Cinerant

Wednesday Night Round-Up

As if the fact that they’re the best two shows on television wasn’t enough, last night competing time slot foes, Veronica Mars and Lost had episodes built around the same theme: trust. However, the ways in which each writing staff dealt with the idea were completely different.

Lost focused on Charlie and his addiction to heroin. Ever since Locke discovered that Charlie had a heroin addiction, we’ve watched him walk a tightrope of someone who wants to beat the temptation to give in, but he can’t bring himself to get far enough away from the temptation to really put it behind him. His failings as a “human” (as TC would say) were amplified when he started having strange visions of Claire’s baby being in danger. This led him to accidentally kidnapping the little boy, forcing Locke to clock him and tell him that Charlie had lost his trust. The man intended to embody faith seemed to have none with Charlie, even when the former rocker promised he hadn’t been using. While Locke didn’t believe him, we as viewers were able to notice that last week, when Charlie uncovered his stash of drug smuggling statues, there were six. When Locke found him this week in the closest thing to an art gallery on the island, there were still just six statues. So, if Charlie’s using, he’s getting his stuff from somewhere else.

Unfortunately, overall this was a disappointing episode—and the main reason is the reason why most of the episodes soar—the backstory. Last night’s flashbacks focused on the same basic information presented in Charlie’s episode last year. Charlie had a heroin problem that he learned from his brother Neil. What else did we learn? Not much. Sure there were little things like Charlie was trying to get back into writing music and he got fired from a humiliating commercial, but what does that add up to? Maybe it will ultimately pay off, but the beautiful thing about Lost is that it consistently does little set-ups that result in payoffs in later episodes while weaving those into an entertaining hour of plot. Last night’s episode, particularly when compared to last week’s story focusing on Eko, just became a little tedious.

Veronica on the other hand was brilliant—breaking its own rules so slyly that by the time the big grab you in the gut moment happened, viewers had to be knocked on their backs. The episode started with Duncan breaking up with Veronica. (Hallelujah, because she’s so much more interesting with Logan—but Leo’s still the guy for her.) He then disappears with the baby he had with Meg and suddenly the FBI is questioning her, hoping she can give them leads. Of course, Keith is called in to help, standing by his daughter. Like a good father, devoted to his “daddy-daughter time” Keith fights for Veronica’s innocence. However, when he discovers that his daughter has been less than forthright with him, he tells her that he will always love her, but he doesn’t know if he’ll ever be able to trust her again. Those words were devastating, not only to Veronica who worships her dad, but to us as well. Despite her faults, Veronica is still our heroine and for her to have lost her boyfriend and the respect of her dad all in one night was almost more than one super-sleuth.

Again, on the Wednesday night match-up, this round goes to VM!

posted by cinegod @ 4:58 PM