Lost, Season 2, and its O.C.ish tendencies.

I've now watched through the second season of Lost. It was certainly weaker than the first, although everyone had warned me of a decline, and I was expecting it to be much worse than it was. The strengths continue to be, week-to-week, a tight, imaginative, well-paced narrative, engaging, plausible characters, and mysteries that make my mouth water.

One weakness is a lack of payoff-for-expectations on some of these very-promising mysteries.

An even bigger weakness, though, is the need to make characters act like juvenile delinquents in order to push the plot forward. This often happened several times in each episode, and the most egregious offence is the old "do what I want or I'll wave a gun in your face" trick. With 21.6 such incidents per season, how can you take any of these people seriously? And why can't they ever call the bluff? These repetitive/sloppy/strongarm tactics reminded me a lot of latter-day The O.C.. In Lost's defense, the writing is better than it ever was on The O.C. post-season-one. In The O.C.'s defense, its characters actually were juvenile delinquents. At least they had an excuse.

I'm looking forward to when Season Three comes out. Then I can catch up with everyone else.