.
Comment by Glenn — March 6, 2008 @ 1:16 am